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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New Cyber Security Degree to be offered By LCC

To address this emerging global threat, Laredo Community College will launch a new, two-year degree in Network and Cyber Security Technology in the fall.“Frankly, most law enforcement agencies are ill-equipped to deal with this new era and sophistication of technology crime,” Robert Moore, chair and instructor for LCC’s Computer Technology Department, said.“There’s currently a shortage of computer security specialists, and we’re doing our part to fill this gap.”For several years now, LCC’s CT department has been offering an associate degree in network technology.But, because “the skill sets of the modern day network administrators have expanded, we’re enhancing the curriculum to add cyber security courses to train traditional students and professionals in the industry who want to update their computer networking skills,” Moore added.No similar program is being offered within a 150-mile radius of Laredo. “Every business uses a computer, and every business has a potential to be targeted,” Steven Moncivais, a cyber detective for the Laredo Police Department, said.“A hacker can break into a computer system via cyber space and steal information from thousands of credit cards. Doing this criminal act in this manner provides a blanket of anonymity, and the chances of getting caught are pretty slim.”Hacking, malware, identity theft, and phishing are terms associated with a new wave of technology crimes that can damage a person’s financial history or cripple a company’s network (parallelism).

According to Moncivais, cyber criminals can open a credit card account, or even a loan. We had an incident a few years ago where a local restaurant was targeted from another city via the web and stole hundreds of clients’ credit card information, and another incident where someone purchased a $100,000 home under someone else’s name,” Moncivais added.

“The threat is there, but if a company really wants to protect their customers’ information, they do need someone who is knowledgeable in this field.”
Robert Herrera, Management Information Systems Liaison officer with LPD and one of several committee members for the program, agreed. “There is a huge need for experts like these,” Herrera said.
On a daily basis, Herrera and his team meticulously view surveillance videos or browse through computer hard drives to solve various crimes.

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Interpol, ITU & IMPACT Jointly Singed a Hostorical Agreement in Cybersecurity

Interpol, ITU & IMPACT Jointly Singed an Agreement to Exchange Information, Expertise & Enhance Cybersecurity

During the 81st INTERPOL General Assembly taking place in Rome, Italy a historical and very vital cooperation agreement has been singed. In an effort to further enhance cybersecurity around the world, International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats (IMPACT), the cybersecurity executing arm of United Nations’ specialised agency – the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the General Secretariat of the International Criminal Police Organisation – (INTERPOL), reached a historic milestone with the signing of a landmark ‘Cooperation Agreement’ between both international organisations. Through this Agreement, it allows both IMPACT and INTERPOL to exchange information, expertise as well as to enhance both organisations’ knowledge base in the field of cybersecurity. The Agreement will also see the cross promotion of capacity building activities aimed at the public and private sector and the civil society, with an objective to curb cyber crimes by protecting the cyber space and orchestrating a safer global community. 

The Cooperation Agreement paves the way for INTERPOL and ITU-IMPACT to effectively cooperate within the scope of their respective mandates and resources in the field of cybersecurity. This Agreement is also designed to provide a broad framework for such cooperation to take place and to establish a collaborative association, with a view to promoting cybersecurity capacity-building and addressing cyber threats on a global scale. Datuk Mohd Noor Amin, Chairman of IMPACT and Mr Ronald K. Noble, Secretary General of INTERPOL signed the Cooperation Agreement today, witnessed by ITU Secretary-General, Dr. Hamadoun I. Touré. With 144 countries now, part of the ITU-IMPACT coalition, IMPACT is entrusted with the task of providing cybersecurity support and services to ITU’s Member States and other organisations within the UN system. ITU-IMPACT’s global partnership now embraces over 200 industry, academia and international organizations. 

“This kind of cross-agency collaboration is essential to combating the increasingly serious problem of international cybercrime,” said ITU Secretary-General Dr. Hamadoun I. Touré. “For too long, cyber criminals have hidden behind national borders, hoping to escape detection or eluding the jurisdiction of national law enforcement authorities. This new partnership with INTERPOL represents a major step forward in our efforts to bring such criminals to book.”

Datuk Mohd Noor Amin, Chairman of IMPACT added; “The signing of this agreement is truly a landmark event for all of us. For the first time, we are effectively pooling together and merging the resources from INTERPOL’s community of police forces worldwide with ITU-IMPACT’s existing stakeholders from governments, telecommunications regulators, CERTs, ISPs, ICT industry and academia. ITU’s recent MOU with the United Nations Office of Drug and Crime (UNODC) further strengthens the partnership by potentially adding in judicial officers and prosecutors under the ITU-IMPACT umbrella. This coming together of various different, but important, stakeholders is vital if we are going to succeed against the cyber criminals and enhance international cybersecurity.”

-Source (PRWeb)

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#opSOTU By Anonymous To Oppose Executive Cyber Security Order (The Revised CISPA)

#opSOTU By Anonymous To Oppose Executive Cyber Security Order (The Revised CISPA)

Last year the Internet and its trillion of users across the globe has faced several barrier when, number of approach from Senate and government, along with few corporate and other organization were in the target to make the entire Internet censored. To engage this motive they have approached and introduced a number of regulations and act such as SOPA, PIPA, CISPA & ACTA. But to implement those enactment was not that easy, as huge number of organization (including White House, Wikipedia & so on), billions of mass people stand against those controversial act, and as expected those acts were ruled back, that said protest might not get the full success, if hackers around the globe did not take part in it. It was the hackers communities who forced the govt to roll back those rules. But the victory was not that easy to achieve, as the president of U.S. appeared before a joint session of Congress to deliver the State of the Union Address and he plans to sign an executive order for cyber-security as the House Intelligence committee reintroduces the defeated CISPA act which turns private companies into government informants. As soon as the deceleration of the executive order for cyber-security came, immediately protest came. Hacktivist group Anonymous yet against stand against the controversial CISPA, and called an operation dubbed Operation SOTU (#opSOTU). In the campaign the hacker group states a clear intent to obstruct Internet broadcasts of the president's State of the Union address, an action the group justifies by pointing to renewed interest in Congress to pass the Cybersecurity Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), a measure Anonymous has long opposed. 

