Cyber attack by Stuxnet?

new cyber attack by Stuxnet
The Age
An Iranian semi-official news agency says there has been another cyber attack by the sophisticated computer worm Stuxnet, this time on the industries in the country's south. Tuesday's report by ISNA quotes provincial civil defence chief Ali Akbar ...

The Age

Iran foils new cyber attack on industrial units: Report
Times of India
TEHRAN: Iran has repelled a fresh cyber attack on its industrial units in a southern province, a local civil defence official said on Tuesday, accusing "enemies" of non-stop attacks against its infrastructure. "A virus had penetrated some manufacturing ...

Times of India

Iran Thwarts US Cyber Attack: Report
Biztech2.com
by IANS 26th December, 2012 in Security. Iran thwarted a "cyber attack originated from the US city of Dallas via switches in Malaysia and Vietnam on one of Iranian culture ministry institutes," Xinhua reported. According to the Fars news agency, the ...

Biztech2.com

Defeating the cyber criminals
BBC News
Cyber warfare is all hype. That's the belief of a number of critics. But it is also the aim of technology experts active in the field of cyber security to take the hype out of so-called cyber warfare. Gareth Mitchell talks to the former US air force ...

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Obama executive order on cybersecurity - January

Obama likely to issue executive order on cybersecurity as early as ...
Among the changes, the White House included language stating that its cybersecurity guidance does not prescribe one type of security technology over another ...


Cyber Security Special Report
Emergency Management (blog)
Cyber security is going to be "the" hot topic, right after someone takes out a piece of critical infrastructure somewhere. There is no hiding the impacts of a cyber attack when water stops flowing or the lights go out. These events are not some piece ...

Huawei Founder Ren Zhengfei Comments On Cyber Security - Forbes
Ren Zhengfei has never granted an interview to the media. He's managed to build Huawei into ...

Top Ten Tips for Companies Buying Cyber Security Insurance ...
This article covers the important points that every counsel should consider when reviewing agreements for cyber security insurance coverage.

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How Hackers Protect Themselves From Getting Hacked

How Hackers Protect Themselves From Getting Hacked: "Cybercriminals are finding new ways to bypass traditional security methods like passwords and antivirus software. Hackers are now using free software that tests millions of commonly-used passwords in seconds. One tech writer who was hacked this year proclaimed that passwords are now obsolete. And many security pros say they don’t use anti-virus software because cybercriminals are testing their methods first against popular antivirus software. So, if traditional cybersecurity methods are no longer enough, how does the average computer user defend himself? Jeffrey Moss, a well-known hacker who goes by the online nickname "Dark Tangent," recommends disabling Javascript -- a popular programming language -- in Adobe Reader, because hackers often insert malware into PDF documents. Moss also installs an extension for the Firefox browser called NoScript, which only allows trusted websites to run JavaScript. And he uses two Web browsers, reserving one solely for sensitive activities like online banking in case the other browser becomes infected. "The trick is to never have a dangerous web page and a banking web page open at the same time," said Moss, the creator of the DefCon and Black Hat hacker conferences.  . . ."


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White House Cyber Security Order

Does the White House have the cart before the horse?--

'Leaked' Draft of White House Cyber Security Order Not Worth the Wait | CIO Blogs: "If it’s so serious why is it that the rest of the order does little more than ask various agencies to issue reports and make recommendations about what to do next? Should the President have received those recommendations before issuing the order? The first action called for is the "timely production of unclassified versions of all reports of cyber threats to the U.S. homeland that identify a specific targeted entity." DHS is in charge of doing this so you know it will be a cluster[BLEEP]. (Also, why are they calling it the "U.S. homeland"?) How is that different than the plain ol’ U.S.?) The otherwise powerless Director of National Intelligence gets to track "all of these reports and notifications." I guess he finished painting the White House fence."


