It is prime factoring. It just goes about it in a much more efficient way than say Eratosthenes sieve method.
APT28
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How Hackers Took Down a Power Grid
"It was an unseasonably warm afternoon in Ukraine on Dec. 23 when the power suddenly went out for thousands of people in the capital, Kiev, and western parts of the country. While technicians struggled for several hours to turn the lights back on, frustrated customers got nothing but busy signals at their utilities’ call centers.
Almost immediately, Ukrainian security officials made claims about the cause of the power failure that evoked futuristic concepts of cyberwar. Hackers had taken down almost a quarter of the country’s power grid, they said. Specifically, the officials blamed Russians for tampering with the utilities’ software, then jamming the power companies’ phone lines to keep customers from alerting anyone.
Hacking a power grid: It sounds like the kind of doomsday scenario experts in the U.S. and Europe have warned about for years. “Imagine if someone shut down the power to New York’s traffic grid during rush hour,” says Tony Lawrence, chief executive officer of cybersecurity firm VOR Technology. “Cyber attacks against public utilities systems could have disastrous effects.” But the cybersecurity researchers investigating the power failure now say it’s clear this wasn’t the kind of sophisticated attack that could fell the U.S. in 15 minutes, as former White House counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke famously predicted..."
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-14/how-hackers-took-down-a-power-grid
"It was an unseasonably warm afternoon in Ukraine on Dec. 23 when the power suddenly went out for thousands of people in the capital, Kiev, and western parts of the country. While technicians struggled for several hours to turn the lights back on, frustrated customers got nothing but busy signals at their utilities’ call centers.
Almost immediately, Ukrainian security officials made claims about the cause of the power failure that evoked futuristic concepts of cyberwar. Hackers had taken down almost a quarter of the country’s power grid, they said. Specifically, the officials blamed Russians for tampering with the utilities’ software, then jamming the power companies’ phone lines to keep customers from alerting anyone.
Hacking a power grid: It sounds like the kind of doomsday scenario experts in the U.S. and Europe have warned about for years. “Imagine if someone shut down the power to New York’s traffic grid during rush hour,” says Tony Lawrence, chief executive officer of cybersecurity firm VOR Technology. “Cyber attacks against public utilities systems could have disastrous effects.” But the cybersecurity researchers investigating the power failure now say it’s clear this wasn’t the kind of sophisticated attack that could fell the U.S. in 15 minutes, as former White House counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke famously predicted..."
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-14/how-hackers-took-down-a-power-grid
"...Ukrainians and Russians have been at the vanguard of hacking for almost as long as the Internet has been around. But now, with the government in Kiev hamstrung by a recession and a pro-Russian insurgency in the country’s industrial heartland, the number of computer attacks is skyrocketing..."
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-and-sith-lords-roam-ukraine-s-cyber-badlands
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-and-sith-lords-roam-ukraine-s-cyber-badlands
An inside look at what's driving the hacking economy
Cybercrimes will cost the global economy a whopping $445 billion this year.
"As the Bay Area gears up for Super Bowl 50, the security industry is getting ready for its own Super Bowl of sorts. The RSA Conference— which marks its 25th year — kicks off in San Francisco on Feb. 29.
Top of mind for industry insiders is how companies can best protect themselves against an increasingly sophisticated enemy intent on attacking bigger and more lucrative targets.
Crimes in cyberspace will cost the global economy $445 billion in 2016 — more than the market cap of Microsoft($411 billion),Facebook($314 billion) or ExxonMobil($332 billion) — according to an estimate from the World Economic Forum's 2016 Global Risks Report.
The threat of state-sponsored attacks aimed at taking down critical infrastructure continues to plague experts, but many believe the bigger threat is posed toward U.S. business interests.
"U.S. companies are definitely under pressure, and I think it's related in large part to nation-state attacks," said John Haller, a cybersecurity researcher in the CERT division of the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute.
The 2014 Sony hack is the poster child for what happens when an isolated nation-state goes after a North American enterprise. (U.S. government officials have hinted that North Korea was behind the attack.)..."
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/05/an-inside-look-at-whats-driving-the-hacking-economy.html
Cybercrimes will cost the global economy a whopping $445 billion this year.
"As the Bay Area gears up for Super Bowl 50, the security industry is getting ready for its own Super Bowl of sorts. The RSA Conference— which marks its 25th year — kicks off in San Francisco on Feb. 29.
Top of mind for industry insiders is how companies can best protect themselves against an increasingly sophisticated enemy intent on attacking bigger and more lucrative targets.
Crimes in cyberspace will cost the global economy $445 billion in 2016 — more than the market cap of Microsoft($411 billion),Facebook($314 billion) or ExxonMobil($332 billion) — according to an estimate from the World Economic Forum's 2016 Global Risks Report.
The threat of state-sponsored attacks aimed at taking down critical infrastructure continues to plague experts, but many believe the bigger threat is posed toward U.S. business interests.
"U.S. companies are definitely under pressure, and I think it's related in large part to nation-state attacks," said John Haller, a cybersecurity researcher in the CERT division of the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute.
The 2014 Sony hack is the poster child for what happens when an isolated nation-state goes after a North American enterprise. (U.S. government officials have hinted that North Korea was behind the attack.)..."
