Showing posts with label Government. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Government. Show all posts

Tuesday, 19 April 2016

BlackBerry CEO Cryptically On Assistance To Canadian Police



BlackBerry CEO John Chen has responded at a news that BlackBerry Canadian police would have the encryption key to the encrypted BlackBerry messages could decrypt. Chen does not want to confirm or deny the report.

Last week Vice Magazine came out with a report showing that Canadian police were able to decrypt encrypted BlackBerry messages. At that BlackBerry did not respond, but last night there appeared a blog posting by Chen . In it he argues that tech companies must meet reasonable court orders to give investigators access to data. He also repeated his earlier statement that it is objectionable as companies put their reputation over the public interest.

He then briefly discusses the case of the Canadian police, but would not say whether the Canadian police indeed received the encryption key. Chen said the only thing is that BlackBerry has held in this case to its own principles. "For BlackBerry, there is a balance of what is right, such as helping in the detection of criminals, and prevent government violate the privacy of citizens. We have found this balance, even though governments have pressured us to our ethical principles change."

Wednesday, 18 February 2015

FSF: Apple's iOS Is Harmful To Free Society

Smartphones, tablets and smart watches at this time are a terror to the freedom of users, while Apple's iOS is the absolute pinnacle. Before warns John Sullivan, executive director of the Free Software Foundation (FSF). The FSF is a non-profit organization that aims to promote "free software". This is software that users can modify the code, sharing and dissemination.

This year the organization celebrates its 30th anniversary, with the necessary reach, Sullivan says. However, there are now several areas requiring attention. This refers in particular to mobile and wearables where users have less and less freedom."IOS is the epitome of everything that we need to avoid in order to have a free society: a single gatekeeper that states that it is illegal to software that is not authorized by him, to be installed on your phone", so let him opposite Opensource .com know.

Sullivan calls it fortunate that there are currently more Android users than iOS users. "But between hardware drivers and applications they use mostly proprietary software or make them connect to a service where they have no control over." The FSF director notes that future versions of Android anytime "proprietary" can be made. "And that's frightening." Sullivan also want users to mobile, embedded and wearable systems can continue to adjust freely.

The same should apply for eg laptop hardware. "Companies like Intel chips in their build machines that run proprietary software that provides remote access to the computer," the FSF director continues. He also calls for decentralized and encrypted alternatives to services like Facebook, Google and iCloud. "If the software you run on the machine of some company runs have not the ability to inspect or modify. Time after time, this leads to abuse, such as privacy violations by both governments and individuals."

Monday, 8 December 2014

"More openness required --> Antivirus companies on government spyware"

Regin Malware

Anti-virus companies have to be more open about the government spyware that they find, says security expert Bruce Schneier . Schneier reigns on the discovery of the highly advanced Regin malware , which would be by the US and British intelligence developed .

Anti-virus companies have known for some time of the malware, but made ​​the existence of Regin until the end of November to the public. It was the first that Symantec came out with a publication because it knew that another party would reveal the malware. This party was news The Intercept. After the report, Symantec also followed F-Secure and Kaspersky Lab with their own findings. All three follow the anti-virus companies said Regin years, where she copies of years ago found.

"Why were all these companies Regin long secret and why they showed us all this time vulnerable?" Schneider asked. Self thinks the expert that the anti-virus companies no incomplete picture wanted to express. Unlike malware cybercriminals is the effect of government spyware much more complex. In addition, Regin was only used against specific targets, which makes it difficult to obtain copies.

"If you're big in the press comes with a newly discovered malware copy you want to have the whole story. Apparently no one thought they had it with Regin," said Schneier. The expert, however, find this no excuse. "Now government malware more often will come we will often not have the whole story." As long as nations will fight each other over the internet, according to the expert, some individuals or organizations are the target and the residual risk to be hit inadvertently by this type of malware.

Even more

Schneier believes that anti-virus companies are at the moment even more incomplete stories on all government malware. "But they should not do. We want and need that our anti-virus companies us all about these threats tell as soon as they can, and not wait for the appearance of a political story so they can no longer remain silent."

Thursday, 4 December 2014

Kaspersky - Regin Malware Copy 1999

The Russian anti-virus firm Kaspersky Lab has a copy of the advanced Regin-espionage malware found in 1999. This involves the oldest copy that is known up to now. Earlier, a specimen was labeled in 2003 as a senior. The existence of Regin was recently made ​​public by several anti-virus companies.

