defense official discloses cyberattack

or: dod & cfr vs usb
from washington post: Now it is official: The most significant breach of U.S. military computers was caused by a flash drive inserted into a U.S. military laptop on a post in the Middle East in 2008. In an article to be published Wednesday discussing the Pentagon's cyberstrategy, Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III says malicious code placed on the drive by a foreign intelligence agency uploaded itself onto a network run by the U.S. military's Central Command. "That code spread undetected on both classified and unclassified systems, establishing what amounted to a digital beachhead, from which data could be transferred to servers under foreign control," he says in the Foreign Affairs article.

update: insiders doubt hack was foreign spy attack

defcon 8/19: flashback flares & jackal hacktivism

video: top physicist says solar flare would set us back 100yrs*
sun affects earth more than you might realize*
call it 'operation ajax truth':
iranian activists deface uk genetics website*
19 aug '53 - anglo-american military coup in iran*
'day of the jackal' & 'odessa file' author/journalist blames nsa for wife's laptop hack*
wikileaks says pentagon offers afghan files help*

no charges in pennsylvania school's webcam spygate

related: young people will have to change their names to escape 'cyber past' warns google ceo
from threat level: Federal authorities announced Tuesday they will not prosecute administrators connected to a webcam spying scandal at a suburban Philadelphia school district. Prosecutors and the FBI opened an inquiry following a February privacy lawsuit accusing Lower Merion School District officials of spying on students with webcams on the 2,300 district-issued MacBooks. The lawyers who filed the lawsuit claim the district secretly snapped thousands of webcam images of students, including images of youths at home, in bed or even “partially dressed.” Zane David Memeger, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, said he found no criminal intent in the alleged surveillance. “I have concluded that bringing criminal charges is not warranted in this matter,” Memeger said in a statement. “For the government to prosecute a criminal case, it must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the person charged acted with criminal intent. We have not found evidence that would establish beyond a reasonable doubt that anyone involved had criminal intent.”

flashbacks: school spied on kids via webcams on school-supplied laptops & webcamgate expands as lawyers say 1000s of pictures taken

defcon 7/29: leaky lawsuits

100 million facebook pages 'leaked' on torrent site*
hackers shut down eu carbon-trading website*
7 people have been entrusted with the keys to the internet*
video: isp's spying on australians, govt document heavily censored*
'minority report' technology used by uk police to predict crimes*
tokyo trials digital billboards that scan passers-by*
US wants increased police access to email: report*
video: 2nd student sues school district over webcam spying*

defcon 5/20: dumb f*cks, spy planes & bar codes

facebook founder called trusting users 'dumb fucks'*
facebook alternatives: a look at 9 social networks you could switch to*
facebook scrambles to close hole exposing private data*
most browsers leave fingerprint that can identify users*
students to be given access to laptop spy photos*
will machines take over the world? the scientific turning point*
report: secret space plane likely an orbiting spy*
1st wedding performed by a robot*
where's jimmy? just google his bar code*
obama's regulatory czar pushes creepy plan for legally controlling internet info*
3,000 officers switch to cyberspace specialty*
hack attacks mounted on car control systems*
pakistan extends facebook ban to youtube*