Security Management Weekly - September 9, 2011

Learn more! ->     September 9, 2011     Corporate Security Sponsored By: "Events of 9/11 Changed the Workplace" CoreNet Global Releases Survey on Event's Impact "Hacking Arrest Widens the Pool" "Mall of America Counterterror Reports ID Mostly Minorities" Minnesota "International Code Council: Building Safety Codes Changed as a Result of 9/11" "Zions Bancorporation, Drowning in Data, Finds a Clearer Way to Fight Fraud" Homeland Security Sponsored By: "Investigators Assess Threat of Bombing Tied to 9/11" "Officials: Keep Your Shoes on for Now" "New York City Prepares for the Fire Next Time" New York Fire Department Makes Changes to Respond Better to 9-11 Type Event "Flash Mobbing and Its 'Unstoppable' Rise" "Virginia's Stafford County Aims to Prevent Flash Mob Crimes" Cyber Security Sponsored By: "China Hackers Seek to Rally Peers Against Cybertheft" "Hacking Targets Multiply" U.S. Government and Security Officials Warn "Gmail Attack Highlights Web Insecurity" User Posting to Google's Gmail Help Forum Allegedly Receives Warning That His SSL Certificate Not Authentic "Fighting 21st Century Cyber-Threats" "Iranians Hit in Email Hack Attack"                   Events of 9/11 Changed the Workplace MarketWatch (09/06/11) CoreNet Global on Tuesday released the results of its latest survey, which found that the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, had a permanent effect on the U.S. workplace. Roughly 75 percent of respondents believe that companies in general are as vigilant about security measures today as they were in the aftermath of that tragic day. Richard Kadzis, vice president of strategic communications for CoreNet, comments, "Business disruption planning became a common element for many corporate workplace and asset managers as a result of 9/11. Elements of this planning include mobile work plans for employees, facility collocation policies, redundant facilities, energy back up, business continuity plans, and off-site data storage." He adds that Sept. 11 demonstrated the value of so-called "distributed work" in which staffers are contributing toward the final product from a variety of locations. Kadzis remarks, "Before 9/11, the scale of flexible workplace strategies was limited more to companies we used to call the 'leading-edge' adopters." Some survey respondents indicated a lingering reluctance to lease space in high-rise office towers. Furthermore, 84 percent said they believed that the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan will be a commercial success. Perhaps more importantly, over 40 percent said that they would consider leasing space at the site. Web Link | Return to Headlines Hacking Arrest Widens the Pool Wall Street Journal (09/08/11) Bryan-Low, Cassell; Stecklow, Steve; Whalen, Jeanne The London Metropolitan Police have arrested a man currently employed by News Corp.'s Times of London Newspaper, whose voice was allegedly heard on a tape, in which he receives instructions on how to hack a mobile phone. The police seized the tape when he worked at another British paper. The man was taken into custody on Sept. 7 at his home. While police did not release his name, sources believe the man is 35-year old Raoul Simons, who began working for the Times in 2009. The man was released after questioning, without being charged with anything. It is believed that the arrest is not related to his employment at the Times of London, but rather to his time at the Evening Standard. In the tape, News of the World's longtime private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, is heard instructing an unidentified male voice on how to hack the cellphone of Gordon Taylor, a former top U.K. soccer player. The investigation by the Metropolitan Police has also included the arrest of two of News of the World's former top editors, a long-serving former managing editor as well as other senior editors and reporters. Web Link | Return to Headlines Mall of America Counterterror Reports ID Mostly Minorities Minnesota Public Radio (MN) (09/08/11) Schulz, G.W.; Zwerdling, Daniel; Becker, Andrew An analysis of suspicious activity reports at the Mall of America in Minnesota, by NPR News Investigations and the Center for Investigative Reporting, suggests that the Mall may be questioning people based in part on their appearance. But government officials stress that programs meant to keep an eye on potential terrorists are not about racial profiling. The documents, which consisted of more than 1,000 pages of suspicious activity reports, suggest that nearly two-thirds of the suspects whom the Mall reported to local authorities were minorities. In a state where 85 percent of the population is white, this does not bode well. NPR and the Center for Investigative Reporting requested 29 law enforcement agencies across the country to provide suspicious activity reports from attractions, but Minnesota was the only state who sent them. A Mall of America spokesman says they stop and question more than 1,000 people each year and many claim the mall's program is a model for fighting terrorism. Minnesota's Department of Human Rights have raised concerns about the program, after several cases of innocent residents allegedly being questioned for no legitimate reason. While there has been an increasing risk of terrorism recruitment in the Minneapolis, former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, Juliette Kayyem is concerned. Kayyem says she is troubled that two-thirds of the "suspicious persons" in the Mall of America's reports are from places like the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Web Link | Return to Headlines International Code Council: