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Friday, October 28, 2011

NASDAQ Hackers Installed Monitoring Software - eSecurity Planet

According to Reuters, hackers who breached NASDAQ systems last year were able to install software that allowed them to spy on corporate directors' actions.

"The news adds critical details to the story of an October, 2010, compromise of Director's Desk, a Web-based application that is used by the boards of NASDAQ-traded companies to share documents and communicate with company executives," writes Threatpost's Paul Roberts.

"The hackers were able to access confidential documents and the communications of board directors, according to the report, which quotes Tom Kellermann, chief technology officer at security technology firm AirPatrol Corp," Roberts writes.

Go to "Report: NASDAQ Hackers Spied on Corporate Directors" to read the details.

For regular security news updates, follow eSecurityPlanet on Twitter: @eSecurityP.


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Thursday, October 27, 2011

Nasdaq hackers spied on company directors, report says

Nasdaq hackers spied on company directors, report says | The Digital Home - CNET News CNET News Home Reviews Cell Phones Camcorders Digital Cameras Laptops TVs Car Tech Forums Appliances Cell Phone Accessories Components Desktops Games and Gear GPS Hard Drives & Burners Headphones Home Audio Home Video Internet Access Monitors MP3 Players Networking and Wi-Fi Peripherals Printers Software Tablets Web Hosting You are here: News Latest News Webware Crave Business Tech Green Tech Wireless Security Blogs Video Photos Media Cutting Edge Apple Politics & Law Gaming & Culture Microsoft Health Tech RSS Download Windows Software Mac Software Mobile Apps Web Apps CNET TV How To Phone Tablet Computer Web Home Theater Log In | Join Log In Join CNET Sign in with My profile Log out
CNET News The Digital Home Nasdaq hackers spied on company directors, report says Don Reisinger by Don Reisinger October 21, 2011 11:20 AM PDT

The hackers who attacked the Nasdaq last year were surreptitiously spying on public company board of directors, a new report claims.

According to Reuters, citing sources with knowledge of the ongoing investigation into the Nasdaq breach, the hackers were able to access Nasdaq's Web-based software program, Directors Desk, to spy on company executives. According to Reuters, the software is used to facilitate communication and document sharing between Nasdaq and public companies.

Hackers reportedly breached Nasdaq defenses last year, but news of the breach wasn't made public until earlier this year. According to a report in February, it was believed that the hackers were simply "looking around" Nasdaq's servers, but were not able to access anything critical.

However, just a month later, sources told Bloomberg that the attack appeared to be more widespread than initially believed and the National Security Agency was involved in the investigation, prompting some to wonder if the attacks posed a national security risk.

Related stories:
? Report: NSA joins Nasdaq hack probe
? Report: Hackers penetrated Nasdaq computers
? Report: Hackers penetrated Nasdaq computers

So far, neither Nasdaq nor the NSA have commented on who might have been behind the attacks, but initial evidence seemed to point to the attacks originating in Russia. Unnamed investigators speaking to The Wall Street Journal at the time said that even though the attacks might have originated from Russia, the hackers might have been routing their attack through Russian servers to disguise their true location.

Reuters' sources didn't divulge which companies' directors were targeted in the Nasdaq attack, but they did say that "scores" of executives were spied on by the hackers until the malware that facilitated the breach was removed.

But even as Nasdaq tries to learn more about past breaches, the company must still worry about the future. In an interview with Reuters in July, Nasdaq CEO Robert Greifeld told the news service that "as we sit here, there are people trying to slam into our system every day," adding that his organization spends close to $1 billion each year on security alone.

Nasdaq did not immediately respond to CNET's request for comment.

Don Reisinger Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, posting at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.

Topics: Digital Home Tags: Nasdaq, breach, security, hackers, privacy
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Hackers Attempt Second PS3 Jailbreak - PlayStation LifeStyle

Reports have surfaced saying that a successor to the PSJailbreak USB dongle, called the “JB2? has been released. Will the PlayStation 3's hacking woes ever end?

Just as the world starts to move on and forget about the whole GeoHot incident, the Anonymous’ “war” on the PlayStation Network, and the massive security breach that resulted in over 77 million hacked PSN accounts, the PS3 faces a new hacking threat. The JB2 as its being called, works in a similar manner to the original PSJailbreak in where it’s a USB dongle that is inserted into the PS3, and used to circumvent the PS3's security and allow it to run unsigned code.

JB2 doesn’t have as free reign over the PS3 as the original PS Jailbreak once did. Games released prior to the 3.60 update will back up and run on the PS3's HDD. Anything released post 3.60 will have to be burned to a Blu-ray disc to be run. Because of this, a significant cost is added by having to get a Blu-ray burner and expensive BD-R discs. And although that’s a possible deterrent, keeping average users from making such an investment, it could create an underground black market for burned discs.

