Government and Private Sector Partnering for Cyberspace Security

Donald Kerr, principal deputy director of national intelligence, has proposed a radical new collaboration between government and the private sector in order to address "malicious activity in cyberspace [that] is a growing threat to everyone," according to a Washington Post report today. Kerr has offered some extensive solutions which include increasing government's involvement in developing technical products as well as... more»

Sinowal Trojan May Be One of the Worst Crimeware Ever Created

A sophisticated cybercrime group that has maintained an especially devious Trojan horse for nearly three years has stolen login credentials of close to 300,000 online bank accounts and almost as many credit cards during that time, according to reports released today by RSA FraudAction Research Lab. The spyware is called Sinowal Trojan, also known as Torpig and Mebroot. RSA reports that their findings are based on data collected on this Trojan over the course of almost three years -- including information regarding its design and its infrastructure. Findings indicate that this may be one of the most pervasive and advanced pieces of crimeware ever created by fraudsters, say RSA experts. more»

UK's Utility Companies and Large Financial Firms Facing Major Cyber Espionage Attacks

Industrial espionage probes are being waged on companies that provide UK's national infrastructure and on similar organizations across Europe, security experts have warned. Mark Oram, head of information security knowledge department at the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI), said the instances of political, economic and technical spying were more common than cyber-terrorism attacks. "We see frequent attacks on organizations for the purpose of intellectual property theft that we would not obviously classify as an attack on infrastructure," he said. more»

Economic Crisis Fueling New Cybercrime Wave, According to UK Cybercrime Report

The number of cybercrimes committed in the UK soared last year driven by a huge increase in online financial fraud, according to a report released by online identity firm Garlik. "Our annual UK cybercrime report in collaboration with leading criminologists indicates that online financial fraud grew significantly jumping nearly twenty percent to 250,000 incidents in 2007 compared with 207,000 in 2006." more»

Malicious Email Attachments Spiked Last Quarter

IT security and control firm Sophos has released the results of its investigation into the latest spam trends and revealed the top twelve spam-relaying countries for the third quarter of 2008. The figures show an alarming rise in the proportion of spam emails sent with malicious attachments between July and September 2008, as well as an increase in spam attacks using social engineering techniques to snare unsuspecting computer users. more»

Anti-Phishing Working Group Join Domain Registrars in Fight Against Phishing

The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG), in consultation with the ICANN Registrar Constituency and several domain name registrars, has published a "best practices" advisory for registrars to help them implement mechanisms to make it more difficult to register and use domains for illicit uses such as phishing, a confidence scheme used to dupe consumers out of personal financial information. Several globally active registrars, including APWG members Go Daddy, the world's largest registrar and Network Solutions, the world's oldest commercial registrar, have already implemented or are planning to implement many of the best practices prescribed by the APWG's Anti-Phishing Best Practices Recommendations for Registrars, released this month. more»

ICANN Terminates EstDomains, Seeks Bulk Transfer of Customers

In follow up to reports on ICANN's termination of notorious domain name registrar, EstDomains due to fraudulent activities, the Internet oversight agency is now preparing to transfer domain names of its customers to other registrars... However the question asked by experts is whether any other registrar would have an interest in inheriting EstDomains questionable domain names. more»

Financially Based Cybercrime is Recession-Proof

According to experts, organized cybercrime is one "industry sector" that is not unhappy about the current global economic crisis. "One thing we've seen is financially based cybercrime is recession-proof," says Darren Mott, supervisory special agent for the FBI's Cyber Division. "With [this] changing economy, the only thing that changes is the way they go about obtaining their information." more»

Open Root Server Network to Close

Alternate DNS root server, the Open Root Server Network (ORSN) is shutting down. The project which began almost six years ago, is set to close at midnight on the last day of 2008. The following is part of the official statement released for the closure: Since start of operation in 2002 ORSN was a political alternative to ICANN/IANA operated root server network. It was also well known for technical innovation by providing IPv6 support before it was introduced in the ICANN/IANA operated root servers..." more»

Microsoft Reveals Cloud Computing Platform, Windows Azure

Microsoft today unveiled its highly anticipated "cloud-based" operating system which aims at addressing the growing competition to its core desktop operating system. At Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles today, Ray Ozzie, company's Chief Software Architect, unveiled the company's much-anticipated cloud computing platform, called Windows Azure Services Platform. "Windows Azure is a new Windows offering at the Web tier of computing," said Ozzie. "This represents a significant extension" of the Windows computing platform, he said. Using this platform, Microsoft strives to enable developers to build and deploy Web applications and services running on Microsoft's worldwide infrastructure of datacenters. more»

ITU Criticized For Its Role in Cybersecurity Standardization

At EuroDIG, the first European Dialogue on Internet Governance, the scientists and experts of the Council of Europe have sharply criticised the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for acting behind closed doors in its initiatives towards cybersecurity standardization. Bertrand de la Chapelle, godfather of the first EuroDIG on behalf of the French government, said EuroDIG should tell the ITU to allow all interest groups to participate in discussing new technology standards. The recent meeting in Strasbourg emphasized the idea of cooperation between governments, the industry and users as one of the central points to be presented at the UN Internet Governance Forum in Hyderabad. more»

Read Obama and McCain Campaign Responses to Key Wireless, Broadband Issues

RCR Wireless has posted responses received from presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain to questions covering a wide range of policy issues confronting the wireless industry, telecom, broadband and high-tech sectors in general. Questions asked by Jeffrey Silva, RCR Wireless' Washington Bureau Chief, included: What are the biggest telecom and technology issues the next president of the United States will face? While the wireless industry is more competitive than other telecom sectors, consolidation in recent years has reduced the number of service providers. What steps would Obama/McCain administration take to prevent antitrust abuses and protect consumers? more»