It’s been awhile and I haven’t researched what the new ENIGMA designation must be, this would typically be V2 with just the Spanish Lady reciting numbers. New broadcasts appear to incorporate likely encrypted data bursts. Pedro moves into the Digital age! Well, partially, anyway.
Enjoy!
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/
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
Nathaniel Nicholson, the son of CIA double agent Harold James “Jim” Nicholson who received a 23-year sentence in 1997 to spying for Russia, pleaded guilty in federal court in Portland, Oregon, to charges of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government and conspiracy to commit money laundering, US media are reporting.
Nathaniel Nicholson acknowledged his role in the ongoing conspiracy with his father to collect money from the Russian federation for his father’s past espionage activity, acting US Attorney Kent S. Robinson told the CNN. He worked with his father, the highest-ranking CIA officer ever convicted of espionage, and Russian officials on spy operations, authorities said.
In exchange for leniency up to a sentence of probation, the son has greed to testify against his father if there is a trial, Wired.com marks. Nathaniel Nicholson will face more than 20 years in prison when he is sentenced in January. The father, nicknamed Batman, is already serving 23 years after pleading guilty more than a decade ago to furnishing the Russians “documents, photographic negatives and information relating to the national defense of the United States, with the intent and reason to believe that the same would be used to the injury of the United States and to the advantage of the Russian Federation,” according to an FBI affidavit, Wired.com adds.
The UK government has pushed back on requests that a historic site used by Britain’s top code-breakers during World War II should be elevated to the same status as the Imperial War Museum.
Responding to a question from Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall, whose parents met while stationed at the Bletchley Park site during the war, the deputy chief whip of the House of Lords, Lord Davies of Oldham said that while the government was keen to support the site, there would be no moves to link the site to the Imperial War Museum.
“We have no plans at present to associate it with the Imperial War Museum,” Lord Davies said. “The House is all too well aware of the significance of designating any area in association with a museum of that rank, but I want to give an assurance that Bletchley Park will continue to develop under the resources made available to it.”
Bletchley Park, home to UK code-breakers such as Alan Turing is being preserved as a museum, but has been facing a funding crises of late. It was recently awarded around £600,000 by Milton Keynes Council and English Heritage, as well as a further £100,000 by IBM and PGP.
The issue of whether the Bletchley site should receive the same status as the Imperial War museum was raised by Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, who also admitted to an interest in this site.
“My Lords, I declare an indirect interest in that my father was a beneficiary of the Ultra intelligence derived from the work done by the noble Baroness, Lady Trumpington, and others,” the Viscount said. “To go a bit further than what other noble Lords have proposed, does the noble Lord not think that Bletchley Park should be turned into a full-scale national museum on the same terms as the Imperial War Museum or many of our other national museums?”
via eWeekEurope.co.uk.
Story alert, via Al Fansome:
WASHINGTON — Cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, according to current and former national-security officials.
The spies came from China, Russia and other countries, these officials said, and were believed to be on a mission to navigate the U.S. electrical system and its controls. The intruders haven’t sought to damage the power grid or other key infrastructure, but officials warned they could try during a crisis or war.
“The Chinese have attempted to map our infrastructure, such as the electrical grid,” said a senior intelligence official. “So have the Russians.”
The espionage appeared pervasive across the U.S. and doesn’t target a particular company or region, said a former Department of Homeland Security official. “There are intrusions, and they are growing,” the former official said, referring to electrical systems. “There were a lot last year.”
More via WSJ.com.
A veteran Chinese intelligence officer who defected to the United States says that his country’s civilian spy service spends most of its time trying to steal secrets overseas but also works to bolster Beijing’s Communist Party rule by repressing religious and political dissent internally.
“In some sense you can say that intelligence work between two countries is just like war but without the fire,” Li Fengzhi told The Washington Times in an interview aided by an interpreter.
Mr. Li worked for years as an Ministry of State Security intelligence officer inside China before defecting to the United States, where is he awaiting a response to his request for political asylum. He gave a rare, detailed interview to The Times on Sunday regarding the activities of the MSS, China’s Communist-controlled civilian spy agency.
His prior work as a Chinese spy was confirmed to The Times by a Western government source familiar with his defection. The source spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of Mr. Li’s case.
via Washington Times
