Julian Assange Started His Journey For Australian Senate on Behalf of WikiLeaks Party

Julian Assange Started His Journey For Australian Senate on Behalf of WikiLeaks Party

The world knows Julian Paul Assange, as the editor-in-chief and founder of WikiLeaks, which publishes submissions of secret information, news leaks and classified media from anonymous news sources and whistleblowers, will now see a different avatar as Mr. Assange have taken the first step toward a Senate run in the Australian state of Victoria as a member of the newly formed WikiLeaks Party. According to sources, Assange's electoral enrollment application was submitted to the Australian Electoral Commission in Melbourne by WikiLeaks supporters, including Assange's father, John Shipton. Mr Shipton said Mr Assange's enrolment was ''a first step'' in a political campaign that would focus on ''the democratic requirement of truthfulness from government''. The party, not yet registered with the Australian Electoral Commission, has an initial 10-member national council comprised of close associates of Mr Assange and pro-WikiLeaks activists. Its constitution highlights the promotion of openness and transparency in government and business. Mr Assange has nominated his mother's home in Mentone, in the federal electorate of Isaacs, as his address for eligible enrolment before his most recent trip overseas in June 2010 -reported a reputed Australian daily. 

According to post of The Age we came to know that --Australian citizens living overseas can enrol to vote as an overseas elector, and consequently run as a Senate candidate if they left Australia within the past three years and intend to return within six years of their date of departure.

Mr Assange has indicated that if elected and unable to return to Australia to take up a seat in the Senate, a WikiLeaks Party nominee would fill the vacancy. Opinion polls last year by UMR Research, the company the Labor Party uses for its internal polling, suggest that Mr Assange could be a competitive Senate candidate in Victoria. 

But the WikiLeaks founder has been living at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for more than six months — eluding Swedish authorities, who have an outstanding arrest warrant for him in connection to a sexual assault investigation.
Assange spoke of his political ambitions in December, when he said he was interested in running for Senate, adding that "a number of very worthy people admired by the Australian public" had signaled they'd be willing to join him on a party ticket. A representative for the Australian Electoral Commission said the application for electoral enrollment is a private matter between the applicant and the commission, so he would not discuss individual cases.

While talking about Jullian Assange and WikiLeaks, we would like to give you reminder that in this year we got several leaks from WikiLeaks, among them -'Detainee Policies' containing more than 100 classified or otherwise restricted files from the United States Department of Defense covering the rules and procedures for detainees in U.S. military custody. SpyFiles, GI Files (Global Intelligence Files & Five Million E-mails From Stratfor) & The Syria Files Containing 2.5 Million Emails of Syrian Politicians, Govt, Ministries & Companies.

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White House sends Congress a long-awaited cybersecurity proposal

