Ryan Cleary, 21, Jake Davis, 20, Mustafa Al-Bassam, 18, and Ryan Ackroyd, 26, saw themselves as "latter-day pirates" when they carried out the attacks on organisations which also included Rupert Murdoch's top-selling British newspaper The Sun.

Cleary was jailed for 32 months, Ackroyd for 30 months and Davis for two years, while Al-Bassam was given a 20-month suspended sentence.

All four had admitted offences under the 1990 Computer Misuse Act.

The group were "hacktivists" with the LulzSec collective behind attacks that stole sensitive personal data such as emails, online passwords and credit card details.

LulzSec, an offshoot of the larger group Anonymous, existed from February to July 2011 and built up a huge international following, reaching 355,000 Twitter followers within two months.

They used social media and leaked details of attacks to journalists to further their quest of publicity, mainly through their chief publicist Davis.

The international group's most high profile attack involved the extensive breach of Sony Pictures' computer systems, which led to the personal data of thousands of Sony customers being posted online.

Sony lost details relating to 26.4 million customers in the attack which cost it £13 million (20 million dollars, 15 million euros), the court heard.

In June 2011 LulzSec took down the CIA.gov website in an attack masterminded by Al-Bassam, and the following month visitors to The Sun's website were redirected to a spoof story about Murdoch committing suicide.

Britain's National Health Service and Serious Organised Crime Agency were also victims of the group, who lived as far apart as London and the Shetland Islands, Britain's most northerly outpost, and never met in person.

Stolen information was posted unencrypted on their website and file-sharing sites like Pirate Bay in 2011, the court had previously heard.

They also carried out distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, using linked networks of up to one million computers to overpower and crash websites.

The group's activity collectively cost their targets millions of dollars and potentially left millions of people at risk from criminals.

Andrew Hadik, lawyer for the Crown Prosecution Service, said the group's actions had been "cowardly and vindictive".

"Co-ordinating and carrying out these attacks from the safety of their own bedrooms may have made the group feel detached from the consequences of their actions," he said.

"They were in fact committing serious criminal offences for which they have been successfully prosecuted."

Sentencing the men at Southwark Crown Court in London, judge Deborah Taylor said some of their taunting of their victims made "chilling reading".

"You cared nothing for the privacy of others but did everything you could through your computer activities to hide your own identities while seeking publicity," she said.

]]> Mon, 20 MAY 2013 12:43:35 AEST Falls Church VA (SPX) May 16, 2013 - Northrop Grumman has signed a memorandum of agreement with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that will enable the expansion of cybersecurity protections for the nation's critical infrastructure.

Northrop Grumman is now starting the security accreditation process which is required before approval to operate as a commercial services provider under the DHS Enhanced Cybersecurity Services (ECS) program.

ECS is an information-sharing program to assist critical infrastructure owners and operators in enhancing the cybersecurity protections of their information systems from unauthorized access, exploitation and data exfiltration.

Under ECS, DHS will share classified and unclassified cyber threat "indicators" with designated Commercial Service Providers, and the Commercial Services Providers will utilize the threat indicators to provide approved cybersecurity services to authorized critical infrastructure entities.

"The Enhanced Cybersecurity Services program is a smart way to extend cyber protections to assets, networks and systems that are vital to the security of our country," said Jim Myers, vice president and general manager, Cyber Solutions division, Northrop Grumman Information Systems.

"As a leader in cybersecurity, we understand that securing our critical infrastructure against cyber intrusion is essential to our economic well-being and national security."

Northrop Grumman is an industry leader in all aspects of computer network operations and cybersecurity, offering customers innovative solutions to help secure the nation's cyber future.

In July 2012, the company announced that it had joined forces with AREVA Inc. to provide cybersecurity protection support for the nuclear industry. The alliance is in response to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's call for commercial nuclear facilities to develop and implement cybersecurity plans.

]]> Mon, 20 MAY 2013 12:43:35 AEST Raleigh NC (SPX) May 16, 2013 - Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a software algorithm that detects and isolates cyber-attacks on networked control systems - which are used to coordinate transportation, power and other infrastructure across the United States.

Networked control systems are essentially pathways that connect and coordinate activities between computers and physical devices. For example, the systems that connect temperature sensors, heating systems and user controls in modern buildings are networked control systems.

But, on a much larger scale, these systems are also becoming increasingly important to national infrastructure, such as transportation and power. And, because they often rely on wireless or Internet connections, these systems are vulnerable to cyber-attacks. "Flame" and "Stuxnet" are examples of costly, high-profile attacks on networked control systems in recent years.

As networked control systems have grown increasingly large and complex, system designers have moved away from having system devices - or "agents" - coordinate their activities through a single, centralized computer hub, or brain.

