An Analysis of the Nature of Groups Engaged in Cyber Crime
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Identifying Threats Associated with Man-In-The-Middle Attacks During Communication Between a Mobile Device and the Back End Server in Mobile Banking Applications
IOSR Journal of Computer Engineering (IOSR-JCE) e-ISSN: 2278-0661, p- ISSN: 2278-8727Volume 16, Issue 2, Ver. IX (Mar-Apr. 2014), PP 35-42 www.iosrjournals.org Identifying Threats Associated With Man-In-The-Middle Attacks during Communication between a Mobile Device and the Back End Server in Mobile Banking Applications Anthony Luvanda1,*Dr Stephen Kimani1 Dr Micheal Kimwele1 1. School of Computing and Information Technology, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, PO Box 62000-00200 Nairobi Kenya Abstract: Mobile banking, sometimes referred to as M-Banking, Mbanking or SMS Banking, is a term used for performing balance checks, account transactions, payments, credit applications and other banking transactions through a mobile device such as a mobile phone or Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). Mobile banking has until recently most often been performed via SMS or the Mobile Web. Apple's initial success with iPhone and the rapid growth of phones based on Google's Android (operating system) have led to increasing use of special client programs, called apps, downloaded to the mobile device hence increasing the number of banking applications that can be made available on mobile phones . This in turn has increased the popularity of mobile device use in regards to personal banking activities. Due to the characteristics of wireless medium, limited protection of the nodes, nature of connectivity and lack of centralized managing point, wireless networks tend to be highly vulnerable and more often than not they become subjects of attack. This paper proposes to identify potential threats associated with communication between a mobile device and the back end server in mobile banking applications. -
A the Hacker
A The Hacker Madame Curie once said “En science, nous devons nous int´eresser aux choses, non aux personnes [In science, we should be interested in things, not in people].” Things, however, have since changed, and today we have to be interested not just in the facts of computer security and crime, but in the people who perpetrate these acts. Hence this discussion of hackers. Over the centuries, the term “hacker” has referred to various activities. We are familiar with usages such as “a carpenter hacking wood with an ax” and “a butcher hacking meat with a cleaver,” but it seems that the modern, computer-related form of this term originated in the many pranks and practi- cal jokes perpetrated by students at MIT in the 1960s. As an example of the many meanings assigned to this term, see [Schneier 04] which, among much other information, explains why Galileo was a hacker but Aristotle wasn’t. A hack is a person lacking talent or ability, as in a “hack writer.” Hack as a verb is used in contexts such as “hack the media,” “hack your brain,” and “hack your reputation.” Recently, it has also come to mean either a kludge, or the opposite of a kludge, as in a clever or elegant solution to a difficult problem. A hack also means a simple but often inelegant solution or technique. The following tentative definitions are quoted from the jargon file ([jargon 04], edited by Eric S. Raymond): 1. A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary. -
Recent Developments in Cybersecurity Melanie J
American University Business Law Review Volume 2 | Issue 2 Article 1 2013 Fiddling on the Roof: Recent Developments in Cybersecurity Melanie J. Teplinsky Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/aublr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Teplinsky, Melanie J. "Fiddling on the Roof: Recent Developments in Cybersecurity." American University Business Law Review 2, no. 2 (2013): 225-322. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Washington College of Law Journals & Law Reviews at Digital Commons @ American University Washington College of Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in American University Business Law Review by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ American University Washington College of Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ARTICLES FIDDLING ON THE ROOF: RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN CYBERSECURITY MELANIE J. TEPLINSKY* TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction .......................................... ..... 227 I. The Promise and Peril of Cyberspace .............. ........ 227 II. Self-Regulation and the Challenge of Critical Infrastructure ......... 232 III. The Changing Face of Cybersecurity: Technology Trends ............ 233 A. Mobile Technology ......................... 233 B. Cloud Computing ........................... ...... 237 C. Social Networking ................................. 241 IV. The Changing Face of Cybersecurity: Cyberthreat Trends ............ 244 A. Cybercrime ................................. ..... 249 1. Costs of Cybercrime -