The White House on Thursday sent Congress a formal proposal for cybersecurity legislation to help Senate lawmakers craft a passable bill from 50-some measures currently pending in both chambers.
The long-awaited framework would formally grant the Homeland Security Department oversight of cybersecurity operations within civilian federal agencies -- a role it has played in practice since last summer. Given the dearth of cyber experts in civilian agencies, the proposal would give DHS the same flexibility the Pentagon currently has to rapidly hire skilled professionals at competitive salary levels, Obama administration officials told reporters during a Thursday conference call.
The guidelines, which were expected to be released later on Thursday, largely rely on industry's know-how and willing compliance to certify their systems are safe and ask for federal assistance when attacked.
The proposal is silent on several sticking points, including cyberwarfare, classified information and the criteria for so-called critical infrastructure -- or systems that, if disrupted, could wreak havoc on national security. Such networks would be subject to greater regulation under a key Senate bill sponsored by the leaders of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The White House framework also stays clear of a dispute over whether the president should have the power to hit a "kill switch," shutting down the Internet during emergencies.
The guidelines were prompted by a request from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and chairmen of the committees with jurisdiction over computer security for input from President Obama on the various congressional proposals, White House officials said. The HSGAC and commerce panels passed comprehensive cybersecurity legislation about a year ago, while numerous other congressional panels and individual members have introduced their own piecemeal measures. The executive branch took about a year to reach consensus on which provisions agencies would support and what new ones they would propose.
The proposal would make so-called intrusion prevention systems a permanent fixture in the federal government, according to a fact sheet. As opposed to intrusion detection systems, which flag attacks and alert the appropriate responders, prevention software can actively respond by blocking intrusions. The guidelines say DHS should have the authority to supervise all such programs, including the existing "Einstein" tool. Internet service providers also would have to use the applications for any government traffic they manage.
The White House plan touches on one security element of a growth area in government IT: cloud computing. The practice allows organizations to access computer power, storage and software stored on the Internet by a third-party provider, rather than build on-site server farms. Administration officials are concerned that state protectionist measures are hampering the cloud industry, so the proposal would block state governments from requiring that companies in their states build data centers there, unless authorized by federal law, the fact sheet stated.
The guidelines would enable industry to obtain immediate assistance from Homeland Security in responding to an intrusion, if they wish, officials said. Currently, when organizations ask DHS to review logs to determine when a hacker attacked, the department's ability to intervene is slowed by legal uncertainty. To protect individuals, if a firm or local government wants to share such information with DHS, the organization must first strip out identifying information that is irrelevant to the infraction, according to the fact sheet.
Companies and local governments would be granted immunity for sharing information with the federal government about new computer viruses and cyber events that have compromised their systems. Should entities choose to provide such information, their customers' privacy would not be violated, according to the proposal.
White House officials said their proposal focuses on transparency and incentives to ensure companies managing networks for critical infrastructure in industries like energy and banking are accountable for service continuity. The draft bill directs Homeland Security and the private sector to jointly figure out which operations are the most critical and prioritize the most important threats to those services. An outside commercial auditor would assess the company's plans for mitigating such vulnerabilities.
On the consumer side, the proposal would require that businesses notify customers of certain data breaches to reduce the risk of identity theft. Sony recently took heat for not immediately telling customers that perpetrators had infiltrated the company's online gaming and music networks. The administration's plan would loop together a patchwork of 47 state laws on data breach reporting.
Many in the legislative branch and business community applauded the White House plan on Wednesday.
"The Senate and the White House are on the same track to make sure our cyber networks are protected against an attack that could throw the nation into chaos," HSGAC Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., ranking Republican Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Federal Financial Management Subcommittee Chairman Tom Carper, D-Del., said in a joint statement. The Senate and the administration "both recognize that the government and the private sector must work together to secure our nation's most critical infrastructure, for example, our energy, water, financial, telecommunications and transportation systems. We both call for risk-based assessments of the systems and assets that run that infrastructure."
The trio agreed with the administration that Homeland Security should take the lead in safeguarding civilian cybersecurity. Other lawmakers, particularly in the House, say the Defense Department, with its established expertise and deep pockets, should play a larger role in guarding U.S. networks. Currently, the Pentagon can monitor only the .mil domain and many civil liberties advocates would like to keep it that way.
Commerce Committee leaders also largely praised the proposed measure. "The White House has presented a strong plan to better protect our nation from the growing cyber threat," Chairman John D. "Jay" Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said in a statement. "I look forward to continuing to work with the White House, and my colleagues in the House and Senate, to pass a comprehensive cybersecurity bill this year."
Ranking member Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said, "While the administration's delay in providing critical input to the legislative process is regrettable, it is my understanding that the administration proposal parallels many of the objectives, particularly pertaining to modernizing the public-private partnership, that Sen. Rockefeller and I have advocated."
Officials with trade group TechAmerica generally supported Obama's framework but said they had lingering questions about the flexibility the proposal grants firms to tailor their security strategies.
"The administration's proposal is a clear step forward in the process and we hope that it strikes the right balance between accountability and innovation in this shared responsibility between the public and private sectors," TechAmerica President Phil Bond said in a statement.
"We encourage Congress and the administration to draw a bright line between critical and noncritical infrastructure," Bond said. "Industry and government need to work together to make the right determinations for what is critical, and what the implications are for that designation."
Should the government require firms to take certain actions, the law must provide liability protections to shelter companies from any unanticipated consequences, he said.
Given that the Senate has been pursuing cybersecurity legislation in a bipartisan fashion, and both parties in the House last year actually passed elements of the White House proposal, the expectation is that a law could be enacted this year.
Disagreements over engagement in cyberwar or the job of the Pentagon's National Security Agency and the new U.S. Cyber Command likely will be worked out in separate legislation. Pending House defense and intelligence authorization bills, for instance, address cyberwarfare and require the development of systems for detecting unauthorized activities on classified networks.
But talks on the civilian-oriented bill may take months, especially since all sides appear to want industry involved in the vetting process. One item overlooked in the White House proposal that Congress wants -- the creation of a Senate-confirmed cyber czar -- may take some time to negotiate. And Congress has never considered some of the information-sharing measures the White House introduced on Thursday.

