• CRYPTO-GRAM, April 15, 2022

    From TheCivvie@618:500/14.1 to All on Friday, June 17, 2022 10:48:17

    Crypto-Gram
    April 15, 2022

    by Bruce Schneier
    Fellow and Lecturer, Harvard Kennedy School
    schneier@schneier.com
    https://www.schneier.com

    A free monthly newsletter providing summaries, analyses, insights, and commentaries on security: computer and
    otherwise.

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    In this issue:

    If these links don't work in your email client, try reading this issue of Crypto-Gram on the web.

    US Critical Infrastructure Companies Will Have to Report When They Are Hacked
    Breaking RSA through Insufficiently Random Primes
    "Change Password"
    Why Vaccine Cards Are So Easily Forged
    Developer Sabotages Open-Source Software Package
    White House Warns of Possible Russian Cyberattacks
    NASAs Insider Threat Program
    Linux Improves Its Random Number Generator
    Gus Simmonss Memoir
    A Detailed Look at the Conti Ransomware Gang
    Stalking with an Apple Watch
    Chrome Zero-Day from North Korea
    Bypassing Two-Factor Authentication
    Wyze Camera Vulnerability
    Hackers Using Fake Police Data Requests against Tech Companies
    Cyberweapons Arms Manufacturer FinFisher Shuts Down
    US Disrupts Russian Botnet
    AirTags Are Used for Stalking Far More than Previously Reported
    De-anonymizing Bitcoin
    John Oliver on Data Brokers
    Russian Cyberattack against Ukrainian Power Grid Prevented
    Industrial Control System Malware Discovered
    Upcoming Speaking Engagements

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    US Critical Infrastructure Companies Will Have to Report When They Are Hacked

    [2022.03.15] This will be law soon:

    Companies critical to U.S. national interests will now have to report when theyre hacked or they pay ransomware,
    according to new rules approved by Congress.

    [...]

    The reporting requirement legislation was approved by the House and the Senate on Thursday and is expected to be
    signed into law by President Joe Biden soon. It requires any entity thats considered part of the nations critical
    infrastructure, which includes the finance, transportation and energy sectors, to report any substantial cyber incident
    to the government within three days and any ransomware payment made within 24 hours.

    Even better would be if they had to report it to the public.

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    Breaking RSA through Insufficiently Random Primes

    [2022.03.16] Basically, the SafeZone library doesnt sufficiently randomize the two prime numbers it used to generate
    RSA keys. Theyre too close to each other, which makes them vulnerable to recovery.

    There arent many weak keys out there, but there are some:

    So far, Bock has identified only a handful of keys in the wild that are vulnerable to the factorization attack.
    Some of the keys are from printers from two manufacturers, Canon and Fujifilm (originally branded as Fuji Xerox).
    Printer users can use the keys to generate a Certificate Signing Request. The creation date for the all the weak keys
    was 2020 or later. The weak Canon keys are tracked as CVE-2022-26351.

    Bock also found four vulnerable PGP keys, typically used to encrypt email, on SKS PGP key servers. A user ID tied
    to the keys implied they were created for testing, so he doesnt believe theyre in active use.

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    "Change Password"

    [2022.03.17] Oops:

    Instead of telling you when its safe to cross the street, the walk signs in Crystal City, VA are just repeating
    CHANGE PASSWORD. Somethings gone terribly wrong here.

    EDITED TO ADD (4/13): Details of what happened.

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    Why Vaccine Cards Are So Easily Forged

    [2022.03.18] My proof of COVID-19 vaccination is recorded on an easy-to-forge paper card. With little trouble, I could
    print a blank form, fill it out, and snap a photo. Small imperfections wouldnt pose any problem; you cant see whether
    the papers weight is right in a digital image. When I fly internationally, I have to show a negative COVID-19 test
    result. That, too, would be easy to fake. I could change the date on an old test, or put my name on someone elses test,
    or even just make something up on my computer. After all, theres no standard format for test results; airlines accept
    anything that looks plausible.

    After a career spent in cybersecurity, this is just how my mind works: I find vulnerabilities in everything I see. When
    it comes to the measures intended to keep us safe from COVID-19, I dont even have to look very hard. But Im not
    alarmed. The fact that these measures are flawed is precisely why theyre going to be so helpful in getting us past the
    pandemic.

