Weaponizing Space and the Emerging Space Warfare Arms Race

Satellites Jamming, Hijacking, Space SIGINT, Space Kill Vehicles are just the tip of the iceberg in the ongoing weaponization of Space. In previous posts "Who needs nuclear weapons anymore?", "EMP warfare - Electronic Domination in Reverse", and "Is a Space Warfare arms race really comming?" I expressed my opinion on the current and emerging efforts to install and experiment with space weapons, and mostly emphasized on the major problem - the arms race fear itself. What's also worth mentioning is how the original anti-missile defense system Star Wars, transformed from a defensive, to an offensive tool for warfare. SFAM at the CyberpunkReview.com made a good comment :

"Weaponizing space when there really isn't any competitor is a really bad idea. Truly though, the issue that obfuscates things is the US military's change from a threat-based acquisition system (where weapon systems were acquired to combat specific and verifyable threats) to a capability-based acquisition system is the problem. The switch to a capability-based system, being divorced from threats (since the Wall fell, most of the threats did as well), can find justification for new weapon systems even if there isn't a verifyable enemy or even a proven, irreplaceable need in warfare for the technology. Case in point - nobody is challenging the US for air surpremacy, yet we have massively expensive acquisitions underway for the F-22 (which should have been killed in 1991) and the F-35 (Joint Strike Fighter)."

Just came across to a great initiative aiming to act as a faciliator for debating the problem. The SpaceDebate.org aims to :

"expand the debate on the weaponization of space through a collaborative wiki-like tool for structured debate on a topic. You can learn more by taking the quick tour, reading the about page, or browsing our frequently asked questions. You can also jump into the debate by browsing our argument list or one of the positions"

I feel there's a more serious problem we should be discussing for the time being compared to the world's super powers waging wars in space, and it's called Near Earth Object Protection -- there's even a distributed client for tracking the hazard posed by NEOs. For instance, consider the following alternatives for combating the real threat in space - the universe itself :

"There’s been no shortage of ideas how to fend off unfriendly fire from the cosmos: laser beams, space tugboats, gravity tractor, and solar sails for example, as well as using powerful anti-NEO bombs, conventional as well as nuclear. Ailor, also Director of The Aerospace Corporation’s Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies, told SPACE.com that creative ways to deflect Earth-harming NEOs are far from being exhausted. People have put a lot of concepts on the table over time, Ailor said. Now we’re beginning to try and develop an organized way of looking at those things and finding out which ones are really viable in the short-term, medium-term, and what technologies do we need to protect and develop for the long-term as well."

I've always thought the human race is an experiment of a super intelligent race trying to figure out how long it's gonna take us to self-destroy our kind. In case you're interested in the current situation on space warfare, you can also go through the Space Security 2006 book (111 pages), and previous editions as well. An excerpt from the executive summary :

"A growing number of states, led by China, Russia, the US, and key European states, increasingly emphasize the use of space systems to support national security. Dependence on these systems has led several states to view space assets as critical national security infrastructure. US military space doctrine has also begun to focus on the need for “counterspace operations” to prevent adversaries from accessing space. Building on existing trends, in 2005 actors that included the EU, India, Israel, and Japan placed more emphasis on the national security applications of space. Israel and Japan introduced plans to boost surveillance capabilities from space. India’s Air Force urged the government to set up a Strategic Aerospace Command to better develop military space capabilities."

Don't look for enemies where there aren't still any, but deal with the real space threat. Camouflage, Concealment, and Deception (CC&D) techniques table courtesy of FAS's "Threats to United States Space Capabilities"

Related resources:
Space
SPAWAR Continue reading →

Scientifically Predicting Software Vulnerabilities

I recently came across to a research on "Modeling the Vulnerability Discovery Process" discussing :

"A few models for the vulnerability discovery process have just been published recently. Such models will allow effective resource allocation for patch development and are also needed for evaluating the risk of vulnerability exploitation. Here we examine these models for the vulnerability discovery process. The models are examined both analytically and using actual data on vulnerabilities discovered in three widely-used systems. The applicability of the proposed models and significance of the parameters involved are discussed. The limitations of the proposed models are examined and major research challenges are identified."

A handy summary of the report emphasises on how :

"The Alhazmi-Malaiya Logistic model has already seen success in its predictions:

-- In 2005, it predicted the number of vulnerabilities discovered in Windows XP would grow rapidly. It has indeed grown from 88 in January 2005 to 173 by the latest count, making the vulnerability density of XP comparable to that of earlier version of Windows.

-- The model predicted that very few new vulnerabilities will be found in Red Hat Linux 6.2, and the number has stayed unchanged at 117.

-- It predicted that the number of vulnerabilities of Windows 2000 will eventually range from 294 to 410. At that time of the prediction, the number was 172; it now is 250, and vulnerabilities are still being found."

Remember the U.S DHS's $1.24M bug hunt funding, that came up with a single X11 vulnerability? Money well spent for sure.

HD Moore who's obviously getting efficient, the potential of contests, futures market models, and my speculation on "every day there's a new 0day in the wild" ruin the effect of any model. Assuming no external factors influence the process, and the rest remain static -- while they rarely do -- it's a great initiative, still, more of a scientifically shooting into the dark one, given the great deal of uncertanties, and decentralized model of discovering, reporting, using and abusing vulnerabilities. If historical performance matters and can act as a key indicator for predicting the future, I wonder would MACs lack of vulnerabilities continue to generate hype, it's more of a "lack of incentives to find some" type of issue. Today's vibrant vulnerability research intrigue is indeed capable of ruining any model.

I also came across to a great point, indicating that :

"After the first week of flaws were released, one online miscreant from Russia shot off an e-mail to Moore, complaining that he had outed a vulnerability the Russian had been exploiting, Moore said.
"The black hats don't like that the fact that this is public because they have been using these bugs," Moore said. "By dumping out the bugs on the community, I'm clearing the air and letting the good guys know what others are doing."

