Wednesday, July 31, 2013

'Hacker heroin frame plot' foiled by security blogger


'Hacker heroin frame plot' foiled by security blogger

By Matthew WallBusiness reporter, BBC News
Close up of heroin bagsBrian Krebs thinks the heroin was bought on an online black market called the Silk Road

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A respected US-based internet security expert says he has foiled an attempt to frame him as a heroin dealer.
Brian Krebs says the administrator of a Russian cybercrime forum hatched a plan to order heroin, arranged for it to be delivered to his home, then tipped off the police, making it look as if the call had come from a neighbour's house.
Fortunately, Mr Krebs was already monitoring the website and saw the plot being planned in real time.
He alerted the FBI and local police.
"I am little concerned", he told the BBC. "But then there are a lot of things people can do to upset you and get under your skin using a keyboard and few clicks of a mouse.
"But what's the next level?"
The person behind the attempted plot, according to Mr Krebs, set up a bitcoin wallet to accept donations of the digital currency from fellow forum members.
He raised about $200 (£131) worth of bitcoins and used it to buy 12 small bags of heroin using the Silk Road online black market.
Brian KrebsBrian Krebs is speaking at the Black Hat hackers conference in Las Vegas on 1 August
The package duly arrived at Mr Krebs's house, and he handed it over to the police.
Hijacked
This is just the latest example of a sustained smear campaign against Mr Krebs orchestrated by hackers and cybercriminals disgruntled at his exposure of their antics.
In March he was visited by a heavily armed police unit tricked into responding to a 911 call that had been made to look as if it originated from his home.
Mr Krebs says he opened the front door to find a squad of policemen pointing a battery of guns at him.
After being hand-cuffed and questioned, he managed to persuade the police they had been hoaxed by hackers.
The informant had used a instant message relay service designed for hearing impaired and deaf people to pretend to be Mr Krebs reporting that Russians had broken into his home and shot his wife.
The phenomenon, known as swatting, after the special weapons and tactics (Swat) teams called out to handle hostage and other dangerous situations, had begun on the West Coast, the police told Mr Krebs, but had been working its way eastwards.
"This type of individual prank puts peoples' lives at risk, wastes huge amounts of taxpayer dollars, and draws otherwise scarce resources away from real emergencies", Mr Krebs blogged.
"What's more, there are a lot of folks who will confront armed force with armed force, all with the intention of self-defence."
Denial of service
Mr Krebs also says his website suffered a major distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack.
This is when a large number of hijacked computers flood another computer server with messages to render it helpless.
The site was taken offline temporarily as a result.
Mr Krebs will be giving a talk about the rise in DDoS attacks for hire at the Black Hat hackers conference in Las Vegas on 1 August.
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Nepal resolution registered in US parliament


Nepal resolution registered in US parliament


    Washington State Democratic Congressman Rick Larsen
    Washington State Democratic Congressman Rick Larsen

    KATHMANDU, JUL 31 - A historic Nepal resolution has been registered in the lower house of United States on Tuesday.
    This is probably the first resolution of Nepal to be introduced in the history of US Congress.
    Seven US Congressmen registered the resolution on Tuesday and demanded discussion on forming new government through Constituent Assembly (CA) election in Nepal.
    The resolution will be discussed in the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs, coming week.
    The bill registered under the leadership of Washington State Democratic Congressman Rick Larsen has also been supported by Republican Party leader Ander Crenshaw of Florida, followed by Congressman Dennis Heck of Washington, Congresswoman Suzan DelBene, Washington, Congressman Derek Kilmer, Washington, Congressman Ami Bera, California and Congressman Jared Polis, Colorado.
    The bill was registered after continuous efforts by Candidate of US Congress Darshan Rauniyar. He was actively putting his tireless efforts on for the past few months.
    The bill call for democratic government, rule of law, law and order situation in the country which guarantees universal human rights including freedom of speech, the press, assembly, religion, and due process under the law.
    The three-page long bill registered by Larsen has stressed on the need of free and fair elections and urged international community including US government to provide the resources necessary to hold free, fair, and timely elections, facilitate a peaceful transition of power, and establish a government that will protect the rights of the people; and supports the efforts of the people of Nepal to maintain self-determination for their general welfare and the welfare of future generations.
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    India strike over new Telangana state


