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France Telecom Boss Faces Inquiry Into Workplace Bullying
Mail & Guardian Online (07/06/12)
Former France Telecom (FT) chief executive Didier Lombard has been placed under judicial investigation for workplace bullying following a series of worker suicides at FT and its subsidiary Orange. Approximately 35 people working for both companies killed themselves between 2008 and 2009. French unions say these incidents were caused by a corporate culture of bullying and intense work pressure. These accusations are supported by notes from some of the workers who said their decision to take their own lives were motivated by bullying and "management by terror." A number of other staff members were also saved from committing suicide on company property. Unions say that the stressful working conditions at the companies may have been designed to push employees to quit in order to cut costs. It is these accusations that triggered charges that Lombard may have encouraged psychological harassment as a legitimate management technique. This is the first time a French executive has been investigated for such charges. Judicial investigators are expected to interview Lombard and other senior staff. Two other senior executives from France Telecom have also been summoned by the investigating magistrates.
FBI Credit Card Ring Bust Exposes PCI Challenges
Dark Reading (07/02/12) Chickowski, Ericka
An FBI sting that led to the arrest of dozens of participants in an international credit card fraud ring calls attention to the need for organizations to do more than simply adhere to baseline security levels established by PCI and other compliance regulations, according to experts. Others say the operation, which unearthed stolen credit card numbers taken from 47 breached organizations, highlights the ineffectiveness of PCI. Not everyone agrees, and NICE Actimize's Ben Knieff observes that "one of the challenges that we face is that there's more than one level of PCI compliance on the merchant side. And because they're relatively well-known it also allows criminals to know who's likely to be weaker or stronger from a security perspective." Knieff says the sophistication of cybercriminal activity points to the need for organizations to concentrate risk management not just on their treatment of sensitive data but also on consumers' interaction with it. "It definitely highlights the fact that no matter how hard you try, even if every merchant and every processor and every issuing institution was perfect, you still have weak links at the endpoint, which is the consumer entering their information into a phishing site or a skimming device on a POS terminal or an ATM," he emphasizes. "PCI is good but it's not good enough to solve all of our problems at this point."
Data Breach Bill Leaves Lots of Wiggle Room
CSO Online (07/02/12) Armerding, Taylor
The proposed Data Security and Breach Notification Act of 2012 would establish a national standard for data breach alerts, yet it lacks a deadline for breached companies to issue notices to affected customers. The bill also would preempt differing notification statutes in 46 states, which several security experts call a positive development by easing compliance for most businesses and enabling consumers to be alerted no matter what state they reside in. However, consultant James Arlen dislikes several aspects of the legislation, including its provision that companies take "reasonable measures" to shield data, such as encryption and redaction. Arlen notes that when data to which such measures have been applied is stolen, the theft is not deemed a breach under the law. In addition, rather than imposing a clear notification deadline, the bill stipulates that a breach alert "shall be made as expeditiously as practicable and without unreasonable delay, consistent with any measures necessary to determine the scope of the security breach and restore the reasonable integrity of the data system that was breached." Arlen says this provision leaves too much wiggle room, which would give criminals time to exploit the compromised data and give the breached company time to manage the incident.
Ex-Philadelphia Archdiocese CFO Pleads Guilty in $900,000 Theft
Philadelphia Inquirer (07/02/12) Hinkelman, Michael
The former chief financial officer for the Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia pleaded guilty last Friday to having stolen more than $900,000 from her employer over the course of seven years beginning in 2004. Anita Guzzardi was first investigated in July of last year when American Express notified the Philadelphia District Attorney's office that she was using checks drawn from the Archdiocese's general fund to pay off two of her personal credit card accounts. Guzzardi was fired that same month after being confronted and denying any wrongdoing. In the end, it was discovered that Guzzardi had written more than 300 checks from the Archdiocese's general fund to pay off a number of personal credit cards and to acquire some $370,000 worth of cash advances and make purchases at casinos around the country, as well as in the Caribbean and Mexico. Guzzardi, who has already repaid the Archdiocese more than $250,000, faces up to 21 years in prison when she is sentenced in late August.
