'AC/DC virus' hits Iran nuke plants

from torontosun.com: An Internet security company says it received a report nuclear plants in Iran were hit by a virus that makes their computers play music by the rock band AC/DC.

In a blog post earlier this week, F-Secure Labs, which monitors spyware, phishing and other cyber threats, said a scientist working at the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) sent “a series of e-mails” saying computer systems at the Natanz and Fordo nuclear facilities had been infected by a computer worm. The sender said hackers shut down their automation network and Siemens hardware.

Chief research officer at F-Secure Corporation in Finland - Mikko Hypponen, confirmed the nuclear scientist was sending and receiving e-mails from within the AEOI but could not verify any of the other details.

Iran’s nuclear facilities have recently been infected by viruses called Flame and Stuxnet, which Hypponen told the International Business Times were part of a joint U.S.-Israel cyber espionage operation.

Obama Lights the 'Flame': From 'Virtual War' To Military Conflict

#Video: Obama Ordered Cyber Attacks Against Iran
from brasschecktv.com: Over a year ago the Pentagon announced that computer sabotage coming from another country can constitute an act of war and could lead to military conflict. Now it has been 'leaked' that Obama ordered and even escalated cyber attacks against Iran. So what comes next?

Video: Cyber-Battles Raise Fears of Cyber-Blowback*
Obama Ordered Stuxnet to Continue After Bug Caused it to Spread Wildly*
Sen. Feinstein Calls for Hearing on Stuxnet Leaks as FBI Begins Probe*
Flame Hijacks Microsoft Update to Spread Malware Disguised As Legit Code*
A Massive Web of Fake Identities and Websites Controlled Flame Malware*
Flame Gets Suicide Command*

#LulzSec hackers charged after ringleader turns #informant

LulzSec leader #Sabu was working for us, says #FBI

from usatoday: Five members of the elite hacking group LulzSec have been charged with cyberattacks following an international investigation in a which a ringleader of the global organization began secretly working as an FBI informant, authorities announced today. An indictment unsealed in New York says Hector Xavier Monsegur, of New York City, a legendary hacker known as "Sabu," was charged with conspiracy to engage in computer hacking, among other offenses, and pleaded guilty in August. According to the court papers, Monsegur was an "influential member of three hacking organizations — Anonymous, Internet Feds and Lulz Security — that were responsible for multiple cyberattacks on the computer systems of various businesses and governments in the United States and throughout the world."

Update: The one tiny slip that put LulzSec chief Sabu in the FBI's pocket

Flashback: One In Four US Hackers 'Is An FBI Informer'

12/8 defcon: kepler, voyager, zynga & more

new planet an earth-like world, 600 light-years away?*

video: new planet eerily like earth*
nasa spacecraft 'voyager 1' exploring solar system's edge*
video: surfer blood 'voyager reprise'*
iran shows intact drone, boasts of cyberattack*
house cyber panel chair says put dhs over cybersecurity*
on facebook, nypd officers maligned west indian paradegoers*
oregon judge rules bloggers aren't journalists*
video: zynga set to sell 100m shares in huge ipo*

feds deny water utility hack

DHS & FBI dismiss foreign cyberattack as cause of Illinois utility water pump failure, reports TG Daily. The alphabet agencies conclude there's no evidence to support earlier claims!

SCADA security expert Joe Weiss, concerned about the lack of timely notification of threats to infrastructure, remains skeptical of latest DHS statements. In a followup WashPo article, Ellen Nakashima writes, "Weiss said that federal officials were seeking a degree of proof impractical for such a cyberattack. The control system at the Illinois plant probably does not log signals sent to the water pumps and, as a result, would contain no data on who might have gained access to the system, he said. 'Control systems don’t have that kind of logging'.” Weiss also points out his comments have been based on formal statements of disclosure from Illinois State Terrorism and Intelligence Center.

There doesn't exist a clear trail that can be documented to prove a cyberattack or where it originated. It's also clear from articles that the Illinois utility "suffered intrusions".

US weighed use of cyberattacks to weaken libya

from nytimes: Just before the American-led strikes against Libya in March, the Obama administration intensely debated whether to open the mission with a new kind of warfare: a cyberoffensive to disrupt and even disable the Qaddafi government’s air-defense system, which threatened allied warplanes.