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New York State Senate Official Site Is Vulnerable

New York State Senate Official Site Is Vulnerable

Few days ago Sec Indi Security Team exposed a Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in wikileaks website. Again they have found SQL-i on the official website of New York State Senate. Earlier this group have also detected  SQL-i vulnerability on the official website of US Senate, also they have hacked the Admin panel of famous Indian website click India. The vulnerability on the NY State Senate is still UN-patched. They hacker group has submitted the vulnerable link to VOGH and to know that click here. According to the hackers group - an attack can easily misuse this security flaws and can gain illegal access on the database of the NY Sate Senate.

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Cyber-Crime Prevention Act (Bill No. 2796) Approved By The Senate

Cyber-Crime Prevention Act (Bill No. 2796) Approved By The Senate

The Senate has approved on third and final reading the Cyber-crime Prevention Act of 2012 or Senate Bill No. 2796, which seeks to establish a legal framework for the investigation, apprehension, and prosecution of cyber-criminals. Sen. Edgardo Angara, author of the measure, lauded the Senate for acting quickly on the measure which seeks to establish a legal framework for the investigation, apprehension, and prosecution of cyber-criminals.
“Their approval sends out a clear message that the Philippines is taking decisive steps not only in safeguarding its digital space, but also in ensuring its transition into a full-fledged knowledge-based economy,” Angara said. The measure calls for an initial appropriation of P50 million for its implementation. The bill also seeks to protect children from pornography. Under the measure, the Office of the President (OP) and two other government agencies are also required to create an anti-cybercrime office that would deal with matters on web crimes. These agencies include the Department of Justice (DoJ), and the Department of Science and Technology (DoST)’s Information and Communications Technology Office (DoST-ICTO). Other than that, Angara said the measure aims to ensure that the public has access to adequate Internet security in the face of a rapidly changing technology. He said Internet usage has become more prominent, especially in social networking. 

“A large chunk of human activity nowadays is no longer merely physical — it occurs in the Internet. Crime and harm is thus no longer merely physical — they can occur online as well. There is a need for us to innovate security measures and enact laws that will help protect us in the digital world,” Angara said.

 

-Source (Mb.com/Philippines)  

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Vulnerability Found On The Official Website of US Senate By Sec Indi Security Team

Serious vulnerability found on the official website of US Senate. Sec Indi Security Team found multiple SQL-i Vulnerable link on the US Senate website. The vulnerability has already been reported to the Authority and the admins & due to security reason we are not exposing those links.  Previously US Senate database was hacked by Lulzsec.

Website:-

http://www.senate.gov/

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Cyber Security Bill Has Been Rejected By The US Senate

Cyber Security Bill Has Been Rejected By The US Senate

A cybersecurity bill that had been one of the Obama administration’s top national security priorities was blocked by a Republican filibuster in the Senate on Thursday. Still the topic of cyber security remains controversial in the US Congress. The Senate voted 52 to 46 to cut off debate, falling short of the 60 needed to force a final vote on the measure, which had bipartisan support but ran into a fight over what amendments to the legislation could be proposed.

Soon after the vote, the White House released a statement calling the outcome “a profound disappointment.” White House regretted that the act failed to gain approval, saying that it could have protected the US from "potentially catastrophic cyber attacks". According to the White House, the proposed legislation fell victim to "the politics of obstructionism, driven by special interest groups seeking to avoid accountability". US civil rights campaigners Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), on the other hand, are celebrating a "victory over cyber spying". 

However, many further amendments were proposed by senators over the week. Ultimately, many voted in line with their concerns. For instance, in a statement after the vote, Democrat Ron Wyden said that in his opinion the Cybersecurity Act in its current form does not sufficiently safeguard Internet users’ privacy and civil liberties. According to Wyden, the act would not create enough incentive to actually promote the exchange of information. Republican senators mainly explained their rejection by pointing out that, despite the amendments, companies would be made to comply with too many bureaucratic reporting requirements.

The bill called for the government to provide businesses with classified information about cyberthreats and gave companies the option of sharing information about cyberthreats with the government. White House officials said the president opposed that bill because it called for too much information sharing between the government and businesses, which could have led to violations of Americans civil liberties.

-Source (The-H & NYTimes)

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Former Senate & MPAA Chief Said -SOPA & PIPA "are dead, they're not coming back"

Former Senate & MPAA Chief Said -SOPA & PIPA "are dead, they're not coming back"

It seems that the mass protest against controversial act SOPA & PIPA finally succeed. Former Senate Christopher Dodd, now chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, said the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act aren’t going to be floated again in Congress. In an interview after an appearance at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club Tuesday night, Dodd told  “My own view, that legislation is gone. It’s over. It’s not coming back,”  Still, he said the massive protest against the measures, which included online petitions and massive e-mail campaigns, “was over the top.” SOPA, the more draconian of the two failed bills, would have required ISPs to prevent Americans from visiting blacklisted sites by altering the system known as DNS that turns site names like Google.com into IP addresses such as 174.35.23.56. Instead, for the blacklisted sites, ISPs would have had to lie to their customers and tell their browsers that the site doesn’t exist. 