    Back in 2003, at the height of our collective terrorism panic, I coined the term security theater to describe measures
    that look like theyre doing something but arent. We did a lot of security theater back then: ID checks to get into
    buildings, even though terrorists have IDs; random bag searches in subway stations, forcing terrorists to walk to the
    next station; airport bans on containers with more than 3.4 ounces of liquid, which can be recombined into larger
    bottles on the other side of security. At first glance, asking people for photos of easily forged pieces of paper or
    printouts of readily faked test results might look like the same sort of security theater. Theres an important
    difference, though, between the most effective strategies for preventing terrorism and those for preventing COVID-19
    transmission.

    Security measures fail in one of two ways: Either they cant stop a bad actor from doing a bad thing, or they block an
    innocent person from doing an innocuous thing. Sometimes one is more important than the other. When it comes to attacks
    that have catastrophic effects -- say, launching nuclear missiles -- we want the security to stop all bad actors, even
    at the expense of usability. But when were talking about milder attacks, the balance is less obvious. Sure, banks want
    credit cards to be impervious to fraud, but if the security measures also regularly prevent us from using our own
    credit cards, we would rebel and banks would lose money. So banks often put ease of use ahead of security.

    Thats how we should think about COVID-19 vaccine cards and test documentation. Were not looking for perfection. If most
    everyone follows the rules and doesnt cheat, we win. Making these systems easy to use is the priority. The alternative
    just isnt worth it.

    I design computer security systems for a living. Given the challenge, I could design a system of vaccine and test
    verification that makes cheating very hard. I could issue cards that are as unforgeable as passports, or create phone
    apps that are linked to highly secure centralized databases. I could build a massive surveillance apparatus and enforce
    the sorts of strict containment measures used in Chinas zero-COVID-19 policy. But the costs -- in money, in liberty, in
    privacy -- are too high. We can get most of the benefits with some pieces of paper and broad, but not universal,
    compliance with the rules.

    It also helps that many of the people who break the rules are so very bad at it. Every story of someone getting
    arrested for faking a vaccine card, or selling a fake, makes it less likely that the next person will cheat. Every
    traveler arrested for faking a COVID-19 test does the same thing. When a famous athlete such as Novak Djokovic gets
    caught lying about his past COVID-19 diagnosis when trying to enter Australia, others conclude that they shouldnt try
    lying themselves.

    Our goal should be to impose the best policies that we can, given the trade-offs. The small number of cheaters isnt
    going to be a public-health problem. I dont even care if they feel smug about cheating the system. The system is
    resilient; it can withstand some cheating.

    Last month, I visited New York City, where restrictions that are now being lifted were then still in effect. Every
    restaurant and cocktail bar I went to verified the photo of my vaccine card that I keep on my phone, and at least
    pretended to compare the name on that card with the one on my photo ID. I felt a lot safer in those restaurants because
    of that security theater, even if a few of my fellow patrons cheated.

    This essay previously appeared in the Atlantic.

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    Developer Sabotages Open-Source Software Package

    [2022.03.21] This is a big deal:

    A developer has been caught adding malicious code to a popular open-source package that wiped files on computers
    located in Russia and Belarus as part of a protest that has enraged many users and raised concerns about the safety of
    free and open source software.

    The application, node-ipc, adds remote interprocess communication and neural networking capabilities to other open
    source code libraries. As a dependency, node-ipc is automatically downloaded and incorporated into other libraries,
    including ones like Vue.js CLI, which has more than 1 million weekly downloads.

    [...]

    The node-ipc update is just one example of what some researchers are calling protestware. Experts have begun
    tracking other open source projects that are also releasing updates calling out the brutality of Russias war. This
    spreadsheet lists 21 separate packages that are affected.

    One such package is es5-ext, which provides code for the ECMAScript 6 scripting language specification. A new
    dependency named postinstall.js, which the developer added on March 7, checks to see if the users computer has a
    Russian IP address, in which case the code broadcasts a call for peace.

