The computer worm known as Conficker woke up as expected this morning when calendars flipped to April 1, but fears that millions of infected computers would launch an attack on the world’s cyber-infrastructure have so far proved to be unfounded. Computer security experts have been warning the public for weeks that the Conficker worm was set to try to download commands from a server at an unknown Internet location on [April 1]. There was no certainty about the intent of the program, which could be used to send e-mail spam, distribute malicious software or generate a potentially devastating “denial of service” attack on Web sites or networks [The New York Times].
The worm is thought to have infected 12 million computers worldwide, with the most infections occurring in Asia. But computer experts monitoring the progress of the worm say that while infected computers do appear to be trying to link to control servers, the mysterious hackers behind the virus have yet to give those computers any specific instructions. However, security experts warned that there was no room for complacency…. “We believe the software is geared towards making money. The characteristic of this type of worm is to keep it slow and low, keep it under the radar to slowly maximise profits over the long term” [BBC News], says Vincent Weafer, of the anti-virus firm Symantec.
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Trees continue to fall due to illegal logging operations in the the Amazon rainforest, and Brazil’s environmental officials have discovered that those logging companies hired not just lumberjacks to get the job done, but also hackers. The hackers went to work in the Brazilian state of Pará, where the local government has launched an online system for issuing permits to logging companies. The system tracks their total output and simply refuses to issues more permits, which are checked when the wood is hauled out in trucks [Ars Technica].
But instead of abiding by the limits on the amount of timber they could haul out of the rainforest, more than 107 companies allegedly hired hackers to access the government records and increase their timber allocations. Andre Muggiati, a Greenpeace official in Brazil, said that “by hacking into the permit system, these companies have made their timber shipments appear legal and compliant with the forest management plans” [Wired News]. The Brazilian government has already arrested more than 30 people involved in the scandal.
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Sophisticated computer hackers are as big a threat to the United States as weapons of mass destruction and global jihad, argues a new report on cybersecurity. The report, which was produced by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, contains recommendations for the incoming Obama administration, and issues a dire assessment of the government’s current efforts to prevent cyberattacks. “America’s failure to protect cyberspace is one of the most urgent national security problems facing the new administration that will take office in January 2009,” the report states. Cyber safety is “a battle fought mainly in the shadows. It is a battle we are losing” [DailyTech].
The federal government has been embarrassed in recent years by intrusions into the computer networks of many different agencies, including the Defense, State, Homeland Security, and Commerce departments, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the National Defense University. An investigation last year by The Washington Post showed that multiple compromises of unclassified computer systems for the Transportation Security Administration and DHS headquarters went unnoticed for months in 2006 because the agency failed to effectively monitor its own networks [Washington Post]. In some cases the breaches have been linked to Chinese computer servers, indicating a possible convergence between hacking and espionage.
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A pesky computer virus that has popped up on computers around the world has now made the leap into space. NASA announced yesterday that several laptops on board the International Space Station were infected with the virus in July, and also admitted that such infections have happened before.
“This is not the first time we have had a worm or a virus,” NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries said. “It’s not a frequent occurrence, but this isn’t the first time.” … NASA downplayed the news, calling the virus mainly a “nuisance” that was on non-critical space station laptops used for things like e-mail and nutritional experiments [Wired News].
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Computer experts are investigating the cyberattack that brought down Georgian Web sites during Russia’s invasion of Georgia, and say the assault may mark the first large-scale attempt at “cyber warfare.” As Russian tanks began to roll into Georgia on Friday, millions of extraneous requests — a so-called Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack — took down Georgia’s banking and government sites. [Security expert Graham Cluley says:] “In modern warfare, it’s not unusual to see opposing forces take over TV stations, radios and newspapers. In our century, taking over Internet sites is now part of the same kind of strategy” [Venture Beat].
The attack is similar to an incident in May 2007 when Estonian government Web sites were brought down in response to the government’s plans to move a Russian-installed monument; a 20-year-old Russian hacker was later convicted of organizing that attack. As for who’s responsible for the current online strike against Georgia, the theories range from “some kids who got overexcited” [CNET] to a criminal network directed by the Russian government.
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Three MIT undergraduates who found weaknesses in the fare cards for Boston’s subway system had planned to give a talk about their work at a hackers’ conference in Las Vegas this weekend. But on Friday the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority sued the students and MIT to stop the speech, and on Saturday morning a federal judge slapped the students with a 10-day restraining order to keep their mouths shut.
The MBTA said that they needed time to investigate the student’s claims, and if they were true, to try to correct them before sensitive information got out via the students’ slide show presentation. One slide explains that the presentation would teach attendees how to generate fare cards, reverse engineer magnetic stripes on cards and hack radio frequency identification (RFID) cards. The next slide says: “And this is very illegal! So the following material is for educational use only” [AP].
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