Archive for 2012/08/13
The Pentagon has proposed that military cyber-specialists be given permission to take action outside its computer networks to defend critical U.S. computer systems
Posted: 2012/08/13 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Network Security, New Business Models, Privacy / Data Protection, Public Policy, Stats / reports, Tech EvolutionHow You’ll Watch the Olympics in 2016
Posted: 2012/08/13 in Education / Awareness, Stats / reports, Tech EvolutionGoogle may face U.K. parliament over tax-avoidance strategies
Posted: 2012/08/13 in Education / Awareness, Google, Public Policy, Stats / reportsIt Really Is Time For A YouTube Transparency Report
Posted: 2012/08/13 in Blocking, Education / Awareness, Filtering, Google, New Business Models, Public Policy, Stats / reportsA You Tube video critical of the company’s bizarre copyright policy under which ownership of people’s voices can be claimed by third parties was deleted and the account put on notice for termination, with You Tube claiming the clip was “commercially deceptive”.
It also serves as another reminder of how dangerous it is to entrust Google-owned You Tube with safeguarding Internet free speech when the company routinely censors content for a myriad of reasons, many of which turn out to be completely discriminatory.
You Tube has also aggressively moved to censor political free speech, by acquiescing to remove hundreds of videos showing police brutality, demonstrations and other lawful activity, in order to comply with with “government removal requests”.
More:
http://www.infowars.com/you-tube-threatens-to-terminate-account-over-criticism-of-copyright-policy/
See also:
#OccupyWallStreet demonstrates that there are many ways to intentionally, accidentally or unconsciously but automatically disrupt the free flow of information
http://vrritti.com/2011/10/03/occupywallstreet-demonstrates-that-there-are-many-ways-to-intentionally-accidentally-or-unconsciously-but-automatically-disrupt-the-free-flow-of-information/
and
YouTube’s Copyright Policies May Be Like Russian Roulette, But What About Its Video Monetization Policies?
http://vrritti.com/2012/07/21/youtubes-copyright-policies-may-be-like-russian-roulette-but-what-about-its-video-monetization-policies/
MPAA and RIAA identify the biggest Cyberlocker and P2P threats to the entertainment industry
Posted: 2012/08/13 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing, Legislation, Litigation, Online advertising, Public Policy, Stats / reportsCopy of joint submission here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/102735498/mpaa-riaa
“The efforts by the U.S. government to shut down Megaupload have had an immediate and positive impact on the marketplace. However, significant distribution of illegal content continues through similar websites, such as Rapidgator, Turbobit, DepositFiles, and PutLocker.”
“While its operators have been criminally adjudicated, The Pirate Bay (TPB) continues to be one of the top sites in the world providing access to unlicensed content. TPB and many other similar operators of p2p networks still enable users to illegally download complete copies of illegally copied movie, television and music content for free, while profiting from advertising, subscriptions or donations.”
In addition to these top threats the MPAA and RIAA also name linking websites (such as TVShack) and Usenet as facilitators of copyright infringement. They further point out that search engines and server farms are not doing enough to stop the above threats from continuing to operate.
The MPAA and RIAA argue that the U.S. Government has an important role to play in countering the threats outlined above. One of the key solutions they list is the creation of “best practices” in industries that play a key role in the piracy problem.
The groups suggest that the Government should play a role in convincing advertising companies and search engines to work with copyright holders to decrease online piracy. In the most ideal scenario, advertisers should ban websites that facilitate copyright infringement while search engines should make it harder to find pirated content, or delist rogue sites altogether.
The Government should also encourage domain registrars to cooperate with copyright holders. The MPAA and RIAA want to eliminate fake Whois entries and are arguing for the implementation of strict identification guidelines so new top-level domains will not be used for piracy.
If the entertainment industries have their way the actions against MegaUpload earlier this year will become the standard.
More:
http://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-riaa-want-u-s-to-help-quash-the-pirate-bay-120813/
The Netherlands Was Center Of One Of The World’s Largest Spam Botnets: The Grum Botnet
Posted: 2012/08/13 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Network Security, Organized Crime, Privacy / Data Protection, Public Policy, Stats / reportsFrom data collected by forensic company FireEye it was already known that the Grum botnet relied on servers hosted at Dutch provider Ecatel.
Now online news magazine Nu.nl discloses that the Command en Control server, the central mothership from where all the PCs that make up the botnet are being controlled, was also located in The Netherlands.
The Nu.nl article doesn’t provide the IP address nor the name of the hosting provider so it’s not known whether the server was hosted at one of the usual suspects. The Grum botnet consisted of 143,500 infected computers, all used to distribute spam.
Grum was the third largest botnet ever, sending out 1 out of every 6 e-mail messages sent in the month of July. The botnet could also be used to distribute malware.
The Netherlands is the preferred choice for those engaging in online piracy, hacking, phishing, spam and other types of online fraud, predominantly because of the excellent IT infrastructure, the low chance of getting caught, low or non-existent sanctions and the ability to purchase goods and services – needed for the illegal activities – anonymously.
