GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Cyber attackers have the edge, experts admit

 

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: NextGov

02April2011 1:24pmEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: Top American cybersecurity officials said on Thursday they need to work closer with private industry and other governments to fight the changing threat from ever-craftier cyber attackers, who have a new array of targets from power grids to bank accounts made vulnerable by the Internet.

Such cyber attackers have an edge right now, experts told the Air Force Association's Cyberfutures Conference.

Gone are the days of high-profile viruses with catchy names. Now cybercriminals use less destructive, but more targeted attacks to steal money, information, or intellectual property, said Greg Schaffer, who leads cybersecurity and communications efforts for the Department of Homeland Security. (read full report)

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's partners or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.

GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Securing critical infrastructure no short term fix, experts say

 

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: Homeland Security NewsWire

01April2011 8:59amEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: Federal officials have long sought to secure critical infrastructure from potential attack, and recent events like the 2003 blackouts and the Stuxnet virus have added increasing urgency to government and private sector efforts; speaking on a panel at the Government Security conference and expo in Washington, D.C., security experts that specialize in critical infrastructure discussed the challenges of protecting infrastructure and steps that both governments and businesses can take; experts discussed addressing vulnerabilities in the smart grid, Stuxnet as a game changing cyber attack, and protecting critical infrastructure as a portfolio management problem. (read full report)

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's partners or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.

GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: RSA security breach compromised federal network ID tool

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: NextGov

24March2011 7:00amEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE:  A product many federal employees use to log on to computers and networks should be regarded as compromised, due to the infiltration of key information about the application during a cyberattack against manufacturer RSA, some security experts said.

The Homeland Security Department — the civilian agency that oversees commercial and government cybersecurity — has relayed mitigation procedures to federal agencies that have installed RSA's SecurID tools, the department announced on Friday. A DHS official on Monday said the government is not recommending that agencies replace their SecurID products. The department is helping RSA and clients who control critical infrastructure deal with the threat to the devices, which are a single point of failure in the computer security ecosystem, according to some industry observers.

Agencies "should consider [the ID tools] breached," said Tom Kellermann, a former World Bank computer specialist and now an executive at Core Security Technologies, a firm that lawfully penetrates its clients' systems to identify network weaknesses.

SecurID, which verifies the identities of authorized users, consists of a token — a portable physical object such as a smart card or USB drive that controls access to a system. The device displays a continuously changing code that the user enters, in conjunction with a personal identification number, or PIN, to log into a network through a process known as two-factor authentication. (read full report)

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's partners or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.

GCIS CYBERSECURITY BRIEFING: RSA SecurID Theft Spawns Speculation on Potential Attack Scenarios

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: EWeek

22March2011 4:30amEST

GCIS CYBERSECURITY UPDATE:  The network of one the world’s largest and trusted security firms has been breached, and an unknown amount of information about its popular multifactor authentication technology has been stolen. Customers are worried about what form potential attacks could take.

The SecurID information that was stolen would not allow attackers to launch a successful direct attack on existing SecureID customers, Art Coviello, executive chairman of RSA Security, wrote in an open letter to customers posted on the company’s Website March 17. However, the company acknowledged the information could be potentially used to “reduce the effectiveness” of an existing SecurID deployment as part of a broader attack.

With RSA keeping mum about what exactly was stolen, when the data breach occurred, how attackers got into the network and how long the breach lasted, security experts can more or less give their imaginations free reign to suggest potential attack scenarios.

Adam Vincent, CTO of the Public Sector group at Layer 7 Technologies, wondered about the implications of a broader attack hinted at by Coviello. “Reading between the lines,” RSA made it sound as if the data theft made RSA SecureID ineffective without needing to compromise any specific usernames or passwords, Vincent told eWEEK.

The “well-organized group” of hackers behind this targeted attack would have to complete “many steps” to successfully attack an organization using SecurID tokens for authentication, Nick Percoco, senior vice president of SpiderLabs, told eWEEK. While it was “less likely” there will be a direct head-on attack, it wasn’t impossible, he said. (read full report)

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's partners or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.

GCIS CYBER-SECURITY BRIEFING: Cyberattacks against federal networks were up 40 percent in 2010

 

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: NextGov

21March2011 9:00amEST

GCIS CYBER-SECURITY UPDATE: The number of attacks against federal networks increased nearly 40 percent last year, while the number of incidents targeting U.S. computers overall was down roughly 1 percent for the same period, according to a new White House report to Congress on federal computer security.