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Hacker of celebrities' email accounts gets 10 Years

Hacker Who Leaked Scarlett Johansson Pics Gets 10 Years | News & Opinion | PCMag.com: "A Florida man has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for hacking into email accounts belonging to actresses Scarlett Johansson and Mila Kunis, singer Christina Aguilera, and other celebrities. During a hearing yesterday in Los Angeles, U.S. District Judge S. James Otero sentenced Christopher Chaney to 120 months in prison and ordered him to pay $66,179 in restitution. Otero said Chaney's actions demonstrated a "callous disregard to the victims." Chaney, a 36-year-old Jacksonville resident, stole nude photos, scripts, financial information, and other personal data from the email accounts of more than 50 celebrities. The judge yesterday heard a videotaped statement from an emotional Johansson, according to a report from the Associated Press. "I have been truly humiliated and embarrassed," Johansson said, according to the AP. "I find Christopher Chaney's actions to be perverted and reprehensible.". . . "

Cyber Security in 2013: What the Experts Predict
IBTimes.co.uk
2012 has been a momentous year for cyber security. From the rise of state-sponsored cyber espionage to the explosion of malware on the Android platform, and the naming of Anonymous as one of Time's 100 most influential people of the year, the past 12 ...

IBTimes.co.uk

Sandia creates cyber security institute
Albuquerque Journal (subscription)
“Sandia's responsibility for the cyber security aspects of the nuclear program, providing computer security for weapons, goes back decades,” said Senior Manager Ben Cook. “But now there's a more general, national need for these capabilities …We want ...

Albuquerque Journal (subscription)

Five-year plan in the works to revamp cyber security
Times of India
NEW DELHI: In its bid to meet the growing challenge of ever-increasing threat to the virtual world, the government has set in motion a five-year project to revamp the cyber security apparatus of critical sectors in the country. India has suffered 13 ...

Cyber attacks on the rise worldwide
ABQ Journal
In fact, cyber warfare may have reached a turning point this summer, after unknown attackers used a sophisticated virus that destroyed 30,000 computers at the Saudi Arabian state oil company ARAMCO. The virus ... In October, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon ...

IT security trends in 2013: cyber war not on the horizon
RealWire (press release)
Bochum (Germany), December 17, 2012 – At the end of the year experts at G Data SecurityLabs are taking a moment to look both back and forward at IT security, attacks and cyber crime. In 2012, online criminals were opting for particularly intelligent ...

Public Private Partnership Confronts Cyber Security
Government Technology
Les Rose, president of information security firm L3's national security solutions group, describes an evolution that's taken place over the past several years that has elevated the Internet to the most attractive target for cyber criminals ...

Government Technology

Champlain College expert: be vigilant for cyber criminals during holidays
vtdigger.org
17, 2012) – A cyber security expert at Champlain College is advising people to be on the lookout for online hoaxes and fraudulent e-mails designed to capitalize on their vulnerabilities in the wake of a tragedy like the Newtown, Conn. shootings and the ...

Openness is key to the world's cyber woes
Sydney Morning Herald
In opening remarks to the conference, the ITU secretary-general, Hamadan Toure, emphasised cyber security should come first and, implicitly, it should come under his purview. For all the commitments to openness, the conference is about the national ...

Sydney Morning Herald

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US banks fend off hacker activists cyber-security threat

US banks fend off hacker activists cyber-security threat
Technology Spectator
A financial services industry organisation and several cyber security companies said a group of "hactivists" that impeded access to some major US online banking sites in September had so far failed to gain traction in a second campaign that began this ...

International cyber security experts to hold malware analysis workshop in Dubai
Gulf Today
“I am pleased the TRA and aeCERT are participating in this event; hands-on and knowledge-intensive workshops such as this are invaluable as we work towards reinforcing the nation's cyber security.” “Cyber security is not a 'one-man' job, it is ...

Sunday Papers: China telecoms giant could be cyber-security risk to Britain
Citywire.co.uk
... Britain could face a damaging multibillion-pound trade war with China if an intelligence report, due out within the next two weeks, finds that the UK operations of the Chinese communications giant Huawei represents a threat to the UK's cyber-security.

