FutureVigil (r) » SECURITY

Law Firm Reports Being Hacked From China

Jeffrey Newman — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 09:02:20 +0000

A Los Angeles based law firm representing a U.S. company in a $2.2 billion law suit again the Chinese government and some global computer companies, said it has suffered cyber attacks coming from China. Gibson Hoffman & Pandone said the hack could be in retaliation for its historic intellectual property law suit against China on behalf of Cybersitter alleging that China’s Green Dam developers illegally copied code from Cybersitter’s software. The FBI is investigating. Concerns about the levels of hacking against U.S. companies from foreign sources continues to grow as cyber security experts are met with increasing levels of sophistication by hackers (see story on attack on Google in this section). To the extent that the hackers can be identified and traced to governments or companies, international lawsuits are expected to ensue.

THE HACK ATTACK ON GOOGLE-WE SEE THE FUTURE

Jeffrey Newman — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 08:36:55 +0000

The hackers which penetrated Google’s defenses recently demonstrated a level of sophistication which paints a frightening picture of just how vulnerable the internet is. The hackers used a combination of encryption, stealth programing and found an unknown hole in internet Explorer. A dozen or more pieces of malware and numerous lawyers of encryption allowed the hackers to bore deeply into company networks and hide their presence as stealthy aliens. The hackers stole intellectual property and gained access to the Gmail accounts of human rights activists and the attacks originated from China. The attacks which targeted 34 companies in the technology, financial and defense sectors was dubbed “Operation Aurora” as this was the name the hackers used for their mission and the name was on the computer of one of the hackers. The initial piece of code was shell code encrypted three times and then was activatedt to penetrate. One malicious code opened a remote backdoor to the computer established by an encrypted secret shannel hiding as an SSL connection to avoid detection. This allowed ongoing access to a computer which afforded the hackers entry to other parts of the network in order to search for login credentials and other data.

FEAR PHEROMONE FOUND MILITARY AND SECURITY USES

Jeffrey Newman — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:08:40 +0000

Scientists have isolated what is thought to be a unique pheromone which is produced from fear. A study was done of the sweat of first time skydivers before they jumped and an analysis of the pheromone produced indicates it is only produced in times of significant fear. The military and security industry are using this to assess fitness for duty and to strengthen airport security.

HOMELAND SECURITY ENLISTS SCI FI WRITERS FOR HELP

Jeffrey Newman — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:38:04 +0000

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has enlisted a group of 40 established science fiction writers to work on developing more creative and advanced ideas to protect the nation from attack. The group is called SIGMA. Homeland security first reached out to sci fi writers in 2007 and since has seen significant results from the collaboration and is increasing the work. In addition the sci fi writers are conferring with The Department of Energy, The Army, Air Force and Nato.