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    Posts Tagged ‘IT’

    Cyberattack Targets Chinese Human Rights Websites

    Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

    The websites of Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), Independent Chinese Pen (ICPC), New Century News, Canyu and Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch (CRLW) were attacked on January 23 and 24 by hackers of an unknown origin.

    A distributed denial of service (DDOS) brought down the websites for approximately 16 hours. At the height of the incident, the frequency of the attack was at 2GB per second. It was the most intense attack that their Internet Service Provider has experienced in the history of their business.

    Prior to this DDOS attack, malware was installed on the server of the websites for CHRD and New Century News. Some of the attacks have coordinated with “sensitive” dates for the country of China.

    Third Major Attack On Twitter This Year

    Saturday, December 19th, 2009

    Another major attack was directed against the online social network website, Twitter. This was the third major attack this year. The attack was one of the simplest methods possible. An attacker acquired the password to the master account for Twitter’s domain registry. The attacker redirected Twitter’s domain names to an alternate website that advertised the origin of the attack coming from the “Iranian Cyber Army” with a corresponding gmail address to supposedly direct inquiries.

    The attacks disabled the Twitter services for approximately two hours.

    Mobile Outage Causes Concern Over Microsoft New Strategy

    Saturday, October 10th, 2009

    CNET’s article “Sidekick outage casts cloud over Microsoft” describes a concern over Microsoft’s reliability to host and store data as a service. The article reacted to a massive service outage that has lasted a week, which prevented users from accessing their calendar, address book, and valuable data. Worst yet, Microsoft announced on Saturday that some data may be lost permanently.

    This outage comes one month before Microsoft launches a cloud-based operating system–Windows Azure.

    FCC Chairman Warns Of Over Extending The Spectrum

    Thursday, October 8th, 2009

    “I believe that that the biggest threat to the future of mobile in America is the looming spectrum crisis,” stated FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. His message of warning was delivered at CTIA Wireless.

    The Chairman explained that there will be a 30-fold increase in wireless traffic by 2013.

    When the DTV transition was freed, the 700 MHz block increased the wireless spectrum by a multiple of three. That growth rate is too slow for projected levels of consumption.

    Department of Homeland Security Seeking To Hire 1000 Security Experts

    Sunday, October 4th, 2009

    DHS and its sub agencies such as the Secret Service and Immigration and Customs Enforcement are seeking to hire 1000 computer and web security experts (analysts, developers and engineers) over the next three years. These new positions will fulfill critical security roles that include cyber risk and strategic analysis, internet incident response, vulnerability detection and vulnerability assessment, intelligence and investigation, and network and systems engineering.

    Janet Napolitano US Secretary of Homeland Security stated that she wants to make the DHS into a “world-class cyberorganization.” Critics of this new initiative says that the DHS will be hard-pressed to find that number of quality security experts.

    Gmail Goes Down Temporarily For Millions

    Thursday, September 3rd, 2009

    Millions of Gmail users experienced an outage of service when the company made a capacity miscalculation on Tuesday Sept. 1st.

    The problem began when Google took several of its Gmail servers offline for maintenance and made a miscalculation of load when attempting to redirect traffic. Google temporarily alleviated the situation when it moved traffic away from its overloaded request routers and released it across the whole capacity of its glorious network.

    Green Dam Software Now Voluntary

    Thursday, August 13th, 2009

    The Chinese Government has canceled its plans of forcing computer manufacturers to install internet filtering technology into computers sold in China.

    The Chinese Government paid 5.85 Million dollars for a vendor to develop software that will monitor computer activities. The Chinese Government claimed that the software was solely to be used to filter out internet pornography and not for spying on citizens.

    Li Yizhong, China’s industry and information technology minister, said that it was a miscommunication that installation of the Green Dam software was intended to be mandatory.

    There had been a fury of criticism and outrage directed at the Green Dam software. From privacy and spying concerns to a legal issue of copyright infringement against an American company, the Green Dam software suffered a problematic beginning which delayed its launch.

    Twitter Goes Offline Following DDoS Attack

    Thursday, August 6th, 2009

    Twitter was offline for an extended period of time on August 6th 2009 due to a DDoS ( massive distributed denial-of-service attacks ). Twitter left a message during the attack reporting it’s outage: “We are defending against a denial-of-service attack, and will update status again shortly.”

    The attack is linked to the launch of a new Koobface malware run which used Twitter as a distribution vector. The malware is distributed to victims via fake Facebook pages and varying Twitter messages that link to scareware pages (fake security).

    Twitter began to use Google’s Safe Browsing API to filter out bad Twitter links. The Koobface links however are bypassing the Google Safe Browsing API.

    IBM Becomes Model Of Stability In A World Of Delays

    Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

    IBM announced the on time release of it’s new server chip: Power7 Chip, which is a rarity in the current environment where many companies are forced to announce delays and project cancellations. The chip is planned to release in the first half of next year.

    Servers that currently use the Power6 chip will be able to replace it with the newer technology at the time of release. IBM and Sun, companies that build Unix based powerhouse servers for banks, telecommunications companies and other large businesses, build their own chips which has been a great source of profit for the companies.

    With the bleak economy, Sun has struggled as many businesses have held off new purchases — making due with existing technologies. Oracle caused a big disruption in the server market with its take over of Sun. Sun has claimed about one-third of the Unix server sales.

    Obama To Revamp Cyber Security For US

    Sunday, July 12th, 2009

    The cyber infrastructure of the United States is not up to par. On May 29th, 2009, President Obama presented the “Cyberspace Policy Review” which outlines a shift towards a more secure US cyber infrastructure and better defended computer networks. Recent headlines demonstrate a growing popular concern for insufficient cyber/network defenses. Rogue states and aggressive nations are starting to use the internet as a battlefield. Recent attacks on South Korea and US government and commercial interests are just lingering reminders of the urgency of new cyber policies.

    The new doctrine will require a comprehensive overview of our current practices. The scope of the program will involve: threat reduction, deterrence, vulnerability reduction, incident response, international engagement, systems resiliency, and computer and network recovery policies, including computer network operations, information assurance, law enforcement, diplomacy, military, and intelligence missions as they relate to the security and stability of the global information and communications infrastructure.

    Some directional shifts in policy:
    - Anchor leadership at the Whitehouse to signify the importance of the role of the new figurehead. This will also help harmonize various departments of the government involved in computer and internet security–making them more flexible and participatory.
    - Coherent unified policy guidance: clarify authorities, roles, and responsibilities for cybersecurity-related activities across the Federal government
    - Promote cybersecurity risk awareness for all citizens
    - …