The CyberWire Daily Briefing 07.08.13

Cyber Trends

China sees increase in Trojan and botnet attacks from other countries (CSO) Mobile malware in the country is also surging. China saw an increase in Trojan and botnet attacks coming from other countries in 2012, as the amount of mobile malware in the country also surged, according to a local security group

Cyber strikes (The News International) The fact remains, though, that in the event of a sustained cyber attack on business, security forces and agencies, the armed forces or the various arms of governance all of which rely heavily on the internet, they would be almost defenceless

An Addendum from Nathan Myhrvold on Cyber (Lawfare) In the days since Ben posted my paper, I've been asked a fair bit why my treatment of strategic terrorism does not mention cyber terrorism, or other forms of cyber-attack. It's a fair question, to which there are several answers: First, the world seems

Big Data turning US into Big Brother? (Stuff.co.nz) The revelations that the National Security Agency is perusing millions of US customer phone records at Verizon Communications and snooping on the digital communications stored by nine major internet services illustrate how aggressively personal data is

Port of Baltimore is vulnerable to cyber attack, Brookings study says (Baltimore Sun) U.S. commerce "would grind to a halt in a matter of days" in the aftermath of a crippling cyberattack that the nation's ports — including Baltimore — are ill-prepared for, according to a new Brookings Institution report. But port officials here and

GCC prone to cyber attack, say IT experts (Arab News) Over 65 percent of technology experts in the Gulf Cooperation Council states believe that the region is a fertile land for cyber attack. A recent survey, conducted by a computer giant, has revealed that 35 percent of the cyber crimes occur because of

Loss of intellectual property is causing headaches for UK government (SC Magazine UK) James Quinault CBE, director of the Office of Cyber Security and Information Assurance at the Cabinet Office, thanked the National Security conference in London for "giving time to cyber" after the UK government ranked it as a tier one threat. However

"Critical entities not prepared for cyber war" (Globes) Scores of water companies, hundreds of food and basic goods factories, pharmaceuticals manufacturers and distributors, and important financial institutions must take major steps to protect their computer systems against cyber attacks, Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) cyber warfare program director Dr. Gabi Siboni told "Globes"

Facing up to the cyber-espionage battle ahead (Public Service Europe) Cyber-attacks are now viewed as the number one threat to our security and we are only just beginning to realise how vulnerable we are in this digitalised world. This week, Britain's intelligence agencies - MI5 and Government Communication Headquarters - warned that the country is under daily cyber-espionage attack, with approximately 70 sophisticated operations identified every month. Often backed by foreign intelligence services, these attacks are reported by Sir Iain Lobban - director of GCHQ - as happening on an 'industrial scale' and focused on the theft of intellectual property from organisations; for the financial benefit and competitive advantage of state-owned organisations

Preparing for cyberwarfare (Japan Times) The realm of conflict between states that could lead to war has expanded in recent years. The United States and other major military powers are gearing up to defend themselves from attack in cyberspace, just as they have done in the past from land, sea, air and outer space attack. The U.S. has identified, but not yet named, more than 20 nations that now have military units dedicated to employing cyber technology in war. The roll call certainly includes China and Russia, as well as the U.S. itself

Report: Cyber Attack At LA, Long Beach Ports Could Cost $1B Per Day (CBS Local) Officials at ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach will look to better prepare for the threat of cyber attacks after a new report found the nation's largest port system could be vulnerable, officials said Wednesday

Cyber espionage moves out of the shadows (Help Net Security) During the first half of 2013, AppRiver screened more than 15 billion messages, nearly 13 billion of which were spam and another 171 million that carried viruses. Once again, the United States was the

Economic espionage threat to security (Pacific Daily News) Further, the report concluded from Mandiant the breaches can be linked to the People's Liberation Army's Unit 61398. The accusations and supporting evidence increased pressure on the United States to take more action against the Chinese for what

