Open Security Foundation’s DataLossDB has announced the winners of oldest incident contest.

One of the oldest documented issue is TRW incident from 1984, when the database of credit history of 90 million American citizen was breached.
Link here.

Update: The winner is an incident from August 1953, when SSN’s were lost.

The oldest documented vulnerability in computer security world is password file disclosure vulnerability from 1965, found by Mr. Ryan Russell.

Open Security Foundation - an organization behind OSVDB and DataLossDB has launched a competition to find the oldest documented data loss incident.

The last day to make a submission is next Friday - 15th May.
The link is easy to remember - datalossdb.org/oldest_incidents_contest.

There will be a new national register of mobile phone users in Mexico.

Under a new law published on Monday and due to be in force in April, mobile phone companies will have a year to build up a database of their clients, complete with fingerprints. The idea would be to match calls and messages to the phones’ owners.

(underlining added)

Mexico has a very strong culture of using prepaid phones.

I live in Vancouver.  Despite the fact that this is in Canada, we do not live in igloos, nor do we have to get around by dogsled.  Most of the time.  At the moment, we are having an unusual spell of snowy weather.  It’s here, for one thing.  It’s been here for more than two weeks, for another.  It’s also much deeper than usual: more than 30 cm (a foot, US) is on level areas in many places, and the piles where the snow has been shovelled are getting pretty high.

That’s not unusual in many places, but in Vancouver it is practically unheard of.

The weather in Vancouver is very similar to the weather in Seattle, so Seattle is snowed in, too.  And I was discussing this with a much younger friend in that area.  I was complaining that nobody around here was shovelling their sidewalks.  He was complaining that people in his area were.

Those of you who live in the deep snow areas will probably not understand his complaint.  You see, in this region, when we do get snow, the temperatures tend to hover around the freezing point.  So, some days the snow will start to melt.  And at nights, or on other days, it freezes again.  So if you don’t shovel the sidewalk properly, you create a bit of skating rink.

The key is to shovel properly.  There are a few factors involved in this, but the primary one is to shovel right to the edge of the sidewalk.  If you can see even one blade of grass as the edge, then, when the snow starts to melt, the meltwater does into the ground.  Leave even a centimetre of snow on the edge of the walk, and the meltwater runs all over the sidewalk, and, when it freezes, you’ve got the slickest, most treacherous footing imaginable.

Which brings me to security.  For a number of years, many of us in the field have been faced with the extreme frustration of preparing security architectures, designs, and plans to fit the particular business and environment in which we find ourselves.  Finely tuned, appropriate to the assets and risks involved, and complete.  Only to have some bean-counter come along and say that this is great, but a bit too expensive: couldn’t we get half the security for half the cost.

The answer, as we know, is no.  Security is not something you buy by the kilogram.  Security is not like a blanket, where the more you have, the warmer you are: it’s like a roof or tent, where you’ve either got one up or not.  Security is not like a road, where, no matter how long it is, it is of some use: it’s like a bridge, where, if it’s even a little bit too short it is no use at all.

So, here’s another illustation for you.  Security is like clearing the snow in Vancouver.  Do it right, out to the very edge, and you’re golden.  Do it quick and dirty and cheap, with one shovel width down the middle, and you’re creating a problem for yourself.  And others.

A BBC story notes that a German re-insurance concern has raised the issue of increasing natural disasters, and a possible tie to climate change/global warming.

Now that the money/finance people are getting scared, will we finally do something?

Now that the money/finance people are getting scared, will we finally do something about business continuity and disaster planning?

(Likely answer: nah.)

What started off nicely in 1992 and promised the much needed privacy to cordless communication at home, has been brought into a halt a few days ago with the practical approach to eavesdropping on DECT communication.

DECT or Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunication is a widely used standard for cordless devices, mainly phones, but not limited to it, several POS or Point of Sale devices as well use the standard to communicate in a cheap and secure manner.

The DECT standard itself was not broken, but rather using a cheap off-the-shelf device that is able to receive (not yet transmit) DECT based data, the researchers have been able to prove that eavesdropping on the communication channel is possible.

Most interesting to me as a reader of the paper is that what stopped people from ‘breaking’ it till now, was the lack of hardware, or moreover the lack of cheap hardware, to experiment with, now with the availability (it has been around for a while) of COM-ON-AIR device and its character device (or raw software driver) things have been made a lot easier.

You can read more on this at deDECTed.org

For those into security awareness:

This security awareness video (on YouTube), made by the infosec people in the state government of the Commonwealth of Virginia, covers some good, basic tips. It’s amusing, and only 13 minutes long. Some of the advice is specific to their security policy, and probably won’t match yours, but at least it’ll get you (or your staff) thinking about some of the issues.

