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Booz Allen Hamilton’s criminal probe could drag on for years, CEO says – Washington Post

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The Department of Justices probe into the billing practices at Booz Allen Hamilton is unlikely to wrap up quickly, the McLean government contracting firms chief executive told analysts Monday.

Horacio Rozanski said the criminal investigation could take years to resolve.

The timeline for resolution remains uncertain, but given the complexity of cost accounting issues and the fact that we are still in the early stages of the investigation, we believe it is more likely to be years than months, Rozanksi said in a call with investors.

The company disclosed on June 15 that it is under federal investigation for the way it handled certain elements of the companys cost accounting and indirect cost charging practices, but has offered little information on the scope of the inquiry or what prompted it. Indirect costs are typically items like general administrative expenses or other overhead that may or may not be allowed under a government contract.

Rozanski emphasized Tuesday that his company is cooperating with the investigation and no charges have yet been brought. He said it is too early to estimate how much the company would spend on legal expenses, and he said the company had not yet set aside funds to deal with the matter.

The lack of clarity has investors worried.

The investigation could be [related to] two accounts out of 10,000 or something widespread that is in all of them. We just dont know, said Brian Ruttenbur, an analyst with Drexel Hamilton

Ruttenbur said the firms stock price has been trading about 5 percent below other firms in its industry, and will likely continue to do so until the issue is resolved. The June 15 revelation that the firm is under criminal investigation was enough to cause the firms stock price to drop by 17.8 percent the following day, erasing most of the stocks post-election gains.

The probe comes as the company is still smarting from allegations that employees Edward Snowden and Harold Martin III were involved in national security leaks.

Rozanski insisted Tuesday that the company has so far seen no impact from the investigation on the companys ability to bid on new contracts or service old ones.

Unless its something like fraud, I dont think this would hurt their business per say, said Cai Von-Rumohr, an analyst with Cowen investment bank. It certainly didnt in the first quarter [of 2017]; their bookings were sensational.

If history is any guide, the financial pain is likely to be small. An analysis of seven similar cases conducted by Cowen investment bank found the firms typically settled for less than $9 million. Thats a relatively small sum for a company as large as Booz Allen, which takes in almost $5.5 billion each year.

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Booz Allen Hamilton's criminal probe could drag on for years, CEO says - Washington Post

As The Trump Administration Cracks Down, Technology Makes Leaking Easier – KUT

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From Texas Standard:

U.S. Attorney General Jeff SessionsannouncedFriday that the Department of Justice would be cracking down on what he calls the "culture of leaking" that hasbesiegedthe Trump administration.

Sessions saysthe Justice Department has more than tripled investigations into leaks since President Trump took office, compared to under the Obama administration. And Sessions promised the DOJ would not hesitate to prosecute leakers of classified information.

So how does the number of leaks coming out of the Trump White House stack up to past administrations? ProfessorBobby Chesney, director of the Robert Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas, says leaks are as old as the presidency itself, but that their frequency and the public debate over them have ramped up under Trump. Digital technology is partly to blame.

Technological changes disrupted the entire media space, he says.

When the Pentagon Papers were leaked in the 1970s, for example, there were media gatekeepers like Washington Post Executive Editor Ben Bradlee, Chesney says. And it was up to him and other newspaper editors to decide whether to publish sensitive information. These days, a potential leaker has easy access to numerous media outlets, some with less rigorous editorial standards.

If youre Edward Snowden you can go to the Washington Post, and if they dont want to publish some of it, well, then you can turn to a foreign newspaper. Go to the Guardian in the U.K., and if they dont want to do it, well maybe go over to Der Spiegel in Germany, and if they dont want to do it, well maybe just go to WikiLeaks and see if Julian Assange will help you out, Chesney says.

But the executive branch does have ways to stop leaks, including firing government employees.

You can lose your job. If youre leaking classified information, then youre gonna lose your clearance, he says.

Prosecution is a consequence only in serious cases. The government can use the Espionage Act to prosecute leakers of national defense information and certain types of intelligence information, Chesney says. But the law in this case applies only to the government employee, not to the journalist or publication that publishes the information.

The federal governments never prosecuted a journalist as a co-conspirator for actually leaking the information, and I dont think thats what they were signaling they were gonna do here, he says.