    It constantly surprises non-computer people how much critical software is dependent on the whims of random programmers
    who inconsistently maintain software libraries. Between log4j and this new protestware, its becoming a serious
    vulnerability. The White House tried to start addressing this problem last year, requiring a software bill of materials
    for government software:

    ...the term Software Bill of Materials or SBOM means a formal record containing the details and supply chain
    relationships of various components used in building software. Software developers and vendors often create products by
    assembling existing open source and commercial software components. The SBOM enumerates these components in a product.
    It is analogous to a list of ingredients on food packaging. An SBOM is useful to those who develop or manufacture
    software, those who select or purchase software, and those who operate software. Developers often use available open
    source and third-party software components to create a product; an SBOM allows the builder to make sure those
    components are up to date and to respond quickly to new vulnerabilities. Buyers can use an SBOM to perform
    vulnerability or license analysis, both of which can be used to evaluate risk in a product. Those who operate software
    can use SBOMs to quickly and easily determine whether they are at potential risk of a newly discovered vulnerability. A
    widely used, machine-readable SBOM format allows for greater benefits through automation and tool integration. The
    SBOMs gain greater value when collectively stored in a repository that can be easily queried by other applications and
    systems. Understanding the supply chain of software, obtaining an SBOM, and using it to analyze known vulnerabilities
    are crucial in managing risk.

    Its not a solution, but its a start.

    EDITED TO ADD (3/22): Brian Krebs on protestware.

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    White House Warns of Possible Russian Cyberattacks

    [2022.03.22] News:

    The White House has issued its starkest warning that Russia may be planning cyberattacks against critical-sector
    U.S. companies amid the Ukraine invasion.

    [...]

    Context: The alert comes after Russia has lobbed a series of digital attacks at the Ukrainian government and
    critical industry sectors. But theres been no sign so far of major disruptive hacks against U.S. targets even as the
    government has imposed increasingly harsh sanctions that have battered the Russian economy.

    The public alert followed classified briefings government officials conducted last week for more than 100
    companies in sectors at the highest risk of Russian hacks, Neuberger said. The briefing was prompted by preparatory
    activity by Russian hackers, she said.
    U.S. analysts have detected scanning of some critical sectors computers by Russian government actors and other
    preparatory work, one U.S. official told my colleague Ellen Nakashima on the condition of anonymity because of the
    matters sensitivity. But whether that is a signal that there will be a cyberattack on a critical system is not clear,
    Neuberger said.
    Neuberger declined to name specific industry sectors under threat but said theyre part of critical
    infrastructure -- a government designation that includes industries deemed vital to the economy and national security,
    including energy, finance, transportation and pipelines.

    President Bidens statement. White House fact sheet. And heres a video of the extended Q&A with deputy national security
    adviser Anne Neuberger.

    EDITED TO ADD (3/23): Long -- three hour -- conference call with CISA.

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    NASAs Insider Threat Program

    [2022.03.23] The Office of Inspector General has audited NASAs insider threat program:

    While NASA has a fully operational insider threat program for its classified systems, the vast majority of the
    Agencys information technology (IT) systems -- including many containing high-value assets or critical infrastructure
    -- are unclassified and are therefore not covered by its current insider threat program. Consequently, the Agency may
    be facing a higher-than-necessary risk to its unclassified systems and data. While NASAs exclusion of unclassified
    systems from its insider threat program is common among federal agencies, adding those systems to a multi-faceted
    security program could provide an additional level of maturity to the program and better protect agency resources.
    According to Agency officials, expanding the insider threat program to unclassified systems would benefit the Agencys
    cybersecurity posture if incremental improvements, such as focusing on IT systems and people at the most risk, were
    implemented. However, on-going concerns including staffing challenges, technology resource limitations, and lack of
    funding to support such an expansion would need to be addressed prior to enhancing the existing program.

    Further amplifying the complexities of insider threats are the cross-discipline challenges surrounding
    cybersecurity expertise. At NASA, responsibilities for unclassified systems are largely shared between the Office of
    Protective Services and the Office of the Chief Information Officer. In addition, Agency contracts are managed by the
    Office of Procurement while grants and cooperative agreements are managed by the Office of the Chief Financial Officer.
    Nonetheless, in our view, mitigating the risk of an insider threat is a team sport in which a comprehensive insider
    threat risk assessment would allow the Agency to gather key information on weak spots or gaps in administrative
    processes and cybersecurity. At a time when there is growing concern about the continuing threats of foreign influence,
    taking the proactive step to conduct a risk assessment to evaluate NASAs unclassified systems ensures that gaps cannot
    be exploited in ways that undermine the Agencys ability to carry out its mission.