Press Release of Anonymous (#opSOTU):- 

Citizens of the Internet,
Last year we faced our greatest threat from lawmakers. We faced down SOPA, PIPA, CISPA and ACTA.

And we won!

But that victory did not come easily. Nor did it come without a price.

Aaron Swartz was one of the leading voices in the fight against these idiotic and destructive efforts to control the last free space on Earth.

Aaron Swartz was persecuted. Now Aaron Swartz is dead.
Tonight, the President of the United States will appear before a joint session of Congress to deliver the State of the Union Address and tomorrow he plans to sign an executive order for cyber-security as the House Intelligence committee reintroduces the defeated CISPA act which turns private companies into government informants.

He will not be covering the NDAA, an act of outright tyrannical legislation allowing for indefinite detention of citizens completely outside due process and the rule of law. In fact, lawyers for the government have point-blank refused to state whether or not journalists who cover stories or groups the Government disfavors would be subject to this detention.

He will not be covering the extra-judicial and unregulated justifications for targeted killings of citizens by military drones within the borders of America, or the fact that Orwellian newspeak had to be used to make words like “imminent” mean their opposite.

He will not be covering Bradley Manning, 1000 days in detention with no trial for revealing military murders, told that his motive for leaking cannot be taken into consideration, that the Government does not have room for conscience.

He will not be covering the secret interpretations of law that allow for warrant-less wiretapping and surveillance of any US citizen without probably cause of criminal acts, or the use of Catch-22 logic where no-one can complain about being snooped on because the state won’t tell you who they’re snooping on, and if you don’t know you’re being snooped on, you don’t have a right to complain.

We reject the State of the Union. We reject the authority of the President to sign arbitrary orders and bring irresponsible and damaging controls to the Internet.
The President of the United States of America, and the Joint Session of Congress will face an Army tonight.
We will form a virtual blockade between Capitol Hill and the Internet. Armed with nothing more than Lulz, Nyancat and PEW-PEW-PEW! Lazers, we will face down the largest superpower on Earth.

And we will win!

There will be no State of the Union Address on the web tonight.

For freedom, for Aaron Swartz, for the Internet, and of course, for the lulz.

We Are Anonymous,
We Are Legion,
We Do Not forgive,
We Do Not forget,
Expect Us.

..."

But unlike last year, this time the approach of CISPA is more organized, as not only Congress but also the White House will also unveil President Barack Obama's long-awaited executive order on cyber security. So to stand against such an organized and well planned act, the protester need to be more decent and more united. As we all want and prefer freedom and privacy in our personal life as well as in the Internet, so we will fight and expect to win. So stay tuned with VOGH, and lets see what is coming for us. 

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Global Payment company Visa Conducted Security Training For CBI Officials

Global Payment company Visa Conducted Security Training For CBI Officials To Fight Against Cyber-Crime

Global Payment company Visa has sensitized officials from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) about modus operandi of electronic payment frauds and measures to combat the rising cyber-crime. This whole campaign was a part of spreading awareness on changing nature of cyber crime and card frauds in India. Visa conducted a workshop in New Delhi where CBI officials of economic offence wing were given information on global trends in fraud risk management, cybercrime and measures available to detect and combat them. The company said that given the rapidly changing nature of cybercrime and card fraud in India, the objective of the awareness programme was to share the modus operadi of electronic payment frauds and the intricacies involved in them. 

Visa said it has stepped up its electronic payments security awareness initiative with a Cards Fraud and Payments Risk Awareness Programme for Indian law enforcement agencies.
"This programme has been developed in response to growing government and public concerns around increased fraud exposures around electronic payment products, cyber security and cyber crime," it said in a statement. Visa Group Country Manager (India and South Asia) Uttam Nayak said the company is committed to developing a safe and secure online experience. "Through such programmes we play our part in keeping the country's payment system safe and ensure that law enforcement agencies have the latest skills at their disposal," he said.
VK Gupta, Special Director of CBI said that as a law enforcement agency, it is critical to understand the evolving cybercrime landscape and the latest technology used to track and prevent criminal activities.

-Source (Money Life)

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The EU is Launching "European Cybercrime Centre" To Fight Against Cyber Threats

The European Commission is Launching "European Cybercrime Centre" To Fight Against Cyber Threats

The rise of cyber-crime and cyber-crminals are on the high node. According to a statistic more than 1m people are victims of cybercrime across the globe each day. It says the cost of cybercrime could reach US$388bn worldwide. To fight against rising cyber-crime The European Commission is proposing to set up a European Cybercrime Centre in the Hague to focus on online fraud, e-crime and identity theft. As for the European Cybercrime Centre, the commission is proposing to set it up within the European Police Office, Europol in The Hague in The Netherlands. According to the official release of European Commission - The EU plans to tackle this with a new European Cybercrime Centre , which would warn EU countries of major threats and alert them to weaknesses in their online defences. It would also identify criminal networks and prominent offenders, and provide support during investigations. The centre will use information from the public domain, industry, the police and academia to assist cybercrime investigators, prosecutors and judges.
Anyone can be a victim of cybercrime – it includes:

