. Military Space News .
CYBER WARS
Internet warriors hone skills at Black Hat - DefCon

Top US lawmaker: Afghan war leakers belong in jail
Washington (AFP) July 26, 2010 - A top US lawmaker on Monday blasted the source of a huge cache of leaked military documents on the Afghan war and said such leakers belong in the "orange jump suits" of jailed criminals. "It is shocking that any American, much less someone in the Pentagon, would betray his country and possibly put our soldiers at risk by leaking information on the ongoing war in Afghanistan," said the senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Kit Bond. "The damage to our national security caused by leaks like this won't stop until we see more perpetrators in orange jump suits," Bond said in a statement.

Another senior US lawmaker, House Armed Services Committee chairman Ike Skelton, warned against judging Pakistan's role in the Afghan war by "outdated reports" from the vast disclosure. "Some of these documents implicate Pakistan in aiding the Taliban and fueling the insurgency in Afghanistan," Skelton, a Democrat, said in a statement. "It is critical that we not use outdated reports to paint a picture of the cooperation of Pakistan in our efforts in Afghanistan," he stressed, adding that Pakistan had "significantly stepped up its fight against the Taliban."

"While we still have concerns about Pakistan's efforts against the Afghan Taliban, there is no doubt that there have been significant improvements in its overall effort," said Skelton. Skelton also slammed the whistleblowing website Wikileaks for "recklessness" in making public the roughly 92,000 military files and field reports, billed as perhaps the largest leak in US military history. "Our nation's secrets are classified for a reason, and the release of classified documents could put our national security -- and the lives of our men and women in combat -- at serious risk," Skelton said in a statement.

At the same time, Skelton said the "troubling" documents seemed to support his criticism of the war effort since it began in late 2001, but insisted US President Barack Obama's troop "surge," announced in December 2009, would right the faltering campaign. "Under the new counterinsurgency strategy implemented earlier this year, we now have the pieces in place to turn things around. These leaked reports pre-date our new strategy in Afghanistan and should not be used as a measure of success or a determining factor in our continued mission there," said Skelton. But Democratic Representative Dennis Kucinich, a leading critic of the war who has called for a US withdrawal, said the leak showed "Congress must say no to war funding, bring our troops home, and invest in the American recovery." "We can no longer look the other way, or pretend that the war is something that is it not. Occupying Afghanistan does not help further the freedom of the Afghan people," Kucinich said in a statement. "It is not the leak of documents that endangers the lives of American troops and our allies, it is the belief that occupying Afghanistan will make us safer," he said.
by Staff Writers
San Francisco (AFP) July 26, 2010
Internet warriors are gathering this week to explore chinks in the armors of computers, bank teller machines, mobile phones, power grids, and other "smart" devices intrinsic to modern life.

Black Hat USA kicks off in Las Vegas on Wednesday with briefings at which security professionals from technology firms including Microsoft and Cisco will dissect ways to safeguard or foil computers.

Black Hat segues on Friday into DefCon, an infamous annual assembly of hackers that pride themselves on finding ways around computer defenses.

Attendance at the events overlaps, with security professionals and software rogues sharing insights in an irreverent setting that has become a recruiting ground for US law enforcement agencies.

"Black Hat is a place where security researchers go to show off their work and get peer feedback," said Jeff Moss, who founded and runs both gatherings.

"DefCon is the fun stuff they don't have time to do in their day jobs."

The packed roster of topics at Black Hat will include hacks that make automated teller machines spew cash and the vulnerability of nuclear power plants, chemical factories and other online systems.

Hot trends are expected to include vulnerabilities of smartphones along with how hackers, and the crime fighters trying to catch them, are adapting to programs hosted as services in the Internet "cloud."

"There is a continuing focus on ways the current Web works and how to attack that," said Moss, whose hacker name is Dark Tangent. "Smartphones are a big target."

Attacks aimed at Internet browsers continue to grow as more aspects of people's lives go online.

Hackers are hiding malicious viruses in mini-applications, videos and other files to take advantage of the trust with which people share and download digital content.

Tracks focused on cyber war, government technology policy, and organized crime have been added this year.

A "Chinese Cyber-army" presentation by the chief technology officer of Taiwan-based Armorize Technologies was yanked by the company, reportedly due to concerns it would anger Chinese officials.