Instead, Chesney says, the Trump administration likely will subpoena journalists to try to compel them to give up their sources. And legally, it has the authority to do so. Chesney says the First Amendment does not protect journalists from being asked to give up their sources.

Historically, though, the DOJ has been careful not to overuse its subpoena power.

Legal or not, theres going to be a real price to pay and as some people would say, you ought not to pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel, Chesney says.

Written by Caroline Covington.

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As The Trump Administration Cracks Down, Technology Makes Leaking Easier - KUT

The Best Encryption Apps For Your Phone – Gears Of Biz

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In light of Wikileaks latest Vault 7 release, we figured itd be prudent to take a look at the different levels of encryption used on popular messaging apps, as not all encryption is created equally.

However, if Wikileaks latest release is to be believed none of it matters anyway, as the CIA can get around it all.

Still, it does pay to be mindful about security as the CIA is one thing but hackers are something else completely.

Encryption was once a technology many thought was relegated to spies and security services, but the tech has actually been around for a long while in the ordinary persons everyday life. For example, when you make a bank transfer online, that data is encrypted so someone cant hack your account. But recently people have become interested in how well their less monetary communicationssuch as their text messages and calls with friendsare protected. Thats why a bunch of apps have sprung up that offer high-level encryption and existing communication apps have begun implementing encryption.

But not all encryption is created equal so the Electronic Frontier Foundation has put together an awesome Secure Messaging Scorecard that shows you just how well individual apps encrypt your data. Some apps offer end-to-end encryption that is almost unbreakable, but others only encrypt a message in transit. How well do your common messaging apps hold up and which are the most secure apps? Heres what the EFF, which rates each app as a pass or fail on 7 different metrics, says:

iMessage: Apples messaging app gets a 5 out of 7. It earns points for being both encrypted in transit and encrypted so even Apple couldnt read the messages if they were ordered to, but it loses points because you cant verify contacts identities and the code isnt open to independent review.

Facebook Chat: Facebooks chat messaging system scores a lowly 2 out of 7. Messages are only encrypted in transit, but Facebook could access them if ordered too.

Google Hangouts/Chat: As with Facebook, so with Google: Hangouts scores a lowly 2 out of 7. Messages are only encrypted in transit, but Google could access them if ordered too.

Skype: The worlds most popular VOIP client scores of horrible 1 out of 7. Messages are encrypted in transfer, but Microsoft could access them on their side, past comms arent secure if the encryption keys are stolen, and the code isnt open to independent review.

Snapchat: Snapchat scores a lowly 2 out of 7. Messages and pics are only encrypted in transit, so be sure any pic you send is something you wouldnt mind the world seeing if Snapchat gets hacked.

Viber: As with Facebook and Google: Viber scores a lowly 2 out of 7. Messages are only encrypted in transit, but the company could access them if ordered too.

WhatsApp: recently WhatsApp has started encrypting everything you send. This earned the app a 6 out of 7 on the EFFs scorecard. The only thing WhatsApp got dinged for is that the code is not open to independent review.

As you can see, the most commonly used messaging apps (above) arent completely secureor, because many lack independent review, users cant know 100% that the encryption on the apps actually works. But the EFF says there are other apps that score a 7 out of 7 on their scorecard. These apps are:

Signal: The free iOS and Android app allows you to take part in completely encrypted voice calls. Signal uses your existing number, doesnt require a password, and leverages privacy-preserving contact discovery to immediately display which of your contacts are reachable with Signal. Under the hood, it uses ZRTP, a well-tested protocol for secure voice communication, the company says.

Silent Phone: The company Silent Circle makes software and hardware for businesses who are worried about secure communications. Their Silent Phone software is available on Android and iOS and allows users to call and text with complete privacy.

Telegram: is another secure messaging app that received a 7 out of 7 from the EFF. The app allows you to text and chat with other Telegram users. Best of all, not only is it available on iOS and Android, they also make a Windows Phone app as well as clients for Mac and PCs.

Text Secure: Made by Open Whisper Systems, Text Secure enables encrypted voice calls and texts. Its available for Android and iOS and among its many advocates is Edward Snowden who has recommended those interested in secure communications should use anything by Open Whisper Systems.