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    Linux Improves Its Random Number Generator

    [2022.03.24] In kernel version 5.17, both /dev/random and /dev/urandom have been replaced with a new algorithm -- the
    same one for both -- based on the BLAKE2 hash function, which is an excellent security improvement.

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    Gus Simmonss Memoir

    [2022.03.25] Gus Simmons is an early pioneer in cryptography and computer security. I know him best for his work on
    authentication and covert channels, specifically as related to nuclear treaty verification. His work is cited
    extensively in Applied Cryptography.

    He has written a memoir of growing up dirt-poor in 1930s rural West Virginia. Im in the middle of reading it, and its
    fascinating.

    More blog posts.

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    A Detailed Look at the Conti Ransomware Gang

    [2022.03.29] Based on two years of leaked messages, 60,000 in all:

    The Conti ransomware gang runs like any number of businesses around the world. It has multiple departments, from HR
    and administrators to coders and researchers. It has policies on how its hackers should process their code, and shares
    best practices to keep the groups members hidden from law enforcement.

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    Stalking with an Apple Watch

    [2022.03.30] The malicious uses of these technologies are scary:

    Police reportedly arrived on the scene last week and found the man crouched beside the womans passenger side door.
    According to the police, the man had, at some point, wrapped his Apple Watch across the spokes of the womans passenger
    side front car wheel and then used the Watch to track her movements. When police eventually confronted him, he admitted
    the Watch was his. Now, hes reportedly being charged with attaching an electronic tracking device to the womans
    vehicle.

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    Chrome Zero-Day from North Korea

    [2022.03.31] North Korean hackers have been exploiting a zero-day in Chrome.

    The flaw, tracked as CVE-2022-0609, was exploited by two separate North Korean hacking groups. Both groups deployed
    the same exploit kit on websites that either belonged to legitimate organizations and were hacked or were set up for
    the express purpose of serving attack code on unsuspecting visitors. One group was dubbed Operation Dream Job, and it
    targeted more than 250 people working for 10 different companies. The other group, known as AppleJeus, targeted 85
    users.

    Details:

    The attackers made use of an exploit kit that contained multiple stages and components in order to exploit targeted
    users. The attackers placed links to the exploit kit within hidden iframes, which they embedded on both websites they
    owned as well as some websites they compromised.

    The kit initially serves some heavily obfuscated javascript used to fingerprint the target system. This script
    collected all available client information such as the user-agent, resolution, etc. and then sent it back to the
    exploitation server. If a set of unknown requirements were met, the client would be served a Chrome RCE exploit and
    some additional javascript. If the RCE was successful, the javascript would request the next stage referenced within
    the script as SBX, a common acronym for Sandbox Escape. We unfortunately were unable to recover any of the stages that
    followed the initial RCE.

    Careful to protect their exploits, the attackers deployed multiple safeguards to make it difficult for security
    teams to recover any of the stages. These safeguards included:

    Only serving the iframe at specific times, presumably when they knew an intended target would be visiting the
    site.
    On some email campaigns the targets received links with unique IDs. This was potentially used to enforce a
    one-time-click policy for each link and allow the exploit kit to only be served once.
    The exploit kit would AES encrypt each stage, including the clients responses with a session-specific key.
    Additional stages were not served if the previous stage failed.

    Although we recovered a Chrome RCE, we also found evidence where the attackers specifically checked for visitors
    using Safari on MacOS or Firefox (on any OS), and directed them to specific links on known exploitation servers. We did
    not recover any responses from those URLs.

    If youre a Chrome user, patch your system now.

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    Bypassing Two-Factor Authentication

    [2022.04.01] These techniques are not new, but theyre increasingly popular:

    ...some forms of MFA are stronger than others, and recent events show that these weaker forms arent much of a
    hurdle for some hackers to clear. In the past few months, suspected script kiddies like the Lapsus$ data extortion gang
    and elite Russian-state threat actors (like Cozy Bear, the group behind the SolarWinds hack) have both successfully
    defeated the protection.

    [...]

    Methods include:

    Sending a bunch of MFA requests and hoping the target finally accepts one to make the noise stop.
    Sending one or two prompts per day. This method often attracts less attention, but there is still a good chance
    the target will accept the MFA request.
    Calling the target, pretending to be part of the company, and telling the target they need to send an MFA
    request as part of a company process.

