Terrorism | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

A computer hacker who allegedly helped the terrorist organization ISIS by handing over data for 1,351 US government and military personnel has been sentenced to 20 years in a U.S. prison. Ardit Ferizi , aka Th3Dir3ctorY, from Kosovo was sentenced in federal court in Alexandria, for "providing material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and accessing a protected computer without authorization and obtaining information in order to provide material support to ISIL," the Department of Justice announced  on Friday. The 21-year-old ISIS-linked hacker obtained the data by hacking into the US web hosting company's servers on June 13, 2015. Ferizi then filtered out over 1,300 US military and government employees' information from the stolen data and then handed them over to Junaid Hussain , according to court filings [ PDF ]. The stolen data contains personally identifiable information (PII), which includes names, email addresses, passwords, lo

If you rely on encrypted services to keep your data private and, unfortunately, you are in China, then you are about to be worried. As of now Chinese government could snoop into the operations of technology companies as well as circumvent privacy protections in everyday gadgets. China So-called Anti-Terrorism Law Despite months of objections from major technology firms and concerns over human rights… China passed its controversial new anti-terrorism law on Sunday that requires tech companies to help decrypt information or hand over encryption keys to officials when they want to spy on someone's communication in order to counter terror operations. However, the officials swear that the law wouldn't require technology firms to install " backdoors " in their products, but it doesn't make any difference when the government mandate companies operating in China to provide encryption keys and passwords when requested. Just like recent propo

As a vCISO, you are responsible for your client's cybersecurity strategy and risk governance. This incorporates multiple disciplines, from research to execution to reporting. Recently, we published a comprehensive playbook for vCISOs, "Your First 100 Days as a vCISO – 5 Steps to Success" , which covers all the phases entailed in launching a successful vCISO engagement, along with recommended actions to take, and step-by-step examples.  Following the success of the playbook and the requests that have come in from the MSP/MSSP community, we decided to drill down into specific parts of vCISO reporting and provide more color and examples. In this article, we focus on how to create compelling narratives within a report, which has a significant impact on the overall MSP/MSSP value proposition.  This article brings the highlights of a recent guided workshop we held, covering what makes a successful report and how it can be used to enhance engagement with your cyber security clients.

Last year, Just after Snowden leaks, the U.S Government warned that NSA surveillance revelations will make harder to track bad guys trying to harm the United States, as disclosures can be helpful to terrorist groups. In response to the NSA revelations, the terrorists at Al-Qaeda have started using strongest encryption techniques in order to bypass the standard cryptographic protections in its various communications, according to the recent report released by the Threat Intelligence  company, Recorded Future . The analysis carried out by the intelligence firm revealed that the Infamous Terrorist Organizations, Al-Qaeda that attacked civilian and military targets in various countries, has switched to new encryption software for the first time in seven years, following the revelations of the US National Security Agency (NSA) by former contractor Edward Snowden . Al-Qaeda is a global militant Islamist and takfiri organization which operates as a network comprising both a

On Wednesday, Chief of National Security Agency (NSA) , General Keith Alexander defended US surveillance programs as part of a Noble Mission to protect the nation. He said that the collection of bulk phone records by U.S. Intelligence agencies are essential to preventing terrorist attacks. He referenced the criticism thrown at the intelligence services in late 2001 for not connecting the dots that led up to the Sept. 11 attacks. " We need our nation to understand why we need these tools, and what those tools mean for civil liberties and privacy and what they mean to defend this country, " General Keith Alexander said during a keynote speech at the Billington Cyber Security Summit in Washington. In recent months NSA has been targeted for severe criticism from privacy advocates, members of Congress and foreign allies of America, whose citizens may have been targets of this surveillance. Alexander pleaded for support of NSA programs during his speech at the conference

An obscure group identifying itself as the Izz ad-din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters claimed responsibility for the first wave of attacks as retaliation for the amateurish Innocence of Muslims film that mocked the Islamic prophet Mohammed and sparked protests throughout the Middle East.  Who's really responsible for a recent series of cyberattacks on American banks? A few days back US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Iran is responsible for cyberattacks launched against Saudi Aramco and RasGas and US banks. While Panetta did not directly link Iran to the Persian Gulf attacks, he later noted that Iran has " undertaken a concerted effort to use cyberspace to its advantage. " Today, Iran's defense minister said, The United States is the source of cyber terrorism. " and intends to pave the way for increasing its activities in relation to cyber terrorism through diverting attention and leveling accusation, " Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi. The Iranian defense minister also sai

Gathering evidence on Facebook has become a standard legal practice, so a social sting operation was inevitable. This method led the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to apprehend a would-be terrorist in Baltimore. An FBI informant initially contacted 21-year-old Antonio Martinez after he publicly posted about his desire for jihad on Facebook earlier this fall, according to AFP. The U.S. Justice Department released a prepared statement that AFP cited: "An affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint alleges that on September 29, 2010, Martinez publicly posted on his Facebook account a statement calling for violence to stop the oppression of Muslims, and that on October 1, 2010, he publicly posted a message stating that he hates any person who opposes Allah and his prophet." The FBI set Martinez up with a fake car bomb, then apprehended him when he attempted to detonate it remotely. The faux explosive was rigged in a vehicle parked outside a U.S. military recrui

According to a report from Sky News, the Stuxnet worm has already been traded on the black market. The report does not specify whether this refers to the source code or binary samples. British security specialists now fear that terrorists could use the worm to attack critical infrastructure. The report quotes an IT security consultant to the UK government as saying, "You could shut down power stations, you could shut down the transport network across the United Kingdom." There is hard evidence that Stuxnet is in the hands of highly motivated, well-trained, and well-financed criminals. Sky News' source declined to provide more precise information. Audun Lødemel, VP of Marketing and Business Development at German IT service provider Norman, believes that "It was just a matter of time before the Stuxnet code was made available for anyone, with even the most basic knowledge of coding, to alter and potentially wreak havoc on the UK infrastructure. This is serious stuff,