Information Assurance Situation in Switzerland and Internationally
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Federal Strategy Unit for IT FSUIT Federal Intelligence Service FIS Reporting and Analysis Centre for Information Assurance MELANI www.melani.admin.ch Information Assurance Situation in Switzerland and Internationally Semi-annual report 2009/II (July – December) MELANI – Semi-annual report 2009/II Information Assurance – Situation in Switzerland and Internationally Contents 1 Focus Areas of Issue 2009/II .........................................................................................3 2 Introduction.....................................................................................................................4 3 Current National ICT Infrastructure Situation ..............................................................5 33.1.1 FDFA targeted by malware.................................................................................5 33.2.2 Website defacements after adoption of minaret ban initiative ............................5 33.3.3 DDoS attacks against Swisscom and Swisscom clients ....................................6 33.4.4 Fraud with fake domain registrations..................................................................7 33.5.5 Purported free offers against viruses, scareware, rogueware and ransomware 8 33.6.6 New top level domains (TLD) and high security zones in the Internet .............10 33.7.7 Revision of provisions implementing the Telecommunications Act ..................10 33.8.8 Skype wiretap published as source code .........................................................11 4 Current International ICT Infrastructure Situation.....................................................11 44.1.1 Publication of access data for e-mail accounts of various providers ................11 44.2.2 DDoS attacks....................................................................................................12 44.3.3 Hack in the run-up to the climate conference ...................................................14 44.4.4 Power failure in Brazil and virus at power utility in Australia ............................14 44.5.5 Drive-by infection via "not found" page.............................................................16 44.6.6 Protection of personal and confidential data (data mishaps)............................16 44.7.7 BKA strike against Internet scammers a major success ..................................18 44.8.8 Enterprises often prioritize the wrong security updates....................................18 44.9.9 Federal centre for combating botnets throughout Germany.............................19 5 Trends / Outlook ...........................................................................................................20 55.1.1 Information theft and the underlying economy – Attacks on EU, climate advocates, Google, banks and other................................................................20 55.2.2 In a globalized world, information assurance concerns everyone ....................21 55.3.3 Frequency of attacks on Swiss e-banking systems compared with other countries ...........................................................................................................23 55.4.4 Infections via social networking ........................................................................23 6 Glossary ........................................................................................................................25 7 Appendix .......................................................................................................................29 77.1.1 Detailed analysis of Koobface ..........................................................................29 77.2.2 Insights into Russian hacker forums.................................................................32 2/37 MELANI – Semi-annual report 2009/II Information Assurance – Situation in Switzerland and Internationally 1 Focus Areas of Issue 2009/II Information theft – Attacks against EU, climate advocates, Google, banks and others In recent months, numerous attacks were reported in which malware or insider access to computer systems of individuals, administrations and enterprises were used to steal and subsequently sell data, offer them to the media or misuse them for other purposes. The most prominent examples in the media were the attacks on Javier Solana and the General Secretariat of the EU, the stolen e-mails of various climate researchers shortly before the climate summit, the bank client data from HSBC, and the attacks on Google, Adobe and other companies in December 2009. ► Current situation in Switzerland: Chapter 3.1 ► Current situation internationally: Chapter 4.1, 4.3 ► Trends 5.1 Political hacking after adoption of the minaret ban In the aftermath of the vote on the minaret ban initiative, several thousand Swiss websites were defaced with political and religious statements. Website defacements are nothing new. More and more, however, the Internet is emerging as the primary or quickest outlet for political and religious protests. This is also seen in the DDoS attack against a Georgian blogger on the first anniversary of the offensive in Georgia. ► Current situation in Switzerland: Chapter 3.2 ► Current situation internationally: Chapter 4.2 Protection of personal and confidential data The protection of personal and confidential data is of the utmost priority in the digital age. Despite this, cost pressure, inattentiveness, lack of employee training, insufficient information assurance processes, and bad configurations repeatedly result in unwanted data leakage. ► Current situation internationally: Chapter 4.6 DDoS attacks for various purposes DDoS attacks against enterprises and governments are committed with various motives. The perpetrators either are trying to extort money by simple means, block political opinions (► Current situation internationally: Chapter 4.2), eliminate competitors (► Current situation in Switzerland: Chapter 3.3) or lure clients to the "right" offer (► Current situation internationally: Chapter 4.7). Frequency of attacks on Swiss e-banking systems compared with other countries Several financial service providers are using new, additional security solutions and have expanded their infrastructure so that criminal interest is waning. Various underground forums in Russia are even recommending against attacks in Switzerland, since online banking is too complex or the benefits are too limited. ► Chapter 5.3 and Appendix 7.2 3/37 MELANI – Semi-annual report 2009/II Information Assurance – Situation in Switzerland and Internationally 2 Introduction The tenth semi-annual report (July – December 2009) of the Reporting and Analysis Centre for Information Assurance (MELANI) presents the most significant trends involving the threats and risks arising from information and communication technologies (ICT). It provides an overview of the events in Switzerland and abroad, illuminates the most important developments in the field of prevention, and summarizes the activities of public and private actors. Explanations of jargon and technical terms (in italics) can be found in a Glossary (Chapter 6) at the end of this report. Comments by MELANI are indicated in a shaded box. Selected topics covered in this semi-annual report are outlined in Chapter 1. Chapters 3 and 4 discuss breakdowns and failures, attacks, crime and terrorism connected with ICT infrastructures. Selected examples are used to illustrate important events of the second half of 2009. Chapter 3 covers national topics, Chapter 4 international topics. Chapter 5 discusses trends and contains an outlook on expected developments. Chapter 7 is an Appendix with expanded explanations and instructions on selected topics covered in the semi-annual report. 4/37 MELANI – Semi-annual report 2009/II Information Assurance – Situation in Switzerland and Internationally 3 Current National ICT Infrastructure Situation 3.1 FDFA targeted by malware The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) was targeted by a professional virus attack. On 14 October 2009, a problem occurred on an FDFA server. The subsequent analysis by Microsoft found inconsistencies and third-party code. The FDFA then informed the Federal Office of Information Technology, Systems and Telecommunication (FOITT) and the Reporting and Analysis Centre for Information Assurance (MELANI) for initial inquiries. These inquiries showed that the FDFA had been targeted by a professional malware attack. Unknown perpetrators employed special software for this attack to penetrate the IT infrastructure of the department and to obtain targeted information. The malicious software was hidden very well and initially caused hardly any perceptible disruption of the IT infrastructure. As an emergency measure, the FDFA isolated its IT network from the Internet for several days. This was done to prevent data flowing to the outside and any manipulation of the IT infrastructure by third parties. This measure also affected various services, such as issuing of visas. In addition to FDFA IT specialists, experts from the FOITT and MELANI also participated in solving the technical challenges and in the investigations. The Office of the Attorney General initiated a criminal investigation of this matter. Attacks with malware are common nowadays. The various perpetrators vary the method of attack depending on their objective, motivation and know-how. Malware for the purpose of obtaining login and password data, for instance, is often broadly disseminated. This entails that enterprises or administrations may receive malware-infected