    India strike over new Telangana state

    Osmania University students celebrate after the announcement of the separate Indian state of Telangana in Hyderabad on July 30, 2013Violent protests have taken place in Andhra Pradesh over the Telangana issue

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    Normal life has been disrupted in India's southern Andhra Pradesh state following protests against the announcement of a new Telangana state.
    Parts of the coastal and southern regions are shut. Schools are closed and transport has been disrupted.
    With a population of 35 million, Telangana comprises 10 of Andhra Pradesh's 23 districts including Hyderabad, India's sixth biggest city.
    The state has seen protests for and against the proposal in recent years.
    Backers of the new state say the area has been neglected by the government.
    Opponents of the move are unhappy that Hyderabad, home to many major information technology and pharmaceutical companies, will become a shared state capital for 10 years.
    Passengers stranded
    Wednesday's strike comes a day after India's ruling Congress-led coalition unanimously agreed to the formation of the new state.
    The protests have been called by the United Andhra Joint Action Committee which opposes the division of the state. Some local Congress party members have also opposed the split.
    A total of 13 districts in the coastal and Rayalaseema regions have been affected by the strike, says the BBC's Omer Farooq in Hyderabad.
    Businesses, schools and cinema theatres are closed and public transport has been disrupted, leading to many passengers being stranded.

    Telangana

    Map
    • Population of 35 million
    • Comprises 10 districts of Andhra Pradesh, including city of Hyderabad
    • Landlocked, predominantly agricultural area
    • One of the most under-developed regions in India
    • 50-year campaign for separate status
    • More than 400 people died in 1969 crackdown
    Protesters have blocked trains in Nellore and roads in other districts, as well as staging demonstrations outside the houses of ruling Congress party ministers and politicians.
    Four lawmakers, including three from the Congress party, belonging to the state assembly have resigned in protest against the move, our correspondent says.
    Hundreds of paramilitary troops have been deployed to prevent any violent protests after Tuesday's announcement.
    The final decision on a new state lies with the Indian parliament. The state assembly must also pass a resolution approving the creation of what will be India's 29th state.
    Correspondents say the timing of the announcement is linked to general elections due early next year. Recent opinion polls have shown that the Congress party is struggling in the state, which has 42 parliamentary seats.
    Deep divisions have emerged over the Telangana issue in the past four years.
    In December 2009, India's Congress party-led government promised that the new state would be formed, but later said more talks were needed.
    The Telangana campaign grew in strength that year when veteran politician K Chandrasekhara Rao went on a hunger strike for 11 days in an effort to press the government to agree to its creation.
    Demand for Gorkhaland
    Meanwhile, the main Gorkha ethnic group in India's West Bengal state has stepped up its demand for a separate state for Nepali-speaking Gorkhas in the tea-producing Darjeeling hills, reports Subir Bhaumik from Calcutta.
    A Gorkha youth set himself on fire to protest against Delhi's alleged "dual policy" - one of overlooking Gorkha aspirations for a separate state while going ahead with the creation of Telangana.
    "His condition is serious," said Roshan Giri, leader of the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), which is leading the movement for the separate state.
    "Now that Delhi is creating Telangana, it should consider our long-term aspirations for a separate Gorkhaland. Our region is totally different from West Bengal which is a Bengali-dominated state," he said.
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    Mexican state of Colima allows same-sex civil unions


    Mexican state of Colima allows same-sex civil unions

    A same-sex couple kisses after getting married in Mexico City on 14 July 2013Same-sex marriages have been legal in Mexico City for years, now Colima allows civil unions