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The Best Encryption Apps For Your Phone - Gears Of Biz

A new, dubious "smart" cryptocurrency for prostitution / Boing Boing – Boing Boing

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"Lust" is an initial coin offering based on the Ethereum blockchain platform, designed for prostitutes and their customers to exchange money for sexual services.

It uses smart contracts and anonymity features to escrow funding of the parties and keep their identities private, in order to avoid law-enforcement scrutiny and public shaming.

Leaving aside the thorny moral and social questions raised by the currency's intended use, there's the technical matter of how well this would work (and this technical matter wraps around to those moral and social questions).

The wireframe drawings of user interface features pictures of sex workers, selected by "elaborate filters based on skill ratings, age, eyes, hair color and other body parameters." The anonymity dimension of this platform is limited to the (presumably male) customers, not the (all-female) workers.

Likewise, the "smart contracts" favor one side of the bargain: the "key has to be scanned later if they make an agreement and meet otherwise the contract gets automatically closed in 48 hours, and the client gets his Etherium tokens back in the wallet" (note that "his" pronoun for the "client"). The game-theoretical aspects of this aren't hard to unpick: if the "client" has sex with the worker, and then does not scan her (sic) token, the client gets to have sex, and the worker gets nothing. Despite high-minded talk about preventing violence against sex-workers, the major threat-model addressed by these smart-contracts is men who don't feel like they got value for money when having sex, not women who perform sex-for-money and don't get paid for it.

Finally, there's the legal question: the people behind this cryptocurrency claim that "our system is not illegal anywhere in the world." That's just not true. There are plenty of territories in which simply using strong crypto is illegal, and others where having a nexus with the procurement of sex for money is itself illegal, no matter how attenuated the connection.

So, in a nutshell: this is a legally dubious platform designed to help men solve the problem of not being embarrassed when they procure the services of a female sex worker, and to protect them in the event that they choose not to pay for her services, but without any real protection for the sex workers' anonymity or ability to get paid.

Escrow deal based on smart contracts

Our escrow deals based on smart Ethereum contracts facilitate, verify, and enforce the negotiation or performance of a contract. An access key is generated from a clients wallet. The partner scans the key and the client gets the service without the intervention of a third party. Etherium tokens are returned back in case of non-performance of the agreement.

Decentralized platform

We are a decentralized online marketplace that enables users to transact without the need for a centralized location or any third-party arbitration. Experience hassle free transactions anonymously without any scams or fake reviews in a completely transparent setup. Decentralisation also implies that it can never be shut down, unlike dedicated servers.

Fully anonymous

You can register without any personal details on our website to connect with most desired body figures in an entirely incognito mode. We defend your privacy with features like cryptography, anonymous mail forwarding systems, digital signatures, and crypto-currencies to ensure smooth transactions.

Law does not prohibit

Whether you live in an extremely conservative country or in one of the most progressive ones, you can access our portal from anywhere at any time in the world. Whats better is, that our system is not illegal anywhere in the world. Since, it can be used everywhere instantly, you can find new partners even if youre visiting some other country or while travelling.

Lust

(via Beyond the Beyond)

Torontos crazy-insane property prices stayed high even through the 2008 crash and its aftermath, but sales volumes of houses of all types plummeted by 40.4% for July 2017-vs-July 2016, new listings are up by 5% over the same period and the average selling price has fallen by 19% since April.

Monsanto is facing over 100 lawsuits in a Federal district court in San Francisco brought by people who attribute their non-Hodgkins lymphoma to exposure to glyphosate in Monsantos Roundup weed-killer, and as part of the discovery process, it submitted internal documents to the court that detailed shenanigans in the companys internal science and its dealings []

Joseph Stiglitz, winner of a Nobel prize in economics, describes the foolishness of enacting further tax cuts for the wealthy in America, and the structural impediments that stand in the way of Trumps pursuit of this foolish goal.

