In recent House testimony, the FBI Director gave a glimpse into the future of law enforcement with his suggestion that his agency be given the authority to filter network “choke points” for illegal activity. [From FBI wants to move hunt for criminals into Internet backbone] Once again this organization shows it’s blissful ignorance or stupidity; [...]
Browsing Posts published in April, 2008
New software vulnerabilities are announced all the time. In fact, according to the NITS database, last year a new software vulnerability was announced every 57 minutes. A software vulnerability is defined as a flaw in a software program which may allow a third party or program to gain unauthorized access. Some experts say that over [...]
A break-in can happen to any system administrator. Find out how to use Autopsy and Sleuthkit to hit the ground running on your first forensics project. [From Introduction to Forensics]
“Details of George Bush’s Cyber Initiative are beginning to trickle out. The Cyber Initiative was created in January to secure government against electronic attacks. Newsweek says that over the next seven years, Bush’s Cyber Initiative will spend as much as $30 billion to create a new monitoring system for all federal networks, a combined project [...]
“It probably won’t surprise you, but in 2005, the FBI manufactured evidence to get the power to issue National Security Letters under the PATRIOT Act. Unlike normal subpoenas, NSLs do not require probable cause and you’re never allowed to talk about having received one, leading to a lack of accountability that caused them to be [...]
Congress, DHS battle over domestic spy sats [From Brief: Congress, DHS battle over domestic spy sats]
Sun platform strategist Ian Murdock presented OpenSolaris at LugRadio Live. The platform looks promising, but serious advantages of adopting it on the desktop remain elusive. Read More… [From Sun touts big plans for OpenSolaris as first release nears]
The NSA is not the only agency with advanced eavesdropping capabilities. Cyber espionage is getting renewed attention as fresh evidence emerges of computer spying against corporations and government agencies here and abroad. Late last year MI5 warned British companies of Chinese espionage activities. Computer Security Professionals have stated there is growing evidence of attacks from [...]
This is a pretty good hi res photo of a PLAN Russian Kilo class submarine. At most she has been in service for what, 4 years tops? Sexy. However, sometimes it is about perspective. I think these photo’s are the same submarine. Updated: My commenter’s as usual are much smarter than me, and they have [...]
The Washington Post reports that ‘The Bush administration said yesterday that it plans to start using the nation’s most advanced spy technology for domestic purposes soon’ and that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has said that ‘Sophisticated overhead sensor data will be used for law enforcement.’ Initially, it appears that the administration plans to leverage [...]
U.S. gov’t pushes cybersecurity at con [From News: U.S. gov't pushes cybersecurity at con]
In the CRS report by Ronald O’Rourke on PLAN modernization there is an interesting table that outlines the commissionings of PLAN submarines by year starting in 1995. Because good hard data is difficult regarding the PLAN, this might be the most useful chart yet on the subject. According to this chart, the PLAN only commissioned [...]
Presto Vivace notes a report from the RSA conference on the cybercrime economy, and it’s not an optimistic one. Part of the problem is that in many places cybercrime pays much better than legitimate work, including security research. “As the panelists explained, a single spam message might be tied to as many as 10 separate [...]
At first, we were not really sure where the interesting Carrier vs Subs series by Martin Sieff was going, and to be honest, it is still unclear where his conclusions lie, but as a discussion topic we find the series quite interesting and compelling for analysis. The first, second, and third part of his series [...]
“Black Hat” is the new “Jarhead” for cyber warfare
A great inside look at a Pentagon after-action report on that embarrassing nuke flub where the Air Force flew a couple doomsday weapons across the US without even knowing it. Let’s hope this report doesn’t just collect dust on some general’s shelf and that the recommendations are actually implemented. From our friends at Popular Mechanics: [...]
OrochimaruVoldemort writes “In an unexpected move, Microsoft has disclosed 14,000 pages of coding secrets. According to The Register: ‘This is Microsoft’s latest effort to satisfy anti-trust concerns of the European Union, which is possibly a tougher adversary for the company than Google.’ The article mentioned that this will be done in three phases. ‘Between now [...]
What some users thought was their imagination turns out to be a very real problem… [From Research Reveals Internet "Black Holes"]
The US Air Force’s new Cyber Command will not only serve as a standing reminder that “cyber” should’ve died in the 90′s with “multimedia,” but it will also mount online counter-attacks in response to military and economic espionage. [From US Air Force to China: our geeks can beat up your geeks]
superglaze writes “Lieutenant General Robert J Elder, Jr, a senior figure in US Air Force Cyber Command (AFCYBER), has told ZDNet UK that communication issues are hampering the division’s co-ordination. ‘IT people set up traditional IT networks with the idea of making them secure to operate and defend,’ said Elder. ‘The traditional security approach is [...]