While the exact techniques under consideration remain classified, the goal would have been to break through the firewalls of the Libyan government’s computer networks to sever military communications links and prevent the early-warning radars from gathering information and relaying it to missile batteries aiming at NATO warplanes.

But administration officials and even some military officers balked, fearing that it might set a precedent for other nations, in particular Russia or China, to carry out such offensives of their own, and questioning whether the attack could be mounted on such short notice. They were also unable to resolve whether the president had the power to proceed with such an attack without informing Congress.

In the end, American officials rejected cyberwarfare and used conventional aircraft, cruise missiles and drones to strike the Libyan air-defense missiles and radars used by Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s government.

china on the cyberattack!

Is it the law of the jungle or just payback? China internet buzz set off rumors of cyberattacks on Japan commemorating, on Sept 18th, 80th anniversary of the Manchurian Incident.

The Telegraph article reports: "the attacks took place on Saturday and Sunday... and affected the sites of the National Personnel Authority, the Cabinet Office and a government video distribution service...Hackers also targeted Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., which has admitted that computers and servers at eight of its plants across the country had been compromised." Is China turning predator, jumping on a weakened foe and who is next?

radiation chic coming to america

Japanese chic facial ware may be coming to America? Radiation concerns can be seen in geiger counters sold out. GE Mark 1 nuclear reactors are "operating safely" at 23 American plants; similar in design to damaged Fukushima reactors. The Japanese feel betrayed by government, according to Yoichi Shimatsu's most recent update on the disaster here. A suspicious lack of response has same whiff of Hurricane Katrina rescue efforts. Japan still hasn't moved to entomb the reactors and eerily reminescent of slow response in New Orleans? Is it predatory capitalism?


A blog entry at Humans Are Free makes several suppositions how and why an insane New World Order elite precipitates "natural disasters". The modus operandi considered is a Stuxnet infection, establishing outside access to critical Siemens PLCs that control coolant rods. Industrial operations are under increased cyber-attacks. HAARP is implicated in eliciting earthquake that resulted in a tsunami.

The most interesting suggested link is, perhaps, Japan's issuing 15 Trillion in currency, which is viewed as likely used by US Federal Reserve as a means to further dilute damage done by derivatives. It's coincidental the Fed announced quantitative easing will end June 30th. The world has clearly gone crazy. The present writer subscribes to view there are capitalists, who will attempt to profit off of death and destruction!

latest salvo in korean cyberwar

Cybersecurity firm Ahnlab, in a guardian.co.uk article, reported a denial of service attack (DoS) that targeted "... websites belonging to South Korea's presidential office, the foreign ministry, the national intelligence service, US Forces Korea and major financial institutions." Park Kun-woo, Ahnlab spokesman, advised attacks were similar to past ones - a DoS type of attack, and largely, same websites involved. Ahnlab reported a computer user found a bug, and after analysis, discovered malware designed to attack websites. The targets were warned in advance, as a result, experienced only brief slow downs. South Korean officials, in the past, have traced cyberattacks back to China. The current article is only reporting, "it was not immediately clear from where Friday's attack originated." Does this represent new posturing - a reversal - in messages sent in a spirit of keeping peace?

2/17 defcon: cyber-coup, backdoor & track more

cyber-attack hits canadian government computers*
report: egypt shut down net with big switch, not phone calls*
voice of america uses social media to aid foreign dissent*
surveillance footage & code clues indicate stuxnet hit iran*
cia head panetta warns of possible cyber-pearl harbor*
lynn urges partnership against cyber threat*
dod talks up plans to deploy cybercommandos 3.0*
video: hillary announces expanded US cyber-coup campaign*
US intelligence officials concerned about cyber attack*
'kill switch' internet bill alarms privacy experts*
cyberwar issues likely to be addressed only after a catastrophe*
fema loses official lesson reports on katrina, floods, fires*
feds seize 18 more domains in piracy crackdown*
fbi to announce significant new wiretap push:
backdoors galore in everything from skype to bittorrent*
online 'do not track' bill introduced in congress*
internet searches beginning to be used as evidence in trials*
obama/holder case against assange dribbles away*
jobs, schmidt & zuckerberg meet with obama in san francisco*
reminder: facebook & google are cia fronts*