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Nominet finally goes to court

Nominet Logo

If you’ve never heard of Nominet, you should have. It’s the organisation that manages most of the domain names ending in .uk. It was set up in 1996 as a company when the previous arrangements (known as the Naming Committee) became overwhelmed. The Naming Committee granted the use of domain names to their rightful owners for no charge, but only their rightful owners. Nominet charged, and was more relaxed about who it sold things to – being too picky meant less income, and it needed income to cope with the increased demand for Internet services.

The snag with this new arrangement was that it allowed speculators to register as many domain names as they wished, with a view to charging end users money to use something they’d pre-registered. This is known as cyber-squatting, although people in this business prefer to call themselves “domainers”.

Nominet was created for the benefit of Internet users in the UK, not cyber-squatters. Unfortunately, cyber-squatters register more domain names than anyone else (as they would), and started to get an undue influence based on their size. Cyber-squatters make various claims about how they’re important for a “vibrant market” in domain names, but there’s no benefit to society in such a market. You could say they’re trading in something that should be free to legitimate users. Some would go as far as to call them parasites. If any cyber-squatters or domainers wish to explain exactly why the label is unfair, please enlighten me.

Anyway, the Nominet board isn’t stupid and has, in recent years, done a lot to skew things in favour of UK Internet users. Not enough as far as I’m concerned, but they’re trying to look after the majority. The cyber-squatters don’t like this, and have started personal attacks on Nominet’s CEO, Lesley Cowley in an attempt to get rid of her with a view to installing someone more of their liking. What’s really upset them was a consultation to allow people to register names directly under .uk, without a .co.uk or .org.uk. For example, Tesco could have been tesco.uk, as is often the case in other countries. Legitimate UK ownership would have been verified, like in the old days, but they would also have cost more. Cyber-squatters hated the idea, because their current stock-pile of .co.uk names would have been somewhat devalued! They had to defeat Nominet in order to preserve their “investment”. The rest of us would have quite like to see the speculators clobbered, although I’ve never had the feeling that was Nominet’s intention.

Nominet has finally had enough, and late this afternoon launched a High Court action against Graeme Wingate and his company That Internet Ltd, citing “[unacceptable] harassment and victimisation of our staff”. What this is really about is whether Nominet is run for the benefit of everyone, or the cyber-squatters.

 

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Vauxhall Helicopter Crash





I wouldn’t normally want to pre judge the reasons for an Air Accident but I’m getting a bit fed up with the twaddle appearing on the BBC and radio about the incident today where a helicopter appears to have hit a crane. Listening to Kate Hoey, MP for Vauxhall, making political points over it on the BBC just now is too much. Checking the NOTAMs for London, the following is in force between 07 Jan 2013 17:00 GMT and 15 Mar 2013 23:59 GMT.

HIGH RISE JIB CRANE (LIT AT NIGHT) OPR WI 1NM 5129N 00007W, HGT 
770FT AMSL (VAUXHALL, CENTRAL LONDON), OPS CTC 020 7820 ####
12-10-0429/AS 2.

A NOTAM, or notice to Airman, is issued to all pilots and they’re required to check them against their flight plan in case there’s anything important they need to know about. In my day it was done on paper – now it’s on-line and really easy to check. This is basically saying there’s a crane erected that’s 770′ high at this location in Vauxhall. It’s lit at night (but not during the day). Keep at least a mile away.

It was clearly foggy, so the pilot should have given it a wide berth. On the face of it, it appears he didn’t. Eyewitnesses don’t report anything unusual about the helicopter.

Helicopters are supposed to be flying in to London over the Thames in order to provide a “safe” landing area in the event of trouble. (That’s safe to the people on the ground, at least). It appears to have been broadly in the right place. Ms Hoey is being populist, but then again, that’s her job.

 

Update 13:30

News reports now say that the helicopter had diverted; this might explain why the pilot wasn’t aware of the crane it the original route went nowhere near it, although flight plans should have diversion plans and NOTAMs for diversions should also be checked.

Much is now being made of people who said the lighting wasn’t good enough. Lighting in daylight isn’t normal (or useful) anyway, and neither is it any good in fog (day or night).

However, having seen aerial shots (they’re all up there with helicopters) the crane doesn’t appear to be at the location specified in the NOTAM. That could turn out to be a story, but I’m not on the ground to check it.

The NOTAM (reproduced above) doesn’t actually give an accurate Lat and Long – it actually puts the crane next to the Kennington Oval. Normally NOTAMs in central London are a lot more precise – a couple more digits of accuracy. This is starting to look like a story, and you saw it here first.