"Malicious code through multiple means," such as phishing and viruses, "continues to be the most widely used attack approach," Office of Management and Budget officials wrote. Phishing scams lure victims with fake e-mails apparently from legitimate organizations, such as banks, that instruct them to submit sensitive information, including passwords, on phony websites.

In fiscal 2010, federal agencies reported 41,776 cyber incidents vs. 30,000 attacks in 2009, the year the Conficker worm installed malicious software on millions of home, business and government computers. (read full report)

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's partners or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.

GCIS/MSS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Hamas wins Cairo's recognition, strikes Israel with 50 mortars

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: Debkafile

21March2011 6:00amEST

GCIS/MSS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: Israeli civilians living around the Gaza border woke up Saturday, March 19, to the most massive mortar attack in years – 50 rounds fired in 15 minutes. Two civilians were injured and substantial damage caused to property. Hamas unusually claimed responsibility, emboldened by the support it has won from a new ally, the new rulers of Cairo, which have now lined up with Syria and Iran.

The Netanyahu government has not informed the Israeli public about the ominous new winds blowing in fromCairo although they are already in motion: Cairo has given Hamas rule of the Gaza Strip de facto recognition, is about to lift the blockade on the Gaza Strip and is forging new understandings with Damascus and the Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad radicals based there.

The Egyptian military which has taken over in Cairo also turned a blind eye to at least two or three Iranian arms ships which, prior to the capture of the A.S. Victoria last week,  made it through the Israeli sea blockade and delivered weapons, including C-704 shore-to-sea missiles at El Arish.

Hamas will be free to go out and collect them through the reopened Rafah crossing.

It is now obvious that Cairo's permission for two Iranian warships to transit the Suez Canal on Feb. 22, knowing that at least one was laden with weapons for extremists, was in line with the new Egyptian policy. (read full report)

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's partners or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.

GCIS CYBER-SECURITY BRIEFING: Faceless Enemies Claim Sovereignty on Internet’s Borderless Battlefield

 

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: AFCEA

07March2011 9:00amEST

GCIS CYBER-SECURITY UPDATE: Computer networks are essential to global productivity and collaboration. They also are weapons: More harm is possible from a network attack than from a machine gun, according to experts gathered in London to discuss cyberwar.

Cyberspace is the global nervous system, explained Raul Rikk, who heads the cybersecurity department for Trustcorp Limited, but cyberspace also is a new dimension of warfare. “You have to have a license to own a gun, but not so for computers,” he emphasized. The Internet is an incubator for criminal and terrorist activity, agreed Vice Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., USN, commander, U.S. 6th Fleet; commander, Striking and Support Forces NATO; Joint Force Maritime component commander, Europe; deputy commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe; and deputy commander, U.S. Naval Forces Africa, speaking just before the start of the two-day Technet International conference, held October 28-29.

The pace of cyberattacks is increasing, and those with harmful intentions are finding unique ways to infiltrate not only computers connected to the Internet but also computers that never were connected to the online world. Stuxnet, a computer worm that targets critical industrial infrastructure, was an entirely new type of attack. Tony Roadknight, technical architect, Nexor, called the worm a cyber missile, not just cyber mayhem. Part of the attack had to include individuals with infected media who accessed the closed system. The ability of the worm to target only certain systems and then hide the changes has made tracking its source, or even its purpose, difficult. (read full report)

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's partners or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.

GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Russian jet crash a terror attack?

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: The Voice Of Russia

07March2011 3:00amEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: Investigators say a Russian jet crash on Saturday might have been the result of a terror attack.

Other hypotheses include human error, a mechanical fault, substandard parts and adulterated fuel.

The jet was an Antonov-148, with four Russians and two trainee pilots from Myanmar on board.

All six died when it crashed to the ground in the Region of Belgorod south of Moscow.

Locals say they observed it falling apart in mid-air.

The plane was undergoing tests ahead of delivery to Myanmar. (read full report)

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's partners or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.

GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Al-Qaeda calls for new attacks on West

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: MySinchew

25February2011 3:30pmEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: WASHINGTON – In a message released Thursday, Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri encouraged extremists everywhere to dream up new ways to attack the West, as the September 11 bombers did nearly 10 years ago.

The 35-minute message — a video containing only a still picture of Zawahiri in which he can be heard delivering a speech — was the second in a series titled "A Message of Hope and Glad Tidings to the People of Egypt." It was produced by Al-Qaeda's media arm, as-Sahab.

"If we are not able to produce weapons equal to the weapons of the Crusader West, we can sabotage their complex economic and industrial systems and drain their powers, which fight without a cause, until they run away fleeing," Zawahiri said in the audio message, according to the US-based SITE monitoring service.