•   Online identity theft

•   Computer fraud

•   Credit card scams

•   Sexual exploitation of children

•   Hijacking of web accounts

•   Attacks on public or private IT systems

And this type of crime is increasing. Around 600,000 Facebook accounts need blocking every day after hacking attempts. In Belgium alone, internet fraud rose from just over 4,000 cases in 2008 to over 7,000 in 2010. And in the UK, bank account takeovers shot up by 207% between 2008 and 2009. A crackdown on cybercrime will help to increase confidence in e-banking and online booking, and will save millions of euros – a 2011 study put the global cost of cybercrime at €85-291bn. Unfortunately, very few of the perpetrators are currently caught. The pan-EU nature of the centre would ensure that threats are passed on quickly to other EU countries. If someone in Lithuania reports that their bank account has been accessed illegally, it could be linked quickly to similar incidents anywhere from Greece to Ireland, allowing the centre to immediately alert all EU countries to the threat.

Cybercrime Statistics (European Commission analysis):-  

• By 2011, nearly 73pc of European households had internet access at home.

• In 2010, more than 36pc of EU citizens were banking online.

• 80pc of young Europeans connect through online social networks.

• Circa US$8trn exchanges hands globally each year in e-commerce.

• Credit card details can be sold between organised crime groups for as little as €1 per card, a counterfeited physical credit card for around €140 and bank credentials for as little as €60.

• Up to 600,000 Facebook accounts are blocked every day, after hacking attempts.

The commission said the centre will fuse information from open sources, private industry, police and academia, as well as serving as a platform for European cybercrime investigators, where they can have a collective voice in discussions with the IT industry, private-sector companies, academia, users' associations and civil society organisations.

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England Launched Three New Cyber Crime Hub

England Launched Three New Cyber Crime Hub 

Like US also England is enhancing cyber security system. Recently England started three new cyber crime hub as part of a £6m regional effort to combat growing threats in three different part of the country. Yorkshire and the Humber, the Northwest and East Midlands will each get its own dedicated cyber cell unit. They will work alongside the Metropolitan Police Centre e-crime Unit which deals with national online security. The funding is part of £30m targeted at bolstering e-crime prevention nationally over the next four years. The new centres will consist of three members of staff - a detective sergeant and two detective constables.
The initiative was announced at the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) e-crime conference in Sheffield on Wednesday. In an exclusive report BBC said:- 

A training period is required before the hubs will be fully operational, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Janet Williams, who heads ACPO's e-crime efforts, said. "It is anticipated the hubs will make a significant contribution to the 'national harm reduction' target of £504m." "These three additional policing units are going to play a critical role in our ability to combat the threat," she added. Harm reduction is calculated using a "harm matrix" - a system which factors in costs such as how much the criminal stood to gain, how much money was invested in the crime, and the potential cost to the victim. "In the first six months of the new funding period alone we have already been able to show a reduction of £140m with our existing capability," Ms Williams said. Britain's e-crime efforts were exposed last week after a conference call in which Met officers discussed operations against hackers with the FBI was itself intercepted by hackers. Details about active investigations into hackers who identified themselves with the activist collective Anonymous were posted online. At one point in the tape, a British detective can be heard saying: "We're here to help. We've cocked things up in the past, we know that."

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Adidas, German Sportswear Under Cyber Attack

Adidas, the German sportswear and equipment manufacturer was forced to take its website offline after facing a 'sophisticated and criminal' cyber assault. The company has revealed that it had no confirmations that its users' data had been violated, but said that the affected sites was being taken down in order to safeguard visitors. In addition, it has been revealed according to a recent statement by Adidas that the hacking incident was first spotted on November 3.
The company further stated that ever since the breaching activity was first tracked, the company has reinforced data security measures and has started relaunching the content of its websites. The statement released by the company stated, "Nothing is more important to us than the privacy and security of our consumers' personal data. "We appreciate your understanding and patience during this time", the statement further stressed.

The recent cyber assault is the latest to the chain of various high-profile attacks which took place in recent past are targeted websites of many high-profile organizations like Sega, and Nintendo. Assuring its users regarding no loss of personal information and other data, the German multinational stressed on the fact that the company values the privacy of its users beyond anything else and due to this very reason, the decision has been made to keep the site offline for a while. The recent cyber attack, which will soon be monitored by forensic experts, has narrowly follows a recent report by security officials wherein they claimed that nearly 29 chemicals companies have been targeted for a sequence of cyber-invasions less than a week ago.

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Cyber Fraud -A Russian Get Busted in U.S. & Have To Face 142 Years Of Imprisonment

Cyber Fraud -A Russian Get Busted in U.S. & Have To Face 142 Years Of Imprisonment  

Yet Again another cyber fraud issue. Here the suspect is Vladimir Zdorovenin of Russia, who was charged in the United States with cyber fraud, hacking into bank accounts and defrauding U.S. citizens of hundreds of thousands of dollars. According to the Russian Legal Information Agency Zdorovenin agreed to plead guilty of criminal conspiracy and online fraud. Meanwhile, he denies having committed other crimes. Zdorovenin was detained in Zurich on March 27 upon U.S. prosecutors' request. He was extradited to New York and charged on eight counts, including hacking into U.S. bank accounts, stealing personal client data and defrauding clients of "hundreds of thousands of dollars." 