Bitcoin trust inspires a funny look at ETFs (FierceFinance) For the Winklevoss twins, the rise of Mark Zuckerberg has been a blessing and curse. On the one hand, the twins blame him for stealing the idea that went on to become Facebook. On the other hand, they have rocketed to fame and fortune thanks to the success of their nemesis. The Social Network made them icons

Legislation, Policy and Regulation

Information era causing problems for US intelligence agencies (NorthJersey.com) Nowadays, an intelligence analyst works directly for Booz Allen Hamilton, not for the government. Snowdon's case is an example of the laxity of the vetting process. Now the intelligence community is faced with the overwhelming job of damage control

Pentagon 'Psy-Ops' Missions Hit Home (Washington Post) Given the global nature of online communications, the Pentagon's information operations are perhaps inevitably becoming entangled on the home front. At a time of intense focus on the targeting of Americans' communications by the National Security Agency, Warsame's case also illustrates how other parts of the U.S. government monitor the material that some Americans post online

Without Borders: U.S. could have boosted security while being up front with public (Philly.com) In light of Edward Snowden's recent National Security Agency tell-all, pundits and politicians have been debating one question: Which should carry more weight: Individual privacy or collective security? Unfortunately, that hypothetical question can't

National view: We can handle the truth on NSA spying (Budgeteer) I don't believe government officials when they say the National Security Agency's surveillance programs do not invade our privacy. The record suggests that you shouldn't believe them, either. It pains me to sound like some Rand Paul acolyte

Tools For Treason (TechCrunch) If we are to start again on the Internet with knowledge of prying eyes that turn the law to their own purposes, our founding principle cannot be the establishment of trust, but rather the impossibility of trust. The trick is to treat every communication as a potential act of terrorism. After all, isn't that how the NSA does it? Tools for treason are the only tools that will suffice from now on

NSA leaks unite left and right on privacy protection (Salt Lake Tribune) Disclosures about the National Security Agency's operations of late have helped forge new bonds on Capitol Hill, proving that while Congress is deeply divided along partisan lines, there are those issues that can bridge the gap. Take Rep. Jason Chaffetz

Gibson criticizes National Security Agency, gives warning about Syria (The Register Star) Rep. Chris Gibson, R-19, said last month he was disturbed by reports that the National Security Agency (NSA) was collecting the phone records of all Americans, while also gathering information on emails and Internet activity. He signed a letter, along

Here's who spent their Fourth of July protesting the NSA (Washington Post) Hundreds of protesters gathered in Washington's McPherson Square Thursday, the Fourth of July, for a rally against the National Security Agency's secretive domestic surveillance programs. The event was part of a nationwide "Restore the Fourth" campaign

I Spy an Excuse (Wall Street Journal) If recent press claims are true, the National Security Agency (NSA) has found the number—and is listening very carefully. Reactions from Europe's national governments to alleged U.S. spying have so far been stern, yet cautious: French President

American espionage and Europe (The Economist) Material leaked to Germany's Der Spiegel and Britain's Guardian by Edward Snowden, a former contractor at the National Security Agency, says its programmes "can and often do target the signals" of around 30 "third-party" states, with which America has

European Parliament condemned US intelligence activities (ArmenPress) The European Parliament called on Thursday for the scrapping of two agreements granting the United States access to European financial and travel data unless Washington reveals the extent of its electronic spying operations in Europe

EU Parliament to launch inquiry into US surveillance programs (Help Net Security) European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee will conduct an "in-depth inquiry" into the US surveillance programs, including the bugging of EU premises and other spying allegations, and present its

Merkel says EU must not forget U.S. spying in push for free trade (The Star) Germany's Angela Merkel said on Saturday that Europe should push ahead with free-trade negotiations with the United States next week while making sure that concerns about America's secret surveillance of its EU allies are not swept under the carpet