From my point of view, the existence and usefulness of Metasploit is precisely the same type of dilema whether citizens should be allowed to carry guns for self-protection or blindly rely on 500 police officers for 500,000 people. Hopefully, with initiatives like the Month of the Browser bug ones, we would inevitably break through the "yet another 0day, where's my patch dude? type of security issues to deal with. At the bottom line that's a single, efficient security researcher who's definitely working on building more awareness on what the corporate trolls are ignoring for the sake of their product portfolio diversification.

It's also interesting to mention on the emerging underground 0bay model for selling 0day vulnerabilities :

"Cyber crooks are not hesitant to make such open declarations of illicit intent because of the anonymity offered by the Internet. Some have had the gall to try and peddle their information on popular online auction sites such as eBay. Last December eBay pulled an ad that was selling vulnerability information about Microsoft's spreadsheet program Excel. That was a bold, if foolhardy, move on the part of the seller, because eBay is hardly blackmarket at all, said Ross Armstrong, senior analyst at technology consultancy firm Info-Tech Research Ltd. in London, Ont."

and its corporate form, on which Sergio Hernando was kind enough to point me to. The VulnDisco Pack Professional :

- contains more than 80 exploits
- each month about 5-10 new exploits are made available in the form of updates
- VulnDisco Pack Professional licenses are not limited to a number of seats

and you can actually see an OpenLDAP 0day exploit in action for yourself.

Metasploit image courtesy of Metasploit's blog.

Related resources and posts:
Vulnerabilities
0day
Was the WMF vulnerability purchased for $4000?!
0bay - how realistic is the market for security vulnerabilities?
Where's my 0day, please?
Delaying Yesterday's "0day" Security Vulnerability
Shaping the Market for Security Vulnerabilities Through Exploit Derivatives
Getting paid for getting hacked Continue reading →

North Korea's Cyber Warfare Unit 121

In a previous post, "Who's Who in Cyber Warfare" I commented on a very informative research on the topic, and pointed out that :

"Technology as the next Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) was inevitable development, what's important to keep in mind is knowing who's up to what, what are the foundations of their military thinking, as well as who's copying attitude from who. Having the capacity to wage offensive and defense cyber warfare is getting more important, still, military thinkers of certain countries find network centric warfare or total renovation of C4I communications as the panacea when dealing with their about to get scraped conventional weaponry systems. Convergence represents countless opportunities for waging Cyber Warfare, offensive one as well, as I doubt there isn't a country working on defensive projects."

Recently, there's been some movement from North Korea's Cyber Warfare unit 121, one that :

"North Korea set up about eight years ago with some 1,000 personnel, said the intelligence official, who declined to be named because it was the agency's policy to remain anonymous. The North's operation, called unit 121, "has hacked into the South Korean and U.S. Defense Department" and has caused much damage in the South, the official said without elaborating."

According to numerous articles on recent "anomalies" at unclassified U.S state department systems, these might actually have to do with the group's actions itself -- quite a momentum to take advantage of, isn't it? Any country's interest in establishing cyber war forces shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. But while North Korea is trying to balance its military powers through asymmetric and cyber warfare approaches given its outdated conventional weaponry thinking, I feel the real beast to worry about is China, who's sneakily hiding behind its currently strategic economic position. As the latest report on "Military Power of the People’s Republic of China 2006" points out :

"The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has established information warfare units to develop viruses to attack enemy computer systems and networks, and tactics and measures to protect friendly computer systems and networks."

Taiwan is reasonably taking note on China's historical cyber warfare actions and has recently initiated its first cyber war game simulating attack from China :

"The drill, part of the island's annual major war game Hankuang No. 22, was held Wednesday and Thursday to intercept, block and counter a possible Chinese cyber attack of Taiwan's major computer network to paralyze the island's intranet operation, the Central News Agency quoted an unnamed defence source as saying."

Let's don't forget the use and abuse of island hopping points fueling further tensions in key regions and abusing the momentum itself, physically locating a network device in the future IPv6 network space is of key interest to all parties.

War room courtesy of Northrop Grumman.

Related resources:
Information Warfare
Cyber Warfare Continue reading →

Spreading Psychological Imagination Streams

Wish I could reference all the copywriting materials I've ever written and got commissioned for, but I'd rather we play a "words creativity" game. There's no better personal benchmark for keeping yourself in a good shape, and most importantly, indirectly summarizing what's going on in my head at a particular moment, than of coming up with random/instant sentences out of key words I come across to while reading an article. Enjoy, and remember a key word is worth a thousand sentences!

Wordlist :
- Breed
- Cupidity
- Intermediaries
- Powerhouse
- Quadrupled
- Commodities
- Proliferation
- Liquidity
- Licensing
- The arms race
- Competitiveness

Outcome :
- The boom of the Web, and the now experienced dotcom industry, has generated a whole new breed of wannabe entrepreneurs

- From some people's point of view, cupidity is just profit-maximization

- Among Dell's most important strategic objectives were to cut the intermediaries, thereby lowering the final price of a PC and stealing market share. Trouble is, hardware turned into a commodity these days

- AOL - the Internet's powerhouse from the early days of the Web itself, got the necessary attention from both, Microsoft, and Google due to the highly competitive atmosphere the rivals created. Eyeballs converted into revenue sources

- Since the standartization of advertising creative, online ad revenues quadrupled

- Commodity markets are the true nirvana when it comes to betting and the potential to gain enormous returns in a short period of time

- The proliferation of false statements by the Senator, has resulted in decline in our sales due to privacy concerns

- Achieving liquidity should be issue number one for a less capital goods intensive organization

- Licensing not only cuts R&D costs, it also provides a company with the ability to gain competitive advantage, and improve its value-added proposition next to its rivals' ones

- The arms race in patents and brands registering across the world, has resulted in a great deal of still unused, and in beta mode of testing technologies and names

- The competitiveness in the Business Services market segment that IBM was seeking, is among the main reasons for their sale of the company's entire PC units devision -- today's Lenovo

An analysis of hard cover security ads from the most popular business magazines will follow at the beginning of the week. Actual shots, the messages themselves and detailed recommendations are to be included as well. Information security and business always tend to intersect, excluding one is like ignoring the other. Continue reading →

India's Espionage Leaks

You may find this brief overview of Indian security's leaky past cases informative :

- "Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) hard drive theft. The hard drives were stolen from the offices of the Scientific Analyses Group (SAG) and the Institute for System Studies and Analyses (ISSA) inside the DRDO complex. The SAG is responsible for cryptography. In other words, all codes and cyphers to ensure communication security for the defence forces have an SAG stamp. The ISSA, on the other hand, analyses competing weapons systems for induction into the armed forces."