SOPA and its sister bill PIPA were both definitively killed off earlier this year after an overwhelming campaign of online action by citizens and tech companies. Dodd sounded chastened, with a tone that was a far cry from the rhetoric the MPAA was putting out in January. "When SOPA-PIPA blew up, it was a transformative event," said Dodd. "There were eight million e-mails [to elected representatives] in two days." That caused senators to run away from the legislation. "People were dropping their names as co-sponsors within minutes, not hours," he said.

"These bills are dead, they're not coming back," said Dodd. "And they shouldn't." He said the MPAA isn't focused on getting similar legislation passed in the future, at the moment. "I think we're better served by sitting down [with the tech sector and SOPA opponents] and seeing what we agree on."

Dodd also continued to laud the "six strikes" plan that US Internet providers have agreed to enforce on behalf of the entertainment industry, insisting that it's an "educational" program aimed at illegal downloads. "If people are aware they're downloading illegal content, they'll go to a legal service," he said. "It's an experiment to see if we can get cooperation. It's not a law—you don't go to jail."

The MPAA won't have any kind of back-door to subscriber records at Verizon or other ISPs, Dodd said.

-Source (WIRED & ars technica)

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Zee-News Bengali Unit 24ghanta.com Hacked

Zee-News Bengali Unit 24ghanta.com Hacked 

Zee-News Bengali unit named 24ghanta.com under cyber attack. A hacker group named Sec Indi Security Team has hacked the mail server of 24ghanta (Largest News Channel In West-Bengal).

The above screen shots ware taken from 24ghanta official mail account which was clearly indicating that hacker had his access on the mail server. Not only mail account also the official website of 24ghanta sent off-line by the hackers. The attack was took place few days ago and still the hacker group has maintained their access on that particular server and as a result the official site of 24ghanta is still down.

We also want to give you reminder that this is not the 1st attack of Sec Indi Security Team, earlier this group has found serious vulnerability on many high profile sites such as Wikileaks official site, New York State Senate, Click India, US Senate and so on. The hacker group claimed that they have knocked the server Admin about the vulnerability and also through this hack Sec Indi Security Team did not make any damage.

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Julian Assange's Wikileaks Party Started it's Official Website & Opens Membership

Julian Assange's Wikileaks Party Started it's Official Website & Opens Membership 

Earlier this year we came to know about the WikiLeaks Party where we have seen Julian Assange in a different avatar who have taken the first step toward a Senate run in the Australian state of Victoria. The electoral enrollment application was submitted to the Australian Electoral Commission in February. Assange's father Mr. John Shipton said Julian Assange's enrollment was ''a first step'' in a political campaign that would focus on ''the democratic requirement of truthfulness from government''. The party, not yet registered with the Australian Electoral Commission, has an initial 10-member national council comprised of close associates of Mr. Assange and pro-WikiLeaks activists. But as per the rules of Electoral Commission the party must have to 500 members to officially register with them, in order to do that WLParty have started its official website that is wikileaksparty.org.au and opened online membership form. The official twitter account of WikiLekas urges its followers to to join the WikiLeaks Party, though the website is still under testing and expecting to be final in between seven days as shown in the picture below. 

For the fans of WikiLekas, who eager to join the party must know that, they must have to fill out at least 8 fields of personal information including full name, address, phone number, residential suburb & so on. Along with these, the members must have to agree the terms of the party constitution as published on the party website and they have to pay amount of $20 as shown the picture below.

But the WikiLeaks founder has been living at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since June 2102 — eluding Swedish authorities, who have an outstanding arrest warrant for him in connection to a sexual assault investigation. If elected Australian Senator, Assange might still not be able to be physically present at the Australian senate as he might still be trapped in London’s Ecuadorean embassy. British authorities have vowed to detain him if he steps foot outside of the embassy in light of the European Arrest Warrant issued against him. 

-Source (WL Party & RT)

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Wikipedia Will Go Dark (Blackout) While Protesting Against SOPA/PIPA

Not only Anonymous, The White House but also The Wikipedia Community has decided to blackout (Go Dark) the English version of Wikipedia for 24 hours, in protest against proposed legislation in the United States the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and PROTECTIP (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate. Wiki said that if the bill get passed, "this legislation will harm the free and open Internet and bring about new tools for censorship of international websites inside the United States." 

