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Is cyber-warfare a genuine threat?

Blitzer — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 03:18:27 +0000

Cyber attacks are already upon us but the rules of digital warfare have yet to be agreed upon. Is it time, as an influential think tank believes, for a digital Geneva Convention? Is it even possible when the internet was designed without country borders and when defining what a “cyber-war” constitutes is near-impossible? “We come in peace” reads the tagline of the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin.
The event, which attracts “thousands of hackers, scientists, artists, and utopians from all around the world”, is a timely reminder that not all hackers are obsessed with unearthing secrets or bringing down governments.
They are keen to point out that the definition of “hacker” can mean both a technical expert who modifies things as well as the increasingly common definition of someone who digitally intrudes.
But there are worries from governments around the world that a “cyber-war” is just around the corner, moving from conventional battlefields into the digital world. “Cyber-threats are not on the horizon, they are upon us,” says US Senator Robert Menendez.
He is introducing a bill to the US Congress, following reports of cyber attacks on Nasdaq OMX Group and both oil and gas companies, aimed at “strengthening cybersecurity”. Despite the concern, many still do not realise the effects this seemingly impending battle could have.
Most of our infrastructures rely on computer technology to function properly – from railways to electricity companies and national defence systems – so failure or malicious attacks on them matters more than just not being able to read an e-mail.
If these things were threatened, some commentators believe it is not just the internet at threat, but many lives. “The attackers are constantly developing new strategies,” John Bumgarner, chief technologist of the US Cyber Consequences Unit, told BBC Newsnight.
“There are thing out there right now that the public doesn’t really know about – technologies that can be embedded in systems that will run but you will never see. “Things already exist to do things like turn off the power grid, disrupt water systems, disrupt manufacturing processes… GPS [devices] in cars have the capability to give wrong directions and your car could catch fire potentially depending on how you program it.”
Others, such as Frank Coggrave, vice president of digital investigators Guidance Software, believe these sorts of comments are “edging towards hysteria”. But what even is a cyber-war? And how does anyone know when it begins or who is fighting who?

“There is no clear, internationally agreed upon definition of what would constitute a cyber-war. In fact, there is considerable confusion,” said a report released at the Munich Security Conference by think tank The EastWest Institute.
Its paper, titled Working Towards Rules for Governing Cyber Conflict, says that “the current ambiguity [about what constitutes cyber conflict] is impeding policy development and clouding the application of existing Convention requirements” and perhaps the idea of peace and war is too simple in the digital age when the world could find itself in a third, “other than war” mode.
In basic terms, it is calling for something similar to the Hague or Geneva conventions that govern conventional warfare.

While seemingly simple in theory, this could be very difficult to put into practice. “It’s a challenge and [governments are] doing a valiant job… but the whole area of cyberspace and cyber-attack is very difficult to quantify,” says Mr Coggrave. “Who is performing the attacks? Just look back over the last year at the Stuxnet attack on Iran’s nuclear reactors.”
The Stuxnet attack – where specific types of industrial controls were targeted and damage is believed to have been done to Iran’s uranium enrichment programme – was described as enemies of Iran “seeking to wage a cyber war” by the country’s communication minister. “It’s still questionable who actually did it,” says Mr Coggrave.

“Was it the Israelis, the Chinese, the CIA or M16? When you come to cyber-attacks, because of the inter-connectivity of the world, it is actually so difficult to attribute [responsibility for the attack to any one party] that putting in rules of engagement is valiant but probably flawed.”
Many experts believe that this attack, unlike most others before it, was carried out with some form of state involvement – citing the proficiency and scale of the attack.
While this attack was quite specifically targeted, it is very difficult to aim at one organization or country. Even the Stuxnet worm has affected computers in 10 countries. This means that neutral or humanitarian organizations online could be hit in the metaphorical crossfire. The job that the Red Cross does in “kinetic” – or traditional – warfare could be impossible to recreate in the virtual world.
“And there is blurring between cyber-warfare and cyber-terrorism… if you generate a virus that attacks a Windows machine for example, how can you make sure it’s a machine run by MI6 and not a machine run by the Red Cross?”

According to the Congressional Service, “US officials now consider cyberspace to be a domain for warfare, similar to air, space, land, and sea.” The difficulty is, with the global nature of the web, working out which territory belongs to whom and what bits of the web are friendly and which are hostile. But, if battle lines can be drawn and territory can be won or lost, those like the technical wizards at the Chaos Congress could find themselves as digital infantry on the virtual frontline.

