CALIBURN: A Regime-Sensitivity Study of Operationally Calibrated Streaming Intrusion Detection

Streaming network intrusion detection systems must process flows continuously while keeping memory bounded, but most current methods leave alerting threshold selection as a post-hoc tuning problem poorly suited to production. Operators need alerting behaviour specifiable before deployment using...

Public Voting Records: A Record, or an Attack Surface?

This is a whitepaper discussing a formal methodology for auditing voter-file disclosure regimes against linkage attacks...

Game-Theoretic Modeling of Stealthy Intrusion Defense against MDP-Based Attackers

The rapid expansion of Internet use has increased system exposure to cyber threats, with advanced persistent threats APTs being especially challenging due to their stealth, prolonged duration, and multi-stage attacks targeting high-value assets. In this study, we model APT evolution as a strategi...

Dictators Used Sandvine Tech to Censor the Internet. The US Finally Did Something About It

Canada-based Sandvine has long sold its web-monitoring tech to authoritarian regimes. This week, the US sanctioned the company, severely limiting its ability to do business with American firms...

The privacy concerns of tying SIM cards to real identities

The registration of SIM cards tied to a verified identity is back in the news, off the back of large-scale phone fraud. In what some may call a knee-jerk response to a problem, there are calls to revive a legal bill and make it law. Whats happening, and what are the potential ramifications? Hitti...

Apple Lawsuit Amps Up Pressure on Pegasus Spyware-Maker

In the wake of a zero-click zero-day exploit that was deployed against iPhone users, Apple has filed a lawsuit against NSO Group. The complaint alleges that the maker of the infamous Pegasus mobile spyware is responsible for the illegal surveillance of Apple users. The computing giant is looking...

Israeli spyware used in hacking phones of activists, journalists globally

By Waqas In groundbreaking research, it has been revealed that governments and regimes around the world used NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware. This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: Israeli spyware used in hacking phones of activists, journalists globally...

Iran Media Websites Seized by U.S. in Disinformation Campaign

The Department of Justice has seized the domains of 36 Iranian media sites that officials say weren’t just operating in violation of sanctions, but were part of a widespread government-backed malign-influence operation targeting the U.S. The DoJ said that 33 of the sites are run by the Iranian...

DNI’s Annual Threat Assessment

The office of the Director of National Intelligence released its "Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community." Cybersecurity is covered on pages 20-21. Nothing surprising: Cyber threats from nation states and their surrogates will remain acute. States increasing use of cyber...

Five Thoughts on the Internet Freedom League

In the September/October issue of Foreign Affairs magazine, Richard Clarke and Rob Knake published an article titled "The Internet Freedom League: How to Push Back Against the Authoritarian Assault on the Web," based on their recent book The Fifth Domain. The article proposes the following: The...

Two New Papers on the Encryption Debate

Seems like everyone is writing about encryption and backdoors this season. "Policy Approaches to the Encryption Debate," R Street Policy Study 133, by Charles Duan, Arthur Rizer, Zach Graves and Mike Godwin. "Encryption Policy in Democratic Regimes," East West Institute. I recently blogged about...

WhatsApp Adds End-to-End Encryption To One Billion Users

The world’s largest online communications company WhatsApp, with one billion users, announced Tuesday it added end-to-end encryption to its entire platform. The move is seen as a major win for security and privacy advocates. It also shifts the encryption spotlight away from Apple and its battle...

Hacking Team Says It Always Sold 'Strictly Within the Law'

Hacking Team officials are disputing reports that the company sold its surveillance and intrusion software to oppressive regimes in countries that were under sanction. The company said it sold its products “strictly within the law and regulation as it applied at the time any sale was made.” The n...

Hacking Team Plans to Continue Operations

UPDATE–It has been absolutely brutal week for Hacking Team. All of the company’s documents, internal communications, emails with customers, and invoices have been published, including its dealings with oppressive regimes and customers in sanctioned countries. But even with all that, company...

Operation DeathClick APT Malvertising Campaign

Advanced persistent threat groups are using malvertising in order to compromise the networks of their adversaries in what appears to be an example of high-level, nation-state attackers borrowing tactics from the typically less sophisticated cybercriminal arsenals. Attackers are also borrowing fro...

Israeli Firm Denies Gear Sold To Iran Is For Surveillance

An Israeli technology firm says it it looking into accusations made in a published report by Bloomberg that its software was sold to Iran, even as it denies claims in the report that its technology can be used for surveillance. The Israeli firm Allot Communications issued a statement on Friday th...

The Spy Files: Wikileaks expose Mobile Phone, Email Hacking capability

The Spy Files: Wikileaks expose Mobile Phone, Email Hacking capability Wikileaks has released dozens of new documents highlighting the state of the once covert, but now lucrative private sector global surveillance industry. According to Assange, over 150 private sector organisations in 25 countri...

Finally U.S. Policy to Address Internet Freedom !

Days after Facebook and Twitter added fuel to a revolt in Egypt, the Obama administration plans to announce a new policy on Internet freedom, designed to help people get around barriers in cyberspace while making it harder for autocratic governments to use the same technology to repress dissent...

After Twitter Hack, NY Times Debates Social Network Security

In the wake of a high profile though harmless cross site scripting attack launched from Twitter.com’s Web site, the New York Times is sponsoring a debate about the security of online social networks that offers some harsh criticism of the micro blogging site. The Gray Lady pulled together top nam...