A criminal case against Zdorovenin and his son Kirill was initiated in 2007. Kirill's whereabouts are unknown. Southern District attorney Preet Bharara maintains that the two men committed fraud as of 2005 from Russia via bogus websites. The prosecution maintains it has evidence, including outdoor surveillance, and e-mails and testimonies from an informer whose name will not be disclosed. The court will hold the next hearing on May 21. Zdorovenin faces up to 142 years in prison. The Foreign Ministry has stated that Zdorovenin's case is yet another attempt by the United States to enforce U.S. legislation on Russian citizens.

-Source (RAPSI News)

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German National Cyber Security Centre is under Cyber Attacks

Just a few weeks after German authorities opened a national Cyber Defense Centre in Bonn, it was attacked by hackers and now officials are struggling to arrest all of those involved.
While security authorities reported they had arrested two members of the hacking group linked to the attacks, the group released a statement saying that only its leader was under arrest. A 23-year-old calling himself Darkhammer, leader of the so-called "n0n4m3 cr3w", was arrested on Sunday, the Office of Criminal Investigation in the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen reported.

The Federal Criminal Police office issued a press release saying that it had searched the apartment of a second suspect. Responding to that arrest and media reports regarding those taken into custody, the hacking group said: "Apparently none of the suspects is a member of the No Name Crew."
Members of the No Name Crew had claimed responsibility for infiltrating computers of the federal police and the customs service. They were able to steal information from servers running the spy program Patras, and put it on their website. Patras is used by customs authorities, the federal police and police in the German states for tracking serious criminals. After the attacks were uncovered several federal and state authorities temporarily shut down their servers.
The attacks first became known already on July 8, but attracted bigger attention just after German newspaper Bild am Sonntag cited a confidential report by the federal information security agency, BSI, saying that computers of the federal police had been infected by Trojans for months without detection.
The hacking group now offers an encrypted file for downloading on its website stating that it had collected emails and confidential data from the police and customs authorities. The group said it would release the password for the encrypted file should police arrest more of the group's members.

"The terrifying fact about these attacks is that the delinquents are quite young. If these 17 year old schoolboys are able to do that, what would happen if a much more experienced hacker would attack?" said Lars Sobiraj, editor-in-chief at the German magazine gulli who interviewed members of the group.
In the interview, members of the group said they regarded their hacking as a wake-up call for the German public to see that the state kept the population under permanent surveillance. The group announced on its website that it will initiate more attacks. "New targets have been chosen," it said.

The attacks came just four weeks after German Federal Secretary of the Interior Hans-Peter Friedrich opened the Cyber Defense Centre. The centre is run by the BSI, the federal office for the protection of the constitution and the disaster control agency. The authorities whose systems were attacked also contribute to the operation of the centre.
A spokesman of the BSI, said that the agency would not comment about the events due to the ongoing investigations.

The centre against cyberattacks has been criticised for not having the ability to fight electronic attacks. After its opening in June, Memet Kilic, a member of the Green party that is part of the opposition, said the centre did not have enough financial and human resources. According to the BSI, the centre has 10 full time employees.
In an interview with the news magazine "Der Spiegel" this week, Klaus Jansen, leader of the German union of police detectives, said that security authorities do not have enough experts working with them to effectively fighting cybercrime.

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Gang of Cyber Criminals Arrested For Stealing $7 Million From Exchange Companies in Dubai

Gang of Cyber Criminals Arrested For Stealing $7 Million From Exchange Companies in Dubai 

Yet again another infamous gang of cyber criminals who were behind the hack of more than $7 Million from exchange companies in Dubai get busted by the Dubai Police. The special Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Dubai Police were behind these criminals for a long time, and after a certain period they successfully managed to track down and crack the cyber crime ring. Major General Khamis Matter Al Mazeina, acting chief of Dubai Police, said on last Sunday that a gang of Asians and Africans work with hackers in order to enter different websites and systems of different companies here in Dubai in order to transfer money inside and outside the country. “Cheques worth more than Dh6 billion have been found with the gang after their arrest,” he said. He also said that the gang was able to transfer more than Dh7 million from exchange companies in Dubai to their own accounts. From an exclusive report of Gulf News we came to know that the deputy director of the General Department of Criminal and Investigation for research, Colonel Salem Khalifa Al Rumaithi said the incident happened early this month when police received complaints about a scam and transfer of $2 million from a company’s account. “This was done through hacking the e-mails of this company by someone outside the UAE,” he said.

He said the hackers used to change the data of the transactions, billing, and then transfer the money into their accounts.

He said the first accused, an Asian identified as Kh. Q., used to receive the transferred funds. “He owns three luxury cars which he bought from the proceeds of such crimes,” he said. 

He said the role of the second suspect, another Asian identified as U.K., was to provide the gang with bank account numbers by creating fake companies on the internet and dealing with the victims’ accounts. “After the process of converting the money credited to the first accused U.K. used to take 3 per cent of the money and give the remaining to an African man who was the mastermind. According to Lt Colonel Saeed Al Hajeri, director of the electronic investigation department, the third suspect was identified as D.Q. from Africa.

“The role of this suspect was as a mediator between the gang members and manipulating the business processes and changing the bank accounts to any other account,” he said. The suspect admitted that he was part of the Dh4 billion scam and another Dh6 million scam.

Lt Col Al Hajeri said Dubai Police had taken the necessary measures to obtain sufficient information from the rest of the gang members who operate outside the country in African countries through Interpol. Brigadier Khalil Ebrahim Al Mansouri, director of CID, said the police team worked on arresting the gang quickly.

