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Officials See Limited Government Role in Internet Governance – Josh Smith – NationalJournal.com

January 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Increasing the role of governments in cyberspace could spell disaster for the free nature of the Internet, top American officials and analysts said on Wednesday.

Rather than seeking expanded government control, countries, companies, and other organizations should seek to strengthen a “multi-stakeholder” approach that allows input from everyone, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information Larry Strickling told an audience at the Brookings Institution.

“Each challenge to the multi-stakeholder model has implications for Internet governance throughout the world,” he said. “When parties ask us to overturn the outcomes of these processes, no matter how well-intentioned the request, they are providing ammunition to other countries who would like to see governments take control of the Internet.”

Strickling defended the process that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers used to develop plans for new, expanded domain names.

While that plan has been criticized, Strickling said it was inappropriate for detractors to ask the U.S. government to step in.

He said efforts to more strictly control cyberspace will only lead to stagnation.

“An Internet constrained by an international treaty will stifle the innovators and entrepreneurs who are responsible for its awesome growth,” Strickling said.

via Officials See Limited Government Role in Internet Governance – Josh Smith – NationalJournal.com.

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Millions of printers open to devastating hack attack, researchers say | msnbc

December 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Could a hacker from half-way around the planet control your printer and give it instructions so frantic that it could eventually catch fire? Or use a hijacked printer as a copy machine for criminals, making it easy to commit identity theft or even take control of entire networks that would otherwise be secure?

It’s not only possible, but likely, say researchers at Columbia University, who claim they’ve discovered a new class of computer security flaws that could impact millions of businesses, consumers, and even government agencies.

Printers can be remotely controlled by computer criminals over the Internet, with the potential to steal personal information, attack otherwise secure networks and even cause physical damage, the researchers argue in a vulnerability warning first reported by msnbc.com.  They say there’s no easy fix for the flaw they’ve identified in some Hewlett-Packard LaserJet printer lines – and perhaps on other firms’ printers, too – and there’s no way to tell if hackers have already exploited it.

The researchers, who have working quietly for months in an electronics lab under a series of government and industry grants, described the flaw in a private briefing for federal agencies two weeks ago. They told Hewlett-Packard about it last week.

HP said Monday that it is still reviewing details of the vulnerability, and is unable to confirm or deny many of the researchers’ claims, but generally disputes the researchers’ characterization of the flaw as widespread.  Keith Moore, chief technologist for HP’s printer division, said the firm “takes this very seriously,” but his initial research suggests the likelihood that the vulnerability can be exploited in the real world is low in most cases.

via Red Tape – Exclusive: Millions of printers open to devastating hack attack, researchers say.

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Water utility hackers destroy pump, expert says • The Register

November 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Hackers destroyed a pump used by a US water utility after gaining unauthorized access to the industrial control system it used to operate its machinery, a computer security expert said.

Joe Weiss, a managing partner for Applied Control Solutions, said the breach was most likely performed after the attackers hacked into the maker of the supervisory control and data acquisition software used by the utility and stole user names and passwords belonging to the manufacturer’s customers. The unknown attackers used IP addresses that originated in Russia.

Weiss cited an official government report from the state where the regional water district was located. It was dated November 10, two days after the hack was discovered. The document indicates that the utility had been experiencing unexplained problems with its computerized system in the weeks leading up to the breach.

“Over a period of two to three months, minor glitches had been observed in remote access to the water district’s SCADA system,” Weiss said during an interview, in which he read a verbatim portion of the document to The Register. He said that the attackers were able to burn out one of the utility’s pumps by causing either the pump or the SCADA system that controlled it to turn on and off “repeatedly.”

via Water utility hackers destroy pump, expert says • The Register.

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Zuckerberg: Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Collect Data ‘Behind Your Back’ | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

November 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg appeared on the Charlie Rose show Monday evening with chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, and the duo touched on everything from privacy and the future of sharing to Steve Jobs and hitting one billion users.

In a clip released earlier today, Zuckerberg downplayed the notion that Facebook is “at war” with competitors like Apple, Google, and Microsoft. But he took shots at those rivals tonight when it comes to privacy, arguing that his social network is a lot more transparent than some Internet companies out there.

