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U.S. Shuts Offshore File-Share 'Locker'
Wall Street Journal (01/20/12) Fowler, Geoffrey A.; Barrett, Devlin; Schechner, Sam
The FBI has shut down the Hong Kong-based file-sharing site Megaupload, which authorities say allowed users to illegally share copyrighted material. Authorities say that Megaupload and its various Web sites generated over $175 million in illegal proceeds and caused damages to copyright holders to the tune of more than $500 million. In addition to the shutdown of the Megaupload sites, police on Thursday arrested four Megaupload employees in New Zealand and charged them with conspiracy to commit racketeering and criminal copyright infringement. Among those who have been indicted in the case is Megaupload founder and former Chief Executive Kim Dotcom. An attorney for Megaupload has denied the charges, while the company itself has said that the overwhelming majority of its Internet traffic is legitimate. It remains unclear whether authorities will go after sites that are similar to Megaupload, which are known as cyberlockers, if they are engaging in illegal activity. Media companies say that cyberlockers offer users access to a variety of different types of pirated content, including movies, TV shows, and music. Such sites now comprise roughly half of all online piracy activity. Although officials would not say whether or not they planned to target other cyberlockers, they did say that the Megaupload case should be a warning for anyone who engages in illegal file-sharing on a large scale.
Hollywood Loses SOPA Story
Wall Street Journal (01/19/12) Orden, Erica; Fowler, Geoffrey
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) have lost the support of some lawmakers following protests against the bills. Both pieces of legislation, which are currently being considered by the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, would prevent access to and block funding for overseas Web sites that offer pirated copyrighted material. Under the bills, the U.S. attorney general would be empowered to stop funding for the sites and block access to them if they are found to be infringing on copyrights. While both bills seemed certain to be passed just a couple of weeks ago, they have since lost the support of lawmakers like Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), John Cornyn (R-Texas), and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), all of whom said that they cannot support the bills as they are currently written. Support for the bills has waned amid protests from Google and Wikipedia, as well as demonstrations by people in San Francisco and New York. Critics of the bills have said that they are excessively restrictive and too broad. Both pieces of legislation are likely to be renegotiated in the coming weeks.
Zappos Breach: When Good Data Security Wasn't Good Enough
American Banker (01/18/12) Fitzgerald, Kate
The Zappos Retail data break-in, in which hackers stole partial credit card numbers, could carry serious ramifications for merchants by demonstrating that rigorous adherence to PCI Data Security Standard guidelines is no longer sufficient to guarantee protection against thieves seeking other types of stored customer data that can be tapped to commit fraud. Vormetric's Todd Thiemann says hackers are broadening their targets to include not just card data, but also email addresses, phone numbers, and other information. In addition to the last four digits of consumers' credit card numbers, the Zappos hackers may have acquired "one or more" components of customers' personal data, such as names, email addresses, billing and shipping addresses, and phone numbers, according to Zappos. Moreover, it seems that Zappos was in compliance with PCI standards, security experts say. Thales e-security's Jose Diaz says this illustrates that merchants' card data protection efforts are definitely improving, but now retailers face the growing danger of hackers exploiting other, unprotected kinds of consumer information. "The Zappos incident shows that companies really need to consider encrypting all types of customer data, not just payment card data, because of the growing number of data breaches and overall risk unencrypted data poses," Thiemann says.
Sheriff: NC Workplace Shooter Thought Co-Workers Were Picking at Him
Associated Press (01/17/12)
The sheriff of Montgomery County, N.C., said a man who shot and killed three of his colleagues believed that his Hispanic co-workers were talking about him when they laughed and had conversations in Spanish. The shooter, Ronald Dean Davis, reportedly left a six-page letter saying he thought the co-workers were punishing or picking on him, according to Sheriff Dempsey Owens. Davis shot four co-workers at McBride Lumber Co. on Jan. 13, killing three and injuring the fourth. Police located Davis at his apartment soon after the shooting. Davis had a self-inflicted gunshot wound and died the next day.