Web technology has matured considerably in the last decade, and developers are continually in demand. If youre looking to add some skills to your resume, or are just interested in exploring the possibilities of the web, check out this Interactive Web Developer Bootcamp.In this course, youll get a comprehensive overview of full-stack development using modern []

Even if you only use your PC for web browsing, media playback, or light document creation, default software can sometimes come up short. To give your Windows PC a bit of a boost, weve compiled a variety of helpful, paid apps that can enhance your user experience and make you more productive.In thePremium PC Power []

Many people find it easiest to learn things by doing them. If youre looking to give a doer in your life an interesting, hands-on project, check out these tech-focused DIY kits:DIY AT-AT Cable Organizer & Card Case ($32.99)With this kit, you get to put together a wooden replica of an AT-AT that keeps cables, pens, []

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A new, dubious "smart" cryptocurrency for prostitution / Boing Boing - Boing Boing

‘Want my arrest?’ Assange taunts Macron after WikiLeaks posts archive of over 21000 campaign emails – International Business Times UK

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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange took to Twitter on Wednesday (2 August) to taunt French President Emmanuel Macron just days after releasing a searchable archive of 21,075 "verified" emails linked to his election campaign. The stolen material was initially dumped on the internet by unknown hackers in May, just 48 hours before the run-off between Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

Following the leak on 5 May, Macron's team said it was targeted by a "massive and coordinated" hacking operation.

On Monday, Macron's party La Rpublique En Marche, or Republic on the Move, said the emails dated between 2009 and April 24, 2017 that were published by WikiLeaks appeared to be the same as the ones leaked back in May. However, the party also warned that the dump included fake documents mixed with authentic ones.

"Republic on the Move calls for vigilance over these publications," the party said in a statement. "Under the guise of novelty, WikiLeaks is merely taking over the destabilisation operation from May."

It added that it will inform public prosecutors of the new publication and said a complaint has already been filed and is under consideration for "fraudulent access, fraudulent extraction of data, breach of correspondence and identity theft".

In response, Assange tweeted in French on Wednesday: "Macron wants my arrest? Let him assume and say, rather than go through a non-party and his attorneys."

In a separate tweet, he posted a link to a Le Figaro story about En Marche's statement and suggested that Macron's party was undermining the freedom of the press.

"Violation of the separation of powers, attack on freedom of the press: Macron's combo against @WikiLeaks," Assange wrote.

WikiLeaks said over 21,000 emails that were "individually forensically verified by WikiLeaks through its DKIM system" were included in the archive of 71,848 emails, along with 26,506 attachments from more than 4,400 unique senders. The whistle-blowing outfit did not state how the emails were obtained but cited an earlier comment by Guillaume Poupard, head of France's cybersecurity agency, in which he said the data dump appeared to be the work of an "isolated individual".

Following the leak of roughly 9GB of material in May, many compared it to the US presidential election hacks in 2016. US intelligence agencies accused Russia of interfering in the election to help Donald Trump win. However, the Kremlin has vehemently denied the accusations.

WikiLeaks played a significant role during the US presidential election campaign last year when it released thousands of damaging emails stolen from Hillary Clinton's campaign manager John Podesta's account and other Democratic officials.

Macron's campaign has has previously blamed Russian interests for attempting to interfere in the election campaign - allegations that Russia has dismissed as well.

Cybersecurity experts said Macron's campaign was targeted with sophisticated phishing attacks by Russia-linked hacking group APT28, also known as Fancy Bear - the same group linked to the DNC hack.

Assange has been residing at the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over rape allegations. He also feared that Sweden would extradite him to the US to face charges of espionage over the publication of thousands of highly classified military, political and diplomatic files in a series of leaks.

In May, Sweden dropped its seven-year investigation against the 45-year-old Australian national. However, British law enforcement have warned that he would still be arrested for other charges should he step out of the Ecuadorean embassy.

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'Want my arrest?' Assange taunts Macron after WikiLeaks posts archive of over 21000 campaign emails - International Business Times UK

Robert Mueller’s Has Record of Framing His Quarries – Canada Free Press

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The FBI would likely use Jonassons sitting on the story between 2011 and 2016 against his credibility.

After WikiLeaks released the Manning material, US authorities began investigating WikiLeaks and Assange personally with a view to prosecuting them under theEspionage Act of 1917.In November 2010US Attorney-GeneralEric Holdersaid there was an active, ongoing criminal investigation into WikiLeaks.It emerged from legal documents leaked over the ensuing months that Assange and others were being investigated by a federalgrand juryin Alexandria, Virginia.An email from an employee of intelligence consultancy Strategic Forecasting, Inc. (Stratfor)leakedin 2012 said, We have a sealed indictment on Assange.The US government denies the existence of such an indictment.

