Today’s Cyberthreats: Virtual Vivisection, Cyberwar Conventions
Each weekday, TechNewsDaily’s colleagues at SecurityNewsDaily give us a roundup on what’s worrying the guardians of cyberspace. Here’s what’s happening:
VIRTUAL VIVISECTION: Security specialist Aaron Barr took risks by infiltrating the “hacktivist” group Anonymous and collecting data on its apparent leaders, but his real mistake was to tell the Financial Times he’d done so. Soon after the Financial Times story went online Saturday, Barr’s Twitter account was hijacked and tweeted his Social Security and cell-phone numbers, and his company’s e-mails and internal documents were posted online for all to see.
DIVERTED TARGET: Nasdaq officials reassured investors that hackers who got into the company’s systems didn’t affect the all-important trading servers, but one technology blogger argues that the hackers were after something else. Forbes’ Jeffrey Carr notes that Directors Desk, a service that lets corporate board officers share documents, was breached, and thinks the treasure trove of confidential Fortune 500 company information may have been the real prize.
GROUND RULES: Cyberwarfare needs its own rules and conventions, argued a report put forward by the New York-based EastWest Institute during this past weekend’s Munich Security Conference. The report advocates extending the Hague and Geneva conventions into the virtual realm, assigning “protected zones in cyberspace” and determining whether certain cyberweapons should be banned.
- Anonymous ‘Hacktivists’ Launch Second Wave of Attacks on Egypt
- Security and Privacy Software Reviews
- Nation's First Cybersecurity 'Spy Center' Breaks Ground
