Sex, Gifts and Spies- The Chinese Intelligence Game

The Chinese are actively conducting espionage against corporate targets in the United Kingdom, according to Britain’s domestic intelligence service, The Security Service or MI5.

The agency circulated a “restricted” warning to U.K. business people warning that the Chinese are seeking to leverage sex and gifts to exploit businesses.

According to the report, titled “The Threat from Chinese Espionage,” Chinese intelligence agents are disseminating IT goods like USB memory drives that are…

Gen. Habier: US Vulnerable IT Systems Invite Attack

The Cyber Secure Institute has published a white paper authored by retired Air Force Gen. Eugene Habiger titled “Cyberwar and Cyberterrorism: The Need for a New U.S. Strategic Approach.” The paper highlights a number of threats and vulnerabilities facing the US and calls for a new approach to ward off attacks in…

Hackers Sell Twitter Accounts for Up to $1,000

For the right price, you can now buy a Twitter account user name and password. Researchers at Kaspersky Labs claim that hackers are attempting to sell compromised Twitter accounts for up to $1,000.

While cyber criminals have developed software to steal banking information and passwords, the most common spyware on the Internet is generic software that captures everything typed into a computer. Instead of just stealing money from compromised…

Robert Carey: ‘In Today’s Age, You are a Cyber Warrior’

Robert Carey is a trailblazer among CIOs, pioneering the use of a public blog to include the public in his discussions surrounding cybersecurity for the Navy.

ExecutiveGov recently interviewed Carey on his use of Web 2.0 technologies and some cybersecurity initiatives in the Navy.

Carey discussed the Navy’s Cyber Security Education Mission, saying, “it’s really important to realize that when…

Bank Sues Victim over Cyber Theft

PlainsCapital Bank in Texas is suing Hillary Machinery Inc after the customer was hit by a cyber theft of $800,000. Late last year, hackers in Italy and Romania conducted a series of unauthorized wire money transfers of around $800,000, of which PlainsCapital Bank recovered around $600,000.

The victim proceeded to demand that the bank repay the rest of the money, claiming that the theft occurred because the bank failed to…

Scientology Nets Another Cyber Attacker

Brian Thomas Mettenbrink has signed a plea admitting that he took part in the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack against the Church of Scientology website last year. Mettenbrink stated that he downloaded the necessary software from a message board run by Anonymous, an anti-Scientology group.

The plea agreement stated “Defendant used that software to, without authorization, access the COS websites at such a high rate that it impaired the…

Oil Industry Subjected to Cyber Attacks

The oil industry experienced previously undisclosed Aurora-style cyber attacks in 2008 according to an article on the Christian Science Monitor website. Three US-based oil companies, Marathon Oil, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips were informed by the FBI in early 2009 of the attacks on their systems.

The attacks attempted to target ‘bid data’ which contains the location, quantity and value of oil discoveries. Some of the data that was accessed was…

Chinese Human Rights Websites Hit in DDoS Attack

The websites run by human rights activists in China were hit in a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack over the weekend, according to a report on ComputerWorld.com. The Chinese Human Rights Defenders were targeted in a DDoS attack which lasted 16 hours. The group is unclear of the origins of the attack but identify the Chinese government as the likely culprits.

Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch was also…

Only 5% of Email is Not Spam Says Research Group

The European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA), a European cyber security agency, has released a report that claims 95 percent of email is spam. ENISA surveyed ESPs from 27 European countries and found that less than 5 percent of email is actually delivered to inboxes because of anti-spam programs.

Dr. Udo Helmbrecht, Executive Director of ENISA, said spam is “unnecessary, time consuming and costly burden for Europe…email…

China Claims to be Biggest Victim of Cyber Attacks

The past few weeks have seen a number of large scale cyber attacks, including attacks emanating from China which targeted Internet search giant Google. China has now entered the fray, not only deflecting charges that the Chinese hacked government offices in India, but also claiming to be the biggest victim of cyber attacks.

Foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu, citing the recent hack of Chinese search giant Bandu, said “China…