Million Workers Have Class A Drugs in Their System, Study Finds
Guardian (United Kingdom) (07/01/12) Jones, Sam
The U.K. drug and alcohol screening firm Concateno has released a report that looked at the prevalence of drug use among British workers. The report, which looked at 1.7 million drug tests conducted by more than 850 British companies in a variety of different industries between 2007 and 2011, found that nearly 1 million workers in the U.K. were found to have drugs such as marijuana, opiates, and cocaine in their bodies. The report also noted that 3.23 percent of workers tested positive for drugs in 2011, up from 2.26 percent in 2007. That represents an increase of almost 50 percent. An analysis of the positive drug tests shows that people between the ages of 25 and 34 were the most likely to test positive for cocaine, heroin, and amphetamines. This is likely because employees in this age group are more likely than their younger counterparts to be able to afford these drugs. Dr. Claire George, the laboratory director at Concateno, said that drug use among British workers is likely higher than the report indicates, since many companies do not have drug screening programs. She added that employers can reduce drug use among their workers by providing employee assistance programs and by testing for drugs.
In Scare Over Cigarette, Signs of a Britain on Edge
New York Times (07/05/12) Burns, John F.
One of the U.K.'s major expressways was shut down for hours and armed police were deployed after a bus passenger mistook an electronic cigarette for a bomb and called the police on Thursday. The incident is just the latest in a growing number of arrests and terror scares that demonstrates the heightened state of alert among U.K. authorities as the opening ceremonies of the London Olympics draw nearer. Security officials say that public pressure to ensure the safety of the games has caused police and intelligence agencies in Britain to move against suspected terrorists much sooner than they would normally, often before any concrete plans are made or weapons and explosives acquired. Some 23 suspects have already been arrested on suspicion of terrorism this year, including two men thought to have been targeting Olympic facilities on the Lea River and six people arrested the same day as the bus scare, though police say that case did not involve a threat to the London games. If anything, the electronic cigarette snafu shows that British security agencies are more concerned that terrorists will be more likely to attempt attacks elsewhere in Britain.
Top Israeli Detectives in Kenya Over Terrorism
Xinhua News Agency (07/04/12)
A day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran of plotting state-sponsored terror attacks against Israeli interests in Kenya, Kenyan officials are confirming that Israeli investigators had been questioning a pair of Iranians under arrest on suspicion of plotting such attacks. Njeru Mwaniki, the head of the Kenyan anti-terrorism unit, said July 4 that a team of 16 Israeli detectives had been in Kenya since Friday, meeting with Kenyan officials and interviewing Ahmed Abolfathi Mohamed and Sayed Mausour Mousavi. Mohamed and Mousavi--believed to be part of the al-Quds division of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, which is responsible for foreign operations--were arrested in Nairobi and denied bail last week after being accused of planing to use a large quantity of illegal RDX explosives to create and detonate some 30 bombs targeting British, U.S., Israeli, and Saudi interests in Kenya. Israelis in particular are heavily invested in the East African country, which boasts many Israeli-owned hotels, retail operations, and shipping facilities. Fifteen people were killed in 2002 in a car bomb attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa that is also thought to have been orchestrated by Iranian elements.
Imminent al-Qa'ida Plane Attack Exposed
The Australian (Australia) (07/02/12) Leppard, David
Sources within British intelligence last week informed the media that al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is plotting an attack on a U.S. airliner using a Norwegian recruit mentioned in earlier media reports. Going under the Islamic name Muslim Abu Abdurrahman, the Norwegian recruit is believed to be in his 30s, with no previous criminal record. Abdurrahman reportedly converted to Islam in 2008, was quickly radicalized, has spent several months in Yemen training with AQAP, and is believed to currently be living in the northern Yemeni town of Dammaj. This is the latest AQAP plot targeting U.S. interests to be uncovered in recent years, beginning with the attempted 2009 Christmas Day Bombing over Detroit, and continuing with attempts to send bombs disguised as printer cartridges to Chicago via cargo plane in 2010. Most recently an AQAP plot involving a modified underwear bomb was foiled by a double agent in May. British intelligence officials are stressing that this latest plot does not necessarily have any direct connection to the upcoming London Olympics, but is rather part of the larger pattern of attempts by AQAP to carry out terror attacks against America and its allies.
