Cybercrime

U.S. government to propose bill targeting foreign hackers

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee are in the middle of proposing a new cybertheft law that would target hackers based in other countries, according to Reuters.

The bill, which doesn't yet have a name, is to be introduced on Thursday by Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc). These lawmakers have said that the intent of the law will be to go after hackers from "offending nations" and deliver "real consequences and punishments."

Of those countries said to be cyber spying on the U.… Read more

China's military to train on digital warfare

China, often linked to alleged cyberattacks, is apparently training military forces on digital combat and "informationalized" war.

According to state-sponsored news agency Xinhua, the People's Liberation Army plans to launch digital war games next month focused on developing new combat forces that specialize in cyberwarfare.

The news agency says this will be the first time the army "has focused on combat forces including digitalized units, special operations forces, army aviation and electronic counter forces." Drills will be carried out late next month at the Zhurihe training base in northern China.

The army's general staff … Read more

Is protecting intellectual property from cyberthieves futile?

LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. -- After the publication of the Mandiant report earlier in the year linking China's People's Liberation Army to ongoing and massive cyberattacks against U.S. corporations, government agencies, universities, and other organizations, policy makers and industry experts have been trying to figure out how to better secure their intellectual property against cyberattacks.

Call it a work in progress.

"The frustration for me is that in the U.S., parties who have valuable intellectual property are not adequately protecting their data," said Richard Marshall, former director of Global Cyber Security Management for the Department … Read more

Kim Dotcom threatens to sue Twitter, others over patent

Kim Dotcom says he doesn't really want to sue Google, Facebook, Twitter, and other companies, but he really needs some help funding his defense.

The eclectic and controversial MegaUpload founder today said he invented two-factor authentication, which is being used by more and more companies to secure access to their sites. The verification steps aim to reduce the likelihood of online identity theft, phishing, and other scams because the victim's password would no longer be enough to give a thief access to their information.

Along with Twitter's recent introduction, Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, PayPal, and countless other … Read more

LulzSec case in U.K. brings sentences for 4 men

LONDON -- Four members of the LulzSec hacking group were sentenced in court Thursday after pleading guilty to various computer hacking-related charges.

Ryan Ackroyd, 26; Jake Davis, 20; and Mustafa al-Bassam, 18, were all sentenced together with Ryan Cleary, 21, over a two-day hearing at Southwark Crown Court, London.

Each member of the LulzSec hacktivist group admitted to various hacking charges, including taking down corporate and government Web sites between February and September 2011.

Presiding Judge Deborah Taylor sentenced Ackroyd to 30 months -- serving half -- and Davis 24 months in a Young Offenders institution, serving at least 12 … Read more

Google's Schmidt: Don't worry too much about 'Big Brother'

NEW YORK--Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt on Monday tried to dismiss fears about "Big Brother" knowing too much about everyone.

Many companies, including Google, have been developing new technology that users literally wear. Items such as Google Glass can track a person's location, heart rate, and other activity, and they're likely to become even more sophisticated in the future. They may become so advanced that people barely realize they're on, and they may not realize how much information is actually being collected.

However, Schmidt said that while we may all be hooked up to dozens … Read more

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