"That is a shame, because they had real numbers and these guys were going to really frame the size of the problem," Moss said of the canceled presentation of data about China-backed hacking during the past decade.

"This is the environment we are all living in. We'd better have our eyes open."

DefCon is "an order of magnitude cheaper" than Black Hat and notoriously attracts the kinds of basement-dwelling computer savants portrayed as quirky geeks in Hollywood films.

DefCon's array of activities includes a lock picking village and a "capture the flag" contest to see who can break into a computer network and fend off rivals.

A "social engineering" contest will challenge contestants to prove how adept they are at telephoning people at companies and talking them into revealing information that hackers could use to crack networks.

"There is a lot of voodoo and mysticism around social engineering," Moss said. "We are trying to clarify what works and what doesn't."

DefCon talks this year target the gamut of computerized gadgets and some unusual sessions, such one about how to "hack your own body."

"We like DefCon because it is a great forum for the right people," said lock-busting expert Marc Tobias, who will show how top locks from a set of well-known companies can be popped in seconds.

"Fingerprint locks, electromagnetic locks... all these guys are winning all kinds of awards and nobody wants to admit that Egyptian locks from four hundred years ago are more secure. Clever doesn't mean secure."

Lock picking has natural appeal in the world of hackers, since getting hold of a computer can make it easier to break into the machine.

Even DefCon badges keep with the theme, bearing computer circuitry that can be turned into radios, light message boards or other gadgets by hackers clever enough to bend the hardware to their wills.

So many national security officials speak or recruit at DefCon that the traditional game of "Spot the Fed" has been modified so that only hackers spotting a cop with a badge and actual arrest authority can win a T-shirt.

Black Hat attendance is up 35 percent this year and DefCon, which doesn't register people in advance, is expected to reflect a similar rise.



Share This Article With Planet Earth
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit
YahooMyWebYahooMyWeb GoogleGoogle FacebookFacebook



Related Links
Cyberwar - Internet Security News - Systems and Policy Issues



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


CYBER WARS
US-wanted computer hacker could serve time in Britain: PM
London (AFP) July 21, 2010
A Briton accused of hacking into American military and NASA computers could serve part of any US-imposed sentence in Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron said Wednesday. Gary McKinnon, 43, who suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism, faces extradition to the United States - something Cameron has publicly condemned. He could spend life in prison if convicted by a US court of ... read more







CYBER WARS
THAAD Radar Performs Successfully In Missile Defense Test

Russian missile move angers NATO member Estonia

Satellites Track Two-Stage Interceptor In Missile Defense Test

US, Poland sign modified missile shield deal

CYBER WARS
Dynetics Completes Test On Multipurpose NanoMissile System Rocket Engine

Raytheon-Boeing Team On Target During First Government-Funded Test Of JAGM

Successful A-Darter Missile Firings With South African Gripen

LockMart Partners With NANA Development For Critical GMD Missile Defense Contract

CYBER WARS
Boeing Signs MOU With Aeronautics For DA42 Dominator UAS

US drone strikes kill eight militants in Pakistan

U.S. anti-drone weapon unveiled

Pilotless drones show new face of war at Farnborough

CYBER WARS
Raytheon's ASTOR Saving Lives In The Counterinsurgency Battle

Testing Of Australia's Network Centric Command And Control System Completed

Thales UK wins Congo army radio contract

Savi Ships Compact Mobile Tracking Systems For Marine Afghan Forces

CYBER WARS
MBDA Offers Glimpse Into Future Soldier Support Weaponry

WestWind Technologies Wins US Army Contract

The Multiple Roles Of C-17 Globemaster III

Elbit Systems Introduces Rattler A

CYBER WARS
Raytheon to send Paveways to South Africa

Raytheon wins Saudi TOW missile contract

At Farnborough, little military business

Pentagon looking for supplemental funds

CYBER WARS
Japan panel moots major defence policy shift: reports

Walker's World: U.S. draws line in sea

China taking 'more aggressive' stance at sea: US admiral

Commentary: Less is more

CYBER WARS
Maritime Laser Demonstration System Proves Key Capabilities For Shipboard Operations

Phalanx Sensors Used In Laser Shoot Down Of Airborne Targets

Boeing Accepts Delivery Of Key Component For US Army's HEL TD

Single Directed Energy Systems Team Created in Albuquerque


The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2010 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement