Police to begin iPhone iris scans amid privacy concerns Hacker Attack Disrupts Al-Qaeda Communications UPDATE: Analysis of the attack available here: The Game of Whack-A-Mole: Was Al-Shamukh Hacked? Reports are circulating that indicate unidentified hackers have caused a major disruption to online communications channels used by the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda. Flashpoint Partners' Evan Kohlmann, whose research was key to NBC news breaking the story, said the online terrorist forum was not merely compromised or defaced, but had actually been "wiped clean". “Al-Qaeda's online communications have been temporarily crippled, and it does not have a single trusted distribution channel available on the Internet," said Kohlmann. Kohlmann indicated that the attackers used “relatively sophisticated techniques” and that the network will probably take several days to return to an operational state. "Al-Qaeda the brand name just lost its broadcast channel. “Hacking attacks by amateur cybervigilantes typically involve one technique, be it DDOS or SQLI.
Behind the CIA's Secret Somalia Operations | Countdown with Keith Olbermann To Our Faithful Current.com Users: Current's run has ended after eight exciting years on air and online. The Current TV staff has appreciated your interest, support, participation and unflagging loyalty over the years. Your contributions helped make Current.com a vibrant place for discussing thousands of interesting stories, and your continued viewership motivated us to keep innovating and find new ways to reflect the voice of the people. We now welcome the on-air and digital presence of Al Jazeera America, a new news network committed to reporting on and investigating real stories affecting the lives of everyday Americans in every corner of the country. Thank you for inspiring and challenging us. – The Current TV Staff
Sorry, but the TDL botnet is not 'indestructible' | Malware The sophistication of the TDL rootkit and the global expanse of its botnet have many observers worried about the antimalware industry's ability to respond. Clearly, the TDL malware family is designed to be difficult to detect and remove. Several respected security researchers have gone so far as to say that the TDL botnet, composed of millions of TDL-infected PCs, is "practically indestructible." As a 24-year veteran of the malware wars, I can safely tell you that no threat has appeared that the antimalware industry and OS vendors did not successfully respond to. It may take months or years to kill off something, but eventually the good guys get it right. With each ratcheting iteration of new malware offense, you had analysts and doomsayers predicting this or that particular malware program would be difficult to impossible to defend against. Even today's malware masterpiece, Stuxnet -- as perfect as it is for its intended military job -- could be neutralized if it became superpopular.
Pentagon Set To Track Social Media Doubt the power of social media? The Pentagon doesn’t. A new project from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency focuses on social media tracking. It’s possible you haven’t heard of The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). It seems like DARPA would have more important things to do than track tweets, but a new project, titled the Social Media in Strategic Communication, suggests that DARPA may spend up to $42 million on a project designed to track social media. In other words, what happened in Egypt was enough to spook the American government. What will the project include? “1. and concepts (memes), and (b) purposeful or deceptive messaging and misinformation. 2. sites and communities. 3. 4. To accomplish these goals, DARPA identifies various strategies it will use, including modeling communities, content generation, crowd sourcing and social media bots. It sounds more like the plot for a sci-fi movie starring Matt Damon than it does a concrete military plan.
Security researchers discover 'indestructible' botnet 30 June 2011Last updated at 11:34 Cracking the TDL-4 botnet is going to be hard, say security experts. More than four million PCs have been enrolled in a botnet security experts say is almost "indestructible". The botnet, known as TDL, targets Windows PCs and is difficult to detect and shut down. Code that hijacks a PC hides in places security software rarely looks and the botnet is controlled using custom-made encryption. Security researchers said recent botnet shutdowns had made TDL's controllers harden it against investigation. The 4.5 million PCs have become victims over the last three months following the appearance of the fourth version of the TDL virus. The changes introduced in TDL-4 made it the "most sophisticated threat today," wrote Kaspersky Labs security researchers Sergey Golovanov and Igor Soumenkov in a detailed analysis of the virus. A botnet is a network of computers that have been infected by a virus that allows a hi-tech criminal to use them remotely.