- "Rabinder Singh. It is said there was a question mark over his reliability since the early 1990s when he began an operation for the collection of intelligence about US government activities in South Asia through a sister of his, who was employed in a sensitive US agency with links to the CIA."

- "Rattan Sehgal. The IB's counter-intelligence division reportedly found that a woman CIA officer posted in the US embassy was in contact with government servants and others on a mobile telephone, allegedly registered in the name of their boss, the suspect IB officer."

- "KV Unnikrishnan. During those jaunts in Singapore, compromising photographs of the stewardess and her lover were taken. These photographs and other documents were recovered by mid ’86 and it was learnt that Unnikrishnan was working for the CIA."

- "Larkins Brothers. The Larkins’ interrogations led to the arrest of Singh and it was found that Jockey and Bud were CIA operatives."

- "Samba Spy Case. By 1974, he began working for its army's Field Intelligence Unit at Sialkot on a regular basis. In the June of 1975, Dass was arrested on suspicion of espionage but by then he had persuaded some of his colleagues (including a certain Aya Singh) to become accomplices."

Understanding the past means predicting or at least constructively speculating on the future. Insider leaks due to HUMINT recruitment activities may seem to have vanished given the increasing number of IT-dependent infrastructures and the insecurities their connectivity brings -- SIGINT taking over HUMINT espionage. While modern spy gadgets remain trendy, this very same connectivity has resulted in various hacktivism tensions in the past, namely the India vs Pakistan cyberwar, and, of course, MilW0rm's infamous speculation on breaching India's Bhabha Atomic Research Center through the use of U.S military servers as island-hopping points.

Office surveillance graph courtesy of BugSweeps. Continue reading →

South Korea's View on China's Media Control and Censorship

Got bored of China's Internet censorship efforts, and its interest to control mobile communications as well? I haven't, and I doubt I ever will given China is among the many other countries on the world's map actively restricting access to information, and, of course, controlling the way it reaches the final audience -- if it does.

A recent article at The Korean Times, makes some very good points on the cons of censoring the reporting of "sudden events", and the typical for a (modern) communist type of government, total centralization. It emphasises on how :

"Beijing's approach is fundamentally flawed. The news media is a positive force in society. A free press is necessary to keep the government on its toes, especially when the government itself is not accountable to the public. Restricting the press will result in a public that is kept in the dark and in local governments whose excesses will no longer be subject to scrutiny.

Beijing should understand that many of today's problems today stem from abusive local officials. Premier Wen Jiabao acknowledged at a press conference in March that some local governments have infringed upon the legitimate rights and interests of the people, and social conflicts have subsequently occurred.

In this struggle between victimized farmers and avaricious officials, the press—and the central government—are on the same side. Muzzling the press will only deprive the victims of a powerful champion while enabling grasping officials to line their pockets without fear of being exposed. Surely, this cannot be what the Chinese government wants."

In case of a "sudden event" I feel they'd rather be winning time compared to keeping it quiet, then again I guess ruling one of the largest nation in the world while trying to maintain stability -- FDI matters folks -- is a dauting task, but one not necessarily having to do with ignoring the situation. Government accountability and possible changes in voting attitudes in China don't exist, mainly because there isn't any other party, but THE party, therefore historical (under)performance doesn't count at all.

In comparison, whereas Chinese citizens suffer from the lack of information or the blocked access to it, in the U.S there's a controversial debate going on regarding over-performing investigative journalists revealing details thought to be sensitive to national security, and the overall availability of potentially sensitive information to the general public. The problem isn't the "leak" as it's a common sense practice, but the publicity it got in the post 9/11, privacy-preserving society -- or at least one trying to. Doesn't really matter if the FOIA turned forty, "redacting" is often misspelled for censorship, in between the lines of personal and sensitive information.

At the bottom line, government practices' transparency with the help of the media watchdogs, a government incapable of knowing the exact state of a situation by itself, or the notion of too much publicly available information in today's OSINT world, up to you to decide, just don't rule, run business, or blog, by excluding the middle, or you'll sooner or later face with it in one way or another. Continue reading →

Security Research Reference Coverage

I’ve recently started getting more requests on participating or guiding to a certain extend, student theses and various other research papers. There's nothing more pleasant than exchanging points of view, don't preach, but teach and question everything is what I have in mind. So, I've decided to share some publications featuring some of my previous papers, and by the way, I'm very near to releasing two research papers on hot topics that emerged during 2006, so stay tuned!

Online Media
- Quoted in an article by Arthur G. Insana for ImediaConnection.com back in 2004, discussing the various threats posed by trojan horses. Trouble is, I'm no longer affiliated with the company. Respect the individual!
- Quoted in an article by Bill Brenner on the "Storm Worm" and social engineering when it comes to malware in general
- My paper on the future trends of malware got Slashdotted
- Security.nl covered the International Exploits Shop in an article
- Yet another article at Security.nl this time regarding my future trends of malware paper.
- Marc Olanié at Reseaux-Telecoms.net has been writing lots of articles regarding my research worth going through
- Microsoft, concepteur de virus
- Des truands, des failles, du business...
- Danchev sur l'Achat de failles
- Bientôt, le virus et l'attaque DoS on demand
- Encore et toujours F-Secure/Kaspersky...
- Clusif : le rapport criminalité 2005, chantages et escroqueries
- Le Cyber-Jihad fait trembler l'Amérique
- La vie secrète du phishing : 20/20 en éco et géographie
- Symantec : Boulevard du crime... et au delà

