Fergie's Tech Blog

In Passing: John Mackey

posted by Fergie @ 7/07/2011 05:57:00 PM 0 comments

Cyberattacks Take Two U.S. Energy Labs Offline

William Jackson writes on GCN.com:

Two Energy Department research facilities on opposite sides of the country have been taken offline by what one spokesman called a “sophisticated cyber attack.”


Officials became aware July 1 that the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., and the Thomas Jefferson Laboratory National Accelerator Facility in Newport News, Va., were under attack, PNNL spokesman Greg Koller said.


All network services initially were shut down at PNNL, but external e-mail had been restored by the afteroon on July 6, Koller said. Internal e-mail and some intranet connections havd already been restored at the laboratory. The public website at www.pnl.gov remained offline July 6.


“We expect we will be able to get them online over the next three days,” Koller said.


The Jefferson Lab website at www.jlab.org also was unavailable on Wednesday.

More here.

posted by Fergie @ 7/06/2011 05:26:00 PM 0 comments

(Update) 30th Annual Palo Alto Summer Festival & Chili Cook-off

The place to be today... details here.

Happy Independence Day!

- ferg

Update: 17:20 PDT 4 July 2011: Yes, I went up to the Chili Cook-Off in Palo Alto for a few hours this afternoon -- did some chili-tasting, had a few beers, listened to some music, and of course did some people-watching. All-in-all, a good time was had by all. And I liked the Chili by Secret Mountain Labs (Google it) the best -- it was rockin'. -ferg

posted by Fergie @ 7/04/2011 07:10:00 AM 0 comments

Remember Our Troops on This Independence Day...

posted by Fergie @ 7/04/2011 03:00:00 AM 0 comments

Happy 235th Birthday, America

posted by Fergie @ 7/04/2011 12:01:00 AM 0 comments

U.S. Spies Can't Stop Buying Fake Microchips from China

Adam Clarke Estes writes in The Atlantic Wire:

The U.S. miltary has known for quite some time that they have a quality control problem with the microchips they've been buying in China. A 2005 report from the Defense Science Board warned that in buying weapon circuitry overseas, "trojan horse" chips could find their way into American weapons, potentially prompting missiles to detonate early or computers to shut down in the event of an attack. Then, in 2008, an investigation by BusinessWeek revealed that this was, in fact, happening--fake Chinese microchips were crashing American military networks. In 2010, the military bought 59,000 chips that turned out to be counterfeits. Last week, the government finally announced that they wanted to figure out a way to spot "trojan horse" chips. What took them so long?


Well, for one, China's gotten really good at counterfeiting. The fake Louis Vuitton bags they sell on Canal Street in New York City is one thing, but brand-stamped microchips sold to the U.S. military in the thousands is different in a number of different ways. When BusinessWeek investigated this issue, they found that money and "affirmative-action goals" steered government equipment buyers away from the most trusted manufacturers...

More here.

posted by Fergie @ 7/03/2011 08:58:00 AM 0 comments

Cybercrime Fight Hurt by Apathy, Law Enforcement Hurdles

Michael Cooney writes on NetworkWorld:

General public apathy and collaboration with the law enforcement community assure that cybercrimes of all sorts will continue to rise.


That was one of the conclusions from a congressional hearing this week called "Hacked Off: Helping Law Enforcement Protect Private Financial Information."


A big problem we are facing in the fight against financial crimes is that the criminal complaint has almost disappeared. Even when a police report is filed, it is often "so the bank will give you your money back. Case closed," said [.pdf] Gary Warner, director of research in computer forensics with the University of Alabama at Birmingham.


"The understandable hesitation of law enforcement to 'work a case' in these areas has led to an unfortunate form of apathy by the consumer as well as the financial institutions. Large banks lose millions of dollars each year to phishing and malware, but they reimburse the cost to customers and structure the losses into the cost of doing business. Consumers have been trained that if they experience financial losses they should contact their financial institution rather than the police. If they have had their money returned by their financial institution, there is little incentive to share that information with law enforcement," Warner stated.

More here.

posted by Fergie @ 7/01/2011 01:30:00 PM 1 comments

Hackers Are Being Radicalised by Government Policy

Loz Kaye writes on the Guardian.co.uk:

Now that the LulzSec boat has sailed over the horizon, it seems a good moment to take stock of the past weeks' "hacktivism" frenzy. We've been bombarded with images of oddballs lurking in murky chatrooms – geeky teenagers who are simultaneously global cyber-villains. Given the reporting, we'd be forgiven for thinking that it's all about the personal obsessions of a few nerds. This would be to ignore the wider context.


LulzSec wasn't an isolated or unique phenomenon. People with passionate beliefs have been using new technological tools to effect change out of a sense of powerlessness. In the last year, I've watched 38 Degrees using the strength of association online to change government policy, WikiLeaks force transparency on those who'd rather run from it, even the amorphous mass that is Anonymous taking a stand on whatever issue they feel deserves their attention.


These tools are now themselves under attack. Lord Mandelson's last gift to us, the Digital Economy Act, is just one of a raft of "three strikes laws" worldwide that threaten to cut off households from the web. Buried in the coalition's Prevent strategy is the assertion that "internet filtering across the public estate is essential". Nor is it solely a British issue; Nicolas Sarkozy called for global online governance at the eG8 in his attempt to civilise the "wild west" of the web.


We're starting to see what this civilising process entails. Open Rights Group revealed that Ed Vaizey and lobbyists held a secret meeting discussing the future of web blocking powers. There was no public oversight and no one asked the net natives. Vaizey has relented a little via Twitter, consenting to open up the discussion – the Pirate Party and I welcome that invitation. It will take more, however, than getting a few NGOs around a table to ease the real sense of anger poisoning the online community.

More here.

posted by Fergie @ 7/01/2011 12:02:00 PM 0 comments