News about the JB2 has just broke and its capabilities are unclear at this time. Videos have been published online showing it in action, but there aren’t any reliable sources saying it’s the real deal. There’s also the possibility that access to the PlayStation Network isn’t possible while using this device, which makes it less appealing overall.

Will this ever stop? The answer is no. As long as there is money to be made (or saved) by hacking consoles and/or backing up and pirating games, there will always be attempts being made at whatever security measures Sony takes.

Pre-order PlayStation Vita at Amazon.com
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Accused hacker pleads not guilty in Sony breach - Montreal Gazette

LOS ANGELES - An accused member of the clandestine hacking group LulzSec pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges of taking part in an extensive computer breach of the Sony Pictures Entertainment film studio.

Cody Kretsinger, 23, entered not guilty pleas to one count each of conspiracy and unauthorized impairment of a protected computer during a brief hearing in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Victor Kenton set a Dec. 13 trial date for Kretsinger, who spoke only in response to questions from the judge.

Kenton also ordered that Kretsinger be represented by a court-appointed public defender.

Kretsinger faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison if convicted. He declined to comment to Reuters after the hearing.

A nine-page federal grand jury indictment unsealed in September charges Kretsinger with obtaining confidential information from Sony Pictures’ computer systems using an “SQL injection” attack against its website, a technique commonly used by hackers to steal information.

Kretsinger, who went by the moniker “recursion,” helped post information he and his co-conspirators stole from Sony on LulzSec’s website and announced the intrusion via the hacking group’s Twitter account, the indictment charges.

LulzSec, an underground group also known as Lulz Security, at the time published the names, birth dates, addresses, e-mails, phone numbers and passwords of thousands of people who had entered contests promoted by Sony.

“From a single injection we accessed EVERYTHING,” the hacking group said in a statement at the time. “Why do you put such faith in a company that allows itself to become open to these simple attacks.”

Hackers previously had accessed personal information on 77 million PlayStation Network and Qriocity accounts, the vast majority of which were users in North America and Europe, in what was then the biggest such security breach in history.

Other high-profile firms targeted by cyber attacks included Lockheed Martin and Google Inc.


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Hackers Turn 'Sesame Street' YouTube Page Into Porn Site - Fox News

Published October 17, 2011

| FoxNews.com

Hackers briefly hijacked the "Sesame Street" YouTube page and replaced Bert, Ernie and Big Bird with hardcore porn, E! Online reported Monday.

For about 20 minutes Sunday, users who clicked on links to watch scenes from the long-running PBS kids' show were instead confronted with x-rated videos, the company said on its video page.

The hackers added the text "It's where porn lives" underneath the page's "Sesame Street" logo and wrote in a video description, "Who doesn't love porn kids? Right! Everyone loves it."

"We apologize for any inconvenience our audience may have experienced yesterday on our Sesame Street YouTube channel," reads a statement on the site. "Our channel was temporarily compromised, but we have since restored our original line-up of the best classic Sesame Street video clips featuring Cookie Monster, Big Bird, Grover, Oscar the Grouch, and the rest of the fuzzy, feathered, and googly-eyed friends you remember from childhood."

YouTube briefly removed the entire channel immediately after the incident, which most likely a malicious prank, experts told FoxNews.com.

"It most probably was a prank -- but what prankster would think it's okay to expose children to this? That's pretty horrifying," said Ira Victor, director of the digital forensics practice with Data Clone Labs and a member of the High Technology Crime Investigation Association.

A YouTube user with the handle "MrEdxwx " denied he had taken part in the hacking despite his username appearing on the hacked channel before it was taken down.

"I did not hack 'Sesame Street,'" he wrote on his own channel, which is dedicated to video games. "I work hard to make quality gameplay videos, and most important I respect the community guidelines."

so who did? 

Precisely how Sesame Street's YouTube channel was hacked is presently a mystery, explained Graham Cluely, Sophos senior technology consultant -- but it's natural to assume that the company was sloppy with password security.

Victor told FoxNews.com that there was a major security breach at a PBS server earlier this year, where scores of PBS user names and passwords were exposed on the Internet. He believes the latest incident is connected to that earlier one. 

"It could have been that the attacker was able to obtain the username and password for a producer at Sesame Street," Victor said.

Producers of "Sesame Street" and representatives from YouTube did not comment on the incident.

NewsCore contributed to this report.


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EXCLUSIVE - Nasdaq hackers spied on directors - sources

BOSTON (Reuters) - Hackers who infiltrated the Nasdaq's computer systems installed malicious software on the exchange's computers that allowed them to spy on scores of directors of publicly held companies, according to two people familiar with an investigation into the matter.

