CIO Mind

Do you REALLY want to know what’s inside?

Who Was Behind the Stuxnet Attack

Posted by Felix Enescu on 6th April 2012

Un articol care merită citit. Câteva fragmente:

“The U.S. government is involved in espionage against other governments,” he says flatly. “There’s a big difference, however, between the kind of cyberespionage the United States government does and China. The U.S. government doesn’t hack its way into Airbus and give Airbus the secrets to Boeing [many believe that Chinese hackers gave Boeing secrets to Airbus]. We don’t hack our way into a Chinese computer company like Huawei and provide the secrets of Huawei technology to their American competitor Cisco. [He believes Microsoft, too, was a victim of a Chinese cyber con game.] We don’t do that.” [...]

 

Stuxnet is a digital ghost, countless lines of code crafted with such genius that it was able to worm its way into Iran’s nuclear fuel enrichment facility in Natanz, Iran, where gas centrifuges spin like whirling dervishes, separating bomb-grade uranium-235 isotopes from the more plentiful U-238. Stuxnet seized the controls of the machine running the centrifuges and in a delicate, invisible operation, desynchronized the speeds at which the centrifuges spun, causing nearly a thousand of them to seize up, crash and otherwise self-destruct. The Natanz facility was temporarily shut down, and Iran’s attempt to obtain enough U-235 to build a nuclear weapon was delayed by what experts estimate was months or even years. [...]

 

Clarke claims, for instance, that the manufacturer of the F-35, our next-generation fighter bomber, has been penetrated and F-35 details stolen. And don’t get him started on our supply chain of chips, routers and hardware we import from Chinese and other foreign suppliers and what may be implanted in them—“logic bombs,” trapdoors and “Trojan horses,” all ready to be activated on command so we won’t know what hit us. Or what’s already hitting us.

 

Hmmm….. Mă întreb cât de bine se poate controla dacă proiectul este implementat corect în fabrica din China … sau are câteva module în plus. :-(

Posted in Government | No Comments »

Pot să-mi pun parola „123456” ?

Posted by Felix Enescu on 17th February 2012

Desigur domnule director!

Miercuri pe prima pagină din Wall Street Journal trona un articol despre hackerii chinezi și despre directorii Nortel, inclusiv directorul general. De vreo 10 ani chinezii au stat cu urechea în rețeaua  Nortel servindu-se cu documentele la care aveau acces directorii.

De obicei când vorbim de „utilizatori privilegiați” în contextul securității informatice ne referim la administratorii de sistem care au drepturi de acces semnificativ mai mari decât alți utilizatori.

Incidentul de la Nortel ridică problema unui alt tip de utilizatori privilegiați: directorii companiilor, în special cei de top. Chiar dacă nu are parola de „root” un director general are acces la orice document din firmă: de la planul strategic și rapoartele de cercetare până la ștatul de salarii.

În majoritatea firmelor directorii nu sunt tratați cu aceleași reguli și proceduri ca și administratorii de sistem :-) Ba chiar dimpotrivă!

O idee ar fi să trimiteți fiecărui director din firma voastră o copie după prima pagină din WSJ! S-ar putea să fie mult mai eficient decât 1000 de prezentări pe tema securității informatice. :-)

Posted in CIO, Corporations, Security | No Comments »

Malware as a Service

Posted by Felix Enescu on 3rd February 2012

Un titlu care poate da fiori în Networkworld. Articolul nu e chiar pe măsura titlului dar merită citit – măcar prima pagină:

“The life cycle of (malware) products is the most amazing aspect,” writes Pierluigi Paganini, a certified ethical hacker and founder of Security Affairs in Italy, in an article posted this past week on Infosec Island. “From design to release to after-sales support, each stage is implemented in every detail with care and attention.”

care and attention”: un virus scris cu îngrijire și atenție… ar fi amuzant dacă nu ar fi înfricoșător.

Puteți sări peste a doua pagină, nu aveți nimic de pierdut.

 

 

Posted in Security | No Comments »