Some Web Hosting Firms Overwhelmed by Scam Domains
January 27, 2017
An article at Softpedia should be a wakeup call to anyone who takes the issue of online security lightly—“One Crook Running Over 120 Tech Support Scam Domains on GoDaddy.” Writer Catalin Cimpanu explains:
A crook running several tech support scam operations has managed to register 135 domains, most of which are used in his criminal activities, without anybody preventing him from doing so, which shows the sad state of Web domain registrations today. His name and email address are tied to 135 domains, as MalwareHunterTeam told Softpedia. Over 120 of these domains are registered and hosted via GoDaddy and have been gradually registered across time.
The full list is available at the end of this article (text version here), but most of the domains look shady just based on their names. Really, how safe do you feel navigating to ‘security-update-needed-sys-filescorrupted-trojan-detected[.]info’? How about ‘personal-identity-theft-system-info-compromised[.]info’?
Those are ridiculously obvious, but it seems to be that GoDaddy’s abuse department is too swamped to flag and block even these flagrant examples. At least that hosting firm does have an abuse department; many, it seems, can only be reached through national CERT teams. Other hosting companies, though, respond with the proper urgency when abuse is reported—Cimpanu holds up Bluehost and PlanetHoster as examples. That is something to consider for anyone who thinks the choice of hosting firm is unimportant.
We are reminded that educating ourselves is the best protection. The article links to a valuable tech support scam guide provided by veteran Internet security firm Malwarebytes, and suggests studying the wikis or support pages of other security vendors.
Cynthia Murrell, January 27, 2017
Declassified CIA Data Makes History Fun
January 26, 2017
One thing I have always heard to make kids more interested in learning about the past is “making it come alive.” Textbooks suck at “making anything come alive” other than naps. What really makes history a reality and more interesting are documentaries, eyewitnesses, and actual artifacts. The CIA has a wealth of history and History Tech shares with us some rare finds: “Tip Of The Week: 8 Decades Of Super Cool Declassified CIA Maps.” While the CIA Factbook is one of the best history and geography tools on the Web, the CIA Flickr account is chock full of declassified goodies, such as spy tools, maps, and more.
The article’s author shared that:
The best part of the Flickr account for me is the eight decades of CIA maps starting back in the 1940s prepared for the president and various government agencies. These are perfect for helping provide supplementary and corroborative materials for all sorts of historical thinking activities. You’ll find a wide variety of map types that could also easily work as stand-alone primary source.
These declassified maps were actually used by CIA personnel, political advisors, and presidents to make decisions that continue to impact our lives today. The CIA flickr account is only one example of how the Internet is a wonderful tool for making history come to life. Although you need to be cautious about where the information comes from since these are official CIA records they are primary sources.
Whitney Grace, January 26, 2017
Obey the Almighty Library Laws
January 23, 2017
Recently I was speaking with someone and the conversation turned to libraries. I complimented the library’s collection in his hometown and he asked, “You mean they still have a library?” This response told me a couple things: one, that this person was not a reader and two, did not know the value of a library. The Lucidea blog discussed how “Do The Original 5 Laws Of Library Science Hold Up In A Digital World?” and apparently they still do.
S.R. Ranganathan wrote five principles of library science before computers dominated information and research in 1931. The post examines how the laws are still relevant. The first law states that books are meant to be used, meaning that information is meant to be used and shared. The biggest point of this rule is accessibility, which is extremely relevant. The second laws states, “Every reader his/her book,” meaning that libraries serve diverse groups and deliver non-biased services. That still fits considering the expansion of the knowledge dissemination and how many people access it.
The third law is also still important:
Dr. Ranganathan believed that a library system must devise and offer many methods to “ensure that each item finds its appropriate reader”. The third law, “every book his/her reader,” can be interpreted to mean that every knowledge resource is useful to an individual or individuals, no matter how specialized and no matter how small the audience may be. Library science was, and arguably still is, at the forefront of using computers to make information accessible.
The fourth law is “save time for the reader” and it refers to being able to find and access information quickly and easily. Search engines anyone? Finally, the fifth law states that “the library is a growing organism.” It is easy to interpret this law. As technology and information access changes, the library must constantly evolve to serve people and help them harness the information.
The wording is a little outdated, but the five laws are still important. However, we need to also consider how people have changed in regards to using the library as well.
Whitney Grace, January 23, 2017
Another Untraceable Dark Web Actor Put Behind Bars
January 19, 2017
A prison librarian in England who purchased drugs and weapons over the Dark Web for supplying them to prisoners was sentenced to 7-years in prison.