In December 2011 prosecutors in theChelsea Manning caserevealed the existence of chat logs between Manning and an alleged WikiLeaks interlocutor they claimed to be Assange;he denied this,dismissing the alleged connection as absolute nonsense.The logs were presented as evidence during Mannings court-martial in JuneJuly 2013.The prosecution argued that they showed WikiLeaks helping Manning reverse-engineer a password, but evidence that the interlocutor was Assange was circumstantial, and Manning insisted she acted alone.

Assange was being examined separately by several government agencies in addition to the grand jury, most notably theFBI.Court documents published in May 2014 suggest that Assange was still under active and ongoing investigation at that time.

Moreover, someSnowdendocuments published in 2014 show that the United States government put Assange on the 2010 Manhunting Timeline,and in the same period they urged their allies to open criminal investigations into the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks.In the same documents there was a proposal by theNSAto designate WikiLeaks as a malicious foreign actor, thus increasing the surveillance against it.

On 26 January 2015, WikiLeaks revealed that three members of the organisation received notice that Google had handed over all their emails and metadata to the United States government.In the notifications, there was the list of possible charges that originated the warrant toGoogleand that the secret grand jury intends to use against WikiLeaks and likely Assange too. They were espionage, conspiracy to commit espionage, theft or conversion of property belonging to the United States government, violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and general conspiracy. They carry up to a minimum of 45 years in prison, if they amount to one charge per these five types; otherwise, even more years could be added.

The United States investigation confirmed its ongoing proceedings against WikiLeaks in a 15 December 2015 court submission.

Robert Mueller was FBI Director in 2011 when the planeload of FBI agents was sent to Iceland, one year before the second election of Barack Hussein Obama as POTUS.

What information was a Mueller-led FBI trying to keep from coming into public view?

This is a question that leans heavily on his role as Special Counsel.

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Robert Mueller's Has Record of Framing His Quarries - Canada Free Press

Chelsea Manning released from prison – CNNPolitics

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Manning came out as a transgender woman in prison.

As a prisoner at the US Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, she had to conform to male grooming standards before her 3 a.m. ET release.

"She has experienced trauma over the past seven years of her confinement and the trauma from those experiences won't just evaporate the day she walks out of prison," said American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Chase Strangio, who represented Manning.

"It's going be a process for her to heal and begin to live her free life with more autonomy over her gender and her decisions and vision for the future."

After her release, Manning said in a statement, "After another anxious four months of waiting, the day has finally arrived. I am looking forward to so much! Whatever is ahead of me is far more important than the past. I'm figuring things out right now -- which is exciting, awkward, fun, and all new for me."

She also tweeted a photo of her feet, clad in black, low-top Converse Chuck Taylors, with the caption, "First steps of freedom!!"

The Army says Manning will remain on unpaid, active-duty status as she continues to appeal her court-martial. This means she will maintain her access to military medical benefits, including for gender dysphoria and gender reassignment, but Strangio said his client has no interest because of the treatment she endured in prison.

"Because of the nature of her circumstances and the experience of confinement, she is very committed to living her life as free from the government as possible and taking care of her own health benefits and financial needs, separate and apart from the continued benefits available to her," the lawyer said.

She clearly looked forward to what life might hold for her outside the military prison walls.

Amnesty International, which had campaigned for Manning's release, was quick to applaud her freedom but said the fight was not over.

"While we celebrate her freedom, we will continue to call for an independent investigation into the potential human rights violations she exposed, and for protections to be put in place to ensure whistleblowers like Chelsea are never again subjected to such appalling treatment," a statement said.

But it didn't come easily. Manning launched a hunger strike in September, demanding access to treatment for her gender dysphoria.

Though she still needs to navigate the legal process, Manning's "priority is living her life in the civilian world and taking care of her own needs."

She hopes to reside in the Washington area, the attorney said, explaining her supporters there will be vital, not only to her transition to civilian life but also to her transition to living openly as a transgender woman.

"It's going to be Chelsea telling us what her future will look like," Strangio said.

She hopes to continue hormone therapy and may pursue gender reassignment if doctors continue to recommend it, Strangio said.

Otherwise, she looks forward to growing out her hair and discovering "what will make her feel like she can embody womanhood" without the government's interference, he said.

