Info Tech
Microsoft’s new Cybercrime Center combines tactics against hacking groups
WASHINGTON – The maker of the most popular computer operating system in the world is launching a new strategy against criminal hackers by bringing together security engineers, digital forensics experts and lawyers trained in fighting software pirates under one roof at its new Cybercrime Center.
Microsoft Corp’s expanded Digital Crimes Unit inside the 16,800-square foot, high-security facility combines a wide array of tactics that have worked the best: massive data gathering and analysis, gumshoe detective work, high-level diplomacy and creative lawyering.
The new approach, to be launched on Thursday, is the latest attempt to close the gap created in the past decade as criminal hackers innovated in technology and business methods to stay ahead of adversaries mired in the slow-moving world of international law enforcement.
Already, many of the biggest victories against organized online criminals have come when private companies have worked together to seize control of the networks of hacked computers, called botnets, that carry out criminal operations. Though it is at times derided for the security shortfalls in its own products, Microsoft has led more of those seizures than any other company.
“Cybercrime is getting worse,” Digital Crimes Unit chief David Finn told Reuters during an exclusive visit to the Redmond, Washington, campus building this week. But Finn hopes that by mixing specialists from various professional arenas, Microsoft can get better.
The center features a lab for dissecting malicious software samples that is accessible only with fingerprint authorization. In another room, a monitor tracks the countries and Internet service providers with the greatest number of machines belonging to some of the worst botnets.
Next to a situation room with a wall-sized, touch-screen monitor sit rows of empty offices for visiting police, Microsoft customers or other allies expected to join specific missions for days or weeks at a time.
There are hundreds or thousands of botnets, and Microsoft is trying to get only the biggest or most damaging, or else to pursue fights that would establish key precedents.
In the past few years “at least half of the major, significant takedowns have been driven by Microsoft,” said Steve Santorelli, a former Microsoft investigator and Scotland Yard cybercrime detective who now works at a security nonprofit group called Team Cymru.
Microsoft has tangled with a Mexican mafia family that proudly put brand labels on pirated Xbox game CDs, a ring that took online payments via a parking garage in Malaga, Spain, and a Russian virus writer paid with a paper bag full of cash — by a 12-year-old boy on a bike.
Outside security experts praised the cross-pollination of fraud, security and software specialists.
“That kind of integration is only for the better. The financial sector has been thinking along those lines as well,” said Greg Garcia, a former cybersecurity official at the Department of Homeland Security and at Bank of America who now advises the banking industry’s main cybersecurity coordination group, known as FS-ISAC.
The crimes unit doesn’t tackle government spying, where Microsoft is among the major Internet companies that have turned over large amounts of data on users to the U.S. National Security Agency (it is suing for the right to disclose how much). And another unit within Microsoft is in charge of making the company’s products less susceptible to hacking.
PIRACY SQUAD PROTECTS WINDOWS
About 80 of the crime unit’s 100 staffers have focused on the piracy of Microsoft products, with far fewer devoted to deconstructing the methods of criminals attacking Microsoft users and stopping them when possible.
But time and again, the piracy squad has found counterfeiters who were using botnets that also sent spam or attacked websites with denial-of-service attacks, or who slipped malicious software into copied Microsoft wares, or who had other ties to broader security issues.
In one test, undercover Microsoft employees bought 20 new computers in China the way average consumers would. All had pirated versions of Windows, and all had at least traces of malicious software. An expanded pool of 169 machines included 18 percent ready to receive electronic commands as part of a botnet called Nitol.
More critically, the piracy people bring experience with unusually powerful U.S. copyright laws. With a strong preliminary showing in court that their goods are being misrepresented, copyright owners can win orders allowing them to seize the offending property without prior notice.
In an innovative and aggressive twist, Microsoft has been using that law to seize website addresses, including those used by criminals to control botnets.
