70426271
submission
chicksdaddy writes:
Criminals beware: researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have figured out how to recover serial numbers obliterated from metal surfaces such as firearms and automobiles — a common problem in forensic examinations.
Law enforcement agencies use serial numbers to track ownership of firearms and build criminal cases. But serial numbers can be removed by scratching, grinding or other methods. Analysts typically try to restore the numbers with acid or electrolytic etching or polishing, because deformed areas behave differently from undamaged material. But these methods don’t always work.
According to this report (http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/tech-beat/tb20150218.cfm#ebsd) NIST researchers used a technique called electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) to read, in the crystal structure pattern, imprints on steel that had been removed by polishing.
In EBSD, a scanning electron microscope scans a beam of electrons over the surface of a crystalline material such as a metal. The electrons strike atoms in the target and bounce back. Because the atoms are arranged in a regular pattern, the scattered electrons interact and form patterns that reveal the crystal’s structure on a scale down to tens of nanometers. The more perfect the crystal structure, the stronger and clearer the pattern. Software can then calculate the pattern quality to reveal crystal damage; areas with more damage produce lower quality patterns.
In the NIST experiments, described in Forensic Science International,* researchers hammered the letter “X” into a polished stainless steel plate. The letter stamps were as deep as 140 micrometers, meeting federal regulations for firearm serial numbers. The researchers then polished the metal again to remove all visible traces of the letters, and collected the EBSD diffraction patterns and pattern quality data and analyzed them for evidence of the imprints.
70409063
submission
chicksdaddy writes:
A federal court in Texas ruled last week that a massive data breach at a hospital in that state didn’t put patients at imminent risk of identity theft, even when presented with evidence that suggested stolen patient information was being used in attempted fraud and identity theft schemes.
According to this post over at Digital Guardian's blog (https://digitalguardian.com/blog/court-finds-data-breach-not-imminent-risk-victim) Beverly Peters was one more than 400,000 patients of St. Joseph Hospital whose information was stolen by hackers in an attack that took place between December 16 and 18, 2013. Peters alleged that her personal information had been exposed in the breach and then disseminated in the public domain, where it was being “misused by unauthorized and unknown third parties.” Specifically: Peters reported that, subsequent to the breach at St. Josephs, her Discover credit card was used to make a fraudulent purchase and that hackers had tried to infiltrate her Amazon.com account — posing as her son. Also: telemarketers were using the stolen information. Peters claimed that, after the breach, she was besieged with calls and solicitations for medical products and services companies, with telemarketers asking to speak to her and with specific family members, whose contact information was part of the record stolen from St. Joseph's.
As a result, Peters argued that she faced an “imminent injury” due to “increased risk” of future identity theft and fraud because of the breach at St. Joseph, and wished to sue the hospital for violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
But the court found otherwise, ruling that Peters lacked standing to bring the case in federal court under Article III of the Constitution. That was because she hadn’t been able to prove any direct damages from the attempted identity theft that occurred in the past (Discover reversed the fraudulent charge), while the threat she faced in the future was not “imminent.”
As this article notes (http://www.courthousenews.com/2015/02/13/judge-throws-out-hospital-data-hack-case.htm), the ruling turns on a high profile case involving government surveillance and the now-infamous FISA courts dating back to the Carter administration: Clapper v. Amnesty International USA. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clapper_v._Amnesty_International_USA) In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the human rights group and a collection of lawyers and reporters in a challenge to part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The plaintiffs said they feared that their sources, colleagues and clients would be targets of U.S. government surveillance, and the threat would force them to take expensive security measures to keep their communications private. The High Court ruled otherwise, saying the threat of government surveillance was hypothetical, but not “certainly impending.”
In his 15 page ruling (http://www.courthousenews.com/2015/02/13/st%20%20joseph%20data%20breach.pdf), U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt said the same logic applied to Peters’ suit as well. “Under Clapper, Peters must at least plausibly establish a “certainly impending” or “substantial” risk that she will be victimized,” Hoyt wrote. “The allegation that risk has been increased does not transform that assertion into a cognizable injury.”
70403539
submission
chicksdaddy writes:
Even with a high-profile summit in the heart of Silicon Valley, partisan gridlock back in Washington D.C. will make progress on cyber security impossible, the Security Ledger reports. https://securityledger.com/201...
