| Cybercrime | | |
| US holds largest ever simulated cyber-attack exercise
US officials said Thursday that real and growing threats to US computer and telecommunications networks were behind the holding of the largest-ever cyber-security exercises this week.
US officials said Thursday that "real and growing" threats to US computer and telecommunications networks were behind the holding of the largest-ever cyber-security exercises this week.
Computer security experts from five countries, more than 40 private sector companies, and numerous government and state agencies are spending a week fielding simulated "real-world," on-line attacks on the computer systems of government bodies, corporations, transportation and other key industri | Cybercriminelen richten pijlen op fans Olympische Spelen
woensdag 16 april 2008, Den Haag, 09:20 uur
Voor de tweede keer in een week tijd hebben cybercriminelen misbruik gemaakt van de Olympische Spelen om kwaadaardige software op de pc van nietsvermoedende internetgebruikers te installeren. Dat constateert McAfee.
De Avert Labs van de beveiligingsspecialist heeft een bestand ontdekt dat op het eerste gezicht een tekenfilmpje lijkt dat Chinese atleten op de Olympische Spelen in de maling neemt en vervolgens beelden laat zien die de vrijheidsstrijders van Tibet ondersteunen.
Als het filmpje wordt afgespeeld, wordt er een Keystroke Logging-tool geïnstalleerd op de pc. Deze tool wordt verborgen door een Rootkit, waardoor het moeilijker wordt om de tool te ontdekken en verwijderen.
McAfee-onderzoeker Patrick Comiotto waarschuwt dat de gewraakte flash-film wordt verstuurd als een e-mailattachment met de naam 'RaceForTibet.exe'. Informatie die de Keystroke Logger verzamelt wordt gestuurd naar een computer die zich in China lijkt te bevinden. De bedreiging geldt alleen voor pc's die draaien op Windows. Meer technische informatie en screenshots staan op de weblog van Comiotto. | Are New laws needed for Cybercrime?
Techdirt reported that McAfee’s CEO has been pushing for new laws to deal with cybercrime.
He says cybercrime is now a bigger business than illegal drug trafficking in the US, and that the punishment doled out to cybercriminals isn’t an effective deterrent. He may have a valid point there, but new laws and sentencing guidelines don’t seem to be the most effective potential tool against computer crimes — particularly when much of this crime comes from overseas, where being caught and punished by a remote government isn’t likely to stop many criminals. DeWalt says that the technical side of security is “pretty advanced”, and that government is lagging. | Cyberterrorism: By Whatever Name, It's On The Increase
Experts say U.S. companies need to take the increasing use of cyberwarfare tactics and tools very seriously.
By Larry Greenemeier - InformationWeek -July 7, 2007 12:00 AM (From the July 9, 2007 issue)
Security Pros are hesitant to label Web attacks as "cyberterrorism" because of the volatile connotations of that phrase. But recent events in England and Russia point to an increased use of the Web to coordinate or launch such attacks aimed at cultural and political subversion.
A British court last week handed down prison sentences of up to 10 years to three Muslim men it called "cyber-jihadis" and convicted of using the Internet to urge Muslims to wage holy war on non-Muslims. And the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team reported politically motivated cyberattacks in Russia. The Web site for Russia's United Civil Front, which is run by former chess champ turned political activist Garry Kasparov, experienced problems staying online, and malicious hackers tried to break into the main site of the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations, says director Oleg Panfilo. He added that the sites of several organizations "engaged in the protection of human rights" also were exposed to hacker attacks. | Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) - IC3 accepts online Internet crime complaints from either the person who believes they were defrauded or from a third party to the complainant. We can best process your complaint if we receive accurate and complete information from you.
The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) was established as a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) to serve as a means to receive Internet related criminal complaints and to further research, develop, and refer the criminal complaints to federal, state, local, or international law enforcement and/or regulatory agencies for any investigation they deem to be appropriate. The IC3 was intended, and continues to emphasize, serving the broader law enforcement community to include federal, as well as state, local, and international agencies, which are combating Internet crime and, in many cases, participating in Cyber Crime Task Forces. | Denial-of-service attacks: street crime on the web - 06 June 2007
NewScientist.com news service - Jim Giles
WHEN Toni Koivunen visits the online discussion forum Bluehell, he knows what to expect. "The first thing you see is your internet connections drop. You can't go to any website. Then the lights on your modem go wild. Your bandwidth is being eaten alive."
Just showing up in one of the chatrooms at Bluehell is enough to generate such a cyber attack. It's a forum where some of the web's more disruptive coders hang out, and they don't need much of an excuse to try out their skills. "It's like a random act of violence," says Koivunen. "Most of the time there are no reasons. Maybe someone simply didn't like the nickname you were using."
For Koivunen, a computer security expert at the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority in Helsinki, who visits Bluehell to monitor hacker activity, such attacks are just a nuisance. But the denial-of-service (DoS) attacks that the hackers often use to target him, in which a web connection is swamped with traffic until it seizes up, are increasingly being used by criminals to take money from unsuspecting site owners.
DoS attacks hit the news in May when the Russian government was accused of attacking Estonian websites, in what was reported as the first ever cyber war. As with most DoS attacks, though, the perpetrators were far more likely to be relatively small-time criminals than high-ranking military officials
| Download Internet Crime Report 2007 - According to the 2007 Internet Crime Report, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received 206,884 complaints of crimes perpetrated over the Internet during 2007. Of the complaints received, more than 90,000 were referred to law enforcement around the nation, amounting to nearly $240 million in reported losses. This represents a $40 million increase in reported losses from complaints referred to law enforcement in 2006. All complaints received by IC3 are accessible to federal, state, and local law enforcement to support active investigations, trend analysis, and public outreach and awareness efforts.
Although Internet auction fraud was the most widely reported complaint, others cited in the report include fraudulent activity such as non-delivery of purchases and credit/debit card fraud, and non-fraudulent activity such as computer intrusions, spam/unsolicited e-mail, and child pornography. In an effort to raise public awareness, the report also describes the characteristics of commonly reported scams such as those involving the purchase or sale of pets, check scams, e-mail spam, and online dating fraud. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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