Lost in the wires

Cyber-Legislation Bill Approved by House, Senate Prepares Its Own

cybernews — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:31:33 +0000

As federal officials and the White House increasingly call on Congress to pass the comprehensive cyber-security bill to protect critical infrastructure, the House moves forward with its version. - Federal law enforcement officials expect cyber-espionage, hacktivists and cyber-attacks to soon surpass traditional terrorism as the No. 1 threat facing the United States, according to Congressional testimony. quot;Stopping terrorists is the No. 1 priority, quot; Robert Mueller, director of th...

Faster progress needed on cyber-security, says adviser

cybernews — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:33:04 +0000

Dame Pauline Neville-Jones says corporations are heading in the right direction but people still do 'silly things'

Ministers need to speed up work on cyber-security because the public and a vast swathe of business have yet to appreciate the threats posed by online crime, a government adviser has said.

Dame Pauline Neville-Jones said the strategy was heading in the right direction but needed a push to raise awareness because people were still doing "silly things".

"I think the direction is right but the speed is not nearly enough … it needs much more momentum behind this," said Neville-Jones.

She suggested the need for some advertising that would stick in everyone's minds, like the "clunk-click" campaign to encourage people to wear seatbelts. The government could not do the work by itself, she said, but it did need to take a proper lead.

"People are entitled to look to government to take a lead and impress upon people the importance of this. It has a responsibility to strengthen its own systems, and … it needs to strengthen rather modest police capability.

"I do think that the Cabinet Office, which is in the lead on this, needs to plot some metrics, have a timetable of various stages that need to be achieved, and audit the progress."

Neville-Jones is a former security minister who is now the government's special representative to business on cyber-security. In a speech for the Global Strategy Forum thinktank, she said people were struggling to understand the threats confronting them, and not nearly enough businesses take the issue seriously.

The government had to be prepared to use the "bully pulpit" to raise consciousness and understanding, she said.

"There is a vast swathe of corporates who have valuable intellectual property, much more valuable than they understand, which is inadequately protected," she said.

"They don't even realise it has been stolen. They don't even know they have been the subject of attack. They usually have to be told about it by a third party, most of them do not discover it for themselves. The level of awareness is nothing like it needs to be. This is a very, very serious state of affairs."

She added: "Despite all the scare stories, all the horror stories in the press, people go on doing silly things and careless things. Human nature is a problem."

Neville-Jones said she supported the recent decision by Michael Gove, the education secretary, to scrap the teaching of computer science in schools, and said universities needed to design relevant courses that attracted British graduates, "and not just Chinese graduates".

The lessons in school were "no more than jumped up PA studies that are being deserted by children who understand the subject better than their teachers". She said the skills base in this country was "totally inadequate" and that addressing this was "urgent and vital".

Hackers were becoming more sophisticated in the ways they attacked systems, she added, citing the case last year when 2m tonnes of carbon credits were stolen from the EU in the Czech Republic. Neville-Jones said the attack was preceded by a bomb scare that led to back-up computer systems being brought into use. The attack then took place on this back-up system, which was more vulnerable.

Nick Hopkins

VeriSign Breach May Actually Reaffirm Commitment To CA Model

cybernews — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:03:00 +0000

Proposals like DANE to roll up certificate issuance into DNS show that trusting domain registrars just as risky as trusting CAs Continue reading →

Joomscan Security Scanner updated to 611 Joomla vulnerabilities Database

THN Reporter — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:01:00 +0000

Joomscan Security Scanner updated to 611 Joomla vulnerabilities Database Another huge update coming from Security Team Web-Center that Joomscan Security Scanner is now updated to 611 Joomla vulnerabilities Database. Last update for this tool was in November, 2011 with 550 vulnerabilities in Database. In joomscan you can check for new updates with command: ./joomscan.pl check or .

The Avengers Super Bowl XLVI Extended Commercial

geekstuff — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:00:30 +0000

You’ve probably all seen the short version, but here’s the extended one that was presented during the Super Bowl last night. Enjoy!

Symantec Identifies Android Trojans That Mutate With Every Download

cybernews — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:04:00 +0000

angry tapir writes "Symantec researchers have identified a new premium-rate SMS Android Trojan that modifies its code every time it gets downloaded in order to bypass antivirus detection. This technique is known as server-side polymorphism and has already existed in the world of desktop malware for many years, but mobile malware creators have only now begun to adopt it."

Job-seeking Marriott hacker gets 30 months’ porridge

John Leyden — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:03:03 +0000

Google’s New App Mall Cop

cybernews — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Google last week announced it's beefed up security at the Android Market with a malware sniffing system called "Bouncer." Bouncer analyzes new and existing apps, as well as developer accounts. Before apps are allowed to be sold in the market, they're analyzed to see if they contain any known malware, spyware or trojans. Apps will also run in the Google cloud to see if they're exhibiting bad behavior. In addition, the bona fides of new developers are reviewed to prevent malicious devs from returning to the market after they've been eighty-sixed by Google.

Lek in IP-camera’s laat hackers meekijken

Cybernews-dutch — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:05:27 +0000

Een beveiligingslek in TRENDnet IP-camera's zorgt ervoor dat iedereen zonder inloggegevens kan meekijken. Continue reading →

Hackende, baaneisende sysadmin krijgt 30 maanden

Sebastiaan Bareman — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:44:00 +0000

Een Hongaarse systeembeheerder die dacht dat hij door een Amerikaanse hotelketen te hacken een baan kon afdwingen krijgt 30 maanden cel. Continue reading →