Here are a few highlights from the 60-minute interview.

GOOGLE AND YAHOO AND MICROSOFT, OH MY!: Zuckerberg asserted that Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo collect far more information about their users than Facebook does. “It’s just that they’re collecting that about you behind your back,” Zuckerberg said. “You’re going around the Web and they’re collecting this huge amount of information about you and you never know that.” He alluded to services like Google Dashboard, which show you the data collected about you, but “very few people” actually look at that, Zuckerberg said.

FACEBOOK PROVIDES THE MOST CONTROL: “I think it’s really about control,” Zuckerberg said of Facebook’s policies. “The real question for me is do people have the tools that they need in order to make those decisions well?” In the beginning, Facebook was focused on tech-savvy kids in college but has expanded to include 800 million people, some of whom only use their computers for Facebook and maybe the occasional email, he said. So Facebook needs to make privacy controls “easier and easier.”

via Zuckerberg: Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Collect Data ‘Behind Your Back’ | News & Opinion | PCMag.com.

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Bribery law breaches can cost U.S. firms dearly | Business Insurance

October 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

As global expansion among mid-market companies and the federal government’s enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act trend upwards, experts say now is the time for executives and their employees to educate themselves on the law’s finer points.

Helping executives at midsize firms address people risks, such as benefits, workers comp and professional liability; property and liability risks, including insurance and loss control; and operational growth risks such as M&A and product development.

Enacted in 1977 to combat bribery among U.S. companies doing business overseas, the law essentially prohibits firms and their representatives from paying any operative of a foreign government in exchange for contracts, unfair business advantages or other considerations.

The U.S. Department of Justice’s enforcement of the law has increased 300% in the past 10 years, rising to 24 such enforcement actions in 2010. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has made it a high priority to try to win changes in the law. Other business groups also have criticized on the law saying it puts U.S. companies at a competitive disadvantage in markets where bribery or other conduct prohibited by the law is customary.

While publicly traded companies are held to a stricter standard—including bookkeeping and internal control documentation—experts said smaller and midsize private companies and nonprofits should expect just as much scrutiny from federal regulators as their larger counterparts.

Criminal penalties for violation of the FCPA can carry fines of up to $2 million for companies and $100,000 for individuals—not to mention jail time—or, under the Alternative Fines Act, up to twice the cash value of the benefit sought in making the bribe or other corrupt payment. The government also can impose civil fines of up $10,000 per employee convicted of violating the anti-bribery law.

via Bribery law breaches can cost U.S. firms dearly | Business Insurance.

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Google beefing up its +1 button | Digital Media – CNET News

August 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Google is enhancing its familiar Google +1 button to give people more control over the content they share and who they share it with.

Found on many a Web site these days, the +1 button lets people signed in to their Google account share and recommend specific content with their friends and contacts that can then appear as recommended pages in Google’s search results. But the button has been limited in that users have only been able to share links publicly and couldn’t comment on what their were sharing.

Now Google has tweaked the +1 button, says a blog posted yesterday, giving Google+ users the option to share a page with their circles and offer an opinion on what they’re sharing.

via Google beefing up its +1 button | Digital Media – CNET News.

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Biometrics and Digital Forensics | Digital Forensics Magazine

July 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Just as fingerprints are used to confirm identities so to are biometrics signatures when used in access control and other applications. In Issue 8 we take an in-depth look at these implications and the practical areas for the digital investigator.

by Julian Ashbourn

Biometrics have proved useful in identity management across a variety of scenarios, from large scale border control and citizen identity applications to small scale corporate or specific sector applications where biometric identity verification can bring an additional dimension. However, there remain several factors, which are perhaps not as well or as widely understood as they might be in this context. Such factors include aspects of performance, such as equivalence of performance across nodes, security, such as the relative security of biometric templates and, especially, human factors, including behavioural factors that have an impact upon performance and the assumptions made about the results of a biometric matching transaction.