Sample Iis Publication Page
https://doi.org/10.48009/1_iis_2012_133-143 Issues in Information Systems Volume 13, Issue 1, pp. 133-143, 2012 HACKERS GONE WILD: THE 2011 SPRING BREAK OF LULZSEC Stan Pendergrass, Robert Morris University, [email protected] ABSTRACT Computer hackers, like the group known as Anonymous, have made themselves more and more relevant to our modern life. As we create and expand more and more data within our interconnected electronic universe, the threat that they bring to its fragile structure grows as well. However Anonymous is not the only group of hackers/activists or hacktivists that have made their presence known. LulzSec was a group that wreaked havoc with information systems in 2011. This will be a case study examination of their activities so that a better understanding of five aspects can be obtained: the Timeline of activities, the Targets of attack, the Tactics the group used, the makeup of the Team and a category which will be referred to as The Twist for reasons which will be made clear at the end of the paper. Keywords: LulzSec, Hackers, Security, AntiSec, Anonymous, Sabu INTRODUCTION Information systems lie at the heart of our modern existence. We deal with them when we work, when we play and when we relax; texting, checking email, posting on Facebook, Tweeting, gaming, conducting e-commerce and e- banking have become so commonplace as to be nearly invisible in modern life. Yet, within each of these electronic interactions lies the danger that the perceived line of security and privacy might be breached and our most important information and secrets might be revealed and exploited. -
Getting to Yes with China in Cyberspace
Getting to Yes with China in Cyberspace Scott Warren Harold, Martin C. Libicki, Astrid Stuth Cevallos C O R P O R A T I O N For more information on this publication, visit www.rand.org/t/rr1335 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data ISBN: 978-0-8330-9249-6 Published by the RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, Calif. © Copyright 2016 RAND Corporation R® is a registered trademark Cover Image: US President Barack Obama (R) checks hands with Chinese president Xi Jinping after a press conference in the Rose Garden of the White House September 25, 2015 in Washington, DC. President Obama is welcoming President Jinping during a state arrival ceremony. Photo by Olivier Douliery/ABACA (Sipa via AP Images). Limited Print and Electronic Distribution Rights This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited. Permission is given to duplicate this document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial use. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.html. The RAND Corporation is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous. RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest. RAND’s publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors. -
Bank & Lender Liability
Westlaw Journal BANK & LENDER LIABILITY Litigation News and Analysis • Legislation • Regulation • Expert Commentary VOLUME 17, ISSUE 6 / AUGUST 1, 2011 Expert Analysis Once More Into the Breach: Are We Learning Anything? By Cynthia Larose, Esq. Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky & Popeo I’m a guy who doesn’t see anything good having come from the Internet. … [The Internet] created this notion that anyone can have whatever they want at any given time. It’s as if the stores on Madison Avenue were open 24 hours a day. They feel entitled. They say, “Give it to me now,” and if you don’t give it to them for free, they’ll steal it. –Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton, May 14, 20091 How ironic. This comment two years ago by Lynton created a minor firestorm and drove him to post a lengthy rebuttal on The Huffington Post,2 but at the time, Lynton was referring to content piracy, not data breaches. Given the events since Sony’s massive data breaches in April3 (and subsequent breaches in May and June), he might as well as have been referring to user informa- tion held by Sony and its various properties. As a matter of fact, the Sony Pictures hackers said, “Sony stored over 1 million passwords of its customers in plain text, which means it’s just a matter of taking it.”4 Since the April PlayStation Network breach that exposed more than 100 million user accounts, Sony has been hacked more than 10 times. Sony Europe,5 Sony BMG Greece,6 Sony Thailand,7 Sony Music Japan8 and Sony Ericsson Canada9 all suffered some intrusion and compromise of user information. -
The Botnet Chronicles a Journey to Infamy