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Malware steals credit card data from point-of-sale terminals

POS data being stolen--

“Dexter” malware steals credit card data from point-of-sale terminals | Ars Technica: "A researcher has uncovered new malware that steals payment card data from point-of-sale terminals used by stores, hotels, and other businesses. Dexter, as the malware is called, has infected hundreds of point-of-sale computers at big-name retailers, hotels, restaurants, and other businesses, according to a report issued by Aviv Raff, chief technology officer of Israel-based security firm Seculert. Businesses infected in the past three months are located in 40 different countries, with 30 percent of those compromised located in the US, 19 percent in the UK, and nine percent in Canada. Malware that infects point-of-sale terminals can be one of the most efficient ways to carry out payment card fraud because it targets machines with access to large amounts of the required data. "Instead of going through the trouble of infecting tens of thousands of PCs or physically installing a skimmer, an attacker can achieve the same results by targeting just a few POS systems with specially crafted malware," Raff wrote. "Dexter is one example of such malware." . . . . "


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US Banks are cyber targets

Financial institutions will always be a primary target for cyber attacks--

Cyber Terrorists Threaten Fresh Attacks Against US Banks
Fox Business
PNC said in a Facebook post that it is "aware that some U.S. banks may be the target of a potentialcyber attack." The company said that it was not experiencing any issues, but warned clients that "this potential threat could result in high volume of ...

Solid ideas of improving state government's cyber security
Charleston Post Courier (subscription)
Accountability and oversight demand a responsible central authority. And such an authority has been clearly lacking in our state government's woefully inadequate cyber security system, according to S.C. Inspector General Patrick J. Maley. In his recent ...

Smart-grid cyber-security sales to exceed $600 million in 2020
TelecomEngine
Sales of cyber security products for smart grid industrial control systems (ICS) are set to exceed $600 million in 2020, up from $369 million this year, as “the cost of complacency becomes more apparent”. Such is the headline finding of a new study by ...

Cyber attacks on Gulf infrastructure seen rising
Reuters
His comments came a few months after a virus infected 30,000 computers at Saudi Arabia's national oil company, Saudi Aramco, which said on Sunday the attack was aimed at stopping oil and gas production at the world's biggest oil exporter. ... "There is ...

Aramco cyber attack targeted production
Financial Times
The same cyber virus that targeted Saudi Aramco, known as Shamoon, was also used to attacksystems at Qatar's RasGas , one of the largest producers of liquefied natural gas, industry executives and internet security experts said. The wave of cyber ...

10 security stories that shaped 2012
ZDNet
Summary: From a major malware attack on the Mac OS X to state-sponsored cyber-espionage attacks, IT security in 2012 will be remembered as the year that piqued the imagination. Ryan Naraine. By Ryan Naraine for Zero Day | December 10, 2012 -- 19:22 ...

Attorney-General Nicola Roxon boosts arsenal in cyber war
The Australian
CYBER security operatives at the Attorney-General's Department have kicked off a major program to both improve a system used to detect fraud and identity theft and open it up for commercial use. The national document verification service forms a ...

Hong Kong cops open £700k cyber security centre
Register
The Hong Kong government has thrown HK$9 million (£730,000) at a new Cyber Security Centre in a bid to tackle the growing threat to critical infrastructure in the Special Administrative Region of China. Police commissioner Tsang Wai-hung said at the ...

European renewable power grid rocked by cyber-attack
Electric Light & Power
The association is understood to be communicating closely and regularly with the European Commission about potential cyber-security threats to Europe's grids. However, beyond flagging their critical systems protection working group, ENTSO-E will not ...

Cyber warfare 'fifth realm of war': Abizaid
The News International
... face challenges in cyber warfare due to compartmentalising of various departments that should be working together, said John Reid, a former British defence minister. Both men were talking at the Gulf International Cyber Security Symposium in Dubai ...

Beyond Cyber Monday – How Businesses and Consumers Can Protect ...
Business 2 Community
In fact, there is a great deal of symmetry between consumers and business owners when it comes to online security, as both must ensure the integrity of the networks, partners and resources that they use while conducting their cyber activity. Without ...