If the use of biometrics in everyday situations proliferates, can they perhaps be used in more innovative ways from a digital forensics perspective? We are all familiar with the traditional use of fingerprints and “mugshots” for purposes of law enforcement. It will be interesting to observe whether the use of biometrics within the broader IT landscape lead to assumptions with respect to forensics, or perhaps new approaches to forensic investigation.

Within our ever-changing technological world it is natural that, as interesting technologies come along, we consider how we might use them with respect to existing processes. From a specific digital forensics perspective, it is equally natural, if not essential, that any new Information Technology is incorporated into our broader understanding. However, in some cases, the methodology involved may not immediately be clear. Biometric identity verifi cation technology may be a case in point. We have an understanding that biometrics can provide a relatively robust first or second factor personal identity authentication mechanism, but how might this help us from a digital forensics perspective? In this paper we shall review the biometric situation and posit some ideas and suggestions accordingly.

via Biometrics and Digital Forensics.

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Enforcement Watch: The FSA’s Record Anti-Bribery Fine

July 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

(Business Law Currents) As allegations of corruption continue to belittle Britain’s anti-sleaze credentials, the FSA has come out fighting, imposing its largest fine to date for financial crime and control failings. In June 2011, the FSA fined Willis Limited, a UK insurance broker, £6.895 million for inadequate anti-bribery and corruptions systems as it turns up the heat on corruption and bribery.

The FSA chose to impose the fine after concluding that Willis Limited had created an unacceptable risk by having made payments to overseas third parties that could be used for corrupt purposes.

The FSA found that between January 2005 and December 2009, Willis Limited made payments to overseas third parties who assisted it in winning and retaining business from overseas clients, particularly in high risk jurisdictions. These payments totaled £27 million which were paid:

Without Willis establishing adequate commercial rationale for the payments;

Without conducting adequate due diligence on the risk of doing business with these third parties;

With no regular review of whether the business relationship was necessary.

via Enforcement Watch: The FSA’s Record Anti-Bribery Fine.

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Google’s antitrust probe drives speculation – The China Post

July 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

he U.S. antitrust probe into Google Inc. could hem in its growth ambitions for years, even if regulators do not unleash their most formidable weapons: Seeking a breakup of the Internet giant or exerting control over its cherished search algorithm.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) probe into business practices at Google, announced last month, puts it in the company of Microsoft Corp., IBM and other businesses that landed in the government’s crosshairs. In perhaps the most drastic case, the process led to the breakup of AT&T Corporation.

Some analysts and investors believe Google will strike a settlement with the government to avoid the distraction and business risk that would come with a prolonged court fight.

But they also note that a worst-case outcome could curtail Google’s growth prospects and undermine its position at the top of an increasingly competitive Internet industry.

David Balto, a former policy director for the FTC, said government efforts to oversee Google’s day-to-day operations could cramp its ability to innovate.

“It would be like putting mittens on Da Vinci’s hands,” he said. “We’d still get paintings but they would be nowhere as brilliant.”

via Google’s antitrust probe drives speculation – The China Post.

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Europe moves to give consumers control of online ads – Computerworld

April 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment

More companies that advertise on the Internet in Europe will give consumers the option to turn off advertisements that collect data on their audiences ahead of European Union regulations soon to come into effect.

The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) Europe released guidelines on Thursday called the OBA (Online Behavioral Advertising) Framework. It details how advertisers can inform consumers of behavioral tracking technologies and give them the option of turning the tracking off.

The framework was released before the E.U.’s so-called “Cookie Directive” takes effect on May 25. It requires companies to get explicit consent before using tracking cookies, or data files that record information such as people’s Web browsing and their approximate location, among other parameters.

The law is the result of increasing concern over data collected by advertisers. Tracking people’s browsing on the Internet offers the potential for higher revenue since more relevant ads can be shown to consumers. But privacy campaigners have warned that consumers are often unaware of the tracking and that it could be viewed as an invasion of privacy.

IAB Europe said 39 companies and websites have agreed to comply with the framework, which requires that behavioral advertisements carry a label informing consumers that tracking technologies are being used and giving consumers the choice to opt out.

Companies participating in IAB Europe’s initiative include Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL and websites such as the BBC, Financial Times and the Telegraph.

via Europe moves to give consumers control of online ads – Computerworld.

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