Information Policy

'Hacktivism' making a comeback

Politically-motivated hacking incidents are on the rise, according to security researchers.

Paul Ferguson, advanced threats researcher at Trend Micro, said in a company blog that so-called 'hacktivist' attacks have become increasingly common and more dangerous in recent years.

"While most of the cyber-crime activities conducted on the internet are being driven by financial incentives, there also appears to be type of malicious activity being driven by other motivations altogether," Ferguson wrote.

The researcher noted the major attacks in Estonia last year, as well as a recent incident in which sites for Radio Free Europe were flooded with hits during coverage of a rally in Belarus for victims of the Chernobyl disaster.

Ferguson is not the only security expert to note such a trend. McAfee reported a similar rise in hacktivist activities last week following an attack on CNN by Chinese nationalist hackers.

The concept of hacktivism goes back more than 20 years, but a changing internet climate seems to be making the attacks more dangerous and effective.

"Incidents of hacktivism are not new, but they are beginning to become a lot more frequent," wrote Ferguson.

"This is perhaps due to the availability of tools, but also to the ubiquitous social networking mechanisms which can now be used to build consensus when times of cultural or political unrest present the opportunity."

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2215510/hacktivism-making-comeback

Reported Dollar Loss From Internet Crime Reaches All Time High

According to the 2007 Internet Crime Report, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received 206,884 complaints of crimes perpetrated over the Internet during 2007. Of the complaints received, more than 90,000 were referred to law enforcement around the nation, amounting to nearly $240 million in reported losses. This represents a $40 million increase in reported losses from complaints referred to law enforcement in 2006. All complaints received by IC3 are accessible to federal, state, and local law enforcement to support active investigations, trend analysis, and public outreach and awareness efforts. “The Internet presents a wealth of opportunity for would be criminals to prey on unsuspecting victims, and this report shows how extensive these types of crime have become,” said FBI Cyber Division Assistant Director James E. Finch. “What this report does not show is how often this type of activity goes unreported. Filing a complaint through IC3 is the best way to alert law enforcement authorities of Internet crime.”

http://ic3.gov/media/2008/080403.htm

Estonia to drill NATO's future cyber-war defenders

Almost a year after falling victim to a "cyber-war" blamed on Russian hackers, the Baltic state of Estonia is now piloting NATO's efforts to ward off future online attacks on alliance members.

http://news.smh.com.au/estonia-to-drill-natos-future-cyberwar-defenders/20080402-234p.html

EU Debates Cybercrime Law Enforcement

Two groups working separately to boost Europe's defences against online crime will present proposals this week, almost a year after most of the nation of Estonia's links to the Internet were disrupted for days or weeks. At a two-day conference starting today in Strasbourg, France, the Council of Europe will to review implementation of the international Convention on Cybercrime and discuss ways to improve international cooperation. Cyber defence also will be on the agenda when heads of state from NATO's 26 member nations gather in Bucharest tomorrow for three days.

http://www.siliconvalley.com/ci_8759398

Fighting Computer Crime In Singapore

Staff Attorneys, IBLS Editorial Board

The Government of Singapore has devoted significant effort to combating computer crime. It passed legislation in 1993 and periodically amends this legislation as needed. It has created new agencies and given its law enforcement personnel greater powers in its fight against these crimes. This article provides an overview of the Law on Computer Crimes in Singapore.

A 2006 study by independent author Jolly John identified Singapore as “the most network ready country” in the world. This has lead to both a proliferation of computer-based crime in Singapore and to efforts by the Singaporean government to combat such crime. The primary tool for law enforcement officials in Singapore is the Computer Misuse Act which was passed in 1993 and has been amended four times, as recently as 2005.

Singapore has chosen to follow the model of the United Kingdom by enacting legislation that addresses computer crime and utilizing the existing Penal Code for cyber crime. Computer crime is dealt with in Singapore’s Computer Misuse Act. This law prohibits the obtaining of unauthorized access to computer material, modifying the contents of a computer, obtaining or intercepting any computer service or function, interfering with or obstructing the lawful use of a computer, impeding or preventing access to or impairing the usefulness or effectiveness of any computer program or data, or disclosing a password, access code, or other means of gaining access to a program or data.

http://www.ibls.com/internet_law_news_portal_view.aspx?s=articles&id=5F2D5788-C4ED-47E2-9C66-A2F54E5C0F33

Cyber Attacks Target Pro-Tibet Groups

Human rights and pro-democracy groups sympathetic to anti-China demonstrators in Tibet are being targeted by sophisticated cyber attacks designed to disrupt their work and steal information on their members and activities. Experts say attributing such attacks to any one group or government is extremely difficult, as computer systems that appear to be the source of malicious activity online often are controlled by persons or groups using computers in completely different locations.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/21/AR2008032102605.html

The Future of International Law: Cybercrime

by Henrik Stakeman Spang-Hanssen

This Article first deals with the question of to what extent the Convention on CyberCrime have unreasonable implications for the individual Cybernauts, specially the convention's basic principle of aut dedere aut judicare - the duty of each party to extradite or to prosecute. Next, it deals with the problem that the convention pursuant to article 22(4) does not exclude any criminal jurisdiction exercised by a Party in accordance with its domestic law. It then describe when a state under public international law has jurisdiction over public international computer networks (the Internet), including the problem of where the offence is committed and who is the offender. In addition it deals with the problem of a minor being the offender and mention some Internet related cases involving juveniles. Finally, it deals with what public international law should embrace in relation to public international computer networks.

http://ssrn.com/abstract=1090876

Hackers Declare War On Scientologists

Hackers are infuriated by the removal from YouTube last month of a Scientologists' video clip featuring Tom Cruise. They have alleged that Scientologists forced YouTube to remove the embarrassing footage, in which the actor hailed the religion as "a blast". The church has appeared powerless to stop the online sabotage. Guerrilla action has so far included the temporary disabling of its international Web site and "Google bombing", a manipulation of the search engine which has resulted in the Web site being the first result returned by Google when users type "dangerous cult". Scientology's UK Web site has been unavailable and in the US the FBI were investigating what they said was the hoax dispatch of white powder in envelopes to 19 churches in the Los Angeles area.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/feb/04/news

Another Estonia Cyberattack

With the trial starting for four ethnic Russians charged in connection with rioting last year, the Estonian news site Delfi.ee has weathered a two-week-long denial of service attack. The attack, which ended Tuesday, was minimally disruptive, according to Hillar Aarelaid, manager of Estonia's Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT).

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,141438-c,cybercrime/article.html

Cybercrime in Belarus in the beginning of 2008

On Saturday, January 5, Belarusian internet portal TUT.BY and hosting provider HOSTER.BY (some Hoster.by srevers are located in Moscow) underwent the most powerful hacker attack in the whole history of Belarusian internet.

Igor Chernenko, chief of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Department on cyber crime, announced that a criminal investigation on the case had been started.

On January 10, since 12.00 till 19.00, Belarusian internet users had difficulties while trying to access Beloruskij partizan, Charter 97, radio Freedom, ucpb.org and livejournal.com sites

Maria Stoliarova from Beltelecom department on information and public relations stated: "We have no relations to the problems with access to some independent web sites". She explained that these sites might had problems with providers and hosting. She argued that Beltelecom could not "narrow" internet channels for the web sites hosted at other servers (not at Beltelecom ones).

Meanwhile independent resources owners maintain that Beltelecom used shaping techniques because of the private entrepreneurs protest meeting which took place in Minsk on January 10, since 12.00.

http://www.e-belarus.org/news/200801111.html