Tag Archives: False Sense Of Security

Millions of US government workers hit by data breach

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“Chinese hackers are suspected of carrying out a ‘massive breach’ affecting the data of millions of US government workers, officials said.  The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) confirmed on Thursday that almost four million current and past employees have been affected.  The breach could potentially affect every federal agency, officials said.  Susan Collins, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the attack was thought to originate in China.  OPM serves as the human resource department for the federal government.  The agency issues security clearances and compiles records of all federal government employees.”

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33017310

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New exploit leaves most Macs vulnerable to permanent backdooring

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“Macs older than a year are vulnerable to exploits that remotely overwrite the firmware that boots up the machine, a feat that allows attackers to control vulnerable devices from the very first instruction.  The attack, according to a blog post published Friday by well-known OS X security researcher Pedro Vilaca, affects Macs shipped prior to the middle of 2014 that are allowed to go into sleep mode.  The attack is more serious than the Thunderstrike proof-of-concept exploit late last year. While both exploits give attackers the same persistent and low-level control of a Mac, the new attack doesn’t require even brief physical access. That means attackers half-way around the world may remotely exploit it.”

http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/06/new-remote-exploit-leaves-most-macs-vulnerable-to-permanent-backdooring/

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Asking Obama to protect encryption, and why that’s not enough

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“The letter was signed by some of the most important cryptologists in the world, including the inventors of many of the key technologies behind modern encryption. The letter is a response to recent requests from the FBI and other agencies for laws requiring that backdoors and attack vectors be built into any encrypted system made by US companies. These backdoors would be specially created to allow law enforcement to snoop on the personal information of the company’s customers. Even if you trust the government not to misuse your personal information, this is very risky; any backdoor created for the government will significantly weaken software against other attacks as well.”

https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/asking-obama-to-protect-encryption-and-why-thats-not-enough

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Senate Votes To Turn NSA Spying Back On, But With Reforms

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“After allowing portions of the Patriot Act to expire early Monday morning, lawmakers voted on Tuesday to reinstate the National Security Agency’s sweeping data collection programs, though with modest reforms to the agency’s programs and the secret court charged with keeping it in check.  In a 67-32 vote, the upper chamber agreed to pass the USA Freedom Act, effectively ending the two-day lapse in the NSA’s programs. The act re-establishes modified versions of the expired Patriot Act provisions.  White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest confirmed Tuesday that the administration was still issuing regular orders under the expired Section 215 of the Patriot Act.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/02/nsa-surveillance-congress_n_7496100.html

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Jacob Hornberger, Rand Paul: A Profile in Courage

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“The U.S. Freedom Act is the reform of the Patriot Act that Obama, Clapper, and other warfare statists wanted. But Rand Paul would have no part of it. Let the Patriot Act expire — without reform — was his position.  The Patriot Act and the U.S. Freedom Act are two of the most anti-American schemes in U.S. history. Both schemes would fit in perfectly in any totalitarian regime. Moreover, employing fearmongering is a time-honored strategy of totalitarian regimes to scare people into trading away their freedom for the pretense of security.  Fear has been the coin of the realm of the U.S. national-security state apparatus since the day it was grafted onto America’s governmental system after World War II.”

http://fff.org/2015/06/01/rand-paul-profile-courage/

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TSA Overlooks 95% of Weapons In Security Checkpoint Tests

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“An internal investigation of the Transportation Security Administration revealed security failures at dozens of the nation’s busiest airports, where undercover investigators were able to smuggle mock explosives or banned weapons through checkpoints in 95 percent of trials, ABC News has learned.  The series of tests were conducted by Homeland Security Red Teams who pose as passengers, setting out to beat the system.”

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2015/06/tsa_not_detecti.html

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It’s Very, Very Easy for Hackers to Steal Your IRS Account

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“Long story short: You should register your IRS.gov account, because it’s frightfully easy for hackers to do it for you.  The craziest thing about this saga is just how easy it apparently was to hack into the IRS system. It’s not even hacking really, since the system is protected by so-called knowledge-based authentication (KBA). The fraudsters who broke into Kasper’s account did so by guessing some basic information about his life—information that was readily available elsewhere on the web. A security researcher can do the same thing in a matter of minutes.”

http://gizmodo.com/its-very-very-easy-for-hackers-to-steal-your-irs-accou-1694572344

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Hackers Hit the IRS and Make Off With 100K Taxpayers’ Files

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“Few government agencies routinely collect more information on every law-abiding American than the Internal Revenue Service. And by targeting the IRS, a group of seemingly sophisticated hackers has now collected their own chunk of that detailed data.  On Tuesday the IRS admitted that it had been the target of a breach that compromised 100,000 taxpayers’ files between February and the middle of this month. And though that may seem like a relatively small set of victims, the IRS says the attackers gained the full tax return transcript of the affected taxpayers, which could included a detailed dossier of their personal information including income and social security numbers.”

http://www.wired.com/2015/05/hackers-hit-irs-access-100000-taxpayers-files/

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IRS sets up dedicated cybercrime unit to combat identity theft

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“The US Internet Revenue Service has launched a new unit dedicated to tackling the rising rate of identity theft through hacking.  The US agency’s unit comprises of roughly a dozen agents, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. The agents, based in Washington, will focus on cybercrime related to tax fraud, including the theft of data which is then used to collect victim tax refunds without their consent.  IRS data suggests that within the last fiscal year, over 1,000 cases of identity theft involved the loss of data through digital means.”

http://www.zdnet.com/article/irs-sets-up-dedicated-cybercrime-unit-to-combat-identity-theft/

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Surveillance Back Door Worse Than No Door

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“Tech industry giants say they are alarmed the federal government would demand back-door access to the encryption built into their products. Are they crying crocodile tears? Maybe, but the point is still a good one.  Imagine if, instead of memory chips, we were talking about your home’s back door. It most likely contains a lock. Your family members have keys. They can come and go freely while others cannot. This is how locks should work.  The FBI says it can’t do its job unless it has unimpeded access to your house, so it asks you to give it a spare key. The FBI further promises it will only use the key to enter your home in emergencies. Would you give it to them?”

http://www.thedailybell.com/news-analysis/36308/Back-Door-Worse-Than-No-Door/

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