In A Public Statement Wikipedia Said:- 

"Over the course of the past 72 hours, over 1800 Wikipedians have joined together to discuss proposed actions that the community might wish to take against SOPA and PIPA. This is by far the largest level of participation in a community discussion ever seen on Wikipedia, which illustrates the level of concern that Wikipedians feel about this proposed legislation. The overwhelming majority of participants support community action to encourage greater public action in response to these two bills. Of the proposals considered by Wikipedians, those that would result in a "blackout" of the English Wikipedia, in concert with similar blackouts on other websites opposed to SOPA and PIPA, received the strongest support.

“Today Wikipedians from around the world have spoken about their opposition to this destructive legislation," said Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia. "This is an extraordinary action for our community to take - and while we regret having to prevent the world from having access to Wikipedia for even a second, we simply cannot ignore the fact that SOPA and PIPA endanger free speech both in the United States and abroad, and set a frightening precedent of Internet censorship for the world."

We urge Wikipedia readers to make your voices heard. If you live in the United States, find your elected representative in Washington (https://www.eff.org/sopacall). If you live outside the United States, contact your State Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs or similar branch of government. Tell them you oppose SOPA and PIPA, and want the internet to remain open and free."

The announcement follows a tweet by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales in which he said "Wikipedia protesting bad law on Wednesday!" The proposed legislation in question is the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), also known as House Bill 3261 or H.R. 3261, and the PROTECT IP Act (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011), aka Senate Bill 968 or S. 968. This legislation is intended to prevent online piracy, but those opposing the proposals believe that the legislation will be used to censor the internet and endanger free speech. In an open letter, Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Sue Gardner said that, if passed, the proposed laws "would seriously damage the free and open Internet, including Wikipedia". 

-Source (The-H)

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President Obama to Introduce Cybersecurity Proposal Today

Believing the U.S. to be too vulnerable to cyber-terrorism, President Obama will later today introduce a proposal to address the threat.

The law will address “complex and systemic national vulnerabilities that place the American people and economy at risk,” an administration official said.

To many Americans “cyber-security” may sound nerdy and irrelevant to their lives, but the nation’s top national security officials have been warning about the threat as dire and potentially catastrophic.

Last June, CIA director Leon Panetta told ABC News’ This Week that he worried about cyber security.

“We are now in a world in which cyber warfare is very real,” he said. “It could threaten our grid system. It could threaten our financial system. It could paralyze this country, and I think that's an area we have to pay a lot more attention to.

In February Panetta testified to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that “the potential for the next Pearl Harbor could very well be a cyber-attack.” 

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the committee: “This threat is increasing in scope and scale, and its impact is difficult to overstate.”

The administration official tells ABC News that while the Obama administration “has taken significant steps to better protect America against cyber threats,…it has become clear that our nation cannot fully defend against these threats unless certain parts of cybersecurity law are updated.” The official said that President Obama’s “proposal strikes a critical balance between strengthening security, preserving privacy and civil liberties protections, and fostering continued economic growth.”

National security officials estimate there are now roughly 60,000 new malicious computer programs identified each day. As just one example, in April 2010 telecommunications companies in China rerouted about 15 percent of the world's online traffic, affecting NASA, the U.S. Senate, the four branches of the military, the office of the Secretary of Defense and a number of Fortune 500 companies by displaying false computer data that rerouted data through Chinese internet servers for about 17 minutes.

The White House estimates that there were approximately 50 cyber-related bills introduced in the last session of Congress. Senate Democrats wrote to President Obama and asked for him to weigh in.

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Mozilla Stand Against CISPA, Saying The Bill Will Infringes on Our Privacy

Mozilla Stand Against CISPA, Saying The Bill Will Infringes on Our Privacy

 

When almost 99% of leading IT Industry, software giant like Microsoft, Facebook, AT&T, Intel, Verizon has been either silent or quietly supportive of the controversial bill HR 3523 Act dubbed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). But here we get one exception late Tuesday, Mozilla’s Privacy and Public Policy lead sent me the following statement:-
"While we wholeheartedly support a more secure Internet, CISPA has a broad and alarming reach that goes far beyond Internet security. The bill infringes on our privacy, includes vague definitions of cybersecurity, and grants immunities to companies and government that are too broad around information misuse. We hope the Senate takes the time to fully and openly consider these issues with stakeholder input before moving forward with this legislation."

CISPA’s official supporters include Facebook, Microsoft, IBM, Intel, Oracle and Symantec among others–carriers including AT&T and Verizon have signed on, too. Despite reports that Microsoft had backed off its support for the bill citing privacy, a Microsoft spokesperson Monday told reporters that the company’s supportive position on CISPA remains “unchanged.”

