Microsoft Beefs Up Encryption After NSA Spying Reports

1.  In response to reports that the feds are spying on tech firms' data as it moves between servers, Microsoft today pledged to step up encryption across its services. 
2.  If true, NSA spying could "seriously undermine confidence in the security and privacy of online communications," Microsoft's general counsel, Brad Smith, said in a blog post.
3. Smith said Office 365 and Outlook.com customer content is already encrypted when traveling between customers and Microsoft, while most Office 365 workloads as well as Windows Azure storage are now encrypted in transit between data centers.
4. The NSA denied those allegations. "NSA is a foreign intelligence agency. And we're focused on discovering and developing intelligence about valid foreign intelligence targets only."
5. Read more at ..http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2427962,00.asp?mailingID=4A8C526FE94DD7A9EACC9565528CC0A8

The Estonian Cyberwar and Its Implications for U.S. National Security

On April 26, 2007, the small Baltic state of Estonia experienced the first wave of denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. Accompanied by riots in the streets, these cyberattacks were launched as a protest against the Estonian government’s removal of the Bronze Soldier monument in Tallinn, a Soviet war monument erected in 1947. These attacks targeted prominent government websites along with the websites of banks, universities, and Estonian newspapers. After three weeks, the attacks ceased as suddenly as they had begun, but not before the Estonian government undertook measures to block all international web traffic, effectively shutting off the “most wired country in Europe” from the rest of the world.
Forensic analysis by US for future defense

http://www.iar-gwu.org/node/65

Estonia’s experience in handling the cyber attacks of 2007 has positioned the country as a thought leader in cyber security.

A cyber attack against a country seems like something out of a science fiction movie. However, a perfect storm of political controversy and successful psychological warfare turned this into a reality in Estonia, when in 2007 the relocation of a Soviet World War II memorial started an unprecedented unrest in the country’s capital that has later been labelled the Bronze Night .

Read full report at Turning-around-2007-cyber-attack-lessons-estonia

Which is the commercial value of a hacked email account in the underground?

In the above image is reported a post from an underground forum that demonstrates the hacker’s interest to confidential data on CEO and top management of different well known brands, following the translation from Russian:
“Will buy information about the following companies: 
- Linkedin, Verizon, GoDaddy, British American Tobaco, Dupont, Pepsi, Names.co.uk, Facebook (private companies) 
- Commerzbank, Reiffeisen, RBS, Bank of America, Wells, Wachovia, Citibank + any russians, having online-banking
Interested in email + password, any stolen accounts of its employees in social networks (Facebook + Linkedin), will pay good, before selling need to have a garant and checking.
Interested in hacked accounts and data on:
- sustem administrators;
- top managers (operational managers, heads of the departments)
Reach me only through PM, confidential and in 1 hands
WIll talk only under OTR/NDC encryption in Jabber, don’t use ICQ “

Read More at  http://goo.gl/LIcQR5