Wagner students discover hidden camera; JROTC instructor accused

kens5.com

A Wagner High School Junior ROTC instructor has been accused of taking inappropriate photos of students.

The Junior ROTC instructor was placed on administrative leave after a recording device was found in a supply room where students sometimes change their clothing.

They say one of the female students was actually recorded doing just that. Her family has been notified, and if they choose to press criminal charges, it's possible the instructor could face legal punishment.

Officials at Judson ISD say the recording device was discovered by other students at Wagner High School. Those students turned it over to the proper authorities.

"It's a small recording device, and they actually thought that it was a flash drive. It looks very similar to that. When they discovered there were some questionable images, some video images, they immediately turned it over to their ROTC instructor, who then turned it over to the principal at Wagner," says Judson ISD spokesperson Aubrey Chancellor.

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Pentagon computers attacked

wavy.com
Most serious breach of DoD computer networks ever

WASHINGTON (AP) - A foreign spy agency pulled off the most serious breach of Pentagon computer networks ever by inserting a flash drive into a U.S. military laptop, a top defense official said Wednesday.

The previously classified incident, which took place in 2008 in the Middle East, was disclosed in a magazine article by Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn and released by the Pentagon Wednesday.

He said a "malicious code" on the flash drive spread undetected on both classified and unclassified Pentagon systems, "establishing what amounted to a digital beachhead, from which data could be transferred to servers under foreign control."

"It was a network administrator's worst fear: a rogue program operating silently, poised to deliver operational plans into the hands of an unknown adversary," Lynn wrote in an article for Foreign Affairs. "This ... was the most significant breach of U.S. military computers ever and it served as an important wake-up call."

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Highly Dangerous Zero-day Windows Trojan Targets Espionage

networkworld.com
There is a new vicious rootkit-level malware infection targeting critical infrastructure and aimed at corporate or government espionage. It often enters the enterprise through USB sticks. Finnish security company F-Secure advised that the current malware is very dangerous and poses, "a risk of virus epidemic at the current moment." F-Secure further warns that this is an espionage attack using LNK (*.LNK) shortcut files. All Windows operating systems are vulnerable, even Windows 7, though F-Secure says it has added detection modules for these rootkits to its own anti-malware products. Problem is, once it added the detection module, it started discovering infections all over the world, and the hole that the virus exploits remains unfixed. Because this is a rootkit infection, the virus bypasses security mechanisms. From regular Joes to enterprises, this spy rootkit is in the wild and spreading infection.

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High-Tech Espionage Helped Alleged Russian Spies

foxnews.com

High-tech espionage is alive and well.

According to documents released Monday in the case of 11 Russians accused of spying in the U.S., cold-war era spying is dead. The modern spy is a Jason-Bourne style stealth agent who relies on tech to uncover secrets.

According to a story on CNET, the court papers made public by the Justice Department (PDF and PDF) show that the group used private wireless networks to transmit files, passed data on USB memory sticks and sent text messages -- all protected and encrypted with custom-written "steganographic" software

, which let them hide secret messages in otherwise innocent-looking files.

Defendant Anna Chapman reportedly brought her laptop to a Manhattan coffee shop and transferred data with a Russian government official -- who drove by in a minivan but never entered the store. Chapman also allegedly opened her laptop while in a bookstore in lower Manhattan and used a private Wi-Fi network to communicate with the same Russian official.

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USB Flash Drive Spy Cufflinks

cg

All Spies must have their data with them at all times! We want absolutely everything to be mobile and with us at all times. Which makes these flash drive cufflinks only the obvious next step. This pair of USB drives will let you keep all of your documents directly on your wrist. Plus you can keep two different sets, since you’ll have a drive on each wrist.

It will give you a total of 4GB worth of space to fill up, there’s 2GB on each of the drives. You can even have the shiny drive engraved. Should you not like the shiny look you can also pick up gunmetal and gold finishes. They are small enough that it’s unlikely that another spy will notice them.

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IBM: We distributed malware-ridden USB drives

news.cnet.com

IBM is apologizing for handing out USB drives at a security conference in Australia this week that had malware on them.

The thumb drives were distributed for free to people who walked up to the IBM booth at the AusCERT conference.

"Unfortunately we have discovered that some of these USB keys contained malware and we suspect that all USB keys may be affected," Glenn Wightwick, chief technologist at IBM Australia, wrote in a letter to AusCERT delegates that was reprinted on the Beast or Buddha blog.

