Intelligence

Pierluigi Paganini April 18, 2013
Anonymous #OpIsrael, use of botnets & hypothesis on attackers

We all remember the debated attacks of Anonymous collective against Israeli government that targeted various websites of the country last April 7th. The data on the cyber attacks reported by Israel government are really different from the one provided by the group of hacktivists in the damage report for #OpIsrael that account for a Total […]

Pierluigi Paganini March 27, 2013
First APT attack on Android targeted Tibetan & Uyghur activists

Read about APT attacks has become customary, even easier to hear of attacks against political dissidents or minorities as Tibetan and Uyghur activists, but never before has been exploited the Android platform for this type of offensive. In the past Tibetan minorities have been already targeted with malware able to infect Windows and Mac OSs, […]

Pierluigi Paganini March 24, 2013
CrySyS Lab revealed a decennial cyber espionage operation by TeamSpy

Last week was monopolized by the discussion on cyber attacks that hit North and South Korea, but I found a news equally stunning, researchers at Hungary-based CrySyS Lab have discovered a decade-long cyber espionage campaign that targeted high-level political and industrial entities in Eastern Europe. The attackers, dubbed by security researchers TeamSpy, used the popular remote-access […]

Pierluigi Paganini March 20, 2013
FinFisher found everywhere, more complexity and ready for mobile

Many times we discussed about the fact that FinFisher was discovered in the wild, the use of popular spyware has been abused by governments and intelligence agencies all around the world. The spyware is for law enforcement and government use, but it seems to be  preferred for those regimes that desire to monitor representatives of the […]

Pierluigi Paganini March 07, 2013
US nation’s military considered unprepared for a cyber-conflict

A report titled “Resilient Military Systems and the Advanced Cyber Threat” written  by Defense Science Board (DSB), a Federal Advisory Committee established to provide independent advice to the Secretary of Defense, presented alarming scenarios on US nation’s military considered unprepared for a full-scale cyber-conflict. The 138-page report alerts Pentagon on the necessity to improve cyber […]

Pierluigi Paganini February 23, 2013
Also Microsoft in the club of hacked companies

When Apple revealed the hack to Reuters press agency I wrote that the last big enterprise not yet hacked was Microsoft, anticipating that was question of time. The last events have revealed how much vulnerable also major companies to cyber attacks, Facebook, Twitter and principal Press agencies such as NYT dedicate large investment to cyber […]

Pierluigi Paganini February 22, 2013
Mandiant report links Anonymous 2011 hacks to APT1 campaign

The new is very curious and represents the demonstration that cyber threats could not be analyzed separately, security need a global approach, we cannot distinguish between cybercrime and cyber warfare but we must be focused on the cyber menaces, their effects and the risks connected to adoption of not appropriate security measures. The case is […]

Pierluigi Paganini February 19, 2013
Mandiant report on APT1 & China’s cyber espionage units

Early this month it was spread the news regarding a sophisticated cyber espionage campaign against principal media agencies in the US, included NYT and Washington Post, the hackers have tried to compromise the email account of journalists to steal sensitive information. The campaign appeared very aggressive, the hackers have tried to infiltrate the network of […]

Pierluigi Paganini January 18, 2013
Cyber warfare between Koreas, a warning for any cyber power

Earlier this month is has been spread the news that South Korea is investing to improve the cyber capabilities of the country recruiting and training hackers to involve in the cyber defense due the increasing number of attacks suffered. A cyber attack hit recently the presidential transition team, in particular the press rooms server, but […]

Pierluigi Paganini January 15, 2013
Kaspersky Lab discovered the cyber espionage campaign “Red October”

Last October Kaspersky Lab’s Global Research & Analysis Team started a new investigation after several attacks hit computer networks of various international diplomatic service agencies. The attacks appeared very suspect, a new large scale cyber-espionage operation has been discovered, the operation is dubbed «Red October», a name inspired by famous novel «The Hunt For The Red […]