    FIDO2 multi-factor authentication systems are not susceptible to these attacks, because they are tied to a physical
    computer.

    And even though there are attacks against these two-factor systems, theyre much more secure than not having them at
    all. If nothing else, they block pretty much all automated attacks.

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    Wyze Camera Vulnerability

    [2022.04.04] Wyze ignored a vulnerability in its home security cameras for three years. Bitdefender, who discovered the
    vulnerability, let the company get away with it.

    In case youre wondering, no, that is not normal in the security community. While experts tell me that the concept
    of a responsible disclosure timeline is a little outdated and heavily depends on the situation, were generally
    measuring in days, not years. The majority of researchers have policies where if they make a good faith effort to reach
    a vendor and dont get a response, that they publicly disclose in 30 days, Alex Stamos, director of the Stanford
    Internet Observatory and former chief security officer at Facebook, tells me.

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    Hackers Using Fake Police Data Requests against Tech Companies

    [2022.04.05] Brian Krebs has a detailed post about hackers using fake police data requests to trick companies into
    handing over data.

    Virtually all major technology companies serving large numbers of users online have departments that routinely
    review and process such requests, which are typically granted as long as the proper documents are provided and the
    request appears to come from an email address connected to an actual police department domain name.

    But in certain circumstances -- such as a case involving imminent harm or death -- an investigating authority may
    make whats known as an Emergency Data Request (EDR), which largely bypasses any official review and does not require
    the requestor to supply any court-approved documents.

    It is now clear that some hackers have figured out there is no quick and easy way for a company that receives one
    of these EDRs to know whether it is legitimate. Using their illicit access to police email systems, the hackers will
    send a fake EDR along with an attestation that innocent people will likely suffer greatly or die unless the requested
    data is provided immediately.

    In this scenario, the receiving company finds itself caught between two unsavory outcomes: Failing to immediately
    comply with an EDR -- and potentially having someones blood on their hands -- or possibly leaking a customer record to
    the wrong person.

    Another article claims that both Apple and Facebook (or Meta, or whatever they want to be called now) fell for this
    scam.

    We allude to this kind of risk in our 2015 Keys Under Doormats paper:

    Third, exceptional access would create concentrated targets that could attract bad actors. Security credentials
    that unlock the data would have to be retained by the platform provider, law enforcement agencies, or some other
    trusted third party. If law enforcements keys guaranteed access to everything, an attacker who gained access to these
    keys would enjoy the same privilege. Moreover, law enforcements stated need for rapid access to data would make it
    impractical to store keys offline or split keys among multiple keyholders, as security engineers would normally do with
    extremely high-value credentials.

    The credentials are even more insecure than we could have imagined: access to an email address. And the data, of
    course, isnt very secure. But imagine how this kind of thing could be abused with a law enforcement encryption
    backdoor.

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    Cyberweapons Arms Manufacturer FinFisher Shuts Down

    [2022.04.06] FinFisher has shut down operations. This is the spyware company whose products were used, among other
    things, to spy on Turkish and Bahraini political opposition.

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    US Disrupts Russian Botnet

    [2022.04.07] The Justice Department announced the disruption of a Russian GRU-controlled botnet:

    The Justice Department today announced a court-authorized operation, conducted in March 2022, to disrupt a
    two-tiered global botnet of thousands of infected network hardware devices under the control of a threat actor known to
    security researchers as Sandworm, which the U.S. government has previously attributed to the Main Intelligence
    Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (the GRU). The operation copied and
    removed malware from vulnerable internet-connected firewall devices that Sandworm used for command and control (C2) of
    the underlying botnet. Although the operation did not involve access to the Sandworm malware on the thousands of
    underlying victim devices worldwide, referred to as bots, the disabling of the C2 mechanism severed those bots from the
    Sandworm C2 devices control.

    The botnet targets network devices manufactured by WatchGuard Technologies Inc. (WatchGuard) and ASUSTek Computer Inc.
    (ASUS). And note that only the command-and-control mechanism was disrupted. Those devices are still vulnerable.

    The Justice Department made a point that they did this before the botnet was used for anything offensive.

    Four more news articles. Slashdot post.

    EDITED TO ADD (4/13): WatchGuard knew and fixed it nearly a year ago, but tried to keep it hidden. The patches were
    reverse-engineered.