Dutch language news article:
http://www.nu.nl/internet/2883290/nederlandse-server-spil-in-enorm-spamnetwerk.html
In Fight Against Dorifel, The Dutch Government Follows In Footsteps Of Entertainment Industry: Ordered IP Blocking At First And Has Now Seized Domain Names Too
Posted: 2012/08/13 in Blocking, Copyright, Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, File Sharing, Filtering, Illegal File Sharing, Litigation, New Business Models, Organized Crime, Privacy / Data Protection, Public Policy, Stats / reports, Tech EvolutionWhen Dutch ISPs and authorities are being asked to block, filter or shut down IP addresses and domain names in relation to intellectual property violations, online piracy and other copyright related issues they go on auto-pilot regarding freedom of speech, technological difficulties and the futility of blocking measures in general: because there are so many ways to circumvent methods of online censorship. The Dutch Public Prosecutor’s Office even issued a guideline instructing authorities not to criminally prosecute online piracy issues.
Apparently not so in case of viruses. According to a news article by Dutch magazine Tweakers.net the Dutch government has not only convinced internet service providers in The Netherlands to voluntarily block the IP addresses of certain servers the Dorifel virus is making use of, but it now has asked ISPs in The Netherlands (and even abroad!) to take down Dorifel related domain names too.
Why is all of this suddenly possible? Because the Dutch banking system and government organizations have been affected this time.
So once and for all: it’s NOT about technology, it’s NOT about freedom of speech. It’s about the interests involved and the parties affected. They’re ‘just not that into’ the U.S. based entertainment industry, even when the damages experienced by the latter are much higher than any damages caused by Dorifel.
Dutch language news article:
http://tweakers.net/nieuws/83698/domeinnamen-dorifel-botnet-offline-gehaald.html
Disney-owned Jobs-derived animation outfit Pixar has open-sourced some of its production software
Posted: 2012/08/13 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Stats / reports, Tech EvolutionThe code released as open source is called Open SubDiv, and “… implement high performance subdivision surface (subdiv) evaluation on massively parallel CPU and GPU architectures.”
A simple translation of the above is that the apps help create very detailed surfaces on animated objects.
More:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/08/13/pixar_open_sources_open_subdiv/
Dorifel Virus Gains Access To Banking Details Of 1,193 ING Customers, 235 ABN AMRO Customers, 102 Rabobank Customers And 76 SNS Bank Customers
Posted: 2012/08/13 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Network Security, Privacy / Data Protection, Public Policy, Stats / reportsA multitude of organizations is currently trying to combat the effects of the Dorifel virus among which The Dutch Public Prosecutor’s Office, The National Cyber Security Center, The National High Tech Crime Unit, Fox-IT, Surfright, QuarantaineNet, Digital Investigation, Abuse.ch, Spamhaus.org, the Dutch CSIRT community, hacker Rickey Gevers and hacker/reporter Brenno de Winter.
Dutch language news article:
http://www.security.nl/artikel/42643/1/Gegevens_1600_Nederlanders_op_Dorifel-server.html
Previously:
Dutch Providers Voluntarily Block IP Address Used For Communication With Dorifel Virus Which Is Wreaking Havoc In The Netherlands
http://vrritti.com/2012/08/10/dutch-providers-voluntarily-block-ip-address-used-for-communication-with-dorifel-virus-which-is-wreaking-havoc-in-the-netherlands/
Hacker gained remote access to a server containing Surgeons’ corporate email and electronic medical records
Posted: 2012/08/13 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Network Security, Privacy / Data Protection, Stats / reportsSurgeons learned of the incident on June 25, 2012, when it discovered that an unauthorized user had gained remote access to a server containing Surgeons’ corporate email and electronic medical records. The unauthorized user posted a message on the server stating that the contents of the server had been encrypted and could only be accessed with a password that would only be supplied if Surgeons made the demanded payment. Upon receiving the demand, the server was turned off, and has not been turned back on.
Surgeons officials immediately contacted law enforcement and began an investigation of the incident. In the wake of this incident, Surgeons is undertaking additional measures to strengthen and enhance its protocols to ensure the security of patient records.
Surgeons believes that the intention of the unauthorized access was to extort payment from Surgeons, not to take patient information, and Surgeons is not aware of any reports that the information contained on the server has been misused as a result of this incident.
Still, the unauthorized user had the ability to access names, addresses, Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, and certain medical information; and, as a result, Surgeons began mailing notification letters today to individuals who may have been affected. Surgeons is offering them one year of free credit monitoring services, as well as call center support.
Watch Out: “We Know Your House” Uses Twitter to Find Out Where You Live and Then Posts It Online
Posted: 2012/08/13 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Privacy / Data Protection, Stats / reportsYou’ve been living with social media for long enough that you probably know most of the do’s and don’ts. Don’t post pictures of your debit card, or of your billionaire boss shirtless. But be careful when you use the word “home” too; people are watching.