The Register in a news report Prison Librarian Swaps Books for Bars After Dark-Web Gun Buy Caper says:
Dwain Osborne, of Avenue Road, Penge, in London, was nabbed in October of 2015 after he sought to procure a Glock 19 – a staple of police and security forces worldwide – and 100 rounds of ammunition on the dark web. A search of Osborne’s house revealed the existence of a storage device, two stolen passports, and a police uniform.
Osborne was under the impression that like other Dark Web actors, he too is untraceable. What made the sleuths suspicious is not known, however, the swift action and prosecution are commendable. Law enforcement agencies are challenged by this new facet of crime wherein most perpetrators manage to remain anonymous.
Most arrests related to the purchase of arms and drugs over Dark Web were result of undercover operations. However, going beyond this type of modus operandi is the need of the hour.
Systems like Apacke Teka seem to be promising, but it is premature to say how such kind of systems will evolve and most importantly, will be implemented.
Vishal Ingole, January 19, 2017
The Software Behind the Web Sites
January 17, 2017
Have you ever visited an awesome Web site or been curious how an organization manages their Web presence? While we know the answer is some type of software, we usually are not given a specific name. Venture Beat reports that it is possible to figure out the software in the article, “SimilarTech’s Profiler Tells You All Of The Technologies That Web Companies Are Using.”
SimilarTech is a tool designed to crawl the Internet to analyze what technologies, including software, Web site operators use. SimiliarTech is also used to detect which online payment tools are the most popular. It does not come as a surprise that PayPal is the most widely used, with PayPal Subscribe and Alipay in second and third places.
Tracking what technology and software companies utilize for the Web is a boon for salespeople, recruiters, and business development professionals who want a competitive edge as well as:
Overall, SimilarTech provides big data insights about technology adoption and usage analytics for the entire internet, providing access to data that simply wasn’t available before. The insights are used by marketing and sales professionals for website profiling, lead generation, competitive analysis, and business intelligence.
SimiliarTech can also locate contact information for personnel responsible for Web operations, in other words new potential clients.
This tool is kind of like the mailing houses of the past. Mailing houses have data about people, places, organizations, etc. and can generate contact information lists of specific clientele for companies. SimiliarTech offers the contact information, but it does one better by finding the technologies people use for Web site operation.
Whitney Grace, January 17, 2016
BAE Lands US Air Force Info Fusion Job
January 6, 2017
I read “BAE Systems Awarded $49 Million Air Force Research Lab Contract to Enhance Intelligence Sharing.” The main point is that the US Air Force has a pressing need for integrating, analyzing, and sharing text, audio, images, and data. The write up states:
The U.S. Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) has awarded BAE Systems a five-year contract worth up to $49 million to develop, deploy, and maintain cross domain solutions for safeguarding the sharing of sensitive information between government networks.
The $49 million contract will enhance virtualization, boost data processing, and support the integration of machine learning solutions.
I recall reading that the Distributed Common Ground System performs some, if not most, of these “fusion” type functions. The $49 million seems a pittance when compared to the multi-billion dollar investments in DCGS.
My hunch is that Palantir Technologies may point to this new project as an example of the US government’s penchant for inventing, not using commercial off the shelf software.
Tough problem it seems.
Stephen E Arnold, January 6, 2016
Google Looks to Curb Hate Speech with Jigsaw
January 6, 2017
No matter how advanced technology becomes, certain questions continue to vex us. For example, where is the line between silencing expression and prohibiting abuse? Wired examines Google’s efforts to walk that line in its article, “Google’s Digital Justice League: How Its Jigsaw Projects are Hunting Down Online Trolls.” Reporter Merjin Hos begins by sketching the growing problem of online harassment and the real-world turmoil it creates, arguing that rampant trolling serves as a sort of censorship — silencing many voices through fear. Jigsaw, a project from Google, aims to automatically filter out online hate speech and harassment. As Jared Cohen, Jigsaw founder and president, put it, “I want to use the best technology we have at our disposal to begin to take on trolling and other nefarious tactics that give hostile voices disproportionate weight, to do everything we can to level the playing field.”
The extensive article also delves into Cohen’s history, the genesis of Jigsaw, how the team is teaching its AI to identify harassment, and problems they have encountered thus far. It is an informative read for anyone interested in the topic.
Hos describes how the Jigsaw team has gone about instructing their algorithm:
The group partnered with The New York Times (NYT), which gave Jigsaw’s engineers 17 million comments from NYT stories, along with data about which of those comments were flagged as inappropriate by moderators.
Jigsaw also worked with the Wikimedia Foundation to parse 130,000 snippets of discussion around Wikipedia pages. It showed those text strings to panels of ten people recruited randomly from the CrowdFlower crowdsourcing service and asked whether they found each snippet to represent a ‘personal attack’ or ‘harassment’. Jigsaw then fed the massive corpus of online conversation and human evaluations into Google’s open source machine learning software, TensorFlow. …
By some measures Jigsaw has now trained Conversation AI to spot toxic language with impressive accuracy. Feed a string of text into its Wikipedia harassment-detection engine and it can, with what Google describes as more than 92 per cent certainty and a ten per cent false-positive rate, come up with a judgment that matches a human test panel as to whether that line represents an attack.
