Cyber Legislation Introduced Amidst Attacks
The numbers are out, according to eWeek, who recently published its list of the top 10 security stories of 2010. Not surprising: The Google-China hacking incident, the malicious computer worm Stuxnet and the wrath of WikiLeaks all top the list of cyber blunders we’ve seen over the past year.
Regarding the latter of the list-toppers, WikiLeaks continues to make news headlines this week, as its hacktivist supporters rage on, threatening to take down the websites of any anti-WikiLeaks affiliates who take action to condemn the controversial site and its founder Julian Assange.
According to the Associated Press, the British government fears that its websites are at risk of Wiki-backed attacks, as Assange, who is wanted in Sweden on allegations of rape, was scheduled to appear in British court today for his extradition hearing.
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More Notables Fall Victim to WikiLeaks Supporters’ Cyber Attacks
As WikiLeaks continues to take heat for exposing its latest batch of US government cables on the web, notable corporations and individuals that have taken action to condemn the website and its latest info-spew are also feeling the heat.
Rocked by a string of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) cyber attacks derived from WikiLeaks supporters, MasterCard, Visa, PayPal, Amazon, and even Sarah Palin were latest to have their websites fall victim to the work of WikiLeaks hacker-backers.
According to Reuters, MasterCard and Visa were hit with the DDoS attacks “in apparent retaliation for blocking of donations to the WikiLeaks website.”
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Increase in Cyber Attacks Seen Around the Globe
Cyber attacks are on the rise in the US and beyond. According to the National Journal, a top official at the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday said that the US government has seen an increase in cyber attacks intended to take control of the networks that navigate the nation’s critical infrastructure.
Including industrial facilities and pipelines on the list of targeted attacks, Greg Schaffer, assistant secretary for the DHS Office of Cybersecurity and Communications, said, “The government is tracking more and more cyber attacks that have a greater level of sophistication and are tailored to target specific types of industrial infrastructure, such as power grids,” the Journal reported.
Citing Stuxnet as one potential cyber threat, Schaffer would not comment on the attribution of the malicious computer worm, but noted that “defending information technology networks requires a balance between having protective measures but not impeding the ability of government workers to carry out their duties.”
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WikiLeaks Faces More Cyber Attacks, Congressional Condemnation
Earlier this week, Cybersecurity News reported on a weak cyber attack that briefly disrupted WikiLeaks, the controversial, whistleblowing website that recently took to posting thousands of secret US government documents on the Web.
But after repairing the site and releasing even more of its latest leaks, hackers have again stepped up to the digital plate to take a series of DDoS swings at WikiLeaks.
According to the New York Times this morning, the hackers also threatened to start launching larger attacks to include sites hosting WikiLeaks severs, including that of online shopping giant Amazon.com and EveryDNS.net, which hosts 500,000 domain names on the Web.
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Thanksgiving Catch-Up
Happy Thanksgiving, Cybersecurity News Readers!
Whether you’re waiting for your turkey to come out of the oven, or for the next football game to start, or maybe you just stumbled onto the site by accident, whatever it may be, I wanted to take a second to thank you all for your support here at CybersecurityNews.org.
And with that said, here’s a look at some of the latest cybersecurity headlines…
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DHS Official: Stuxnet is a ‘Game Changer’ Threat to US Cybersecurity
The threat of a cyber attack on the nation’s critical infrastructure is real. And Stuxnet, the highly sophisticated and malicious piece of software attacking industrial systems worldwide, is taking that threat to a new level, government officials and IT industry execs warned on Wednesday.
Testifying at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, witnesses alerted Congress of the need for an increased effort in securing the nation’s critical infrastructure before it faces potentially catastrophic damage posed by Stuxnet or any other emerging malware unleashed on corresponding control systems.
Recognizing that 85 percent of US necessity-based technology, including water purification and electricity generation systems, belongs to the private sector, Sean McGurk, Acting Director of the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center at the Department of Homeland Security, told the committee, “DHS takes threats to our private sector critical cyber infrastructure as seriously as we take threats to our conventional, physical infrastructure because our society and our economy depend on these networks and systems to operate effectively.”
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New Facebook Message System Will ‘Friend’ Cybersecurity
The tech world was buzzing yesterday as Mark Zuckerberg and his Facebook team launched its new messaging system, a tool that will seek to unify and simplify communication, incorporating emails, instant messages, texts, chats and other online conversations into one platform.
And while the means of communicating as we know it will become almost effortless for many of Facebook’s half a billion active users worldwide, those of us in the cybersecurity world couldn’t help but wonder if the site’s new “seamless messaging” would, in fact, prove to be seamless on all fronts, including that of security.
To track down those answers, Cybersecurity News caught up with Facebook to ask what precautions the social media giant would take to secure the new influx of user data and to seek out potential vulnerabilities before they are exploited.
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New Reports Find More US Cyber Vulnerabilities
A congressional commission is scheduled to release a report this week stating that Internet traffic, including that on US federal and military websites, was redirected through Chinese computer servers back in April.
Receiving an advance look at the report, the Washington Times this morning said that the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission found that almost 15 percent of the world’s Internet traffic, including .gov and .mil websites, “were affected by the 18-minute-long April 8 redirection, including those for the Senate, all four military services, the office of the secretary of defense, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Department of Commerce, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ‘and many others,’ as well as commercial websites including those of Dell, Yahoo, Microsoft and IBM.”
According to the report, while it is not yet clear if the redirect was an intentional breach of security, “at the very least, these incidents demonstrate the inherent vulnerabilities in the Internet’s architecture.”
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Congress & Cybersecurity: On-Again, Off-Again… Again
Turns out cybersecurity may not be dead in 2010. Remember Stuxnet, the ol’ computer worm wreaking havoc on major industrial systems around the globe, including that of Iran’s nuclear power plant?
Well, it’s back. Or maybe it never left. But this time, it’s back on the Congressional platter, as an item of interest to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs.
According to the Committee’s calendar, a hearing will take place on the morning of Wednesday, November 17, to discuss “Securing Critical Infrastructure in the Age of Stuxnet.”
Panel witnesses for the hearing include: Sean McGurk, Acting Director, National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center for the US Department of Homeland Security; Michael J. Assante, President and CEO of the National Board of Information Security Examiners; Dean Turner, Director of Global Intelligence Network for Symantec Corporation; and Mark W. Gandy, Global Manager of IT Security and Information Asset Management for Dow Corning Corporation.
Stay tuned for the outcome…
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