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An army of techies waging war on spam

It's a vast, invisible battle, going on all the time - and, unbeknownst to you, your computer may be one of the battlegrounds.
The struggle pits thousands of smart, evil folks, who send out trillions of pieces of spam e-mail, against the people in law enforcement and business guarding against them and trying to shut them down.
On the front lines against spam and cybercrime, some analyze malicious computer code (malware), and others - in the young science of cyberforensics - examine computers and drives confiscated in investigations.
Spam - hated word - is again in the news. A May 3 FBI alert warned of e-mail carrying purported images or videos of Osama bin Laden. "This will leave you speechless)," the spam says. "See picture of bin laden dead!"
Don't even open it, warned the alert. "This malicious software or malware can embed itself in computers and spread to users' contact lists, thereby infecting the systems of associates, friends, and family members."
Pumped out by networks (botnets) of malware-enslaved personal computers, unwanted e-mail - random junk, ads, porn, viruses, Trojan horses, get-rich-quick offers from Nigerian nobility - makes up most of all e-mail sent in the world. By far. Estimates range around 80 percent - but a 2007 Microsoft security report in October put it at 97 percent. It ranges from crud to criminal. As for malware, the United States has about 2.2 million computers (more than any other country) infected, according to Microsoft numbers (likely to be low).
"I guarantee," says FBI Special Agent Brian Herrick, director of the FBI Cyber Crime Squad in Philadelphia, "that thousands of Inquirer readers probably have computers infected with spam or malware, part of a botnet just pumping out spam."
The cyberthugs have an advantage, says Special Agent Cerena Coughlin, also of the Cyber Crime Squad. "We can stop them for a while, but they always come up with ways to circumvent it. And we're more restricted. We have to follow the letter of the law - they don't."
The extent of it is staggering. Before U.S. marshals took it down in March, the Rustock botnet was pumping out an estimated 30 billion spam e-mails a day. The botnets - big names include ZeuS, SpyEye, Dogma, Koobface, and Alureon - are run by criminal groups that use servers and supercomputers in several countries. Tracing their activity is extremely difficult and calls for highly skilled technical workers.
One of 16 such FBI squads in the country, the Philadelphia Cyber Crime Squad has 15 agents working full-time on cybercrime; the national program began in 1996. Working with national and international agencies, the squad studies and traces viruses, junk, and spam. Cases involve computer intrusions (everything from local hackers to international cyberespionage and terrorism), child exploitation (as in pornography), intellectual-property rights (copyright infringement, movies, music, software, proprietary business secrets), Internet fraud, and identity theft.
Coughlin says, "We are insanely busy. This is the third-busiest squad in the country, because of where it is and all the affected business and government concerns nearby. We don't have enough bodies for all the work there is."
In the Philadelphia area, the FBI joins hands with local businesses such as banks, agribusiness, and utilities (enterprises often attacked by spam and cybercrime) in a group called InfraGard. There are more than 1,400 local members - "So many people want to be part of it that we don't even need to solicit members," Coughlin says.
At monthly meetings, members share information, news, and tips. The FBI gives presentations and talks, and individual members speak about the cases they face. "It's a communication channel," Herrick says, "between the U.S. government and people in industry down in the trenches, looking to protect critical infrastructure."
Current president of the local chapter of InfraGard is Brian Schaeffer, chief information officer of Liberty Bell Bank in Marlton. He says, "I get thousands of cyberattacks a day. A lot of them are idiots just wanting to show what they can do. But a lot of them are looking to access banking information."
Like most banks, Liberty Bell has a strong firewall, "so hackers take a back-door approach," sending bank clients "phishing" e-mails - which pretend to be trustworthy communications but hide nasty intentions. "If a client even opens such an e-mail, they can get into their account information, their contacts, the keys to the kingdom."
Such attacks mean that "not only do I have to defend my own system, but also I try to help the customers with theirs. If their computers get infected, their account and credit information could get sold to strangers, and that could hurt us all." Schaeffer tells of an elderly couple who came to his bank one day, and just by coincidence, a bank clerk brought him a suspicious request "to withdraw a huge amount of money from their account - but there they were, sitting with us, so we knew some hackers had got at their information through e-mail."
He says InfraGard "has given me a network of people I can go to if I see things I never saw before. If I have a question, there's likely to be someone with an answer."
The other side of the battle is cyberforensics. Think of it as CSI with computers. It's happening right now, with the cache of computers, flash drives, and other cyberstuff taken from Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. U.S. agents instantly began to analyze this precious trove for criminal evidence - and links to other al-Qaeda operatives.
Work much like this goes on in Radnor at the FBI's Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory, one of 16 such labs in the country. As with InfraGard, the flavor is distinctly federal/local. Law enforcement agencies - such as the police departments of Philadelphia, Lancaster, Lower Merion, and Lower Providence - send officers to guest-work at the lab and receive training and experience in fighting computer crime.
Supervisory Special Agent J.P. McDonald directs the lab, which has been involved in some of the highest-profile local investigations of recent years, including the 2007 Fort Dix attack plot, the manhunt for the Coatesville arsonists, the case of former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo, and the 2007-08 "Bonnie and Clyde" case of Jocelyn Kirsch and Edward Anderton, now in prison for fraud and identity theft.
"You can track the growth of cyberforensics along the same timeline as computers," McDonald says. "The FBI's program began in 1999, and, as of the mid-2000s, cyberevidence now has recognition and a firm track record in courts."
The lab is a techie's paradise, with gadgets and screens galore, racks of digital evidence sealed in antistatic wrap, sophisticated hard-drive readers, radiofrequency-shielded spaces, and kiosks for quick analysis of cell phones and thumb drives. "The majority of what we do," McDonald says, "is analysis of what's in a machine, how it got there, and then making a timeline of the history of what got there when."
"People's electronic devices are really an extension of their thoughts," says Philadelphia Police Lt. Edward Monaghan, deputy director of the lab. "If you're into NASCAR, you're likely to have NASCAR stuff in your computer. Thugs who are into drugs and money like to have their pictures taken with drugs, guns, and money. It sounds dumb, but they love it. That's what cyberevidence is all about."
The FBI's Herrick is resigned to a long battle: "There's probably some high school kid someplace in the Midwest - or maybe Europe or Asia someplace - who's cooking up something nobody's ever seen before. You really have to stay on your game with these guys."