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    AirTags Are Used for Stalking Far More than Previously Reported

    [2022.04.08] Ever since Apple introduced AirTags, security people have warned that they could be used for stalking. But
    while there have been a bunch of anecdotal stories, this is the first vaguely scientific survey:

    Motherboard requested records mentioning AirTags in a recent eight month period from dozens of the countrys largest
    police departments. We obtained records from eight police departments.

    Of the 150 total police reports mentioning AirTags, in 50 cases women called the police because they started
    getting notifications that their whereabouts were being tracked by an AirTag they didnt own. Of those, 25 could
    identify a man in their lives -- ex-partners, husbands, bosses -- who they strongly suspected planted the AirTags on
    their cars in order to follow and harass them. Those women reported that current and former intimate partners -- the
    most likely people to harm women overall -- are using AirTags to stalk and harass them.

    Eight police departments over eight months yielded fifty cases. And thats only where the victim (1) realized they were
    being tracked by someone elses AirTag, and (2) contacted the police. Thats going to multiply out to a lot of AirTag
    stalking in the country, and the world.

    EDITED TO ADD (4/13): AirTags are being used by Ukrainians to track goods stolen by Russians and, as a nice side
    effect, to track the movements of Russian troops.

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    De-anonymizing Bitcoin

    [2022.04.11] Andy Greenberg wrote a long article -- an excerpt from his new book -- on how law enforcement
    de-anonymized bitcoin transactions to take down a global child porn ring.

    Within a few years of Bitcoins arrival, academic security researchers -- and then companies like Chainalysis --
    began to tear gaping holes in the masks separating Bitcoin users addresses and their real-world identities. They could
    follow bitcoins on the blockchain as they moved from address to address until they reached one that could be tied to a
    known identity. In some cases, an investigator could learn someones Bitcoin addresses by transacting with them, the way
    an undercover narcotics agent might conduct a buy-and-bust. In other cases, they could trace a targets coins to an
    account at a cryptocurrency exchange where financial regulations required users to prove their identity. A quick
    subpoena to the exchange from one of Chainalysis customers in law enforcement was then enough to strip away any
    illusion of Bitcoins anonymity.

    Chainalysis had combined these techniques for de-anonymizing Bitcoin users with methods that allowed it to cluster
    addresses, showing that anywhere from dozens to millions of addresses sometimes belonged to a single person or
    organization. When coins from two or more addresses were spent in a single transaction, for instance, it revealed that
    whoever created that multi-input transaction must have control of both spender addresses, allowing Chainalysis to lump
    them into a single identity. In other cases, Chainalysis and its users could follow a peel chain -- a process analogous
    to tracking a single wad of cash as a user repeatedly pulled it out, peeled off a few bills, and put it back in a
    different pocket. In those peel chains, bitcoins would be moved out of one address as a fraction was paid to a
    recipient and then the remainder returned to the spender at a change address. Distinguishing those change addresses
    could allow an investigator to follow a sum of money as it hopped from one address to the next, charting its path
    through the noise of Bitcoins blockchain.

    Thanks to tricks like these, Bitcoin had turned out to be practically the opposite of untraceable: a kind of
    honeypot for crypto criminals that had, for years, dutifully and unerasably recorded evidence of their dirty deals. By
    2017, agencies like the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and the IRSs Criminal Investigation division (or IRS-CI) had
    traced Bitcoin transactions to carry out one investigative coup after another, very often with the help of Chainalysis.

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    John Oliver on Data Brokers

    [2022.04.12] John Oliver has an excellent segment on data brokers and surveillance capitalism.

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    Russian Cyberattack against Ukrainian Power Grid Prevented

    [2022.04.13] A Russian cyberweapon, similar to the one used in 2016, was detected and removed before it could be used.

    Key points:

    ESET researchers collaborated with CERT-UA to analyze the attack against the Ukrainian energy company
    The destructive actions were scheduled for 2022-04-08 but artifacts suggest that the attack had been planned
    for at least two weeks
    The attack used ICS-capable malware and regular disk wipers for Windows, Linux and Solaris operating systems
    We assess with high confidence that the attackers used a new version of the Industroyer malware, which was used
    in 2016 to cut power in Ukraine
    We assess with high confidence that the APT group Sandworm is responsible for this new attack

    News article.