A new brand of cyber security: hacking the hackers - Los Angeles ...
WASHINGTON — As head of the FBI's cyber crimes division, Shawn Henry often had to deal with exasperated company executives after his agents informed ...
articles.latimes.com/2012/dec/.../la-fi-cyber-defense-20121204

McCaul: Cybersecurity legislation is 'top' priority next Congress - The ...
One of the top priorities for new House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) next Congress is to bring a cybersecurity bill to the ...
thehill.com/.../271251-mccaul-cybersecurity-legislation-is-qto...

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8 Computer Security Predictions

Cyber Security in 2013:

RSA's Art Coviello: 8 Computer Security Predictions For 2013 - Forbes: "I abhor the phrase “Cyber Pearl Harbor” because I think it is a poor metaphor to describe the state I believe we are in. However, I genuinely believe we are only a whisker away from some form of lesser catastrophic event that could do damage to the world economy or critical infrastructure. 5. It is highly likely that a rogue nation state, hacktivists or even terrorists will move beyond intrusion and espionage to attempt meaningful disruption and, eventually, even destruction of critical infrastructure. If all of this sounds depressing, well, it is. This isn’t fear mongering. It is a plausible extrapolation from the facts. But we can change the trajectory. There is already a tectonic shift underway from a perimeter to an intelligence-based security model. . . . "


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Tumblr hit by worm

Those pesky worms!--

Tumblr hit by worm - The Washington Post: "Tumblr hit with posting worm: Tumblr confirmed Monday that a “viral post” is spreading quickly through its platform and that it is trying to resolve the issue. In a message posted to the company’s official Twitter account, the blogging site said, “We are aware that there is a viral post circulating on Tumblr. We are working to resolve the issue as swiftly as possible. Thank you.” Users who click on the links in the viral post, which promotes the anti-blogging agenda of something called the GNAA, might wind up with the message posted to their own blogs. Tumblr disabled posting on the site as it worked to stop the virus. . . "

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US and UK informed of huge Swiss spy data leak

The greatest cyber security risks are from the "inside"--

U.S., U.K. caught in middle of huge Swiss spy data leak -- report | Security & Privacy - CNET News: " . . . The U.S. and U.K. have been warned by Swiss spy agency NDB that some of the information they had shared related to counter-terrorism has been stolen, according to a new report. Last summer, a disgruntled NDB IT technician who believed he wasn't being taken seriously over the way in which data systems should be handled, allegedly downloaded terabytes of counter-terrorism information shared between the NDB, Central Intelligence Agency, and MI6, and had eyes on selling it off to "foreign officials and commercial buyers," Reuters is reporting today, citing European national security sources. According to those sources, Swiss law enforcement arrested the person, whose name has been kept hidden, before letting him go as Switzerland's Federal Attorney General office continues its investigation. Prior to his arrest, the person was reportedly found to have storage devices containing classified counter-terrorism information. It's believed that he allegedly downloaded "millions" of pages of information on counter-terrorism efforts. . . . "

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ITU and WCIT threaten Internet Freedom

ITU and WCIT threaten Internet Freedom

Take action at http://www.whatistheITU.org

Fight for the Future and Access collaborated on this short, informative video about a serious threat to the free and open internet that could have devastating effects for human rights and free expression around the globe.

Internet meeting spurs controversy
PCWorld
Internet freedom could be at stake at a secretive meeting of governments that begins Monday in Dubai. internet. The United Nations International Telecommunication Union will negotiate new international telecom regulations, including Internet issues, at ...

alternative to controversial Anti-Cybercrime Law
gulfnews.com
Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago has filed Senate Bill No 3327, otherwise known as the “Magna Carta for Philippine Internet Freedom (MCPIF)”. It essentially seeks to provide parameters concerning the use of cyberspace and the internet while containing ...