Security Lapses Found at CDC Bioterror Lab in Atlanta
USA Today (06/27/12) Young, Alison
New e-mails obtained by USA TODAY have shed further light on what some see as a troubling history of security lapses at the Centers for Disease Control's Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory in Atlanta, Ga. The e-mails, including messages sent by CDC Safety and Occupational Health Manager Patrick Stockton, indicate that over a period of months in 2009 and 2010 the Atlanta facility experienced problems with doors providing access to the facility's animal holding area and Biosafety Level 3 labs--where experiments are conducted on microbes such as anthrax, monkeypox, influenza, and SARS--being left unlocked and unsecured. In one incident in April 2010 an unauthorized individual, later identified as a CDC doctor who worked in a different part of the facility, somehow gained access to the facility's animal holding area, prompting Stockton to characterize the issue of unlocked doors in the facility as a "common failure point." CDC spokesman Tom Skinner downplayed the incidents, which he said never put workers or the public at risk, saying, "the security measures we have in place, without going in to detail, make it close to impossible for anyone who doesn't have approved access to [dangerous biological] agents to get their hands on them."
Decline of American Satellites Is a Matter of National Security
Christian Science Monitor (06/25/12) Vol. 104, No. 31, P. 36 Muller-Karger, Frank
The loss of U.S. satellites and the ability to replace them threatens national security, according to University of South Florida Professor Frank Muller-Karger. He traces the current woes to a decision by the U.S. government to scale back NASA's Earth Observing System in the mid-1990s, followed by an initiative to consolidate all weather and Earth research satellite capabilities. "The new program seriously downgraded entire series of satellites and resulted in huge cost overruns and minimal government oversight," Muller-Karger notes. Despite NASA's own scientists proving that the satellite measurements were necessary for sustaining the American way of life, the space agency still had not outlined a vision for continuing such measurements by the start of the 21st century. Muller-Karger cites a new National Academies of Science report which found that the U.S. has lost its satellite sensors for measuring ocean currents, while NASA Earth imaging sensors have exceeded their expected lifetime and their cameras are deteriorating. The study also estimates that the number of in-orbit and planned NASA and NOAA Earth observing missions will shrink from 23 in 2012 to just six in 2020, and the number of Earth observing instruments outfitted on such satellites will drop from about 110 to less than 30 between 2011 and 2020. Muller-Karger points to the loss of NASA's capability to launch mid-sized satellites, which are critical for science as well as resource management. "Because we are not building satellites, we are rapidly losing the best engineers to design satellite systems," he warns. "American scientists and graduate students also no longer have access to the raw data we had only a year or two ago—or even 10 years ago. This means loss of expertise and technology with long-term implications for national security." Muller-Karger argues that the nation requires an immediate plan organized through a partnership between government, researchers, and private industry to lower satellite costs, fix launch capabilities, and outline affordable and high-quality missions that return the best possible data.
Google Disputes Android Botnet Spam Claim
BBC News (07/06/12)
There is a disagreement between Google and security experts about whether hackers have been able to create the first-ever botnet made up of Android smartphones. The possibility that hackers were able to do this was raised by Microsoft researcher Terry Zink, who said July 4 that he had uncovered evidence that some Android phones were part of a botnet that was being used to send out spam messages. However, Google has said that it has conducted an investigation into the matter and found that the spam messages were sent from infected PCs but were formatted in such a way that they seemed to come from Android phones. Google also said that those who were behind the messages were using a fraudulent mobile signature to make it more likely that their spam messages would go undetected by spam filters and thus find their way into recipients' inboxes. In response to Google's claims, Zink has said that it has not been proven that Android phones are being used as part of a botnet, and conceded that it was possible that the spammers formatted the messages in such a way that they appeared to come from smartphones. But senior Sophos security advisor Chester Wisniewski said that there was evidence that suggested that the messages came from smartphones, and that there was no indication that the messages have been faked. He also said that a large amount of the spam was coming from net addresses owned by wireless operators.