If you want something more, the Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA) (state government agency) has an Information Security Awareness Toolkit site with copies of the video (both viewable and downloadable, and with subtitles and without), as well as other links and resources.

Did you vote in the last election? If not, you should have. If so, did it really count? I mean, literally, besides the aspect of consideration, did your ballot reach the total counter?

Many people who are part of a democracy and have this magical ‘right to vote’ (There is no amendment or part of the US constitution that directly states that Americans have the right to vote; only that you cannot be discriminated against via race or sex, and you must be at least 18 years of age. Look it up and you’ll see that it is only indirectly implied) probably question where their votes really go each and every time they leave the polls.

Furthermore, the most important question should be this: If election fraud is part of our elections, and we all know at least some part of it is, how can we prevent it? The simple answer is, we can’t. Electronic voting machines are a joke. Really, the security on these machines are inferior to the most common lock and key at the dollar store. Security on these ’secure’ election devices is comparable a Windows 98 (SE!) box running ZoneAlarm (pro!).

Wouldn’t it be nice and convenient to be able to vote via the Internet, without ever having to leave your home? Sure it would be. Safe though? Not in this century. If you have Netflix or any other movie service, you should add this to your queue: Hacking Democracy. Watch it, learn it, believe it. Do not hesitate at all to think its real. ITS BEEN PROVEN! Not a believer? Just wait around our next big election — we’ll see who wins.

My wife happened to go and pick up the book parcel today.  My wife knows about security and privacy.  (Not only does she have to listen to me at the dinner table, but she does her own research.)  One of the things I found out from her, was that it’s legal, in Canada, to ask for and look at a driver’s licence as ID, but it’s illegal, in Canada, for retailers to write down and keep that information.

So when the Purolator staff asked for her driver’s licence, she gave it to them, but made a point to ask them not to write it down.  The Purolator staff member then took the licence and input the details into their computer system.  When my wife complained, the Purolator staff member’s response was insulting and sarcastic.

So, Purolator, is that corporate policy?

Or maybe your need a little more staff training?
(Oh, and Purolator also uses those boxes to collect a digitized sample of your signature.)

Time to share information about three vulnerabilities reported in Apple iPhone recently.

There is a phishing vulnerability and a spamming vulnerability, which Aviv Raff has reported this month.

The phishing flaw exist in iPhone’s Mail application. With a specially drafted link it’s possible to convince the victim that the link is trusted. Including the address bar, naturally - see Raff’s screenshot here [.jpg].

The second problem is that downloading remote images is not disabled in Mail, i.e. the Web Bug flaw exists in the application and there is no ways to disable that “feature”.
The third one is a SMS security issue found by the son of blogger Karl Kraft, described below:

Those settings block the display of incoming text messages and show an alert saying “New Text Message” if an SMS comes through while the phone is locked. However, if the phone is set to emergency call mode the incoming text messages are previewed.

And then:

“Thus all I need to do to intercept the messages from his girlfriend is to place the phone in emergency mode and wait 30 seconds for the next sickly sweet message,” Kraft writes.

That was reported (yes, by his father) in iPhone version 2.1 (5F136) - the most recent version too.

The group using name The Hacker’s Choice has managed to clone a biometric passport with name Elvis Presley. Right - The King who died 31 years ago
Demonstration video and some technical information here.

It is more than week ago when The Fedora Project informed about “important issue” affecting to its infrastructure systems. No additional details were given.
As expected, the claims and rumors started to spread if there was a serious server breach.

The Fedora Project issued a recommendation that users will not download any packages or update their Fedora installations. There was a note to change the Fedora Project passwords (it was not reported widely for some reason) too.

Today, Mr. Paul W. Frields, Fedora Project Leader has posted an announcement about the facts:

One of the compromised Fedora servers was a system used for signing Fedora packages. However, based on our efforts, we have high confidence that the intruder was not able to capture the passphrase used to secure the Fedora package signing key. Based on our review to date, the passphrase was not used during the time of the intrusion on the system and the passphrase is not stored on any of the Fedora servers.

While there is no definitive evidence that the Fedora key has been compromised, because Fedora packages are distributed via multiple third-party mirrors and repositories, we have decided to convert to new Fedora signing keys. This may require affirmative steps from every Fedora system owner or administrator. We will widely and clearly communicate any such steps to help users when available.

The Fedora Project servers are hosted at Red Hat Inc., the employee of Mr. Frields.

This is an interesting detail from hosting history section:

209.132.176.122 - Linux Apache/2.2.3 Red Hat - 19-Aug-2008
209.132.176.122 - Linux Apache/2.2.0 Fedora   - 16-Aug-2008
209.132.176.122 - Linux Apache/2.2.3 Red Hat - 19-Aug-2008

Bank robbers using remote control device to control the mouse cursor of bank employee have been jailed now, report the headlines.