Love Lulz & Cyanide Chinese Military Slips Up And Broadcasts Cyberwar Campaign Against U.S. Targets If an Agent Knocks: Federal Investigators and Your Rights by the Feature Picture by Maddy Miller People opposing U.S. policies in Central America, giving sanctuary to refugees from Guatemala and El Salvador, struggling for Black liberation, and against nuclear weapons, are today more than ever likely to receive visits from FBI agents or other federal investigators. Increasingly, agents are also visiting the familist, friends, and employers of these activists. Political intelligence is information collected by the government about individuals and groups. No. In 1976, FBI guidelines regulating the investigation of political activities were issued by Attorney General Edward H. The report exposed the FBI’s counter-intelligence program (COINTELPRO) under which the agency infiltrated groups, compiled dossiers on, and directly interfered with individuals engaged in activities protected by the First Amendment rights to freedom of expression and association. The FBI COINTELPRO program was initiated in 1956. 1. 2. 3. Never without a lawyer. Published by
Kioptrix Saying it’s been awhile is an understatement. Almost 2 years without a new vulnerable VM and over 2 years without a blog post. I only have myself to blame, but work and family life takes up most of my waking hours. This is a hobby and hobbies come last. I must start by saying how shocked I am with the reception my VMs have received since their inception. I never expected this little project would turn out the way it did. Why the new VM The original idea behind my VMs has always been about learning, not only for the people downloading them but for me as well. This new machine is no different. Why build these things… Which brings me to another point I wish to blabber about, why build these things. If you’re building a VM to submit to vulnhub.com (as an example), then you need to pay attention to how your machine reacts to scans and attacks. So I’ve come to the part where I’m babbling and writing for the sake of writing which is my queue to stop. -loneferret About the VM
Schlag gegen Anonymous: FBI nimmt 14 mutmaßliche Hacker fest - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Nachrichten - Politik Washington - Die Ermittler schlugen gleich in mehreren Teilen des Landes zu: Die US-Bundespolizei FBI hat nach Angaben des Justizministeriums bei insgesamt 35 Razzien 14 mutmaßliche Mitglieder der Hackergruppe Anonymous festgenommen. Die Frauen und Männer im Alter von 20 bis 42 Jahren wurden demnach in Alabama, Arizona, Kalifornien, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio und im District of Columbia verhaftet. Sie werden verdächtigt, die Internetseite des Bezahldienstes PayPal angegriffen zu haben, nachdem das Unternehmen die Spendenabwicklung für die Enthüllungsplattform Wikileaks eingestellt hatte. Die Razzien seien Teil einer Ermittlung zu "koordinierten Cyber-Attacken gegen große Unternehmen und Organisationen" gewesen, hieß es. Im Zuge der Ermittlungen wurden vier weitere Personen in den Niederlanden und ein Verdächtiger in Großbritannien festgenommen. Wegen weiterer Cyberattacken auf Unternehmen und Organisationen stellte das FBI 35 Haftbefehle aus. News verfolgen
Hackers of the World Unite Computer networks have been on guard for decades against individuals trying to “hack” them. But networks now face a larger danger from mass attacks, warns IT security analyst Richard Stiennon. “The new trend is to mobilize forces over the Internet to engage in the equivalent of mass online protests,” writes Stiennon in his latest book, Surviving Cyberwar. Political groups, organized-crime syndicates, and some governments launch distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, which direct hundreds, thousands, or millions of computers to simultaneously strike a single Web site. In 2007, when Estonia enacted laws that some Russian-Estonians opposed, denial of service attacks from some 80,000 IP addresses based in Russia sabotaged the Web sites of Estonian government agencies, banks, and telecommunications companies. Stiennon blames many attacks on Nashi, a 120,000-member Russian nationalist youth association. He points out that DDoS attacks carry few risks for the perpetrators.