Last week's “Whitehouse Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection” (http://yro.slashdot.org/story/15/02/13/1711225/tech-industry-in-search-of-leadership-at-white-house-cyber-summit ) made much of the need for better cooperation between the government and private sector, especially in sharing information about cyber attacks and threats. Speaking at the event, President Obama issued an Executive Order (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/02/13/executive-order-promoting-private-sector-cybersecurity-information-shari) instructing the Secretary of Homeland Security (Secretary) to “strongly encourage the development and formation of Information Sharing and Analysis Organizations (ISAOs)” that would facilitate such sharing.
But critics note that the President’s reliance on an Executive Order was just one sign of the trouble ahead – with a familiar culprit: gridlock. “I know people on both sides – Republicans and Democrats, people on the Hill and the Whitehouse who deal with these policy matters,” said John Dickson, a Principal at Denim Group. “I’ll tell you one thing, they are not talking to each other at all.”
The result is efforts on cyber security that are more symbol than action: calls for information sharing without the legal changes to enable it. “Obviously, the lynch pin for information sharing is getting some comfort for commercial entities about liability and how that is defined,” Dickson said. “And that simply was not addressed."
Not that Republicans are doing any better: with control of both the House and Senate, the GOP hasn't made any effort to put forward comprehensive reforms, despite bi-partisan support and good prospects for passage and a Presidential signature. Neither side, it seems, wants the other to "win," Dickson observed.
70362753
submission
chicksdaddy writes:
There is a report today on the 21st century's newest luxury item: online privacy.
The Christian Science Monitor writes about the growing market for premium privacy protection tools available to tech-savvy consumers with the desire for online anonymity- and the means to pay for it. (http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Passcode/2015/0216/Web-privacy-is-the-newest-luxury-item-in-era-of-pervasive-tracking)
The piece profiles new tools from companies like Abine (https://dnt.abine.com/#dashboard) that deliver everything from self-destructing e-mail messages to the 21st century’s equivalent of Kleenex: one-off “throwaway” online identities to keep advertisers, merchants and government snoops at bay.
Privacy experts, however, doubt that the new tools will tip the scales of online privacy in favor of consumers and away from governments and advertisers. "Consumers really don’t have a fighting chance,” says Andrea Matwyshyn of Princeton University. “Technology moves entirely too fast." She and others see the need for both bigger fixes and the level of Internet infrastructure and law. "As a consumer protection matter, there needs to be a floor,” she said. "Just as there are laws protecting renters from substandard housing, or car buyers from 'lemons,' there need to be regulations that create a buffer between consumers and companies."
70272315
submission
chicksdaddy writes:
President Obama travels to Stanford University on Friday to join Apple CEO Tim Cook in talking about the need for more private-public sector cooperation to fight cyber crime. But technology industry executives attending the White House Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection (http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/foreign-policy/cybersecurity/summit) complain that a major obstacle to cooperation is a lack of legislative action that clarify the rules of the road for private firms when it comes to sharing information about customers with the government and each other.
The controversy over government surveillance has put the ball in the government's court, said Michael Brown, RSAs Global Public Sector Vice President. "They need to articulate what amount of access to private information is “appropriate and legal” for law enforcement and the government. “They really need to articulate a rationale for that,” Brown said. “It’s not just about ‘when, where, and how.’ They also need to clearly articulate ‘why’ – for example: this is a matter of public safety and this is the only way we can get this information.”
Also on the to-do list say executives: a re-writing of the 80s era Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (http://slashdot.org/submission/3750919/aarons-law-is-doomed-and-the-cfaa-is-still-broken) and a federal data breach notification law that creates a consistent, national standard.(http://yro.slashdot.org/story/14/11/11/0423223/gridlock-in-action-retailers-demand-new-regulations-to-protect-consumers) Currently, 48 states have passed such laws, creating a compliance mess for private firms that discover they have leaked customer data.
68934589
submission
chicksdaddy writes:
It's always interesting to listen to what politicians say on their way out of office — after the pressure to get re-elected and say "on message" has been lifted. Eisenhower's historic farewell address in 1961 warned Americans about the influence of the Military-Industrial Complex. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military%E2%80%93industrial_complex). Twenty years later, Jimmy Carter warned of the distorting influence of "single-issue groups and special interest organizations" on the political process. (http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/documents/speeches/farewell.phtml)
And, this week, outgoing Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) used his final days in office to issue a blistering report on the Department of Homeland Security. Coburn argued that DHS was failing on each of its five, critical missions, among them: cyber security. (https://securityledger.com/2015/01/senator-warns-of-dhs-struggle-with-cyber-security/)
The report, “A Review of the Department of Homeland Security’s Missions and Performance,” (http://www.coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=23ce3547-adf7-4798-b9d8-56ea2a486e95) was released on Saturday. In it, the outgoing Senator said that DHS’s strategy and programs “are unlikely to protect us from the adversaries that pose the greatest cybersecurity threat.”