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Anonymous Reacts Against Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)

Hacktivist Anonymous expressed their reaction against the the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) reconvenes by the US Senate. While the world has been given little time to react to SOPA, Anonymous promises its reaction won’t be little. The hacker collective said the overwhelming backlash against the controversial bill should be enough to defeat it but the very fact deliberations are being reconvened so swiftly today after breaking down last week makes it clear corporate lobbyists are working to see SOPA fast tracked.

Anonymous Statement :-

"The goal of the so-called 'Stop Online Piracy Act' SOPA is to empower litigious U.S. corporations to police the internet, with the ability to act as judge, jury and executioner. SOPA tramples civil rights laws, fair use, freedom of press and freedom of speech. Under SOPA, an average person could be arrested, fined, sued and spend time in a federal prison for so little as uploading a video to YouTube or even linking to one. This law further proves the reality of corporate rule and totalitarianism.


It has been clandestinely moved forward in an attempt to fast track the law under the radar of a culture drunk on materialistic obsession - as such The House Judiciary Committee is reconvening on the 21st of December. In short, we were lied to.


While it was the intent to give people little time to react, our reaction will not be little. This oligarchy rules without democracy, consent or support; it fears us, it fears protesters, it fears the solidarity of the Occupy Movement, it fears the 99pc, it fears YOU. The federal government currently perches on the narrow brink of collapse, let us give it a nice, hard push....."

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FBI is ramping Up Cyber-Attack Defense

The FBI has been called to investigate cyber attacks at Google and Sony in the past week, incidents that shed light on "the ever-present danger from sophisticated Internet attack," FBI Director Robert Mueller said intestimony Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee."Along with countless other cyber incidents, these attacks threaten to undermine the integrity of the Internet and to victimize the businesses and people who rely on it," he said.The hearing, a video of which is available online, was focused on President Obama's request to extend Mueller's term as director until 2013. The director gave an opening statement on threats facing the intelligence organization and how it's working to combat them, and then fielded questions from the committee.
Mueller cited cyber attacks as one of the FBI's top challenges in the next 10 years, and said the agency needs to step up efforts to combat them, something it's currently working on."The increase of cyber as a mechanism for conducting all sorts of crimes--and also it being a highway to extracting our most sensitive secrets or extracting IP from our commerce" is a key concern, he said. "We as an organization need to continue to grow the capability of addressing that arena in the future."In addition to addressing growing cybersecurity needs, Mueller cited other technology-focused priorities of the organization during his testimony. One is the use of the Internet for terrorist cells to communicate, organize, and radicalize new terrorists, something the FBI is aimed at stifling, he said."In the age of the Internet, these radicalizing figures no longer need to meet or speak personally with those they seek to influence," Mueller said. "Instead, they conduct their media campaigns from remote regions of the world, intent on fostering terrorism by lone actors here in the United States."Another concern Mueller said he will continue to work on is his quest for the intelligence agency to expand its wiretapping capability to avoid a problem known as "going dark." The term refers to situations in which the agency has legal authorization to obtain Internet communications but cannot do so in a timely fashion due to a company's lack of technology to get the information quickly and efficiently.An increase in high-profile and sophisticated cyber attacks in the United States is pushing the FBI to bolster its ability to fight cybercrime and foster stronger cybersecurity, its director told Congress this week.

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Controversial Cyber Security Bill CISPA Passed Again By The US House

Controversial Cyber Security Bill CISPA Passed Again By The US House

Couple of months ago we reported that the White House is planning for an executive cyber security order, from some official sources it has also come to know that the U.S. President Mr. Barack Obama has a special plan to re-introduce the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). Today that deceleration get executed as the US House of Representatives has passed the controversial Cyber Information Sharing and Protection Act. This is the second time when CISPA have been passed by the White House, first it was rejected by the Senator while saying that the bill did not do enough to protect privacy. But yet again with the initiative of Obama and a substantial majority of politicians in the House backed the bill. Though there is a huge chance of getting rejected. According to some relevant sources it has been came to light that, this time also CISPA could fail again in the Senate after threats from President Obama to veto it over privacy concerns. Sources are saying that the main reason of re-introducing CISPA is the the President Barack Obama expressed concerns that it could pose a privacy risk. The White House wants amendments so more is done to ensure the minimum amount of data is handed over in investigations.  The law is passing through the US legislative system as American federal agencies warn that malicious hackers, motivated by money or acting on behalf of foreign governments, such as China, are one of the biggest threats facing the nation.  "If you want to take a shot across China's bow, this is the answer," said Mike Rogers, the Republican politician who co-wrote CISPA and chairs the House Intelligence Committee. 