Spying allegations could delay U.S.-E.U. trade talks (Washington Post) The economic fallout over accusations of U.S. spying on European diplomats widened on Wednesday, with France's government saying it wanted to delay the start of major U.S.-E.U. trade talks and a German minister suggesting that citizens there stop patronizing American Internet companies such as Google and Facebook if they are concerned about their privacy

'German government sells the privacy of German citizens to the US' (Russia Today) The recent NSA spying scandal showed the German government behaves towards US like a puppet regime, involving all major political parties just before the September elections, German journalist Manuel Ochsenreiter told RT

Snowden's revelations highlight the moral decline of America (Financial Times) It is widely believed that the revelations by Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, have dented US moral hegemony. America will no longer be able to criticise states that subordinate civil liberties to reasons of state

Surprise: France Spies on Its Citizens, Too (Slate) The NSA's once-secret surveillance program unsurprisingly has company in Europe. French newspaper Le Monde reported yesterday that France has a secret electronic surveillance apparatus that relies on many of the same tactics as the American programs

Révélations sur le Big Brother français (Le Monde) Si les révélations sur le programme d'espionnage américain Prism ont provoqué un concert d'indignation en Europe, la France, elle, n'a que faiblement protesté. Pour deux excellentes raisons : Paris était déjà au courant. Et fait la même chose

Snowden reveals Australia's links to US spy web (Sydney Morning Herald) Classified US National Security Agency maps leaked by Mr Snowden and published by US journalist Glenn Greenwald in the Brazilian O Globo newspaper reveal the locations of dozens of US and allied signals intelligence collection sites that contribute to

Brazil Target Of US Spying, Globo Newspaper Reports (Huffington Post) The U.S. National Security Agency monitored the telephone and email activity of Brazilian companies and individuals in the past decade as part of U.S. espionage activities, the Globo newspaper reported on Sunday

Snowden says Western states 'in bed with' US national security agency (Straits Times) Fugitive intelligence leaker Edward Snowden said the US National Security Agency operates broad secret spying partnerships with other Western governments now complaining about its programmes, in an interview published on Sunday

Snowden, surveillance and snooping in India: FAQs (Business Standard) An internal code-name for a top-secret surveillance programme run by the US National Security Agency, with real-time access to user data (from Google, Facebook and seven others) instead of requiring ad-hoc wiretap requests or court orders for

Russian Army to create Cyber Command (Pravda) Before the end of 2013, a separate branch of service is to be created in the Russian army. The new department will deal with the struggle against cyber threats, sources at Russia's Defense Ministry said. The plans to create the Cyber Command were

China, US To Discuss Cyber Security At Forum (Yahoo.com) China's government says it is ready to discuss strengthening cybersecurity at a high-level forum with U.S. officials next week and wants Washington to help settle territorial disputes in East Asia

DoD looks to quarantine employees from leaked documents (FierceGovIT) Classified information, even if it's already in the public domain, remains classified until it's been declassified by a government authority, said the Defense Department's Director of Security Timothy Davis, in a June 7 memo to DoD security directors

EU adopts stricter penalties for cyber criminals (Help Net Security) Cyber criminals will face tougher penalties in the EU, under new rules adopted by Parliament on Thursday. The draft directive, already informally agreed with member states, also aims to facilitate

Gov't to reinforce cyber security manpower (Global Post) The government said Thursday that it plans to train 5,000 experts by 2017 and boost cooperation among related government agencies to better cope with rising cyber security concerns

The Future of US Cyber Command (The National Interest Online) For months it has been an entertaining parlor game in the nation's capital: guessing what will happen next with U.S. Cyber Command, the military organization designed to defend the country's networks and attack its adversaries. The topic will

Products, Services, and Solutions

See your metadata the way the NSA does (Boston Globe) Wondering what kind of information the National Security Agency can glean from your metadata? Try it on yourself: A new project from MIT's Media Lab maps out your social networks by tapping into your e-mail metadata — similar to what the NSA does

