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DefCon: Matt Richard Malicious Code Researcher, Raytheon
Steven Adair Researcher, Shadowserver
This talk is the story of 0-day PDF attacks, the now famous gh0stnet ring and the disclosure debacle of the Adobe JBIG2 vulnerability in January and February 2009. This is the story of international cyber-espionage using 0-days and the fierce debate over how to defend networks in the face of prolonged periods of exposure to unpatched vulnerabilities.
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Posted by: gregw on Friday, July 10, 2009 - 03:45 AM
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Santa Maria Times: In case you hadn’t noticed, there is a new Cold War, and in many respects, it’s a far greater threat than the saber rattling that characterized the face-off between the United States and former Soviet Union a generation ago.
This new Cold War is being fought with computers, and there was a heated skirmish over the Fourth of July weekend.
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Posted by: gregw on Thursday, July 09, 2009 - 06:14 AM
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We have been receiving numerous examples of Xinjiang-themed malware over the past 48 hrs [social engineering - content to follow] from IPs in China. We encourage people to continue to submit these to g.walton at secdev.ca IWM will release a threat report shortly.
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Posted by: gregw on Thursday, July 09, 2009 - 05:54 AM
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Oxblood Ruffin: It's never very charming to see saccharine sympathy, especially when it comes from political leaders.
President Obama and Germany's Chancellor Merkel have both been just a teensy bit hypocritical in their support of the Iranian people. While they've voiced that support, they are also actively supporting the Western corporations supplying censorware and weaponry to Iran - and other human rights violators.
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Posted by: gregw on Wednesday, July 08, 2009 - 11:39 PM
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This paper, written by Army Maj. Steve Sin, a senior analyst at the Open Source Intelligence Branch of the Directorate of Intelligence at U.S. Forces Korea, said North Korea operates two cyber warfare units: the State Security Agency's electronic communications monitoring and computer hacking outfit, and Unit 121, which is part of the Reconnaissance Bureau. The bureau's staff works directly for the General Staff Department of the Ministry of People's Armed Forces. [via NextGov]:
Recent cyber attacks on the US and the Republic of Korea’s government agencies, research institutes, private companies, and infrastructure have created significant cause for concern among the government officials and the computer security experts of both countries. Located in the heart of Northeast Asia, the proving ground for cyber-warfare (CW), computer networks of the United States Forces Korea (USFK) are ripe targets for the region’s CW organizations. The Yonhap News Agency reported on May 5th that the US military, after years of tracking which countries accessed them the most, has found that users inside North Korea logged onto US military websites and networks most frequently. This paper explores the CW capabilities and developments of North Korea and China in an effort to ascertain possible threats posed against the US entities and interests in the region.
See also: IWM's The Korea's archive back to 2003
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Posted by: gregw on Wednesday, July 08, 2009 - 07:34 PM
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Kim Zetter (WIred) : Talk of cyberwar is rampant after more than two dozen high-level websites in the United States and South Korea were hit by unsophisticated denial-of-service attacks this week. But cooler heads are pointing to a pilfered five-year-old worm as the source of the traffic, under control of a hacker who apparently did little to bolster his borrowed code against detection.
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Posted by: gregw on Wednesday, July 08, 2009 - 07:08 PM
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Jim Harper (CATO) : The AP and other sources have been reporting on a “cyberattack” affecting South Korea and U.S. government Web sites, including the White House, Secret Service and Treasury Department.
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Posted by: gregw on Wednesday, July 08, 2009 - 06:20 PM
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By Blaine Harden, Brian Krebs and Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writers
TOKYO, July 8 -- At least 35 government and commercial Web sites in South Korea and the United States came under major attack over the past several days, fueling suspicions of involvement by North Korea or its sympathizers.
In the United States, the attacks targeted Web sites operated by major government agencies, including the departments of Homeland Security and Defense, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Federal Trade Commission, according to several computer security researchers. The Washington Post's site was also affected.
