Now I know why ICE is so ineffective at enforcing immigration law: Video Game Industry Hails Nationwide Piracy Raids In "Operation Tangled Web". The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) today commended U.S. law enforcement agents and prosecutors’ work in undertaking the nation’s first and largest anti-piracy raid of its kind. The action, code-named "Operation Tangled Web," [...]
China's Golden Shield
Aug 2, 2007 By Leave a Comment
Forbes is reporting an interesting take on China's censorship efforts, which may also be used defensively during a "cyber war": China's Golden Cyber-Shield. "China has powerful controls over content going out and coming in at every gateway," says Jody Westby, chief executive of security consultancy Global Cyber Risk. She argues that the tight relationship between [...]
Information Outsourcing
Jul 31, 2007 By Leave a Comment
Indian police have arrested a software engineer for hacking into one of Caterpillar's servers: Software engineer held for cyber crime. Mr. Ramasamy had reportedly hacked into “Research and Engineering Documents Inquiry System” (REDI) when he was working as an engineer in Caterpillar India Private Limited during January and February this year. The company has an [...]
Spies Among Us Part 3
Jul 31, 2007 By Leave a Comment
As I reported here, China is increasing its spy network and becoming more aggressive. Now the government is openly admitting there's a major problem: FBI calls Chinese espionage 'substantial'. Joel Brenner, the director of national counterintelligence, said in an interview in March that China's theft of technology from the United States is a serious problem [...]
Outsourcing Private Information
Jul 28, 2007 By Leave a Comment
I've written several times previously about outsourcing and it's security implications here, here, here, and here. The bottom line is that outsourcing information is a little different than the labor to makes shoes or even electronic components. Information can be used for identity theft, extortion, and terrorism. Yesterday, Michelle Malkin posted about California DMV information [...]
Yet Another Reason Illegal Immigration Is a Problem
Jul 28, 2007 By Leave a Comment
The Washington Times is reporting on the growth of M13 throughout the United States. See: MS-13 gang seeks to unite nationwide. There are an estimated 20,000 members associated with 125 cliques in the U.S. alone. As of 2003, DEA and FBI officials have located groups in 30 states, plus the District. Although the group began [...]
Spies Among Us Part 2
Jul 26, 2007 By Leave a Comment
Australia is seeing a rise in Russian and Chinese spies taking advantage of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation's (ASIO) focus on Islamic terrorism. I think this is tied directly to the extreme increase of industrial espionage in recent years. While there is no direct link among the major powers (i.e. Russia and China), Islamic terrorism, [...]
Spies Among Us
Jul 26, 2007 By Leave a Comment
This is an interesting story about organized crime infiltrating financial institutions: Organized crime infiltrates financial IT. What strikes me about this is that it is a surprise to so many; savvy criminals go where the money is. There are weaknesses in corporate security practices and they are being exploited. Security experts for years have been [...]
How the Government Handles Information Security
Jul 26, 2007 By Leave a Comment
I have a collection of articles I wanted to comment on, but I noticed they all have one thing in common: they point to the utter incompetence of the government when it comes to security, technology, and secrecy. It's sometimes hard for me to imagine how stupidity spreads this much, but then I remember that [...]
FBI Spyware
Jul 19, 2007 By Leave a Comment
Wired has an article on the FBI spyware known as CIPAV (see FBI's Secret Spyware Tracks Down Teen Who Made Bomb Threats). The full capabilities of the FBI's "computer and internet protocol address verifier" are closely guarded secrets, but here's some of the data the malware collects from a computer immediately after infiltrating it, according [...]
Long Way From Home by The Heavy