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PlayStation Network Restored and Qriocity Services Begins

Sony Corporation and Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) announced that Sony Network Entertainment International (SNEI, the company) will today begin a phased restoration by region of PlayStation®Network and Qriocity Services.  The phased restoration will be on a country by country basis beginning in the Americas, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Middle East.

The first phase of restored services for these countries and regions will include:

• Sign-in for PlayStation®Network and Qriocity services, including the resetting of passwords
• Restoration of online game-play across PS3 and PSP
• Playback rental video content, if within rental period, of PlayStation Network Video Delivery Service on PS3, PSP and MediaGo
• Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity, for current subscribers, on PS3 and PC
• Access to 3rd party services such as Netflix, Hulu, Vudu and MLB.tv
• 'Friends' category on PS3, including Friends List, Chat Functionality, Trophy Comparison, etc
• PlayStation Home

Increased Security Measures
As the result of a criminal cyber attack on the company's data-center located in San Diego, California, U.S.A., SNEI shut down the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services on April 20, in order for the company to undergo an investigation and make enhancements to the overall security of the network infrastructure. Working closely with several respected outside security firms, the company has implemented new and additional security measures that strengthen safeguards against unauthorized activity, and provide consumers with greater protection of their personal information.
The company has made considerable enhancements to the data security, including updating and adding advanced security technologies, additional software monitoring and penetration and vulnerability testing, and increased levels of encryption and additional firewalls.  The company also added a variety of other measures to the network infrastructure including an early-warning system for unusual activity patterns that could signal an attempt to compromise the network.
"I'd like to send my sincere regret for the inconvenience this incident has caused you, and want to thank you all for the kind patience you've shown as we worked through the restoration process," said Kazuo Hirai, Executive Deputy President, Sony Corporation.  "I can't thank you enough for your patience and support during this time. We know even the most loyal customers have been frustrated by this process and are anxious to use their Sony products and services again. We are taking aggressive action at all levels to address the concerns that were raised by this incident, and are making consumer data protection a full-time, company wide commitment."
"During the past 18 months, we've seen a dramatic rise in the volume of cyber attacks, their sophistication and their impact on businesses. Thwarting cyber-crime requires an evolutionary approach to security that is well integrated, reduces risk exposure and improves efficiencies," said Francis deSouza, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Security Group, Symantec. "Today's cyber crime attacks are proving to be more covert, more targeted and better organized than those we've seen in years past. In working with Sony on the move of their data-center, it's clear they're implementing measures to reduce security risks moving forward."  
As an additional measure, Fumiaki Sakai, president of Sony Global Solutions Inc. (SGS), has been appointed acting Chief Information Security Officer of SNEI.  In addition to his current role at SGS, Mr. Sakai, in his role at SNEI, will work to further reinforce overall information security across the company's network infrastructure.  Mr. Sakai will lead the recruiting effort in finding a new and permanent CISO for SNEI.  As CISO, Mr. Sakai will report to Tim Schaaff, president, SNEI, as well as to Mr. Shinji Hasejima, CIO, Sony Corporation.  
"While we understand the importance of getting our services back online, we did not rush to do so at the expense of extensively and aggressively testing our enhanced security measures. Our consumers' safety remains our number one priority," Hirai continued. "We want to assure our customers that their personal information is being protected with some of the best security technologies available today, so that everyone can feel comfortable enjoying all that PlayStation Network and Qriocity services have to offer."  
The restoration of the services across the Americas, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Middle East are beginning, and consumers will be able to enjoy some of the online functionality provided by both the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services.  Phased restoration in Japan and other Asian countries and regions will be announced in due course.  The company expects to have the services fully restored by the end of May 2011.  
The company will be offering customers a "Welcome Back" package of services and premium content to all registered PlayStation Network and Qriocity account services.  The details of this program will be announced in each region shortly.  
For more information about the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services intrusion and restoration, please visit http://blog.us.playstation.com or http://blog.eu.playstation.com/

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British Court Convicts Anonymous Hacker "Nerdo" For DDoS Attack Over WikiLeaks Funding

British Court Convicts Anonymous Hacker "Nerdo" For DDoS Attack Over WikiLeaks Funding

Another alleged Anonymous hacker faced cour rule. A British court has convicted a 22-year-old for allegedly being a ‘key figure’ behind Anonymous DDoS attack on PayPal in revenge for its freezing WikiLeaks payments. A 22-year-old British student Christopher Weatherhead, self described "hacktivist", going by the name of "Nerdo" was convicted by the jury on a count of conspiracy to impair computer operations. The conviction came after guilty pleas of three of Weatherhead's co-conspirators.

"Christopher Weatherhead is a cyber criminal who waged a sophisticated and orchestrated campaign of online attacks on the computer systems of several major companies," prosecutor for the CPS Organized Crime Division Russell Tyner said in a statement. "These were lawful companies with ordinary customers and hard working employees. This was not a victimless crime."