Ultra Electronics to launch EnergyGuard in Mideast (Trade Arabia) London-based Ultra Electronics is set to launch its new generation Scada protection solution, EnergyGuard at a cyber security forum to take place in Abu Dhabi in October. "EnergyGuard is designed to protect…Developed by Ultra's 3eTI business, the

Iran Domestic Email Service Online (Cyberwarzone) Iran Information and Communication Technology Minister Mohammad Hasan Nami said in an interview with state TV that Iran has opened its own domestically made national email service

Bitdefender's Wildly Different Antivirus Tools Both Shine (PC Magazine) Security products tend toward a certain sameness in their user interface. The background may be slate grey, white, blue, black, green, yellow, or polka-dot, sure. But whatever the color, the main window will probably display a green, yellow, or red

Security-Enhanced Android: NSA Edition (Businessweek) Tech giants listed as part of the National Security Agency's Prism spying program have gone to some lengths to convince the world they aren't in bed with the U.S. government. Google (GOOG) has filed a request with the U.S. Foreign Intelligence

NETGEAR introduces R6100 WiFi router (Help Net Security) NETGEAR is expanding its family of 802.11ac wireless products with the R6100 WiFi Router. The R6100 is a dual band router that supports combined WiFi speeds up to 1200 Mbps with Fast Ethernet wired

Technologies, Techniques, and Standards

Doing More Than Paying Risk Management Lip Service (Dark Reading) How well does your organization execute on its 'commitment' to guiding security practices through risk management

Is Metadata the Magic in Modern Network Security? (Internet Storm Center) Today's security tools used to analyze or detect suspicious activity, collect metadata which is usually refers to data about data to describe the how, when, where and who was involved. Metadata is a way of organizing, gluing together and discovering information that otherwise would be very difficult to manage, analyze and produce insightful reports

Virtualisation Security Needs More Than A Fortress Mentality (Lifehacker) Virtualisation produces impressive results, but it also requires a fundamental shift in mindset. The 'fortress' approach that works with older IT environments needs to shift once you're dealing with virtualised systems

Branch office security in the spotlight (Naked Security) The ideal solution for branch offices is some kind of VPN, or virtual private network. But setting up a VPN in the first place creates something of a paradox: how do you securely set up a branch office connection without a secure connection over which to set it up

Geeks have a solution to digital surveillance in India: Cryptography (DNA) While you were thinking of what to post on Twitter, the government has stealthily put an ambitious surveillance programme in place that tracks your every move in the digital world — through voice calls, SMS, MMS, GPRS, fax communications on landlines, video calls and emails. The programme, conceived in 2011, has now been brought under one umbrella referred to as the centralised monitoring system (CMS)

How to cloud compute securely (WhaTech) Much of the advice available on cloud security comes from the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), a not-for-profit organisation with a mission to promote the use of best practices for providing security assurance within cloud computing. It also aims to

Combat cyber crime with least privilege methodology (Boston.com) This was the case with South Carolina's Department of Revenue, where an employee unknowingly clicked an email link and opened the government agency to a large-scale cyber-attack, costing the state $14 million and compromised the personal and

Can agencies team up in responding to cyber attacks? (GCN) The National Institute of Standards and Technology is planning guidance on how agencies can better cooperate and respond to cybersecurity incidents. "Unfortunately, modern computing systems frequently are exposed to various forms of cyber attack," NIST

Flash FPGAs Incorporate Differential Power Analysis Countermeasures (Electronic Design) DPA support was licensed from Cryptography Research, a division of Rambus. DPA support applies to the chip as a whole, not just a memory or cryptography/security subsystem. This means a powered chip will always be radiating power in a random fashion

Marketplace

Is Privacy the Next Big IT Industry? (Slashdot) Following revelations about NSA surveillance, will people rush to download security and privacy software

NSA recruitment drive goes horribly wrong (The Guardian) Staff from the National Security Agency got more than they bargained for when they attempted to recruit students to their organisation earlier this week

