Infosecurity Magazine news stories for 22-28 March 2012

My news stories on Infosecurity Magazine from Thursday 22 March until Wednesday 28 March…

Digital Crime: Fourth great era of organized crime
Organized digital crime is growing – but we still know little about the structure of organized digital crime groups. A new report from BAE Detica Systems and the John Grieve Centre for Policing and Security at London Metropolitan University seeks to change this.
28 March 2012

2600 to broadcast interview with Richard O’Dwyer’s mother
2600 is one of the world’s longest running ‘hacker’ publications. Richard O’Dwyer is a UK citizen likely to be deported to the US for operating the website TVShack.net and providing links to ‘copyright infringing’ material.
28 March 2012

Legislation to enforce Google filtering proposed by MPs’ committee
Parliament’s Joint Committee on Privacy and Injunctions has reported: “This could involve giving Ofcom or another body overall statutory responsibility for press regulation.”
28 March 2012

PwC report highlights senior management complacency about security
Financial services are, not surprisingly, increasingly subject to economic cybercrime. According to a report from PwC, cybercrime is now second only to asset misappropriation as the most popular way of defrauding an organization in the financial services (FS) sector.
27 March 2012

Security concerns delay deployment of NGDCs
A survey from Crossbeam Systems shows that 94% of IT personnel identify network security as the main cause for stalled next generation data center (NGDC) deployments.
27 March 2012

The new Oxford Cyber Security Centre
Final proof of the extent to which information security has become embedded within society comes from Oxford university, Home of the Humanities. The university has announced a new Oxford Cyber Security Centre.
27 March 2012

Strong showing for the Pirate Party in German elections
Saarland is the smallest (apart from the city-states) of 16 states within Germany, with a population of just over 1 million inhabitants. Politically it is generally considered to be a conservative area.
26 March 2012

Anonymous launches Operation Imperva
Anonymous has declared a new target: Imperva Inc, a security firm, is now the subject of Operation Imperva.
26 March 2012

Microsoft takes control of 800 domains associated with Zeus botnets
In a major action against the banking trojan Zeus, Microsoft with FS-ISAC and NACHA and research from Kyrus Tech and F-Secure have succeeded in disrupting a number of the most harmful Zeus botnets in “in an unprecedented, proactive cross-industry action.”
26 March 2012

Europe’s first information risk maturity index developed
PwC and Iron Mountain have joined together to develop a risk maturity index for European SMEs; and finds them generally lacking.
23 March 2012

Firefox will use HTTPS by default
Encrypted searching should become available by default for all Firefox users within a few months – a big win for privacy.
23 March 2012

Indian call centers sell UK financial data and DVLA gives access to Indian workers
On the same day that the Sunday Times reported Indian workers offering UK finance details for sale at as little as 0.02p, the Observer reported that IBM contractors in India will have access to the data of 43 million UK drivers held by the DVLA.
23 March 2012

Privacy: the great EU/US debate
The two great western trading blocs are taking personal privacy very seriously. In January the EU published a draft proposal for a new Data Protection Regulation, and in February the White House released its privacy blueprint, including the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights.
22 March 2012

Almost half of UK educational establishments have had mobile devices stolen
A new survey from LapSafe Products has revealed that that 45% of education establishments have had mobile devices – such as laptops, netbooks, MP3 players, tablets and gaming devices – stolen between 2009 and 2011.
22 March 2012

Dame Fiona Caldicott to review patient data confidentiality
The people currently responsible for protecting the confidentiality of patient information in the UK are known as the Caldicott Guardians, so named after Dame Fiona Caldicott. Dame Fiona will now lead a new independent review into patient privacy.
22 March 2012

Further example of dumbing down

The life of the journalist would be much harder were it not for the PR companies providing a conduit between journo and vendor. But journalists live by words – and their aesthetic and accurate use is important. It hurts when the PR, who earns much more than the journo, cocks up. It gets personal. It’s an insult.

Here’s the aesthetic insult:

…went on to say that the informative morning starts off what promises to be a must-see array of informative and thought-provoking series of sessions… covering a variety of informative and topical subjects.

Here’s the accuracy insult:

…including how to align an organisation’s business and IT strategy, focusing on the security GRC (government, risk and compliance) balancing act that most IT departments must now solve.

Frankly, I am offended.

Government is getting above itself – it should remember that it is our servant, not our master

In one small paragraph that buggers belief, UK members of parliament show that they are divorced from the reality of public opinion and bereft of internet knowledge.

Google acknowledged that it was possible to develop the technology proactively to monitor websites for such material in order that the material does not appear in the results of searches. We find their objections in principle to developing such technology totally unconvincing. Google and other search engines should take steps to ensure that their websites are not used as vehicles to breach the law and should actively develop and use such technology. We recommend that if legislation is necessary to require them to do so it should be introduced.
Joint Committee on Privacy and Injunctions – First Report: The role of search engines

These people, the cross-party Joint Committee on Privacy and Injunctions, are actually suggesting that Google should be forced, by law, to “develop and use” censorship.

There have been riots in European streets over ACTA’s censorship. The US government has been forced (however temporarily) to backtrack over SOPA’s censorship. The anti-censorship Pirate Party has won parliamentary seats in Germany. So much for being interested in public-opinion. And as for the internet. Almost 20 years ago John Gilmore said “The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.” We’ve had two decades of immune system development since then. If it routed around in 1993, it will shrug off in 2012. All that will happen is that otherwise innocent people will be forced to break or by-pass the law in a natural curiosity about the truth.

But such supreme arrogance from our political master raises two important questions about the nature of democracy in the free democratic West.

• Do we elect people in order to delegate total responsibility to them, in order to say, ‘here you go, you make up my mind for me in future and just tell me what to do’; or do we elect people to enact what we wish them to enact?

• Is the rule of law sacrosanct; that is, once these people pass a law, do we have to obey that law under all circumstances?

To the first I say categorically that my elected representative is there to represent me and my wishes. He or she is not there to represent the wishes of business, other governments or anything or person other than me. And I say think again about your current attitude towards internet censorship and copyright protection.

To the second question I say that it is the duty of all citizens to reject the rule of law when their conscience demands it. War criminals are probably not law breakers: they uphold the rule of law in their own lands. You cannot say that the rule of law is sacrosanct here but not sacrosanct there. The rule of law must always be ultimately subservient to the rule of conscience.

So, to all members of government: remember your role. You are there to serve us; you are not there to usurp us.