Sunday, July 12, 2015

The World this week..(Week of July 6th)

1.       The irony of Hacking Team—an Italian company that sells surveillance software being hacked last weekend, is interesting, especially given Hacking Team’s denials it  sold to governments with notorious human rights records. Hacking Team still insists it broke no laws and has behaved ethically. Whether Hacking Team survives remains  to be seen, as of now the company has asked its clients to stop using its software for the time being and to cease operations, but when you consider the kinds of clients -- from law enforcement to government agencies and intelligence units - you have to ask whether Hacking Team has enough of a reputation left to restore client trust.

2.       WikiLeaks has released 440-GB of data stolen from Hacking team, Email exchanges indicate that top Indian security agencies were secretly negotiating with the surveillance firm to procure software for intercepting communications through remote bugging of devices. RAW, IB, NIA and NTRO did attend a PoC, the WB and Maharashtra govts., were in touch with the company. The Hacking Team was mostly interested in pushing its flagship product Galileo, a platform-independent undetectable Remote Control System, that takes control of targeted devices and monitor them regardless of encryption and mobility.

3.       Cybercriminals start using Flash zero-day exploit leaked from Hacking Team - It took just a day for cybercriminals to start using a new and yet-to-be-patched Flash Player exploit. The exploit was found among the stolen files. Adobe Systems confirmed the vulnerability, which received the identifier CVE-2015-5119, and is planning to release a patch for it. According to a researcher, the leaked Hacking Team exploit has already been integrated into three commercial exploit kits: Angler, Neutrino and Nuclear Pack.

4.       OPM has been hit by a second breach, leading to the theft of more than 21 million individuals' records. The figure confirmed Thursday by OPM is in addition to the previous breach, and the total figure now stands at almost 26 million individuals affected by the two breaches. The two attacks are separate, but related. It has been reported that OPM's director had no technology, cybersecurity or crisis management experience -- she quit last week.

5.       US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has accused China of "trying to hack into everything that doesn't move in America" and stealing government information, in strongly worded comments likely to irk Beijing. Clinton, a former secretary of state, pulled no punches in remarks to Democratic supporters at a campaign event in New Hampshire.

6.       In other news, The hackers that targeted Twitter, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft developers two years ago have escalated their economic espionage efforts as they seek confidential business information and intellectual property they can profit from. The hacking group, motivated by financial gain, is thought to target companies on request, and "ought to be taken seriously by corporations," said an expert.


7.       Within a week of CEO Rahul Yadav's controversial exit from Housing.com, the online realty startup's website was allegedly hacked by an anonymous group, which put up a cheeky message demanding his reinstatement. Nobody claimed responsibility for the hack, though social media was rife with rumours that Yadav might have been behind it. But on his Facebook page, the founder and ex-CEO of Housing.com was quick to dissociate himself from the attack. "I would have designed it better," he wrote.

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