Hacking competitions seek cybersecurity superstars (BBC News) Private contractors and government agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security use the cyber camp to scout for that talent. A student with the right skills can pretty much pick and choose a career. "Personally

Top defence and telecom firms join UK cyber security war (Telegraph.co.uk) BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, BT Group, Lockheed Martin and Hewlett Packard are among companies that will team up with government to share information on tackling cyber threats, the Ministry of Defence said on Friday. Britain made cyber security one of its

BT, Verizon call for shared cyber threat intelligence (Total Telecom) BT and Verizon on Wednesday called on telcos and enterprises to be more forthcoming with information about the cyber attacks they have suffered, as security threats become more frequent and high profile. Speaking at Total Telecom's Network Management

Booming cyber security firms are filling up suburban Baltimore offices (Baltimore Business Journal) "Fort Meade is currently the largest employer in Maryland with more than 56,000 employees, and is home to the U.S. Cyber Command, the Defense Information Systems Agency and the National Security Agency," Cassidy Turley said in the report. "These

German security chief: Stop using Google if you fear U.S. spying (VentureBeat) If you're one of the many Internet users worried about how American tech companies are helping the U.S government collect information, Germany's security chief has some advice for you: Stay away from those American tech companies

ManTech to Run DOJ IT Services Desk (GovConWire) ManTech International (NASDAQ: MANT) has won a potential $16 million contract to operate an information technology services desk and provide IT services for the Justice Department

Digital Management snags $16M Pentagon MDM contract (FierceMobileIT) Digital Management will provide a mobile device management system and mobile application store for the Pentagon, under a contract awarded by the Defense Information Systems Agency that is worth up to $16 million over three years

ISS backs Dell founder's offer (USA TODAY) A top proxy advisory firm is recommending that Dell shareholders vote in favor of a deal that would allow the company's founder and an investment firm to buy the computer maker and take it private

Dell battle turns on proxy advisor recommendation (FierceFinance) There has been a lot of talk as of late about how the main proxy advisory services have lost their clout, a victim of conflicts of interests in at least one case. But when it comes to the Dell leveraged buyout drama, Institutional Shareholders Services (ISS), the most controversial of the proxy advisors, has moved center stage

Mark Gerencser to Chair CyberSpa Board after Retiring From Booz Allen (GovConWire) Mark Gerencser, an executive vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE: BAH), has retired from Booz Allen after a 31-year career with the Tysons Corner, Va.-based contractor and joined PC services company CyberSpa as chairman of the board of directors

Research and Development

Quantum Enigma Machine Proposed by Seth Lloyd for Secure Cryptography (Next Big Future) Tweet Enigma machines are devices that perform cryptography using pseudo-random numbers. The original enigma machine code was broken by detecting hidden patterns in these pseudo-random numbers. This paper proposes a model for a quantum

Quantum information: Killer apps (New Scientist) In October 2007, a quantum cryptography system developed by Nicolas Gisin and his colleagues at the University of Geneva in Switzerland was used to transmit votes securely between the city's central polling station and the counting office during the

Security Patches, Mitigations, and Software Updates

Internet Explorer pegged for critical fix on Tuesday (CSO) Microsoft's monthly patch release for July covers six remote-code execution vulnerabilities. Microsoft's monthly patch release for July will cover seven security issues, six of which could be remotely exploited by an attacker. The company publishes an advisory in advance of its patch date, which is the second Tuesday of the month, so administrators knows what products will be affected. It does not describe the vulnerabilities, however, until the security fixes are released

Anatomy of a buffer overflow - learning from Apple's latest security update (Naked Security) Apple has released its latest Security Update for OS X. Update 2013-003 fixes a trifecta of buffer overflow vulnerabilities in QuickTime. Paul Ducklin sees what we can learn from the bugs

Apple Updates QuickTime for OS X Security (InternetNews.com) Apple is pushing out its Security Update 2013-003 to users, fixing a trio of vulnerabilities that affect Apple's QuickTime media player. What's even more surprising is that the vulnerabilities were all reported to Apple via HP's Zero Day Initiative