 

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Red October or Red Herring





Kaspersky Labs has announced that someone had been conducting a hitherto unknown campaign wide-scale international espionage, dubbed Red October, for many years. Except it that I don’t think it has.

The story broke quietly on Friday in the Washington Post and has been repeated over some Internet news sites and blogs, almost verbatim, yesterday and today. Although keen for breaking news (especially where international intrigue is concerned), one should really take a step back and match the claims with the substance.

You can find the report here, although not the the Kaspersky site. It’s not the subject of any press release I’ve seen. No one could be contacted at Kaspersky for comment. Hmm. Specialist IT security sites, like Steve Gold’s IT Security Pro, aren’t treating this as a top story either. The only reason I’m hitting the keyboard is that people keep drawing it to my attention.

The report (assuming it isn’t a hoax) does contain a good analysis of what appears to be a new-ish botnet, although one that’s not very widespread (we’re not talking about Flame V2 here). Kaspersky has a lot of smart cookies working for them, and they do some very valuable research, but reading the posts on the subject you’d think they’d uncovered the next Watergate or similar. Perhaps they have, but all I’m seeing details so far  is of another botnet.

If their analysis is correct, the perpetrators do seem to be targeting government and diplomatic sites in particular, but this isn’t actually novel. They’ve identified targets in most of the developed world, with the interesting exception of England and China. As the code appears to be of Russian origin, and not particularly well obfuscated, it’s also noteworthy that the majority of the attacks have been launched against Russian targets.

So, as it stands, this looks like a competent investigations of a botnet. Well done Kaspersky. Now lets get some sleep.

 

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New Java exploit in the wild

Today AlienVault reported yet another vulnerability in Java, similar to CVE-2012-4681. Their head of Labs Jaime Blasco got hold of it and has been playing with it on a fully patched Java installation, and according to them, it works. If you fancy trying  it yourself, here are the details.

With Java embedded in to most web browsers (and if you don’t know about yours, it’s probably is), this is serious stuff. All you need do is go to a web page with some nasty embedded Java on it (by following a link in an email) and your machine is vulnerable to takeover. If you want to check whether Java is enabled on your browser, click here and check the version. If it returns “”No working Java was detected on your system…” then you’re okay. Right now, the only good Java is a dead one.

When Java first appeared as a cross-platform application language, much play was made of it being “sandboxed”, so a Java application was insulated from other applications and the host operating system. It didn’t take long for features to be added to allow it to manipulate files on the local system, providing obvious ways to break out. Security consists of guessing the ways this may occur and blocking them. This is a recipe for disaster unless the code is very taught. Opening the gates and then screening is the opposite of secure system design.

I realised something was wrong when a Sun evangelist tried to sell me on the idea of embedded Java – “We’ve reduced the footprint to 4Mb”. This was back in 1998, and 4Mb of ROM  on an embedded system was a hell of a lot. And it’s not just the size – 4Mb of code for doing what should be pretty straightforward stuff rang alarm bells. I don’t know about embedded Java, but the current JVM running on PCs is now talking in Gb. It’s hugely inefficient, which is a price you might choose to pay, but from a security point of view there’s no way you’re going to have that much code without all sorts of nasty stuff lurking away forgotten. Which explains why it keeps on coming out to bite us.

The only way to avoid your PC (or Macintosh or Linux box) being compromised is to disable the JVM until Oracle issue a patch for it.

 

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Bitlocker, PGP and TrueCrypt encryption broken (sort-of)

ElcomSoft has released a utility called Forensic Disk Decryptor that can get the data off encrypted hard drives without knowing the password. According to their web site it:

  • Decrypts information stored in three most popular crypto containers
  • Mounts encrypted BitLocker, PGP and TrueCrypt volumes

Amazing!

In complete decryption mode, Elcomsoft Forensic Disk Decryptor will automatically decrypt the entire content of the encrypted container, providing investigators with full, unrestricted access to absolutely all information stored on encrypted volumes.

Wow!

Elcomsoft Disk Decryptor PackageReading the technical details further, it’s not quite so amazing – they haven’t found a back-door to these encryption algorithms. Instead they’re examining the machine’s core (memory/RAM in user-land parlance) and pinching the key when they find it. This does, unfortunately, require that the machine in question is already running and decryption to be taking place ‘cos its user has already entered the password. This isn’t has hopeless as it sounds as there may be a core-dump (hibernation file) kicking around on an unencrypted hard disk, and indeed this is a known technique (one of very few) for getting data off these drives. Other methods are  scaring your suspect with a slap on the wrist if they don’t cough up the password, or running a trojan on the suspect’s PC (questionable legality).