Credits: Alex Hudson – BBC Click | Find the original report here…

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Manifesto from Anonymous

Blitzer — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 22:10:22 +0000

The new-found attention on Anonymous has led the group to publish its manifesto. In it, it denies that it is a group of hackers. “Anonymous is not an organization…and it most certainly is not a group of hackers,” it said. “Anonymous is an online living consciousness, comprised of different individuals with, at times, coinciding ideals and goals.” We think “Operation Payback Manifesto from Anonymous” is worth to read for sure. We obtained the copy from a source we CAN NOT verify if this is the original manifesto or an edited version. A Letter from Anonymous: Our Message, Intentions, and Potential Targets Hello World. We are Anonymous. What you do or do not know about us is irrelevant. We have decided to write to you, the media, and all citizens of the free world to inform you of our intentions, potential targets, and our ongoing, active campaign for the freedom of information exchange, freedom of expression, and free use of the Internet.

“True, This! —
Beneath the rule of men entirely great,
The pen is mightier than the sword. Behold
The arch-enchanters wand! — itself a nothing! —
But taking sorcery from the master-hand
To paralyse the Cæsars, and to strike
The loud earth breathless! — Take away the sword —
States can be saved without it!”

- The Cardinal
Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy by: Edward Bulwer-Lytton

“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.”
~George Orwell

“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.”
–Galileo Galilei

Our message is clear:
We support the free flow of information. Anonymous is actively campaigning for this goal everywhere in all forms. This necessitates the freedom of expression for: The Internet, for journalism and journalists, and citizens of the world. Though we recognize you may disagree, we believe that Anonymous is campaigning for you so that your voice may never be silenced.

The recent news of our campaigns has been, at best, misinformed. We are not a terrorist organization as governments, demagogues, and the media would have you believe. Rather, Anonymous is a spontaneous collective of people who share the common goal of protecting the free flow of information on the Internet. Our ranks are filled with people representative of many parts of the world and all political orientations. We can be anyone, anywhere, anytime. If you are in a public place right now, take a look over your shoulder: everyone you see has all the requirements to be an Anon. But do not fret, for you too have all the requirements to stand with those who fight for free information and accountability.

Accordingly, Anonymous is not always the same group of people: Anonymous is a living idea. Anonymous is an idea that can be edited, updated, remanded–changed on a whim. We are living consciousness. At this time, Anonymous is a consciousness focused on actively campaigning for the free flow of information and accountability by our public institutions. We ask the world to support us, not for our sake, but for your own. When governments and corporations control information they control you. When governments are allowed the power of censorship, they are able to commit great atrocities and act in corrupt ways –free from the scrutiny of those from whom their power derives. When corporations are capable of using their vast amounts of wealth to manipulate or influence the free flow of information, they control you. We are taking a stand against this–we refuse to be deceived!

The Internet is one of the last bastions of the free flow of information in our evolving information society, and one that is capable of connecting us all. Through the Internet, all the people of the world have access to information. When we all have access to information, we are strong. When we are strong, we posses the power to do the impossible–to make a difference, to better our world. This is why the government is moving on Wikileaks. This is what they fear. They fear our power when we unite. Please, do not forget this.

Our intention is just:
The intention of Anonymous is to protect free flow of information of all types from the control of any individual, corporation, or government entity. We will do this until our proverbial, dying breath. We do this not only for our selves, but for the citizens of the world. We are people campaigning at this very moment for your freedom of information exchange, freedom of expression, and free use of the Internet. Please remember this as you watch the news, read posts on Twitter, comment on Youtube or Facebook, or send email to a friend or loved one: Anonymous is making every effort to defend free speech and free information on the Internet.

We ask for the attention of the world as the events that are unfolding are fundamentally influencing the course of history. Anonymous’ campaign will defend against any individual, organization, corporation, and/or government entity that seeks to hinder the free flow of information on the Internet and beyond. Our methods may appear to be unjustly burdening our targets, but we argue that in this moment when the Freedom of Speech is under attack by the very institutions which are supposed to support it, drastic measures must be taken. During the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, access to many businesses was blocked as a peaceful protest against segregation. Today much business is conducted on the Internet. We are using the LOIC to conduct distributed denial of service attacks against businesses that have aided in the censorship of any person. Our attacks do no damage to the computer hardware. We merely take up bandwidth and system resources like the seats at the Woolworth’s lunch counter.

Please, do not despise us, as we are not the Anonymous that you may be familiar with. Anonymous’ past is not our present. May we remind you that Anonymous is a dynamic entity. Furthermore, anything attributed, credited, or tagged to Anonymous is not always based on the consensus of us as a whole. Even the document you read now was written by at least ten people simultaneously. Anonymous’ campaign does not intend to harm websites of the individual citizen, organization, or government, that supports the free flow of information. We are here for all of you; to campaign for all of you. Where others have made this promise and failed, we make this promise and aim to keep it for everyone. Anonymous wishes to defend the free flow of information on the Internet and beyond; We would like to ask that you as a citizen, organization, media organization, or government do the same. Any individual, organization, corporation,and/or government entity which supports Freedom of Speech and a free Internet is an ally of Anonymous.

