From the Independent, monetizing Big Brother:
GCHQ’s ‘spook first’ programme to train Britain’s most talented tech entrepreneurs
Britain’s surveillance agency GCHQ could become an incubator lab for the country’s most talented tech entrepreneurs under a government plan for a new “spook first” training programme for graduates.
Not just for those who want to spend a lifetime becoming spies, Whitehall officials are now examining whether recruitment to the secretive listening agency could be opened up to graduates who would ultimately like to set up their own companies or work in the commercial IT sector.
The scheme is being loosely modelled on the highly successful Teach First programme, where graduates agree to work in challenging schools for at least two years after leaving university with the prospect of a top-level commercial job at the end of it should they decide to leave the profession.
The Government is also examining whether any of GCHQ’s intellectual property could potentially have civilian and commercial applications – particularly in the realm of cyber security.
Network World covers spooky targets:
Tor, TrueCrypt, Tails topped the NSA’s ‘most wanted’ list in 2012
Three out of three? That could be the score for the U.S. National Security Agency’s cryptographic “most wanted” list of 2012.
In January 2012, it saw Internet traffic anonymizing tool Tor (The Onion Router), Linux distribution Tails (The Amnesic Incognito Live System) and disk encryption system TrueCrypt as the biggest threats to its ability to intercept Internet traffic and interpret other information it acquires.
Since then, flaws have been found in Tor and the FBI has unmasked Tor users and a vulnerability was found in Tails allowing attackers to determine users’ IP addresses.
And while a source-code audit gave TrueCrypt a relatively clean bill of health in April, TrueCrypt’s anonymous developers inexplicably abandoned the software a few weeks later, warning it was insecure.
And the McClatchy Washington Bureau covers spooky corruption:
FBI counterintelligence agent cops plea in bribery scheme
They met in and near shopping malls in Danbury, Conn. — FBI counterintelligence agent Robert Lustyik, his childhood buddy Johannes Thaler and a prominent Bangladesh citizen dubbed “Caesar” who worked with Thaler at a retail store.
During their meetings and through a series of texts and emails, they hatched a scheme that ultimately would sink Lustyik’s career and bring all three men to the bar of justice.
On Tuesday, Dec. 23, 52-year-old Lustyik pleaded guilty to five felony counts charging that he schemed to accept bribes for leaking confidential bureau information to Caesar, whose real name is Rizve Ahmed, about an unnamed Bangladish political figure whom Ahmed perceived as a political rival.
Documents in the case offer a glimpse into the anatomy of a public corruption case that proud agents of the FBI disdain — a modestly paid special agent compromising himself in hopes of a big score.
On to the lands of the Global War on Terror/Terra, first with Deutsche Welle:
Afghanistan marks takeover of security responsibility from NATO
Afghanistan has assumed full responsibility for security from foreign combat troops departing after a 13-year military mission. The handover comes after a mortar bomb killed at least 20 civilians in the country’s south.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani marked the formal transition on Thursday during a speech at the Presidential Palace in Kabul.
“I want to congratulate my people today that Afghan forces are now able to take full security responsibility in protecting their country’s soil and sovereignty,” Ghani said. “In the past 13 years, due to the problems in the region and the world, this security was a joint responsibility. Now it belongs only to Afghans. But we are not alone, we have our allies, we will continue to work together.”
The New Year marked the official end of NATO combat operations in Afghanistan, and means some 350,000 Afghan forces will now be responsible for fighting a Taliban insurgency that has become increasingly organized in carrying out attacks.
From Al Jazeera, casualties on another front:
Syria’s war ‘killed 76,021′ in 2014
Monitoring group says nearly half of those killed in the conflict last year were civilians
The conflict in Syria killed 76,021 people in 2014, just under half of them civilians, a group monitoring the war has said.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Thursday said 33,278 civilians were killed last year in the conflict, which started with protests in 2011 and has spiralled into a civil war.
The United Nations says around 200,000 people have been killed since 2011.
No group enjoys significant momentum going into 2015 and the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said last month he expected the conflict to be long and difficult.