According to ElcomSoft’s CEO, Vladimir Katalov, “Our customers asked us for a tool like this for a long, long time. We’re finally releasing a product that’s able to access encrypted volumes produced by all three popular crypto containers.”

ElcomSoft is a company that certainly knows what it’s doing, and this tool appears to automate a process that’s a PITA to do manually, but Mr. Katalov’s miraculous claims for the product shouldn’t unduly worry the user’s of this technology. It’s probably a good tool but it can’t do anything that wasn’t possible before.

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Government’s Daft Communications Bill

Never mind the privicy aspects, the communication’s bill is worrying because it shows the government has no idea at all about how communications on the Internet work. They seem to thing that passing a law allowing agencies to record the fact of, and possibly intercept, Internet communications will make it technically possible for them to do so. It will not. It’s as daft as passing a law to ban “recreational” drug use and then expecting the problem to disappear.

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Steve Missham and the BBC – stranger than fiction

Whilst I smelled a rat in the Steve Missham affair and subsequent events have proved me justified, I’m not feeling that smug because I can’t actually claim I saw the latest developments coming. They’re just too incredible.

What Missham has done is announce to the world that his alleged abuser didn’t look like, and therefore wasn’t, the politician he’s been accusing to all and sundry for days. The news media appears to accept this, and has gone on a frenzy of blame culminating in the “resignation” of George Entwistle this evening. The one person not apparently in the firing line is Missham, who’s fantastic story is the cause of it. The idea that he didn’t know what the person he was accusing looked like before his recent publicity spree stretches credibility beyond my limit.

Okay, the BBC clearly didn’t check its facts either but then again this is hardly uncommon. As I said last week, they’re always on the lookout for anything negative they an say about the Conservative Party, and I’d assume they’re even less likely to check facts in such a case.

This morning I heard George Entwistle being savaged by John Humpharies on Today. After several minutes I couldn’t take it, but they were still on when the snooze button had timed out. Entwistle was protesting that no one had told him anything. Sadly, I have to say I believe him. This evening he “resigned”, but received a year’s inflated salary as a pay-off. That’s a neat trick. Who else can choose to resign and have their employer’s pay him a year’s salary? Some mistake, surely.

Apart from the peer who’s been accused of the most horrendous crimes for no reason whatsoever, the other victims in this affair are children who have been abused, and those who will be in the future. We’re always hearing the mantra that children don’t lie about such things and should always believed. This was Missham’s main theme too. It goes along with the notion that no women would falsely claim to be raped. Privately, people who work with children and alleged rape victims will contradict this – some people will claim all sorts of things if they think it will get them what they want. Having such a high-profile abuse victim who was clearly not telling the truth is not going to encourage genuine victims of such crimes to come forward.

As to the crisis at the BBC, it’s long been the case that some of their journalists have exhibited bias and inaccuracy in reporting, especially at the local and national level. They’re now engaged in reporting, 24/7 on their favourite subject (themselves). When Entwistle resigned it was blamed on “shoddy journalism”, but what of the shoddy journalists? They’re still there.

I’ve just been watching speculation as to who’s going to take over as Director General of the BBC. The journalists are complaining that Tim Davie, the caretaker DG, has no editorial experience, and is also an outsider. Other candidates have been criticised for being non-editorial and non-BBC types. Entwistle was from a 23-year BBC Editorial background (as previous DGs) but has failed spectacularly, cut and run (or was he really pushed?)

Of course the BBC hacks want one of their own, but that’s the last thing the BBC needs.

 

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Tory Minister in child abuse scandal: A welsh rat

I’ve been listening on the BBC and reading in the tabloids about Steve Messham, a child abuse victim from a Welsh children’s home going on about how a senior Conservative politician was the centre of a peadophile ring. I smell a rat. He’s popping up every where, and in his latest interview he’s complained that the abuse took place under a “Tory” government and he’s now not getting his enquiry under another “Tory” government. He said nothing under the “Labour” government, and people using that kind of language have, in my experience, had a party political axe to grind.

It turns out he hasn’t actually complained to the police, or given any specifics of these allagations to anyone. Yet the BBC can’t get enough of him. In normal circumstances, someone like this would be ignored. Put up or shut up. However, to the BBC he’s a lifeline to take attention away from their own child abuse scandal. The icing on the cake for them is the “Tory politician” bit; music to the ears of certain BBC journalists.

Twitter is full of people praising Messham for his courage, and naming the politician he must be referring to (although somewhat unlikely).

The BBC is terrible about checking its facts, and this looks horribly like one of those cases of not letting facts get in the way of a good story, especially one with such perfect timing for them.

