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China denies Gmail-hacking accusations | World news | The Guardian

June 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

China has rejected Google’s accusations that it is behind a wave of high-level hacking attacks and said its critics had “ulterior motives” in trying to blame the government in Beijing.

The rebuttal follows revelations that Chinese hackers have stolen the Gmail login details of hundreds of senior US and South Korean government officials as well as Chinese political activists.

Google has warned the victims of the “phishing” scam and made a public statement about the threat. The US company said it could not say for sure who was responsible, but it traced many of the attacks back to Jinan, the capital of Shandong province and a suspected centre of cyber espionage.

A spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry said it was unacceptable to blame Beijing.

“Hacking attacks are an international issue. China is also a victim,” Hong Lei told a regular press conference. “The so-called statement that the Chinese government supports hacking attacks is a total fabrication out of nothing. It has ulterior motives.”

via China denies Gmail-hacking accusations | World news | The Guardian.

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Define, educate, prevent: Avoiding data loss is easier than you may think – Computerworld

May 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Most organizations believe they aren’t in danger of losing data, but as recent news demonstrates, the threat is real and no organization is immune.

In a recent CDW report on threat prevention, data loss emerged as the No. 1 cybersecurity challenge faced by medium and large businesses. Fully 37% of IT security decision makers surveyed for the report cited data loss as “the next big security threat” their organizations face, naming it a bigger threat than viruses, worms, malicious attacks and botnets.

SECURITY THREAT: Too many data loss prevention tools become shelfware, says analyst

Just envisioning the potential consequences of data loss is enough to keep executives up at night. Data loss of any kind can damage an organization in countless ways. From a simple hard-cost standpoint (forensics, notification, credit protection, etc.), data loss is expensive, costing an estimated average of $200 per record breached, or an average of $6.8 million per total breach, according to a recent Ponemon Institute survey.

The true cost, however, is much harder to measure when considering factors such as lost competitive advantage, loss of revenue, litigation and company reputation.

The first step to prevent data loss is to accept that data loss is a real problem. Truly solving the problem can be boiled down to three simple concepts: define/baseline, educate and enforce.

via Define, educate, prevent: Avoiding data loss is easier than you may think – Computerworld.

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Targeted cyber attacks to rise further — Symantec | Reuters

April 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment

“Last year was the year of high-profile targeted attacks. We will see so many more,” said Sian John, security strategist at Symantec.

So-called targeted attacks succeed as most consumers avoid clicking on suspicious links in spam emails, but open files that seem to arrive from legitimate senders.

“They are more challenging, but the return is higher,” John said.

In total, the number of measured Web-based attacks rose 93 percent in 2010 from a year ago, boosted by proliferation of shortened Internet addresses, Symantec said in its annual threat review.

“Last year, attackers posted millions of these shortened links on social networking sites to trick victims into both phishing and malware attacks, dramatically increasing the rate of successful infection,” Symantec said.

via Targeted cyber attacks to rise further — Symantec | Reuters.

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BBC News – Renault cars spy case: French intelligence investigates

January 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The French president has asked the intelligence service to investigate suspected industrial spying at Renault.

The French carmaker has suspended three senior managers after an investigation into the possible leaking of electric vehicle secrets to rivals.

The firm has said industrial espionage poses a serious threat to its “strategic assets”.

The French industry minister has described the case of Renault, which is 15% state-owned, as “economic warfare”.

The right-leaning Le Figaro newspaper reported that, according to several sources, the information passed on relates to the technology in the battery and the engine of electrical vehicles that will be rolled out after 2012.

via BBC News – Renault cars spy case: French intelligence investigates.

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“Careless Computing” And The Cloud: Richard Stallman Warns Against ChromeOS

December 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

GNU creator Richard Stallman is back on the old “cloud computing is evil” kick again, and this time he’s speaking out against ChromeOS. His basic premise, that cloud computing is dangerous because it places your data in the hands of companies that neither care about you or your data, is sound. As is his threat that when the police come knocking on your cloud provider’s door asking for your data, Google is far more likely to give it up than you are. These are fine and good reactions to the slow erosion of privacy that comes from the rise of cloud computing.

“I think that marketers like cloud computing because it is devoid of substantive meaning. The term’s meaning is not substance, it’s an attitude: ‘Let any Tom, Dick and Harry hold your data, let any Tom, Dick and Harry do your computing for you (and control it).’ Perhaps the term ‘careless computing’ would suit it better.

To paraphrase Raymond Carver, Stallman is talking and Stallman invented GNU so sometimes that gives him the right. But I worry his FUD in regards to the cloud is misplaced. The obvious issues aside, given the current state of most people’s computer security and back-up practices, I’m will not disregard the cloud as a good alternative to those who can’t maintain their own PCs. Stallman comes from a culture where everything is in one place. The Linux architecture itself is, to an extent, monolithic (not in the computing sense but in the metaphorical sense), and every action you perform on data within it is self-contained on the disk. Copies of copies are propagated through the network, ensuring that important data is replicated and not linked.

via “Careless Computing” And The Cloud: Richard Stallman Warns Against ChromeOS.

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HTTPS Everywhere: Fend Off Firesheep – Computerworld

November 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The Web is an insecure place and getting more insecure all the time. The latest threat, the Firesheep add-in for Firefox, is particularly dangerous because it is exceedingly simple to use. Someone with absolutely no hacking experience can grab your private login information to sites such as Facebook and Amazon, and then log in as you and do anything they want, as if they were you. The free Firefox add-in HTTPS Everywhere helps protect against that threat and other privacy invaders by effectively encrypting information when you visit certain Web sites.

A collaboration between the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Tor Project (which employs a network and free software to help protect people’s privacy), HTTPS Everywhere ensures that when you visit certain sites, all of your communications are encrypted and secure.

via HTTPS Everywhere: Fend Off Firesheep – Computerworld.

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HTTPS Everywhere: Fend Off Firesheep – Computerworld

November 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The Web is an insecure place and getting more insecure all the time. The latest threat, the Firesheep add-in for Firefox, is particularly dangerous because it is exceedingly simple to use. Someone with absolutely no hacking experience can grab your private login information to sites such as Facebook and Amazon, and then log in as you and do anything they want, as if they were you. The free Firefox add-in HTTPS Everywhere helps protect against that threat and other privacy invaders by effectively encrypting information when you visit certain Web sites.

A collaboration between the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Tor Project (which employs a network and free software to help protect people’s privacy), HTTPS Everywhere ensures that when you visit certain sites, all of your communications are encrypted and secure.

via HTTPS Everywhere: Fend Off Firesheep – Computerworld.

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Computer virus Stuxnet a ‘game changer,’ DHS official tells Senate – CNN.com

November 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A highly complex computer attack that may have been targeting Iran’s nuclear power plants is posing a serious security threat to critical infrastructure worldwide, according to government and cyber-industry experts testifying Wednesday on Capitol Hill.

The computer worm known as Stuxnet was discovered this past July and specifically targets computers that run critical infrastructure such as the electric power grid, water treatment and oil and gas pipelines.

The head of the Cybersecurity Center at the Department of Homeland Security said Stuxnet is an incredibly large, complex threat with capabilities never seen before.

“This code can automatically enter a system, steal the formula for the product you are manufacturing, alter the ingredients being mixed in your product, and indicate to the operator and your anti-virus software that everything is functioning as expected,” Sean McGurk told the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

McGurk called the development of Stuxnet a “game changer.”

via Computer virus Stuxnet a ‘game changer,’ DHS official tells Senate – CNN.com.

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Mobile Devices in the Enterprise & the Security Risks They Bring

November 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment

USB devices and other pluggable widgets that can store (and steal) data are a Security Manager’s nightmare, but compared to mobiles and their always increasing capabilities, USB devices seem innocent. Because so many see mobile devices as a threat, the question posed by many is, is banning the use of mobile devices the only way to deal with them in the enterprise?

Fortunately, not many (if any) companies adopt the absurd approach to ban the use of mobiles in the enterprise for security’s sake. Instead, they adopt various security policies aimed at regulating the use of mobiles, keeping them from posing as a security risk to the enterprise.

The Mobile Enterprise Needs New Security Norms

These policies vary and different companies have a different view about mobile security in the mobile enterprise. Obviously, you can’t let the use of mobile devices in your enterprise go unregulated. Doing so would not only be a security risk, but an outright security suicide. However, how do you decide where to put the firewall between personal freedom and enterprise security?

via Mobile Devices in the Enterprise & the Security Risks They Bring.

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Feds’ Requests for Google Data Rise 20 Percent | Threat Level | Wired.com

September 22, 2010 By 1 Comment

The number of U.S. government requests for Google data rose 20 percent in the last six months, according to data released by the search giant Monday.

U.S. government agencies sent Google 4,287 requests for data on Google users and services from Jan. 1 to June 30, 2010, an average of 23.5 a day. That’s compared to 3,287 for July 1 to Dec. 31, 2009, the company reported Tuesday in an update to its unique transparency tool.

That rise is just a small part of the newest statistics on worldwide government data requests to Google, which are now paired with a comprehensive tool for viewing government blockages of Google services. The new tool lets you check timelines of traffic to 17 Google services from some 200 countries to see blockages and traffic patterns.

The new tool builds upon (and replaces) the up-time monitor that Google custom-built so the public could monitor censorship of its services in China in this spring’s showdown over censorship. However, that tool inadvertantly reported a China-wide blockage in July when none existed, leading to press reports that had to be quickly retracted.

Perhaps as a way to prevent spurring false-alarm news stories, the new tool will have a “tape-delay” of about 30 hours to allow Google engineers to verify and annotate outages. So for instance, if the company suspects a cable outage, not censorship (or vice versa), they can note it and prevent crying “wolf”.

As for why the company would develop such a comprehensive tool?

“Transparency can be a deterrent to censorship,” Google spokeswoman Niki Fenwick told Wired.com. “Free expression is core to Google’s business, and it is a core value.”

via Feds’ Requests for Google Data Rise 20 Percent | Threat Level | Wired.com.

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