And the Washington Post covers boots on the ground:
U.S. advisers in Iraq stay out of combat but see fight edge nearer
In Iraq’s western Anbar province, more than 300 U.S. troops are posted at a base in the thick of a pitched battle between Iraqi forces, backed by tribal fighters, and well-armed Islamic State militants.
The militants, positioned at a nearby town, have repeatedly hit the base with artillery or rocket fire in recent weeks. Since the middle of December, the U.S.-led military coalition has launched 13 airstrikes around the facility.
U.S. troops have suffered no casualties as a result of the attacks. But the violence has underlined the risks to American personnel as they fan out across Iraq as part of President Obama’s expanding mission against the Islamic State, even as he has pledged U.S. operations will not “involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil.”
From TheLocal.fr, here we go again, attempting to “fix” the very demons we unleashed:
France: prevent Libya ‘terrorist sanctuary’
French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Wednesday called upon the international community to act to prevent Libya from becoming a “sanctuary for terrorists.”
Three years after dictator Muammar Qaddafi was toppled and killed in a NATO-backed revolt, Libya is awash with weapons and powerful militias, and run by rival governments and parliaments.
Le Drian warned that the situation in Libya was “no more and no less… the resurgence of a terrorist sanctuary” that was dangerously close to Europe.
“It will be a serious mistake for the international community to remain passive in the face of the growth of a such a hotbed of terrorism in the heart of the Mediterranean,” he said, addressing soldiers at a French military base in the Chadian capital N’Djamena.
Channel NewsAsia Singapore covers reaction in Europe:
Sweden hit by third mosque arson attack in a week
Swedish police were hunting on Thursday (Jan 1) for at least one suspect following what is believed to be the third arson attack on a mosque in a week
Swedish police launched a manhunt on Thursday (Jan 1) after the third arson attack against a mosque in a week, amid growing tensions over the rise of an anti-immigration far right movement.
“Someone threw a firebomb, a Molotov cocktail at the building,” Torsten Hemlin a spokesman for Uppsala police told Swedish news agency TT, adding that the mosque in eastern Sweden did not catch fire. “They also wrote some vulgar racist words,” he said, adding that no one was in the building at the time.
Police in Sweden’s fourth largest city Uppsala were alerted by passers-by who reportedly saw a man throw a burning object at the mosque at around 5.30am. “The crime has been classed as attempted arson, vandalism and incitement to hatred,” the police said in a statement appealing for eyewitnesses to come forward.
Deutsche Welle covers more of the European polarized:
Survey finds one in three Germans supports ‘anti-Islamization’ PEGIDA marches
An opinion poll has found that one in eight Germans would join a march against ‘Islamization’ if one were held in their home town. A series of rallies in the city of Dresden have drawn growing numbers, with more planned.
The poll of 1,006 people by German news magazine Stern found that 13 percent would attend an “anti-Islamization” march if it were held near to their home.
The survey, while small, does show a residual level of support for the weekly rallies being held in the eastern city of Dresden, one of which attracted more than 17,000 people in the days before Christmas.
It also found that 29 percent of people thought the marches by the group Pegida, or Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West, were justified because of the degree of influence that Islam was having on life in Germany.
Support for the marchers was particularly strong among supporters of the euroskeptic party Alternative for Germany (AfD), which recently has increasingly campaigned on an anti-immigration platform. The poll found that 71 percent of AfD supporters felt the rallies were justified.
And the central bank weighs in against any threats to the neoliberal status quo, via TheLocal.de:
ECB warns against rise of populism in Europe
The rise of populist parties across Europe should act as a wake-up call for governments to finally get their economies in order, a top European Central Bank official said Wednesday.
“The rise of populism should be a wake-up call,” the ECB’s chief economist Peter Praet told the financial daily Börsen-Zeitung in a wide-ranging interview.
“The governments have to give priority to difficult political decisions and follow through with the much-needed reforms.”
Praet’s comments came as Greece is preparing for snap elections with a far-left anti-austerity party Syriza leading opinion polls.
On to the police front, first with this from the Guardian:
Local Georgia police chief ‘shoots wife by mistake’
Investigators said a police chief in Georgia reported accidentally shooting his wife early on New Year’s Day.
A Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman, Sherry Lang, said the Peachtree City police chief, William McCollom, called 911 at around 4.15am on Thursday and reported that he had accidentally shot his wife.
Margaret McCollom was flown to a hospital. Police say she is in critical condition.
Lang said she could not discuss the circumstances of the shooting because of the ongoing investigation. No charges were immediately filed. Authorities were planning a 2pm news conference.
Al Jazeera covers the protest front:
Anti-brutality activists aim to ‘evict’ St. Louis police from headquarters
Anti-police violence movement ‘taking it up a notch,’ organizers say; St. Louis cops respond with pepper spray, arrests
Scores of protesters at the helm of the ongoing nationwide movement against police violence stormed the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department Wednesday, aiming to “evict” officers they accused of “perpetrating police brutality on our citizenry.”
Five of the roughly 25 demonstrators who linked arms in the lobby of the police department were arrested in the headquarters, the St. Louis Police Department told Al Jazeera. Police pepper-sprayed and forced other protesters off the premises.
The detainees — four women and one man — were charged with “trespassing and peace disturbance,” said Leah K. Freeman, the department’s spokeswoman. The man was charged with “assault 3rd [degree] for assaulting a City Marshall inside the lobby of police headquarters.”
And BuzzFeed News covers the labor front:
NYC Labor May Break With Police Union
Labor has been silent so far about Patrick Lynch, the police union leader who is publicly campaigning against Mayor Bill de Blasio.
New York City’s top progressives have backed away from any direct confrontation with the city’s largest police union, even as union leaders continue to criticize the mayor following the shooting of two officers.
But the silence of non-police unions may not last long into the new year. That will depend on the actions of Patrick Lynch, the president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, and whether he continues his public campaign against Mayor Bill de Blasio, sources with knowledge of union thinking say. Unions were instrumental in getting de Blasio elected and are considered among his closest allies.
“Those that are closer to traditional institutional players will probably, hopefully, be more willing to shun those who are using an inappropriate tone,” one senior union official told BuzzFeed News.
After the jump, on to the hacking world, starting with Lizards busted, an Android flaw enables Facebook hacks, software library flaws exposed, Al Jazeera journalists earn an Egyptian retrial, an ISIS recruit Twitters away his location, India and Pakistan conduct a peaceful nuclear exchange, nurturing Islamophobia in Indian police, a North Korean diplomatic initiative, warnings of a looming Sino-American cold war, Philippine submarine dreams, Taiwanese angst aroused by Japan’s Game of Zones island gambit as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Japanese remilitarization legislative agenda moves forward, rising sexual violence in British hospitals, and an Africa hospital for sexual assault victims comes under another kind of assault. . .
From the London Daily Mail, a reptilian hacking arrest:
Spokesman for ‘Lizard Squad’ hacking group allegedly behind attacks on Microsoft and Sony is arrested over PayPal thefts
Vincent Omari, 22, linked to the Lizard Squad hacking organisation
But he denies having any part in the attack on Sony and Microsoft
Arrested on suspicion of fraud and Computer Misuse Act offences
Investigated by police probing funds stolen from PayPal accounts
A 22-year-old man linked to the hacking group that claimed responsibility for a Christmas Day attack on Sony and Microsoft was arrested today by police investigating PayPal thefts.
Vincent Omari has been linked to the Lizard Squad hacking group that took credit for attacks on Sony’s PlayStation Network and Microsoft’s Xbox Live gaming networks over Christmas.
The man, from Twickenham, south-west London, was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of fraud by false representation and Computer Misuse Act offences – and has since been bailed to March 10.
More from PCWorld:
Two alleged members of Lizard Squad arrested following Xbox Live/PSN Christmas attacks
Did you spend Christmas mildly annoyed because you bought a new console, only to find that Xbox Live/ PlayStation Network had been downed by a “nefarious” group known as Lizard Squad? Yes, I know it sounds like a bad episode of 24, but at least now you can revel in a bit of Schadenfreude: Two alleged members have been arrested this week.
Lizard Squad came to prominence in 2014 after taking down (or at least claiming to take down) the online presences of numerous gaming companies, including Blizzard, Activision, and Sony. Oh, and perpetrating a bomb threat against a Sony executive in August.