State of Security Profession: A Q&A With ASIS President Ray O'Hara
Security Director News (12/19/11) Richardson, Whit
The biggest trend that emerged for security professionals in 2011 was the need to be more proficient and efficient, sometimes with large budget constraints, due to the current state of the economy, according to Ray O'Hara, president of ASIS International, in a Q&A. The industry appears to be well on its way to getting a stable of professionals who are pursuing security as their first career, but he adds that security will likely always have a good mix of people who have law enforcement backgrounds. With regard to education, O'Hara says the higher-level education is somewhat arbitrary as it comes to the CSO position, noting that tomorrow's security professionals will have to understand how business operates. The Women in Security and the Young Professionals groups, in addition to the relationship ASIS has developed with ISC2, are the initiatives O'Hara says he is most proud of during his tenure. For 2012, O'Hara says globalization and virtualization will be the trends to watch, considering people want to do things wherever they are located around the world, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And in the new year, ASIS will look to continue to grow internationally, support the Women in Security and the Young Professionals groups, continue CSO Roundtable penetration into the community, and provide special education around the world, he says. O'Hara will be succeeded by incoming president, Eduard Emde, and he encourages him to enjoy implementing his strategic plan and meeting people around the world.
Top CIA Lawyer Never Approved NYPD Collaboration
Associated Press (01/20/12)
An investigation into the CIA's relationship with the New York Police Department in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has found that the agency's general counsel never approved sending an officer to New York as he was required to do. In 2002, then-CIA Director George tenet sent officer Lawrence Sanchez to New York City to work with the NYPD. While in New York, Sanchez helped developed programs that monitored what was going on in Muslim neighborhoods, including conversations held by residents. In addition, the NYPD used the program to create databases containing information about where Muslims who had not broken the law spent their time. NYPD officers also wrote reports on a daily basis about what they heard in Muslim neighborhoods. An internal watchdog at the CIA said that there was nothing wrong with this partnership, but that the agency's general counsel never gave his approval to Sanchez's work with the NYPD as he was required to do under a 1981 executive order. CIA lawyers knew that Sanchez was working with the NYPD, though no documentation of the rules governing the arrangement was made before the partnership began. The CIA has not said why the general counsel did not approve the arrangement. The lack of documentation and legal review of the partnership between the CIA and the NYPD illustrates how unclear the rules were as the two agencies began working together.
Prosecutors: 4th Man Recruited in NYC Bomb Plot
Associated Press (01/19/12)
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, N.Y., have revised their indictment against a New York City man charged with conspiring to attack subway lines in Manhattan in 2009. Prosecutors now say that Adis Medunjanin worked with Najibullah Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay--who have already pleaded guilty in the case--to recruit a fourth person to travel to Pakistan to carry out jihad. Medunjanin, Zazi, and Ahmedzay allegedly tried to recruit the man--who is referred to in the indictment only as John Doe--before they traveled to Afghanistan in 2008 to fight American soldiers alongside Taliban militants. Although it is not clear what happened to the fourth man, Medunjanin, Zazi, and Ahmedzay are believed to have been recruited by al-Qaida operatives who provided them with weapons training in Pakistan and asked them to be suicide bombers. Zazi eventually returned to the U.S., built explosive devices, and traveled to New York City in September 2009. However, Zazi abandoned the plot--which he since said was intended to take revenge on the U.S. for its aggression against Arab nations--and returned home to Colorado after he became suspicious that law enforcement officers were watching him. Medunjanin has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction and providing material support to terrorism, among other charges.