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Posted by: gregw on Wednesday, July 08, 2009 - 06:16 PM
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Dan Williams - Analysis
RAMAT HASHARON, Israel (Reuters) - In the late 1990s, a computer specialist from Israel's Shin Bet internal security service hacked into the mainframe of the Pi Glilot fuel depot north of Tel Aviv.
It was meant to be a routine test of safeguards at the strategic site. But it also tipped off the Israelis to the potential such hi-tech infiltrations offered for real sabotage.
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Posted by: gregw on Tuesday, July 07, 2009 - 08:16 PM
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By Fei Li | Translated By Liang Qin | Edited by Jessica Boesl [WatchingAmerica.com]
China - Xinhua Net - Original Article (Chinese):
美国拒绝给网络战订规则
The arms race with the United States caused the collapse of the USSR. What are Russia’s chances of winning in the current internet battlefield?
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Posted by: gregw on Tuesday, July 07, 2009 - 06:29 PM
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Ellen Nakashima: DHS Officials Debating The Privacy Implications
The Obama administration will proceed with a Bush-era plan to use National Security Agency assistance in screening government computer traffic on private-sector networks, with AT&T as the likely test site, according to three current and former government officials.
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Posted by: gregw on Monday, July 06, 2009 - 05:22 PM
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Crispin Blunt: After Labour's woeful inaction on cyber security, we need a new government with a new approach for the digital age
A month after the US cyberspace policy review, the government has released its own strategy: the "Cyber Security Strategy of the United Kingdom". Both highlight the importance of cyber security, stating that "almost every facet of modern society" is underpinned by a reliance on cyberspace and therefore on secure networks and systems. This recognition is where the similarity ends. The US review is an in-depth analysis covering the most prevalent issues of cyber security, a serious priority for the Obama administration. The cyber security report was one of the first commissioned by the administration on 9 February. Its findings were presented personally by the president on 29 May.
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Posted by: gregw on Monday, July 06, 2009 - 01:46 AM
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The Dark Visitor: Nations develop defense capabilities and weapon systems based on threat perception. While it is extremely difficult to predict future war, it is something each country must take seriously. You don’t spend all of your military budget on coastal defense if estimates show it is more likely you will engage in land warfare. If military decision-makers predict that future combat will center around non-contact war, using drones, cyber attacks and space-based weaponry, you focus your energy and resources on those areas.
China has openly announced that they are moving toward an “informationized” force and it is one of their top priorities. While we do not have to agree with their rational, it is imperative that we understand it.
The following article from tech.qq.com outlines many of those reasons. It is a rather long piece so this will be a gist of the major points mentioned:
揭秘美国频频炒作“中国黑客威胁”真实意图 [Unmasking the true intentions behind the repeated US “Chinese hacker threat” hype]
[...]
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Posted by: gregw on Saturday, July 04, 2009 - 03:53 PM
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Global Times: Such a juicy, obvious target for mischievous overseas hackers: It was 2008 and attacks had begun mounting on the official Beijing Olympic website.
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Posted by: gregw on Saturday, July 04, 2009 - 03:45 PM
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JACK GOLDSMITH, Cambridge, Mass.: OUR economy, energy supply, means of transportation and military defenses are dependent on vast, interconnected computer and telecommunications networks. These networks are poorly defended and vulnerable to theft, disruption or destruction by foreign states, criminal organizations, individual hackers and, potentially, terrorists. In the last few months it has been reported that Chinese network operations have found their way into American electricity grids, and computer spies have broken into the Pentagon’s Joint Strike Fighter project.
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Posted by: gregw on Saturday, July 04, 2009 - 03:38 PM
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A joint report from IWMP and ONI Asia reveals troubling security and privacy breaches affecting TOM-Skype—the Chinese version of the popular voice and text chat software Skype.
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Includes chapters by Rafal Rohozinski and Ronald J. Deibert, and is available from Amazon.com.
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