10 Sites Skewered by Anonymous, Including FBI, DOJ, U.S. Copyright Office

techland.time.com

By the time East Coasters were finishing dinner last night, 10 websites had fallen to what hacktivist group Anonymous calls its “low orbit ion cannon,” or LOIC — a public domain software tool named after a weapon in a popular sci-fi real-time strategy game that’s designed to stress test whether a network can handle a distributed denial of service attack.

According to Anonymous, 10 well-known governmental and corporate sites with ties to the entertainment industry were assaulted and knocked offline in retaliation for the FBI shutting down Megaupload.com, one of the world’s largest file-sharing sites. The FBI had closed Megaupload.com earlier Thursday afternoon, accusing the company of more than $500 million in revenue losses stemming from copyright violations, and arresting four people in connection with the indictment.

(MORE: Anonymous Claims DOJ, RIAA, MPAA Sites Hit for Megaupload Bust)

Dubbing its DDoS spree “OpMegaupload,” Anonymous claims it took down usdoj.govand justice.gov (the U.S. Department of Justice), universalmusic.com (Universal Music Group),RIAA.org (the Recording Industry Association of America), MPAA.org (the Motion Picture Association of America), copyright.gov (the U.S. Copyright Office), hadopi.fr (France’s copyright-enforcement agency), wmg.com (Warner Music Group), bmi.com (Broadcast Music, Inc.) andfbi.gov (the Federal Bureau of Investigation). The DOJ’s website was first to fall, about an hour after the Justice Department announced its indictment of Megaupload.com.

More...

Compliance vs. Security: The Multiple Dimensions of Corporate Espionage

sys-con.com

You've spent months fixing the red items on an internal audit report and just passed a regulatory exam. You've performed a network vulnerability assessment and network pen test within the last year and have fixes in place. You've tightened up your information security policy and recently invested in a security information and event management (SIEM) solution. You're secure, right?

Put yourself in the shoes of a criminal. He knows that most security programs focus on regulatory compliance. He knows that IT departments have limited budgets. He also knows that you must defend against an almost unlimited number of attack vectors, while he just has to find one way in.

How do you protect against a sophisticated, motivated criminal? A professional spy who has targeted your company's trade secrets? A skilled insider with a specific purpose in mind? These types of people know that information comes in many forms, not just electronic, and they are trained to exploit any vulnerability. An effective information security program must incorporate more than just traditional pen tests and vulnerability assessments. 

Corporate espionage is on the rise for multiple reasons: the down economy, frequent job changes, and even governments that boost their economies through acquisition of trade secrets. In most cases, the end product is not as valuable as obtaining the means of production, the research and development, or the "know-how." This type of information will help to cut down on development costs and aid in the long-term production of a particular good. In the end, a company must get the best product to market first, at the best cost, through maneuvering around the competition.

More...

SpearTip Announces Strategic Alliance With ComSec

St. Louis, Missouri (PRWEB) November 03, 2011

SpearTip, LLC CEO Jarrett Kolthoff announced that SpearTip has formed a strategic alliance with ComSec, LLC, of Virginia Beach, VA, which provides professional technical surveillance counter measure (TSCM) services nationwide. ComSec’s expertise includes electronic eavesdropping detection, bug sweeps, counterespionage consulting, counter surveillance, cyber TSCM, and anti-surveillance services for businesses and individuals.

Kolthoff said the alliance continues SpearTip’s geographic growth to the eastern seaboard as well as adding skill sets and technical capabilities to SpearTip’s existing cyber counterespionage arsenal.

ComSec is headed by CEO/President J.D. LeaSure, a countersurveillance practitioner in defense and industrial sectors since 1984. LeaSure has extensive training, knowledge, and experience covering eavesdropping devices, detection methods and other surveillance tactics employed by those seeking to steal information. The SpearTip alliance expands ComSec’s capabilities in cyber counterespionage and computer forensics.

“We believe this combination of talents and expertise will strengthen the unique service SpearTip offers clients,” Kolthoff said. “We are able to offer the broadest range of countersurveillance protection of anyone in the industry.”  

More...

DC convention helps governments spy on citizens

rt.com


Representatives from governments across the globe gathered in Washington DC last month, but it wasn’t international affairs that they were there to discuss.

The meeting, rather, was an annual conference where figureheads far and wide come together to discuss the latest and greatest ways to spy on their own citizens.

At this year’s Intelligence Support Systems (ISS) World Americas conference, the only consumers were the governments of great nations far and wide who came together in DC last month to go over the newest achievements in “lawful interception” methods, reveals an article published this week in the UK’s Guardian. According to their filing, international figureheads came together on American soil to find the freshest ways to carry out clandestine surveillance on their own citizens back home by hacking smart phones, laptops and anything else with a circuit.