The UN threat to internet freedom « JoNova: Science, carbon ...
By Joanne Nova
Oh Joy and Goody. Imagine if decisions about the global internet were made by the same institution that thought the rights of the downtrodden would be best protected by Col. Muammar Gaddafi? Hands up who wants another group of people ...
JoNova: Science, carbon, climate and tax

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Security tips for shopping online

Magid: Security tips for shopping online
San Jose Mercury News
Of course, Thanksgiving weekend and Cyber Monday are just the opening rounds of holiday online shopping. I got several pitches last week for "cyber week" sales. I'm fully expecting to see ads for "cyber month," because the holiday shopping season doesn ...

'Around 4.7 lakh cyber security professionals needed by 2015'
Financial Express
He said a number of attempts of cyber attacks of various natures are being observed on the IT infrastructure deployed in various sectors of economy including national security in the country from different sources. "The cyber warfare is indeed emerging ...

Improving cyber attack detection through computer modeling
Phys.Org
Key to protecting online operations is a high degree of "cyber security awareness," according to human factors/ergonomics researchers Varun Dutt, Young-Suk Ahn, and Cleotilde Gonzalez. In their Human Factors article, "Cyber Situation Awareness ...

Cyber security could improve mimicking public health strategies: report
Outcome Magazine
11/30/2012 Mimicking public health strategies, such as maintaining good “cyberhygiene,” could improve cyber security, according to a new paper by a team of economists and public health researchers at RTI International. Brent Rowe, a senior economist ...

Outcome Magazine

ViaSat nets cyber security contract for Marines
U-T San Diego
The cyber security software for smartphones and tablets also would enable personnel to communicate securely over 3G/4G/LTE cellular and Wi-Fi networks, store sensitive data on their personal devices and protect their devices against malware attacks.

Cyber security pioneer predicts Apple's closed philosophy will end its dominance
Yahoo! News (blog)
In an interview with Reuters, cyber security expert and Kaspersky Lab CEO Eugene Kaspersky said that Apple (AAPL) won't be able to sustain its growth following its closed philosophy. The Cupertino-based company is known for its tight integration of ...

Maude: UK is in stronger cyber security position than a year ago
Computing
Maude then stated that programmes like Cyber Security for Business which aims to help business leaders in their attempts to tackle the growing threat of cyber-attacks will be integral for the UK to combat cyber-crime. "The private sector is the largest ...

Computing

Can Banks Prevent the Next Cyber Attack?
Wall Street & Technology
Comparing a cyber attack to a natural disaster, Andy Ozment, senior director for Cybersecurity, National Security Staff, The White House, said that private industry, not the government, is usually the first responder to cyber attacks. "We are debating ...

Indonesia to establish cyber-defence unit
IHS Jane's
In a conference on internet security in Bandung, West Java, Sjamsoeddin said that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) plans to establish a cyber-defence operations centre (CDOC) that will enhancesecurity and protection of internal IT defence mechanisms and ...

Facebook's "Hacktober" tests employees' security awareness
Help Net Security
Since 2004, October has been dubbed "National Cyber Security Awareness Month," and many security-minded individuals, businesses and organizations make it a point to mark it. For the second time in a row, Facebook has celebrated "Hacktober" by testing...

Help Net Security

Cyber-Security in Health Care: 10 Ways to Fight the Threats
Cyber-security is an ongoing concern for health care organizations. The Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) has engaged in a written debate with ...

Cyber Security Survival for the Holidays
A couple of days ago, I participated in a Social Video Broadcast about cybersecurity survival ...

Ministries seek to avert cyber security 'crisis' | Bangkok Post: news
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) and Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) are ramping up efforts to boost cyber security, with one expert ...

E.U. cyber security agency launches study of digital attack traps ...
The European Union's cyber security agency, the European Network and Information SecurityAgency, is launching an in-depth study of 30 different digital traps ...

Digital Agenda: European Commission supports research on Cyber ...
Digital Agenda: European Commission supports research on Cyber security. C ybercrime is a growing global problem that no company or country can tackle ...

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