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Ethical Relativism- Sky News Morphs into Anonymous? April 5, 2012

Posted by Chris Mark in Industry News, InfoSec & Privacy, Laws and Leglslation.
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By now most are probably aware of the email hacking scandal that severely damaged Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp empire.  NewsCorp reporters were caught illegally accessing phone calls of the UK Royal family and hacking into email accounts of individuals.  Murdochs’ son had to resign from his position as Chairman of BSkyB which own UK’s Sky News.

According to a report on CNN this morning UK news channel Sky News said Thursday it had authorized its journalists to hack into the e-mail of individual members of the public on two occasions.  The very same people (journalists) that will scream for “freedom of speech” and “freedom of the press” and claim journalistic integrity are now violating the public’s privacy in a scramble to maintain market share and increase revenue?  (more…)

Global Issues Press Release Confirming Breach March 30, 2012

Posted by Chris Mark in InfoSec & Privacy, Laws and Leglslation.
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Thank you to a person for pointing this out to me via LinkedIn.  GlobalPayments, Inc. has issued a press release confirming it was their system that was compromised.  You can read it here.  They have disabled cutting and copying so here is a screenshot.

BitDefender: “Anonymous is ‘good’ for security” – REALLY?! March 28, 2012

Posted by Chris Mark in InfoSec & Privacy, Laws and Leglslation, Risk & Risk Management.
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A March 14th, 2012 article on ZDNetAsia sums up one of the major problems with security.  Specifically, it is the victims that are consistently blamed for the crime and the belief (very arrogant, I might add) that companies simply don’t care about security and this is why they are victimized.  According to the article:

“Alexandu Catalin Cosoi, chief security researcher at BitDefender, for one, said that hacktivist group Anonymous has been “good” for security. This is because even though it had disclosed people’s personal information publicly online, the security breaches it organized had a positive impact, he added. Now, more companies are willing to secure their networks and private data, which is good news, he stated.”  (more…)

“We Can’t Live in Castles” – FBI Official Concedes; CyberSecurity Policy is a Failure March 28, 2012

Posted by Chris Mark in Industry News, InfoSec & Privacy, Laws and Leglslation.
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In my Google alerts  today was an article from Foxnews titled: “Retiring FBI Official Says Current US CyberSecurity Strategy ‘Unsustainable'”  Shawn Henry, the FBI’s Assistant Director for CyberSecurity refers to the increasing cyber attacks on government and corporate targets and says: “We are not winning”.  All I can say at this point is…WOW..again we are beating a dead horse!  In 2010, I said the same thing at an InfraGard event in Salt Lake City, and RSA has said the same thing.  We sound like broken records at this point.  This post will likely be a bit more pointed and blunt than most but my frustration is mounting on the subject. For a shameless plug on my own research brief, please read: “A Failed State of Security” now published by IDGA.

CyberAttacks against corporates, committed by individuals are crimes.  Crimes are human acts undertaking by living, breathing, thinking human beings.  CyberSecurity, at its core, is about more than building castles to keep the princess protected.  It is also about changing human behavior to deter the criminal behavior.

“deterrence is ultimately about decisively influencing decision making.  Achieving such decisive influence requires altering or reinforcing decision makers’ perceptions of key factors they must weigh in deciding whether to act counter to (our interests) or to exercise restraint.”[1] (more…)

France’s PATROIT Act? – “Visit Website; Go to Jail” March 23, 2012

Posted by Chris Mark in Industry News, Laws and Leglslation, terrorism.
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In the aftermath of the murder of 7 people in France by a self-proclaimed Al Qaeda militant, France’s president Nicolas Sarkozy has proposed a sweeping law that would jail those who visit extremist websites.  “Anyone who regularly consults Internet sites which promote terror or hatred or violence will be sentenced to prison,” he told a campaign rally in Strasbourg, in eastern France. “What is possible for pedophiles should be possible for trainee terrorists and their supporters, too” 

The murders of 7 people in Toulouse were horrific.  Among those killed were a Rabbi and several children at a Jewish school.  The murderer, 23 year old Mohamad Merah, was killed by French police after a standoff.  (more…)