08 Jan 15. Ukraine’s prime minister blamed Russian intelligence on Thursday for a hacker attack against German government websites, for which a pro-Russian group claimed responsibility. The attack on Wednesday took place before Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk was due to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The Russian group demanded Berlin end support for the Ukrainian government. “I strongly recommend that the Russian secret services stop spending taxpayer money for cyberattacks against the Bundestag and Chancellor Merkel’s office,” Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk told ZDF TV when asked if pro-Russian hackers from Ukraine were responsible. The attack included web pages for Merkel and for the German parliament. Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibbert, said counter-measures were taken but failed to halt the attack, which left the sites inaccessible from 10 a.m. Wednesday until the evening. In a statement on its website, a group calling itself CyberBerkut claimed responsibility. “Berkut” refers to the riot squads used by the government of Ukraine’s former president, the pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovich, who was ousted after violent protests last February. The claim could not be verified. It was believed to be the first successful prolonged attack on German government websites, which intelligence agencies say face about 3,000 such assaults daily. About five of the daily attacks come from foreign intelligence agencies, the head of the BfV domestic intelligence agency said recently. The attack comes after U.S. investigators said they believed North Korea had probably hired hackers for a massive cyber attack against Sony Pictures. North Korea blamed the United States for internet outages it suffered soon after. (Source: Reuters)
08 Jan 15. Will Hackers cause an aviation disaster in 2015? Cyber crime is a serious threat to safety in the skies as an aviation industry heavyweight said recently, vowing to fight the growing problem. Hackers, cyber criminals and other “terrorists” are stealing information but in a worst-case scenario could endanger lives by tampering with airline systems. Among the organisations getting together to take action against hacking are the International Air Transport Association (IATA) that signed a new cyber security agreement, formalising their front against cyber crime.
“Our common goal in developing this agreement is to work more effectively together to establish and promote a robust cyber security culture and strategy for the benefit of all actors in our industry,” said Raymond Benjamin, secretary general of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
He added: “As technologies rapidly evolve and become more readily accessible to all, cyber threats cannot be ignored.
“This is an important new area of aviation security concern and our global community will ensure that it is met with a strong level of commitment and response.”
The problem of cyber attacks on airline systems is seen as a real and growing issue and one that could cause serious problems in 2015 before improved cyber security systems are put in place. (Source: Cyber Security Intelligence/mybroadband)
08 Jan 15. Mass Surveillance: The Internet’s best engineers are fighting back. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has played down suggestions that the NSA is weakening the security of the Internet through its standardization processes, and has insisted that the nature of those processes will result in better online privacy for all. After the Snowden documents dropped in mid 2013, the IETF said it was going to do something about mass surveillance. After all, the Internet technology standards body is one of the groups that’s best placed to do so and a year and a half after the NSA contractor blew the lid on the activities of the NSA and its international partners, it looks like real progress is being made. The IETF doesn’t have members as such, only participants from a huge variety of companies and other organ