Tuesday 10 November 2009
Brazilian Blackout Traced to Sooty Insulators, Not Hackers
By Marcelo Soares
Threat Level
Wired.com
November 9, 2009
A massive 2007 electrical blackout in Brazil newly blamed on computer hackers was actually the result of a utility company's negligent maintenance of high voltage insulators on two transmission lines, according to reports from government regulators and others who investigated the incident for more than a year.
In a broadcast Sunday night, the CBS news magazine 60 Minutes cited unnamed sources in making the extraordinary claim that a two-day outage in the state of Espirito Santo was triggered by hackers targeting a utility company's control systems. The blackout affected some three million people. Another, smaller blackout north of Rio de Janeiro in January 2005 was also caused by hackers, the network claimed.
Brazilian government officials over the weekend disputed the report, and Raphael Mandarino Jr., director of the Homeland Security Information and Communication Directorate, told the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo that he's investigated the claims and found no evidence of hacker attacks, adding that Brazil's electric control systems are not directly connected to the internet.
On Monday, Furnas Centrais Eltricas, the utility company involved, told Threat Level it "has no knowledge of hackers acting in Furnas. power transmission system."
A review of official reports from the utility, the country's independent system operators group and its energy regulatory agency turns up nothing to support the hacking claim.
[...]
Threat Level
Wired.com
November 9, 2009
A massive 2007 electrical blackout in Brazil newly blamed on computer hackers was actually the result of a utility company's negligent maintenance of high voltage insulators on two transmission lines, according to reports from government regulators and others who investigated the incident for more than a year.
In a broadcast Sunday night, the CBS news magazine 60 Minutes cited unnamed sources in making the extraordinary claim that a two-day outage in the state of Espirito Santo was triggered by hackers targeting a utility company's control systems. The blackout affected some three million people. Another, smaller blackout north of Rio de Janeiro in January 2005 was also caused by hackers, the network claimed.
Brazilian government officials over the weekend disputed the report, and Raphael Mandarino Jr., director of the Homeland Security Information and Communication Directorate, told the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo that he's investigated the claims and found no evidence of hacker attacks, adding that Brazil's electric control systems are not directly connected to the internet.
On Monday, Furnas Centrais Eltricas, the utility company involved, told Threat Level it "has no knowledge of hackers acting in Furnas. power transmission system."
A review of official reports from the utility, the country's independent system operators group and its energy regulatory agency turns up nothing to support the hacking claim.
[...]
Hackers attack Al-Watan's website
By Fatima Sidiya
Arab News
8 November 2009
JEDDAH: Al-Watan newspaper was hacked on Saturday by a group calling itself Moorish Team-Dz. The hackers said they supported Sheikh Saad bin Nasser Al-Shithri who was recently removed from his job following statements he made on Al-Majd TV channel against coeducation at King Abullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST).
Jamal Khashoggi, editor in chief of Al-Watan newspaper, had written in Al-Watan criticizing Al-Shithri's statements. He said, "This much ado about coeducation is in downright opposition to knowledge, scientific research and the information revolution which does not distinguish between female and male." Mohammad Al-Ghahtani the Head of the Technical Department at Al-Watan newspaper refused to call what happened "hacking."
He said it was the work of amateurs operating through servers located in Syria, Egypt and Algeria. When asked what the newspaper had done to protect its site, he said that when the hacking was discovered, the paper transferred to an alternate site. Due to the large number of hits the site receives every day, it had taken some time to rectify the situation.
However the website was up and running again by the evening. Asked if the incident would have any effect on the paper's editorial decisions, Al-Ghahtani said, "The policy of the newspaper is clear and this will not discourage the newspaper from expressing its views."
Arab News
8 November 2009
JEDDAH: Al-Watan newspaper was hacked on Saturday by a group calling itself Moorish Team-Dz. The hackers said they supported Sheikh Saad bin Nasser Al-Shithri who was recently removed from his job following statements he made on Al-Majd TV channel against coeducation at King Abullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST).
Jamal Khashoggi, editor in chief of Al-Watan newspaper, had written in Al-Watan criticizing Al-Shithri's statements. He said, "This much ado about coeducation is in downright opposition to knowledge, scientific research and the information revolution which does not distinguish between female and male." Mohammad Al-Ghahtani the Head of the Technical Department at Al-Watan newspaper refused to call what happened "hacking."
He said it was the work of amateurs operating through servers located in Syria, Egypt and Algeria. When asked what the newspaper had done to protect its site, he said that when the hacking was discovered, the paper transferred to an alternate site. Due to the large number of hits the site receives every day, it had taken some time to rectify the situation.
However the website was up and running again by the evening. Asked if the incident would have any effect on the paper's editorial decisions, Al-Ghahtani said, "The policy of the newspaper is clear and this will not discourage the newspaper from expressing its views."
Hackers blacked out Brazil: Report
Forwarded from: Simon Taplin
http://www.timeslive.co.za/scitech/article184124.ece
Nov 7, 2009 11:02 AM | By AFP
Massive power outages in Brazil in 2005 and 2007 that impacted millions were caused by cyber hackers attacking control systems, the US television network CBS says.
The CBS news program 60 Minutes said it had learned that the 2007 blackout in Espirito Santo State, which affected over three million people, and a smaller incident in Rio de Janeiro in 2005, were perpetrated by hackers.
The program, to be aired on Sunday, included the revelations as part of an investigation into the threat of cyber attacks on the United States.
Former Chief of US National Intelligence Mike McConnell told the 60 Minutes that he thought a similar attack is poised to take place on US soil.
If cyber hackers were able to infiltrate the US power grid, he said, “the United States is not prepared for such an attack."
