Date: November 8th 2008

From: rakesh@sysman.in Date: Friday, November 7, 2008

HACK : Were Obama and McCain Campaigns Hacked?


India's internal security is at stake due to cyber terrorism which is the result of misuse of data entry and information, observed Dr B A Mahesh, Superintendent of Police, Bangalore Rural district.

He was speaking at a seminar on ‘Information and Communication Technology and National Security with Special Focus on ‘Cyber Security’ at ‘Bangalore IT.Biz 2008’ here on Thursday. “It is high time cyber terrorism is stopped for which, the government has taken initiatives like strengthening of cyber security policy, setting up of digital forensic centres and imparting of security training and capacity building skills to netizens and police to prevent cyber crimes,” Dr Mahesh added. The cyber crime rate in the IT capital City, Bangalore, has been on the rise.



Twenty cases were registered in 2006, 31 in 2007 and 46 in 2008, however, good number of such cases have gone unnoticed. If the same trend continues, IT field and general public will be the worst hit victims of cyber crime. Hence, the government and IT companies should evolve a system to end the menace, Mahesh stressed.



The Cyber Crime Cell of Bangalore is in a pathetic state. The Cell has only four DySPs, four police inspectors, 10 head constables and five constables who o lack knowledge and skills to tackle cyber crimes. The government should appoint more staff besides training them with latest skills to handle the situation. Cyber centres should be instructed to follow norms strictly before allowing any customer to operate.



Dr Gulshan Rai, Director, Indian Computer Emergency, Response Team, also stressed the need for taking steps to prevent cyber crimes.



Dr. Kamalesh Bajaj, CEO, Data Security Council of India said, India is leading in the world in data entry and processing as well as misuse of the same.



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LAW : Pakistan sets death penalty for "cyber terrorism"

Nov 6, 2008

http://in.reuters.com/article/southAsiaNews/idINIndia-36364220081106



ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Causing death through "cyber terrorism" will be punishable by death in Pakistan, according to a decree issued by President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday.



The Prevention of Electronic Crimes law will be applicable to anyone who commits a crime detrimental to national security through the use of a computer or any other electronic device, the government said in the ordinance.



"Whoever commits the offence of cyber terrorism and causes death of any person shall be punishable with death or imprisonment for life," according to a copy of the ordinance, published by the state-run APP news agency.



The law will apply to Pakistanis and foreigners whether living in Pakistan or abroad.



The ordinance described cyber terrorism as accessing of a computer network or electronic system by someone who then "knowingly engages in or attempts to engage in a terroristic act".



The ordinance listed several definitions of a "terroristic act" including stealing or copying, or attempting to steal or copy, classified information necessary to manufacture any form of chemical, biological or nuclear weapon.



Nuclear-armed Pakistan is a front-line state in the U.S.-led campaign against militancy and security forces are fighting al Qaeda and Taliban militants, most of whom are based in the northwest, near the Afghan border.



The ordinance also set out punishments for other offences including illegal electronic entry into systems of any sensitive installations, electronic fraud, electronic forgery, system damage, unauthorised access to codes and misuse of encryption.



Punishments for those crimes ranged from three to 10 years in prison.



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LAW REVERSED : German court curbs data collection law

34,000 class action suit pays off

By Jan Libbenga

6th November 2008

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/06/german_curbs_data_law/



Germany's Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe today has curbed Germany's wide-reaching data collection law even further, by stating that the data can only be collected and saved in case of real danger to citizens. The Court decided in response to a class action suit filed by 34,000 Germans.



The data collection law, which politicians said would help prevent terrorist attacks, went into effect in January 2008. It gave federal government broad access to stored telephone and internet data, including email addresses, for at least six months.



The bill, part of an EU directive formulated in response to bomb attacks in Madrid and London, immediately sparked controversy among free-market liberals, privacy advocates and civil rights groups, which criticised its scope. In Hamburg, demonstaters staged a mock funeral marking The Death of Privacy.



In December 2007, 34,000 opponents filed the class action suit, the biggest of its kind in Germany.