Kaspersky Detects More APT Attacks Targeting Macs
InfoWorld (07/02/12) Samson, Ted
Kaspersky Labs has spotted a new type of Mac OS X advanced persistent threat (APT) attack, marking the second time this year the security firm has presented evidence demonstrating the Apple platform is vulnerable to such threats. Kaspersky's Costin Raiu says that although this particular attack is aimed at Uyghur scientists, Mac users should be aware that the number of Mac OS X APT attacks will grow as these machines become more popular and widely adopted by high-profile targets. For this newly discovered attack, criminals are sending targeted emails with a ZIP attachment containing a JPEG image and a new, mostly undetected version of the Mac Control backdoor Trojan. Once it is executed, the Trojan installs itself on the target machine in standard APT fashion and connects to its command and control server for orders. Once the backdoor is installed, the attacker essentially has free reign over the compromised machine and its contents. Raiu says the backdoor is "quite flexible" and that its C&C servers are kept in a configuration block that has been appended at the end of the file. The configuration block is concealed with a simple "subtract 8" maneuver, he notes.
Hundreds of Thousands at Risk as DNSChanger Deadline Looms
Government Computer News (06/29/12) Jackson, William
Users have until July 9 to ensure their computers are not infected with DNSChanger, and the DNSChanger Working Group cautions that machines infected with the malware, which directs Internet requests to DNS servers, will be taken offline unless they are purged. The working group says about 300,000 computers are still carrying DNSChanger, with the bulk of them being in the United States. Some Internet service providers are creating workarounds, such as internally redirecting DNS queries away from the compromised servers, so that their customers do not lose access. But analysts say this does not resolve the underlying problem, which is that an infected computer probably has its antivirus protection and automatic software updates disabled, leaving it vulnerable to additional attacks and exploits. Users or organizations who think they might be infected or simply want to check can start by visiting the Working Group's site, which provides a test to see if traffic is being redirected to one of the temporary addresses, which is a sign of infection. It also provides advice on cleaning it up, which will likely involve reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling the operating system from scratch, according to the working group.
Website Security Vastly Improves, WhiteHat Finds
CSO Online (06/27/12) Gonsalves, Antone
Web site security has continued to improve, with reductions in the number of vulnerabilities and successful attacks against Web sites seen in 12 industries, according to a new WhiteHat Security study. The 7,000 sites of some 500 organizations saw their average number of serious vulnerabilities fall 66 percent from 230 in 2010 to just 79 in 2011, continuing a massive downward trend from 2007 when the average number was 1,111. The time it took for sites to fix flaws and vulnerabilities also fell across the board to an average of 38 days in 2011, compared to 116 days in 2010. Energy, manufacturing, and retail organizations fixed vulnerabilities the fastest, while nonprofits, financial services, and telecommunications organizations took the longest on average. Retail Web sites had the most issues overall, with an average of 121 vulnerabilities identified per site. The most prevalent threat was cross-site scripting vulnerabilities, which were found on 55 percent of all Web sites, followed by information leakage, which affected 53 percent of Web sites, down from 60 percent in 2010. SQL injection vulnerabilities were found in only 5 percent of the sites.
A Weapon We Can't Control
New York Times (06/25/12) Glenny, Misha
The U.S. and Israel's collaboration on the Stuxnet computer worm and its deployment against an Iranian nuclear facility could come back to haunt us, writes Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs Professor Misha Glenny. "Stuxnet has effectively fired the starting gun in a new arms race that is very likely to lead to the spread of similar and still more powerful offensive cyber weaponry across the Internet," he warns. "Unlike nuclear or chemical weapons, however, countries are developing cyber weapons outside any regulatory framework." Stuxnet is a prime example of a cyber weapon escaping into the wild and affecting the networks of innocent parties. "Moreover, all countries that possess an offensive cyber capability will be tempted to use it now that the first shot has been fired," Glenny notes. He also says the U.S.'s sponsored release of malware, after leading the charge in defending against such threats, is a major blow to its moral and political credibility. Glenny says the U.S. must push for a global accord that regulates and restricts cyber warfare, although it has been reluctant to do so up to now because Washington thinks any action toward a treaty would undercut its presumed superiority in cyber weaponry and robotics. "Any agreement should regulate only military uses of the Internet and should specifically avoid any clauses that might affect private or commercial use of the Web," Glenny concludes. "Nobody can halt the worldwide rush to create cyber weapons, but a treaty could prevent their deployment in peacetime and allow for a collective response to countries or organizations that violate it."
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