Instead, designers have created "distributed network control systems" (D-NCSs) that allow all of the system agents to work together, like a bunch of mini-brains, to coordinate their activities. This allows the systems to operate more efficiently. And now these distributed systems can also operate more securely.

NC State researchers have developed a software algorithm that can detect when an individual agent in a D-NCS has been compromised by a cyber-attack. The algorithm then isolates the compromised agent, protecting the rest of the system and allowing it to continue functioning normally.

This gives D-NCSs resilience and security advantages over systems that rely on a central computer hub, because the centralized design means the entire system would be compromised if the central computer is hacked.

"In addition, our security algorithm can be incorporated directly into the code used to operate existing distributed control systems, with minor modifications," says Dr. Mo-Yuen Chow, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State and co-author of a paper on the work. "It would not require a complete overhaul of existing systems."

"We have demonstrated that the system works, and are now moving forward with additional testing under various cyber-attack scenarios to optimize the algorithm's detection rate and system performance," says Wente Zeng, a Ph.D. student at NC State and lead author of the paper.

The paper, "Convergence and Recovery Analysis of the Secure Distributed Control Methodology for D-NCS," will be presented at the IEEE International Symposium on Industrial Electronics, May 28-31, in Taipei, Taiwan. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation.

]]> Mon, 20 MAY 2013 12:43:35 AEST Raleigh, N.C. (UPI) May 14, 2013 - U.S. computer scientists report a new computer algorithm can combat cyberattacks on U.S. systems controlling transportation, power and other infrastructure.

Such networked control systems are essential pathways that connect and coordinate activities between computers and physical devices, but because they often rely on wireless or Internet connections they are vulnerable to cyberattacks, the researchers at North Carolina State University said.

The "Flame" and "Stuxnet" viruses are examples of costly, high-profile attacks carried out on networked control systems in recent years, they said.

The researchers said they have developed a software algorithm that can detect when any single unit in a networked control system has been compromised by a cyberattack and isolate it to protect the rest of the system and allow it to maintain operations.

"In addition, our security algorithm can be incorporated directly into the code used to operate existing distributed control systems, with minor modifications," electrical and computer engineering Professor Mo-Yuen Chow said. "It would not require a complete overhaul of existing systems."

]]> Mon, 20 MAY 2013 12:43:35 AEST Washington (AFP) May 6, 2013 - China has engaged in widespread cyber espionage in a bid to extract information about the US government's foreign policy and military plans, said a Pentagon report issued Monday.

China kept up a steady campaign of hacking in 2012 that included attempts to target US government computer networks, which could provide Beijing a better insight into America's policy deliberations and military capabilities, according to the Pentagon's annual assessment of China's military.

"China is using its computer network exploitation (CNE) capability to support intelligence collection against the US diplomatic, economic, and defense industrial base sectors that support US national defense programs," said the report to Congress.

"In 2012, numerous computer systems around the world, including those owned by the US government, continued to be targeted for intrusions, some of which appear to be attributable directly to the Chinese government and military," it said.

The report marked the most explicit statement yet from the United States that it believes China's cyber spying is focused on the US government, as well as American corporations.

Though President Barack Obama's administration has demanded China stop widespread cyber theft, officials have tended to focus their public comments on the hacking of private business networks and not US government agencies.

The information targeted by the cyber spying could possibly benefit China's arms and technology sectors and policymakers interested in US leaders' thinking on China-related issues, the report said.

The cyber spying also could assist Chinese military planners in "building a picture of US network defense networks, logistics, and related military capabilities that could be exploited during a crisis," it said.

US officials have grown alarmed over what they call increasingly brazen hacking from China that has penetrated defense contractors including Lockheed Martin and a host of other organizations and agencies.

The digital espionage was part of a broader industrial espionage effort that seeks to secure military-related US and Western technology, allowing Beijing to scale back its reliance on foreign arms manufacturers, the report said.

Apart from describing the Chinese military's focus on cyber warfare, the Pentagon report portrayed a steady build-up of Beijing's armed forces, with investments in anti-ship missiles, space satellites, a new aircraft carrier and stealth fighter jets.

China in March announced a 10.7 percent increase in its annual defense spending, with a budget of $114 billion.

But the report estimated China's total military spending for 2012 was much higher, between $135 billion and $215 billion.

Beijing, however, still spent more on "internal security" forces than on its military, it said.

Although China's top strategic concern remained Taiwan, its "military modernization has begun to focus to an increasing extent on capabilities and mission sets that extend beyond immediate territorial concerns," David Helvey, deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, told reporters.

The report said much of China's investment is concentrated on missiles and other weaponry to attack "military forces that might deploy or operate within the western Pacific," where Beijing stakes territorial claim to an arc of disputed islands.

The Pentagon has been particularly concerned about the DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile, as well as air defenses and other weapons that could hit destroyers or aircraft carriers from a long distance.

