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In the eclectic political and economic system of China, a significant crackdown on organized and white collar crime has been in the works for the past few years. China's rich history from dynastic monarchies, a repressive communist revolution, to a capitalism-infused modern economy has long had a connection to the powerful semi-criminal organization commonly referred to as the Triad. In fact, underground groups were a powerful force in the overthrow of the dynastic system in China at the begi...

After Obama's State of the Union Address, Brazilian hackers defaced around 50 U.S. government sites, placing expletive containing messages against Obama on each site. These sites primarily serve the House of Representatives, and were undergoing routine maintenance which briefly exposed the sites to attack. That was all the time these vandals needed to heckle these politicians.   One might wonder what the intentions of such an attack might be. Certainly there was a denunciation of Obama, but ...

The situation Google faces in China, with patriotic hackers (possibly even state sponsored) causing trouble for Google subscribers, some of whom are Chinese dissidents, presents a unique example of a synergistic interaction between cyber-criminals and government regulators. The United States has had similar groups emerge, such as vigilante anti-terror hackers, some of which still operate (for an interesting read, click here). Are we seeing some of the first acts of a new class of hackers? Cou...

After the prior Czar quit claiming that her decision was based upon the Administration's indecision, the Obama Administration has named Howard A. Schmidt, a former Bush cyber security advisor, as the cyber security chief last Tuesday, December 22, 2009. Schmidt, an accomplished cyber security expert, having worked for the Air Force, eBay, and Microsoft, has a lot of experience to offer. This nomination is part of President Obama's campaign promise to make cyber security a priority. Though the...

It is now final, Rep. William Jefferson (D), of Louisiana, the notorious Congressman who froze a $90,000 bribe, was sentenced last Friday to 13 years in Federal prison. The prosecutors on the case had asked for 27-33 years, but still managed to get a sentence longer than any other Congressman has ever received.   When imposing the sentence, Judge T.S. Ellis III characterized Jefferson's acts as “a cancer on the body politic.” Jefferson's attorneys have ten days to appeal the sentence.  

  Yesterday, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC), a congressional advisory panel, released a joint analysis with Northrop Grumman reporting that the Chinese government is building up their hacking and cyber warfare abilities. The report is based on case studies of prior cyber attacks, People's Liberation Army releases, scholarly contributions from experts, and journals from the Chinese National Defense University and the Academy of Military Sciences.     According t...

  Stewart Nozette (pictured left, from nasa.gov), a former NASA, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), and U.S. Naval Research scientist, was arrested Monday for allegedly trying to sell national secrets to FBI agents posing as Israeli government agents for $11,000. This is not the first time Nozette has been under investigation. He was investigated in 2006 for allegedly submitting false expense forms to NASA.     Nozette was arrested on Monday, and indicted Wednesday afternoo...

The FCC has posted its anticipated proposal for Net Neutrality rules, and seeks comment on the proposal. According to the FCC press release:   "Under the draft proposed rules, subject to reasonable network management, a provider of broadband Internet access service:   would not be allowed to prevent any of its users from sending or receiving the lawful content of the user’s choice over the Internet; would not be allowed to prevent any of its users from running the lawful applications or ...

  The word on the street is that the FCC is about to release notice of proposed rules to enforce net neutrality. Keep your eyes peeled!     http://www.fcc.gov/  

  Raj Rajaratnam, the billionaire founder of the Galleon Group that I wrote about in my last post has also been charged by the SEC in Federal court. The SEC claims Rajaratnam's scheme was massive (as illustrated in the diagram above), and generated more than $25 million. Other companies allegedly involved are IBM, Intel, and Mckinsey & Company.     What makes this development interesting is that the SEC is suing in civil court, unlike what Federal Prosecutors have done in the Federal c...