There is still much to be done, but soon Wikipedia and the New York Times will be implementing Jigsaw, at least on a limited basis. At first, the AI’s judgments will be checked by humans. This is important, partially because the software still returns some false positives—an inadvertent but highly problematic overstep. Though a perfect solution may be impossible, it is encouraging to know Jigsaw’s leader understands how tough it will be to balance protection with freedom of expression. “We don’t claim to have all the answers,” Cohen emphasizes.
Cynthia Murrell, January 6, 2017
CIA Adapts to Cyber Reality
January 5, 2017
It would be quite the understatement to say the Internet had drastically changed the spy business. The evolution comes with its ups and downs, we learn from the article, “CIA Cyber Official Sees Data Flood as Both Godsend and Danger” at the Stars and Stripes. Reporter Nafeesa Syeed cites an interview with Sean Roche, the CIA’s associate deputy director for digital innovation. The article informs us:
A career CIA official, Roche joined the agency’s new Directorate for Digital Innovation, which opened in October, after serving as deputy director for science and technology.[…]
Roche’s division was the first directorate the CIA added in half a century. His responsibilities include updating the agency’s older systems, which aren’t compatible with current technology and in some cases can’t even accommodate encryption. The directorate also combined those handling the agency’s information technology and internet systems with the team that monitors global cyber threats. ‘We get very good insights into what the cyber actors are doing and we stop them before they get to our door,’ Roche said.
Apparently, finding tech talent has not been a problem for the high-profile agency. In fact, Syeed tells us, many agents who had moved on to the IT industry are returning, in senior positions, armed with their cyber experience. Much new talent is also attracted by the idea of CIA caché. Roche also asserts he is working to boost ethnic diversity in the CIA by working with organizations that encourage minorities to pursue work in technical fields. What a good, proactive idea! Perhaps Roche would consider also working with groups that promote gender equity in STEM fields.
In case you are curious, Roche’s list of the top nations threatening our cybersecurity includes Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. No surprises there.
Cynthia Murrell, January 5, 2017
Linux Users Can Safely Test Alpha Stage Tor Browser
January 5, 2017
The Tor Project has released the Alpha version of Tor Browser exclusive to Linux that users can test and use in sandboxed mode.
As reported by Bleeping Computer in article titled First Version of Sandboxed Tor Browser Available:
Sandboxing is a security mechanism employed to separate running processes. In computer security, sandboxing an application means separating its process from the OS, so vulnerabilities in that app can’t be leveraged to extend access to the underlying operating system.
As the browser that’s still under development is open to vulnerabilities, these loopholes can be used by competent parties to track down individuals. Sandboxing eliminates this possibility completely. The article further states that:
In recent years, Tor exploits have been deployed in order to identify and catch crooks hiding their identity using Tor. The Tor Project knows that these types of exploits can be used for other actions besides catching pedophiles and drug dealers. An exploit that unmasks Tor users can be very easily used to identify political dissidents or journalists investigating cases of corrupt politicians.
The Tor Project has been trying earnestly to close these loopholes and this seems to be one of their efforts to help netizens stay safe from prying eyes. But again, no system is full-proof. As soon as the new version is released, another exploit might follow suit.
Vishal Ingole, January 5, 2017
Malicious Tor Relays on over a Hundred Computers
January 4, 2017
For all the effort enterprises go to in securing data through technological solutions, there are also other variables to consider: employees. Ars Technica released an article, Malicious computers caught snooping on Tor-anonymized Dark Web sites, which explained malicious relays were found on over 110 machines around the world. Computer scientists at Northeastern University tracked these computers using honeypot.onion addresses, calling them “honions.” The article continues,
The research is only the latest indication that Tor can’t automatically guarantee the anonymity of hidden services or the people visiting them. Last year, FBI agents cracked open a Tor-hidden child pornography website using a technique that remains undisclosed to this day. In 2014, researchers canceled a security conference talk demonstrating a low-cost way to de-anonymize Tor users following requests by attorneys from Carnegie Mellon, where the researchers were employed. Tor developers have since fixed the weakness that made the exploit possible. More than 70 percent of the snooping hidden services directories were hosted on cloud services, making it hard for most outsiders to identify the operators.
While some may wonder if the snooping is a result of a technical glitch or other error, the article suggests this is not the case. Researchers found that in order for a directory to misbehave in this way, an operator has to change the code from Tor and add logging capabilities. It appears the impact this will have is yet to be fully revealed.
Megan Feil, January 4, 2017
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