CyberSec News

ꕤ CyberSec SOURCE as indicated #cybersecurity malware, named XcodeGhost secretly collects info on devices / uploads data to servers WeChat instant messaging app exposed 600 million users to malware downloading the program from #Apple Inc XcodeGhost malware only affected WeChat version 6.2.5 for iOS {new versions of 6.2.6 or later not affected} http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-21/tencent-fixes-flaw-exposing-wechat-app-users-to-malicious-code How malware is building hacking corporations / underground market teams /  marketed kits http://www.cbronline.com/news/cybersecurity/how-malware-is-building-hacking-corporations-4673904 #cybersecurity DDoS extortion attacks -  new threat / mitigation =  on-premises & cloud-based anti-DDoS tech http://www.scmagazineuk.com/ddos-extortion-attacks--a-new-threat-to-look-out-for/article/439394/ China = one of Boeing's best customers = 25 percent of the Boeing's commercial aircraft http://steelerslounge.com/2015/09/china-wants-us-tech-companies-to-play-by-its-rules/11923/ #cybersecurity (June 2015) expect insurance lobby to seek changes New Zealand Privacy Act  1993 / no mandatory notification / no notification to data breach customers required, either http://www.cio.co.nz/article/577982/cyber-risk-put-it-agenda-before-it-becomes-agenda/ Israel #cybersecurity co:   enSilo /  data exfiltration prevention model shift from inbound / deals w. attackers on inside enSilo tech =  blocking malicious outbound comm. =  employees can continue working even if devices infected http://jewishbusinessnews.com/2015/09/20/ensilo-blocks-the-exit-door-for-data-thieves/ #cybersecurity #cloud 28% #SaudiArabia co's planning to use hybrid cloud services / mobility users & mobility of resources http://ameinfo.com/technology/it/software/saudi-companies-eye-hybrid-cloud ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- COMMENT Various that caught my attention. Boeing makes a lot of money out of China.  A quarter of their business is in China.  That's a huge reliance on one country. New Zealand doesn't require notification of data breaches to customers or reporting of breaches to authorities.   Judging by the input from the insurance guy in the New Zealand article (June article), if there's any lobbying for changes to the New Zealand Privacy Act  1993, it will most likely come from the insurance industry and business lobbies, I'm guessing. Israeli cybersec company has a different approach:  stopping data going out while hackers are in. Nothing super exciting here. ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- Boeing | here William Edward Boeing  |  here ꕤ

German BND Spying for NSA - Airbus (Boeing rival) Taking Legal Action - Politicians Putting On A Show

1ST LEAD Newspaper:  German intelligence also spied on Austria for the US By dpa correspondents Europe 01.05.2015 By our dpa-correspondent and Europe Online    auf Facebook posten  Auf Twitter posten  Berlin (dpa) - The US National Security Agency (NSA) used Germany‘s foreign intelligence service to spy on Austria, according to a report due to be published in Sunday‘s edition of Bild newspaper. German media had previously reported that the NSA used the Bundesnachrichtendienst, or BND, to spy on high-ranking officials in the European Commission and in France‘s Foreign Ministry and presidential palace. After an investigation into the search terms given by the NSA to the BND to use at its monitoring station in the Bavarian town of Bad Aibling, words like "gov," "diplo" and the German equivalent of "federal office" were discovered. These search terms resulted in 12,000 hits, according to an internal BND email from August 14, 2013. The hits included material from the government of Austria, which like Germany is a federation and, therefore, covered by the same search term. The Bild article, an advance copy of which was seen by dpa, said Austria then appeared in more than 10 requests from the NSA. The affair has led to a split in Germany‘s governing coalition as the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) has attacked its partners in the centre-right Christian Democratic and Christian Social unions (CDU and CSU). "The supervision by the chancellery over the BND seems to have failed miserably," SPD general secretary Ysmin Fahimi was quoted by Friday‘s edition of the Passauer Neue Presse newspaper as saying in a direct attack on Chancellor Angela Merkel, who leads the CDU. "The chancellery, which has been led by the CDU for 10 years, bears the responsibility for the German secret service behaving properly," she said. Fahimi also raised questions about Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, who is accused of lying to parliament over the affair. "If the accusations are true, I do not rule out personal consequences [for de Maiziere]," she said. The opposition Greens have called for a parliamentary committee to investigate the affair. Government sources told dpa Friday that the spying scandal had taken on great political dimensions and resignations at the BND or within the government could not be ruled out. A former government insider sharply criticized how the affair has been handled so far in a report in Focus magazine Friday. "Everyone is beating up the BND at the moment, mostly for ideological reasons," the chancellor‘s former secret service coordinator Bernd Schmidbauer was reported as saying. "This is how we will destroy our security in this country," he said. Referring to BND president Gerhard Schindler, he said: "It is a disgrace how he has been deserted by these men in the chancellery when really it should be their most noble duty to give him encouragement at this time." He said Germany‘s cooperation with US intelligence services was essential. "We are nothing without the intelligence service insight of the Americans," said Schindler, who coordinated the secret service in the 1990s. "We are like headless chickens." The first accusations came to light last week that the NSA had used the German intelligence agency to spy on European firms and politicians on its behalf. The NSA asked the BND to use its huge computer servers to monitor web traffic and look for keywords, IP addresses of computers and names. The BND told the chancellery years ago that the searches were probably illegal under German law. The magnitude of the scandal, the biggest to hit the BND in its 59-year history, remains unclear. All of the search terms requested by the United States since the beginning of the cooperation in 2002 were checked only once. Even that task was enormous. The Sueddeutsche Zeitung, NDR and WDR reported that alone in 2013, 690,000 telephone numbers and 7.8 million IP searches were requested. http://en.europeonline-magazine.eu/1st-leadnewspaper-german-intelligence-also-spied-on-austria-for-the-usby-dpa-correspondents_389986.html COMMENT The US spies on Germany but it also gets Germany to do its spying. The former secret service coordinator Bernd Schmidbauer is using the "we will destroy our security in this country" line of attack. Much noise is made by politicians, but this is likely to go the way of the previous NSA spy scandals:  it will be swept under a rug. Most appalling of all, Schmidbauer says: "We are nothing without the intelligence service insight of the Americans." On the contrary, it sounds like the US spy agency would be nothing without getting everyone around the world to do their spying for them. .............................................. Capping off: On behalf of NSA and, apparently, in violation of German law, German BND spied on: European Commission France Austria Interior Minister accused of lying to parliament cover up. .............................................. Airbus’ legal step targets spying on it By The Associated Press Posted: May 2, 2015 at 1 a.m. BERLIN — European aviation company Airbus said Friday that it’s taking legal action after reports that it was targeted by German and U.S. intelligence agencies. The company, which makes civilian and military aircraft and is a fierce rival of U.S. manufacturer Boeing, said it will file a criminal complaint with prosecutors in Germany against “persons unknown.” That’s a common procedure in Germany which requires authorities to investigate. “We are aware that as a major player in this industry we are a target for intelligence activities,” the company said in a statement. “In this particular case there appears to be a reasonable suspicion of alleged industrial espionage. We are alarmed by this and have therefore asked the German government for information and we are in dialogue with them.” Airbus said it was made aware of the allegations by press reports and didn’t have any information of its own on the matter. EXTRACT ONLY - FULL AT SOURCE - here