Research Papers/Academic
- Future of Malicious Code references my future trends of malware paper. Here's the French version
- Entwurf eines Kunstlichen Immunsystems zur Netzwerkuberwachung auf Basis eines Multi-Agenten-Systems references future trends of malware
- Limiting Vulnerability Exposure through effective Patch Management: Threat Mitigation Through Vulnerability Remediation references my best practices on security policies
- Developing a Security Policy refences my paper on security policies
- Policy Review references my paper on security policies

- Hu Xiaodong, “Security Centre for an Enterprise thesis”, CS Department, Stockholm’s University, references Building and Implementing a Successful Information Security Policy

- Jinqiao Yu, "TRINETR: An Intrusion Detection Alert Management and Analysis System dissertation", College of Engineering and Mineral Resources at West Virginia University, references Building and Implementing a Successful Information Security Policy

- Philippe Farges and Annick Tremblet, "Project on Trojans", Department of Computer Science Linkoping Institute of Technology, Sweden, references The Complete Windows Trojan Paper
- Fausi Qattan & Fredrik Thernelius, "Deficiencies in Current Software Protection Mechanisms and Alternatives for Securing Computer Integrity", Department of Computer and Systems Sciences
Stockholm University - Royal Institute of Technology, references The Complete Windows Trojan Paper
- Computer Knowledge, "Virus Tutorial" references The Complete Windows Trojan Paper
- Reyes, Juan Carlos, "Una Aproximación Teórica a la Prevención del Factor Humano en la Seguridad Informatica", references Reducing "Human Factor" Mistakes
- Rezan Fisli, "Secure Corporate Communications Over VPN-Based WANs", references Building and Implementing a Successful Information Security Policy
- Vo Khac Thanh, "An IT security policy framework", Asian Institute of Technology SAT : School of Advanced Technologies, references Building and Implementing a Successful Information Security Policy
- Rohmadi Hidayat, "Deteksi Trojan Dan Penanganannya", references The Complete Windows Trojan Paper
- Robert J. Kaufman III, "Susceptibilities Policy Review (Top-Down Methodology) Lesson 7 PPT", The University of Texas at San Antonio, College of Business, references Building and Implementing a Successful Information Security Policy
- "Trends of Spyware, Viruses and Exploits", references Malware - it's getting worse
- Steven M. Michnick, "Information Security Framework for Small and Medium Sized Businesses", references Passwords - Common Attacks and Possible Solutions
- Samer Catalan, "Trojan Horses", RWTH Aachen University, references The Complete Windows Trojan Paper
- Stephen M. Specht and Ruby B. Lee, "Distributed Denial of Service: Taxonomies of Attacks, Tools, and Countermeasures", Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing Systems, International Workshop on Security in Parallel and Distributed Systems, references The Complete Windows Trojan Paper

- Delwyn Lee, Adam Marks, David Bell, “Student Residence Secure Solutions Analysis of ResNet Security”, references Building and Implementing a Successful Information Security Policy

- Clarissa L. Evans Brown, “A Policy to prevent outsider attacks on the local network”, GSEC Practical Assignment, references Building and Implementing a Successful Information Security Policy

- Hatim Ali Badr, “Online home users Defense in Depth”, GIAC Practical Assignment, references The Complete Windows Trojan Paper

- Tim Strong, “PestPatrol in a Corporate Environment: A Case Study in Information Security” – GIAC Practical Assignment, references The Complete Windows Trojan Paper's Future of Trojans section

- Sorcha Canavan, "An Information Policy Development Guide for Large Companies" – GSEC, Practical Assignment, references Building and Implementing a Successful Information Security Policy

- Gregory R. Panakkal, “Advanced Survival Techniques in Malware”, Cochin University of Science and Technology, references The Complete Windows Trojan Paper

- Michael D. Thacker, "Effective Security Policy Management” – Virus Bulletin 2005 Conference, references Building and Implementing a Successful Information Security Policy

- My paper regarding security policies has been discussed in a network security course at the George Mason University

- University of Melbourne’s Network Security Course teaches on my security policies publication

- University of Houston are giving assignments on my security policies publication

- Tim Lackorzynski, "Future Trends of Malware PPT", Fakultät Informatik, Technische Universität Dresden, Proseminar Dependable Systems is discussing my "Malware - Future Trends" research
- Widener University have included my "Steganography and Cyber Terrorism Communications" in their forensics course reading materials Continue reading →

Delicious Information Warfare - 27/07

Given the interest in the perspective, I'm continuing to share my daily reads for the last week and a half. Catch up with previous summaries, and see the big picture as well.

01. The fine art of shoulder surfing - Many hackers download their tools but traditionalists skilled in shoulder surfing still pose a threat. to Security on july 2

02. VCs discuss the next big things - Cell phone gambling in China and other wireless trends are what venture capitalists at Brainstorm were talking about. to Investing Mobile on july 2

03. Life After Privacy - Personal information is no longer personal. The only question is: who gets to see it? to Security Privacy on july 2

04. Spy Agency Sought U.S. Call Records Before 9/11, Lawyers Say - The U.S. National Security Agency asked AT&T Inc. to help it set up a domestic call monitoring site seven months before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, lawyers claimed June 23 in court papers filed in New York federal court. to Intelligence Surveillance Wiretapping Terrorism NSA on july 2

05. MySpace, a place without MyParents - Scott Granneman looks at the mass hysteria surrounding MySpace social security issues, examines a collection of frightening reports, and then discusses the real issue of parenting and parental supervision behind keeping our children safe. to Security NewMedia MySpace on july 2

06. Limiting Vulnerability Exposure through effective Patch Management: threat mitigation through vulnerability remediation - This document aims to provide a complete discussion on vulnerability and patch management. It looks first at the trends relating to vulnerabilities, exploits, attacks and patches. These trends provide the drivers of patch and vulnerability management. to Vulnerabilities 0day on july 2