Our method of choosing targets is simple:
We are against anyone who supports censorship, such as those who are responsible for the silencing of Wikileaks.
We are against any entity that work towards the defilement of free speech and/or the free flow of information.

Our request of you is simple.
We ask you to consider the value of your natural Freedoms.
We ask you to consider the value of free information for you and future generations.
We ask you to consider the implications of information censorship, be it through the Internet or physical speech.
We ask you to consider the future of your own human rights, as those who wish to take these rights from you now will not stop with this.

Signed,
Anonymous

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Kneber botnet attacks PCs worldwide

Blitzer — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:53:27 +0000

Hackers in Europe and China successfully broke into computers at nearly 2,500 companies and government agencies over the last 18 months in a coordinated global attack that exposed vast amounts of personal and corporate secrets to theft, according to a computer-security company that discovered the breach. Starting in late 2008, hackers operating a command center in Germany got into corporate networks by enticing employees to click on contaminated Web sites, email attachments or ads purporting to clean up viruses, NetWitness found. In more than 100 cases, the hackers gained access to corporate servers that store large quantities of business data, such as company files, databases and email. They also broke into computers at 10 U.S. government agencies. In one case, they obtained the user name and password of a soldier’s military email account, NetWitness found. A Pentagon spokesman said the military didn’t comment on specific threats or intrusions.
At one company, the hackers gained access to a corporate server used for processing online credit-card payments. At others, stolen passwords provided access to computers used to store and swap proprietary corporate documents, presentations, contracts and even upcoming versions of software products, NetWitness said.

The new botnet that puts the potential threat of last year’s Conficker worm to shame is called the Kneber botnet, this new form of malware has infected more than 74000 computer systems across the world and is focused on stealing login credentials for e-mail systems, social networks and banking sites, according to Netwitness. Kneber is incredibly hard to detect and has reportedly compromised data from nearly 2500 corporate and government and corporate networks around the world. Here’s the latest on what’s going on and how you can protect yourself from joining the ranks of the Kneber botnet.
Netwitness says Kneber is a ZeuS Trojan botnet, a type of botnet known for its ability to target and steal key information stored on your computer such as login credentials.

More than half of the computer systems in the Kneber botnet also have the Waledac Trojan–a worm known to create e-mail spam botnets that was recently associated with Conficker.
Netwitness says Kneber controlled machines are in 196 countries. The five countries with the most significant instances of infected machines are Egypt, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United States.
Kneber only targets Windows machines, and computers are running Windows XP Professional SP2 make up the majority of the botnet. Netwitness did not report on infections among Windows 7 machines. Kneber is primarily found on machines in corporate and government infrastructures, but home users can be affected as well.

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Confusion about Strategic Planning

Blitzer — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:41:09 +0000

Clearing Up the Confusion about Strategic Planning. Many people are confused by the terms strategy, strategic plan, and strategic planning. Well, I am here to help you get a clear picture. For the moment, forget what you’ve heard about this subject. Strategic planning makes a huge difference to your organization both tangibly and intangibly, so keep reading!
What is strategy?
Strategy means consciously choosing to be clear about your company’s direction in relation to what’s happening in the dynamic environment. With this knowledge, you’re in a much better position to respond proactively to the changing environment.
The fine points of strategy are as follows:

Establishes unique value proposition compared to your competitors
Executed through operations that provide different and tailored value to customers
Identifies clear trade offs and clarifies what not to do
Focuses on activities that fit together and reinforce each other
Drives continual improvement within the organization and moves it toward its vision

Surprising strategic-planning stats

95 percent of a typical workforce doesn’t understand its organization’s strategy.
90 percent of organizations fail to execute their strategies successfully.
86 percent of executive teams spend less than one hour per month discussing strategy.
60 percent of organizations don’t link strategy to budgeting.

So what’s the upshot of these surprising revelations?
Strategic planning matters to the life of your business!
Knowing what strategy is can also be explained by looking at what strategy is not. Dr. Michael Porter, the leading strategy guru and professor at Harvard, had this to say at the 2006 World Business Forum in Chicago.
Strategy is not:

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The Meta Blitz!

Blitzer — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 13:54:41 +0000

The prefix Meta means “within”, “about”, or “beyond.” It implies abstraction or going beyond that which something specific represents by breaking it down into its observable and non‐observable elements, generalizing them into a basic, universal concept.
Theoreticians, mathematicians, logicians, and philosophers of all shapes, sizes, and colors have been playing around with the idea of “metaanalysis” for the past 150 years or so. It is often used as a device to open up discourse regarding potential, experimental events or phenomena without having to experience them first hand or indeed, have any knowledge of their potential outcome.

Great advances in many different sciences and studies have come from a foundation of the meta‐analysis and the abstraction of central, commonly accepted ideas.
It is our belief that the field and business of Internet marketing is no different. Through an understanding of the underlying currents of modern marketing, the intelligent Internet marketer may be able to ride the current of others’ marketing efforts towards profit.

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