"Obviously, something that can hold at risk large surface ships, including aircraft carriers, is something we pay attention to," Helvey said.

But the report stressed "positive momentum" in military relations between the United States and China, citing more high-level contacts and a joint counter-piracy exercise in the Gulf of Aden last year.

The 92-page report did not convey any shift in the US view of China's military and was "even-handed" in its tone, said Andrew Scobell of the RAND Corporation think tank.

While US officials track China's military build-up closely, the People's Liberation Army is still often pre-occupied with domestic concerns and dissent, he said. "There's a domestic drag on China's military."

]]> Mon, 20 MAY 2013 12:43:35 AEST The Hague (AFP) May 08, 2013 - A Dutchman arrested in Spain last month in connection with an unprecedented cyberattack that reportedly slowed down the Internet, has been extradited to the Netherlands where he appeared before a judge on Wednesday, Dutch prosecutors said.

Sven Olaf Kamphuis, 35, was transferred to the Netherlands on Monday night following his arrest last month in Barcelona by the Spanish police.

"He appeared today before a Rotterdam judge," the Public Prosecutor's office said in a statement with Dutch national news agency ANP reporting he was remanded behind bars for another two weeks.

Prosecutors only identified the suspect by his initials "S.K." but a source close to the investigation said it was Kamphuis, who acted as a spokesman for the Dutch web-hosting service Cyberbunker at the time of the attack.

The late March attack targeted Spamhaus, a Geneva-based volunteer group that publishes spam blacklists used by networks to filter out unwanted email, and lead to cyberspace congestion.

Spamhaus blamed Cyberbunker for the attack.

Kamphuis describes himself on his Facebook page as Minister of Telecommunications and Foreign Affairs for the Cyberbunker Republic.

Computers, storage devices and mobile phones were seized during the Barcelona raid and prosecutors said Wednesday the investigation was continuing.

"The Dutch investigation into the DDoS attacks on Spamhaus is still going ahead full-steam, being led by police's Team High Tech Crime unit," the statement said.

So-called distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) essentially bombard sites with traffic from various sources in order to disrupt or seize servers.

The attack was described as the most powerful ever seen and slowed web traffic.

The attacks began, according to Spamhaus, after it placed Cyberbunker, a web hosting firm that "offers anonymous hosting of anything except child porn and anything related to terrorism", on its blacklist.

Cyberbunker said it had been unfairly labelled as a haven for cybercrime and spam.

Spamhaus, which also has offices in London, essentially patrols the Internet to root out spammers and provides updated lists of likely perpetrators to network operators around the world.

Experts said the attacks flooded Spamhaus servers with 300 billion bits per second (300 gigabytes) of data.

Prior DDoS attacks have been measured at 50 gigabytes per second.

Because of the way Internet traffic flows, these DDoS attacks create congestion and ripple effects around the web.

]]> Mon, 20 MAY 2013 12:43:35 AEST Damascus (AFP) May 08, 2013 - Syria's Internet appeared to have been restored on Wednesday afternoon after a two-day blackout, residents and state media said.

State media blamed the blackout on a technical fault but activists and a watchdog accused the regime of deliberating cutting the connection to shield military operations.

In a breaking news alert, Syrian state television announced the Internet and communications were back up and running.

Landline phone services between Syrian provinces had also been down since Tuesday, state news agency SANA said.

US tech firms and the US State Department reported the blackout on Tuesday but did not specify any reasons for it. A similar blackout happened last November.

"Internet services and phone calls between provinces were cut off Tuesday evening because of a fault in optical fibre cables," SANA said before service was restored.

"Efforts are ongoing to fix the faults and to bring Internet and telephone services back up as soon as possible," the agency said, quoting a communications official.

Activists who frequently use the Internet to report on violence engulfing their country blamed the authorities for the blackout.

"Even satellite communication devices" used by many anti-regime activists to avoid surveillance "have been slow," a Syrian activist currently out of his country told AFP's Beirut bureau.

"I think the regime has a plan to stage some kind of attack. That's what happens every time Internet goes down," said the activist, an Internet expert who identified himself as Fares.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the blackout appeared to be a deliberate act to help regime forces carrying out military operations.

The United States also voiced concern.

"We condemn any effort by any group to restrict or eliminate the Syrian people's access to information and communications of any kinds," Patrick Ventrell, the deputy State Department spokesman, said in Washington.

"These shutdowns are hard to attribute to one side or the other, and technical groups are analyzing them. But the regime has a history of restricting the Internet in a range of ways to prevent the Syrian people from accessing and sharing information."