Manning's attorneys Nancy Hollander and Vincent Ward agreed.

"Chelsea has already served the longest sentence of any whistleblower in the history of this country. It has been far too long, too severe, too draconian," Hollander and Ward said in a joint statement.

"President Obama's act of commutation was the first time the military took care of this soldier who risked so much to disclose information that served the public interest."

CNN's Holly Yan, Laura Jarrett, AnneClaire Stapleton and Mike Callahan contributed to this report.

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Chelsea Manning released from prison - CNNPolitics

Chelsea-Mannings-DNA-spawns-lifelike-3D-portraits – Story – CIproud.com

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30 lifelike 3D portraits of Chelsea Manning's face hang from the ceiling in the Fridman Gallery in Manhattan. 30 lifelike 3D portraits of Chelsea Manning's face hang from the ceiling in the Fridman Gallery in Manhattan. Related Content

NEW YORK (CNN) - For years, we only had one photo of Chelsea Manning: that iconic black and white mugshot she sent to her therapist.

It was made public by the Army in 2013 and remained the only photo portraying her as a woman until her release from prison in 2017 -- other photos were prohibited while she was in custody.

It's strangely fitting, then, that 30 lifelike 3D portraits of her face now hang from a ceiling in the Fridman Gallery in Manhattan.

They are part of a project called "A Becoming Resemblance," by Heather Dewey-Hagborg, who created them from computer-generated images made using Manning's DNA.

"This is a sampling of thirty possible faces that could be produced algorithmically reading Chelsea's DNA data," said Dewey-Hagborg during the exhibition's private view.

"They represent a wide range of the diversity that exists within Chelsea's genome, a diversity in which that same DNA data can be read."

Manning spent seven years in prison for leaking government documents to WikiLeaks. During that time, she had gender transition surgery.

Originally sentenced to 35 years when she was still known as Bradley Manning, she was pardoned in January 2017 by then President Obama -- on his third-to-last day in office -- and then released on 17 May.

The DNA samples were recovered from cheek swabs and hair clippings that were part of a correspondence between Manning and Dewey-Hagborg.

It's a similar process to Dewey-Hagborg's groundbreaking 2012 project "Stranger Visions," which used random bits of DNA found on cigarette butts and other litter to create portraits of strangers.

"In 2015 I received an email more or less out of the blue from Paper magazine. She couldn't be visited and photographed at that time and so they reached out to Chelsea and asked if she'd be interested in having a DNA portrait made."

A handful of letters were exchanged over the next two years through an intermediary.

"Chelsea was excited about the idea, but also concerned the she might appear too male in a portrait generated just based on her DNA," said Dewey-Hagborg.

"I'm hoping that people will take away the idea that genetics is not destiny and a kind of push for self-determined identity and a push against efforts to inscribe identities into us, or for external forces to tell us who we are rather than listening to us say this is who I am."

Ruddy Shrock, the curator of the exhibition, defined it as a "a poetic investigation Heather took into issues of identity and ownership of oneself."

Around 250 people were in attendance at the opening. Manning arrived accompanied by friends and her agent, but declined to speak with the media.

She was followed around by the documentary team for "Chelsea XY," which will be released at Sundance Film Festival in January 2018.

She did engage with fans and supporters and took photos with them.

"To have Chelsea out, in a dress, creating art, on this wonderful journey with other activists and people in the media, it's really moving," said Suzie Glbert, one of the attendees.

Jeff Seelbach, a fan of Chelsea and producer at the company funding her documentary, said: "The thing that fascinates me about it is the very unique and terrible situation she was in, that her identity and her ability to have an image and a representation was completely suppressed by the government and by our legal system."

Artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg also got to meet Chelsea in person for the first time after their mail exchange.

"It was both totally amazing and then completely normal. I mean we had brunch, avocado toast, you know, your typical New York thing. But then it was also just completely stunning to see someone you've pictured in your head," she noted.

"She's [Chelsea] really excited about it, this is her kind of art debut."

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Chelsea-Mannings-DNA-spawns-lifelike-3D-portraits - Story - CIproud.com

Entertainment Hackers Morphing Into Criminal Enterprises: IT Experts – Deadline

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HBO. Sony. Netflix. WME. UTA. ICM. Being hacked in Hollywood was once an exclusive club, but its rapidly expanding. Criminals have taken notice of the easy pickings at entertainment companies, according to two leading IT security experts asked about the recent attack on HBO.

