Malware

The UK’s Metropolitan Police swooped down on the remote, weather beaten Shetland Islands last week to arrrest what the authorities claim is a top ranking member of the international hacker collective Anonymous, which has been terrorizing governments and high profile corporations for most of the last six months. The arrest of Jake Davis, aka “Topiary” capped a busy month for law enforcement in the U.S. and U.K., with raids on dozens of homes and the arrest of reputed leaders of both Anonymous and the affiliated Lulz Security, including Marshall Webb, the Ohio man known online online as “m_nerva,” Ryan Cleary, the alleged botnet operator known as “Ryan,” and a fellow Brit known online as “Tflow.”

ED: Alleged Anonymous Leader Topiary Arraigned in LondonDEK: The authorities have charged Jake Davis, a UK resident from the remote Sheltand islands with five criminal counts. The 18 year old is alleged to be “Topiary,” a prominent member of the inner circle of the hacking groups Anonymous and Lulz Security. The authorities have charged Jake Davis, a UK resident from the remote Sheltand islands with five criminal counts. The 18 year old is alleged to be “Topiary,” a prominent member of the inner circle of the hacking groups Anonymous and Lulz Security.  Davis, whose arrest was announced on July 27, (http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/uk-police-arrest-man-they-say-anonymous-member-topiary-072711) is charged with violations of the UK’s Computer Misuse Act, Serious Crime Act and Criminal Law Act, including “Unauthorised access to a computer system,” “Conspiracy with others to carry out a Distributed Denial of Service Attack on the website of the Serious and Organised Crime Agency,” and other conspiracy charges. He appeared in City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday 1 August, according to the Metropolitan Police (http://content.met.police.uk/News/Man-charged-with-ecrime-offences/1260269346230/1257246745756)The teenager, who appeared in court wearing dark sunglasses and a blue, denim shirt, was released on bail until August 30, but is required to wear a monitoring bracelet and abstain from using the Internet, according to a report in the UK’s Daily Telegraph. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/8674987/LulzSec-hacking-Jake-Davis-had-cache-of-750000-passwords.html). Controversy has swirled around the arrest, with astonishment that a teenager in such a remote corner of the British Isles would be at the center of an international hacking collective, and members of Anonymous claiming that authorities arrested the wrong man. However, the Metropolitan Police have issued numerous statements that suggesting that they have strong evidence linking Davis to the hacker known as Topiary. If that is true, it would be a major score in the international law enforcement effort to bring down the group, which has carried out a string of high profile hacks in the last year, including attacks on HBGary, Sony, the CIA, the UK’s Serious and Organized Crime Agency and others. Leaked IRC chat logs purporting to be from a restricted channel used by the group’s leadership suggest that Topiary was a central player in the attacks on HBGary Federal and its then-CEO Aaron Barr. A user with the IRC handle Topiary is quoted in those logs directing elements of that attack, including the publication of stolen e-mails from the firm. He also served as a spokesman for the group, granting interviews to the press, though leaked chat logs suggest that he was interested in  passing himself off as an “observer” of the group rather than a leading member. The arrest is the second of a top ranked Anonymous member in recent weeks. In June, authorities arrested 19 year-old Ryan Cleary of Essex England. Cleary is alleged to have operated a botnet used t attack on tho carry out denial of service attacks, including the website of the Serious and Organised Crime Agency. The authorities have charged Jake Davis, a UK resident from the remote Sheltand islands with five criminal counts. The 18 year old is alleged to be “Topiary,” a prominent member of the inner circle of the hacking groups Anonymous and Lulz Security. 

Stuxnet may have been super sophisticated cyber weapon deployed by state actors, but future generations of the malware will be available to run of the mill script kiddies, a noted expert on security and industrial control systems has warned in a letter to the U.S. Congress ten months ago.

The once-prolific Conficker worm has turned up in the most unlikely of places: Australian discount supermarket, Aldi. The worm was discovered pre-installed on a four-in-one external hard-drive, DVD, USB, and card reader combination device.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission voted on Tuesday to impose new rules to help oversee what experts warn is a burgeoning and little understood shadow market of ultra high-speed, computer based trading. But one security expert warns that new reporting rules are only part of the problem. High frequency trading systems are also dangerously insecure, with few protections against manipulation by outside actors or rogue insiders. 

Officials at the Department of Homeland Security warned lawmakers this week that
we may not have seen the last of Stuxnet, the infamous worm
that wound its way through SCADA systems
just over a year ago.

Cybercriminals are increasingly turning to cloud storage services to distribute their malware, and not just the free ones, according to virus researchers at Kaspersky Lab.