On the other hand CISPA has also secured the backing of several technology firms, including the CTIA wireless industry group, as well as the TechNet computer industry lobby group, which has Google, Apple and Yahoo as members. By contrast, some other big names like Mozilla, Reddit has been vocal in its opposition to the bill. In the beginning the social networking giant Facebook supported CISPA but later they took back its support. The American Civil Liberties Union has also opposed CISPA, saying the bill was "fatally flawed". The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Reporters Without Borders and the American Library Association have all voiced similar worries.

-Source (BBC)

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SEGA Hacked

SEGA took the SEGA Pass system offline Thursday. Friday morning, it sent an email to Pass members alerting them that an unauthorized and unidentified third party had gained access to the SEGA Pass database. SEGA Pass, the gaming company’s member database and online network, has been hacked. Members’ email addresses, birth dates and encrypted passwords were obtained in the attack, according to the company. SEGA is also telling members that it has reset their passwords, that all access to SEGA Pass has been temporarily suspended and that Pass users should consider changing their passwords on other sites. No party has stepped up to claim responsibility as of yet, though hacker group LulzSec tweeted at SEGA Friday morning:

 “We want to help you destroy the hackers that attacked you. We love the Dreamcast, these people are going down.” Meanwhile, LulzSec recently claimed responsibility for hacking Sony’s and Nintendo’s servers, taking down the CIA’s website and hacking the U.S. Senate.

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Wikileaks insider threat: A lesson for government cybersecurity managers

“There is no patch for people.” That one-liner, made at a recent symposium in Washington on the Wikileaks insider threat, is no joke. It succinctly captures the hurdles facing federal managers when it comes to information security risks posed by their own users. And those hurdles are getting higher, as the Wikileaks case illustrates. Nor is Wikileaks just an isolated case: public data breaches by insiders in both the private and public sectors are on the rise.

While system breaches caused by the unwitting insider -- the employee who opens up an email message and falls for a phishing scam, for example -- are still a concern, it’s the malicious insider who represents the greatest risk. And, that risk means government cybersecurity managers will have to shift their efforts more towards actively combating that threat.
Particularly worrisome these days is the trusted insider “gone wrong”—the system administrator or IT executive whose actions turn malicious, for instance.
“You have a lot of folks that…pretty much have the keys to the castle,” said a security expert at the Homeland Security Department who asked to remain anonymous. “The enterprise admins have the ability to scour the entire network. That’s a hurdle that everyone has, especially with the move to managed services. You don’t know who the people who are managing your systems are anymore.”
Ken Ammon, chief strategy officer at Xceedium Inc., agreed that the ever-growing size, sophistication and complexity of systems have amplified the insider threat. “If you flash back 15 years ago, people who were considered privileged users -- those who had the ability to get to any platform or to any information within the infrastructure -- were a smaller group,” he said. “They tended to be the higher-assured employee or to be more fixtures than transients. Now you flash forward 15 years and the number of people and resources it takes to keep the systems running and number of people you give elevated rights or privileges to have dramatically increased.”
The advent of cloud computing also has expanded the insider threat, and even blurred the distinction between insiders and outsiders, Ammon added. “It has spread to vendors and contractors you have no control over,” he said. “You have a security boundary that has evolved and eroded from this inside-outside issue.”
Threat mitigation
The increasing visibility of the insider threat is shifting the focus from security policies and user training -- which likely have negligible impact on the determined malicious insider -- to technologies and tools designed to mitigate the threat. Testifying recently at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on “Information Sharing in the Era of Wikileaks,” Corin Stone, the information sharing executive for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said the government must develop a comprehensive insider threat capability, of which technology is a vital part.
The Intelligence Community’s strategy involves three interlocking elements, Stone said:

• Ensuring the right people have access to the networks and information they need to perform their duties, but not to information they don’t need.
• Technically limiting the ability to misappropriate, manipulate or transfer data, especially in large quantities, such as by disabling or prohibiting the use of removable media on classified networks.
• Auditing and monitoring user activity on classified computer systems to identify anomalous activity and follow up accordingly.

“In general, the idea that you can depend on written policy or that you have policy as a control for security is something that has to be retired,” Ammon said. “You have to modify that and put some technology in place. The days of … trusting someone to follow policy are gone, so you have to build in technical controls.”

