Combating the Iranian Cyber Threat

 Republic at the Center of Cyber Crime Charges in Three Cases

Criminal charges announced this week against multiple alleged hackers in Iran show the breadth of the cyber threat emanating from that country and the FBI and partner agency efforts to neutralize it and hold the individuals accountable.

The hacks included cyber intrusions and fraud, vandalism of U.S. websites, and intellectual property theft from U.S. aerospace and satellite technology companies. In each of the cases, the suspects were believed to be operating at the behest of the Iranian government, or in support of it.

While the cases filed in federal courts in Boston, Alexandria, and Newark are separate and unique, prosecutors and FBI investigators said they send a message that hackers will face consequences regardless of distance and borders.

“No cyber actor should think they can compromise U.S. networks, steal our intellectual property, or hold our critical infrastructure at risk without incurring risk themselves,” said Executive Assistant Director Terry Wade of the FBI’s Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch. “The FBI will continue to work with our partners to protect U.S. interests and to impose consequences on those cyber actors working on behalf of the Government of Iran in furtherance of their nefarious goals.”

On Tuesday, Behzad Mohammadzadeh, of Iran, and Marwan Abusrour, of the Palestinian territories, were indicted in Massachusetts on charges of damaging multiple websites as retaliation for U.S. military action in January that killed the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization.

https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/iran-at-center-of-cyber-crime-charges-in-three-cases-091820  

The Massive Shift to Cyber Crime

 There is a cartoon in The New Yorker of March 30, 2020 showing four mobsters, one with a gun, sitting around a table. The caption reads: “For health and safety reasons, we’ll be transitioning to cyber crime.” You can see the cartoon at https://www.newyorker.com/cartoon/a24009

No kidding! The huge increase in cyberattacks since the pandemic began is absolutely staggering, but not unexpected. I said as much in my BlogInfSec column of March 23, 2020, with the title: “Cybercriminals’ Motivations during Catastrophic Times.”

But now, some five months later, we are beginning to see some statistics in the press. One such source is the article, “Top Cyber Security Experts Report: 4,000 Cyber Attacks a Day Since COVID-19 Pandemic,” available at https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/top-cyber-security-experts-report-4-000-cyber-attacks-a-day-since-covid-19-pandemic-301110157.html

The article attributes the rise to many more “people working from home, shopping online, and generally being more connected than ever.” While this explains the supply of opportunities, as it were, the demand by cybercriminals is likely exacerbated by the hardships of the times and the vulnerabilities and gullibility of a frightened population confronting a dreadful disease, economic collapse, and social upheavals—all at once.

India to get new, ‘robust’ cyber security policy soon, says PM Modi

 New Delhi: India will soon have a new cyber security policy, announced Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speech on India’s 74th Independence Day Saturday.

Modi said that his government is aware of the threats emanating from cyber space and how they had the potential to impact India’s society, economy and development. 

“Cyber security is a very important aspect, which cannot be ignored. The government is alert on this and is working on a new, robust policy,” he added.

The announcement was made in the backdrop of the government’s initiative to connect 1.5 lakh gram panchayats through optical fibre network, thereby increasing the country’s internet connectivity. 

Peeking At ‘Privacy’—A Call For Better Cyber Laws Against Crimes Online

While India advances towards abolishing an array of draconian offences embedded in its Penal Code inherited from its colonial ancestors, the likelihood of shedding its age-old skin of punitive measures wrinkled in the criminal justice system as it exists today stands far away from reality. Nevertheless, the disparity between an effort to evolve into a better criminal system and its failure to evolve is hard to ignore.

While we live in the era of demolishing the State’s right to infringe the privacy of an individual’s right to consensual acts of sexual pleasure, the normalcy and nature of which emerges from an interpretation of self-expression into the right to life, the same era breathes and bellows upon us those acts of sexual pleasure that resurrect from the deviant behavior characteristics buried in the mentality of sexual predators online over which the State takes little to no interest.

Fight cybercrime with the Budapest Convention!

A new report from the Cybercrime Convention Committee (T-CY) lays out the benefits and impact of the Budapest Convention on law making, domestic and international investigations, public/private cooperation and the strengthening of criminal justice capacities on a global scale.

Practical experience shows that the Budapest Convention is more than a legal document. Backed up by the T-CY and the C-PROC specialised Cybercrime Programme Office for global capacity building, it is a framework that allows hundreds of practitioners worldwide to share experience and create relationships that enhance cooperation in specific cases, including in emergency situations, beyond the specific provisions foreseen in the convention.

As treaty membership keeps growing, capacity building programmes are expanding and the treaty is further evolving through the future 2nd Additional Protocol on enhanced international cooperation and access to evidence in the cloud. The Budapest Convention is therefore likely to remain highly relevant and make an impact worldwide for many years to come.

Cyber Criminals Target Teachers by Filing Fraudulent Unemployment Claims

Cyber criminals have been targeting teachers across the state during the pandemic. Spectrum News has learned hackers used personal information from teachers to file fraudulent unemployment claims and the crime has apparently spread to other employers.

The hackers apparently broke into into virtual teaching portals, which were set up to make things easier while schools were shut down during the pandemic. To register to use them, teachers provided personal information.

One detained for cyber crimes in Tbilisi

Police have detained a Georgian citizen for cyber crimes in Tbilisi, Interior Ministry reported yesterday.

The ministry said the individual, identified only as A.B. and born in 2000, fraudulently accessed the Facebook accounts of 25 people between December 2019 and May 2020.