Regin Platform Diagram

An analyst at Kaspersky Lab named the malware even more sophisticated than Stuxnet . Yet there was also criticism of the anti-virus companies as long as they would have waited to disclose the information. The Russian anti-virus company this refers to a comparison of Sean Sullivan from F-Secure. He likened the search for Regin with the work of paleontologists who found the bones of an unknown dinosaur. Everyone has a bone, but the entire skeleton is missing.


In the case of Regin Kaspersky Lab discovered in 2012 damaged "bone" of a hitherto unknown malware. Figuring out the size of a particular campaign or espionage malware family can sometimes take months or years, the company notes. As it sometimes worked with other parties who may have other parts of the malware possession. "It makes little sense to publish your discovery until you can confirm that the samples really are big and dangerous," said the Russian anti-virus company.

Most Regin copies date from 2007, 43 pieces in total, followed by 35 copies in 2009. Kaspersky also addresses accusations that anti-virus companies, the existence of Regin would have concealed. "We have never been asked by a customer or government agency to whitelist certain malware or to pass through. We would never meet such a request, no matter who it comes from."


Sunday, 23 March 2014

NSA spying on Chinese networking giant Huawei


The NSA has a widespread espionage attack against China conducted in which both the Chinese government and Chinese companies were targeted. Reports that the German newspaper Der Spiegel on the basis of documents received from the whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Among the attacked companies are banks and telecommunication companies. However, the NSA focused in particular on the Chinese networking giant Huawei, the second largest network provider in the world and a competitor of the U.S. Cisco. In 2009, the U.S. Secret Service began an operation that internal "Shot Giant" was mentioned. A special NSA unit managed to break into the corporate network from Huawei and copied a list of 1,400 customers, as well as internal documents on training were engineers on the use of Huawei products.

Source

From a secret NSA presentation shows that the NSA also managed to gain access to the internal e-mail archive and the secret source of Huawei products. The network where the U.S. Secret Service had broken up generated as many e-mail and data that the NSA did not know what to do with it. The reason for the break-in at the company let the NSA in the documents know that many of the targets via Huawei products communicate. "We want to make sure that we can attack these products," said an official in one of the secret documents.
In a statement, says a spokesperson from the network giant that if the reports are correct it is very ironic, since the United States Huawei always have accused the Chinese government would help in espionage. More details about the espionage attack by the NSA will Der Spiegel published tomorrow.

Sunday, 9 March 2014

Hackers attacked government computer in the U.S. and E.U, said the attack came from Russia



Detailed Report


Hundreds of government computers in Europe and the USA in silence infected sophisticated malicious applications. According to Reuters, it is one of the most comprehensive programs for cyber espionage, which has so far been discovered. Some security analysts and Western intelligence agencies have concluded that this so-called spyware, known as Turla is the work of the Russian government, and that is related to software used for massive hacking U.S. military, which was unveiled in 2008.

Hackers using Spyware Turla building in the contested networks "focal points", thanks to which the computer searches for data, save your information and, where necessary data to send to their servers. 

"It's sophisticated malware, which is associated with another Russian malicious program. It uses encryption and targeting Western governments.Shows traces of Russian work, "said Jim Lewis, who previously worked in the diplomatic service for the U.S. State Department, and now works at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.


They watch them in years

Security experts warn that can not be proven truly Russian origin.
Experts from established security companies monitor turly several years. Symantec estimates that malware Turla with relatives Trojan Horse to infect Agent.BTZ thousand networks. Symantec has not communicated the names of the victims, said only that it is mostly a government computer.
Anti-virus firm F-Secure with truly met for the first time last year, when examined contested organization. "Although it looks like the Russians, there is no way to determine with certainty," said Mikko Hypponen of F-Secure. Nor did he mention the names affected.
Reuters addressed this matter in several European governments, many of them, but the malware Turla refused to comment. Government sources from the Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland and Romania, however, indicated that this malicious program were not affected immediately.

The threat of a snake


On the question of public threats in connection with this program came this week when the less well known German company G Data Antivirus published a report on the virus identified as Uroburos.
The name is derived from part of the program code and the ancient symbol that shows a snake or dragon devouring its own tail.
British company BAE Systems Applied Intelligence, formerly known as Detica, which is a cybernetic arm of a prominent British defense contractor, has issued its own report on this malware, which it describes as "a snake". The sheer sophistication of the software goes much further than what we have encountered so far, says a British document without mentioning one's responsibility for the attack.
Detail from BAE System Report is available: Here
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