Its biggest (or at least most noticeable) moment came just this past week though, when Lizard Squad launched simultaneous DDOS attacks on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. On Christmas. And then offered to sell its own DDoS tool to others.
“Flying too close to the sun” comes to mind. If this week is anything to go by, Lizard Squad is quickly unraveling.
An Android flaw enables Facebook hacks, via SecurityWeek:
Facebook Users Targeted Via Android Same Origin Policy Vulnerability
Researchers at Trend Micro say attackers are actively exploiting a vulnerability in Android’s WebView browser in order to compromise Facebook accounts.
The flaw allows the attackers to bypass Android’s Same Origin Policy (SOP), and impacts devices running versions of the operating system prior to 4.4. The vulnerability, CVE-2014-6041, was first disclosed in September by an independent researcher. But months later, the vulnerability continues to be exploited in the wild.
“The Android WebView in Android before 4.4 allows remote attackers to bypass the Same Origin Policy via a crafted attribute containing a \u0000 character, as demonstrated by an onclick=”window.open(‘\u0000javascript: sequence to the Android Browser application 4.2.1 or a third-party web browser,” according to the National Vulnerability Database.
According to Trend Micro Mobile Security Engineer Simon Huang, the attack targets Facebook users via a link in a particular Facebook page that leads to a malicious site. The page contains obfuscated JavaScript code that includes an attempt to load a Facebook URL in an inner frame. The user will only see a blank page as the page’s HTML has been set not to display anything via its div tag while the inner frame has a size of one pixel, he added.
From Network World, software library flaws exposed:
Think that software library is safe to use? Not so fast!
In today’s world of agile software development and fast release cycles, developers increasingly rely on third-party libraries and components to get the job done. Since many of those libraries come from long-running, open-source projects, developers often assume they’re getting well-written, bug-free code. They’re wrong.
The major patching efforts triggered by the Heartbleed, Shellshock and POODLE flaws this year serve as examples of the effect of critical vulnerabilities in third-party code. The flaws affected software that runs on servers, desktop computers, mobile devices and hardware appliances, affecting millions of consumers and businesses.
However, these highly publicized vulnerabilities were not isolated incidents. Similar flaws have been found in libraries such as OpenSSL, LibTIFF, libpng, OpenJPEG, FFmpeg, Libav and countless others, and these have made their way into thousands of products over the years.
From Al Jazeera, journalists earn an Egyptian retrial:
Egypt orders retrial of Al Jazeera staff
Court of Cassation accepts the appeal of three Al Jazeera journalists, who will remain in jail until the retrial
Egypt’s top court has accepted the appeal of three Al Jazeera journalists who have been in prison for more than a year, and ordered a retrial, the defense lawyer has said.
“They will not be released until they appear before the new chamber, which will decide whether to release them or not,” said Mostafa Nagy, a defense attorney, on Thursday.
Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed were denied bail at the appeal hearing as the court said the case had to go back to the criminal court.
“The Court of Cassation has accepted their appeal and ordered a retrial,” Greste’s lawyer Amr Al-Deeb said after a hearing lasting just 30 minutes.
An ISIS recruit Twitters away his location, via the Independent:
New Zealand Isis jihadist accidentally tweets his location from Syria
A suspected Isis militant from New Zealand has suspended his Twitter account after mistakenly tweeting his location from Syria.
Mark John Taylor, who reportedly now goes by the name of Mohammad Daniel or Abu Abdul Rahman, failed to turn off the location service on his Twitter account, thereby identifying his whereabouts every time he tweeted.
Realising his mistake, Taylor, who is known as @M_Taylor_Kiwi on the social media site, deleted 45 tweets – but not before screen shots had been captured by iBrabo, an open source intelligence research group located in Ontario, Canada.
On their blog, iBrabo wrote that they had been able to track Taylor’s activities via his Twitter account, as he moved from Kafar Roma to the desert and then to Isis stronghold Al Tabqah at the end of last year.
From the Express Tribune, India and Pakistan conduct a peaceful nuclear exchange:
Pakistan, India exchange lists of nuclear installations, prisoners
Despite border tensions, Pakistan and India have exchanged lists of their respective nuclear installations and facilities in order to prevent attacks on each other’s atomic facilities.
