Cybercrime

Cyberattacks triple in 2012, Akamai says

Cyberwarfare incidences jumped sharply in 2012, Akamai said, with the number of distributed denial of service attacks more than tripling from the previous year.

Akamai, one of the world's largest globally distributed networks, said its customers reported being targeted by 768 DDoS attacks last year, more than three times as many as in 2011. The company's State of the Internet report released Tuesday also found that more than a third of those attacks targeted the commerce sector, while another 20 percent targeted enterprise customers.

"In many ways, DDoS has become the weapon of choice for multiple types … Read more

Targeted cyberattacks jump 42 percent in 2012, Symantec says

Internet users are seeing less spam but more targeted attacks, according to security software company Symantec.

Looking at last year's security landscape, Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report 2013 found that traditional spam accounted for 69 percent of all e-mail in 2012, down from 75 percent in 2011. Yet, 30 billion spam messages are still sent on a daily basis.

Junk e-mails that hawk sex or dating products and services now account for 55 percent of all spam, taking the top spot away from pharmaceutical spam.

Malware is also part of one out of every 291 e-mail messages, with … Read more

McAfee, NIST partner to boost U.S. cyberdefenses

Security firm McAfee is working with the National Institute of Standards and Technology to try to shore up America's defenses against cyberthreats.

McAfee announced today that the company is now part of the the National Cybersecurity Excellence Partnership and will join cybersecurity professionals from both the private and public sector to tackle the escalating problem of computer-based threats.

The partnership is part of the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence, which is hosted by NIST in collaboration with the state of Maryland and Maryland's Montgomery County.

Launched in February 2012, the center has a particular slant toward sharing technology … Read more

LulzSec hackers plead guilty to attacks on Sony, Nintendo, more

Three members of hacker group LulzSec have pleaded guilty in a British court to carrying out cyberattacks against various media and entertainment companies and the U.K. National Health Service, according to media reports.

Ryan Ackroyd, 26; Jake Davis, 20; and Mustafa al-Bassam, 18, today all pleaded guilty to a computer hacking-related charge at Southwark crown court in London. They will be sentenced May 14 along with Ryan Cleary, who pleaded guilty to cyberattacks last year.

Ackroyd, who went by the hacker name "Kayla," admitted to trying to hack into several Web sites, including Sony, Nintendo, News Corp.'… Read more

How the Spamhaus DDoS attack could have been prevented

Nearly 13 years ago, the wizardly band of engineers who invented and continue to defend the Internet published a prescient document they called BCP38, which described ways to thwart the most common forms of distributed denial-of-service attack.

BCP38, short for Best Current Practice #38, was published soon after debilitating denial of service attacks crippled eBay, Amazon, Yahoo, and other major sites in February 2000. If those guidelines to stop malcontents from forging Internet addresses had been widely adopted by the companies, universities, and government agencies that operate the modern Internet, this week's electronic onslaught targeting Spamhaus would have been … Read more

Security reporter hit by 'swatting' attack

"Swatting" is what you do to a fly that's buzzing around your head. But when that fly is respected security reporter Brian Krebs, swatting is what you do to him when you want to scare him and possibly cause him serious physical harm.

As recounted by Ars Technica this morning and later today by Krebs himself, the reporter was at home and cleaning his house when he opened his front door to come face-to-barrel with at least three guns, including a shotgun, handgun, and semiautomatic rifle; numerous police officers; and a half dozen police cars.

The term &… Read more

Obama hosts meeting on cybersecurity with CEOs

President Barack Obama met with 13 chief executives yesterday to dig deeper into cybersecurity.

According to The New York Times, which first reported on the meeting, the discussion took place in the White House Situation Room and was a "two-way" exchange of information between the president and the chief executives.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, along with chief executives at Exxon Mobil, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase, were all in attendance, according to the Times.

Over the last several weeks, a slew of companies has been hit with cyberattacks. Online banking sites have also been targeted. … Read more

White House demands China cease alleged hacking activity

The White House warned China today to end a campaign of cyberespionage against U.S. companies, saying in its toughest language yet on the issue that the hacking activity threatens to derail efforts to build stronger ties between the two countries.

U.S. companies are increasingly complaining that intellectual property is being stolen through attacks "emanating from China on an unprecedented scale," Tom Donilon, the president's national security adviser, said during a speech at the Asia Society in New York.

"The international community cannot afford to tolerate such activity from any country," Donilon said. "… Read more

Sudden death of U.S. engineer in Singapore linked to cyber espionage?

For years, the U.S. intelligence community has warned that cyber attacks from China and other countries are the biggest threat to our national security. Now, some are wondering whether the death of an engineer from California could be linked to cyber espionage.

In 2010, 29-year-old Shane Todd moved to Singapore for an engineering job with a government research firm called the Institute of Micro Electronics or IME.

"He was a young man that wanted an adventure and thought it would be super-cool to live in a foreign country and he really liked it when he first got there,&… Read more