July 30, 2009 by Tim McDowell.

http://d.yimg.com/kq/groups/15523565/1322781786/name/TeaPartyCommercial.wmv

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July 30, 2009 by Tim McDowell.

A group of private and government organizations has launched a program to build the next generation of U.S. cyber defense leaders. The U.S. Cyber Challenge is looking for 10,000 young Americans with the skills to be cybersecurity practitioners, researchers, guardians, and cyberwarriors. The program will provide participants with competition, training, recognition and a chance to win scholarships. It is led by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and includes the Defense Department’s Cyber Crime Center, the Air Force Association and the SANS Institute.

Experts say there is an urgent need to expand the federal cybersecurity workforce. The Partnership for Public Service and Booz Allen Hamilton recently released a report that said the government will be unable to combat cyber threats without “a more coordinated, sustained effort to increase cybersecurity expertise in the federal workforce.” The study said the “pipeline of potential new talent is inadequate.”

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July 30, 2009 by Tim McDowell.

A security researcher has discovered a Trojan that is designed to extract account data from as many as 4,600 of the world’s most popular and wealthy businesses. In “one of the largest and most professional thieving operations on the Internet,” a Trojan called Clampi (also known as Ligats, llomo, or Rscan) has spread across Microsoft networks in a worm-like fashion, and may already have infected hundreds of thousands of corporate and home PC users, according to SecureWorks researcher Joe Stewart, one of the world’s foremost authorities on botnets and targeted attacks.

“We weren’t all that worried about Storm, and we weren’t all that worried about Conficker,” Stewart says. “This one you need to worry about.” The Trojan uses PsExec — a popular, lightweight Telnet replacement tool that lets one system execute processes on other systems — and a sophisticated process of encryption and packing to hide its origins and targets. So far, Stewart says, the Trojan appears to be targeting 4,600 Websites, of which he has identified approximately 1,400 in 70 countries. Among the industries being targeted are banks, credit card companies, stock brokerages, insurance, retail, advertising networks, and utilities.

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July 30, 2009 by Tim McDowell.

Adobe Flash contains a vulnerability that may allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable system. Adobe Flash Player, Reader, Acrobat, and other products that include Flash support are affected. By convincing a user to view a specially crafted HTML document (e.g., a web page or an HTML email message or attachment) or a PDF file, an attacker may be able to execute arbitrary code.

Until Adobe is able to offer a patch (expected later this week) US-CERT is recommending you disable Flash or selectively enable Flash content.

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July 28, 2009 by Tim McDowell.

bills-111hr3200ih.pdf

To provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce
the growth in health care spending, and for other purposes.

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July 21, 2009 by Tim McDowell.

The U.S. Consulate General in Ciudad Juarez issued the following Warden Message on 17 July 2009: “This Warden Message is being issued to inform American citizens traveling to or residing in the Mexican state of Chihuahua of a new spike in cartel-related violence around the state. Drug cartels and associated criminal elements have retaliated violently against individuals who speak out against them or who they otherwise view to be a threat to their organization, regardless of the individuals’ citizenship. The U.S. Consulate General urges all Americans to exercise a high degree of caution when traveling to Ciudad Juarez and within the state Chihuahua.

“The Consulate General specifically recommends that U.S. citizens defer non-essential travel to the northwest quarter of the state of Chihuahua due to increasing drug cartel-related violence. This area begins in Puerto Palomas and runs south to the municipalities of Namiquipa and Madera, and west to the Chihuahua state boundary with Sonora; it includes the city of Nuevo Casas Grandes and surrounding communities. There has been a series of kidnappings and murders in the area. The Columbus port-of-entry is often used to cross into this region from the United States. U.S. Government personnel have been advised to avoid non-essential travel to this area.

“The Consulate General also continues to advise American citizens to defer non-essential travel to the Guadalupe Bravo area southeast of Ciudad Juarez due to ongoing drug related violence in the area. This region is also referred to locally as the ‘Valle de Juarez’ and begins in San Isidro and runs southeast through Guadalupe and Praxedis and ends in Porvenir. The Fabens and Fort Hancock ports-of-entry are often used to cross into this region from the United States. U.S. Government personnel have been instructed to avoid travel to this area. There have been more incidents of violence affecting U.S. citizens in the Guadalupe Bravo area since the first Warden Message on this area was issued in February.”