Building Safety Codes Changed as a Result of 9/11 Occupational Health & Safety (09/05/11) The International Code Council (ICC), a developer of construction industry building safety codes used across the United States, says the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center identified a new and challenging frontier in public safety. Gary Lewis, former ICC Ad Hoc Committee chair on Terrorism-Resistant Buildings, states, "The hazards we historically evaluated and planned for in building safety and fire prevention codes to save lives and reduce property damage are largely measurable and predictable when applied to natural disasters ranging from tornadoes to hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, and fires. But the events of 9/11 revealed the effects of terror attacks on buildings are neither quantifiable nor predictable." Among the experts who were picked to serve on the committee created to address the events of Sept. 11 were design professionals, fire protection engineers, and code enforcement officials representing building and fire departments. Committee members finished their work in May 2010. Lewis stated, "ICC evaluated the recommendations related to model codes, and initiated code-change proposals designed to mitigate the effects of a terror event in case preventive measures such as governmental intelligence activities or building security somehow failed." While the code-change proposals were not all successful, many were incorporated. "Some that were not have since prompted activity in other areas such as structural design to address the concerns," Lewis concluded. Changes to the International Codes as a result of 9/11 range from elevators being required in high-rise buildings more than 120 feet tall to a higher standard for fire resistance in high-rise buildings more than 420 feet tall to more robust fire proofing for buildings taller than 75 feet. Web Link | Return to Headlines Zions Bancorporation, Drowning in Data, Finds a Clearer Way to Fight Fraud American Banker (09/06/11) Quittner, Jeremy Salt Lake City-based Zions Bancorporation was gathering much more data than its technology could handle in its effort to spot fraud. To make sense of the data it was collecting, it had to replace its process with a faster and less expensive link analysis tool. Zions turned to Zettaset of Mountain View, Calif., a specialist in link analysis. Link analysis helps Zions examine structured and unstructured data. The technology has important fraud-fighting potential, since fraudsters leave a trail of data that spans bank silos and channels. Large relational databases capable of handling similar loads of information could cost millions of dollars, experts say. Zettaset bases its technology on open-source code called Hadoop, which lowers the price. Systems like the one it helped Zions to install cost $500,000 or less. With the tool, Zions can now identify security threats more quickly, allowing it to become more proactive when it sees abnormal behavior. It can also analyze new and evolving security threats against the bank, says Preston Wood, the company's chief information security officer. Web Link | Return to Headlines Investigators Assess Threat of Bombing Tied to 9/11 New York Times (09/09/11) Shane, Scott The United States has received specific and "credible" intelligence that al Qaeda militants in Pakistan may be pursuing a plot to carry out car or truck bombings in Washington and New York City, timed with the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Counterterrorism officials are assessing a report about the threat. Matt Chandler, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, called the threat "specific, credible, but unconfirmed." Another official said American intelligence agencies were urgently pursuing leads overseas in an effort to gauge the seriousness of the threat. "It's in the early stages, and a lot of vetting is being done in other places," the official said. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the city's police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, said that the police would set up vehicle checkpoints around the city, increase bag checks on the subway and keep a closer eye on bridges and tunnels. The mayor noted that the threat information had not been corroborated and warned against an overreaction. The types of security precautions outlined by the New York Police Department suggested that the authorities believed the threat could involve a vehicle. One law enforcement official said the initial intelligence report said that at least three suspects in a reported plot, one of them an American citizen, left Afghanistan and entered the United States by air last month. Intelligence agencies have not confirmed the report or identified those involved, the official said. Web Link | Return to Headlines Officials: Keep Your Shoes on for Now MSNBC (09/09/11) Williams, Pete Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Administrator John Pistole have announced that travelers will no longer have to take off their shoes or belts before passing through security checkpoints at airports. The policy change follows improvements in screening technology. Both officials stressed that restrictions on liquids will remain in place for the foreseeable future. "One of the last things to change will be restrictions on carry-on liquids," Napolitano said. Pistole added that, "We are working on technology to get to the point where we can allow liquids to come back on planes, but we're not there yet." Napolitano also discussed the pressure placed on TSA by airlines increasing baggage fees, which she says has cost the agency at least $270 million more per year to