Webster Tarpley: 'Virtual flag terrorism' is next threat

Google said that it would stay in China only if the Chinese government left the censorship.

There are two sides the Google: One is the censorship, the other side is hacking, the cyber warfare... here we have some amended staff going on. Here in the US we had a build up now over months. We are going back to statement by Obama, last may, where he said his website had been hacked there in a campaign so he is the victim of this thing... "Webster Tarpley, author and investigative journalist"

One of the things that are happening here is the vast exaggeration of what we can do with the computer. Right it seems to be they want you to be believed you can shut down power plants, you can blow up nuclear reactors, you can stop trains and planes whom taking off, there are no really recording cases of this, and you have people hacking into banks, something like this but not anything more... the other thing we're doing is taking the language and the logic of the cold war and indeed of the nuclear confrontation and bring that into this new cyber fields. "Tarpley"

So it's exactly why we believe that cyberwars continue to become a growing concern around the world.


Data resource:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=107TIRNqEKE&playnext_from=TL&videos=RR3OHA64IaI

8 top cyber security threats for 2010

Hackers and spammers are the biggest threats and troubles for the world's Internet community today and even strong security measures have been unsuccessful to control these unwanted cyber attacks.

In 2009, social security networks such as Facebook and Twitter were sweet spots for hackers. In 2010 we will observe new platforms for their attacks such as smart phones and Microsoft's Windows 7, as is predicted by Websense Security Lab's.

Also, in 2010, using legitimate advertisements to spread malicious contents will be the other portal for hackers who compromise the integrity of search engine results by their acts.

As popularity of social webs is increasing, so are the attacks. Global use of emerging operating systems/platforms and mobile devices will pose them as great targets for hackers. Year after year the number of traditional attacks on personal computers increases by quickly changing tactics and adding new ones to the old plots.

Spamming and phishing attacks through the popular social network websites along with the increasing number of malicious sites will grow very fast.

In this regard, following list of security predictions and trends anticipated for year 2010. Let's take a look:

• Web 2.0 attacks will increase in sophisticated and frequency
• Botnet attacks will fight territory wars
• Email gains will be again a top vector for malicious attacks
• Microsoft will be targeted to new attacks

• Search results won't be completely trustable
• Hacking of smartphones will be increased
• Web advertisement attacks will grow, and
  
• These attacks will threat Macs too!

Data resource:

http://business.rediff.com/slide-show/2009/dec/08/slide-show-1-beware-of-these-cyber-threats-in-2010.htm#contentTop

Increase in USB-based Malware Attacks

Symantec reported increase in malicious applications that use flash drives as a spreading method. Unfortunately portable and easy connected feature of flash drive exposes it to the risk of infection. There are many malicious applications that spread simply by making a copy of themselves on all drives that are attached to a computer. At the moment, there are two popular methods that malicious applications use to infect USB flash drives:

• Simple file copy method

Malicious application that is installed on an infected computer makes copies of itself to all storage devices that are attached to the computer. Usually the malicious application will also attempt to copy itself to peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing folders as well. A malicious file is often named with a sensational file name to attract a victim into launching the file and causing malicious code to be executed. This infection method requires that the victim manually execute the malicious file to become infected.

• AutoRun.inf modification method

"Autoplay" or "Autorun" is functionality in Microsoft Windows and some other operating systems which is basically designed to perform some actions that are automatically executed when removable media is inserted or removed from a computer.

The "autorun.inf" is the file that contained instructions for the Autorun functionality to use a certain type of icon, for example add menu commands, and start an executable function.




With this infection method, the malicious application modifies or creates an autorun.inf file on all those network shares that are connected to the infected computer. When an infected USB flash drive is inserted into another computer, the copy of the malicious application is automatically executed. This infection method does not require any infection from the victim instead of physically attaching of USB to the computer.

Data resource:
http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/increase-usb-based-malware-attacks

U.S. worried about what really happened during the 2009 cyber attack

After the cyber attacks on Google and the other 30 large companies in U.S. (2009), Americans are worried about launching the other cyber attacks in the future. Past attacks were considered to be linked to the Chinese government which took several months to fully being executed.

Attackers designed specifically malwares for each company to be able to access the full digital information of company. These types of sophisticated malwares can attack to the company without even being traced. By such attacks within 2009 vital digital information (source codes, industrial secrets and other valuable intellectual properties) of large U.S. companies such as Google, Intel, Adobe, and Yahoo had been stolen over 6 months.

Besides targeting well known Internet and technology companies, space, government and military companies were targeted to such attacks. Easy to understand loosing commercial, government, and military secrets, or even modification of source codes by hackers which will lead not properly work of systems when they are needed or the ability of control them by intruders or enemy governments within the war, will be a serious threat for U.S..

Actually discovering unknown vulnerabilities in operating systems, web browsers and other software by hackers can be used against the military or any other targeted organization.

Data resource:

http://blog.brickhousesecurity.com/2010/06/04/cyber-attack-critical-infrastructure-security/

Caller ID spoofing no joke in the U.S.

Caller ID spoofing is being used for threatening purposes such as making believe that call your mother from the White House with your voice. It had been supposed that Paris Hilton used this type of spoofing to hack actress Lindsay Lohan's voice-mail account.

New York City police point out to an identity-theft from 6,000 people which occurred by caller ID spoofing.

The original caller ID spoofing service, Spoofcard, gives user's phone a number to show that person's caller ID. Users also have the option to cover their voice and record the conversation. Only in Canada 200.000 people have used the service.

When Celebrity scandals spread through headlines, just last month, U.S. Congress passed legislation making caller ID spoofing for fraudulent purposes illegal.

Data resource:
http://www.timescolonist.com/entertainment/caller+spoofing+joke/3034807/story.html

Spoofing

Using someone else's IP address to create IP packets is known as a spoofing. Sometimes people misunderstand that "IP spoofing" will lead to hiding IP while surfing Internet, sending e-mail and chatting online. It's not true idea. By creating IP address you cannot have a normal connection.

In IP spoofing, attacker has unautorized access to a computer or a network by sending a malicious message from a trusted machine and "spoofing" the IP address of target machine.




In Non binding spoofing attack, intruder is a real victim. Hijacking is the biggest well known threat for this type of spoofing. This will occur within the corrupting of data stream in an established connection, and re-establish it based on defined numbers for attack machine. By applyiing this technique, attacker can pass any authentication measure.

The other kind of spoofing is known as Binding Spoofing which is more sophisticated and unreachable. In this method, several packets are sent to the target machine. In the past, machines used basic techniques for generating sequence numbers and it was easy to discover the exact formula for decrypting them but today, random sequence number generations, make it difficult to predict exact formula.



Data resource:
http://library.thinkquest.org/06aug/02257/spoofing.html

Trademark counterfeiting

A trademark as a word or symbol that helps a producer to identify his products should be under the control of rules and regulations to prevent consumer confusion and protect business goodwill.

In most developed countries, governments have strict trademark laws to prevent from trademark infringements (using someone else's trademark).

Counterfeiting is common form of trademark breach which occurs when a manufacturer produces goods look like the other producer's and use its trademark for his products. Trademark counterfeiting hurts both consumers (because of lower quality) and the owner of trademark (by losing reputation and business goodwill.

By the way, the owner of trademark can recover any profits lost as a result of the counterfeiting and even charge the criminal up to 3 times of real damages which can be considered as a huge reward!

Data resource:
http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/trademark-counterfeiting.html