2012 Cybercrime Report - Cost to consumers: $20.7 billions

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Former Hacker: Today’s Hacks Are All About the Money

Former Hacker: Today’s Hacks Are All About the Money Hackers have changed since the days of The Matrix. While most hackers used to hold iconoclastic ideals, with aspirations to “shock the system” for a perceived common good, today’s hacker/cracker community is more concerned with making a quick buck...........

Rise Is Seen in Cyberattacks Targeting U.S. Infrastructure

July 26, 2012

By DAVID E. SANGER and ERIC SCHMITT (New York Times

ASPEN, Colo. — The top American military official responsible for defending the United States against cyberattacks said Thursday that there had been a 17-fold increase in computer attacks on American infrastructure between 2009 and 2011, initiated by criminal gangs, hackers and other nations.

The assessment by Gen. Keith B. Alexander, who heads the National Security Agency and also the newly created United States Cyber Command, appears to be the government’s first official acknowledgment of the pace at which America’s electricity grids, water supplies, computer and cellphone networks and other infrastructure are coming under attack. Those attacks are considered potentially far more serious than computer espionage or financial crimes. 

General Alexander, who rarely speaks publicly, did not say how many attacks had occurred in that period. But he said that he thought the increase was unrelated to the release two years ago of a computer worm known as Stuxnet, which was aimed at taking down Iran’s uranium enrichment plant at Natanz. 

When the worm inadvertently became public, many United States officials and outside experts expressed concern that it could be reverse-engineered and used against American targets. General Alexander said he saw no evidence of that. 
General Alexander, as head of the N.S.A., was a crucial player in a covert American program called Olympic Games that targeted the Iranian program. But under questioning from Pete Williams of NBC News at a security conference here, he declined to say whether Stuxnet was American in origin; the Obama administration has never acknowledged using cyberweapons. 

General Alexander said that what concerned him about the increase in foreign cyberattacks on the United States was that a growing number were aimed at “critical infrastructure,” and that the United States remained unprepared to ward off a major attack. On a scale of 1 to 10, he said, American preparedness for a large-scale cyberattack is “around a 3.” He urged passage of legislation, which may come to a vote in the next week, that would give the government new powers to defend private computer networks in the United States. The legislation has prompted a struggle as American companies try to avoid costly regulation on their networks, and some civil liberties groups express concern about the effect on privacy. 

General Alexander said that the administration was still working out rules of engagement for responding to cyberattacks. Because an attack can take place in milliseconds, he said that some automatic defenses were necessary, as was the president’s involvement in any decisions about broader retaliation.

He confirmed that under existing authorities, only the president had the power to authorize an American-directed cyberattack. The first such attacks occurred under President George W. Bush. 

The Pentagon has said previously that if the United States retaliated for an attack on its soil, the response could come in the form of a countercyberattack, or a traditional military response. 

General Alexander spoke in a 75-minute interview at the Aspen Security Forum at the Aspen Institute here. The New York Times is a media sponsor of the four-day conference. Another conference speaker, Matthew Olsen, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, addressed the escalating “hot war” between Israel and Iran and Iranian-backed groups like Hezbollah.

Iran has blamed Israel for assassinations of several of its nuclear scientists. Israel has accused Hezbollah operatives backed by Iran of carrying out the suicide bombing last week that killed five Israeli tourists and a local bus driver in Bulgaria. 

The United States has said Iran was behind a thwarted plot last fall to kill Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States. 

“Both with respect to Iran and Hezbollah, we’re seeing a general uptick in the level of activity around the world in a number of places,” Mr. Olsen said.

Mr. Olsen did not address the Bulgaria attack, but he said the plot to kill the Saudi envoy in Washington “demonstrated that Iran absolutely had the intent to carry out a terrorist attack inside the United States.” MORE IN U.S. (12 OF 27 ARTICLES) Quiet Duo Forged Road Deal for U.S. and Pakistan Read More »

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The Flame Burning Inside Stuxnet

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BTOD (Bring Your Own Device) Whitepaper

Good whitepaper: BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). See how companies are coping with the influx of these devices in the workplace. Click here.

Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) H.R. 3532

The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) H.R. 3532 is a new bill being introduced in Congress that is gunning to blast the ongoing cyber attacks that have occurred since internet users figured out the keyboard could be an effective weapon. If passed through Congress, the bill would allow the government access to personal correspondence of any person of their choosing. Once again, we are being fucked by those nosey neighbors in our government.

You should be very mad and very afraid because CISPA is far worse than SOPA and PIPA in its effects on the internet. The wording of this bill is mumbo jumbo, vague and broad. Reading through the nonsense, basically the act would allow Congress to circumvent existing exemptions to online privacy laws, and would allow the monitoring and censorship of any user of the internet. Peeping Toms will be wetting their pants. The real kicker (in our asses) is that it will also allow the government to stop online communications which they deem critical or disruptive to them. They can even decide they don’t like what you say about other private parties and shut you down.

The Center for Democracy and Technology states that CISPA would allow Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to “funnel private communications and related information back to the government without adequate privacy protections and controls. The bill does not specify which agencies ISPs could disclose customer data to, but the structure and incentives in the bill raise a very real possibility that the National Security Agency or the DOD’s Cybercommand would be the primary recipient.” Holy Bejeezers, where are Batman and Robin when you need them?

What will happen if we don’t stop CISPA?

CISPA effectively creates an exemption to all existing internet privacy laws. Pay attention here, because this means the government will have control over the entire internet, and would be able to censor anything they deem as a “threat” to national security. And what do those ding dongs deem a threat? Well, that is up for them to decide. With the power they would have, it would enable them to interpret anything as a potential “threat” if they really wanted to. Be afraid, very, very, very afraid.

This is just another trap to have our freedom stripped away even further. It is blaringly obvious that our very own government has slowly diminished the very freedoms we were promised at the inception of this “democracy.” It is painful that it may not appear obvious that each new bill that is introduced and passed in Congress contains many clauses that most Americans aren’t even aware of. This is why it is imperative we examine each new bill and law very closely. It is a shameful fact we have to protect ourselves from the very institution we pay to work in our best interest.

It blows my mind that social networks like Facebook support CISPA. Who is paying who off? Here is what Joel Kaplan, FB Vice President said was the reason they support the bill.

“One challenge we and other companies have had is in our ability to share information with each other about cyber attacks. When one company detects an attack, sharing information about that attack promptly with other companies can help protect those other companies and their users from being victimized by the same attack,” Kaplan wrote a blog post on Friday. “Similarly, if the government learns of an intrusion or other attack, the more it can share about that attack with private companies (and the faster it can share the information), the better the protection for users and our systems.”

Umm, what am I missing here? You need an anti-privacy law to get off your duff and let others know if you are being attacked? It is all to crazy making and once again we have to mobilize and put the pressure needed on our government to dump this dumb bill.

POSTED BY THN REPORTER ON 4/22/2012 10:09:00 AM
By:  Patti Galle, Executive Editor