Obama’s new cyber-security tactics finger corrupt staff, China • The Register

February 22, 2013 by corq

Obama’s new cyber-security tactics finger corrupt staff, China Hackers or the guy with root?

Trouble is closer to home, warns White House

By John Leyden

The White House has unveiled a fresh strategy for combating the theft of American trade secrets – days after a high-profile Chinese cyber-espionage campaign against US corporate giants was exposed. The strategy, outlined in a 141-page report [PDF] published on Wednesday, focuses on a five-part plan featuring diplomatic efforts, cooperation with private industry to bolster information security, legislation, law enforcement operations and public education campaigns.

The US Departments of Commerce, Defense, Homeland Security, Justice, State and Treasury; the Office of the Director of National Intelligence; and the Office of the United States Trade Representative were all involved in drawing up the strategy, and will all be involved in aspects of putting it into play. The US government report, which cites numerous examples of Chinese espionage and a lesser number of attacks traced to Russia and the countries, makes a fascinating read.

More via http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/02/21/us_revamped_cyber_strategy/

Is it hard to crack full Disk Encryption For Law Enforcement?

November 21, 2011 by corq

A lot of this depends on the age old cost-benefit ratio – If you’ve done a small crime, your PC isn’t worth the crypt-analyst’s time. Law enforcement can look elsewhere to triangulate your activities.

If criminal behavior is suspected to have taken place online, a request can be made, with a D.A.’s signature to the ISP/Online site etc.

As much as you’ll hear me howl about privacy, I don’t take for granted that the services I use online won’t just cough up information based on law enforcement whimsy.
Full Disk Encryption is however, still a good idea, especially if you travel a great deal with your laptop – both in the event of loss or theft of your data, and in other scenarios, it simply makes thieving your data less of an attractive opportunity.

If you’d rather keep your data private, take heart: disk encryption is a lot harder to break than techno-thriller movies and TV shows make it out to be, to the chagrin of some branches of law enforcement. MrSeb writes with word of a paper titled “The growing impact of full disk encryption on digital forensics” that illustrates just how difficult it is.

via The Hacker News

Research Without Walls

November 2, 2011 by corq

Signed as ACM Member: http://www.researchwithoutwalls.org/344

Today, members of the research community must pay for access to read the very papers we peer reviewed, and aspiring researchers of limited means are locked out of knowledge essential to join the research community. In the age of Internet publishing, research that is reviewed by volunteers and often funded by the public should be freely available to all. Make a difference by taking this pledge.

http://www.researchwithoutwalls.org/

I have access both through my University and as an ACM member, and if this petition opens doors for sound young researchers to get access to academic papers and necessary basis to build their own research, it’ll be well worthwhile. I’d happily enourage others to do the same.

Reading Room: U.S. Requests for Google User Data Spikes 29 Percent in Six Months

October 25, 2011 by corq

The number of U.S. government requests for data on Google users for use in criminal investigations rose 29 percent in the last six months, according to data released by the search giant Monday.

U.S. government agencies sent Google 5,590 criminal investigation requests for data on Google users and services from Jan. 1 to June 30, 2011, an average of 31 a day. That’s compared to 4,601 requests from July 1 to Dec. 31, 2010, the company reported Tuesday in an update to its unique transparency tool.

Google says it complied in whole or part with 93% of such requests, which can include court orders, grand jury subpoenas and other legal instruments.

For the first time, Google’s transparency report includes the number of users and accounts affected by such requests — in this case, 11,057.