Pakistan to Re-Open NATO Route, Taliban Talks Falter
Reuters (01/19/12) Georgy, Michael
A top security official said Thursday that Pakistan expects to reopen the two supply routes that had been closed to NATO forces following the Nov. 26 attack on a Pakistani border outpost. Those supply routes are used to send cargo to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. Roughly a third of the cargo that is sent to coalition forces in Afghanistan traverses the two Pakistani supply routes. It remains unclear exactly when the supply routes will be reopening. Although Pakistan is planning to reopen the supply routes, it is also planning to charge tariffs for their use. Details about the tariffs are still being worked on by the Pakistani trade ministry, though the security official said that the fees will be used to pay for efforts to combat Taliban militants in Pakistan. The impending reopening of the supply routes could be an indication that the frayed relations between Pakistan and the U.S. are improving. The relationship between Washington and Islamabad has been brought to its lowest point in years following the attack on the border outpost and the raid on Osama bin Laden's Pakistani compound last May. However, the security official noted that it would be some time before relations between Pakistan and the U.S. returned to normal. The security official added that the tariffs on the use of the supply routes are designed in part to express Islamabad's continued anger over the Nov. 26 attack.
London Wins Bid to Evict 'Occupy' Protesters
Wall Street Journal (01/18/12) Sonne, Paul; Whalen, Jeanne
A British High Court judge has granted the City of London's request to serve an eviction notice to Occupy protesters camped out in front of St. Paul's Cathedral. Thus far, the judge has also rejected the protesters' application for an immediate appeal. Instead, they have been given seven days to take their case to the Court of Appeal. City of London officials say they will hold off on evicting protesters until the end of the seven days. Occupy protesters initially attempted to take over the square in front of the London Stock Exchange in October 2011 but were rebuffed because it is private property. They instead set up camp in the nearby churchyard of St. Paul's Cathedral, which initially welcomed the campers. However, in late October, the church began considering legal action to remove the camp. St. Paul's later softened its approach and set up a working group of financial-services and church leaders designed to reconnect "the financial with the ethical." The City of London subsequently took up the efforts to evict the protesters, seeking to remove protesters both from public land and from land belonging to St. Paul's.
Thai Police Seize Materials, Charge Terror-Plot Suspect
Wall Street Journal (01/17/12) Hookway, James
A Swedish man of Lebanese descent was charged by authorities in Thailand on Monday with being involved in a terrorist plot. The suspect, who is believed to have ties to the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, was arrested on Friday after he tried to leave Thailand following warnings from the U.S. Embassy about a possible attack in Bangkok. That alert prompted increased security at a number of locations, including international schools, mass-transit facilities, and an area popular with backpackers. Early Monday morning, the suspect took police to the place where he was allegedly accumulating materials for use in making a bomb, including 8,800 pounds of urea fertilizer and a cache of liquid ammonium nitrate. Another suspect who is believed to have ties to the alleged plot and is also thought to be linked to Hezbollah remains at large. There are differing opinions about what the suspects may have been planning. Some officials in Thailand do not believe that their country was the target of the alleged plot, and that the suspects may have been planning to send the bomb materials that they are accused of collecting to other parts of the world. However, some security experts believe that terrorists could see Thailand as an attractive target given the lower levels of security that are in place there. In addition, the Asian nation is a popular destination for tourists from Israel.
10 Sites Skewered by Anonymous, Including FBI, DOJ, U.S. Copyright Office
Time (01/20/12) Peckham, Matt
The hacktivist group Anonymous claims that it launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack against 10 Web sites belonging to a number of government agencies and corporations on Jan. 19. Anonymous said it launched the attack, which at its peak consisted of more than 5,600 people using the low orbit ion cannon to overwhelm sites with Web traffic, in retaliation for the FBI's shut down of the file-sharing site Megaupload. Megaupload was shuttered on Jan. 19 following allegations of copyright infringement. Among the sites that were targeted in what was the biggest one-day DDoS attack ever carried out by Anonymous were two sites owned by the U.S. Justice Department: usdoj.gov and justice.gov. The Web sites of the FBI, France's copyright-enforcement agency, and the U.S. Copyright Office were also targeted. Sites belonging to Universal Music Group, the Recording Industry Association of America, Warner Music Group, the Motion Picture Association of America, and Broadcast Music were attacked as well. Users who tried to access the targeted sites during the attack received access error messages or found that the sites were unusually slow. All of the sites were available by Jan. 20.
