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Special report: The Pentagon's new cyber warriors

(Reuters) - Guarding water wells and granaries from enemy raids is as old as war itself. In the Middle Ages, vital resources were hoarded behind castle walls, protected by moats, drawbridges and knights with double-edged swords.

Today, U.S. national security planners are proposing that the 21st century's critical infrastructure -- power grids, communications, water utilities, financial networks -- be similarly shielded from cyber marauders and other foes.

The ramparts would be virtual, their perimeters policed by the Pentagon and backed by digital weapons capable of circling the globe in milliseconds to knock out targets.

An examination by Reuters, including dozens of interviews with military officers, government officials and outside experts, shows that the U.S. military is preparing for digital combat even more extensively than has been made public. And how to keep the nation's lifeblood industries safe is a big, if controversial, aspect of it. More...

10-05-2010 16:29

Dozens charged in schemes to steal from bank accounts using computer viruses

Reporting from New York and Los Angeles — More than 60 people have been charged in international schemes that used computer viruses to steal millions of dollars from bank accounts throughout America, state and federal prosecutors said Thursday in New York.

"The modern, high-tech bank heist does not require a gun, a mask, a note or a getaway car," U.S. Atty. Preet Bharara said. "It requires only the Internet and ingenuity. And it can be accomplished in the blink of an eye, with just a click of the mouse."

The cyber attacks began in Eastern Europe and included malware known as the Zeus Trojan, which was typically sent in an e-mail to computers at homes, businesses and government offices in the United States. Once the e-mail was opened, the virus embedded itself in the victims' computers, recording their keystrokes and capturing user names and passwords as they logged in to online bank accounts. More...

10-01-2010 17:55

Stuxnet: Malware more complex, targeted and dangerous than ever

(CNN) -- Stuxnet is viewed as potentially the most dangerous piece of computer malware discovered. It's been developed on an unprecedented scale and has the ability to target and control specified industrial machinery.

Trying to explain how this works is a bit like trying to trace the origin of this nasty little piece of work. It's a bit all over the place so bear with me on this one.

It's an attack that goes straight after the PLC (programmable logic control) software of an industrial machine, which is effectively the brain of the unit. It uses four zero-day exploits in one package, with a zero-day exploit being an undiscovered flaw in a piece of software; it's the time between the hackers finding a hole in the system and when the developers patch it. And in this case there are four of these exploits, meaning that they've already exponentially increased the chances of finding a way into the system in case any of the holes happened to already be plugged.

Once the malware infects the system it can spread to other computers on the local intranet. It is not an internet-based piece of malware; it can spread through indirect internet usage, but that's not how it sets about its business.

Its main course of action is to look for a specific type of machinery, then report back to a central control server located hundreds of miles away, from where the commands will again be relayed off into the maze of servers set up to make tracing near impossible. More...

09-28-2010 17:27

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