As to Mr Missham, I wonder what he’s thinking. After nearly a week of no substance, I’m wondering if this wasn’t a wheeze to jump on a rolling bandwaggon that’s now heading down hill with no brakes. He’s clearly enyoying the media spotlight but unless he delivers the goods (i.e. goes to the police), even the media pack is going to get bored, and when they do they’ll turn on him. I don’t suppose he has an exit stratergy. If he finally names someone, they’d better be long-dead or he’s going to be sued to kingdom come. Unless he’s right, but if he was, he’d have gone to the police already.

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My name is Elena and I live in small city in Russia.

You may have seen one or more of these in your inbox in the last few days:

Hello,
 
My name is Elena and I live in small city in Russia. I have a little daughter and no husband since he left us. Due to deep crisis recently I losted job and can not pay the heating bills for our home anymore. I finded your address at website and decided to write you from a public library. We urgent need heating because winter arriving and the temperature in our home is very cold. We can heat our home with a portable woodburner, but we unable buy it because it cost too much for us. If you own any old transportable woodburner from cast iron which you don’t use anymore, I pray you can gift to us and transport of it to us.
 
I hope for your answer.
 
Elena.

Okay – it’s obviously a scam, but it’s interesting as it’s getting through most spam filters. It actually originates from Tellas in Greece, from mail servers that aren’t blacklisted – although today it moved on to ADSL lines.

Reading the text, it’s  reminiscent of various “I’m a poor Russian in trouble” panhandles that appear annually at about this time of year. If you reply (it’s been tried) the person at the other end will suggest that instead of sending the stove you just send the money as she can buy one from the local market for a figure just under $200.

What I’m not so sure of is that the scammer is actually even Russian in this instance, as the language isn’t quite right. Russian speakers (in fact most East Europeans) are notoriously bad at using the definite or indefinite article (‘it’ or ‘a’) because it doesn’t exist in their language. This person fails to use it pretty consistently  thus sounding like a Russian trying to speak English, but slips up with “…buy it because it cost…”. She also has “…a little daughter…”. It suggests American, as a linguist friend pointed out, because of the use of “home” instead of “house” and “woodburner” instead of “wood burning stove”.

You might wonder why on earth the request is for a cast iron stove. Are the collecting them from scrap iron? Well, no – when you think about it, if you offer them a stove the shipping will be prohibitively expensive (they are heavy) so you can save money by simply sending the cash.

Anyone up on this kind of thing will  have been thinking “Valentin Mikhaylin” from the start. Okay, he changed the name to Elana in 2007 (or sometimes Valentin and his mother, Elana), but the stove story has been used for at least ten years. It has all the hallmarks, except one: This year the spams are getting through. This could be the scammer’s undoing – as everyone is receiving multiple copies it’s lost all plausibility in 2012. So what will 2013 be about, one wonders?

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Don’t use your real birthday on web sites

You’d have to be completely crazy to enter your name, address and date-of-birth when registering on a web site if you had any inkling of the security implications. Put simply, these are security questions commonly used by your bank and you really don’t want such information falling in to the wrong hands. So, security-savvy people use a fake DOB on different web sites. If you want to play fair with a site that’s asking this for demographic research, use approximately the correct year by all means, but don’t give them you mother’s real maiden name or anything else used by banks or government agencies to verify your identity, or the criminals will end up using it for their own purposes (i.e. emptying your bank account).

That banks, or anyone else, use personal details that can be uncovered with a bit of research at the public record office is a worry in itself. It’s only a minor hindrance to fraudulent criminals unless you provide random strings and insist to your bank that your father married a Miss Iyklandhqys. The bank might get uppity about it, but they should be more interested in security than genealogy.

This common knowledge, and common sense advice was repeated by civil servant from the Cabinet Office called Andy Smith at the Parliament and the Internet Conference at Portcullis House a few days ago. I’ve never met him, but he seems to have a better grasp of security than most of the government and civil service.

Enter Ms Goodman – Labour MP for Bishop Auckland. She heard this and declared his advice as “totally outrageous”, and went on to say that “I was genuinely shocked that a public official could say such a thing.”

I wish I was genuinely shocked at the dangerous ignorance of many MPs, but I can’t say that I am. Her political masters (New Labour) haven’t acted nearly quickly enough to suppress this foolish person. In her defence, she used the context that people used anonymous account to bully others. This doesn’t bear any scrutiny at all.

When are we going to find a politician with the faintest clue about how cyber security works? The fact that this ignoramus hasn’t disappeared under a barrage of criticism suggests that this isn’t an isolated problem – they’re all as culpable. Her biography shows just how qualified she is to talk about cyber security (or life outside of the Westminster bubble). I’ve no idea what she’s like as a person or MP, but a security expert she isn’t.

I do hope they listen to Andy Smith.