The Botnet Chronicles A Journey to Infamy Trend Micro, Incorporated Rik Ferguson Senior Security Advisor A Trend Micro White Paper I November 2010 The Botnet Chronicles A Journey to Infamy CONTENTS A Prelude to Evolution ....................................................................................................................4 The Botnet Saga Begins .................................................................................................................5 The Birth of Organized Crime .........................................................................................................7 The Security War Rages On ........................................................................................................... 8 Lost in the White Noise................................................................................................................. 10 Where Do We Go from Here? .......................................................................................................... 11 References ...................................................................................................................................... 12 2 WHITE PAPER I THE BOTNET CHRONICLES: A JOURNEY TO INFAMY The Botnet Chronicles A Journey to Infamy The botnet time line below shows a rundown of the botnets discussed in this white paper. Clicking each botnet’s name in blue will bring you to the page where it is described in more detail. To go back to the time line below from each page, click the ~ at the end of the section. 3 WHITE -
Mobile Financial Fraud April 2013
White Paper: Mobile Financial Fraud April 2013 Mobile Threats and the Underground Marketplace Principal Investigator and Corresponding Author Jart Armin Contributing Researchers Andrey Komarov, Mila Parkour, Raoul Chiesa, Bryn Thompson, Will Rogofsky Panel & Review Dr. Ray Genoe (UCD), Robert McArdle (Trend Micro), Dave Piscitello (ICANN), Foy Shiver (APWG), Edgardo Montes de Oca (Montimage), Peter Cassidy (APWG) APWG Mobile Fraud web site http://ecrimeresearch.org/wirelessdevice/Fraud/ Table of Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... 2 Introduction and Starting Position ........................................................................................ 2 A Global Overview .................................................................................................................. 3 Vulnerabilities Overview ....................................................................................................... 3 The Underground Mobile Market ....................................................................................... 13 Mobile DNS & Traffic ........................................................................................................... 15 iBots & the Pocket Botnet ..................................................................................................... 18 Mobile Intrusion ................................................................................................................... -
MODELING the PROPAGATION of WORMS in NETWORKS: a SURVEY 943 in Section 2, Which Set the Stage for Later Sections
942 IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, VOL. 16, NO. 2, SECOND QUARTER 2014 Modeling the Propagation of Worms in Networks: ASurvey Yini Wang, Sheng Wen, Yang Xiang, Senior Member, IEEE, and Wanlei Zhou, Senior Member, IEEE, Abstract—There are the two common means for propagating attacks account for 1/4 of the total threats in 2009 and nearly worms: scanning vulnerable computers in the network and 1/5 of the total threats in 2010. In order to prevent worms from spreading through topological neighbors. Modeling the propa- spreading into a large scale, researchers focus on modeling gation of worms can help us understand how worms spread and devise effective defense strategies. However, most previous their propagation and then, on the basis of it, investigate the researches either focus on their proposed work or pay attention optimized countermeasures. Similar to the research of some to exploring detection and defense system. Few of them gives a nature disasters, like earthquake and tsunami, the modeling comprehensive analysis in modeling the propagation of worms can help us understand and characterize the key properties of which is helpful for developing defense mechanism against their spreading. In this field, it is mandatory to guarantee the worms’ spreading. This paper presents a survey and comparison of worms’ propagation models according to two different spread- accuracy of the modeling before the derived countermeasures ing methods of worms. We first identify worms characteristics can be considered credible. In recent years, although a variety through their spreading behavior, and then classify various of models and algorithms have been proposed for modeling target discover techniques employed by them. -
View Final Report (PDF)
TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS I EXECUTIVE SUMMARY III INTRODUCTION 1 GENESIS OF THE PROJECT 1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1 INDUSTRY SITUATION 2 METHODOLOGY 3 GENERAL COMMENTS ON INTERVIEWS 5 APT1 (CHINA) 6 SUMMARY 7 THE GROUP 7 TIMELINE 7 TYPOLOGY OF ATTACKS 9 DISCLOSURE EVENTS 9 APT10 (CHINA) 13 INTRODUCTION 14 THE GROUP 14 TIMELINE 15 TYPOLOGY OF ATTACKS 16 DISCLOSURE EVENTS 18 COBALT (CRIMINAL GROUP) 22 INTRODUCTION 23 THE GROUP 23 TIMELINE 25 TYPOLOGY OF ATTACKS 27 DISCLOSURE EVENTS 30 APT33 (IRAN) 33 INTRODUCTION 34 THE GROUP 34 TIMELINE 35 TYPOLOGY OF ATTACKS 37 DISCLOSURE EVENTS 38 APT34 (IRAN) 41 INTRODUCTION 42 THE GROUP 42 SIPA Capstone 2020 i The Impact of Information Disclosures on APT Operations TIMELINE 43 TYPOLOGY OF ATTACKS 44 DISCLOSURE EVENTS 48 APT38 (NORTH KOREA) 52 INTRODUCTION 53 THE GROUP 53 TIMELINE 55 TYPOLOGY OF ATTACKS 59 DISCLOSURE EVENTS 61 APT28 (RUSSIA) 65 INTRODUCTION 66 THE GROUP 66 TIMELINE 66 TYPOLOGY OF ATTACKS 69 DISCLOSURE EVENTS 71 APT29 (RUSSIA) 74 INTRODUCTION 75 THE GROUP 75 TIMELINE 76 TYPOLOGY OF ATTACKS 79 DISCLOSURE EVENTS 81 COMPARISON AND ANALYSIS 84 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ACTOR RESPONSE 84 CONTRIBUTING FACTORS TO SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES 86 MEASURING THE SUCCESS OF DISCLOSURES 90 IMPLICATIONS OF OUR RESEARCH 92 FOR PERSISTENT ENGAGEMENT AND FORWARD DEFENSE 92 FOR PRIVATE CYBERSECURITY VENDORS 96 FOR THE FINANCIAL SECTOR 96 ROOM FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 97 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 98 ABOUT THE TEAM 99 SIPA Capstone 2020 ii The Impact of Information Disclosures on APT Operations EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This project was completed to fulfill the including the scope of the disclosure and capstone requirement for Columbia Uni- the disclosing actor. -
A PRACTICAL METHOD of IDENTIFYING CYBERATTACKS February 2018 INDEX
In Collaboration With A PRACTICAL METHOD OF IDENTIFYING CYBERATTACKS February 2018 INDEX TOPICS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 4 OVERVIEW 5 THE RESPONSES TO A GROWING THREAT 7 DIFFERENT TYPES OF PERPETRATORS 10 THE SCOURGE OF CYBERCRIME 11 THE EVOLUTION OF CYBERWARFARE 12 CYBERACTIVISM: ACTIVE AS EVER 13 THE ATTRIBUTION PROBLEM 14 TRACKING THE ORIGINS OF CYBERATTACKS 17 CONCLUSION 20 APPENDIX: TIMELINE OF CYBERSECURITY 21 INCIDENTS 2 A Practical Method of Identifying Cyberattacks EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW SUMMARY The frequency and scope of cyberattacks Cyberattacks carried out by a range of entities are continue to grow, and yet despite the seriousness a growing threat to the security of governments of the problem, it remains extremely difficult to and their citizens. There are three main sources differentiate between the various sources of an of attacks; activists, criminals and governments, attack. This paper aims to shed light on the main and - based on the evidence - it is sometimes types of cyberattacks and provides examples hard to differentiate them. Indeed, they may of each. In particular, a high level framework sometimes work together when their interests for investigation is presented, aimed at helping are aligned. The increasing frequency and severity analysts in gaining a better understanding of the of the attacks makes it more important than ever origins of threats, the motive of the attacker, the to understand the source. Knowing who planned technical origin of the attack, the information an attack might make it easier to capture the contained in the coding of the malware and culprits or frame an appropriate response. the attacker’s modus operandi. -
Internet Infrastructure Review Vol.15 -Infrastructure Security
1. Infrastructure Security The Revised Unauthorized Computer Access Law In this volume we examine the revised Unauthorized Computer Access Law, and discuss the DNS Changer malware as well as the Ghost Domain Name issue relating to DNS. Infrastructure Security 1.1 Introduction This report summarizes incidents to which IIJ responded, based on general information obtained by IIJ itself related to the stable operation of the Internet, information from observations of incidents, information acquired through our services, and information obtained from companies and organizations with which IIJ has cooperative relationships. This volume covers the period of time from January 1 to March 31, 2012. Following on from the previous period, with an increase in the number of smartphone users, there have been an increasing number of problems related to the handling of information on the devices and user information. Hacktivism-based attacks such as those by Anonymous also continued to occur, and the number of attacks on companies and government agencies remained at a high level. In Middle-Eastern countries and Israel there were a series of hacking incidents and information leaks, as well as DDoS attacks on websites including critical infrastructure. Regarding vulnerabilities, an issue was discovered and fixed in multiple cache DNS server implementations including BIND. As seen above, the Internet continues to experience many security-related incidents. 1.2 Incident Summary Here, we discuss the IIJ handling and response to incidents Other 19.7% Vulnerabilities 20.6% that occurred between January 1 and March 31, 2012. Figure 1 shows the distribution of incidents handled during this period*1.