Anonymous Ops Britian and BART

Posted by SmsMyCustomers FSecure on 15/Aug/2011 in In The News, Security Alert Log | Comments Off

Here’s a new maxim for politicians, policy makers and public administrators: curtail, censor or otherwise limit communications technology in the real-world — expect online reprisals.

Hacker collective Anonymous released a “press release” on Saturday announcing OpBritian, a reaction to UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s suggestions that social media should be restricted in a time of crisis.

And while Anonymous states that actions by rioters were “violent”, they have no love for police authority, and so the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Besides promising online hacks, Anonymous has called for rebellion peaceful real-world protests on October 15th.

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CellTrust’s Sean Moshir Selected to Present at 2011 Cyber Security Training Conference in Colorado Springs

Posted by admin on 15/Aug/2011 in Press Releases | 0 comments

Lecture will Focus on Secure Mobile Messaging and Communication for Government.

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, USA – August 15, 2011 – CellTrust Corporation, the recognized leader in secure mobile messaging (www.celltrust.com), announced today that Sean Moshir, Chief Executive Officer of CellTrust, is speaking on August 18 at the the 2011 Cyber Security Training Conference, hosted by the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA), an international not-for-profit organization of information security professionals and practitioners.Moshir will be among speakers including Travis Johnson, Special Agent Cybercrime Division, FBI, and Robert D. Rego, Brigadier General, Special Assistant for Cyber Issues, Air Force Space Command (AFSPC), the Keynote speaker at the event.

Moshir will address mobile vulnerabilities as part of the conference’s Essential Information Assurance track, and he will discuss strategies for secure mobile messaging and communication.

The Cyber Security Training Conference brings together U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), information technology professionals, and industry partners, to share ideas and exchange information on ways to further protect and strengthen the defensive posture of information systems, including briefings and panel discussions focusing on current and proposed Information Assurance policies, strategies and initiatives. (more…)

Australian IT Reports On Hackers Targeting Smartphones and Social Networks

Posted by admin on 7/Apr/2011 in In The News, Security Alert Log | 0 comments

I read an article on Australian IT this morning saying exactly what we have been telling you about for a while now. Hackers are targeting smartphones and social networks. Don’t ever say that nobody tried to warn you.

Here is an excerpt from the article.

Hackers are preying on smartphones and social networking hotspots, according to reports released by two computer security firms.

Cyber-criminals are also ramping up the sophistication and frequency of attacks on business and government networks, one of the companies, Symantec, said in the latest volume of its Internet Security Threat Report.

Symantec depicted a “massive” volume of more than 286 new computer threats on the internet last year, continued growth in attacks at online social networks and “a notable shift in focus” by hackers to mobile devices.

“The major mobile platforms are finally becoming ubiquitous enough to garner the attention of attackers,” Symantec said in its findings.

In March, smartphones running on Google-backed Android software were the target of the largest attack ever on the devices, noted a PandaLabs report focused on the first three months of this year.

Read the full article on Australian IT.

RSA 2011 Cybercrime Trends Report

Posted by admin on 1/Feb/2011 in Press Releases, Security Alert Log | 0 comments

This is a very important article/whitepaper that was published recently by RSA. It explicitly points to mobile phones being a security problem and makes specific mention of SMS and mobile banking being vulnerable.

The Current State of Cybercrime and What to Expect in 2011

Cybercrime continues to show no signs of slowing down. In fact, 2010 marked a year of several new threats and an increased level of sophistication in the attacks witnessed around the globe. As the new decade opens, cybercrime is diverging down a different path as cyber attacks move beyond the financial services industry and malware makes a shift from targeting consumer desktops to employees in the enterprise.

The RSA Anti-Fraud Command Center (AFCC ) has developed a list of the top cybercrime trends it expects to see evolve over the course of 2011.

