On guard against the Chinese

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The FBI, whose agents are the frontline troops in the furtive wars of foreign counterintelligence and cyber warfare, is both alarmed and concerned about the increasing numbers of Chinese agents involved in espionage in the United States. Targets sought by the several thousand Chinese agents “loose” in the United States focus on America’s cutting edge technology — computer technology, research and sensitive defense information, it says. The FBI believes that a high proportion of all Chinese visitors have been tasked with missions for their government. A recent bureau report claims there are at least 3,000 Chinese-operated front companies in the United States whose actual business was to direct espionage efforts.

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Queensland brains crack the code of 3×5

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Any high-school student can tell you the prime factors of 15 are 3 and 5.

But if that student could tell you the prime factors of a number hundreds of digits long, they could crack the “RSA” encryption that underpins privacy and security on the internet, from online banking to confidential government emails.

A team of researchers at Queensland University has recently set a world-first benchmark using a quantum computer to find the prime factors of 15. It is a “baby step” on a path to smashing the science of cryptography.

“There’s a hell of a long way to go – we have created the world’s most boring, simplest quantum computer,” says Professor Andrew White of the university’s physics department. “But if I was encrypting things I still wanted to be secret in 20 years’ time – now I would worry.

“We don’t think we will threaten cryptography any time soon. But we are very excited about this demonstration: there is a path to scalability, to developing a computer that can solve problems impossible on a classical computer.”

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From CALEA (section 103)

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(3) ENCRYPTION- A telecommunications carrier shall not be responsible for decrypting, or ensuring the government’s ability to decrypt, any communication encrypted by a subscriber or customer, unless the encryption was provided by the carrier and the carrier possesses the information necessary to decrypt the communication.

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Symantec warns users over Bluetooth security

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A third threat, and possibly the most serious of the three risks, is bluebugging. This technique allows attackers to access mobile-phone commands using Bluetooth technology, without notifying or alerting the device owner, Ooi noted.

“This vulnerability allows the hacker to initiate phone calls, send and receive text messages, read and write phonebook contacts, eavesdrop on phone conversations and connect to the Internet,” Ooi explained. “As with all the attacks, the hacker must be within a 10-meter range of the (targeted) phone.”

Unlike bluesnarfing, which simply provides attackers access to personal information on the phone, bluebugging allows the attacker to take control of the device, he said.

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Equipos Nokia compatibles con Sigillu/Gold-Lock en el portafolio de Digitel (Spanish)

Link a la pagina de Digitel

Windows Mobile es una “invitación” para hackers (Spanish)

La compañía de seguridad informática McAfee ha analizado el sistema operativo Windows Mobile y su conclusión es implacable: “es una invitación abierta para los hackers”.

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McAfee predicts Windows Mobile malware

McAfee released a white paper (PDF) that highlights a handful of issues with Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system that the security company contends will drive malware writers to target the platform in the future.

According to McAfee, hackers will soon begin targeting smartphones such as Windows Mobile devices as the handhelds become more popular and people use them to store larger amounts of valuable data.

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