We can’t expect that an ordinary worker will know if USB sticks, peripherals with Bluetooth enabled, innocent looking hardware keyloggers etc. connected to their desktop computers and even to laptops are malicious - and not installed by a local IT support.

This Swedish worker recognized an odd device connected to his workstation, but a target organization is not so lucky every time. ”Employee quickly pulled the plug, interrupting a transfer” ($7.9 million), but there was an extra cable which ended up under his desk.

It’s worth of mentioning that this remote control device had been installed to bank workstation during a previous break-in, during which nothing had been stolen from the building.

Therefore, the ways how we can protect against these threats are not so typical:

* Check the USB and PS/2 connectors of your workstations and servers several times a year
* Always check these connectors when a computer returns from being repaired
* Remember that visitors have a possibility to connect these devices often

The lead article/editorial in Bruce Schneier’s latest CryptoGram (http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram.html) points out the foolishness in warning people to beware of terrorists taking pictures.  Millions of people take billions of pictures every year for legitimate or innocent reasons, and the major terrorist attacks have not involved terrorists walking around taking photographs of the targets.  It doesn’t make sense to try and protect yourself by raising an alarm about an activity that is probably (*extremely* probably) not a threat.

Rather ironically, the second piece talks about the fact that your laptop may be searched when you fly to another country, and the advisability of laptop encryption.  Leaving aside privacy and legality concerns, Schneier is for encryption.

Now, I don’t fly as much as some, but more than many.  Since I’m a security researcher, I’ve got all kinds of materials on my laptop that would probably raise all kinds of flags.  I’ve got files with “virus,” “malware,” “botnet,” and all kinds of other scary terms in the filenames.  (I’ve got a rather extensive virus zoo in one directory.)  Nobody at immigration has ever turned a hair at these filenames, since nobody at immigration has ever asked to look at my laptop.  (Even the security screeners don’t ask me to turn it on as much as they used to, although they do swab it more.)

I’m not arguing that people shouldn’t encrypt materials on their laptops: it’s probably a good idea for all kinds of reasons.  However, unless I’m very fortunate in my travels (and, from my perspective, I tend to have a lot more than my fair share of travel horror stories), the risk of having immigration scan your laptop is not one of them.

Cisco has released an updated version of its Cisco Security Response: Rootkits on Cisco IOS Devices document after the EuSecWest presentation of Mr. Sebastian Muniz (Core Security).

Hardening, best practices etc, it appears.

Thanks Gadi E. for pointing this on mailing lists.

This Hebrew post in linmagazine describes what first sounds like a typical Vishing attack. The author’s mother receives a phone call telling her there’s been a terrible accident and she needs to call the hospital for the details. They give her the ER’s number but tell her to use only her land line. The number is *7200526671955. Strange, but not unusual in Israel where dialing *pizza connects you to Dominos and *mortgage to your local sub prime pusher.
So she calls and calls but there’s no answer, and she rings her son to tell him to try and call.

He rings, and gets a voicemail. Getting suspicious he dial his phone company’s information directory and finds they were conned: *720 is the code for call forwarding, and 052-667-1955 is a local cell number. It’s a clever scheme, actually. All the for-pay phone numbers (sex hotlines, etc) are opt-in which means they are blocked by default (to prevent scams like this, among other things).
However, calls to cellular phones are more expensive (in Israel the caller pays the charge and not the receiver) and so it is possible to cut a deal with the cellular company for revenue sharing and open your own ‘recipe tips’ hotline which should bring in many incoming cellular calls and make everybody (especially the mobile operator) happy. If instead of recipes you make people call because their friend’s phone lines are automatically forwarded to your number, well that doubles the fun.

So these guys figured call forwarding to international numbers won’t work, and chose the mobile option. Although it’s a bit risky (you need to be able to collect the money from the cellular operator before the cookie jar slams shut) but sounds lucrative. Now comes the final step in a Vishing scam like this; you need to convince a lot of people to do the call forwarding, and for that you usually use a Voice-over-IP line with a pre-recorded message. But not these guys: the post’s author confirmed to me that his mother spoke to a flesh-and-blood voice who actually answered her questions, had a perfect Hebrew accent (it wasn’t a Nigerian who went to Jewish Sunday school) and told her the number to call twice (and even waited until she grabbed a pen).

Calling manually is risky: people can trace back the call and find out where you were. Hiring telemarketing is typically out of the question (lets just try to imagine the brief to the telemarketing team) and manually calling hundreds of people is really not cost effective.

So why the manual call? The only thing that comes to mind is they were beta testing or watching to see the response from the cellular company or law agencies. Maybe they are even using Israel as a beta site for an international Vishing attack? When the FBI or secret Service (or Israeli Police) catch them, I hope they ask. With a bit of luck they’ll post a hint here in the comments.