pay more screeners. She has called on Congress to raise security fees for airlines in order to offset the expense. Web Link | Return to Headlines New York City Prepares for the Fire Next Time Wall Street Journal (09/07/11) In the 10 years since 9/11, the New York Fire Department (FDNY) has made a number of changes that would help it respond better in the event of a similar situation. The department lost 343 firefighters on that day, including a number of senior officials who were killed when debris from the second tower fell on their on-site command center. These days, the FDNY has a new operations center that helps feed data to the scene of major incidents, including the latest inspection data from the building department to information on how many people might be trapped inside. New technology is also in the works that will allow firefighters to be tracked from the moment they leave their station house and will allow them to transmit mayday messages. Additionally, the department says that it is working to improve on-the-scene awareness of firefighters and new safety training. These measures have reduced the number of firefighters killed in the line of duty in the 10 years since 9/11 to 17. That is a 32 percent drop from the 1990s. Serious injuries have also been reduced. Despite these improvements, the FDNY still faces some communications issues, particularly in major high-rises like the World Trade Center. A 2004 report estimated that it would cost between $150 million and $250 million to install repeater systems in all high-rise buildings in New York City at the time. Additional high-rises have also been constructed since then, likely further raising those costs. Web Link | Return to Headlines Flash Mobbing and Its 'Unstoppable' Rise BBC News (09/05/11) Charlie Todd, the founder of New York City-based Improve Everywhere, finds great enjoyment in gathering strangers via technology to participate in what has come to be known as a flash mob, a public spectacle designed to bring joy. Improv Everywhere's most popular videos on YouTube have been seen by more than 28 million viewers, turning it into a fully-funded enterprise and a full-time job for Todd. Improv Everywhere missions share a similar dynamic: they gather dozens, hundreds, or thousands of people, all of whom appear in public spaces, engage in a pre-arranged, organized activity and disappear suddenly. Still, to Todd, the term flash mob is relatively meaningless -- used to describe any unpublicized gathering, both helpful and harmful. Though he employs technology, Todd says his gatherings are not a catalyst for destructive events like the London riots, where some of the violence was arranged using social media and mobile phones. Unlike other flash mobs, Improv Everywhere is starting to ask for permits, which Todd says is the polite thing to do. Web Link | Return to Headlines Virginia's Stafford County Aims to Prevent Flash Mob Crimes Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star (VA) (09/03/11) Epps, Keith The Stafford County (Va.) Sheriff's Office is seeking the public's help in preventing trouble that might arise from large, online-inspired gatherings. Sheriff Charles Jett says a new initiative called "Cyber Watch" stems from the "flash mob" phenomenon, noting that some such gatherings have led to criminal activity in larger cities. "Nothing like that has happened here and hopefully it won't," says Jett. "We're just trying to take a proactive approach." Citizens are being asked to call the Sheriff's Office if they hear about a large impromptu gathering that is about to take place, especially if any illegal activity is planned. The sheriff says police will not harass people who are getting together for legal purposes, and realize that most flash mobs are harmless, such as one last year in which a group gathered at the Spotsylvania Towne Centre to sing Christmas carols. Jett calls the initiative an extension of the longstanding Neighborhood Watch programs and says the idea stemmed from a recent staff meeting during which current events were discussed. "Flash mobs bent on committing lawless acts have the potential to put the citizens of Stafford County in danger," says Jett. "Working together all of us can make sure these types of crimes are stopped before they ever happen." Web Link | Return to Headlines China Hackers Seek to Rally Peers Against Cybertheft Wall Street Journal (09/03/11) P. A11 Fletcher, Owen Some of China's most prominent, first-generation hackers plan to issue a call for their peers in the country to stay away from commercial cybercrime, as they try to reduce Chinese cyberattacks that experts say often target foreign Internet users and companies. Whether the appeal will be effective or not is unclear, but the move demonstrates that some with roots in the country's hacking culture are worried about growth in the underground cybertheft industry which could lead to stricter domestic restrictions. The appeal is located in a document called the "Chinese Hackers' Self-Discipline Convention," which will be presented ahead of a hackers' conference in Shanghai and voted upon later in September. In the past 10 years, many hackers in the country have shifted to legitimate jobs as security professionals, while young hackers have increasingly chosen to apply their skills for criminal gain. Several hundred security professionals are expected to attend the conference and will be encouraged to sign the pledge not to engage in cybercrime if it passes a vote. However, the appeal's support will have no way to force compliance with its rules. Web Link | Return to Headlines Hacking Targets Multiply Wall Street Journal (09/09/11) Valentino-DeVries, Jennifer U.S. government officials and security researchers warn that cyberattacks are a growing threat for all types of devices as they become linked to the Internet or cell phone networks. "They aren't just in automotive systems but in security systems, industrial control systems, medical devices," says iSec Partners' Don Bailey. He and iSec colleague Mathew Solnik recently demonstrated that they could unlock and start a car by sending text messages to the vehicle's alarm system, and the implication is that this same method could be used to interfere with businesses or critical services. The researchers point out that devices connected to a cellular network have several vulnerabilities, including chips that may not be able to manage complex security measures, and an inability to authenticate the network they receive messages from. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is working with technology manufacturers and users to understand the dangers, and a DHS official notes that protecting the devices is especially challenging because they cannot easily be patched on a routine basis. Bailey says that better microcontrollers could mitigate some hacking threats, while devices also should be required to authenticate the sources of messages and their networks. Web Link | Return to Headlines Gmail Attack Highlights Web Insecurity InformationWeek (08/30/11) Claburn, Thomas A user posting to Google's Gmail Help forum under the alias "Alibo" claims to have received a warning from Google's Chrome browser that the SSL certificate he received when visiting Gmail was not authentic. Self-described as a resident of Iran, Alibo postulates that either his government or Internet service provider, ParsOnline, presented the sham certificate to block his communications. Alibo posted a copy of the certificate to PasteBin, and security researcher Moxie Marlinspike confirmed over Twitter that the certificate has a valid signature. That means that the person or entity using it could use it to intercept Gmail traffic through a man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack. Google acknowledged the reported MITM attack and said the certificate authority issuing the certificate, DigiNotar, should not be issuing certificates for Google. The company also highlighted a Chrome security feature that thwarted the attack. Web Link | Return to Headlines Fighting 21st Century Cyber-Threats eWeek (09/06/11) Rashid, Fahmida Y. Over the past decade, cyberthreats have morphed into sophisticated attacks that can bring down large enterprises, steal credit card numbers, empty bank accounts, and probe government networks. Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, cybercriminals have become more intent on stealing money and participating in international espionage. It is now nearly impossible to tell if a user has been infected, since attackers do not want to be detected and lose their source of income, according to F-Secure's Mikko Hypponen. After the killing of Osama bin Laden, there was a dramatic increase in probing attacks on defense systems trying to access information about the operation, according to consultant Charles Dodd. Cybercriminals now use social networking and mobile malware to carry out attacks. Although the attacks have changed, the defensive systems have not, according to Invincea founder Anup Ghosh. "We are defending against 21st century attacks with 20th century technology," Ghosh says, noting that the security industry is still largely reactive as it focuses on defenses that look for known signatures and patterns of attack when it needs new techniques to defend against cutting-edge cyberattacks. However, LifeLock CEO Todd Davis says the private sector has made progress by communicating with the government about protecting critical infrastructure. "We are in a so much better space than we used to be," Davis says. Web Link | Return to Headlines Iranians Hit in Email Hack Attack BBC News (09/06/11) Up to 300,000 Iranians may have had their Google email monitored using security certificates stolen from Dutch firm DigiNotarm according to analysis by security firm Fox-IT. DigiNotar first took action to revoke fake security certificates on 19 July when it found that hackers had got access to its internal network, but Fox-IT suggests that the hackers were able to access those internal systems for a month before DigiNotar took action. Evidence gathered by Fox-IT suggests that the attacks were carried out to help surveillance of Iranians. More than 99 percent of the 300,000 IP addresses known to have connected to Google's email service with the help of a fake security certificate are in Iran. Fox-IT noted that the use of the fake certificates would also have given attackers access to cookies that Google and many others use to recognize regular visitors. As a result, Fox-IT said: "It would be wise for all users in Iran to at least logout and login but even better change passwords." DigiNotar is the second security certificate firm to suffer at the hands of hackers. In March 2011, Comodo revealed that it had been attacked, blaming Iran for the incident. Evidence is emerging that the same hackers were behind both attacks according to a message posted to the pastebin website. In the message, the hacker or hackers claim to have access to four other security certificate firms. Web Link | Return to Headlines Abstracts Copyright © 2011 Information, Inc. Bethesda, MD   ASIS also offers a daily and a non-sponsored, special-content Professional Edition of Security Newsbriefs. Please click to see a sample or to contact us for more information. Unsubscribe | Change E-mail | Advertising Opportunities | Security Management Online | ASIS Online