07. 'Blue Pill' Prototype Creates 100% Undetectable Malware - Joanna Rutkowska, a stealth malware researcher at Singapore-based IT security firm COSEINC, says the new Blue Pill concept uses AMD's SVM/Pacifica virtualization technology to create an ultra-thin hypervisor that takes complete control of the underlying.. to Malware Rootkit Technology on july 2

08. Hacker attacks hitting Pentagon - "This stuff is enormously important," said John P. Stenbit, the Pentagon's chief information officer until 2004. "If the keys get into the wrong hands, all kinds of bad things happen. to Defense InformationWarfare on july 2

09. Data Mining Myspace Bulletins - I was able to whip together a small C program that generates urls, retrieves the bulletin, and saves the html to a file. Once all of the data has been downloaded, it's easy to parse through using a tool like grep. to Security NewMedia MySpace on july 2

10. How A Trigger Set Off A Logic Bomb At UBS PaineWebber - A forensics investigator testifying at the computer sabotage trial of a former systems administrator for UBS PaineWebber detailed how each line of code in the trigger helped set off a devastating logic bomb. to Insider Malware on july 2

11. On the Economics of Information Security - Papers - The Fifth Workshop on the Economics of Information Security (WEIS 2006). to Security Leadership on july 2

12. What's Wrong with This Picture? - A messy desk is a vulnerable desk. We've created one with 20 egregious violations of a good policy. See if you can find them. to Security Workplace on july 2

13. Space attack on satellites could be devastating - If the US does not protect its Earth-orbiting satellites, the equivalent of a car bomb in space could take the economy back to the 1950s, according to witnesses testifying in Washington DC earlier this week. to Military Satellite Space SPAWAR on july 2

14. Air Force to spend $450K datamining blogs for war on terror - The Air Force Office of Scientific Research recently began funding a new research area that includes a study of blogs. Blog research may provide information analysts and warfighters with invaluable help in fighting the war on terrorism. to Intelligence Terrorism Surveillance Technology on july 2

15. How Did U.S. Assess Iraqi Bioweapon Production? - One of the most vivid allegations made by the U.S. government regarding Iraqi weapons of mass destruction was the claim that Iraqi had developed mobile laboratories for the production of biological weapons. to Intelligence on july 2

16. Month of Browser Bugs - I will publish one new vulnerability each day during the month of July as part of the Month of Browser Bugs project. to Vulnerabilities 0day Metasploit on july 3

17. IM's Hidden Dangers - But unlike water-cooler chatter, IMs leave a trail—one that can be tracked by employers, regulators, and law-enforcement officials. And like e-mail, IMs are considered legal documents. to IM Compliance on july 6

18. Trend Micro Execs Face Probe - Agency may charge CEO and her husband with trading in shares of his former company, SINA. Trend Micro reported revenues of $621.9 million in 2005, compared with $587.4 million in 2004. The company currently has nearly 3,000 employees around the world. to Investing AntiVirus on july 6

19. Blast from the past: '50s Nevada A-bombs light LA's night sky - In the early 1950s, several above-ground atom bomb tests at the Nevada Proving Ground were visible in Los Angeles. This photo and five similar ones from 1951-1955 are from the Los Angeles Public Library Photo Database. to Defense Nuclear Technology on july 6

20. FOIA at Forty - The fortieth anniversary of the Freedom of Information Act, signed into law by President Johnson on July 4, 1966, was marked with the release of several interesting and informative publications.
to FOIA on july 6

21. Early Days On The Anti-Virus Front: A Personal Perspective - An anti-virus programmer reminisces about the people and the organizations that were pivotal in the earliest days of the war against computer viruses.
to Malware AntiVirus on july 6

22. The Blue Pill Hype - The working prototype I have (and which I will be demonstrating at SyScan and Black Hat) implements the most important step towards creating such malware, namely it allows to move the underlying operating system, on the fly, into a secure virtual machine. to Malware Rootkit Innovation on july 6

23. New PoC virus can infect both Windows and Linux - The virus is interesting, said analysts on Kaspesky's Viruslist website, because it is capable of infecting ELF, the file format used for Linux systems, and PE, Windows' file format. to Malware on july 6

24. Iranian intelligence services ban access to Azerbaijani websites - He reported that the ban aims at depriving Iranian Azerbaijanis of the contact with the international community. to Censorship Intelligence Iran on july 6

25. Can the N.Y. Times Be Charged Under the Espionage Act? - Can The New York Times be prosecuted for their story about the government's secret terrorist finance tracking program? to Intelligence Espionage Terrorism FreeSpeech on july 6

26. Text messaging censorship: PITA, BFD, or BTHOM? - Text messaging and the first level of censorship begins at the phone. While it's certainly possible to enter any word using the alphabetic method in which a=2, b=2-2, c=2-2-2, d=3 and so on, it isn't very convenient. to Censorship Mobile on july 6

27. Iran Accuses Academic Of Espionage For U.S. - Iran today accused jailed academic Ramin Jahanbegloo of having spied for the United States, with the aim of toppling the ruling Islamic system. to Intelligence Espionage Iran on july 6

28. Italian intelligence officials arrested over CIA kidnap - Italian police arrested two officials with Italy's military intelligence agency on Wednesday on suspicion of helping the CIA in the alleged kidnapping of a terrorism suspect in Milan, judicial sources said. to Intelligence Espionage CIA on july 6

29. New York Times Draws Criticism Over Decision to Reveal Intelligence Program - Executive editor of the New York Times Bill Keller and former director of the NSA Admiral Bobby Inman debate the newspaper's publication of the Bush administration's surveillance of banking records and the process in deciding what is fit to print. to FreeSpeech on july 6

30. Hackers May Lose Nuclear Option - The risk was illustrated in 2003, when the Slammer worm penetrated a network at the idled Davis-Besse nuclear plant in Ohio, disabling a safety monitoring computer for nearly five hours. to SCADA Nuclear Cyberterrorism Malware on july 7