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    Colima has become the latest Mexican state to allow same-sex couples to enter into civil unions after a majority of local authorities passed a change in the state's constitution.
    Legalisation on same-sex unions falls under state legislation, and a number of states have divergent rules.
    Mexico City and the southern state of Quintana Roo allow gay marriages, while Coahuila allows same-sex civil unions.
    Congress in Yucatan on the other hand banned same-sex marriage in 2009.
    Seven out of ten authorities in Colima approved the constitutional change, which had been passed by the state's congress earlier this month.
    Only two Congressmen voted against the change, arguing the state should legalise gay marriages rather than restricting same-sex couples to civil unions.
    'More integration'
    News of the change in the law in Colima came on the same day as Pope Francis told reporters that gay people should not be marginalised but integrated into society.
    Speaking to reporters on a flight back from Brazil, the Pope reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's position that homosexual acts were sinful, but homosexual orientation was not.
    Gay marriage was legalised in Uruguay earlier this year, and in Argentina in 2010.
    In Brazil, the Supreme Court in May voted overwhelmingly in favour of allowing same-sex couples the same legal rights as married heterosexuals, effectively authorising gay marriage.
    However, full legalisation of gay marriage in Brazil still depends on the passage of a law in Congress.
    Map of gay marriage
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    Manning verdicts are 'dangerous precedent' - Assange


    Manning verdicts are 'dangerous precedent' - Assange

    Julian Assange described Bradley Manning as a "quintessential whistleblower" in a video released by Wikileaks

    Wikileaks Revelations

    Julian Assange, founder of the anti-secrecy organisation Wikileaks, has said the conviction of US Army Private Bradley Manning on spying charges is a "dangerous precedent".
    Pte Manning, 25, had admitted leaking thousands of classified documents to Wikileaks but said he did so to spark a debate on US foreign policy.
    The leak is considered the largest ever of secret US government files.
    He faces a maximum sentence of up to 136 years.
    Pte Manning was convicted on Tuesday of 20 charges in total, including theft and computer fraud but was found not guilty on the most serious charge of aiding the enemy.
    In addition to multiple espionage counts, he was also found guilty of five theft charges, two computer fraud charges and multiple military infractions.
    His sentencing hearing is set to begin on Wednesday. It may be a lengthy process, as both the defence and the prosecution are allowed to call witnesses.
    Many will hope the court does make an example of Pte Manning to discourage others from making secrets public, the BBC's North America Editor Mark Mardell reports from Washington.

    Viewpoint: Significance of verdict

    The judge's ruling avoids the establishment of a precedent that could have applied to ongoing leak cases, including the Edward Snowden saga.
    The gist of the prosecution's argument in the Manning case is that in today's interconnected world, any leak of classified information will end up on the Internet and available to America's enemies.
    Such a finding could have had a chilling effect on the ability of journalists to report on the activities of government and the willingness of officials to be candid in describing the complex decisions and trade-offs that governments confront every day.
    Finding the right balance among security, secrecy, transparency and privacy remains a work in progress.
    PJ Crowley, former assistant secretary of state in the Obama administration
    Mr Assange said the verdicts represented "dangerous national security extremism".
    Speaking from the Ecuadorean embassy in London, Mr Assange said: "This has never been a fair trial.
    "Bradley Manning isn't guilty of anything in that he's actually very heroic for demanding government transparency and accountability and exposing the American people and the rest of the world to the crimes committed by the American government," he said.
    Mr Assange said the only victim in the case had been the US government's "wounded pride".
    He said that there were two appeals within the US justice system as well as the Supreme Court. "WikiLeaks will not rest until he is free," Mr Assange said.
    Graphic footage
    Pte Manning appeared not to react as Judge Colonel Denise Lind read out the verdict on Tuesday, but his defence lawyer, David Coombs, smiled faintly as the not guilty charge on aiding the enemy was read.
    "We won the battle, now we need to go win the war," Mr Coombs said of the sentencing phase. "Today is a good day, but Bradley is by no means out of the fire."

    The verdicts

    Private Bradley Manning leaves court
    Guilty: Seven out of eight espionage charges, five theft charges, two computer fraud charges, five military counts of violating a lawful general regulation, one of wanton publication of intelligence on the internet
    Not guilty: Aiding the enemy, unauthorised possession of information relating to national defence
    During the court martial, prosecutors said Pte Manning systematically harvested hundreds of thousands of classified documents in order to gain notoriety.
    With his training as an intelligence analyst, Pte Manning should have known the leaked documents would become available to al-Qaeda operatives, they argued.
    The defence characterised him as a naive and young soldier who had become disillusioned during his time in Iraq.
    His actions, Mr Coombs argued, were those of a whistle-blower.
    In a lengthy statement during a pre-trial hearing in February, Pte Manning said he had leaked the files in order to spark a public debate about US foreign policy and the military.
    Much of the court martial was spent considering the soldier's intentions as he leaked the documents.
    Amnesty International said in a statement the "the government's pursuit of the 'aiding the enemy' charge was a serious overreach of the law, not least because there was no credible evidence of Manning's intent to harm the USA by releasing classified information to WikiLeaks."

