cyber war
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Hitting the Books: How American militarism and new technology may make war more likely
In Future Peace, Dr. Robert H. Latiff, Maj Gen USAF (Ret), explores how the American military's increasing reliance on weaponized drones, AI and Machine Learning systems, automation and similar cutting-edge technologies, could create the perfect conditions for getting a lot of people killed.
Kaspersky Labs preps its own OS to guard vital industry against cyberwarfare
Kaspersky Labs' namesake Eugene Kaspersky is worried that widely distributed and potentially state-sponsored malware like Flame and Stuxnet pose dire threats to often lightly protected infrastructure like communication and power plants -- whatever your nationality, it's clearly bad for the civilian population of a given country to suffer even collateral damage from cyberattacks. To minimize future chaos and literally keep the trains running, Kaspersky and his company are expanding their ambitions beyond mere antivirus software to build their own, extra-secure operating system just for large-scale industry. The platform depends on a custom, minimalist core that refuses to run any software that isn't baked in and has no code outside of its main purposes: there'll be no water supply shutdowns after the night watch plays Solitaire from an infected drive. Any information shared from one of these systems should be completely trustworthy, Kaspersky says. He doesn't have details as to when the OS will reach behind-the-scenes hardware, but he stresses that this is definitely not an open-source project: some parts of the OS will always remain confidential to keep ne'er-do-well terrorists (and governments) from undermining the technology we often take for granted.
Iran claims to have been hit by 'heavy' cyber attack, pins slowdowns on coordinated hacking campaign
Whatever you think of Iran's politics, it's hard to deny that the country has frequently been the target of internet-based attacks that sometimes go beyond the originator's plans. If you believe High Council of Cyberspace secretary Mehdi Akhavan Behabadi, the pressure is only getting worse. He tells Iranian media that the nation is under "constant" digital bombardment and was just hit with a major assault on Tuesday that bogged down local internet access. Behabadi unsurprisingly contends that the attacks are deliberate efforts to undermine Iran's data, nuclear and oil infrastructures, with a finger implicitly pointed westward. While it's no secret that the country's enemies want to slow down what they see as a rush towards nuclear weapons, it's difficult to know how much of the accusation is serious versus bluster: we've seen individual smartphone users who consume more than the "several gigabytes" of traffic that reportedly caused national chaos in the most recent incident. No matter the exact nature, it's likely that residents stand to lose as Iran fences off the internet to keep outside influences, hostile and otherwise, from getting in. [Image credit: Amir1140, Wikipedia]
Flame malware extinguishes itself, Microsoft protects against future burns
The folks behind that nasty Flame trojan that burned its way through the Middle East aren't the kind to brag -- the malware's manufacturers apparently started dousing their own fire last week. According to Symantec reports, several compromised machines retrieved a file named browse32.ocx from Flame controlled servers, which promptly removed all traces of the malware from the infected systems. Although the attackers seem spooked, Microsoft isn't taking any chances, and has issued a fix to its Windows Server Update Services to block future attacks. The update hopes to protect networked machines from a similar attack by requiring HTTPS inspection servers to funnel Windows update traffic through an exception rule, bypassing its inspection. The attackers? "They're trying to cover their tracks in any way they can," Victor Thakur, principal security response manager at Symantec told the LA Times, "They know they're being watched." Check out the source link below for the Symantec's run down of the trojan's retreat.
Google starts warning affected users about state-sponsored cyber attacks
The fallout from malware like Stuxnet and Flame might soon be rearing its head at a Google Plus page or Gmail inbox near you. A post on its online security blog states that Google will now issue warnings in the form of a strip placed just below the upper menu bar to users being targeted by suspected state-sponsored cyber attacks. Google stressed that such warnings don't mean that its systems have been compromised but it does make it highly likely that the recipient may be the target of state-sponsored phishing or malware. How exactly does Google know this to be the case? The company declined to offer specifics, only saying that data from victim reports and its own analysis strongly point toward the involvement of states or state-sponsored groups. Google also didn't mention how often it sees such malicious activity, though coverage of Stuxnet and Flame certainly has put a spotlight on cyber warfare involving nations. In the meantime, feel free to hit the source link below for Google's tips on how to secure your account.