“Microsoft really has done a very positive job in a couple of areas, and one of those is construction of legal frameworks that create precedents that allow future actions,” said Jeff Williams, head of security strategy at Dell Inc’s SecureWorks Counter Threat Unit.
The Nitol case was remarkable in that it and other botnets were connecting to 70,000 addresses at a Chinese web domain-name seller called 3322.org. Microsoft won the right to filter all connections to those addresses and blocked more than 7 million attempts in 16 days. The owner of 3322 agreed to settle Microsoft’s lawsuit and to drop other bad addresses identified by Microsoft or Chinese Internet security officials in the future.
Microsoft also felled a botnet called Rustock, once one of the biggest sources of spam on the planet. More recently, it teamed with banks to seriously hurt two operations that sell do-it-yourself kits for crafting smaller botnets that have stolen hundreds of millions of dollars from online accounts.
The takedowns are often dramatic, with armed raids on multiple locations where servers are housed. If there are many control computers and they don’t get disconnected within minutes of one another, the surviving machines can issue new commands and recreate the entire network.
During one raid in Pennsylvania, an executive at the bad web page’s hosting company was cooperating when the site’s owner realized what was happening and changed his password from afar, locking out the official. The Microsoft team pulled out the cables to save the day.
Finn and Microsoft crime expert Richard Boscovich, a fellow former federal prosecutor, said they are working on new means to take down even more sophisticated botnets, which are controlled through a peer-to-peer mechanism instead of through centralized servers.
“You’ll be seeing some interesting stuff in the near future,” Boscovich promised. “This is an area where what is good for the business is good for society.”
– REUTERS
In efforts at spicing up the 2023 ITREALMS E-Waste Dialogue, the management of ITREALMS Media has partnered with E-waste Producer Responsibility Organization of Nigeria (EPRON) membership organisations for a day-long collection scheme of small electronic waste on Friday, December 15, 2023.
The EPRON members aligning their partnership with 2023 ITREALMS E-Waste Dialogue are EL-AS Tech Enterprises Limited and WEEE Eco-Friendly.
ITREALMS’ day-long collection scheme is part of the commemoration of 2023 international E-Waste Day (IEWD) within the ITREALMS E-Waste Dialogue with the theme “You Can Recycle Anything with a plug, battery or cable” at Welcome Centre Hotels, International Airport Road, Lagos.
Revealing this collaboration, the Group Executive Editor, ITREALMS Media, the organisers of the 2023 ITREALMS E-Waste Dialogue, Sir. Remmy Nweke, urged mobile device enthusiasts to come along with their devices that have reached their end-of-life to the venue for proper disposition by professionals who would also be on grounds to address some topical issues.
The collection of small electronic wastes especially mobile phones and like-devices, would be carried out by EPRON member organisation, EL-AS Tech Enterprises Limited as facilitated by ITREALMS Media group as part of this year’s ITREALMS E-Waste Dialogue on Friday, December 15, he added.
He disclosed that the exercise would commence at Welcome Centre Hotel by 9am till close of work hours the same day.
Nweke pointed out that the collection of small e-waste items would include mobile phones, pointers mouse, earpieces, rechargeable torches, phone chargers, to name a few.
Further, he said, that this initiative has become time-serving because some people may have missed any other opportunity before now for the year-long campaign, hence this awareness on e-Waste has to be continuous, “ITREALMS came up with this scheme.”
Nweke beckoned on Nigerians, especially mobile phone users, to leverage the opportunity in disposing of their mobile devices they no longer use, of course in exchange for a voucher or gift item.
In her reaction to this year’s day-long small waste collection, EPRON Executive Secretary, Mrs. Ibukun Faluyi, described the initiative as commendable, expressing confidence it would intensify the collection of end-of-life devices for proper disposition.
Mrs. Faluyi, also urged Nigerians to take advantage of this day-long collection of small wastes courtesy of ITREALMS Media.
