InfoSec Odds and Ends

Last Updated on Thursday, 4 March 2010 01:58 Written by Jeffreycarr Thursday, 4 March 2010 01:56

Here are some of the important events of the last few days that I haven’t had time to blog about but would like to briefly share with you:

• The takedown of the Mariposa botnet is a wonderful case study of how the collaboration between international law enforcement agencies with the assistance of private industry can beat the bad guys.
• Forbes Special Report: The Real Meaning of Cyber Warfare
• Digital Sky Technologies CEO Yuri Milner, who’s Russian company now owns over 5% of Facebook has $1 billion to invest in social media outside of Russia, and he’s interested in Twitter.
• Hack-Jet

Three Key Twitter/Iranian Cyber Army Links, and a Warning

Last Updated on Monday, 21 December 2009 01:10 Written by Jeffreycarr Sunday, 20 December 2009 03:39

The Dec 17, 2009 event was a tempest in a teapot, but to save you time and trouble, here are 3 links that tell you everything you need to know about what happened, what didn’t happen, and what the take-away should be.

• If you want to know what happened, and how it happened, click here.
• If you want to know what probably did not happen, in spite of the poster’s histrionics, click here.
• If you want to know what the most important take-away from this incident is, click here.

Having said all that, I am worried about what might happen on December 27, 2009, which marks the anniversary of Operation Cast Lead; Israel’s attack against Hamas strongholds in Gaza which resulted in over 1,000 casualties and a lengthy cyber war between State and Non-state hackers. December 27th (on or about) is also a Muslim holy day – the Day of Ashura, which commemorates the martydom of Imam Husayn.

For this reason, agencies and corporations who are high value targets for cyber attacks may want to review their network and physical security plans.

The National Security Risks of Gov 2.0 and Social Software

Last Updated on Monday, 1 June 2009 02:21 Written by admin Monday, 1 June 2009 02:17

I’m particularly pleased to point you to this post that I wrote for O’Reilly Radar. With the rush towards more openness in Government and the impending Gov 2.0 Summit, I noticed a lack of published material on the risks associated with Gov 2.0, particularly those that involve Social software like Twitter, Facebook, Govloop, etc.

I also list 5 recommendations on things that you can do right now to reduce your risks and increase your understanding about how you may be targeted by our adversaries via your use of social media.