From Russia With Cyber Love

October 30, 2014 — Leave a comment

If you want to be a true superpower, then you have to prove yourself in both real and cyber worlds. Take Russia for an indicative example. On the one side, we have the legendary Kaspersky Lab in the field of cyber security. On the other side, who do we have on the other side to represent the dark side?

How about the Sandworm Group? These Russian SF and cyber crime fans have definitely made their mark worth noticing. They were able to infiltrate into the very core Windows structure. And now, the entire Western Hemisphere trembles because of one tiny, but an extremely powerful cyber worm.

Now, you have it. All of the life changing knowledge, which can move the mountains being used for harmful causes. Does not this break your heart? There are some serious accusations that the Sandworm has the government’s support and logistics. Which government? Well you do not have to guess twice, do you?

On the other side, the funny thing in this story is that the USA accuses Russia for the same things it does with its cyber children. There is no safe place for us to be, is it? We wanted to rest a little bit from the horrors of the real world, but in vain. The cyber Ukraine is already waiting us there to haunt us.

Take My Life, But Don’t Take My Identity

October 30, 2014 — Leave a comment

The findings of one of the most recent study about the worst fears among the Americans were at least to say shocking. It turns out that we are more afraid of an identity theft, than the massive shooting in our own neighborhood. In plain English, we are more afraid of loosing our identity, than loosing our own life.

How could this be? Is this a normal order of things? Well, if you have suddenly appeared from a time machine, this can be a huge surprise for you. We live in the cyber world, aren’t we? On the other hand, there is this question you simply cannot avoid asking when confronted with these findings.

What is a brief moment of death, compared to the endless life of misery caused by the loss of your identity, and its misuse? When you hear that so many people would rather give up their freedom, than spend a single day without a precious smartphone, then this is not such a big surprise at all.

The moral of this story just could not be more obvious, could it? We should not ask more of these questions we already know the answers to. No need to challenge the power of the cyber world. In a what if situation we are always to lose. Unless, we find a way to reach some kind of a harmony. A cyber harmony.

There’s No Such A Thing As A Free Malware

October 29, 2014 — Leave a comment

If you think that the top malware solutions comes from the cyber kids, who are dying to prove themselves in the big and merciless world, then you have probably seen too many movies. There is an entire malware business industry, which is all about the Benjamins. There is no room for romanitsm among the cyber pirates.

One of the most brutal, but extremely lucrative malware schemes can earn you as much as $25,000 a day. This can be compared to the traffic of narcotics in the terms of financial efficiency. On the other side, in order to be successful you have to invest at least three million users on a daily basis.

The technicalities can be surprisingly simple. You steal the keys from someone’s home, and in exchange you can ask a ransom. Otherwise, your victim has no other choice than to ask for a new home. Translated in the cyber language, unless you pay a significant amount of money your data can be encrypted forever.

Therefore, it is the hackers’ way or the cyber highway. On the other hand, if this can be a comfort, the hackers are after the big lucrative fish. That means you can relax for a while. Unless, some cyber kid stumbles on you during his practice hours. Even the malware has its own price, which asks for a earning chance.

The CAID To Aid

October 27, 2014 — Leave a comment

The UK National Child Abuse Image Database (CAID) is good to go. We can only say, finally someone has done his homework as it should. All of this time we were bitterly surprised to witness all over again how we try to fight untraditional menaces with the traditional means. It is supposed to be simple.

Fight the cyber disease with the cyber cure. This can be quite an educational story. Right? Can you imagine all cyber security experts working as one team? Can you imagine more of these databases with enough crime categories? How hard could it be? You can rest assured that the criminals play a different game.

Their favorite brand is definitely the United Colors of Benetton, for a good and obvious reason. We can learn from them. You can save the world with a single database. However, you can certainly change with the quite a few crimes related databases. The crime grows where it feels safe and strong enough.

The cyberspace should not be allowed to become or be one of these crime-friendly spaces. Yes, you can type and upload against the crime. The cyber warriors for a noble cause can make a difference. Our hats off to the UK cyber wizards, who are protecting the children in both real and virtual playgrounds.