Hackers earlier this week obtained an estimated 1.5 terrabytes of information from the HBO system, including a script for an upcoming Game of Thrones episode and some shows of Ballers and Room 104. The materials also reportedly included financial documents, company emails, and some customer information. After the initial disclosure, tonights Game of Thrones episode leaked, but its appearance was believed to be unrelated to the previous intrusion. Hackers have also threatened to release more material.

Although identifying the exact culprits for HBOs problem hasnt been achieved, corporate hacking is maturing. Where once it was a game played by young men, its now grown into a criminal enterprise or a nation-state show of power, according to two leading IT security experts

Dan Clements, an IT cyber-security consultant who has worked with many three-letter agencies, said cyber-crime used to be just a lark to a large underground cadre of hackers. Composed of hard-core computer nerds and avid gamers alienated from the real world, all boastful and eager to impress their peers, the hacking groups usually infiltrated sites just to prove it could be done. The goal was to obtain a trophy, rather than a ransom.

That relatively benign practice changed with the Sony corporate hack, Clements said, an intrusion which the FBI blamed on North Korea. But before that major incident, where stolen executive emails led to firings, there was an earlier intrusion. A group called the Lizard Squad, made up of Eastern Europeans, Australians, and even a Hawaii-based hacker, probed into Sony, Clements said.

By sharing what they found on popular underground hacker web sites, they may inadvertently led to the North Korean exploits.

Some of that Sony information had been floating around the underground, and the North Koreans may have had access to that intelligence, Clements said. The FBI said the cyber prints (on the major hack) were the North Koreans. But the rumor in the underground was that the gamers had already been in there.

Pre-Sony, the underground groups could be found by people who knew where to look, Clements said. Now, most rogue hackers are practically invisible. The groups are pretty dark these days, Clements said. In the old days, they liked to brag. Theres too much visibility these days. The young guys still brag, but the professionals arent going to be seen. Youre not going to be able to figure out who they are.

Roderick Jones, a former Scotland Yard security expert who now runs Rubica, a San Francisco cyber-security firm, said that most hacking attacks begin simply. If you look at the history of attacks that were, at the time, described as sophisticated and then back it up from there, theyre usually the effect of a Phishing attack against an employee. Stuxnet, thats a sophisticated attack. The major of attacks aimed against organizations are getting employees to click bad links.

Hacking into systems happens because of the collaborative nature of the workforce, Jones says. Too many people have access to sensitive material, he said, citing NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden as the classic example.

Sadly, there is no defense against someone determined to get into a computer system, Clements said. If you create a penetration testing group and formulate a hack plan, and have them try to get in, theyre going to be able to get in. The probability is so high that they can figure out how to get in, and once theyre in, then they migrate amongst servers and people and figure out what they want to take and if they want to hold us hostage. It just depends on their motivations.

But there is one hope. Many former hackers eventually decide to go legit. Ive seen them over 20 years grow up and want to have real jobs, said Clements. A lot of them want to work for security companies, some of them help law enforcement.

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Entertainment Hackers Morphing Into Criminal Enterprises: IT Experts - Deadline

Australia: Shelve Proposed Law to Weaken Encryption – Human Rights Watch (press release)

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(Sydney, August 7, 2017) The Australian government should not force technology companies to weaken the security of their products or to subvert encryption, Human Rights Watch said last week in a letter to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. That strategy would undermine cybersecurity for all users and would not stop determined criminals from using encryption.

On July 14, 2017, Turnbull announced new legislation to require device manufacturers and internet companies to provide appropriate assistance to intelligence and law enforcement agencies to access encrypted communications. Turnbull, along with Attorney General George Brandis and the acting commissioner of the Australian Federal Police, Michael Phelan, stated that encryption was thwarting the governments ability to monitor and investigate serious crime.

Governments are obliged to investigate and prosecute serious crimes, but any policy response should not do more harm than good, and needs to be effective, said Elaine Pearson, Australia director at Human Rights Watch. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Turnbulls proposal may fail on both counts and could undermine cybersecurity and human rights worldwide.

