Education: CISSP, RHCSA
Highlights of your career? Reverse engineering human brain patterns.
What malware do you hate the most? Nation state sponsored low and slow.
Favorite activities? Building and flying airplanes.
What is your golden rule for cyberspace? Stupid hurts.
When did you get your first computer and what kind was it? 1988, Radio Shack TRS-80.
Favorite computer game/activity? Java/Big Data algorithms to find brain patterns.
As of 1:20 EST today, The Atlantic Wire reports an FBI official has stated there have been raids and arrests of multiple individuals at multiple locations nationwide. Later reports from CBS/AP pegged the arrest number at 14, and report “FBI agents conducted raids at four New York residences as well as locations in California, New
In this case, we aren’t referencing the group who, as of late, has made headlines for hacking endeavors. A new technology, sort of a modified proxy chain on steroids, seems to be gaining some proof-of-concept notoriety, hoping to offer new levels of anonymity while surfing online. The technology hopes that when users connect, the network
If you keep up on the subject, FBI has been recently cracking down on ATM card data theft rings, where scammers attach fake hardware to the front of ATM’s and trick users into entering PIN information, then record the data to logging devices which can be retrieved later. In some cases the attackers use Bluetooth
Sitting in an airport you rarely frequent, you grab your laptop and snap out a couple e-mails to send, and look, there’s a free WiFi hotspot. Bang, you connect and send, and are off on your way. What you don’t know is the free WiFi may come with a price: your login credentials and network
The mobile devices of late have more compute power than the full desktop PC of yesteryear, and they fit it your pocket, great news for folks “on the go.” And since you’re so multi-tasked anyway, why not load it up with things to make your life easier, after all, it’s really a phone with a
In the wake of the flood of recent mortgage/housing fraud, a police raid in Colorado resulted in a laptop seizure they feel may contain evidence to help a case. Turns out it’s encrypted. Citing suspicion of nastiness contained therein, the U.S. Government has asked a federal judge to compel the owner, Ramona Fricosu, to enter
In an effort to deal with the security woes of .com websites, the U.S. Government has a solution: build a new “internet” around .secure instead. The problem? Apparently, people have too much freedom on the .com’s, allowing cyber-dirtbags to skulk around anonymously. This would aim to cure all that by requiring “visitors to use certified
Google, in an effort to get more squarely into the center of the social networking scene, is implementing a system where private profiles you may have created in Gmail will become public after July 31, or you risk account deletion. While the information on the profile that is made public will be limited initially, the
It’s no secret that spam/botnets are big business. There are a multitude of variations on a familiar theme, but after they trick unwitting users, what happens to the money? University of California wondered the same thing. In their recent report, “Click Trajectories: End-to-End Analysis of the Spam Value Chain” they analyze where the money goes,
In a new twist on a familiar theme, legislation is being proposed to allow a court order to require providers to “shut off” websites deemed to be “dedicated to infringing activities.” This would allow websites to be shut down immediately, without any final court judgment of wrongdoing, or site owner notification. If the “PROTECT-IP Act”
On Wednesday we heard additional documents had been leaked from the Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS). “Will this ever end?” has to be the most commonly-asked question in Arizona nowadays at the DPS. The original attacks last week were claimed by the group LulzSec, which was making the rounds exposing private information through hacking
Al-Qaida appears to have had its web communications hit by hackers, thwarting its continued effort at updating the world about its activities. It appears that a good portion of their global web presence has been affected. A year ago a similar style attack halted their web communications. According to Evan Kohlmann from Flashpoint Global Partners,
A lawsuit being leveled against Sony relating to the recent breach activity alleges they skimped on security experts, laying off a batch of professionals prior to the events. The suit, seeking class action status, is being brought by Felix Cortorreal, Jimmy Cortorreal, and Jacques Daoud Jr., who claim they were directly affected by the data
Long a puzzling challenge, the FBI seems to be making strides in tackling international coordinated scams, in this case, scareware. Scareware, the practice of providing fake infection notifications to users’ computers, and then offering to sell solutions to problems that don’t exist, has been quite a boon as of late for fraudsters. FBI claims the
Following a string of data breach notifications which seem to be less than forthcoming, the EU is urging much stricter guidelines for data breach reporting timelines. It a recent article, European Commissioner Viviane Reding was shocked “that companies needed two or three weeks to inform people that their personal data had been stolen.” Recently I
The Obama administration seems intent on pushing for stiffer sentences for hackers caught endangering national security to 20 years prison time, doubling the current sentence. A stiff penalty, to be sure, the latest in a series of volleys from D.C. to curb the flurry of recent high-profile attacks and restore confidence in the U.S. Government’s
ICANN has just approved a new batch of individualized TLD’s (Top Level Domains), so now you can register your.brand, whatever yourbrand is, instead of the usual yourbrand.com, .net, etc., if you can prove to ICANN you deserve it. The problem? Users tricked by similar looking domain names have long been a boon for phishing exploits,
Mt. Gox, the most popular Bitcoin exchange, has had a database compromised and user information stolen, sparking rapid devaluation and temporary exchange freeze to halt the slide. According to a Mt. Gox breach notification e-mail sent to users on June 19th: “Our database has been compromised, including your email. We are working on a quick
Old western cowboys beware, this heist didn’t happen with a stagecoach at gunpoint, it’s a new era out there. A user, going by the username allinvain reports he had 25,000 Bitcoins (BTC) stolen when his computer was infected. At the current BTC exchange rate, that haul would net about $500,000. Not too shabby for a
Or so the current legislation being proposed in a U.S. House of Representative subcommittee would like it. A hearing scheduled for today at the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee centered around draft legislation proposed by Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.) hoping to accomplish a security baseline companies must adhere to,
