Free Republic

In responding to China’s massive hack of federal personnel data, the government may have run afoul of computer security again. Over the last nine days, the the Office of Personnel Management has sent e-mail notices to hundreds of thousands of federal employees to notify them of the breach and recommend that they click on a link to a private contractor’s Web site to sign up for credit monitoring and other protections. But those e-mails have been met with increasing alarm by employees — along with retirees and former employees with personal data at risk — who worry that the communications...

Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab announced that it has detected an intrusion into its own systems, and you'll never believe who the company thinks is behind it. CEO Eugene Kaspersky claims a nation-state hacked into his company's network in order to steal information about its technologies. The unidentified hackers exploited security flaws in Microsoft Software Installer files to infect Kaspersky's network with malware. Kaspersky is referring to the malware as "Duqu 2.0", because it appears to be tied to the same cybercriminals that used Duqu malware to attack Iran, India, France and Ukraine a few years ago. Back then, the hackers...

WASHINGTON DC – As officials of the Obama administration announced that millions of sensitive records associated with current and past federal employees and contractors had been exposed by a long-running infiltration of the networks and systems of the Office of Personnel Management on June 4, they claimed the breach had been found during a government effort to correct problems with OPM’s security. An OPM statement on the attack said that the agency discovered the breach as it had “undertaken an aggressive effort to update its cybersecurity posture.” And a DHS spokesperson told Ars that “interagency partners” were helping the OPM...

Privacy: In two weeks, we've learned that offshore hackers managed to steal 100,000 tax filings and personnel data on millions of federal workers. Who, exactly, is in charge of cybersecurity in this administration?

A well-known U.S. hacker told F.B.I. agents he took momentary control of an airplane’s engines mid-flight by hacking into its inflight entertainment system, according to a document filed in U.S. federal court and obtained by APTN National News. Roberts, who has been interviewed at least three times by the F.B.I. this year, is under investigation for allegedly hacking into the electronic entertainment systems of airplanes, according to an application for a search warrant to probe seized electronic equipment. The document shows F.B.I. agents investigating Roberts believe he has the ability to do what he claims: take over flight control systems...

Unless you live in a log cabin on Loon Lake without any contact with the outside world (or you are one of a certain group of unnamed politicians who have offices in Rayburn, Longworth, Cannon, Russell, Dirksen or Hart), you know that breaches have become the third certainty in life. Over one billion records containing some form of personally identifying information have been grabbed by hackers since 2005. But make no mistake, the perfect storm that hit the healthcare sector in the past 90 days is not just more of the same. Hacking healthcare is not the newest flavor of...

It was less than two weeks ago that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton assured the nation that her “homebrew” email server was safely secure in her home in Chappaqua, New York. She insisted that the hardware was fortified behind a locked door and had a Secret Service detail mentoring it night and day, as though the greatest security threat that system faced was via a physical attack by a team of cartoonish cat burglars. Nevertheless, Clinton insisted that the safeguards around the email system she constructed out of “convenience” were “effective and secure.” She added that “there were no...

FireEye's Mandiant found that the average data breach was discovered in 205 days, dropping from 229 days (2013) and 243 days (2012). Enterprises were only able to self-detect 31 percent of breaches, with third-parties and the government helping identify cybersecurity incidents.    Companies are becoming more vigilant in detecting cybercrime-related activity, such as credit card companies noticing fraudulent behavior.  "Over the last several years, organizations like the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have gotten increasingly involved in notifying US businesses that they have been identified as being compromised," said Ryan Kazanciyan, technical director at Mandiant, in a statement to eWEEK....

Google’s Android has gobbled up market share world wide, now accounting for over 80% of all smartphone shipped globally. But when it comes to actually making money, Apple is eating all the profits as it continues its focus on premium devices. Today Strategy Analytics said that Apple in Q4 last year accounted for 89% of all smartphone profits, equating to $18.8 billion, with Android taking only 11%, or $2.4 billion. The blow for Android is softened only slightly less so only by the fact that other platform players like Microsoft, Blackberry and Firefox seemingly made no profit at all.

Apple still rules the mobile enterprise space and is extending its lead. iOS gained another 4 percentage points, growing to 73 percent of global device activations in Q4 2014. Android device activations, meanwhile, dropped the same amount to 25 percent of total activations last quarter. The latest findings come from Good Technology‘s Mobility Index Report. Windows Phone activations remain consistent with the seven previous quarters: flat at 1 percent. Since BlackBerry devices use BlackBerry Enterprise Server for corporate email access, Good Technology does not have insight into BlackBerry handset activations. In Q3 2014, Apple reversed its trend of declining quarterly...