The emerging details further highlight the increasing threat hackers pose to corporations with a rash of highly sophisticated attacks on high-profile companies and financial institutions -- from Google Inc to Citigroup Inc and the International Monetary Fund.

Nasdaq OMX Group disclosed in February that its system were hacked last year. That sparked an investigation involving the FBI and National Security Agency that is ongoing.

The attack on Nasdaq is an example of a "blended attack," where hackers infiltrate one target in order to facilitate access to another. In March hackers stole digital security keys from EMC Corp's RSA Security division that they later used to access the networks of defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp.

Nasdaq's trading platforms were not compromised, the exchange said when it disclosed the attack in February, although an Internet-based software program was attacked.

Nasdaq sells that program, called Directors Desk, to listed and private companies, which use it to let board members get access to and share documents and communicate with executives, among other things.

While the Directors Desk was infected, hackers were able to access confidential documents and communications of the directors who got access to the program, said Tom Kellermann, chief technology officer with security technology firm AirPatrol Corp.

Another person familiar with the investigation confirmed Kellermann's account of the matter, but declined to be identified by name because he is not authorized to discuss the matter.

It is unclear how long the Directors Desk application was infected before the exchange identified the breach, according to Kellermann and the other source.

Investigators have learned that hackers were able to spy on the computer systems of "scores" of directors who logged onto the application at Nasdaq's directorsdesk.com site before the malicious software was removed, potentially gathering sensitive corporate secrets, according to those sources.

"God knows exactly what they have done. The long term impact of such attack is still unknown," Kellermann said.

Kellermann is a well-regarded cyber security expert who has advised the Obama Administration on cyber security policy.

In February, Nasdaq said there was no evidence the hackers accessed or acquired customer information. A spokesman confirmed on Thursday that the investigation continues, but declined to give further details.

Army General Keith Alexander, director of the highly secretive National Security Agency and head of U.S. Cyber Command, told reporters earlier on Thursday that NSA and Nasdaq had reached conclusions about the origin of the attack.

He said the information was classified, but added that many areas were now seeing "advanced persistent threats," the cyber community's code phrase for attacks by nation states.

He said NSA was working with Nasdaq to help protect its network against further attacks.

"The key is, with attribution, you can show them how to defend against it," he said, after a speech at a security conference in Baltimore. "That's easy to do."

(Reporting by Jim Finkle. Additional reporting by Jonathan Spicer in New York and Andrea Shalal-Esa in Baltimore. Editing by Robert MacMillan and Tim Dobbyn)


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Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Duqu malware spurs new Stuxnet-style conspiracy theory

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Filed Under: Featured, Malware

The news wires have been abuzz for the past few days with stories of "a new Stuxnet". This son-of-Stuxnet malware goes by the orthographically curious name of Duqu.

(According to Symantec, Duqu got its name "because it creates files with the file name prefix ~DQ". On those grounds, Duqu is a silly name. It should have been called Twiddle-DQ, which is easier both to pronounce and to understand. As names go, it's also a lot less dull, which has to be worth something.)

Because Stuxnet targeted industrial control systems, and because it was widely reported in Iran (and also, as it happened, in India and Indonesia), conspiracy theories abounded.

At first, the world's media seemed sure that Stuxnet was intended to take out Iran's nuclear reactor facility at Busheshr. Later, the theory changed to say that the target was not the reactor facility but Iran's enrichment plant at Natanz.

The media simply followed the new theory, unashamedly declaring Natanz to be the target with the same apparent certainty with which they'd recently been insisting that Stuxnet was specifically aimed at Busheshr.

Along with speculation about what Stuxnet was designed to do, of course, came guesswork about who was responsible. Did the US write the malware? Was it Israel? Was Iran the intended target?

We might never find out what really happened in the Stuxnet case. But what about Duqu, the son of Stuxnet?

One writer already seems to know with certainty, and despite the absurdity of his claims, his story - first published on a website about industrial safety and security - is getting picked up around the world:

[Website name redacted] has learned leaders of the three major software companies, Sergey Brin at Google, Steve Ballmer at Microsoft and Larry Ellison at Oracle have been working with Israel's top cyber warriors and have now come up with new version of a Stuxnet-like worm that can bring down Iran's entire software networks if the Iranian regime gets too close to a breakout."

But Duqu has as many differences from Stuxnet as it has similarities to it. Most notably, Duqu doesn't target industrial control systems at all, and it seems to have been distributed via targeted malware attacks in Europe, not Iran.

As cyberconspiracy goes, then, this story is pretty far-gone.