"The malware is detected by the majority of current Anti Virus products [as at 20/05/2010] and been known since 2008," the letter said. "The malware is known by a number of names and is contained in the setup.exe and autorun.ini files. It is spread when the infected USB device is inserted into a Microsoft Windows workstation or server whereby the setup.exe and autorun.ini files run automatically."

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''Do not put anything on the internet that you don't want on the front page of the New York Times.''

winknews.com

LEE COUNTY, Fla. - Ever wonder what your kids are doing on-line? Now, you can find out, but the same device that is helping you spy could be used on you without you knowing.

They're little flash drives that do the snooping. You just plug them into the computer you want to spy on. After 60 seconds, you take it out and can access all the information from that computer... anytime, anywhere.

"As soon as they plug it in, I can launch the software and - game over. Now I have control of that computer."

It's something some parents like the idea of - especially when it comes to kids chatting with strangers online.

"I think kids get into a lot more trouble sometimes without them even realizing it and parents have no control over what they are seeing and looking and going through."

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Hackers, Troops Rejoice: Pentagon Lifts Thumb-Drive Ban

wired.com

Soldiers, you are now cleared to use your thumb drives again. U.S. Strategic Command has lifted its ban on the tiny drives, memory sticks, CDs and other “removable flash media” on military networks.

The repeal, first reported by InsideDefense.com, may be good news for troops, who depend on the drives to move data in bandwidth-starved locations. But it may be good news for hackers, too. The original network security concerns which prompted the ban haven’t really been addressed, one Strategic Command cyber defense specialist tells Danger Room: “Not much changed. StratCom simply does not have the support to enforce such a ban indefinitely.”

StratCom prohibited the drives’ use back in November 2008 after the Agent.btz virus began working its way through military networks. A variation of the “SillyFDC” worm, Agent.btz spreads by copying itself from thumb drive to computer and back again. Once on a PC, “it automatically downloads code from another location. And that code could be pretty much anything,” iDefense computer security expert Ryan Olson said at the time.

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China bugs and burgles Britain

timesonline.co.uk

THE security service MI5 has accused China of bugging and burgling UK business executives and setting up “honeytraps” in a bid to blackmail them into betraying sensitive commercial secrets.

A leaked MI5 document says that undercover intelligence officers from the People’s Liberation Army and the Ministry of Public Security have also approached UK businessmen at trade fairs and exhibitions with the offer of “gifts” and “lavish hospitality”.

The gifts — cameras and memory sticks — have been found to contain electronic Trojan bugs which provide the Chinese with remote access to users’ computers.

MI5 says the Chinese government “represents one of the most significant espionage threats to the UK” because of its use of these methods, as well as widespread electronic hacking. Written by MI5’s Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure, the 14-page “restricted” report describes how China has attacked UK defence, energy, communications and manufacturing companies in a concerted hacking campaign.

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Lockheed Martin and its new new IronClad USB drive

coolest-gadgets.com
Lockheed Martin is more often for its role in the nation’s defense capabilities, but this time round they are offering something that will offer a semblance of protection for your much needed data – and it comes in the form of the new IronClad USB drive.

Basically, the IronClad crams in your notebook’s hard drive alongside its entire operating system, software applications and files onto a single device – which is a secure USB flash drive in essence. In layman’s terms, what you get here is deemed to be a 100% secure “PC on a stick” setup. Folks who are constantly on-the-go are able to plug in the USB flash drive into virtually any computer or notebook regardless of your geographical location, and you will be able to gain instant, secure access to your own personal desktop and files.

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Kingston's Secure USB Drive, Hackable...

Kingston Technology admits "It has recently been brought to our attention that a skilled person with the proper tools and physical access to the drives may be able to gain unauthorized access to data contained on the following Kingston Secure USB drives:

• DataTraveler BlackBox (DTBB)
• DataTraveler Secure – Privacy Edition (DTSP)
• DataTraveler Elite – Privacy Edition (DTEP)

Kingston says; It is important to note that the following Kingston Secure USB drives are NOT AFFECTED:

• DataTraveler Locker (DTL)
• DataTraveler Locker+ (DTL+)
• DataTraveler Vault (DTV)
• DataTraveler Vault – Privacy Edition (DTVP)
• DataTraveler Elite (DTE)
• DataTraveler Secure (DTS) 

 Kingston has recommended that users return their drives to get a "factory update". Before sending your DataTraveler back to Kingston, please make sure you backup the data and then delete the contents of the drive. Once we receive your drive and apply the factory update process, any data still on the drive will be deleted.
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