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July 6, 2009 by Tim McDowell.

An American President lands in Moscow today to negotiate an arms control treaty. Befitting that retro theme, thousands of Russian troops are in the midst of the biggest war games in the south Caucasus since the end of the Cold War, menacing the small, independent nation of Georgia.

President Obama’s two days in Moscow are supposed to foster, in an adviser’s words, “a more substantive relationship with Russia” — the substance being Iran’s atomic ambitions, the war in Afghanistan and a replacement for the soon-to-expire Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. You know, the stuff of a quasi-superpower partnership. But Russia hardly looks super, or inclined to forge a partnership, except on its own terms.

Instead, Supreme Leader Vladimir Putin wants to settle old scores and establish what he calls “a zone of privileged interest.” He must appreciate Mr. Obama’s eagerness to change the subject from Russian belligerence to nuclear weapons, which plays up Russia’s remaining claim to superpower status. How that serves America’s interests isn’t clear.

As in the weeks before Russia invaded Georgia in August, tensions are again on the rise. At least 8,500 Russian troops are involved in exercises around Abkhazia and South Ossetia, breakaway Georgian regions recognized as independent solely by Russia and Nicaragua. Last month, Moscow vetoed the renewal of U.N. and European observer missions in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Both had been there since the early 1990s. President Mikheil Saakashvili, a young Columbia-trained lawyer who turned Georgia westward, remains an irritant for Russia. A pro-Kremlin regime in Georgia would give Moscow control over the energy routes through the Caucasus and influence independent-minded Azerbaijan and Armenia.

While Russia has failed even to comply with the terms of the truce, the U.S. and its allies are acting as if that war never happened. At this summit, Mr. Obama is to announce the restoration of bilateral military relations with Russia suspended by the Bush Administration. The NATO-Russian Council is also back in business. Meanwhile, Mr. Obama has put on hold plans by Poland and the Czech Republic to allow the U.S. to deploy American missile defenses on their soil. In a letter to Kremlin frontman Dmitry Medvedev earlier this year, Mr. Obama floated the idea of trashing those deals if Russia can prod Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions.

U.S. officials say they’ve ruled out quid pro quos on missile defense or Ukraine and Georgia’s future. Nonetheless, Russian officials are all too happy to consider grand bargains. All start with America abandoning any future NATO expansion. In pre-summit interviews, Mr. Obama also skipped over such touchy Kremlin subjects as human rights and its designs on neighboring states. “The main thing that I want to communicate to the Russian leadership and the Russian people is America’s respect for Russia,” he told Russian media, noting that “it remains one of the most powerful countries in the world.” Someone keeps telling American Presidents to stroke the bear’s fragile ego above all else. Bill Clinton and George W. Bush also pursued this strategy, to little good effect.

Here’s an idea. Set aside the dime-store national psychoanalysis and return to first American principles and interests. This summit rests on a fiction: That Russia is an equal power to the U.S. that can offer something concrete in return for American indulgence. Some Russians see through the pretense. “Let’s be frank: There’s not a single serious global issue where the United States is dependent on Russia today,” the pro-Kremlin political analyst, Gleb Pavlovsky, wrote in Nezavisimaya Gazeta last week. Russia’s decision to let the U.S. resupply its Afghan troops over Russian airspace is a goodwill gesture, but it was only offered after Russia failed to stop resupply via Kyrgyzstan.

From the moment Communism collapsed, America’s overriding national interest in Europe and Eurasia has been to extend prosperity and freedom. In short, to offer formerly captive nations a choice to join the West. This can be done in part through membership in NATO, the EU or the World Trade Organization. The “West” is an idea as well as a place, a voluntary and open association. Successive U.S. Presidents, when push came to shove, have defended the right to make this choice freely and ignored Russian caterwauls.

The choice to join the free world is open to Russia, too. Mr. Putin is the one who has taken that option off the table — most recently by pulling Russia’s application to join the WTO. In the Putin decade, nationalism, corruption and cronyism have flourished while Russia has missed another chance to modernize. That’s not America’s fault.

