News & Events and Other Interesting Stuff

FBI report to the Senate Judiciary Committee...

READ MORE:  FBI Press Release

The FBI, in partnership with the Slovenian Criminal Police and the Spanish Guardia Civil, recently announced significant developments in a two-year investigation of the creator and operators of the Mariposa Botnet.

The Mariposa Botnet was built with a computer virus known as "Butterfly Bot" and was used to steal passwords for websites and financial institutions. It stole computer users' credit card and bank account information, launched denial of service attacks, and spread viruses. Industry experts estimated the Mariposa Botnet may have infected as many as 8 million to 12 million computers.

READ MORE: FBI Press Release

Thursday / August 19, 2010 / Registration and networking starts at 08:15 / Meeting starts at 09:00AM and adjourns at noon.

The meeting will be hosted by Microsoft, 835 Market St., Suite 700 in San Francisco, CA

MORE INFO...

August 5, 2010 / 08:30AM - 01:30PM
UC Davis Conference Center
173 Old Davis Road Extension
Davis, CA 95616

To Register and get More Info, Click Here ...

Two articles in The Economist of interest ...

War in the fifth domain:  Are the mouse and keyboard the new weapons of conflict?

Cyberwar:  It is time for countries to start talking about arms control on the internet

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has recommended that the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) tackle key obstacles, including the lack of a national R&D agenda, weak leadership, and little R&D information sharing, in cybersecurity R&D through its Subcommittee on Networking and Information Technology Research and Development.  READ MORE

GAO Report

The federal government is reportedly launching an expansive program dubbed "Perfect Citizen" to detect cyber assaults on private companies and government agencies running such critical infrastructure as the electricity grid and nuclear-power plants.  The program would rely on a set of cyber sensors deployed in computer networks for critical infrastructure that would be triggered by unusual activity suggesting an impending cyber attack, though it wouldn't persistently monitor the whole system.  READ MORE

Another viewpoint ... Securing critical infrastructure against cyber attack impractical ... READ MORE

Follow-up ... NSA Denies it will monitor U.S. utilities, READ MORE

The shield of the U.S. Cyber Command includes a string of characters:
9ec4c12949a4f31474f299058ce2b22a

In keeping with the spirit of the organization this "code" is not just random numbers but reportedly decodes into the organization's Mission Statement.

READ MORE


SOLVED...

Translated into 32 digits with the md5 cryptographic hash:

    "USCYBERCOM plans, coordinates, integrates, synchronizes and conducts activities to: direct the operations and defense of specified Department of Defense information networks and; prepare to, and when directed, conduct full spectrum military cyberspace operations in order to enable actions in all domains, ensure US/Allied freedom of action in cyberspace and deny the same to our adversaries"