WeKnowYourHouse.com is a recently launched website with an apt name. Basically, the site scans Twitter for tweets with location data that also make a reference to “home”. From there, they can take the latitude and longitude, plop it in to Google Maps and get a reasonable estimate of your address. Lastly, they plot it on a map. It’s creepy as all hell, but all just “a social experiment” according to the site.
Fox sues upstart TV streaming service BarryDriller.com
Posted: 2012/08/13 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Illegal File Sharing, Litigation, Stats / reportsThe network claims the Aereo copycat is violating its copyrights by retransmitting the programming on one of its affiliates.
More:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57491738-93/fox-sues-upstart-tv-streaming-service-barrydriller.com/
Sorry Moto, Google Only Needed You For The Patents
Posted: 2012/08/13 in Education / Awareness, Google, New Business Models, Stats / reports, Tech EvolutionGoogle ready to cut 20 percent of Motorola Mobility’s staff. Job cuts reported by The New York Times come after the Web giant revealed it paid a significant premium for the company’s patent portfolio.
The Australian chapter of hacktivist prankster cabal Anonymous is targeting law enforcement agencies
Posted: 2012/08/13 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Network Security, Privacy / Data Protection, Public Policy, Stats / reportsOn Friday, Anonymous claimed on Operations Australia Twitter account, that it had brought down the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation’s (ASIO’s) site for at least 30 minutes and was also targeting, the Defence Signals Directorate (DSD). While there was reported intermittent issues at both sites, neither were down for significant periods of time. According to CyberWarNews, the merry hacksters had also attempted to bring down the Tasmanian Police site on Sunday night, following a threatened attack on the same site August 7.
More:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/08/12/anonymous_data_digging_downunder/
Hacker Christopher A. Schroebel who partnered with 21-year-old Dutch computer hacker David Benjamin Schrooten to steal credit card numbers from businesses across the country has been sentenced to 7 years in prison
Posted: 2012/08/13 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Jurisprudence, Litigation, Network Security, Privacy / Data Protection, Public Policy, Stats / reportsExclusive: U.S. banks told to make plans for preventing collapse
Posted: 2012/08/13 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Public Policy, Stats / reportsU.S. regulators directed five of the country’s biggest banks, including Bank of America Corp and Goldman Sachs Group Inc, to develop plans for staving off collapse if they faced serious problems, emphasizing that the banks could not count on government help.
The two-year-old program, which has been largely secret until now, is in addition to the “living wills” the banks crafted to help regulators dismantle them if they actually do fail. It shows how hard regulators are working to ensure that banks have plans for worst-case scenarios and can act rationally in times of distress.
Officials like Lehman Brothers former Chief Executive Dick Fuld have been criticized for having been too hesitant to take bold steps to solve their banks’ problems during the financial crisis.
According to documents obtained by Reuters, the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency first directed five banks – which also include Citigroup Inc,, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co – to come up with these “recovery plans” in May 2010.
They told banks to consider drastic efforts to prevent failure in times of distress, including selling off businesses, finding other funding sources if regular borrowing markets shut them out, and reducing risk. The plans must be feasible to execute within three to six months, and banks were to “make no assumption of extraordinary support from the public sector,” according to the documents.
Google denies antipiracy measure skips YouTube
Posted: 2012/08/13 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Google, Illegal File Sharing, New Business Models, Stats / reportsA Google representative denied that YouTube was getting any special treatment under the new factors built into algorithm. Google says it will take in to account valid copyright removal notices submitted through Web search and directly through YouTube.
More:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57491578-93/google-denies-antipiracy-measure-skips-youtube/
Facebook and the ACLU tell court a “like” is protected speech
Posted: 2012/08/13 in Education / Awareness, Litigation, Public Policy, Stats / reportsTo the internet industry, anything that makes them money is protected speech. Anything that costs them money can be proactively, massively and algorithmically removed
Bitcoinica users sue for $460k in lost Bitcoins
Posted: 2012/08/13 in Education / Awareness, Litigation, Stats / reportsEarlier this week, four users of the well-known Bitcoin trading platform Bitcoinica filed a complaint in a San Francisco court asking for $460,457.70 from the company. The plaintiffs allege that Bitcoinica, which had been hacked twice earlier this year, neglected the safety of its users’ money, and cheated them out of withdrawal requests that it said it would honor.
Bitcoins, units of virtual currency which are cryptographically signed and transferred without the influence of banks or government oversight, experienced a boom about a year ago (in June 2011 one BTC was equivalent to $15), but crashed to less than $3 only 5 months later when slews of Bitcoin-stealing malware and hacks of Bitcoin “banks” unsettled the market. The nascent currency bounced back, however, and the price of Bitcoins surged this past July, rising above $9 for the first time in a year.
More:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/08/bitcoinica-users-sue-for-460k-in-lost-bitcoins/