Earlier this year the White House, State Department and Pentagon websites were among US government entities targeted in cyber attacks, amid suspicion that North Korea or its supporters are to blame.
In May South Korea and the United States agreed to cooperate in fighting cyber attacks against their defense networks.
Jim Lewis, director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, emphasized to 60 Minutes that US cyber security has come under significant attack from foreign nations in the past few years, including a breach of the CENTCOM Network, the US command post heading the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"We know it was a foreign country. We don't know which one — this was a very sophisticated set of skills," Lewis told CBS.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/scitech/article184124.ece
Nov 7, 2009 11:02 AM | By AFP
Massive power outages in Brazil in 2005 and 2007 that impacted millions were caused by cyber hackers attacking control systems, the US television network CBS says.
The CBS news program 60 Minutes said it had learned that the 2007 blackout in Espirito Santo State, which affected over three million people, and a smaller incident in Rio de Janeiro in 2005, were perpetrated by hackers.
The program, to be aired on Sunday, included the revelations as part of an investigation into the threat of cyber attacks on the United States.
Former Chief of US National Intelligence Mike McConnell told the 60 Minutes that he thought a similar attack is poised to take place on US soil.
If cyber hackers were able to infiltrate the US power grid, he said, “the United States is not prepared for such an attack."
Earlier this year the White House, State Department and Pentagon websites were among US government entities targeted in cyber attacks, amid suspicion that North Korea or its supporters are to blame.
In May South Korea and the United States agreed to cooperate in fighting cyber attacks against their defense networks.
Jim Lewis, director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, emphasized to 60 Minutes that US cyber security has come under significant attack from foreign nations in the past few years, including a breach of the CENTCOM Network, the US command post heading the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"We know it was a foreign country. We don't know which one — this was a very sophisticated set of skills," Lewis told CBS.
9 In 10 Web Apps Have Serious Flaws
By Thomas Claburn
InformationWeek
November 9, 2009
The number of software vulnerabilities detected has risen to the point that almost 9 out of 10 Web applications have flaws that could lead to the exposure of sensitive information.
Cenzic's "Web Application Security Trends Report Q1-Q2, 2009" report, released on Monday, says that more than 3,100 vulnerabilities were identified in the first half of the year, 10% more than the number identified in the second half of 2008.
Of the vulnerability total, 78% were Web application vulnerabilities, lower than in the second half of 2008 but higher than in the first half of last year.
The SANS Institute's Top Cyber Security Risks report, released in September, found that over 60% of attack attempts on the Internet target Web applications.
Ninety percent of the Web application vulnerabilities were in commercial Web apps and 8% were the browsers that run Web apps, Cenzic's report says.
[...]
InformationWeek
November 9, 2009
The number of software vulnerabilities detected has risen to the point that almost 9 out of 10 Web applications have flaws that could lead to the exposure of sensitive information.
Cenzic's "Web Application Security Trends Report Q1-Q2, 2009" report, released on Monday, says that more than 3,100 vulnerabilities were identified in the first half of the year, 10% more than the number identified in the second half of 2008.
Of the vulnerability total, 78% were Web application vulnerabilities, lower than in the second half of 2008 but higher than in the first half of last year.
The SANS Institute's Top Cyber Security Risks report, released in September, found that over 60% of attack attempts on the Internet target Web applications.
Ninety percent of the Web application vulnerabilities were in commercial Web apps and 8% were the browsers that run Web apps, Cenzic's report says.
[...]
Bot herders hide master control channel in Google cloud
By Dan Goodin in San Francisco
The Register
9th November 2009
Cyber criminals' love affair with cloud computing just got steamier with the discovery that Google's AppEngine was tapped to act as the master control channel that feeds commands to large networks of infected computers.
The custom application was used to relay download commands to PCs that had already been infected and made part of a botnet, said Jose Nazario, the manager of security research at Arbor Networks. Google shut down the rogue app shortly after being notified of it.
The discovery is the latest to highlight bot herders' growing embrace of the cloud, in which applications and data are hosted on large, publicly available servers instead of stand-alone machines. Last Friday, researchers from Symantec found a Facebook account pumping commands to zombie drones. And in August, Nazario found several Twitter accounts that were doing much the same thing.
Also on Monday, researchers from anti-virus provider Trend Micro reported that the massive Koobface botnet was abusing Google Reader to spam malicious links to Facebook and other social networking sites.
Microsoft COFEE Leaked ONLINE
By Kelly Jackson Higgins
DarkReading
Nov 09, 2009
A forensics tool built by Microsoft exclusively for law enforcement officials worldwide was posted to a file-sharing site, leaving the USB-based tool at risk of falling into the wrong hands.
COFEE is a free, USB-based set of tools, which Microsoft offers only to law enforcement, that plugs into a computer to gather evidence during an investigation. It lets an officer with little or no computer know-how use digital forensics tools to gather volatile evidence.
COFEE was posted, and then later removed, from at least one file-sharing site, but security experts say the cat is now out of the bag. While many forensics tools with similar functionality as Microsoft's Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor (COFEE) are available, security experts still worry the bad guys will use their access to the tool to figure out ways to circumvent it.
Chris Wysopal, CTO at Veracode, says the danger is that a detection tool will be written for COFEE so that the bad guys can cover their tracks.
"Someone will build a detector so that machines will wipe themselves or give rootkit-like fake answers if this USB is inserted into a computer,"
Wysopal says.
One researcher who got a copy of COFEE online says bad guys could abuse the tool by taking one of its DLLs and loading it into a compromised machine's memory, where it then dumps stored clear-text passwords to a file.
[...]
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