31. 3 arrested in Coca-Cola trade secret scheme - "As the health of our enterprise continues to strengthen and the breadth of our innovation pipeline continues to grow, our ideas and our competitive data carry increasing interest to those outside our business." to Insider Espionage on july 7

32. Proactive Protection: a Panacea for Viruses? - The first in a series of articles that discuss the newest technologies used by antivirus companies which focuses on proactive technologies. to Malware Innovation on july 7

33. Japan to speed up installation of missile defense system - The envisioned missile defense system will detect launches of ballistic missiles with Aegis and other sophisticated radar systems and shoot them down with the sea-based Standard Missile-3 and the land-based Patriot Advanced Capability-3. to Defense Military on july 7
34. FCC CALEA Wiretap Rule for Broadband and VOIP - This document addresses the assistance capabilities required, pursuant to section 103 of the (CALEA- for facilities-based broadband Internet access providers and providers of interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). to Security Terrorism Intelligence Wiretapping CALEA VoIP Compliance on july 7
35. Tensions Ramping up with North Korea - "The U.S. was hell bent on espionage over military objects of the DPRK in March when it staged large-scale RSOI and "Foal Eagle" joint military exercises, bringing about the dark cloud of nuclear warfare." to Defense Military Reconnaissance on july 7
36. Over 1,200 Cases of U.S. Aerial Espionage - Translated 2004 News Items - Involved in the aerial espionage were latest reconnaissance planes of different missions including U-2, RC-135, E-8C, E-3, RC-7B, RC-12, RF-4, P-3 and EP-3. to Espionage Military Reconnaissance on july 7
37. Interview : An Ethical Hacker Protects the World Cup Network - Dr. Tom Porter is the mastermind behind the security for the World Cup network and a lifetime hacker himself. He shares his thoughts about network security, hacking and protecting the World Cup network. to Security Interview Leadership on july 7
38. Google’s Microsoft Syndrome - Google has fixed a security flaw in its RSS reader that could have allowed hackers to steal users’ personal information, but experts warned Thursday that the online giant could increasingly become a magnet for hackers, displacing Microsoft as the No. 1 target to Vulnerability Google NewMedia Web on july 7
39. Hefty bill for online click fraud - Online advertisers paid more than $800m last year for fraudulent clicks on their ads and more than a quarter of them have reduced their spending as a result, according to a study by the Outsell media research firm. to NewMedia Advertising Investing on july 7
40. BitDefender Ships Anti-Rootkit Beta - The anti-virus vendor, based in Bucharest, Romania, on July 7 lifted the wraps off a new anti-rootkit utility that promises to spot and delete stealthy software programs that are used by malicious hackers to hide malware. to Malware AntiVirus Rootkit Technology on july 7
41. VPN market to hit $29bn by 2009 - The virtual private network (VPN) services market was worth $23bn (£12.5bn) in 2005 and is expected to grow another 22 per cent to hit $29bn (£15.8bn) by 2009, according to an industry analyst. to Security VPN Investing on july 7
42. US managers accused of industrial espionage - Three former US car industry executives have been accused of selling trade secrets to the Chinese. to Espionage Insider on july 7
43. Mod terror documents found in ditch - According to the newspaper, it includes phone numbers for the UK's most important military figures, such as the Defence Secretary, Chief of Defence Staff and Director of Special Force. to Security on july 7
44. Authorities say gangs using Internet - Some of the country's most notorious street gangs have gotten Web-savvy, showcasing illegal exploits, making threats, and honoring killed and jailed members on digital turf. to PSYOPS on july 7 Continue reading →

$960M and the FBI's Art of Branding Insecurity

In previous posts "Are cyber criminals or bureaucrats the industry's top performer?", and "Insiders - insights, trends and possible solutions" I emphasized on how bureaucracy results in major insecurities, and provided further info on various issues related to insiders and risk management solutions -- ones the FBI is obviously far from implementing given the access control issues they have in place. It seems like two years ago, a Consultant Breached FBI's Computers :

"A government consultant, using computer programs easily found on the Internet, managed to crack the FBI's classified computer system and gain the passwords of 38,000 employees, including that of FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III. The break-ins, which occurred four times in 2004, gave the consultant access to records in the Witness Protection Program and details on counterespionage activity, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Washington. As a direct result, the bureau said it was forced to temporarily shut down its network and commit thousands of man-hours and millions of dollars to ensure no sensitive information was lost or misused."

How he did it? With access to hashes and 90 days password expiration period, he had all the time in the world, excluding the fact that according to the article a FBI agent even game him his password.

Passwords are a hot topic, and so are the insecurities posed by them. Moreover, spending near $1B for a non-existent case system, while dealing with access control issues is rather unserious for thought to be serious institution -- have you guys considered an open source alternative? You wouldn't come across lots of developers with top-secret clearances applying for the top, but obviously a top-secret clearance cannot prevent insider behavior as well. Continue reading →

Travel Without Moving - North Korea Missile Launch Pad

Seems like it's North Korea's most active PR month given the public outbreak due to their unsuccessful launch of an intercontinental missile, so in these Travel Without Moving series I decided to feature the launch pad, originally came across it, nowhere else but at Cryptome's well sorted photo gallery of the event. Whereas the U.S is activating diplomatic ties in order to put more pressure on North Korea's tests, China and Russia among the rest of the superpowers seems to be teasing the U.S in a way only they can afford to -- let's don't forget the financial incentives for Russia to enrich Iran's uranium altogether. As far as Kim Jong Il is concerned, in between fueling growth in the infrastructure necessary to maintain a regime, he enjoys making secret meetings with ex-comrades while travelling to Moscow with his armoured train, as he's afraid of flying.

Previous series, related posts :
Travel Without Moving - Typhoon Class Submarines
Travel Without Moving - Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center
Travel Without Moving - KGB Lubyanka Headquarters
Travel Without Moving - Korean Demilitarized Zone
Travel Without Moving - Georgi Markov's KGB Assassination Spot
Travel Without Moving - Scratching the Floor

North Korea - Turn On the Lights, Please
Who Needs Nuclear Weapons Anymore?
Who's Who in Cyber Warfare?
Is a Space Warfare Arms Race Really Comming?
EMP Attacks - Electronic Domination in Reverse Continue reading →

How to Win the U.S Elections

Juicy barbecues, hugging babies, in between offering, and asking for the Moon days are over. E-voting is the future of technological political engineering. So, how can you win the U.S Elections?