Critical Cryptocat group chat bug fixed (Help Net Security) A critical security vulnerability in Cryptocat versions older than 2.0.42 has been patched and developers are urging users to update to the latest available version of the encrypted online chatting

Android Phone Numbers Leaked By Facebook App (InformationWeek) Symantec spots privacy leak and Facebook issues patch, saying it was an inadvertent coding error and phone numbers did not go public

Cyber Attacks, Threats, and Vulnerabilities

Snowden and Assange Targeted by Pro-US Hacker "The Jester" (Hack Read) A self-proclaimed patriot and shadowy hacker has recently launched several cyber-attacks against Ecuador and has also made the statement that such attacks will be conducted against any nation whosoever seeks of granting asylum to Edward Snowden who is the former contractor of National Security Agency. th3J35t3r" (the Jester) is what the hacker calls himself and has also identified himself as being a former solider. He has also gone on to target Julian Assange. The founder of Wikileaks is helping Snowden out in finding a secure heaven

8 Egyptian Ministry Websites Hacked by Anonymous Jordan (Hack Read) An Anonymous hacker going with the handle of Anonymous Jordan has hacked and defaced eight (8) Egyptian Ministry websites against the taking down of Muslim Brotherhood's government few days ago. The targeted websites belong to different high profile government ministries and departments, such as the website of Ministry of Electricity & Energy

Irishman Hacks Nigeria Govt Website, Gives FG 72 Hours To Renounce Anti-Gay Bill (Africzone.com) Exasperated by the way Nigeria handles the homosexuality matter, an Irish hacker — who goes by the monicker Paddyhack – has conducted a cyber attack on the official government of Nigeria's website. The 'assault' is apparently aimed at making President Jonathan to veto the bill according to which all homosexuals in Nigeria are subject to imprisonment. The website was attacked on Thursday night; though things were later restored, it remains unknown if it were the officials that took matters in their hands, or the attackers stepped back

Aggressive Android adware masquerading as Wi-Fi password cracking app (Help Net Security) Statistics say that Android malware and aggressive adware is on the rise, so the fact that researchers occasionally find some of it on legitimate online app markets should not come as a surprise to anyone

Android bug allows app code change without breaking signatures (Help Net Security) Researchers from Bluebox Security have discovered a critical Android flaw that allows attackers to modify the code of any app without breaking its cryptographic signature, and thusly allows them to

Fake Pinterest "Password changed" email leads to malware (Help Net Security) Pinterest users beware: an email purportedly coming from the popular pinboard-style photo-sharing website and notifying you of a successful password reset is fake: If you click on the offered but

Trojanized Android app collects info, comments on NSA surveillance (Help Net Security) An unusual Android Trojan has been recently unearthed by McAfee's researchers, embedded in a pirated version of a legitimate music app. The app in question is Jay Z Magna Carta, which has been recently

"Blizzard Entertainment IP Restrictions" phishing email doing rounds (Help Net Security) Blizzard Entertainment has acknowledged that the notification email that has been hitting users' inboxes and has been purportedly sent by the company is, in fact, a phishing attempt. The email goes

System Doctor 2014: A fake AV for the upcoming year (Help Net Security) In an effort to keep one step ahead of security solutions and attentive users, peddlers of fake AV solutions often change the name of the malware they are trying to sell. Researchers from Microsoft

Serious vulnerabilities in OpenX ad platform expose millions to risk (Help Net Security) High-Tech Bridge Security Research Lab discovered multiple vulnerabilities in OpenX, which can be exploited to execute arbitrary PHP code, perform Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks and compromise

Phony Adobe Flash Player Tricks Twitter, Facebook Users (InformationWeek) Malicious links spreading on Facebook and Twitter redirect users to a website that goads users into installing a phony version of Adobe Flash Player

Large Pony botnet controller discovered (Help Net Security) Every once in a while we get to peek into the lion's den, this time we'll be checking out a fairly large instance of the Pony botnet controller, containing a large amount of stolen credentials and