This court rule came as a part of its ongoing pursuit to strike back at hackers, U.K. courts have convicted a member of Anonymous for conspiracy.

That very cyber attack, for which Christopher Weatherhead has been charged was dubbed "Operation Payback" where Weatherhead and several other Anonymous members targeted those companies that opposed internet piracy, but switched to companies like Mastercard, Visa and PayPal after they refused to process payments to WikiLeaks. Recently in our report, we described that Operation Payback cost a massive damage, for PayPal it cost more than €4.3 million. According to CPS, those campaigns carried by the hacker cost the companies more than $5.6 million in additional staffing, software, and loss of sales. 

The student denied the accusation claiming he was merely an Anonymous chatroom operator and never took part in the attacks. The judge allegedly demanded that Weatherhead provide “as much information as possible” and threatened him with a jail term. The court ruling in Mr. Weatherhead's case will be announced later. 

-Source (Cnet)

 

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Kids & Teens are at Risk of Online Cyber Crime

It's a crime to post threatening and tormenting posts on someone’s Facebook profile - but few people know it.The Far South Coast command’s youth liaison officers are cracking down on internet crime, and cyber bullying among children and teenagers.
Senior Constable Adrian Seal is the school liaison officer for the Far South Coast and Monaro commands and says parents should closely monitor their child’s profile on social media sites, including Facebook.

“For most parents, they probably don’t really know how many criminal offences there actually are on the internet,” he said.
“And I don’t think kids think about the consequences.”
He said the main internet offences, which can carry penalties of up to 10 years’ jail, include stalking, intimidation and harassment, luring, threatening serious harm, sending offensive material and sexting - which involves sending sexually explicit photographs.
“For a lot of young people sexting, they probably don’t realise it’s a criminal offence,” Snr Const Seal said. “They just think what they’re doing is harmless. But as soon as they hit the send button, they have no control over it. It’s out there, in the public domain.
“For threatening serious harm to someone, all they have to prove is that the third party (or the victim) meant it.”
He said that carries 10 years’ jail.
Internet and social media sites are now a part of everyday life, according to Snr Const Seal, which makes it easier for bullying to occur. Snr Const Seal said writing nasty messages about someone over the internet took away the face-to-face aspect of bullying. “And rumours spread easily on the internet, and it’s harder to track down offenders and know their geographic location.”

He said a lot of it goes unreported. “The problem is a lot of kids are scared to come forward.”
Batemans Bay’s youth liaison officer Senior Constable Gina Hamilton works closely with children in primary schools, and says the vulnerable ages of 10 to 14 were most prone to cyber bullying.

-News Source (Bay Post)

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Two Nigerians Arrested For Hacking into Mail Servers of Ghana Armed Force & Stealing $13,978

Two Nigerians Arrested For Hacking into Mail Servers of Ghana Armed Force & Stealing $13,978

Two middle aged Nigerians have been arrested for hacking into mail server of Ghana Armed Force (GAF). The suspects, Peter Okechukwu, 32, and Emmanuel Ifedi, 31, were arrested by officials of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service at a branch of the United Bank of Africa (UBA). In a report Ghana Business News said-  these two cyber criminal get busted in Accra  while attempting to divert $13,978 belonging to, Ghanaian peacekeepers after they had succeeded in hacking into the e-mails of GAF. According to the Director-General of the CID, Commissioner of Police Mr Prosper Agblor, in November this year the two suspects managed to enter the e-mails of Continental African Trading Limited (CATAL) and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) GHANBATT 76 and intercepted all electronic communications between the two parties. CATAL, an international organisation, had been supplying home appliances' to Ghanaian peacekeeping troops on various missions at different locations in the world. 

Recently, CATAL was contacted, as usual, by the GAF to supply home appliances to UNIFIL GHANBATT 76 peacekeeping troops in Lebanon. Mr Agblor said there was correspondence concerning the supply of the items between CATAL and the military through the Internet. Along the line, he said, the e-mails between the GAF and CATAL were hacked into by the two Nigerians, who intercepted all mails from both ends and replied them as if the replies were coming from the rightful receivers of the e-mails. 

He said the two suspects, using the identity of CATAL, sent an e-mail to the GAF instructing it to pay $13,978 into a UBA account number 01011651102235 as part payment for the supply of the goods. Upon receipt of the information, the GAF transferred $13,978 into the account as instructed by the two suspects.

Mr Agblor said CATAL realized that the GAF had suddenly stopped communicating with the company on matters relating to the transfer of the money and so it followed up with a phone call and detected that the GAF had paid $13,978 into an account number supplied by CATAL. 

He said it was at that stage that the two organisations realised that someone had hacked into their e-mails and quickly reported the issue to the Documentation and Visa Fraud Unit of the CID. Mr Agblor said the Business Development Manager of CATAL reported the case to the police and checks at the bank revealed that the money had not yet been cashed by the suspects. The police quickly mounted surveillance at the bank, awaiting the arrival of the suspects to cash the money. 

According to the CID boss, on November 11, 2012, Okechukwu, who happened to be the owner of the said account, was arrested when he turned up at the bank to cash the amount. Upon interrogation, the police said, Okechukwu admitted to the offence but mentioned Ifedi as the master brain behind the whole deal and led the police to Ifedi's house at Ashaley Botwe, an Accra suburb. Mr Agblor said investigations were still ongoing, after which the two would be put before court.