According to the foreign ministry statement issued Thursday, the governments of Pakistan and India are required to exchange lists of their respective nuclear installations and facilities in accordance with Article-II of the Agreement on Prohibition of Attacks against Nuclear Installations and Facilities between Pakistan and India as of 31 December 1988.
The lists are exchanged on the first day of each new year.
“In accordance with aforesaid agreement a list of requisite facilities in Pakistan was officially handed over to a representative of the Indian High Commission at the Foreign Office today at 1030 hrs (PST),” said the statement.
From the Indian Express, nurturing Islamophobia in Indian police:
Gujarat cops make ‘dummy terrorists’ shout pro-Islamic slogan during mock drill
A video of police mock drill showing dummy militants shouting pro-Islamic slogan emerged on Thursday in Gujarat, a day after controversy erupted over men, playing the part of terrorists, being made to wear skullcaps in a similar exercise in Surat.
Reacting to the Surat episode that came to light on Wednesday, Chief Minister Anandi Patel admitted it as a “mistake” to show people posing as terrorists in the drill in skullcaps.
The latest video is of another anti-terror mock drill at Narmada dam site in Kevadia area of Narmada district. It shows policemen holding two dummy terrorists who were shouting “take our lives, if you want. Islam Zindabad (long live Islam)”.
When contacted by PTI, Narmada Superintendent of Police Jaypalsinh Rathore said an inquiry will be conducted into the issue.
A North Korean diplomatic initiative, via the Japan Times:
Kim Jong Un says open to summit talks with South Korea
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Thursday he is open to a summit meeting with South Korea, an unusual overture made amid his country’s heightened tensions with the United States, Seoul’s closest ally, over a damaging cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.
“If South Korean authorities have a position that they seriously want to improve North-South relations through dialogue, we believe we can resume suspended high-level contacts and sectoral meetings,” Kim said in a nationally televised New Year’s address.
Depending on the “atmosphere and environment,” he said, “there is no reason not to be able to hold the highest-level meeting” with South Korean President Park Geun Hye.
Warnings of a looming Sino-American cold war, from Nikkei Asian Review:
US, China Cold War possible, says Ian Bremmer
It has been 25 years since the Cold War ended yet the world has not been able to find a new order. What went wrong in the past quarter of a century? What will happen in the coming years? Ian Bremmer, president of U.S. risk consultancy Eurasia Group who coined the term “G-Zero” for a world without a leader, predicts the U.S. and China may move into different blocks in five or 10 years’ time. Excerpts from the interview follow.
Q: There was a lot of optimism when the Cold War finished. But the triumph of capitalism and democracy looks to be fading. What do you think went wrong?
A: I think there are lots of things you can point to. One is that the U.S., as a model for democracy and as a model of free markets, has been somewhat disappointing for a lot of people. The ability and the willingness of the U.S. to lead by example has been compromised. There are so many things you can point to. You can talk about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. You can talk about the rise of inequality in the U.S. and in the developed world, the Bush-Gore election determined by a partisan vote of the Supreme Court [and] the financial crisis.
A second point is that the Chinese model — which is a radically different political and economic model — continues, at least as of today, to be quite successful. In fact, I would say that the Chinese are happier with the Chinese government on balance than Americans are with the American government.
Philippine submarine dreams, from the Diplomat:
The Philippine Navy’s Submarine Quest
How realistic are plans for the Philippines to acquire submarines?
During a modernization briefing on December 17, Philippine Navy (PN) vice-chief Rear Admiral Caesar Taccad revealed future plans to acquire at least three submarines, as part of a follow-up to the ongoing 15-year P90-billion Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) modernization program.
The South China Sea disputes are no doubt a key motivation, when the rear-admiral remarked that “the events in the West Philippine Sea actually gave some urgency on the acquisition,” referring to the overall PN plan to purchase new assets, including a ten-year timeline for submarine purchase.