Despite spending $700 million annually on a range of cybersecurity programs, Coburn said it is hard to know whether the Department’s efforts to assist the private sector in identifying, mitigating or remediating cyber incidents provide “significant value” or are worth the expense. DHS programs are still heavily weighted towards software vulnerability mitigation, Coburn says, an activity that “will not protect the nation from the most sophisticated attacks and cybersecurity threats.”
68594907
submission
chicksdaddy writes:
Alternative theories of who is responsible for the hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment have come fast and furious (http://it.slashdot.org/story/14/12/24/1757224/did-north-korea-really-attack-sony)in recent weeks- especially since the FBI pointed a finger at the government of North Korea last week. (http://news.slashdot.org/story/14/12/18/0249222/us-links-north-korea-to-sony-hacking) But Norse Security is taking the debate up a notch: saying that they have conclusive evidence pointing to group of disgruntled former employees as the source of the attack and data theft.
The Security Ledger quotes Norse Vice President Kurt Stammberger saying that Norse has identified a group of six individuals — in the U.S., Canada, Singapore and Thailand — that it believes carried out the attack, including at least one 10 year employee of SPE who worked in a technical capacity before being laid off in May.(https://securityledger.com/2014/12/new-clues-in-sony-hack-point-to-insiders-away-from-dprk/)
Rather than starting from the premise that the Sony hack was a state sponsored attack, Norse researchers worked their investigation like any other criminal matter: starting by looking for individuals with the "means and motive" to do the attack. HR files leaked in the hack provided the motive part: a massive restructuring in Spring, 2014, in which many longtime SPE employees were laid off.
After researching the online footprint of a list of all the individuals who were fired and had the means to be able to access sensitive data on Sony's network, Norse said it identified a handful who expressed anger in social media posts following their firing. They included one former employee — a 10 year SPE veteran who he described as having a “very technical background.” Researchers from the company followed that individual online, noting participation in IRC (Internet Relay Chat) forums where they observed communications with other individuals affiliated with underground hacking and hacktivist groups in Europe and Asia.
According to Stammberger, the Norse investigation was eventually able to connect an individual directly involved in conversations with the Sony employee with a server on which the earliest known version of the malware used in the attack was compiled, in July, 2014.
While Stammberger admits that some clues in the investigation seemed to point to attackers in one of the Koreas, he says those paths all turned into dead ends, and that Norse investigators found no convincing evidence of North Korean involvement in the incident.
According to Stammberger, the company is briefing the FBI on its investigation on Monday. I'd love to be a fly on the wall in that room!
68106255
submission
chicksdaddy writes:
Researchers from the firm Trend Micro are warning that the Automated Identification System (or AIS) — a monitoring system that is used on over 400,000 ocean-going vessels — is profoundly insecure and vulnerable to both software and radio-based hacks, The Security Ledger reports. (https://securityledger.com/2014/12/research-finds-cyber-physical-attacks-against-vessel-tracking-system/)
AIS is a global system for tracking the movement of vessels. It is intended to supplement marine radar and relies on ship, land and satellite-based systems to exchange data on ships’ position, course and speed and is used for everything from collision avoidance to security, ship-to-ship communications and weather forecasting.
AIS is required to be deployed on all passenger vessels and on international-voyaging ships with gross tonnage of 300 or more. However, researchers Marco Balduzzi and Kyle Wilhoit found that AIS is rife with exploitable software- and protocol vulnerabilities. Chief among them are flaws in the AIS protocol which was developed in a “hardware epoch” and lacks even basic security features such as authentication and message integrity checks. While hacks of radio-based systems like AIS would have been expensive and difficult to conduct 10 or 15 years ago, the advent of tools like Software Defined Radio make it possible to craft sophisticated attacks with just a small investment, the researchers discovered.
In their work, Balduzzi and Wilhoit – working with an independent security researcher – were able to use software-defined radio based attacks to trigger a range of phony messages, from false SOS and “man in the water” distress beacons to fake CPA (or Closest Point of Approach) alert and collision warnings on an AIS system set up in a lab environment. A copy of their ACSAC presentation slides can be found here: http://blog.trendmicro.com/tre...
The two have written about AIS vulnerabilities before, including susceptibility of AIS to man-in-the-middle attacks (http://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/captain-where-is-your-ship-compromising-vessel-tracking-systems/). Their latest work expands the list of attacks and vulnerabilities found in AIS to include both software and RF-based hacks, SQL injection, buffer overflow and so on.