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/05/an-inside-look-at-whats-driving-the-hacking-economy.html
Russian Hackers Moved Currency Rate With Malware, Group-IB Says
Russian-language hackers deployed a virus known as the Corkow Trojan to infect Kazan-based Energobank and place more than $500 million in orders at non-market rates in February 2015, Group-IB told Bloomberg, without identifying individuals behind the attack. The resulting rate swing prompted a Russian central bank investigation last year into potential market manipulation.
Malicious software of the type used in the attack can open a back door into computers via seemingly legitimate websites or files and then force them to carry out hackers’ orders. Corkow, which regularly updates itself to evade detection by anti-virus programs, has infiltrated 250,000 computers worldwide and infected more than 100 financial institutions, according to Group-IB, which investigated the attack on behalf of Energobank.
“This is the first documented attack using this virus and it has potential to do much more damage,” Dmitry Volkov, the head of Group-IB’s cyber intelligence department, said by phone. “Once the malware has penetrated a local network, it is sophisticated enough to infect computers that are even not connected to the Internet.”
The Moscow Exchange has said its systems were not hacked in the incident on Feb. 27, 2015. In a separate investigation, the central bank said it found no evidence of currency market manipulation, noting the fluctuations could have been caused by traders’ mistakes.
The volatility lasted 14 minutes and caused the exchange rate to swing between 55 and 66 rubles per dollar, which “significantly differed from the prevailing market rate,” the central bank said in a statement on Dec. 17.
The bank claimed losses of 244 million rubles ($3.2 million) due to the trades, Vedomosti newspaper reported last year, citing a suit filed by Energobank in a Kazan court. There is no evidence that the hackers profited from the operation and it may have been a test to prepare for future attacks, according to Group-IB.
Energobank, the exchange and the central bank did not respond to e-mailed queries.
The virus was also used in an attack on a Russian bank card system that resulted in hundreds of millions of rubles being stolen via ATMs in August, Group-IB said..."
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...oved-currency-rate-with-malware-group-ib-says
- Hackers moved ruble-dollar rate more than 15% in 14 minutes
- Corkow Trojan malware behind more than $500 million in trades
Russian-language hackers deployed a virus known as the Corkow Trojan to infect Kazan-based Energobank and place more than $500 million in orders at non-market rates in February 2015, Group-IB told Bloomberg, without identifying individuals behind the attack. The resulting rate swing prompted a Russian central bank investigation last year into potential market manipulation.
Malicious software of the type used in the attack can open a back door into computers via seemingly legitimate websites or files and then force them to carry out hackers’ orders. Corkow, which regularly updates itself to evade detection by anti-virus programs, has infiltrated 250,000 computers worldwide and infected more than 100 financial institutions, according to Group-IB, which investigated the attack on behalf of Energobank.
“This is the first documented attack using this virus and it has potential to do much more damage,” Dmitry Volkov, the head of Group-IB’s cyber intelligence department, said by phone. “Once the malware has penetrated a local network, it is sophisticated enough to infect computers that are even not connected to the Internet.”
The Moscow Exchange has said its systems were not hacked in the incident on Feb. 27, 2015. In a separate investigation, the central bank said it found no evidence of currency market manipulation, noting the fluctuations could have been caused by traders’ mistakes.
The volatility lasted 14 minutes and caused the exchange rate to swing between 55 and 66 rubles per dollar, which “significantly differed from the prevailing market rate,” the central bank said in a statement on Dec. 17.
The bank claimed losses of 244 million rubles ($3.2 million) due to the trades, Vedomosti newspaper reported last year, citing a suit filed by Energobank in a Kazan court. There is no evidence that the hackers profited from the operation and it may have been a test to prepare for future attacks, according to Group-IB.
Energobank, the exchange and the central bank did not respond to e-mailed queries.
The virus was also used in an attack on a Russian bank card system that resulted in hundreds of millions of rubles being stolen via ATMs in August, Group-IB said..."
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...oved-currency-rate-with-malware-group-ib-says
The OPM hack is hilarious. The head of IT was asked why security wasn't tightened, right? He said "nobody told us to do it". I guess these public sector drones just sit and wait for funding and orders or something...
If Snowden is a traitor, so is Tim Cook:
Apple’s Cook Picks Up Where Snowden Left Off
"Edward Snowden stoked the debate over mass government surveillance. Tim Cook may be the one to rein it in.
By revealing the scope of U.S. monitoring of personal information, the former CIA employee forced Americans to confront the intrusion into their privacy, and also created an opening for the public to question the government’s activities. Apple Inc.’s chief executive officer is taking the next step by saying ‘no’ to a court order that would force the company to create special software needed by the FBI to unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino attackers..."
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...s-up-where-snowden-left-off-in-privacy-debate
Apple’s Cook Picks Up Where Snowden Left Off
"Edward Snowden stoked the debate over mass government surveillance. Tim Cook may be the one to rein it in.
By revealing the scope of U.S. monitoring of personal information, the former CIA employee forced Americans to confront the intrusion into their privacy, and also created an opening for the public to question the government’s activities. Apple Inc.’s chief executive officer is taking the next step by saying ‘no’ to a court order that would force the company to create special software needed by the FBI to unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino attackers..."
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...s-up-where-snowden-left-off-in-privacy-debate
The FBI-Apple thing is a public sector screw-up and little more. The County that owned the phones didn't do their IT bit, the FBI ordered the phone locked, then they want to bully Apple about it. I'd love it if Tim Cook told the FBI "no can do, come back when you want to buy something though, ta ta"