01. Ensure one company holds a virtual monopoly in E-voting systems, thus contributing to yet another monocultural insecurity. If it naturally has some competition, insist its systems are placed in key regions, where barbecues wouldn't work.

02. Start a nation-wide PR campaign emphasizing on the benefits of E-voting. Mention it's innovative, it's going to cut costs while providing you with flexibility, the way it provides flexibity to citizens abroad, moreover, also emphasize on the increased speed of the results.

03. Make sure the rural areas where the masses of technologically unsophisticated citizens are the ones taking advantage of this immature concept. The point is that, even if there's an error, they got no chance of defining it.

04. If something "goes wrong" forward all the responsibility to the virtual monopolist, and promise pracautions against future possiblities for modifying the results -- anyway, sorry folks the elections are over, so till next time keep on speculating what actually happened.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the universe, where we should perhaps thank Jessus for coming up with more colours in live, than black and white only, I stumbled upon an Unredacted Diebold Black Box Voting Hack Reports with quite some disturbing images. Make sure the efficincy that you wish for, doesn't actually happen. A friend also tipped me on this quite longish report on the topic, and didn't forget to warn me to remove my 3D glassess before reading it either.

UPDATE : Interesting political reading related to veto power.

Clippy votes courtesy of the EFF. Continue reading →

BBC under the Intelligence Shadow

Nothing is impossible, the impossible just takes a little while. A relatively typical practices for the ex-USSR, namely controlling the media and profiling the journalists including the readers, seem to have been going on in London during the same period as well. According to the Sunday Telegraph, the BBC let intelligence agents vet staff :

"Confidential papers obtained by the Sunday Telegraph reveal that the British Broadcasting Corp. allowed intelligence agents to investigate the backgrounds and political affiliations of thousands of its employees, including newsreaders, reporters and continuity announcers. The files, which shed light on the BBC's hitherto secret links with the counter-espionage service known as MI5, show that at one stage it was responsible for vetting 6,300 BBC posts -- almost a third of the total work force. The procedure was phased out in the late 1980s. The files also show that the corporation maintained a list of "subversive organizations" and that evidence of certain kinds of political activity could be a bar to appointment or promotion."

If you can spell the name of the party while sleeping, and have subscribed to its periodical propaganda, only then you have the chance to unleash your career potential. I guess what they were worried about was an undercover Red reporter, taking advantage of live events and directly broadcasting a subvertive message -- remember when a guy invaded Truman's world in the "Truman show", and tried to warn the little kid he's on TV all the time? The interesting part is how even the spouses of applicants were subject to scrutiny.

There you go with the freedom of the press, I guess China must have had something in mind when blocking access to the BBC's web site. Continue reading →

China's Interest of Censoring Mobile Communications

Just came across to a great article at the IHT on China's interest of tightening control of cellphones :

"The new measures being contemplated for tightening control of cellphone use reportedly include mandatory user registration. Users now can easily buy cellphone cards at any convenience store, instantly obtaining a new phone number without identifying themselves. Whether through speech or short messaging, cellphones have played a major role in a wave of social unrest that has swept China in the last two years, allowing people to organize quickly and to spread news of police actions and other developments. Anonymous use of cellphones is a major loophole at a time when the state is investing heavily on monitoring communications of all kinds, and the authorities appear determined to close it"

Whereas there's been quite some media coverage on China's Internet censorship efforts, the country's under-developed income distribution model results in more people having access to plain simple cellphone communications compared to owning a PC. And even if they own a PC, or use public ones to access the Internet, information from China's provinces where the real China is, often breaks out through SMS messages -- or comes in. Venus Info Tech's Cybervision SMS Filtering System is what they've been using, and it seems it's the government's long-term partner. The article also points out on the illegality of reporting or broadcasting information on "sudden events", consider the SARS virus as one of these. Yet another in-depth article, indicates the only usefulness out of this censorship, or let's use a more friendly term, such as content monitoring/filtering, which is the detection of banking frauds and other scams -- can you censor "Bware, SMS unda ctrl" or learn to encode in such a way?

From a business perspective, the Chinese Internet population represents a hot opportunity for companies offering censorship-circumvention services -- IP cloaking and competitive intelligence among the other needs. It's interesting to note U.S government's interest in Chinese citizens having access to more information :

"Ultrareach and Dynamic Internet Technology (DIT) in North Carolina, both connected to Falun Gong, receive U.S. government funding through the International Broadcasting Bureau to help it get Voice of America and Radio Free Asia to Chinese Web surfers. Each day, DIT sends out millions of emails and text messages containing proxy links to Chinese citizens. About one million users have downloaded DIT's circumvention software, which automatically links to the firm's proxy servers, while ``hundreds of thousands'' directly access the proxy Web sites daily, said founder Bill Xia. UltraReach, claims 100,000 users use its proxies.All told, the IBB spends about $5 million a year on contracts with hacktivists and firms on censorship-busting efforts in countries such as China and Iran."

I also came across to an informative research on the topic, "The Wireless Leash : Mobile Messaging Service as a Means of Control". Recommended reading in case you want to know more on the topic from a social and political perspective, as well as go through many relevant cases.

UPDATE : China restricts Internet cafe access - "Rules on children in Internet cafes were imposed after Chinese officials warned that students were spending too much time playing online games and were getting access to violent and obscene material."