Spam blizzards used to hide malicious activities (CSO) Distributed Spam Distraction attacks may last up to 24 hours, and inundate an inbox with as many as 60,000 messages, AppRiver report notes

FAA registry of pilots' data at risk of data breach (FierceGovIT) Personally identifiable information kept within the Federal Aviation Administration's Civil Aviation Registry is at risk for breach, says the Transportation Department office of inspector general

2.5 million Californians had personal info compromised (Help Net Security) Attorney General Kamala D. Harris released the first report detailing the 131 data breaches reported to her office in 2012, showing that 2.5 million Californians had personal information put at risk

British defence giant blames Chinese hackers for wave of cyber attacks (This is Money) Martin Sutherland, managing director of BAE's cyber security arm, Detica, said BAE computer systems were being hit by 92,000 'significant security events' a year, though most could be fended off by firewalls. BAE Systems believes that Chinese hackers

The 'cyber-attack' threat to London's Olympic ceremony (BBC News) Fears that the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony might have come under cyber-attack have been detailed by officials for the first time. The concern was that the lights could have been turned off during the ceremony. The threat did not materialise

Academia

Have you ever wondered how cyber crimes are plotted? (Hack Read) Derby University of mathematics and computing is helping the world to fight from cyber crime in most unusual way. Have you ever wondered how cyber crimes are plotted? Well, you might think of it in a simple way of how a robbery is conducted i.e. on some paper or by discussion with some more robbers. But, it's not true most of the cyber crimes are plotted through games

Embry-Riddle Team Wins NIKSUN Cybersecurity Competition (Newsday) The tournament tasked two-person teams with using the IT skills they learned in college to solve four real-world cybersecurity challenges as quickly as possible by analyzing recorded Internet traffic. A team of two recent graduates from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's Daytona Beach Campus, called Team ByteCasters, recently won the first-ever NIKSUN Cybersecurity Tournament

Winners of Kaspersky's global cybersecurity competition announced (Infosecurity Magazine) The finals of Kaspersky Lab's global youth competition, Cyber Security for the Next Generation (CSNG) 2013, were held at Royal Holloway, University of London last week – and the winners have been announced. Overall winner was Firman Azhari from the Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia. Second was Dusan Repel from the of Plymouth University, UK. And third was Iwan Gulenko from the Technical University of Munich, Germany

U.S. Cyber Challenge and Virginia Tech Hosted Successful Cyber Security Competition (PRNewswire) Virginia Tech, in partnership with U.S. Cyber Challenge, hosted the U.S. Cyber Challenge Eastern Regional Summer Cyber Camp in Roanoke, Virginia. The Summer Cyber Camp was conducted June 24-28, 2013, and included four days of instruction by SANS instructors, a career fair, an Executive Roundtable and a cyber competition. The team consisting of Jim Kozlowski, Rafael Mation, Ross Kaye, Lloyd Jones and William Deitrick emerged as the winner of the competition

Litigation, Investigation, and Enforcement

Turkish Police Labels RedHack Hackavists as "Cyber Terrorist Organization" (Hack Read) In a report submitted by the Turkish police in Istanbul Prosecutor's Office, the famous online hackavist group RedHack has been labed as "cyber terrorist organization" for encouraging public to commit crimes against the state via twitter during Gezi Resistance

Dempsey: Spy Has Harmed Relations (Philadelphia Inquirer) The Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman says NSA leaker Edward Snowden's disclosures about U.S. surveillance programs have undermined U.S. relationships with other countries and affected what he calls "the importance of trust."