Any U.S. administration will have plenty of business to carry out with Russia. But an American President in Moscow needs to keep his eyes on the bigger prize in Russia and the region. And that prize is an expansion of freedom, not a new START treaty.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124683484600997771.html

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July 2, 2009 by Tim McDowell.

By Joe Campana 

While most of the country mourns the deaths of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett, fraudsters seek opportunity by tricking heartbroken followers. The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) issued an alert today warning of increased spam campaigns, phishing attacks and malicious code attacks surrounding the star’s deaths. Some scams may result in identity theft.

Social engineering occurs when a fraudster takes advantage of a circumstance or creates situations to trick another person into doing something they would not normally do.  

The deaths of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett surprised many people. An astounding number of people are caught up in the social media blitz. Even I Twittered about Thriller last night. Some fans may be distraught or shocked. These emotions provide a “mass vulnerability” that some fraudsters are exploiting to collect information and infect computers with malicious code.

Fraudsters have taken advantage of other situations to swindle personal information and money following national and worldwide disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and the Asian Tsunami. In addition to phishing and malicious code attacks, there were many charity scams.

Expect to see charity and fan paraphernalia scams associated with Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon. Some of these scams will claim to collect donations from unsuspecting consumers for charitable causes supported by the late stars. Some scams may collect credit card and bank account information as payment for charitable donations or for the purchase of celebrity memorabilia. There will be no donations or souvenirs—the financial account information handed over will be used by the fraudsters to commit existing account fraud, a form of identity theft. Remember, fraud can occur through the internet as well as by phone, mail or in person.

The current US-CERT Alert warns the consumers of malicious emails designed to

• Record their email address, which can be used later by shady online marketers to send spam.
• Download malware to personal computer and PDAs when email recipients click on a link in the email. Malware include viruses, Trojan horses, spyware, adware, worms, etc.
• Lure unsuspecting people into a phishing scam.

To avoid these and other internet email scams, be cautious of unsolicited emails. Do not click on links in emails unless you are absolutely certain that you know the person that sent the email to you. Even then, be cautious because that person may have been the subject of a virus, and it was the virus that sent you a contaminated email from the person’s computer. Does the email look “out of character” from your friend? I recently received an awkwardly worded email from a local politico suggesting that I make purchases from an Asian online store. The email was out of character, and when I emailed him, he confirmed his computer was infected by a virus that sent me the email.

Keep your antivirus, anti malware software updated. New threats arise daily, so keep your protective software and operating system current.

http://www.examiner.com/x-9215-Identity-Theft-Examiner

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July 2, 2009 by Tim McDowell.

Newly appointed President Roberto Micheletti announced on 2 July 2009 that Honduras will reject a deadline issued by the Organization of American States (OAS) to return the country’s former president to power by 4 July. OAS leaders threatened to suspend Honduras from the international group if Micheletti refuses to allow former President Manuel Zelaya to return to the presidency. Zelaya stated that he will remain in Panama, where he has been since 1 July for Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli’s inauguration, and he is expected to return to Honduras after the deadline runs out on 4 July. Honduran leaders have issued an order to arrest Zelaya if he returns to the country.

In light of the continued tensions in Honduras, on 1 July Congress ratified a presidential decree shortening the curfew hours (it will now be in effect between 2200 and 0500 local time), but restricting individual liberties while the curfew is in effect. The new measure establishes that persons may be detained for more than 24 hours without communication and gives security officials the right to enter individuals’ homes without a judicial order. It also limits freedom of association, the right to organize demonstrations and the right to enter, exit or move freely about the country. The decree does not affect the media, which has begun broadcasting normally after several days of restrictions. Authorities claim that the new measure, which can be enforced no longer than 45 days, is designed to protect Hondurans from Cubans, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans who are allegedly attempting to incite civil unrest. Human rights activists claim that security officials have already detained prominent social leaders, have beaten and briefly detained Zelaya supporters and have been forcibly recruiting minors to their ranks; however, authorities deny these accusations.

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July 1, 2009 by Tim McDowell.

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