When hackers steal money from banks, they usually go for Bonnie and Clyde attacks, taking whatever they can take in a single grab, one Kaspersky executive told The New York Times, as the security research discovered a different type of bank cyber heist, one likened to Ocean’s Eleven in terms of planning, but also when it comes to the significant amount of stolen cash. Following a well planned operation, that involved months of spying through the use of sophisticated software, unknown hackers originating from Russia, China and Europe managed to steal at least $300 million from a large number of...

In a report to be published on Monday, and provided in advance to The New York Times, Kaspersky Lab says that the scope of this attack on more than 100 banks and other financial institutions in 30 nations could make it one of the largest bank thefts ever — and one conducted without the usual signs of robbery. The Moscow-based firm says that because of nondisclosure agreements with the banks that were hit, it cannot name them. Officials at the White House and the F.B.I. have been briefed on the findings, but say that it will take time to confirm...

The Internet is arguably the greatest invention to come out of America. The Internet has created more millionaires and billionaires in the last 20 years than any other industry. With the Internet, there are almost no barriers to entry and a massive capital infusion is generally not needed to get started. The Internet has also been one of the greatest boons for freedom and liberty since the invention of the printing press. Thanks to the Internet, the media elites no longer control the news and information. In fact, the media elites are now subject to and can be brought down...

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Declaring that the Internet has become the “Wild Wild West” with consumers and industries as top targets, President Obama on Friday called for a new era of cooperation between the government and the private sector to defeat a range of fast-evolving online threats. Mr. Obama signed an executive order urging companies to join information-sharing hubs to exchange data on online threats — and, in some cases, to receive classified information from the government. But the order stopped short of exempting the companies from liability if the data they collected and shared led to legal action. Only...

China has requested all of their foreign tech collaborators who have businesses on its territory to alter their products before releasing them on the Chinese market. The Chinese government has imposed new, stricter legislation for the foreign companies which will make them less secure. The official authorities requested that IT infrastructure providers, such as Cisco, should provide access to their hardware in the form of back-doors leading to their products. Softwares will have to follow the same rules, so ATMs which use Microsoft software will also have all their secrets exposed – going as far as revealing its source code....

Last month, Senator Dianne Feinstein and other Democrats on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released the executive summary of their final report investigating the CIA's controversial detention and interrogation program. As part of their study, the Democrats compiled twenty case studies, which were intended to address claims made by the CIA regarding the efficacy of its interrogations. One of those case studies focused on the identification and arrest of Ali Saleh Kahlah al Marri, who was freed from a US prison just days ago. Al Marri served as a "sleeper" operative for al Qaeda inside the US in 2001....

An executive at ScienceLogic, a company used to monitor the online networks of the FBI and the Department of Defense, among others, were missing Monday after a four-alarm fire destroyed his 16,000-square-foot Annapolis home. Don Pyle, the chief operating officer at the Reston-based technology provider, and his wife Sandy, couldn’t be located, authorities said Monday. It took 85 firefighters nearly three-and-a-half hours to get the blaze under control and firefighters had yet to set foot inside the building, uncertain about its integrity, Monday afternoon. Neighbors told The Washington Times the Pyles’ grandchildren may have been staying with them for the...

Call me a skeptic, but when I heard a report that the hack into "gov" web pages had come out of Maryland . . next to DC . . . next to the home of the CIA . . . well, that is just a little interesting. Especially if the administration uses this as a ruse to begin controlling security on the internet. As Glen Beck would say, "I'm just sayin."

President Barack Obama will propose new legislation Tuesday aimed at fostering increased sharing between government agencies and the private sector to help improve cybersecurity. The legislation would encourage the private sector to share cyber threat information with the Department of Homeland Security's National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, according to a White House fact sheet. Companies would qualify for targeted liability protection, but would have to comply with certain privacy restrictions.

US cybersecurity experts say they have solid evidence that a former employee helped hack Sony Pictures Entertainment’s computer system — and that it was not masterminded by North Korean cyberterrorists. One leading cybersecurity firm, Norse Corp., said Monday it has narrowed its list of suspects to a group of six people — including at least one Sony veteran with the necessary technical background to carry out the attack, according to reports. The investigation of the Sony hacking by the private companies stands in stark contrast to the finding of the FBI, which said Dec. 19 its probe traced the hacking...