    EDITED TO ADD: Better news coverage from Wired.

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    Industrial Control System Malware Discovered

    [2022.04.14] The Department of Energy, CISA, the FBI, and the NSA jointly issued an advisory describing a sophisticated
    piece of malware called Pipedream thats designed to attack a wide range of industrial control systems. This is clearly
    from a government, but no attribution is given. Theres also no indication of how the malware was discovered. It seems
    not to have been used yet.

    More information. News article.

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    Upcoming Speaking Engagements

    [2022.04.14] This is a current list of where and when I am scheduled to speak:

    Im speaking at Future Summits in Antwerp, Belgium, on May 18, 2022.
    Im speaking at IT-S Now 2022 in Vienna, Austria, on June 2, 2022.
    Im speaking at the 14th International Conference on Cyber Conflict, CyCon 2022, in Tallinn, Estonia, on June 3,
    2022.
    Im speaking at the RSA Conference 2022 in San Francisco, June 6-9, 2022.
    Im speaking at the Dublin Tech Summit in Dublin, Ireland, June 15-16, 2022.

    The list is maintained on this page.

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    Bruce Schneier is an internationally renowned security technologist, called a security guru by the Economist. He is the
    author of over one dozen books -- including his latest, We Have Root -- as well as hundreds of articles, essays, and
    academic papers. His newsletter and blog are read by over 250,000 people. Schneier is a fellow at the Berkman Klein
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    member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, AccessNow, and the Tor Project; and an Advisory Board Member of the
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    Copyright 2022 by Bruce Schneier.

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  • From Arelor@618:250/24 to TheCivvie on Monday, June 20, 2022 16:28:30
    Re: CRYPTO-GRAM, April 15, 2022
    By: TheCivvie to All on Fri Jun 17 2022 11:48 am

    Why Vaccine Cards Are So Easily Forged

    You know the end is night when a security bulletin endorses the security theatre. So cringeworthy.

    --
    gopher://gopher.richardfalken.com/1/richardfalken
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    * Origin: Palantir * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL * (618:250/24)
  • From August Abolins@618:510/1.1 to Arelor on Tuesday, June 21, 2022 07:37:00
    Hello Arelor!

    ** On Monday 20.06.22 - 17:28, Arelor wrote to TheCivvie:

    Re: CRYPTO-GRAM, April 15, 2022
    By: TheCivvie to All on Fri Jun 17 2022 11:48 am

    Why Vaccine Cards Are So Easily Forged

    You know the end is night when a security bulletin endorses
    the security theatre. So cringeworthy.

    For the most part, I think he was just being sarcastic (and
    disappointed) about the jab-ID card system.

    In Canada, the system was apparently difficult to forge since
    the "official" data was tied to a central database nationwide.
    --
    ../|ug

    --- OpenXP 5.0.51
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  • From Warpslide@618:500/23.2 to August Abolins on Tuesday, June 21, 2022 09:15:18
    *** Quoting August Abolins from a message to Arelor ***

    In Canada, the system was apparently difficult to forge since the "official" data was tied to a central database nationwide.

    Yup, Canada used SMART Health Card QR codes to verify. The data was signed with an Elliptic Curve key using the P-256 curve.

    Signing Health Cards:
    - Issuers sign Health Card VCs (Verifiable Credentials) with a signing key (private key)
    - Issuer publish the corresponding public key
    - Wallets and Verifiers use the public key to verify Issuer signatures on Health Cards

    Politics aside, the technolgy is pretty neat. You can get all of the nitty-gritty details here:

    https://spec.smarthealth.cards/


    Of couse this will all be moot (at least here in Ontario) as the app used to verify these QR codes will stop working on Friday:

    "The Verify Ontario app will no longer be available as of June 24, 2022. The app will not scan QR codes after this date."

    https://covid-19.ontario.ca/verify-results


    Jay

    ... Money isn't everything, usually it isn't even enough

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  • From Arelor@618:250/24 to Warpslide on Friday, June 24, 2022 08:31:48
    Re: Re: CRYPTO-GRAM, April 15, 2022
    By: Warpslide to August Abolins on Tue Jun 21 2022 10:15 am

    Of couse this will all be moot (at least here in Ontario) as the app used to verify these QR codes will stop working on Friday:


    I am glad to hear the madness is over :-)

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