US - FEDERAL SPENDING - PRIVATE UNI PHOENIX STUDENT AID OUTSTRIPS MEAGRE ARIZONA STATE PUBLIC UNI FEDERAL STUDENT AID

Federal watchdog site suffers from missing data 9:44 p.m. CDT August 11, 2014 It would be easy to make fun of a federal accountability website that didn’t account for more than $619 billion. Too easy. But that doesn’t mean USASpending.gov gets a pass for the failings that are detailed in a new Government Accountability Office report. The website is a good idea that needs to get better. Much better. If you’ve never heard of the website, that counts as another problem. It can’t be a public resource if the public doesn’t know about it. Authorized by Congress in 2006 as a tool to track government spending, it was launched the next year. The site was touted as part of “a common-sense vision of government transparency and accessibility” by one of its congressional sponsors: Sen. Barack Obama. Fast forward. The GAO found that the Executive Office of the President failed to report $247 million in assistance programs it funded in 2012. White House officials said they thought the Department of Health and Human Services was responsible for reporting that spending. Oops. Meanwhile, HHS failed to report $544 billion of its own spending. Double oops. Throw on a few more billion here and there, and you get a promise of accountability that falls short. Under the law, government agencies are supposed to report contracts and grants. The website is searchable and yields some interesting tidbits. ............................................................................................................................................................................... For example: In fiscal 2013, Raytheon and Boeing were the top federal contractors in Arizona, pulling in $4.4 billion and $2.4 billion from Uncle Sam, respectively. That same year, the private University of Phoenix Inc. got $768 million worth of aid for students in the form of Pell Grants. Arizona State University pulled in $97 million. ............................................................................................................................................................................... There’s a lot researchers and interested citizens can do with statistics like that. Having them in an easy-to-find, easy-to-use form is a real public service and a powerful tool to hold government accountable. That is, if you can believe the numbers. The figures in these examples came from the website for 2013. The GAO report, based on 2012 figures, found that only 2 to 7 percent of the data it reviewed was “fully consistent with agencies’ records.” So who knows? To be fair, after the GAO informed agencies of the missing data, catch-up reports were filed. The GAO was not aiming to provide ammunition for the “government can’t do anything right” crowd. This wasn’t about gotcha. It was about monitoring performance and making recommendations on how to make them work better. That’s why it’s a mistake to just mock this website for its (many) problems. The goal of using technology to put information about government spending in the hands of the governed needs to be nurtured and perfected. This is especially important now, as the administration is implementing last year’s Digital Accountability and Transparency Act, which will increase the data available to the public. The GAO is recommending that the Office of Management and Budget, which oversees USASpending.gov, do more to clarify how and what agencies are supposed to report, and provide more oversight. It will take time to make this work right, but the intent is worthy of the Founding Fathers. Arizona Republic EXTRACTS ONLY - FULL @ SOURCE SOURCE - HERE.

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private University of Phoenix Inc. got $768 million worth of aid for students in the form of Pell Grants.

Arizona State University pulled in $97 million.

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Pell Grants - wikipedia - here.
US govt (federal) grants for students in financial need.

University of Phoenix - wikipedia - here.

For *profit* - institution

Check out what the uni spends on advertising:

Marketing and advertising

Apollo Group, University of Phoenix's parent company, spends between $376 million and $655 million per year on advertising and marketing, which includes the University of Phoenix brand. Much of this advertising is Internet advertising.

WTF?  It's their money, but couldn't that money be better spent?  That's obscene.

Arizona State University - wikipedia here - largest US *public* state uni by enrolment.

Like its research budget, the university's endowment continues to grow and now exceeds $500 million (2013).

Why is there an enormous disparity between the dollar amount of federal student aid going to a *for profit* Uni of Phoenix vs the *public* Arizona State?

Someone else might have to answer that, because I can't figure it out.