Snowden made the right call when he fled the U.S. (Washington Post) Many people compare Edward Snowden to me unfavorably for leaving the country and seeking asylum, rather than facing trial as I did. I don't agree. The country I stayed in was a different America, a long time ago

Privacy Group to Ask Supreme Court to Stop N.S.A.'s Phone Spying Program (New York Times) A privacy rights group plans to file an emergency petition with the Supreme Court on Monday asking it to stop the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program that collects the telephone records of millions of Americans. The group, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, says it is taking the extraordinary legal step of going directly to the Supreme Court because the sweeping collection of the phone records of American citizens has created "exceptional circumstances" that only the nation's highest court can address

Venezuela, Bolivia offer asylum to Edward Snowden (CSO) Nicaragua has also indicated that it may offer asylum. The presidents of Venezuela and Bolivia have offered to give asylum to Edward Snowden, the former contractor of the National Security Agency who leaked documents about the agency's surveillance programs

Why Won't Anyone Take Edward Snowden? (Slate) Because he is a terrible candidate for asylum. Poor Edward Snowden! He's willing to live nearly anywhere, but no country is willing to accept him. Not Ecuador. Not China, Russia, Norway, or Spain. Why not? Because he is a terrible candidate for asylum

NSA leaks raise concerns on background checks (Ocala) Before Edward Snowden began leaking national security secrets, he twice cleared the hurdle of the federal government's background check system. The first was at the CIA, and the second was as a contract technician at the National Security Agency

Resume Shows Snowden Honed Hacking Skills (New York Times) In 2010, while working for a National Security Agency contractor, Edward J. Snowden learned to be a hacker

Deals with foreign cable owners, secret court rulings broaden NSA spying potential (Ars Technica) Leaked documents and other sources show some of the structure behind surveillance. New information this weekend gave a glimpse into the efforts made by the US to establish a broad network of surveillance around the world. Some of the efforts involve using a proxy telecommunications company to manage the information gathered by local telecom companies in foreign countries, creating internal corporate cells with access to foreign-owned fiber optic cables, and using unchallenged rulings from Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Courts (FISC) to broaden the NSA's power

In Secret, Court Vastly Broadens Powers of NSA (New York Times) Last month, a former National Security Agency contractor, Edward J. Snowden, leaked a classified order from the FISA court, which authorized the collection of all phone-tracing data from Verizon business customers. But the court's still-secret

Oliver Stone calls National Security Agency secret-leaker Edward Snowden 'a hero' (Daily News) 'It's a disgrace that (President) Obama is more concerned with hunting down Snowden than reforming these George Bush-style eavesdropping techniques,' the outspoken director said Thursday at a Czech film festival. Snowden is reportedly holed up in a Moscow airport waiting for a country to grant him asylum

Ex-Russian spy Anna Chapman tweets marriage proposal to Edward Snowden (New York Daily News) Knockout Russian secret agent Anna Chapman has the hots for Edward Snowden, the man behind the leaks of top-secret National Security Agency documents. "Snowden, will you marry me?" Chapman tweeted Wednesday from Russia, with love. "@nsa will

Wiretaps up 24 percent in 2012 (FierceGovIT) The number of federal- and state-court authorized wiretaps during calendar year 2012 increased by 24 percent from 2011, newly released court data shows. In an annual report from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, federal, state and territorial jurisdictions report having authorized 3,395 wiretaps last year--87 percent of the time, in cases where illegal drugs was the most serious offense under investigation

Manning defense to present case (Independent Online) Court-martial prosecutors have spent the last five weeks in a courtroom at Fort Meade, Maryland - home of the ultra-secret National Security Agency - building their case that Manning committed espionage in leaking more than 700 000 classified files

Design and Innovation

Software Is Still King. Hardware Is Just Along for the Ride (Wired) "This is kind of the next step in software eating the world. Software has come to revolutionize the hardware industry, and it so happens that hardware is coming along for the ride"

The UK Needs An Acquisition Culture If It's To Have a Sustainable Startup Culture (TechCrunch) In 2006, the majority of London's tech startup scene could fit into a "Internet Peeps" dinner and the closest thing we had to Campus London was Adam Street library. Nine years later though things have changed completely. Little seedlings like Huddle and