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Obama Administration Is Implementing Tighter Penalties For Cybercrimes

The Obama administration is seeking tougher sentences for people who are found guilty of hacking or other digital offenses, two officials said Wednesday.  

Associate Deputy Attorney General James Baker and Secret Service Deputy Special Agent in Charge Pablo Martinez said the maximum sentences for cyber crimes have failed to keep pace with the severity of the threats.  

Martinez said hackers are often members of sophisticated criminal networks.

"Secret Service investigations have shown that complex and sophisticated electronic crimes are rarely perpetrated by a lone individual," Martinez said.

"Online criminals organize in networks, often with defined roles for participants, in order to manage and perpetuate ongoing criminal enterprises dedicated to stealing commercial data and selling it for profit," he said.

Baker and Martinez appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to discuss the portion of the White House's cybersecurity legislative proposal that calls for stiffer penalties for cyber crimes as part of an update to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).

The administration argues the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act should be updated to make CFAA offenses subject to its terms. That law is used to prosecute organized crime. 

Baker said hacking has increasingly become a tool of choice for crimes like identity theft, extortion and corporate espionage.

"As computer technology has evolved, it has become a key tool of organized crime," Baker said. "Many of these criminal organizations are similarly tied to traditional Asian and Eastern European organized crime organizations."

The administration's proposal also calls for a national data breach standard to replace the current patchwork of state laws. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) expressed concern that the proposed 60-day window for companies to notify customers their data has been breached would be too long, but Baker said the administration is willing to work with Congress on the issue. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) shifted the conversation to the portion of the White House plan dealing with protecting critical private sector networks from outside attacks.

Baker said the White House plan does not include any criminal or civil provisions for forcing companies to comply with Department of Homeland Security cyber security standards. "The idea was to create a lighter touch ... to build incentives into the system," Baker said.

Experts have warned that without some sort of enforcement mechanism companies will not take the necessary security precautions. Blumenthal echoed that stance, suggesting the administration "consider some kind of stick as well as a carrot." Industry has argued that resources are the main limitation and argued for incentives such as liability protection for firms that experience attacks. 

But Baker expressed agreement with Blumenthal and said the current range of incentives built into the system, such as the loss of investor trust, stock market value and privileged corporate data has not been enough to convince companies to take adequate security measures.

-News Source (The HILL, CCFA, HLS)

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SOPA Returns! Not From Congress But As a Ransomware Virus

SOPA Returns! Not From Congress But As a Ransomware Virus

Last month in a report we said, that "SOPA & PIPA are dead, they're not coming back". Former Senate Christopher Dodd, now chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, said the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act aren’t going to be floated again in Congress. Now it seems that he was not fully right as The Stop Online Piracy ACT also known as SOPA the most controversial act which terrified almost every people, who is associated with Internet still chasing us, though the bill was defeated after massive protest; still  SOPA is not leaving us. I know its a tragic news, but do't be panic, this time its not the comeback of SOPA act from Congress but as a nasty cryptovirus that locks up people’s computers and accuses them of distributing copyright infringing files. Infected users can get their data back after a payment of $200 – at least, that’s what the virus makers promise. Several researcher have figure out and warning that new ransomware that claims to be an alert from the "Stop Online Piracy Automatic Protection System." It goes on to tell you that your computer is on a "S.O.P.A. IP Black List" because it was used to download copyright infringing materials, child pornography or illegal software. The malware encrypts all of your data files and holds them hostage, offering to decrypt them if you pay a fee to the criminals. According to report by Torrent Freak- the SOPA virus holds all files on the host computer ransom.

“Your computer is locked!” the splash screen above warns, adding:

If you see a warning.txt or warning screen, it means your IP address was included in S.O.P.A. Black List. One or more of the following items were made from your PC:

1. Downloading or distributing audio or video files protected by Copyright Law.

2. Downloading or distributing illegal content (child porn, phishing software, etc.)

3. Downloading or distributing Software protected by Copyright Law.

As a result of these infringements based on Stop Online Piracy Act (H.R. 3261) your PC and files are now blocked.

The SOPA virus is so-called ransomware, meaning that it holds computers hostage and only promises to free data after victims hand over cash. In the U.S. and Canada people are instructed to pay with a MoneyPak prepaid voucher, and in other parts of the world they can use Western Union. Those who don’t pay within three days are in trouble, the virus maker warns. “WARNING!!!: If you don’t pay the fine within 72 HOURS at the amount of 200 USD, all your computer data will be erased.”

People who are affected should of course ignore all the above. Searching online for “Stop Online Piracy Automatic Protection System Removal”” is a better option, there are plenty of ways to defeat the resurrected SOPA and get your data back.

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