Stuxnet pinned on US and Israel as an out-of-control creation
Ever since Stuxnet was discovered, most of the accusing fingers have been pointed at the US, Israel or both, whether or not there was any evidence; it was hard to ignore malware that seemed tailor-made for wrecking Iranian centrifuges and slowing down the country's nuclear development. As it turns out, Occam's Razor is in full effect. An exposé from the New York Times matter-of-factly claims that the US and Israel coded Stuxnet as part of a cyberwar op, Olympic Games, and snuck it on to a USB thumb drive that infected computers at the Natanz nuclear facility. The reason we know about the infection at all, insiders say, is that it got out of control: someone modified the code or otherwise got it to spread through an infected PC carried outside, pushing Obama to either double down (which he did) or back off. Despite all its connections, the newspaper couldn't confirm whether or not the new Flame malware attack is another US creation. Tipsters did, however, deny that Flame is part of the Olympic Games push -- raising the possibility that there are other agencies at work. [Image credit: David Holt, Flickr]
Flame malware snoops on PCs across the Middle East, makes Stuxnet look small-time
Much ado was made when security experts found Stuxnet wreaking havoc, but it's looking as though the malware was just a prelude to a much more elaborate attack that's plaguing the Middle East. Flame, a backdoor Windows trojan, doesn't just sniff and steal nearby network traffic info -- it uses your computer's hardware against you. The rogue code nabs phone data over Bluetooth, spreads over USB drives and records conversations from the PC's microphone. If that isn't enough to set even the slightly paranoid on edge, it's also so complex that it has to infect a PC in stages; Flame may have been attacking computers since 2010 without being spotted, and researchers at Kaspersky think it may be a decade before they know just how much damage the code can wreak. No culprit has been pinpointed yet, but a link to the same printer spool vulnerability used by Stuxnet has led researchers to suspect that it may be another instance of a targeted cyberwar attack given that Iran, Syria and a handful of other countries in the region are almost exclusively marked as targets. Even if you live in a 'safe' region, we'd keep an eye out for any suspicious activity knowing that even a fully updated Windows 7 PC can be compromised.
Robert Morris, man who helped develop Unix, dies at 78
We have some somber news to bring you this morning: Robert Morris, the cryptographer who helped create Unix, has died at the age of 78. Morris began his work on the groundbreaking OS back in 1970 at AT&T's Bell Laboratories, where he played a major role in developing Unix's math library, password structure and encryption functions. His cryptographic exploration continued into the late 1970s, when he began writing a paper on an early encryption tool from Germany. But the paper would never see the light of day, thanks to a request from the NSA, which was concerned about potential security ramifications. Instead, the agency brought Morris on board as a computer security expert in 1986. Much of what he did for Uncle Sam remains classified, though he was involved in internet surveillance projects and cyber warfare -- including what might have been America's first cyberattack in 1991, when the US crippled Saddam Hussein's control capabilities during the first Gulf War. Morris stayed with the NSA until 1994, when he retired to New Hampshire. He's survived by his wife, three children and one, massive digital fingerprint. [Image courtesy of the New York Times]
Estonia networks slammed by possible Russian cyber attacks
We certainly hope you dig the flavor of Russia and Estonia blended together in the morning, as your News Brews is probably cranking the mixture out en masse after reports that Russia has been waging a "cyber war" on Estonia for the past few weeks. Reportedly, Estonia's well-regarded networks have been "under heavy attack," saying that Russians are behind the mass outages of its state and commercial websites. Currently, Nato and EU officials are attempting to track down the culprits, and while Moscow has reportedly "denied any involvement in the internet attacks on its neighbor," relations between the two haven't exactly been rosy of late. Don't fret Estonia, if things get too bad, there's always Sealand.[Via Guardian]
