Cyber warfare

Pierluigi Paganini January 12, 2013
New security problem for Oracle Java software

The year is start way for Oracle Java platform, a new Java 0-day vulnerability has been discovered and worldwide security community is very concerned on the potential effect of the bug. We have discovered how much dangerous could be the exploit of a zero-day vulnerability especially against institutional targets and governments (e.g. Elderwood project), state-sponsored hackers […]

Pierluigi Paganini January 05, 2013
Confidential documents from Japanese politics stolen by malware

Last December Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency was hit again by malware  that stolen secret information on newest rockets from an internal computer, it was not first time for the Japanese agency that was already victim of a cyber attack having same purpose, cyber espionage to obtain information on another technological advanced project related to the […]

Pierluigi Paganini January 02, 2013
DARPA HACMS program for a software without pervasive vulnerabilities

Technology in modern warfare has assumed a crucial role, every government is developing new cyber capabilities to be able to contrast and prevent cyber threats the fifth domain of warfare, the cyberspace. Today the concept of warfare is profoundly changed, many states choose to attack foreign governments exploring new technological options, from state-sponsored cyber attacks […]

Pierluigi Paganini December 31, 2012
Cyberespionage, another watering hole attack against US website

It’s Christmas time everywhere but cyberspace there isn’t holiday time for governments, last week a new cyber espionage attack has been detected, the website for the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) was compromised. The CFR is a strategic target for espionage, it is one of the most elite foreign policy organizations in the United States with a […]

Pierluigi Paganini December 30, 2012
Hacktivism and web monitoring in 2013 for Security Affairs

The year is ending and it’s very easy to read forecast for next year, experts are sure that we will assist to a sensible increase of state-sponsored attacks and to the raise of sophisticated malware, both cyber threats will exploit large scale channels such as mobile and social networks. The majority of forecast are focused […]

Pierluigi Paganini December 28, 2012
DoJ wants to indict state-sponsored hackers. What is the real purpose?

The last couple of years has been characterized by the raise of state-sponsored cyber attacks, governments have increased cyber capabilities to defend their critical infrastructures from offensive originated in the cyberspace but they also improved tactics to offend and spy on foreign government networks. Governments and private business of countries such as US, Japan and […]

Pierluigi Paganini December 24, 2012
Perfect Citizen, US vulnerability assessment program on critical infrastructures

CNET web site has published a news on a secret National Security Agency program named Perfect Citizen that is targeting on large-scale the control systems inside utilities, including power grid and gas pipeline controllers, with the purpose to discover security vulnerabilities. The program was revealed by new documents from EPIC (the Electronic Privacy Information Center), the […]

Pierluigi Paganini December 19, 2012
Iran, the cyber shooting range, new malware detected

On December 16th the Iranian Maher center issued an advisory warning of a new “targeted data wiping” malware discovered during an investigation. First analysis of the center revealed that the malicious code has a simple as efficient design that allow it to wipe files on different drives in various predefined times. The malware wipes disk partitions […]

Pierluigi Paganini December 18, 2012
Saudi Aramco, war of information on the cyber attack

Last summer a series of cyber attacks hit energy sector, one of the world’s largest oil companies the Saudi Aramco was attacked by a group named the Cutting Sword of Justice. Hackers used the Shamoon malware to attack the systems of the company, fortunately, production environment wasn’t impacted. The malware is able to wipe files from […]

Pierluigi Paganini December 16, 2012
Korean cyber espionage campaign against Russia

Cyber espionage is worldwide recognized one of the most concerning cyber threats mainly operated by governments to steal sensible information to foreign states and private companies. FireEye has revealed a cyber espionage campaign, named “Sanny“, attributable to Korea that hosts command-and-control (C&C) servers used in the attacks, the C&C channel is embedded on a legitimate page […]