67484171
submission
chicksdaddy writes:
The story about the disastrous hack of Sony is the gift that keeps on giving. There's been a wealth of revelations about Sony Pictures Entertainment's internal culture: its tendency to pay male executives more than their female counterparts (http://fusion.net/story/30838/does-a-powerful-sony-pictures-partnership-have-a-gender-pay-gap/), tepid enthusiasm of employees about SPE's output (http://gawker.com/sony-hack-reveals-25-page-list-of-reasons-it-sucks-to-w-1666264634) and a kind of compulsive transparency within its IT operations (http://gawker.com/sonys-top-secret-password-lists-have-names-like-master_-1666775151). There have also been revelations about the attacks themselves, including analysis that shows both that the malware used was tailored specifically to Sony's network (http://logfile.packetninjas.net/malware-created-specifically-for-sony/) and that the attackers apparently took a page from the 2012 attack on Saudi Aramco known as "Shamoon." Specifically: both the Sony malware and “Disstrack” (the malware used in the “Shamoon” attack on Saudi Aramco) relied on the same commercial tool to access and erase the hard drive, a program called RawDisk by the company Eldos, according to a source with knowledge of the attack, the Christian Science Monitor reported today.
67383369
submission
chicksdaddy writes:
A copy of the FBI's recent five page FLASH alert reveals that the malware alleged to have wiped out systems at Sony Pictures Entertainment deployed a number of malicious modules, including a version of a commercial disk wiping tool on target systems. Samples of the malware obtained by the FBI were also found to contained configuration files created on systems configured with Korean language packs.
The use of Korean could strengthen theories that the destructive cyber attacks have links to North Korea, though it is hardly conclusive. It does appear that the attack was targeted at a specific organization. The malware analyzed by the FBI contained a hard coded list of IP addresses and computer host names.
Media reports have linked the malware to the destructive attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, though the FBI FLASH alert does not name Sony or any other organization. A group calling itself #GOP – for Guardians of Peace – took responsibility for that attack last week.
Theories about the purpose of the attack on Sony abound. One of the more colorful explanations has the destructive cyber attack as retribution for The Interview, a new Sony film due out at Christmas starring Seth Rogen and James Franco. (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/did-north-korea-hackers-leak-sony-films-in-revenge-for-comedy-the-interview-9896716.html)The two play western journalists who score an interview with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, and are then instructed by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to assassinate him. The government of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) publicly criticized Sony for plans to release the film and lodged a complaint with the United Nations.(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/10914088/North-Korea-slams-US-film-The-Interview-about-Kim-Jong-un.html)
67332777
submission
chicksdaddy writes:
Reuters has the scoop this morning on a new report out from the folks at FireEye about a cyber espionage ring that targets financial services firms. (http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/01/cybersecurity-wall-street-idUSL2N0TK0SE20141201)
The campaign, dubbed FIN4 by FireEye, stole corporate secrets for the purpose of gaming the stock market. FireEye believes that the extensive cyber operation compromised sensitive data about dozens of publicly held companies. According to the report FireEye the victims include financial services firms and those in related sectors, including investment bankers, attorneys and investor relations firms.
Rather than attempting to break into networks overtly, the attackers targeted employees within each organization. Phishing e-mail messages led victims to bogus web sites controlled by the hackers, who harvested login credentials to e-mail and social media accounts. Those accounts were then used to expand the hackers reach within the target organization: sending phishing email messages to other employees.
67324883
submission
An anonymous reader writes:
The University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science Department of Systems and Information Engineering announced the success of an early-stage demonstration to improve defenses for unmanned aerial vehicles against cyber attacks. U.Va.’s System-Aware Cybersecurity concept and Secure Sentinel technology were tested in collaboration with Georgia Tech Research Institute through a series of live flight cyber-attack scenarios. Research focuses on providing additional security by employing an on-board secure monitoring subsystem to detect illogical behaviors relative to the expected profile of a system’s performance. Detections can serve to initiate automated recovery actions and to alert operators of the attack.
66400455
submission
chicksdaddy writes:
How bad is the gridlock in Washington D.C.? So bad that the nation's retailers are calling for federal legislation on cyber security and data protection to protect consumer information — this even though they would bear the brunt of whatever legislation is passed.