The actual roster from this year’s guest list is kept top-secret, much like the information inside the exclusive DC conference room, but past reports suggest it reads like a who’s who of foreign nations. In 2008, for examples, the Spanish biometrics company Agnito said they were proud to be a participant in that year’s conference, which it describes on their website as a meeting-place that focuses on Intelligence Gathering. As the worldwide leader in voice biometrics, Agnito’s list of clients includes the Spanish Ministry of Defense, the national police of France, the prosecutor’s office of South Korea and some of the biggest banks in Spain. Don’t let that list of “friendly” nations let you think that nothing is amiss here, however. In The Guardian’s article, Jerry Lucas, president of TeleStrategies, says that the manufacturers of surveillance technologies are free to pitch products to any nation they want.

"The surveillance that we display in our conferences, and discuss how to use, is available to any country in the world,"Lucas tells The Guardian. "Do some countries use this technology to suppress political statements? Yes, I would say that's probably fair to say. But who are the vendors to say that the technology is not being used for good as well as for what you would consider not so good?"

More...

SpearTip’s Top Cyber Counterespionage Expert Gives TV Interview on TRICARE Data Theft

prweb.com

Doubts custodian’s assurances. Fears possible extortion of military employees whose personal medical data was taken.

St. Louis, Missouri (PRWEB) October 07, 2011

Jarrett Kolthoff, CEO of Cyber Counterespionage firm SpearTip, was interviewed by CBS-affiliate KMOV about the recent theft of two-decades-worth of medical data on nearly five million military personnel. Part of the interview was broadcast. An expansion of that interview is included here.

The custodian of the records, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), reported the data breach had occurred two weeks earlier, when numerous back-up tapes were assertively stolen in a break-in of an employee’s car, while the tapes were in transit across town.

SAIC downplayed the breach, saying no financial information was involved, although SAIC acknowledged the tapes contained sensitive medical information. SAIC discounted harm from the loss of this information, saying: “The risk of harm to patients is judged to be low despite the data elements involved, since retrieving the data on the tapes would require knowledge of and access to specific hardware and software and knowledge of the system and data structure.” Kolthoff said this statement is not an assurance that data was encrypted. The news report indicated that only “some” of the tapes were encrypted.

More...

The Last Bugs of the Nixon White House

wired.com

One morning in early March 1971, Army counterintelligence agent Dave Mann was going through the overnight files when his eyes landed on something unexpected: a report that a routine, nighttime sweep for bugs along the Pentagon’s power-packed E-Ring had found unexplained – and unencrypted — signals emanating from offices in the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Someone, it seemed, was eavesdropping on the top brass.

Mann was no stranger to bugs. It was a busy time for eavesdroppers and bug-finders, starting with the constant Spy vs. Spy games with Russian spies. But the Nixon years, he and everyone else would soon discover, had extended such clandestine ops into new territory: bugging not just the Democrats, but people within its own ranks. Eventually, most of the Watergate-era eavesdropping schemes were revealed to the public, including the bombshell that Nixon was bugging himself. But the bugs Dave Mann discovered in the E-Ring in March 1971 — and another batch like it — have remained buried all these years. Until now.

More...

Technical Surveillance Threat Series, "Cellular Threats".

Note: This is the first installment in the Spy vs. Spy, "Technical Surveillance Threat Series". Stay tuned. JDL

Technical Surveillance Countermeasures, better known as "TSCM", is defined by "Wikipedia" as:

"A service provided by qualified personnel to detect the presence of technical surveillance devices ("bugs") and hazards and to identify technical security weaknesses that could aid in the conduct of a technical penetration of the surveyed facility".

In the civilian world, the above service is also sometimes referred to as a "Electronic Eavesdropping Detection" sweep or survey, or a "Bug Sweep".

Myself and my team have performed hundreds of TSCM Surveys for fortune 500 corporations, celebrities, executives, embassies, government offices, businesses, private individuals, law firms, etc., etc. There is always a common theme after an area has been cleared, "How can we protect ourselves from electronic surveillance threats after you leave?" The answer is usually complex, and almost always highly dependent upon our review (and recommendations) of our clients security posture and protocols in place at the time of the survey, and after we leave.

In this post, we will deal with one of those threats, "cellular devices", cell phones or "smart phones".