Nevertheless, the idea of a US malware-hacking triumvirate made up of Messrs Page, Ballmer and Ellison made me laugh. And I found myself wondering what Apple's Tim Cook makes of the story.

Do you think he's relieved to have been omitted from this cyberconspiracy equation, or miffed to have been relegated outside the Big Three?

Follow @duckblog

Tags: ballmer, Duqu, ellison, Google, Iran, israel, Malware, Microsoft, Oracle, sergey, Stuxnet


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SSCC 76 - Michael Kaiser, NCSA and Rob Strayer chat about cyber security

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utmx_section("Newsletter button text")by Chester Wisniewski on October 23, 2011|91096Leave a commenthttp%3A%2F%2Fnakedsecurity.sophos.com%2F2011%2F10%2F23%2Fsscc-76-michael-kaiser-ncsa-and-rob-strayer-chat-about-cyber-security%2FSSCC+76+-+Michael+Kaiser%2C+NCSA+and+Rob+Strayer+chat+about+cyber+security2011-10-23+03%3A31%3A04Chester+Wisniewskihttp%3A%2F%2Fnakedsecurity.sophos.com%2F%3Fp%3D91096

Filed Under: Featured, Law & order, Malware, Podcast, Privacy

Sophos Security Chet Chat logoLeading up to the State of Cyber Security event we will be speaking at October 27th in Washington DC I interview the other panellists on their thoughts around cyber security.

First I interviewed Michael Kaiser the founder and chief executive of the National Cyber Security Alliance. The NCSA focuses on providing educational outreach to home users, schools and small businesses about staying safe online.

We talked about the challenges facing the public when going online and the goals for National Cyber Security Awareness Month. Michael also gave us a glimpse into what he will be discussing at our State of Cyber Security event.

Rob Strayer, Director of the National Security Preparedness Group at the Bipartisan Policy Center, also found some time to chat with me by phone this week. Staryer's group focuses on encouraging public/private cooperation on matters of cyber security.

Rob discussed the goals of the National Security Preparedness Group and why they think there is so much work to be done for better information sharing between the public and private sectors. Rob also shared a teaser about his presentation at our event on October 27th.


(21 October 2011, duration 11:58 minutes, size 8.6 MBytes)

You can also download this podcast directly in MP3 format: Sophos Security Chet Chat 76, subscribe on Stitcher, iTunes or our RSS feed.

Follow @chetwisniewskiDigg

Tags: #NCSAM11, Bipartisan Policy Center, chet chat, Michael Kaiser, NCSA, NCSAM, Podcast, Rob Strayer

iOS 5 introduces security challenges and flawsHacker's phone call to Boston Police saying he defaced their website.. because he was bored About the authorChester Wisniewski is a Senior Security Advisor at Sophos Canada. He provides advice and insight into the latest threats for security and IT professionals with the goal of providing clear guidance on complex topics.You can follow Chester on Twitter as @chetwisniewski or send him an email at chesterw@sophos.com.View all posts by Chester WisniewskiRelated PostsIT administrators await mammoth Microsoft security patch bundleThe state of cyber security - Join Sophos and the NCSA in Washington DCSophos Security Chet Chat 41SSCC 57 - Infosec Europe 2011, Facebook privacy4th grade root beer memory foils Facebook chat scammer4th grade root beer memory foils Facebook chat scammerImage (1) twitter-hacked.jpg for post 15581Twitter website struck by 'Iranian Cyber Army' hackersPopularRecentRelatedanonymous-phone-thumbHacker's phone call to Boston Police saying he defaced their website.. because he was boredLaw student triggers 22 legal complaints and likely audit of FacebookHow to find out everything that Facebook *really* knows about youios5250iOS 5 introduces security challenges and flawsgaddafi-malware-thumbMalware attack poses as bloody photos of Gaddafi's deathosborne-170Letter from HM Treasury? Just another scamosborne-170Letter from HM Treasury? Just another scamanonymous-phone-thumbHacker's phone call to Boston Police saying he defaced their website.. because he was boredChetChatLogo250SSCC 76 - Michael Kaiser, NCSA and Rob Strayer chat about cyber securityios5250iOS 5 introduces security challenges and flawsIT administrators await mammoth Microsoft security patch bundleThe state of cyber security - Join Sophos and the NCSA in Washington DCIT administrators await mammoth Microsoft security patch bundleThe state of cyber security - Join Sophos and the NCSA in Washington DCSophos Security Chet Chat 41SSCC 57 - Infosec Europe 2011, Facebook privacy4th grade root beer memory foils Facebook chat scammer4th grade root beer memory foils Facebook chat scammerImage (1) twitter-hacked.jpg for post 15581Twitter website struck by 'Iranian Cyber Army' hackersVideo posts

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