The Security Ledger notes (https://securityledger.com/2014/11/retailers-demanding-federal-action-on-data-breach/) that groups representing many of the nation's retailers sent a letter to Congressional leaders last week urging them to pass federal data protection legislation that sets clear rules for businesses serving consumers. The letter, dated November 6, was addressed to the majority and minority party leaders of the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives and signed by 44 state and national organizations representing retailers, including the National Retail Federation, the National Grocers Association, the National Restaurant Association and the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, among others.
“The recent spate of news stories about data security incidents raises concerns for all American consumers and for the businesses with which they frequently interact,” the letter reads. “A single federal law applying to all breached entities would ensure clear, concise and consistent notices to all affected consumers regardless of where they live or where the breach occurs.”
Retailers would likely bare the brunt of a new federal data protection law. The motivation for pushng for one anyway may be simplicity. Currently, there are 47 different state-based security breach notification laws, as well as laws in the District of Columbia and Guam. (http://www.ncsl.org/research/telecommunications-and-information-technology/security-breach-notification-laws.aspx) There is broad, bi-partisan agreement on the need for a data breach and consumer protection law. However, small differences of opinion on its scope and provisions, exacerbated by political gridlock in Congress since 2010 have combined to stay the federal government’s hand.
66061393
submission
chicksdaddy writes:
The technology revolution that is “fracking” has created billions in wealth for states like Pennsylvania, Texas, Ohio and Wyoming. But all that oil and all those dollars have attracted the attention of sophisticated spies from near and far to steal valuable trade secrets. (https://digitalguardian.com/blog/industry-spies-do-mess-texas)
Digital Guardian's blog notes this report (http://www.news4sanantonio.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/oil-field-espionage-eagle-ford-shale-16921.shtml) from News 4 San Antonio in Texas which quotes local FBI officials saying they are “very concerned” about theft of trade secrets from companies engaged in “fracking” in the Eagle Ford Shale in Texas.
“It's corporate espionage, there’s no question about it," said Christopher Combs of the San Antonio FBI. “Foreign governments or foreign companies are looking for any competitive advantage. Whether it's the widget that you use to drill, or it's a process that you use to track inventory better. They're really looking at the company as a whole to find out every little thing that you do that makes you a better company on the world market."
Combs declined to name specific firms, but said that Chinese firms are “aggressively” engaged in industrial espionage. However, the problem isn’t limited to China. Companies with ties to governments that are U.S. allies are believed to be conducting espionage against innovative US firms as well.
Hydraulic fracturing – or “fracking” is a method used to extract oil or gas deposits from porous rock like sandstone and shale. The technique was developed in the United States with financial support from the U.S. government and is now used commercially in shale deposits in the U.S., Canada and China. However, the specific technology and methods associated with fracking are closely guarded and highly valuable to drilling outfits.
Recent history suggests that oil and gas exploration is an area of intense activity for cyber spying. In July, the Department of Homeland Security warned of targeted attacks against energy firms in the U.S. and Europe linked to the "Havex" malware, a kind of remote access tool. (https://securityledger.com/2014/07/dhs-warns-energy-firms-of-malware-used-in-targeted-attacks/). That same month, the American Petroleum Institute launched an Oil and Natural Gas Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ONG-ISAC) designed to help protect companies in the industry from attacks and evaluate risks through information sharing.(http://ongisac.org/)
65908273
submission
chicksdaddy writes:
Headline grabbing data breaches are such a fixture of our modern business environment (https://corporate.homedepot.com/mediacenter/pages/statement1.aspx) that they’ve spawned a knock-off market: phony data breaches designed to look like the real thing, the Security Ledger reports.(https://securityledger.com/2014/10/wanna-breach-counterfeit-data-breaches-are-a-thing/)
A research note from the firm Deloitte & Touche is warning companies about the threat of counterfeit breaches, in which malicious actors use false claims about massive data breaches to bedevil established firms – inflicting real economic and reputation damage.
Bogus breach claims are becoming more common — with gullible or hair trigger 24/7 media coverage a leading contributor to the phenomenon. In October, for example, an individual posted what were purported to be stolen Dropbox account credentials on the site Pastebin. The message claimed the leaked credentials were part of a larger trove of 7 million accounts that were compromised — a claim that was widely reported. Dropbox, however, maintained that it was not hacked and that the leaked credentials – user names and passwords – were stolen from other online services.
Deloitte researcher Allison Nixon said companies need to develop strategies to quickly assess data breach claims: from automated analysis of user names against known customer accounts to statistical analysis of user name and password entropy. And, companies should feel free to use the "sniff test": asking them how likely a real cyber criminal is to behave in the way they are observing.
The public and media should also view claims of data theft and hacks with a more skeptical eye, Nixon says.
