Topic: SECURITY - on August 10, 2013 at 3:00:00 PM CEST
Building a panopticon: The evolution of the NSA’s XKeyscore
The National Security Agency's (NSA) apparatus for spying on what passes over the Internet, phone lines, and airways has long been the stuff of legend, with the public catching only brief glimpses into its Leviathan nature. Thanks to the documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, we now have a much bigger picture.
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Topic: SECURITY - on August 9, 2013 at 3:30:00 PM CEST
DEFCON: The Documentary
On August 1st in Las Vegas, the premiere of DEFCON: The Documentary took place on the first day of DEFCON 21. Audience attendance was about 1000. Mood was high. There was free beer and the sound system could explode a Volkswagen. My dad flew in from New York to attend. It was a good time.
DEFCON The Documentary PosterIf you weren’t aware, I’ve spent a lot of time across the last 18 months working on a documentary about the DEF CON conference in Las Vegas, which has been held for over 20 years. Started in 1992, this convention of hacking, making, security and tech has been a pretty big influence and story for a lot of people for a long time. I’ve been attending regularly since 1999 and many of my most known speeches have been given there.
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Topic: SECURITY - on August 9, 2013 at 3:28:00 PM CEST
NSA: 90% der Admins werden entlassen – für mehr Sicherheit
Wie Reuters gestern berichtete, hat Gen. Keith Alexander – seines Zeichens Direktor der NSA – auf einer Sicherheitskonferenz in New York gesagt, dass man vielen Systemadministratoren bei der NSA kündigen wird. Übergeordnetes Ziel sei es, durch Automatisierung mehr Sicherheit zu erlangen. Zur Zeit kümmern sich wohl rund 1000 Administratoren um Wartung und Ausbau des NSA-Netzwerkes. Um die Chance für zukünftige Leaks, wie die Edward Snowdens, zu minimieren, sollen 90% der Stellen gestrichen werden.
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Topic: SECURITY - on August 8, 2013 at 1:04:00 PM CEST
Risk Assessment / Security & Hacktivism “Hand of Thief” banking trojan doesn’t do Windows—but it does Linux
Signaling criminals' growing interest in attacking non-Windows computers, researchers have discovered banking fraud malware that targets people using the open-source Linux operating system.
Hand of Thief, which was recently discovered by researchers from security firm RSA, sells for about $2,000 in underground Internet forums and boasts its own support and sales agents. Its functionality—consisting of form grabbers and backdoor capabilities—is rudimentary compared to Windows banking trojans spawned from the Citadel or Blackhole exploit kits, but that's likely to change. RSA researcher Limor Kessem said she expects Hand of Thief to become a full-blown banking trojan that includes more advanced features such as the ability to inject attacker-controlled content into trusted bank webpages.
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Topic: SECURITY - on August 8, 2013 at 12:09:00 PM CEST
Nicknames and Codewords
Below is a listing of nicknames and codewords related to US Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) and Communications Security (COMSEC). Most of them are from the NSA, some are from other government or military agencies. Due to secrecy, it's not always clear whether a word is a nickname or a codeword. Some of them also have an abbreviation which is shown in brackets.
Nicknames are generally unclassified. NSA uses single word nicknames, outside NSA they usually consist of two separate words, with the first word selected from alphabetical blocks that are assigned to different agencies by the Joint Staff. Usually, nicknames are printed using all capital letters.
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Topic: SECURITY - on August 6, 2013 at 5:31:00 PM CEST
First 3D-Printed Rifle Successfully Fires 14 Shots
A riflemaker in Canada has made and tested what he says is the world's first 3D-printed rifle. He follows gunsmith Cody Wilson who fired the first 3D-printed handgun earlier this year.
When the riflemaker, known as "Matthew," first fired the .22-caliber rifle, the gun cracked after the first shot. Now, the rifle, known as the "Grizzly," is back and better than ever, according to Matthew, who furnished the rifle with a thicker barrel.
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Topic: SECURITY - on August 6, 2013 at 5:27:00 PM CEST
TOR Project: Stop using Windows, disable JavaScript
The anonymizing network gives some advice following a startling Firefox zero-day vulnerability
The TOR Project is advising that people stop using Windows after the discovery of a startling vulnerability in Firefox that undermined the main advantages of the privacy-centered network.
The zero-day vulnerability allowed as-yet-unknown interlopers to use a malicious piece of JavaScript to collect crucial identifying information on computers visiting some websites using The Onion Router (TOR) network.
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Topic: SECURITY - on August 5, 2013 at 2:42:00 PM CEST
Zitate zur NSA-Affäre: Die besten Sprüche aus Neuland
Überwachungskritiker sind naiv und antiamerikanisch, das Internet noch Neuland und die Angst vor dem Staat wahnhaft: Seit Beginn der NSA-Affäre wurde viel geredet, oft aber wenig gesagt. Es wurde verschleiert, gelogen, abgewiegelt. Eine kurze Geschichte der NSA-Enthüllungen in Zitaten
Ein Zitat zur Prism-Affäre wird uns sicher noch lange erhalten bleiben: "Das Internet ist für uns alle Neuland". Das sagte Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel anlässlich des Besuchs von Barack Obama in Berlin - zur Belustigung und zum Entsetzen sehr vieler Netznutzer.
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Topic: SECURITY - on August 5, 2013 at 2:40:00 PM CEST
Half of Tor Sites Compromised, Including TORMail
The founder of Freedom Hosting has been arrested in Ireland and is awaiting extradition to USA. In a crackdown the FBI claims to be about hunting down pedophiles, half of the onion sites in the TOR network have been compromised, including the e-mail counterpart of TOR deep web, TORmail. The FBI has also embedded a 0-day Javascript attack against Firefox 17 on Freedom Hosting's server.
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Topic: SECURITY - on August 4, 2013 at 2:23:00 PM CEST
500 Millionen Verbindungsdaten im Monat: BND betreibt Vorratsdatenspeicherung durch die Hintertür
Der BND sammelte allein im Dezember 2012 500 Millionen Verbindungsdaten. Diese werden in großem Umfang an die NSA übermittelt. Diese de facto Vorratsdatenspeicherung ist laut BND durch das BND-Gesetz und das G10-Gesetz zur Beschränkung des Brief-, Post- und Fernmeldegeheimnisses gedeckt. Zudem erfasse man gar keine Telekommunikationsverkehre deutscher Staatsangehöriger. Das berichtet der SPIEGEL auf Basis von Dokumenten aus dem Fundus von Edward Snowden.
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Topic: SECURITY - on August 4, 2013 at 2:22:00 PM CEST
Chinese Hacking Team Caught Taking Over Decoy Water Plant
A hacking group accused of being operated by the Chinese army now seems to be going after industrial control systems.
A Chinese hacking group accused this February of being tied to the Chinese army was caught last December infiltrating a decoy water control system for a U.S. municipality, a researcher revealed on Wednesday.
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Topic: SECURITY - on August 4, 2013 at 2:20:00 PM CEST
Smart Toilets Vulnerable to Hackers
O, woe! Beware, you prophets! Beware, you men of ideas, aloft in metropolitan skyscrapers, believing yourself apart, aloof, immune! There are invaders in your home, invaders on your tail, invaders in the last place you would think to look.
For, yesterday, we learned that toilets can be hacked.
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