March saw the German Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe issue an injunction against the law, saying it needed further review. Authorities would only be allowed to access it under extreme circumstances, and with a warrant. Also, the law could only be used for serious crime investigations such as murder, theft, child pornography, money laundering, corruption, tax evasion and fraud.



Using the saved data for prosecuting individuals who illegally downloaded music and movies was ruled out completely.



The ruling was seen as a serious blow to tighter security measures by Chancellor Angela Merkel's government.



The ruling today finally puts an end to crossing the limits of constitutionality on citizen rights, critics say. Data can only be collected when the stability or security of Germany or another country need to be defended and "life, limb, and freedom of German citizens" need to be protected.



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HACK : Were Obama and McCain Campaigns Hacked?

Hackers and Spending Sprees

Highlights from NEWSWEEK's special election project.

Newsweek Web Exclusive

Nov 5, 2008

http://www.newsweek.com/id/167581



The computer systems of both the Obama and McCain campaigns were victims of a sophisticated cyberattack by an unknown "foreign entity," prompting a federal investigation, NEWSWEEK reports today.

At the Obama headquarters in midsummer, technology experts detected what they initially thought was a computer virus—a case of "phishing," a form of hacking often employed to steal passwords or credit-card numbers. But by the next day, both the FBI and the Secret Service came to the campaign with an ominous warning: "You have a problem way bigger than what you understand," an agent told Obama's team. "You have been compromised, and a serious amount of files have been loaded off your system." The following day, Obama campaign chief David Plouffe heard from White House chief of staff Josh Bolten, to the same effect: "You have a real problem ... and you have to deal with it." The Feds told Obama's aides in late August that the McCain campaign's computer system had been similarly compromised. A top McCain official confirmed to NEWSWEEK that the campaign's computer system had been hacked and that the FBI had become involved.

Officials at the FBI and the White House told the Obama campaign that they believed a foreign entity or organization sought to gather information on the evolution of both camps' policy positions—information that might be useful in negotiations with a future administration. The Feds assured the Obama team that it had not been hacked by its political opponents. (Obama technical experts later speculated that the hackers were Russian or Chinese.) A security firm retained by the Obama campaign took steps to secure its computer system and end the intrusion. White House and FBI officials had no comment earlier this week.



NEWSWEEK has also learned that Palin's shopping spree at high-end department stores was more extensive than previously reported. While publicly supporting Palin, McCain's top advisers privately fumed at what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy. One senior aide said that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family—clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill. Palin also used low-level staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards. The McCain campaign found out last week when the aides sought reimbursement. One aide estimated that she spent "tens of thousands" more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband.
Some articles of clothing have apparently been lost. An angry aide characterized the shopping spree as "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast," and said the truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books.



A Palin aide said: "Governor Palin was not directing staffers to put anything on their personal credit cards, and anything that staffers put on their credit cards has been reimbursed, like an expense. Nasty and false accusations following a defeat say more about the person who made them than they do about Governor Palin."



McCain himself rarely spoke to Palin during the campaign, and aides kept him in the dark about the details of her spending on clothes because they were sure he would be offended. Palin asked to speak along with McCain at his Arizona concession speech Tuesday night, but campaign strategist Steve Schmidt vetoed the request.



The disclosures are among many revealed in "How He Did It, 2008," the latest installment in NEWSWEEK's Special Election Project, which was first published in 1984. As in the previous editions, "How He Did It, 2008" is an inside, behind-the-scenes account of the presidential election produced by a special team of reporters working for more than a year on an embargoed basis and detached from the weekly magazine and Newsweek.com. Everything the project team learns is kept confidential until the day after the polls close.