Governments have many ways to sharpen investigatory capability without undercutting the security of ordinary users, Human Rights Watch said. They could invest in modernizing investigation techniques and increasing resources and training in tools already at their disposal, consistent with human rights requirements. Any limitations encryption poses to police capabilities are greatly offset by the explosion of new kinds of investigatory material enabled by the digital world, including location information and vast stores of metadata that are not encrypted.

The Australian government previously proposed a coordinated approach to encryption at a June 26 meeting of the Five Eyes intelligence partnership, which also includes the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand, and the July 5 G20 summit. The prime minister provided few new details about the proposed legislation in the news conference to announce the legislation. When asked what kind of assistance companies would be required to provide, Turnbull said that he did not seek a back door into encrypted services, but nonetheless expected companies to ensure access to all data in unencrypted form.

However, for end-to-end encrypted applications like WhatsApp or iMessage or data stored on iPhones, companies cannot turn over unscrambled data nor the encryption keys, even with a court order, because they do not retain the keys. Only the sender and recipient can unscramble the information. The only way for companies to access unencrypted data is to introduce a deliberate vulnerability into their design that is, a back door or remove end-to-end encryption altogether.

The overwhelming consensus of information security experts and even some high-ranking former intelligence officials is that no technical solution would allow law enforcement agencies to decrypt communications without creating vulnerabilities that would expose all users to harm. Once back doors are introduced, malicious hackers and cybercriminals will seek them out, sell them on private grey markets, or exploit them for abuse or profit. Europol has also warned that solutions that intentionally weaken technical protection mechanisms to support law enforcement will intrinsically weaken the protection against criminals as well.

Companies are incorporating strong encryption into products in response to a range of threats from cybercriminals, data thieves, and malicious hackers. Encryption is a critical tool in their fight to secure users from these threats. Any requirement to weaken encryption flies in the face of global efforts to shore up cybersecurity, Human Rights Watch said.

Limiting strong encryption in Australia, or even across Australias closest allies like the Five Eyes alliance, is also unlikely to prevent bad actors from using it. A recent global survey of encryption confirms that determined criminals could easily shift to many available foreign alternatives that would not be subject to Australian law. Those most harmed by anti-encryption legislation are the millions of ordinary users with no connection to wrongdoing whose cybersecurity would be compromised. The harm may be even more serious for journalists and activists who regularly use encrypted applications to protect sources and victims from reprisals.

Turnbull stated that the bill would be modeled after the UKs 2016 Investigatory Powers Act (IP Act). The UK legislation allows authorities to serve technical capability notices on a broad range of internet companies. These notices will require firms to provide and maintain the capability to disclose, where reasonably practicable, the content of communications or secondary data in an intelligible form and to remove electronic protection applied by or on behalf of the operator. These notices can be used to facilitate not only targeted surveillance, but also mass surveillance, collection of metadata, and government hacking.

The precise scope of what these notices may require remains unclear, especially for operators who do not retain encryption keys. The draft implementing regulations do not clarify whether these companies will be required to alter the design of their products or build a back door into encryption. Contradictory statements from UK officials have not clarified the matter, nor shed light on how this approach would avoid undermining cybersecurity or prevent bad actors from using non-UK alternatives.

Just as troubling, the UK Investigatory Powers Act can also require some tech companies to notify authorities of new products or services before they are introduced so that authorities can assess whether new technical capabilities may be required. This potentially provides the government the ability to influence product design to facilitate surveillance, including whether and how encryption can be used.

The UK Investigatory Powers Act is no model for any government that cares about protecting the security of online communications, Pearson said. If other governments follow this example, no one could trust the security of the mobile phones and applications we use every day.

The UK parliament still needs to approve the implementing regulations before government officials can issue the new technical capability notices. However, once regulations are in place, the public may know very little about how they are used, since notices will be served and negotiated with companies secretly.

These overreaching provisions are among the reasons why whistleblower Edward Snowden described the IP Act as legalizing the most extreme surveillance in the history of Western democracy.

Australias approach to encryption will most likely be emulated by other countries in the region, Pearson said. If Turnbull wants to show true leadership, Australia should become a model for how countries can investigate effectively in a world with strong encryption, not endorse policies that would undermine cybersecurity and human rights.

Excerpt from:
Australia: Shelve Proposed Law to Weaken Encryption - Human Rights Watch (press release)


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