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SpyEye is Becoming A Big Threat For Cyber Security

SpyEye, a potentially dangerous hacking tool, has become widely available for anyone to buy, giving rise to concerns about the threat posed by cyber attacks.
According to an article on USA Today, security researchers have predicted a large rise in the number of attacks orchestrated using SpyEye for the rest of the year.
The toolkit, which is far more dangerous and sophisticated than ZeuS, was previously used by a group of elite hackers and was sold for as much as $10,000.
However, after a group of French security researchers managed to crack the toolkit’s activation key, its entire source code has been laid bare for hackers to replicate and sell for as low as $95, making it available for virtual anyone with malicious intent. "SpyEye is very dynamic and versatile," Amit Klein, chief technical officer of Trusteer warns.

“Every level of criminal, from the lowest to the highest rungs, can now use one of the deadliest Swiss Army knife hacking toolkits in the world,"  Sean Bodmer, senior threat intelligence analyst at network security firm Damballa, told USA Today.

Ever since the toolkit was released online, 14 cyber gangs have taken advantage of it, sending commands to thousands of botnet PCs in the United States.

-News Source (ITPro Portal)

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Hackers May Ruin The World Oil Supply System

In an exclusive report William Hardy siad Cyber attacks could wreck world oil supply. Hackers are bombarding the world's computer controlled energy sector, conducting industrial espionage and threatening potential global havoc through oil supply disruption. Oil company executives warned that attacks were becoming more frequent and more carefully planned. 

"If anybody gets into the area where you can control opening and closing of valves, or release valves, you can imagine what happens," said Ludolf Luehmann, an IT manager at Shell Europe's biggest company .

"It will cost lives and it will cost production, it will cost money, cause fires and cause loss of containment, environmental damage - huge, huge damage," he told the World Petroleum Congress in Doha.

Computers control nearly all the world's energy production and distribution in systems that are increasingly vulnerable to cyber attacks that could put cutting-edge fuel production technology in rival company hands. "We see an increasing number of attacks on our IT systems and information and there are various motivations behind it - criminal and commercial," said Luehmann. "We see an increasing number of attacks with clear commercial interests, focusing on research and development, to gain the competitive advantage." He said the Stuxnet computer worm discovered in 2010, the first found that was specifically designed to subvert industrial systems, changed the world of international oil companies because it was the first visible attack to have a significant impact on process control. But the determination and stamina shown by hackers when they attack industrial systems and companies has now stepped up a gear, and there has been a surge in multi-pronged attacks to break into specific operation systems within producers, he said. "Cyber crime is a huge issue. It's not restricted to one company or another it's really broad and it is ongoing," said Dennis Painchaud, director of International Government Relations at Canada's Nexen Inc. "It is a very significant risk to our business."

"It's something that we have to stay on top of every day. It is a risk that is only going to grow and is probably one of the preeminent risks that we face today and will continue to face for some time."

Luehmann said hackers were increasingly staging attack over long periods, silently collecting information over weeks or months before attacking specific targets within company operations with the information they have collected over a long period. "It's a new dimension of attacks that we see in Shell," he said.

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Another OS X Malware App Pops Up, But Danger is Still Limited

Cyber criminal community's interest in attacking Apple users is growing, but still lacks discipline
According to a handful of dedicated hackers of Apple, Inc.'s (AAPL) computer operating system, OS X, the OS is actually less secure than Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) Windows.  But thanks to the OS's small market share (traditionally 5 percent or less) most cybercriminals haven't felt it worthwhile to target the platform.  Also, some hackers have misgivings about attacking Unix-like operating systems (e.g. Linux, OS X).


Still, Apple's growing market share and boastful claims of security have lead to an increased interest in attacks and some OS X malware has been popping up of late.

The latest malware to target OS X is dubbed "MACDefender".  Attack pages for the new malware exploit the way Apple's default Safari browser handles Javascript, running a script that auto-initiates the download of a script file.  If the user has opted to open "safe" files, the archive will then auto-open and initiate an install dialogue.

The risk is minimal as users must approve of this dialogue and enter an administrative password to complete the installation.  Still it may be a bit more widespread as the attack pages have boosted themselves to near the top of many search results, thanks to search engine optimization (SEO) poisoning.

It is unclear what the software does when active, though it appears to be logging user activities.  Users who accidentally installed the software can still delete it by killing its process and dragging it from the Applications folder to the Trash bin.

Members of the Apple Support community first noted the malware last Saturday.

On Monday, security firm Intego released an advisory, calling the risk of the malware "low".  Intego writes:

When a user clicks a link after performing a search on a search engine such as Google, this takes them to a web site whose page contains JavaScript that automatically downloads a file," Intego said. "In this case, the file downloaded is a compressed ZIP archive, which, if a specific option in a web browser is checked (Open 'safe' files after downloading in Safari, for example), will open.

The malware unfortunately shares its name with a legitimate OS X software firm.  MacDefender is a small software firm that makes geocaching software, including GCStatistic and DTmatrix.  The company has released a statement emphatically saying that it is not affiliated with the rogue software.

The company writes:

IMPORTANT NOTE: As it seams (sic) someone wrote a virus/malware application named mac defender (MacDefender.app) for OS X. If you see an application named like this DO NOT DOWNLOAD/INSTALL it. I would never release an application named like this.

In recent months botnet-forming worms and trojans have targeted OS X.  Most of these pieces of malware have been amateurish efforts, though, or works in progress.  Nonetheless it remains a very real possibility that Apple could one day see a serious attack.

For its part Apple has suggested users get an antivirus program, though it still claims in advertisements that its platform does not suffer from malware like Windows.  Apple has refused to provide customers with free antimalware software like Microsoft does, so security firm Sophos Plc. has picked up the ball offering free basic protection to Mac users.  Some other smaller firms also offer free Mac antimalware suite

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