What you need to know for your personal cyber security life…
Number Sixteen in a series of semi-regular daily current and topical computer threats that may affect your online, or even offline, digital and real life. Why cyber-security on SurvivalRing? Because EVERYTHING you do in your life everyday now is a part of the cyber world…even your offline plans. So, be aware, and pay attention. The bad guys WILL eventually get around to YOU…personally…so be prepared for it, by staying in the loop.
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Exclusive: France’s Snecma targeted by hackers – researcher
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/18/us-hacking-snecma-idUSBREA1H1Z320140218
- By JIM FINKLE
- Reuters
- Feb 18, 2014
French aerospace engine maker Snecma, a unit of Safran, was attacked by hackers who exploited a vulnerability in Microsoft Corp’s Internet Explorer, according to a computer security researcher.
It was not clear how successful the hackers had been in their efforts to breach Snecma’s network, according to the researcher, who has studied malicious software and infrastructure used by the hackers.
A spokeswoman for Snecma’s parent, Safran, said she had no immediate comment.
The researcher said the malicious software used by the hackers contained code that identified Internet domain names belonging to Snecma. The researcher declined to be identified by name as he was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter.
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Cyber Threats debut on the flightline at Nellis Air Force Base’s Red Flag
http://theaviationist.com/2014/02/17/cyber-war-at-red-flag/
- By David Cenciotti
- The Aviationist
- Feb 17, 2014
“Train as you fight, fight as you train” has always been Red Flag’s motto.
U.S. Air Force’s main exercise has to prepare aircrew and support personnel to fight modern war. In the air, on the ground, over the sea and in the cyberspace.
For the first time, the recent Red Flag 14-1 at Nellis Air Force Base featured a “contested, degraded or operationally limited” environment, or CDO, for maintainers, who were trained to cope with cyber vulnerabilities in the systems they use on the flightline.
Ground personnel are always using computers and brand new technologies that may be targeted by cyber attacks launched by tech-savvy adversaries: laptop used for aircraft maintainance and diagnosis, GPS systems, communication and network equipment are all high-value targets for enemy hacking teams. That’s why Red Flag maintainers receive academics on cyber vulnerabilities, information operations and other CDO-related threats.
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Israel Electric Opens Cyber-War Room to Defend Against Power-Grid Hacks
- By Gwen Ackerman
- Bloomberg
- Feb 19, 2014
Israel’s main power company opened a cyber “war room” this week to defend its systems around the clock from hackers. Technicians at Israel Electric will monitor as many as 400 million cyber-attacks and hacking attempts a day.
“There are hundreds of thousands of attempts to infiltrate Israel Electric’s networks every day,” Israel Electric Chairman Yiftach Ron-Tal said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. “We are talking here about a threat on a national level.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that one goal of his government is to turn Israel into a world leader in cyber-technologies. In 2012, Netanyahu formed the National Cyber Bureau, which said last month that it plans to establish an emergency-response team for cyber-attacks. President Shimon Peres has spent the last month making public appearances to promote Israeli technology, including cyber-security.
In the past three years, the country’s cyber-security industry has grown from a few dozen companies to about 220 that have raised more than $400 million, according to the Tel Aviv-based IVC Research Center. Twenty multinational companies now operate online-security development centers in Israel.
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Iranians hacked Navy network for four months? Not a surprise
- By Sean Gallagher
- Ars Technica
- Feb 19 2014
In 2012, Iranian hackers managed to penetrate the US Navy’s unclassified administrative network, the Navy Marine Corps Intranet. While the attack was disclosed last September, the scale of it was not — the attack gave hackers access to the NMCI for nearly four months, according to an updated report by The Wall Street Journal.
Vice Adm. Michael Rogers, who is now President Barack Obama’s choice to replace Gen. Keith Alexander as both NSA director and commander of the US Cyber Command, led the US Fleet Cyber Command when the attack came to light. Rogers’ response to the attack may be a factor in his confirmation hearings.
Iranian hackers attacked NMCI in August of 2012, using a vulnerability in a public-facing website to gain initial access to the network. Because of a flaw in the security of the network the server was hosted on, attackers were able to use the server to gain access to NMCI’s private network and spread to other systems. While the vulnerability that allowed the attackers to gain access in the first place was discovered and closed by October, spyware installed by the attackers remained in place until November.
Officials said no e-mail accounts were compromised and no data was stolen in the attack. But it cost about $10 million to repair the damage done to the network’s systems — a process that included taking the whole network down twice for upgrades to systems and removal of malware.
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