Binder A Bitter Reminder

October 25, 2014 — Leave a comment

What in the world is that? Well, you will have to be a little of an Androidnrocket scientist to fully understand it. Yet, who wants to be a rocket scientist when your cyber security is under a serious jeopardy, such as this one? The Binder itself has its roots deep into the core system of the Android itself.

Speaking about the devil hidden in those deep cyber roots, this is where all the fun begins. As soon as the hackers get their hands on your Binder, they own you literally. They can play with your Android device in the most unimaginable ways. So, what are we supposed to do about it? And Google?

Well, the new Android 5.0 is supposed to offer a poisonous Lollipop to all potential hackers. Yet, the trouble is we do not know it for sure. First, we need to test in order to trust it completely. Now, the clock is ticking and we are blinking. Are we in the trouble already, and how long we will have to wait?

This story should deliver a strong moral for the Google itself. What could it be? You should not allow yourself a luxury of waiting for the next major OS version in order to fix all problems, which go deeply to the very core of the system itself. We will see how will enjoy the new taste of the Lollipop, we or the hackers?

The Sandworm Team

October 24, 2014 — Leave a comment

As soon as you launch a political, military or an economic crisis, you can rest assured that an avalanche of speculation will inevitably follow. This is exactly what happened with the crisis in Ukraine. On the other side, the NATO and EU were dead worried about the Russian cyber answer in this matter.

This is how the iSight has published its findings about one of the most notorious Russian hacker group called the Sandworm Team. According to some serious rumors this group was directly supported and lead by the Russian secret agencies. There activities were focused primarily on the NATO, EU and Ukraine related structures.

On the other side, there were quite a few interesting information about these cyber shadow warriors from Russia definitely worth mentioning. These SF fans were able to exploit the security flaws in the Windows itself for their actions, which is an interesting thing to witness. So far, we have had the different roles.

Allegedly, the Western secret agencies such as the CIA or NSA were exploiting Windows bugs for spying on the Russian government officials. It seems that someone was quite capable of turning the Windows itself against its countrymen. The secret cyber war has already begun. All what we can see are only the consequences.

Identica Problematica

October 22, 2014 — Leave a comment

The stupidest thing you can possibly do on the Internet is to use the same user names and passwords for the different online platforms and services. Then how come we keep repeating it all over again, with the self-destructive stubbornness? We are either too lazy or unforgivingly ignorant about the cyber security.

Finally, someone has decided to do something about it. What exactly and how efficiently? Well, the Facebook has decided to turn the first page. If it turns out that you are using your Facebook account user name and password for some other web service, you will get a fair warning to change them accordingly.

How the Facebook knows all of that? You should relax. If Facebook knows it, then you can rest assured more than one hacker knows it, as well. It is always better to change them all before any real damage is being done. On the other side, do not worry about your privacy. Facebook works for you, in this case.

Do we have to repeat it all? User name and password twins on the Internet are not a smart choice. Do not be lazy and at least create different passwords, if you do not have enough patience to play with the different user name combinations. Our hats off to the Facebook for this thoughtful move.

Internet Trolls And Prison Walls

October 21, 2014 — Leave a comment

Is there such a thing as the Internet Troll? Apparently there is. If you are an Internet troll and you are happen to be somewhere in the UK, you can easily spend some time in prison. To be a little bit more precise, instead of six months, now you are facing two years of jail time. Why? What for? Confused?

Cyber trolls are all about the virtual violence, which produces suffering and pain in the real life. We guess you do not need additional explanation, do you? The Internet trolls are all around us. We just do not call them these names or we are not fully aware it is a punishable crime. Is this a good idea?

On the one side, the new technologies ask for the new appropriate laws. On the other side, we sure hope that this new regulation will not take the wrong turn and pay an unpleasant visit to our privacy. That would be the worst case scenario in this situation. What can we do to avoid it in the first place?

That is the tricky part. Honestly, not much. What if your government thinks you are the Internet troll from its point of view, because of your political activism? This is a nice initiative, which has to be kept under a strict control. Or, otherwise we can all become trolls and orcs. They do not allow Warcraft in prison, do they?

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Month: October 2014