Survey: Security Deployments, Training Reduce Cyberattack Wipeouts, Downtime
Network World (01/17/12) Messmer, Ellen
A poll of 1,425 information technology leaders in 32 nations about the type of security they used on their network endpoints, in addition to security training for employees, found that these technology investments paid off in reducing cyberattacks and downtime. Those queried were asked to explain whether they made use of anti-malware, intrusion-prevention systems, data-loss prevention, and firewall protection, and whether they kept signatures updated on everything from physical desktops and servers to virtual desktops and servers, in addition to laptops, notebooks, and mobile devices. The survey also asked how often cyberattacks against these endpoints occurred over the course of the past 12 months, and in particular, which attacks worked. The survey found that the top-third tier of companies that had applied higher levels of security protection and employee training experienced 2.5 times fewer cyberattacks and where 3.5 times less likely to encounter downtime from them than companies in the lower tier that applied less security. Survey respondents also said their companies did suffer substantial downtime remediating the devastation from cyberattacks. But there was a notable contrast in severity between the top-third tier that had the most security protections in place and the bottom third with far fewer.
NSA Releases a Security-Enhanced Version of Android
IDG News Service (01/17/12) Constantin, Lucian
The U.S. National Security Agency has released a more secure version of Android, based on its research into mandatory access controls that led to the Security-Enhanced Linux project in 2000. SE Android enforces stricter access control policies than those available in the mobile operating system by default. SE Linux offers Linux kernel security modules and other tools that provide a flexible mechanism for restricting the use of resources or access to applications. Although Android's application security model is based on the default Linux discretionary access control, SE Android operates under the mandatory access control model, which allows for restricting applications to whatever is defined in a policy, enabling it to confine privileged services to limit the damage of attackers who attempt to exploit vulnerabilities. For example, SE Android can block the GingerBreak root exploit at six different steps during its execution, depending on the degree of strictness in the enforcement policies. The SE Android project does not provide any pre-compiled builds, which means installation on devices will not be straightforward, but instructions are available on its Web site.
Hackers Disrupt Israel Airline, Stock Market
Associated Press (01/16/12)
The Web sites for Israel's stock exchange and for its state-run airline were shut down or slowed Jan. 16 as a result of a cyber attack. The hackers behind the attack call themselves group-xp and claim to be based in Saudi Arabia. They have also bragged about gaining access to 400,000 Israeli credit card accounts. Israel responded that only 15,000 accounts have been hacked and credit card information for 6,000 other Israelis has been disclosed online. Officials say that this most-recent attack did not compromise any data nor did it affect trading or flights. But the attack did overload the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange's Web site with electronic requests, causing it to slow dramatically. Nevertheless, the site remained operational. Israel has become increasingly concerned about its potential vulnerability to cyber attacks, despite the use of sophisticated computer security by its military and advanced high-tech sector. Cyber security experts say Israel remains a major target for hackers opposed to the Jewish state and its treatment of Palestinians.
New Sykipot Variant Can Steal PINs From DoD Smart Cards
Government Computer News (01/13/12) McCaney, Kevin
A newly discovered permutation of the Sykipot Trojan, which has been used for years in attacks stemming from servers in China, can be used to compromise the U.S. Defense Department's Common Access Cards, according to Alienvault Labs. The variant comes rolled into phishing attacks and uses a keylogger to "effectively hijack DOD and Windows smart cards," says Alienvault's Jaime Blasco. The variant has appeared in dozens of attack samples over the past 12 months. The spear-phishing attacks are built to get their targets to open an Adobe PDF attachment, which takes advantage of an Adobe zero-day vulnerability to load Sykipot onto their computers, according to Alienvault's research. Using a keylogger, the Sykipot variant can then swipe PINs from cardholders signing in, and subsequently pose as the legitimate user to steal information for as long as the card remains in the smartcard reader, Alienvault says. The malware also displays the public-key encryption certificates kept on the system, and Blasco says Alienvault has tested the malware and found that it is working. "It's likely they got inside protected systems and gained access using this malware," he notes.
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