Syria is ranked 176 out of 179 countries in a worldwide press freedom index compiled by international press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

burs-sah-mdl/ric

]]> Mon, 20 MAY 2013 12:43:35 AEST Washington (AFP) May 7, 2013 - Syria was cut off from the Internet on Tuesday, according to US tech firms monitoring Web traffic and the State Department.

The reasons were not immediately clear, but a similar blackout happened last November.

"Syria is currently experiencing an internet blackout as of this afternoon," a State Department tweet said.

Umbrella Security Labs reported a "significant drop in traffic from Syria" starting around 1845 GMT.

"On closer inspection it seems Syria has largely disappeared from the Internet," said Umbrella's Dan Hubbard.

A similar picture came from Google through its Transparency Report on Web traffic and Web monitoring firms Akamai and Renesys.

According to activists, sudden communication cuts may occur before major military offensives.

]]> Mon, 20 MAY 2013 12:43:35 AEST Washington (AFP) May 3, 2013 - An Algerian sought in connection with the "SpyEye" computer virus designed to steal financial and personal information was extradited by Thailand to the United States to face charges, officials said Friday.

The US Justice Department said Hamza Bendelladj, known by his alias "Bx1," would face charges in federal court in Atlanta, Georgia, for his role in developing, marketing and distributing the malware.

Bendelladj, 24, was charged in a 23-count indictment that was returned on December 20, 2011, and unsealed Friday, including charges of wire fraud, computer fraud and conspiracy.

Officials said Bendelladj was arrested January 5 at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, while he was in transit from Malaysia to Egypt. He was extradited from Thailand on Thursday.

"Hamza Bendelladj has been extradited to the United States to face charges of controlling and selling a nefarious computer virus designed to pry into computers and extract personal financial information," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman.

"The indictment charges Bendelladj and his co-conspirators with operating servers designed to control the personal computers of unsuspecting individuals and aggressively marketing their virus to other international cybercriminals intent on stealing sensitive information."

According to court documents, SpyEye was designed to automate the theft of confidential personal and financial information, such as online banking credentials, credit card information, usernames, passwords and other personally identifying information.

Bendelladj and others are accused of having developed, marketed and sold various versions of the SpyEye virus and component parts online from 2009 to 2001.

The Algerian also allegedly operated a server located in the state of Georgia, which controlled computers infected with the SpyEye virus.

The names of others accused in the same indictment were not disclosed in a redacted document released by officials.

]]> Mon, 20 MAY 2013 12:43:35 AEST Washington (AFP) May 1, 2013 - The United States singled out Ukraine on Wednesday as a major center of intellectual property theft, saying that the government itself has been behind the growth in piracy in the country.

China meanwhile was cited especially for rising theft of trade secrets in the US Trade Representative's annual "watch list" of countries where violations of intellectual property rights are widespread.

The USTR named Ukraine as a "priority foreign country," a rarely used designation that came after years of frustration over Kiev's inaction on the problem of intellectual property violations.

"This designation is the culmination of several years of growing concern over widespread IP theft, including the growing entrenchment of IPR infringement that is facilitated by government actors," the USTR said in the report.

The USTR alleged that "rogue" groups with ties to Ukrainian government officials have taken over the collection of music royalties, without forwarding them to the music rights-holders.

The government itself uses a large amount of unlicensed software, more so than any other countries on the IPR watch list, the USTR said.

In addition, the country allows the operations of major websites for the download of pirated entertainment and sofware like ExtraTorrent.com, which illustrates "how Ukraine has become perceived as a safe haven for online piracy enterprises serving other markets," it said.

The USTR said Ukraine in January 2012 had seized computer servers in an investigation into another free download website, EX.UA.

"Following intense negative public reaction, and public statements in support of the website by influential figures, the site reopened shortly thereafter and continues to monetize infringing content today," it said.

"I regret that the government of Ukraine has earned the first new Priority Foreign Country designation in 11 years due to its severely deteriorating climate for IPR protection and market access," said acting US Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis in a statement.

He called upon the government "to reverse recent backsliding and swiftly resolve the problems identified today."

The designation, under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, allows Washington to pursue sanctions against a country seen as a violator, directly or through the World Trade Organization.

Meanwhile China remained one of 10 countries on the USTR's "priority watch list" for its poor enforcement of IP rights and for the growth in the theft of trade secrets.

"Real world conditions for rights holders have overall seen little significant improvement" in China, the USTR report said.

"The theft of trade secrets is an escalating concern. Not only are repeated thefts occurring inside China, but also outside of China for the benefit of Chinese entities."

The other priority watch countries were: Algeria, Argentina, Chile, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Russia, Thailand and Venezuela.

]]> Mon, 20 MAY 2013 12:43:35 AEST Subscribe to our daily selection of space, military, environment and energy newsletters responseText http://visitor.constantcontact.com/manage/optin/ea?v=0016gbbKsaiGSpQFojVO8ZoHw%3D%3D