Recalling for instance that in October 2022, EPRON had partnered SLOT alongside some UN agencies for collection of small e-waste items in Lagos, including the United Nations Information Centres (UNIC), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), International Labour Organisation (ILO), Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) and Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA).
This is even as the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Dr. Aminu Maida and Director-General, National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), Prof. Aliyu Jauro, would both lead speakers at the 2023 ITREALMS E-Waste Dialogue slated for this Friday, December 15, in Lagos.
Today, September 12, the tech corporation Apple will introduce the iPhone 15, their newest iPhone model.
According to a Forbes story, this model, which will be introduced at the company’s “Wanderlust” event in Cupertino, California, will be available in four variations: the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Here are five things you should know about the new iPhone 15 model.
1. The new model is made of titaniu, not stainless steel as some other Apple smartphone models, Senior research analyst at DIGITIMES, Luke Lin reports.
2. The Pro Max model will feature double the optical zoom on the iPhone 14 as it comes with a newly-introduced ‘periscope lens upgrade, performing 5-6x optical zoom.’
3. The Pro models will carry an A17 bionic chip expected to make it perform faster.
4. The iPhone 15 model will feature a USB-C charging port, the same port featured on some Android phone models.
5. Due to its titanium shell, the new model is anticipated to be more expensive to purchase. The following is the speculated price list, as reported by Forbes:
The iPhone 15 starts at $799, the iPhone 15 Plus at $899, the iPhone 15 Pro at $1,099 ($100 increase), and the iPhone 15 Pro Max at $1,299 ($200 increase).
In an effort to reduce the exorbitant cost of Premium Motor Spirit, better known as petrol, the Infrastructure Bank Plc announced its collaboration with FEMADEC Group on Monday to offer 500 buses powered by autogas (Compressed Natural Gas).
Partners in the agreement claimed that the project was created to provide citizens with dependable, affordable, and environmentally friendly travel options, taking into account the negative effects of the nationwide increase in PMS costs.
Under Decree No. 51 of the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s 1992 Constitution, the Infrastructure Bank, originally known as the Urban Development Bank of Nigeria Plc, was founded in 1992 to promote the quick development of infrastructure throughout the nation.
In a statement issued in Abuja on its partnership with FEMADEC, the bank said, “The preliminary offer extended by TIB lays a solid foundation for the expansion of FEMADEC Group’s CNG bus fleet.
“With plans to introduce 500 CNG buses within the next five years, commencing with an initial batch of 50 buses in the forthcoming year, this proposal stands poised to instigate significant change.
“The acceptance of this proposition by FEMADEC Group, notably championed by Fola Akinnola, the Group Chief Executive Officer, is a testament to their zeal and dedication to this alliance.”
The bank described the partnership as a “pivotal endeavour that is primed to redefine Nigeria’s public transportation landscape, offering dependable, cost-effective, and ecologically conscious travel alternatives for citizens, while harmonising with the nation’s broader sustainability ambitions.”
“This partnership represents a remarkable stride towards a more ecologically aware future for Nigeria’s transportation sector, highlighting the shared commitment of both TIB and FEMADEC Group to sustainable advancement and progress.”
It said FEMADEC Group’s strides in operating Compressed Natural Gas buses, including the existing fleet of 20 CNG buses under LAMATA, underscored their unwavering dedication to ecologically sound solutions, a commitment predating the fuel subsidy removal.
“Their leadership within the CNG value chain is undeniable, and the new alliance with TIB underscores their foresight.
“This partnership seamlessly aligns with TIB’s sustainability objectives, echoing their resolute endorsement of the government’s net-zero and climate change agenda.
“The bank’s aspiration to champion Nigeria’s infrastructure progress is evident in its endorsement of pivotal initiatives like this, yielding expansive positive impacts on both the environment and society,” the bank stated.
The bank added that it would continue to make a significant contribution to the country’s growth as a leading financial institution committed to advancing effective and long-lasting infrastructure projects.
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