Public Wi-Fi also a spying tool, Snowden documents show in new Canada scandal

1. Here’s a new and potentially explosive twist to our ongoing surveillance saga: according to CBC News, documents obtained by NSA leaker Edward Snowden show that the Canadian signals intelligence agency has been using public Wi-Fi, such as that found in some Canadian airports, to spy on travelers.
2. This is big because the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) is not supposed to spy on Canadians, just like its partners in the other “Five Eyes” espionage ring – the U.S., U.K., Australia and New Zealand – aren’t supposed to spy on their citizens.

Read full article at http://gigaom.com/2014/01/31/airport-wi-fi-also-a-spying-tool-snowden-documents-show-in-new-canada-scandal/

'Syrian Electronic Army' hacks Skype's accounts in social networks

1. Hackers from the so-called “Syrian Electronic Army” have got access to the blog and the official accounts in social networks that are hosted by Skype. The intruders used the hacked facilities for placing messages criticizing NSA's programs of mass surveillance, the TechCrunch edition writes.
2.  One of the messages that the hackers placed in Twitter calls on Web users not to use post services run by Microsoft, such as Hotmail or Outlook. The hackers are claiming that these services are surveying their clients' accounts and selling information to the governments.
3.  At present, the hackers' messages at the Skype's blog and page in Facebook have already been removed, while the messages in Skype's microblog in Twitter are still there.
4. Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_01_08/Sweden-fell-victim-of-foreign-hackers-intelligence-0261/

 

Wanted: Cyber guards for India

More job opportunities for cyber security professionals;

 Even as India proclaims itself to be the hub of information technology, it has not been able to take on cyber attacks from ha­ckers across the world. This is due to lack of cyber security professionals.

“India is a country where youngsters are encouraged to take up jobs of application programming and not system programming, which is essential to equip one’s own desktop, one’s organization and his or her country, against cyber attacks,” noted an expert in cyber security on the event of World Computer Se­c­urity Day which falls on Friday.

Government itself has admitted that there are less that 1,000 people in the country who are experts in system side programming while the demand is for around 5 lakh professionals, noted Dr B Muthukumaran, cyber crime consultant for the Tamil Nadu police.

“Policing the cyber world may not be a job which a regular policeman can execute and calls for special cyber investigative skills and exposure to associated cyber laws. There should be more technically sound professionals in the force who can understand and handle cases,” noted another expert who has assisted intelligence agencies in cyber crime cases.

Indian youth focus more on application software and refuse to be trained in system side development beca­use the easily available job segment is in application development jobs in the information technology world. However in countries like China, Germany and US, youngsters are being trained to focus on system side programming, thus helping those countries to develop their defences in the cyber world, noted Dr Muthu­kum­aran, who is also DGM, Institute of Tec­hnology Management & Research, Chennai.

The recently anno­u­nced information security policy has opened up many entrepreneurial opportunities for youngsters trained in system side programming. The future world calls for specialization and it is difficult to survive without cyber security guards.

 

 

Reference http://goo.gl/RhiuoO

Aviation industry vulnerable to cyber attacks: IATA

1. Think about the scenario when you suddenly find that the destination of your flight has been changed because the navigation system has been hacked and it has been set to some other country.  And most scary is the fact that all this is because of a prank by 12 year old. 
2. Faced with cyber security threats, the aviation industry, which has spent over US$ 100 billion on security since 9/11, should share best practices and partner with governments to adapt to new challenges and tackle them, airlines' body IATAhas said.
3. Noting that aviation now relies on computer systems for almost every aspect of the business, leaving it potentially vulnerable to cyber attack, IATA asked the industry, governments, regulators and manufacturers to work together to share best practices and mitigation strategies.
4. Checkout the complete article at http://goo.gl/VvuKH5

Spurt in attacks on Indian websites

Cyber attacks against Indian websites have increased exponentially in 2013, despite the government supposedly building a credible cyber defence system.

According to confidential reports by CERT-In (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team), 4,191 Indian websites were defaced or hacked into in August, 2,380 in July, 2,858 in June and 1,808 in May. An overwhelming percentage of these attacks occurred in the .in domain, whose servers are in India - 80% in June and over 60% thereafter.

Checkout full article here http://goo.gl/N9aTWB