The RSA Anti-Fraud Command Center is on the forefront of new threat detection and cybercrime intelligence, achieving several milestones including the shutdown of over 350,000 online attacks across 181 countries and launching the first commercial anti-phishing and anti-Trojan services in the industry.

In this white paper, RSA will review the current state of cybercrime based on what we witnessed in the last twelve months and provide a series of predictions on what to expect from cybercriminals in 2011.

Read the full article (PDF Format) as published by RSA on their web site (free registration required)

SMS Bank Tokens Vulnerable: RSA

Posted by admin on 26/Jan/2011 in Security Alert Log | 0 comments

I read a nice article today on zdnet.com.au. It is becoming clearer by the day that criminals are beginning to target the mobile device as an access point to user data.

The following in an excerpt from the article.

Mobile phone attacks will increase this year as criminals attempt to intercept SMS-based authentication tokens, according to security company RSA.

The tokens are designed to complement username and password log-in checks by requiring users to validate payments with unique numerical codes, in this instance sent by SMS.

It is becoming more popular, and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia claims to have 80 per cent of its customer base using tokens to validate third-party payments via SMS or through safer handheld token-number generators. The bank isn’t forcing customers to use it, but those who don’t will not be permitted to carry out high-risk transactions over NetBank.

RSA said in a 2011 predictions report that sending tokens via SMS will make phones a target.

“The use of out-of-band authentication SMS … as an additional layer of security adds to the vulnerabilities in the mobile channel,” the company said in its report.

“A criminal can … conduct a telephony denial-of-service attack which essentially renders a consumer’s mobile device unavailable.

“SMS forwarding services are also becoming mainstream in the fraud underground and enable the [token] sent by a bank via text to a user’s mobile phone to be intercepted and forwarded directly to the cyber criminal’s phone.”

Read the article in full on zdnet.com.au

UK, Australia to Talk Cyberwar

Posted by admin on 17/Jan/2011 in In The News | 0 comments

I wonder if the topic of SMS Security was raised? I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall during the meeting!

The following is an excerpt of an article published on zdnet.com.au.

Australia’s defence and foreign ministers will meet with United Kingdom counterparts in Sydney tomorrow to discuss security matters, including cybersecurity.

Defence Minister Stephen Smith and Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd will host UK Foreign Secretary William Hague and Defence Secretary Liam Fox at the third Australia-United Kingdom Ministerial (AUKMIN) talks.

“Discussions at AUKMIN III will focus on current foreign, defence and security policy challenges, including in Afghanistan and Pakistan; changing dynamics in Asia; and approaches to counter-proliferation, counter-terrorism, space and cybersecurity,” Smith said.

In previous high-level discussions, UK Minister of Armed Forces Nick Harvey pushed for the creation of an offensive cybersecurity capability, while Smith said Australia is focused on building defensive systems.

Read the full article on zdnet.com.au.

SMS Harvesting Mobile Virus Targeting Banks

Posted by admin on 5/Oct/2010 in Security Alert Log, Trojans | 0 comments

I came across an interesting article this morning on the SC Magazine web site this morning so I thought I’d share a brief excerpt and a link to the full article.

Bank log-in details could be targeted, say security experts.

Security experts are warning of a variant of the Zeus banking trojan that attacks mobile phones and can bypass the two-stage verification system used by some banks.

Zeus Mitmo is previously unknown malware that is designed to intercept the confirmation SMS sent out by some banks as part of the online log-in process, according to Spanish security company S21sec.

Read the full article on the SC Magazine web site.

President Obama Address on Securing Cyberspace Press Conference

Posted by admin on 29/May/2009 in Security Alert Log | 0 comments

Yesterday President Barack Obama announced his plans for securing cyberspace. It would have been hard to imagine George Bush giving a talk about malware and bots. That’s exactly what Obama did.

Phrases like this sound perfectly natural coming from Obama: “We’ve had to learn a whole new vocabulary just to stay ahead of the cyber criminals who would do us harm – spyware and malware and spoofing and phishing and botnets.”

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