The PN’s 15-year Strategic Development Plan, revolving around the “Philippine Fleet Desired Force Mix” envisages a surface, sub-surface and aerial assets including major “big-ticket items” such as six anti-air warfare-oriented frigates, 12 corvettes optimized for anti-submarine warfare (ASW), 18 offshore patrol vessels, three submarines, three mine countermeasures vessels, up to four Strategic Support Vessels (SSVs), up to eight Amphibious Maritime Patrol Aircraft, and 18 naval helicopters equipped for ASW. Not counting a significant number of coastal patrol assets, fleet auxiliaries and other aerial support platforms.
From Want China Times, an islands angst over another island nation’s insular dreams:
Taiwan watches closely as Japan crafts new island policy
After learning that Japan is planning to include the disputed East China Sea islands which it currently administers as the Senkaku (Taiwan claims the islands as the Diaoyutai and China as the Diaoyu) into its Basic Policy of Ocean Management and Island Security, senior Taiwanese diplomat Lo Koon-tsan told our sister newspaper Want Daily that Taipei is ready to express its opposition to the new act if it violates the ROC’s sovereignty.
Lo serves as the secretary of the Association of East Asian Relations, an organization founded in 1972 to handle the relationship between Taipei and Tokyo after Japan stopped official diplomatic ties with the ROC. “Whatever Japan’s policy is towards its offshore islands, we will make ourselves heard if it includes the Diaoyutai,” Lo said. “As the islands are part of Taiwanese territory, we must demonstrate our concern and take a firm stand if Japan intrudes on our sovereignty.”
Japan has not made a final decision on whether or not to cover the small island chain in its Basic Policy of Ocean Management and Island Security. “Apparently, the Japanese government knows how sensitive the issue of territorial disputes can be,” Lo said. “They did consider our position even if Japan claims firmly that the islands belongs to them.” Lo said that Taiwan has not yet protested against Japan’s Basic Policy of Ocean Management and Island Security.
From NHK WORLD, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Japanese remilitarization legislative agenda moves forward:
Draft laws may include conditions for use of force
Japanese government officials are planning to stipulate new conditions for the use of force by the Self-Defense Forces in draft security legislation.
Under present laws, the Self-Defense Forces can use force only when Japan comes under attack, or when there is a clear and imminent danger of an armed attack.
The cabinet led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last July approved new conditions for the use of force. One condition involves an armed attack on a foreign country with which Japan has close ties, and there is a clear danger of Japan’s survival being threatened. Based on the conditions, the cabinet reinterpreted the Constitution to allow Japan to exercise its right of collective self-defense.
From the Guardian, another grounds for insecurity in Old Blighty:
Sexual violence soars in UK hospitals
Records show 50% rise in reports of sexual attacks, with more than 1,600 in past three years
A hidden outbreak of sexual abuse in British hospitals has been disclosed in new figures revealing that more than 1,600 attacks were reported to police in the last three years.
Records obtained by the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act show a 50% rise in reports of sexual violence in hospitals since 2011. It includes a total of at least 157 rape allegations.
Statistics on sexual abuse reports in hospitals were released by 38 out of 45 UK police forces. They document 1,615 attacks that are known about including cases on NHS wards, private clinics and other health centres. But prosecutors have said that up to 90% of sexual abuse goes unreported, suggesting the true figure could be much higher.
And from the Guardian again, another kind of assault:
Congo government ‘hounding’ hospital for rape victims
Facility that has helped 30,000 survivors of sexual abuse is unable to pay staff wages after being taxed $50,000 a month
A hospital founded by an award-winning gynaecologist to treat rape victims has accused the Congolese government of hounding it after tax authorities seized its accounts.
Panzi hospital in Bukavu, set up in 1999 by Dr Denis Mukwege, said it could no longer withdraw money or pay December wages to its 500 employees.
Mukwege survived an assassination attempt in 2012 and recently spoke out about insecurity and bad governance in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has failed to lift millions out of poverty despite vast mineral resources.
Authorities have slapped a $50,000 (£32,095) monthly tax on the hospital. Patient Bashombe, a lawyer for the facility, said it had been accused of tax evasion even though “no public hospital in DRC has ever paid tax”. He accused the authorities of hounding it, adding: “Seizing the hospital’s accounts is illegal.”