    The Wikileaks disclosures

    But the Democratic and Republican leaders of the US House of Representatives intelligence committee said "justice has been served", in a joint statement after the ruling.
    Among the items sent to Wikileaks by Pte Manning was graphic footage of an Apache helicopter attack in 2007 that killed a dozen people in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, including a Reuters photographer.
    The documents also included 470,000 Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield reports and 250,000 secure state department cables between Washington and embassies around the world.
    Pte Manning, an intelligence analyst, was arrested in Iraq in May 2010. He spent weeks in a cell at Camp Arifjan, a US Army installation in Kuwait, before being transferred to the US.
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    Al Qaeda affiliate claims responsibility for Iraq bombings


    Al Qaeda affiliate claims responsibility for Iraq bombings

    -

    BAGHDAD , JUL 31 -
    An al Qaeda-affiliated group claimed responsibility for a wave of bombings across Iraq that killed 60 people on Monday and the Interior Ministry said it was facing an "open war" from insurgents bent on plunging the country into sectarian strife.
    The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which was formed earlier this year through a merger between al Qaeda's affiliates in Iraq and Syria, said in a statement posted online it had carefully selected its targets, which were mainly Shi'ites.
    The 17 blasts were the latest in a relentless campaign of bombings and shootings that have killed more than 4,000 people since the start of the year. Nearly 900 people have lost their lives in militant attacks in July.
    Another 26 people were killed in scattered attacks on Tuesday evening, and the bodies of two unidentified men were found in the northern city of Mosul with gunshot wounds and their hands bound behind their backs.
    "The country is currently facing an open war from bloodthirsty sectarian forces that aim to plunge the country into chaos," said the Interior Ministry, warning it would deal harshly with anyone found harboring insurgents.
    The ministry said it was setting up a hotline for citizens to report information that uncovered "terrorist cells", offering big cash rewards to anyone who came forward.
    Hundreds of convicts ran free after simultaneous attacks on two high-security prisons last week, raising questions about the ability of Iraq 's security services to combat al Qaeda, which has been regaining momentum in its insurgency against the Shi'ite-led government.
    "The latest operations came at the height of security deployment after the blessed operations to break the chains of the lions in Abu Ghraib and Taji jails," read the statement by the Islamic State ofIraq and the Levant.
    The group said Monday's attacks were part of a "heavy price" the government would pay for its mistreatment of the Sunni minority, which resents Shi'ite supremacy since the U.S.-led invasion that overthrew Saddam Hussein in 2003.
    The jailbreaks came exactly one year after the leader of al Qaeda'sIraq i branch, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, launched a "Breaking the Walls" campaign that made freeing its imprisoned members a top priority, the group said in a statement.
    In a separate statement, a spokesman for the combined Syrian andIraq i groups said the "Breaking the Walls" offensive was over and al Qaeda would move on to a new phase called "the Harvest of the Soldiers", calling Sunnis to join their ranks.
    Sectarian tensions in Iraq and the wider region have been inflamed by the civil war in neighboring Syria, where mainly Sunni Muslim rebels are fighting to overthrow a leader backed by Shi'ite Iran.
    A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a Shi'ite mosque on the northern outskirts of Baghdad on Tuesday evening, killing six people, and another bomb in a Sunni mosque in the town of Tuz Khurmato killed three.
    Six people were killed when a bomb exploded outside a cafe in central Baquba 50 km (30 miles) northeast of Baghdad.
    In Baghdad, two blasts near a Sunni mosque in the western al-Jihad district killed two people, and three bombs went off in a busy street in the Turath neighborhood, killing three others, police said.
    Gunmen attacked a police patrol in central Mosul, killing two, and in Tarmiya, north of Baghdad, a bomb struck another police patrol, also killing two. A bomb targeted a third police patrol in the town of Mishahda, killing two more.
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