Among the other revelations from the special project:



v The Obama campaign was provided with reports from the Secret Service showing a sharp and disturbing increase in threats to Obama in September and early October, at the same time that many crowds at Palin rallies became more frenzied. Michelle Obama was shaken by the vituperative crowds and the hot rhetoric from the GOP candidates. "Why would they try to make people hate us?" Michelle asked a top campaign aide.



v On the Sunday night before the last debate, McCain's core group of advisers—Steve Schmidt, Rick Davis, adman Fred Davis, strategist Greg Strimple, pollster Bill McInturff and strategy director Sarah Simmons—met to decide whether to tell McCain that the race was effectively over, that he no longer had a chance to win. The consensus in the room was no, not yet, not while he still had "a pulse."



v The Obama campaign's New Media experts created a computer program that would allow a "flusher"—the term for a volunteer who rounds up nonvoters on Election Day—to know exactly who had, and had not, voted in real time. They dubbed it Project Houdini, because of the way names disappear off the list instantly once people are identified as they wait in line at their local polling station.



v Palin launched her attack on Obama's association with William Ayers, the former Weather Underground bomber, before the campaign had finalized a plan to raise the issue. McCain's advisers were working on a strategy that they hoped to unveil the following week, but McCain had not signed off on it, and top adviser Mark Salter was resisting.



v McCain also was reluctant to use Obama's incendiary pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, as a campaign issue. The Republican had set firm boundaries: no Jeremiah Wright; no attacking Michelle Obama; no attacking Obama for not serving in the military. McCain balked at an ad using images of children that suggested that Obama might not protect them from terrorism. Schmidt vetoed ads suggesting thatObama was soft on crime (no Willie Hortons). And before word even got to McCain, Schmidt and Salter scuttled a "celebrity" ad of Obama dancing with talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres (the sight of a black man dancing with a lesbian was deemed too provocative).



v Obama was never inclined to choose Sen. Hillary Clinton as his running mate, not so much because she had been his sometime bitter rival on the campaign trail, but because of her husband. Still, as Hillary's name came up in veep discussions, and Obama's advisers gave all the reasons why she should be kept off the ticket, Obama would stop and ask, "Are we sure?" He needed to be convinced one more time that the Clintons would do more harm than good. McCain, on the other hand, was relieved to face Sen. Joe Biden as the veep choice, and not Hillary Clinton, whom the McCain camp had truly feared.



v McCain was dumbfounded when Congressman John Lewis, a civil-rights hero, issued a press release comparing the GOP nominee with former Alabama governor George Wallace, a segregationist infamous for stirring racial fears. McCain had devoted a chapter to Lewis in one of his books, "Why Courage Matters," and had so admired Lewis that he had once taken his children to meet him.



v On the night she officially lost the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton enjoyed a long and friendly phone conversation with McCain. Clinton was actually on better terms with McCain than she was with Obama. Clinton and McCain had downed shots together on Senate junkets; they regarded each other as grizzled veterans of the political wars and shared a certain disdain for Obama as flashy and callow.



v At the GOP convention in St. Paul, Palin was completely unfazed by the boys' club fraternity she had just joined. One night, Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter went to her hotel room to brief her. After a minute, Palin sailed into the room wearing nothing but a towel, with another on her wet hair. She told them to chat with her laconic husband, Todd. "I'll be just a minute," she said.



v The debates unnerved both candidates. When he was preparing for them during the Democratic primaries, Obama was recorded saying, "I don't consider this to be a good format for me, which makes me more cautious. I often find myself trapped by the questions and thinking to myself, 'You know, this is a stupid question, but let me … answer it.' So when Brian Williams is asking me about what's a personal thing that you've done [that's green], and I say, you know, 'Well, I planted a bunch of trees.' And he says, 'I'm talking about personal.' What I'm thinking in my head is, 'Well, the truth is, Brian, we can't solve global warming because I f---ing changed light bulbs in my house. It's because of something collective'."



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New IT Term of the day

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snake oil


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Refers to a cryptography or security product that makes exaggerated claims of what the product is capable of, giving the user a false sense of security. The term snake oil, which is credited to Matt Curtin for using in reference to computer security products, comes from the 19th-century American practice of selling cure-all elixirs in traveling medicine shows. Snake oil salesmen would falsely claim that the potions would cure any ailments. The term has been appropriated to mean security and encryption products that make impossible claims, such as unbreakable codes.



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Quote of the day


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There is only one difference between dream and aim -

Dream requires Soundless sleep to see

Where as Aim Requires Sleepless Efforts to Achieve



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