Related resources:
Censorship
China
2006 = 1984?
Anonymity or Privacy on the Internet?
World's Internet Censorship Map
China - the biggest black spot on the Internet’s map
Chinese Internet Censorship efforts and the outbreak
Securing political investments through censorship Continue reading →

Hacktivism Tensions - Israel vs Palestine Cyberwars

Oops, they did it again. The most recent case of hacktivism recently occurred :

"Shortly after IDF tanks rolled into Gaza, another old front of conflict was reopened early Wednesday morning, but in this battle Kassam rockets and artillery shells were replaced by worms and viruses as pro-Palestinian hackers shut down approximately 700 Israeli web domains. A range of different Web sites were targeted by the group, including Web sites of banks, medical centers, car manufacturers and pension funds.Well-known companies and organizations, including Bank Hapoalim, the Rambam Medical Center, Bank Otsar Ha-Hayal, BMW Israel, Subaru Israel and Citr en Israel, real estate company Tarbut-Hadiur and the Jump fashion Web site all found their Web sites shut down and replaced by the message: Hacked by Team-Evil Arab hackers u KILL palestin people we KILL Israel servers."

Zone-H has naturally covered the event and mirrored it, in between receiving an official PR release from the defacement group -- guess it's not just terrorists with cheap marketing teams given the badly structured press release. What these folks don't seem to be able to realize is that if they were to deface every web site hosting the infamous Muhammad cartoons, they would end up with a full-time job doing so. What's worth mentioning is the nature of defaced servers, banks, hospitals, private sector companies, my point is that if they were really up to causing havoc, they had the necessary privileges to do so. Let's not think on loud on worst case "what if" analysis though.

Defacements are a great example of PSYOPS , most importantly the indirect way of undermining a country's population confidence in their abilities to win any war or political campaign. During WWII brochures were laying around everywhere, and planes were dropping them across various cities to, either undermine, of influence the opinion of the locals towards their vision. The power of the Internet echo is what they're aiming to achieve, and while I may be whispering their "achievements" even further, the visitors of the affected sites partly got exposed to their propaganda. It's also to interesting to think of PSYOPS in reverse, that is users in countries with restrictive regimes trying to reach out the rest of world through malware -- beneficial malware, or beneficial PSYOPS?

What the current, emerging and future state of Hacktivism? In her outstanding research titled "Hacktivism and the Future of Political Participation", Alexandra Samuel points out some of the key points to keep in mind, and constructively speculates on the future trends.

At the bottom line, what's all the fuss about? No, it's not because an Israeli covert operative was kidnapped and held hostage, but because of an 18 years old "destruction machine" which reminds me of the way we used to argue and wage wars on the sand around the same age. The type of, "the wind has just blown your soldier way beyond the DMZ, and therefore we have no other choice but to attack you with all our forces. Resistance is futile!" conflicts.

Go to school, hell, even go to an ethical hacking one, or else you'll end up like a walking sausage having to squeeze yourself with a belt so tight in order not to have your pants fall down! Automated defacement tool shot courtesy of WebSense. And btw, how was your July Morning?

Related resouces :
Israeli-Palestinian Cyberconflict (IPCC) - the complete coverage back in 2001!
The Israeli-Palestinian Cyberconflict
Activism, Hacktivism, and Cyberterrorism : The Internet as a Tool for Influencing Foreign Policy
The Cycle of Cyber Conflict
Cyber Attacks During the War on Terrorism
Examining the Cyber Capabilities of Islamic Terrorist Groups
Cyberprotests : The Threat to the U.S Information Infrastructure
Analysis: U.S.-China 'cyberwar' fires blanks
Techno Imperialism and the Effect of Cyberterrorism
Cyberterrorism - don't stereotype and it's there!
Cyberterrorism - recent developments Continue reading →

Real-Time PC Zombie Statistics

Zombies inevitably turning into botnets represent a huge, automated and efficient advantage to malicious attackers, I topic and most of its dimensions I covered in my Future trends of malware research. CipherTrust's Zombie Stats help you measure the approximate population of infected zombie PCs according to the vendor's TrustedSource. Not surprisingly, China's steadily increasing novice Internet population, both represents a growing menace to the entire Internet, and a market development opportunity for AV and security vendors. The situation is getting of hand with ISPs upgrading Internet connections, while still not putting enough efforts when it comes to dealing with botnets. And while some are taking actions under enforcement, major ISPs are still reluctant to face the issue -- ISPs still prefer to offer security services on a license basis or through reseller partnerships, though I'm certain there's an entire market segment waiting to be discovered by them if they manage to reset their position in this space.

Moreover, Prolexic's Zombie report for Q1-Q2 2005, provides even more detailed info, and a neat visualization of the routes involved with DDoS attacks, where the blue represents the U.S, and the red China. For the the time being, the ShadowServer guys keep on enthusiastically dealing with the problem, for no profit at all. Continue reading →

The WarDriving Police and Pringles Hacking

These days you never know where the next hacking attempt on your wireless network may come from. In this case, it's from the police, as authorities start mimicking wardriving behavior :

"The Douglas Country Sheriff's DOffice says it's going to start warning computer users that their networks may be vulnerable to hackers. The Sheriff's Department plans to equip several of its community service and patrol cars with devices that detect unprotected computer networks. In cases where investigators can figure out who owns the networks, they'll try to warn of potential security issues. They'll also drop off brochures with instructions to computer users on how to password protect their networks."

Back in 2004, Kelly Martin wrote a very pragmatic article on Catching a virus writer, empasizing on how "with the consumer WiFi explosion, launching a virus into the wild has never been easier and more anonymous than it is today." Moreover, Kaspersky labs recently assessed the situation in England, and you can easily see the need of basic awareness there.

I don't feel it's a good idea mainly because it generates more noise for the end user to sort through. They'd rather assess and position on a map the regions with most vulnerable networks and figure out a cost-effective ways of spreading awareness in these regions, instead of taking the role of an ethical wardriving. On the other hand, if they start taking care of wireless, would they start taking into consideration Bluetooth as well? There're just too many ethical wardrivers to deal with and deceive these days, and creative end users tend to multiply themselves or, of course, use common sense protection.

WarDriving Awareness brochure courtesy of Tom Hayward. Recommended reading - "War, Peace, or Stalemate: Wargames, Wardialing, Wardriving, and the Emerging Market for Hacker Ethics". Continue reading →