During our pre-survey Technical Threat Assessment, we usually find that "cellular devices" are allowed in almost all areas. There may be a cellular policy in place, but... during our verbal debrief after the area has been cleared, is usually when we find out what we have already discovered, that either there is no security protocol or policy in place regarding the allowance of cellular devices in board rooms and high level meetings, or there is a cellular policy in place, but it is not being enforced.

Almost all cellular phones have cameras, and many smart phones have audio recording features that allow conversations in person or over a smart phone to be easily recorded, stored, and even emailed. If you're like most of us, your cell phone is rarely more than 6 feet away from you. Many have "spy software" installed that allows for the smart phone microphone to be activated in secret without the phone ringing or lighting up. While it sits innocently near you, an eavesdropper can monitor every sound in the room.

So, does this potential eavesdropping threat sound like something that you want to allow in your next confidential boardroom meeting? Can your organization really afford to ignore this type of eavesdropping threat? Does your organization have a cellular policy in place? Is it enforced?

Here are a few personal cellular security tips:

Do not let your cell phone or smart phone out of your physical possession. Most cellular monitoring programs or "spyware" has to be installed through physical possession of the target phone. One of the best countermeasures is to keep tabs on yours.

Password protect your phone. I know it's a pain, but a password on your cell phone could save you or your organization a lot of misery.

Consider a review today of your organizations policy regarding cellular devices. Better safe, than sorry. No time? Contact ComSec, we can help. JDL

Stay tuned for the next installment in the Spy vs. Spy, Technical Surveillance Threat series.

ComSec, LLc provides professional Technical Surveillance & Eavesdropping Countermeasures services to Fortune 500 corporations to small businesses, non-profits, celebrities, executives and select individuals. Headquartered in Virginia Beach, VA | Northern VA-DC-MD. Serving the United States, and select International clients abroad.

Who would want to bug Charlotte's town offices?

“Everyone around here was scratching their heads. Some of us were amused; some of us were disturbed,” Bloch said. “There was no way to track it down. It was a little titillating at the time, but at this point, it’s a dead end.”

Amused? Really? It's hard to tell HOW LONG these "Officials" were collected against... What damage was done? How many confidential meetings were compromised?

Don't wait until you need my services. "Counterespionage Assurance" is only a phone call away! Contact me, I can help. JDL


burlingtonfreepress.com

Patrolman Chris Morrell of the Shelburne Police Dept. holds a listening device that was discovered in the ceiling panels of the clerks office at Charlotte Town Hall during a recent renovation project.


CHARLOTTE — Two wireless listening devices hidden in Charlotte Town Hall allowed eavesdropping on town clerk business and private selectboard sessions, town officials said Tuesday.

Neither device was functioning when workers found the bugs in October, nor have authorities determined when, why or by whom they were installed, Town Planner and Selectboard Assistant Dean Bloch said.

The bugs were discovered during an energy retrofit of a dropped ceiling. Selectboard members were briefed on the matter, but did not discuss it during regular meetings, Bloch said.

“Everyone around here was scratching their heads. Some of us were amused; some of us were disturbed,” Bloch said. “There was no way to track it down. It was a little titillating at the time, but at this point, it’s a dead end.”

The Shelburne Police Department, which serves Charlotte, confirmed it has a cold case on its hands. The lack of timely evidence and a plausible motive, coupled with a likely statute of limitations on invasion-of-privacy laws, frustrates further investigation, Officer Chris Morrell said.

“Whoever did this is probably never going to own up to it,” he continued.

More...

Hotel wars: Drama and Corporate Espionage

latimes.com

After a force behind the W chain defected to Hilton, a lawsuit exposes a side of the industry rife with claims of corporate espionage, double-dealing and poaching of top performers.

When Ross Klein arrived at Hilton Worldwide's Beverly Hills headquarters to create a new luxury chain, he was the "it" guy in the hottest segment of the lodging business.

A former retail marketing whiz, Klein had trained his fashion sense on the buttoned-down hotel industry, helping turn the W chain into a hip money-maker for its parent, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc. Hilton lacked a product to compete. So it lured Klein away from Starwood in 2008 by offering him a chance to build a brand from scratch.

Klein delivered, quickly cooking up Denizen, a funky, sophisticated hotel concept. At a lavish launch party last year in Berlin featuring scantily clad dancers and an opera singer, Hilton Chief Executive Christopher Nassetta hailed Klein as a "creative genius." But to hear his ex-employer tell it, Klein is a copycat and a thief. Starwood claims he carried off thousands of pages' worth of documents filled with the company's trade secrets and shared them with Hilton management, according to a civil lawsuit it filed last year in U.S. District Court in New York. Now federal prosecutors are looking into filing criminal charges against Klein and others that include conspiracy, computer fraud and theft.

More...