He complained that the Muslim world trails behind the West in technological know-how and military weaponry.

"Therefore, the mujahideen (holy warriors) must invent new ways, ways that never dawned on the minds of the West," Zawahiri continued. "An example of this brave and courageous thinking is the use of airplanes as a mighty weapon, as happened in the blessed invasions in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania."

The 9/11 attacks left nearly 3,000 people dead when Al-Qaeda extremists slammed airliners into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. (read full report)

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's partners or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.

GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Panel Contemplates Extensions Of Chemical Facility Security Law

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: HS Today

14February2011 11:10amEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: In testimony before Congress, the general manager for DC Water related a success story for his agency that underscored both the payoffs and challenges for making use of inherently safer technology and extending chemical facility security laws to water treatment facilities.

Before 9/11, DC Water used chlorine and sulfur dioxide to treat wastewater, George Hawkins told the House Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology Friday. Those chemicals would have posed a threat to the surrounding community if a terrorist attack on the facility ignited them.

Workers at DC Water's Blue Plains Wastewater Treatment Facility could see the smoke from the attack on the Pentagon on 9/11, which prompted the agency to accelerate a plan to switch to treating water with safer chemicals — sodium hypochlorite (bleach) and sodium bisulfite.

The transition, though successful, cost $16.4 million, Hawkins noted. Moreover, DC Water now pays $2 million annually for the safer chemicals rather than $800,000 annually for the previous more dangerous chemicals.

Republicans have objected to mandating the use of inherently safer technology under the Chemical Facilities Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) in part due to the costs to the chemical industry. Those objections derailed a bill that would have permanently authorized CFATS in the last Congress because it would have required the use of inherently safer technology where possible.  (read full report)

 

 

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's partners or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.

GCIS CYBER-SECURITY BRIEFING: U.S. intelligence officials concerned about cyber attack

Director of the CIA says such a terrorist attack is 'a real national security threat' that would damage financial and government systems.

 

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times

11February2011 10:32pmEST

GCIS CYBER-SECURITY UPDATE: Washington —
A major cyber attack somewhere in the United States is becoming increasingly possible, top government intelligence officials said Thursday, warning that an assault on America's power grid system "represents the battleground for the future."

The officials, speaking at a special hearing on Capitol Hill, also said that although Al Qaeda has been diminished after nine years of the U.S. war on terror, more foreign groups have risen up, increasing concerns among U.S. authorities that one of them may eventually get their hands on a nuclear device.

"I don't think there's any question but that this is a real national security threat that we have to pay attention to," CIA Director Leon Panetta said of a cyber attack in this country. "The Internet, the cyber arena … this is a vastly growing area of information that can be used and abused in a number of ways."

With that in mind, he told the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, "when it comes to national security, I think this represents the battleground for the future. I've often said that I think the potential for the next Pearl Harbor could very well be a cyber attack." (read full report)

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's advertisers or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.

GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Napolitano addresses House Committee on "Threat Landscape"

Testimony of Secretary Janet Napolitano Before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security, "Understanding the Homeland Threat Landscape – Considerations for the 112th Congress"

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: DHS

09February2011 5:29pmEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: "Since 9/11, the United States has made important progress in securing our Nation from terrorism. Nevertheless, the terrorist threat facing our country has evolved significantly in the last ten years – and continues to evolve – so that, in some ways, the threat facing us is at its most heightened state since those attacks. This fact requires us to continually adapt our counterterrorism techniques to effectively detect, deter, and prevent terrorist acts.

Following 9/11, the federal government moved quickly to build an intelligence and security apparatus that has protected our country from the kind of large-scale attack, directed from abroad, that struck us nearly ten years ago. The resulting architecture yielded considerable success in both preventing this kind of attack and limiting, though not eliminating, the operational ability of the core al-Qaeda group that is currently based in the mountainous area between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Today, however, in addition to the direct threats we continue to face from al-Qaeda, we also face growing threats from other foreign-based terrorist groups that are inspired by al-Qaeda ideology but have few operational connections to the core al-Qaeda group. And, perhaps most crucially, we face a threat environment where violent extremism is not defined or contained by international borders. Today, we must address threats that are homegrown as well as those that originate abroad.

One of the most striking elements of today's threat picture is that plots to attack America increasingly involve American residents and citizens. We are now operating under the assumption, based on the latest intelligence and recent arrests, that individuals prepared to carry out terrorist attacks and acts of violence might be in the United States, and they could carry out acts of violence with little or no warning…" (read full DHS report)

 

 

 

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's advertisers or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.