ISD Podcast Episode 155 for June 18, 2010. This podcast is our contribution back to the community where we will discuss the vulnerabilities of interest, information security related news hopefully providing you a few laughs and a little knowledge.
Announcements:
MyHardDriveDied.com:
- MHDD Data Recovery Class current dates and locations:
- Atlanta, GA – July 12th-16th
- Dallas, TX – October 11th – 15th
- Washington, DC – December 6th – 10th
- Cost is $3500 for all classes to reserve and register, call (678) 445-9007, email: smoulton@nicservices.com or go to http://www.myharddrivedied.com Use the Discount Code: isdpodcast for a $300 discount.
SANS Mentoring Program:
- Jason Lawrence will also be putting on the SANS Mentor Forensics 508 – Computer Forensics and Investigations course in Sandy Springs starting Tuesday, October 12, 2010 – Tuesday, December 14, 2010 (http://www.sans.org/mentor/details.php?nid=21538). Use the Discount Code: isdpod15 for a 15% discount.
Atlanta ISSA:
- ISSA International Conference – September 16, 2010 (http://www.issa.org/page/?p=105)
- SANS 560: Network Penetration Testing and Ethical Hacking – September 17-22, 2010 (http://www.sans.org/atlanta-2010-cs2/description.php?tid=3142)
- SANS 577: Virtualization Security Fundamentals – September 17 & 18 (http://www.sans.org/atlanta-2010-cs2/description.php?tid=3807)
9am-5pm US ET
Hilton Atlanta Airport Hotel
1031 Virginia Avenue
Atlanta, GA 30354
Ohio Information Security Forum:
Event Date: July 10th, 2010
Location: SCC Research Park, Auditorium
Time: 8:30AM-5:30PM
Friends of the Podcast:
Webhosting services:WebSpeedway
Student Hacker Information Technology Podcast: ShitCast
ChrisJohnRiley: http://blog.c22.cc
Stories of Interest:
News item 1: http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/management/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=225700191
Symantec has announced the release of Norton Online Family, a free service for monitoring children’s online habits and blocking inappropriate, objectionable, or malicious Web sites.
The service, combining a small agent — Norton Safety Minder — running on a PC with Norton’s cloud-based scanning service, allows parents to set rules, review a log of the Web sites their children visit, view a list of the search terms they employ, as well as monitor their social networking habits.
Globally, kids spend an average of 1.6 hours per day online and nearly two-thirds of them report that they’ve had a negative experience online. For example, 41% said that strangers tried to add them as a social networking friend, 33% said they accidentally downloaded a virus, and 25% admitted to seeing violent or nude images online.
Those findings come from a new report released by Symantec, based on surveys of more than 7,000 adults and 2,800 children — aged eight to 17 — in 14 countries. From a control standpoint, 61% of adult respondents in Canada and the United States, versus 44% globally, indicated that they wanted full control over their children’s online activities.
News item 2:http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/06/15/clyburn-claims-hacking-greenes-surprise-win-sc-senate-race/
A top government watchdog on Tuesday called on the South Carolina attorney general to probe whether Democratic Senate nominee Alvin Greene was “induced” to run, as speculation continued to build over how the candidate with no money and no campaign infrastructure pulled out a victory over a local lawmaker last week.
Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., in an interview with Fox News, suggested that hackers must have fiddled with the results. He said the touch-screen voting machines used by the state are notoriously unreliable and, without citing evidence, said the voting machines could have been compromised.
“I believe there was some hacking done into that computer,” Clyburn told Fox News, repeating his claim that Greene was a “plant.”
The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington cited Clyburn’s “plant” allegation in its complaint to state Attorney General Henry McMaster on Tuesday. The organization called on the prosecutor to launch an investigation to determine whether Greene “violated South Carolina law by accepting an inducement to file as a candidate … and if any individual violated South Carolina law by offering such an inducement.”
The organization also filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that Greene and three other candidates in the state’s primary failed to follow FEC regulations. CREW said Greene did not file a statement of candidacy or organization and did not disclose his campaign’s contributions or expenses.
News item 3: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2534850/posts
Goatse Security — the group that discovered that particular hole — isn’t best pleased to be described as malicious by AT&T’s response to the matter, and has requited with its own missive to the world. Letting us know that the breach in question took “a single hour of labor,” the GS crew argues that AT&T is glossing over the fact it neglected to address the threat promptly and is using the hackers’ (supposedly altruistic) efforts at identifying bugs as a scapegoat. As illustration, they remind us that the iPad is still wide open to hijacking thanks to a bug in the mobile version of Safari. Identified back in March, this exploit allows hackers to jack in via unprotected ports, and although it was fixed on the desktop that same month, the mobile browser remains delicately poised for a backdoor entry — should malevolent forces decide to utilize it. This casts quite the unfavorable light on Apple as well, with both corporations seemingly failing to communicate problematic news with their users in a timely manner.
News item 4: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9178084/Hackers_exploit_Windows_XP_zero_day_Microsoft_confirms
Hackers are now exploiting the zero-day Windows vulnerability that a Google engineer took public last week, Microsoft confirmed today. Although Microsoft did not share details of the attack, other researchers filled in the blanks.
A compromised Web site is serving an exploit of the bug in Windows’ Help and Support Center to hijack PCs running Windows XP, said Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at antivirus vendor Sophos. Cluley declined to identify the site, saying only that it was dedicated to open-source software.
“It’s a classic drive-by attack,” said Cluley, referring to an attack that infects a PC when its user simply visits a malicious or compromised site. The tactic was one of two that Microsoft said last week were the likely attack avenues. The other: Convincing users to open malicious e-mail messages.
News item 5: http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20007827-245.html
A hacker in a group that discovered the AT&T iPad-related flaw was arrested following the execution of an FBI search warrant of his home in Arkansas on Tuesday, authorities told CNET.
Andrew Auernheimer, 24, was being held in Washington County Detention Center in Fayetteville, Ark., according to Lt. Anthony Foster of the Washington County Sheriff’s office in that state. The drugs were found during the execution of the warrant, said Lt. Mike Perryman, of the Fayetteville Police Department. However, Perryman could not say what prompted the warrant.
Auernheimer, who goes by the name “Escher” and the hacker handle “Weev,” faces four felony charges of possession of a controlled substance and one misdemeanor possession charge, Foster said. The drugs included cocaine, ecstasy, LSD, and schedule 2 and 3 pharmaceuticals, he said.
In March, Auernheimer was arrested for giving a fake name to law enforcement officers responding to a parking complaint in Fayetteville, Perryman said.