We begin with Network World and a big thumbs down:
Proposal for altered data retention law is still unlawful, Dutch DPA says
The Dutch government’s proposed revision of the country’s data retention law is not enough to bring it into compliance with a recent European Union court ruling, the Dutch privacy watchdog said Monday.
An effort by the Dutch government to adjust a law requiring telecommunications and Internet companies to retain their customers’ location and traffic metadata for investigatory purposes should be dropped, as the infringement of the private life of virtually all Dutch citizens is too great, the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) said on Monday.
The Dutch government is looking to change data retention obligations for telephone and Internet communications operators following a decision last year by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). The court invalidated the European data retention directive, on which the Dutch law is based, because it violates fundamental privacy rights.
From SecurityWeek, a record year:
Records Compromised in Data Breaches Skyrocketed in 2014: Research
Security firm Gemalto released a report on 2014 data breaches recently and the news was not good.
In its latest Breach Level Index report, the company revealed that one billion records were compromised last year in more than 1,500 data breaches worldwide. Compared to 2013, those numbers are an increase of nearly 80 percent in terms of data records and more than 40 percent in terms of breaches overall.
Gemalto’s Breach Level Index calculates the severity of data breaches across multiple dimensions based on breach disclosure information. Among the notable attacks included in the report are the Home Depot breach, the attack on JP Morgan Chase and the attack on eBay.
While Threatpost covers a massive cabal:
Massive, Decades-Long Cyberespionage Framework Uncovered
Researchers at Kaspersky Lab have uncovered a cyberespionage group that has been operating for at least 15 years and has worked with and supported the attackers behind Stuxnet, Flame and other highly sophisticated operations. The attackers, known as the Equation Group, used two of the zero days contained in Stuxnet before that worm employed them and have used a number of other infection methods, including interdicting physical media such as CDs and inserting their custom malware implants onto the discs.
Some of the techniques the group has used are closely associated with tactics employed by the NSA, specifically the interdiction operations and the use of the LNK vulnerability exploit by Stuxnet.
The Equation Group has a massive, flexible and intimidating arsenal at its disposal. Along with using several zero days in its operations, the attack crew also employs two discrete modules that enable them to reprogram the hard drive firmware on infected machines. This gives the attackers the ability to stay persistent on compromised computers indefinitely and create a hidden storage partition on the hard drive that is used to store stolen data. At the Security Analyst Summit here Monday, researchers at Kaspersky presented on the Equation Group’s operations while publishing a new report that lays out the inner workings of the crew’s tools, tactics and target list. The victims include government agencies, energy companies, research institutions, embassies, telecoms, universities, media organizations and others. Countries targeted by this group include Russia, Syria, Iran, Pakistan, China, Yemen, Afghanistan, India but also US and UK, between and several others.
And CBC News covers an even bigger data thief:
NSA hid spying software in hard drive firmware, report says
Government, military in Iran, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan targeted
The U.S. National Security Agency has figured out how to hide spying software deep within hard drives made by Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba and other top manufacturers, giving the agency the means to eavesdrop on the majority of the world’s computers, according to cyber researchers and former operatives.
That long-sought and closely guarded ability was part of a cluster of spying programs discovered by Kaspersky Lab, the Moscow-based security software maker that has exposed a series of Western cyberespionage operations.
Kaspersky said it found personal computers in 30 countries infected with one or more of the spying programs, with the most infections seen in Iran, followed by Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Mali, Syria, Yemen and Algeria. The targets included government and military institutions, telecommunication companies, banks, energy companies, nuclear researchers, media, and Islamic activists, Kaspersky said.
From Al Jazeera America, the latest European incident:
Police arrest two on suspicion of aiding Copenhagen shooter
The gunman opened fire on a cafe hosting a free speech debate and attacked a synagogue, killing two
Danish police said Monday they have arrested two people on suspicion of aiding a gunman in deadly attacks during the weekend on a synagogue and an event promoting free speech, violence that has shocked a nation proud of its reputation for safety and openness.
The two men arrested over the weekend are “suspected of helping the perpetrator by giving him advice and assistance in connection with the shootings at Krudttøndenre and Krystalgade,” police said in a statement issued Monday, referring to the locations of the attacks.
A Copenhagen judge later remanded the two suspects to 10 days’ detention.
And CNN covers the shooter:
Denmark terror suspect swore fidelity to ISIS leader on Facebook page
The man suspected of killing two people in Copenhagen swore fidelity to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a posting made on what’s apparently his Facebook page just before the weekend shooting spree.
The post pledges “allegiance to Abu Bakr in full obedience in the good and bad things. And I won’t dispute with him unless it is an outrageous disbelief.”
The suspect in Saturday’s attack has been named as Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein, a senior member of the Danish government said. Police have not formally identified the gunman, who opened fire at a free speech forum in Copenhagen on Saturday before shooting several people outside a synagogue and then firing at police. Police killed him in the shootout.
The Washington Post covers another generator of European angst:
UK man charged with attempting to obtain chemical weapon
British police say a man from northwest England has been charged with trying to obtain a chemical weapon.
Greater Manchester Police says Mohammed Ammer Ali, from Liverpool, was arrested after officers raid properties in the city last week as part of a counter-terrorism operation.
He is charged with attempting to have a chemical weapon in his possession between Jan. 10 and Feb. 12.
Ali, who is 31, is due to appear in a London court Tuesday.
And from Deutsche Welle, echoes of the past:
French teens detained for vandalizing Jewish graves
Investigators have detained five teenagers in connection with the vandalizing of Jewish graves in a cemetery in eastern France. The incident, amid rising anti-Semiticism in France, followed the attacks in Copenhagen
The five suspects detained by French police on Monday are aged between 15 and 17, Philippe Varnier, the prosecutor of the eastern Bas-Rhin region, told a news conference.
All five are from the region of Sarre-Union in Alsace, where some 250 Jewish tombs were defaced and damaged on Thursday.
Vannier said the youngest of the teenagers had gone to police after being shocked at the worldwide reaction to the incident, in which tombs were uprooted or turned around, vaults opened and a monument to the Holocaust vandalized.
“Apparently, he was very very affected by the scale of the reaction to this affair, including the statements from the hightest state authorities,” Vannier told reporters, adding that the boy had denied any anti-Semitic motive.
After the jump, a truce disintegrates in Ukraine, the apocalyptic eschatology ideology of ISIS, the U.S. takes the lead in the Boko Haram fight, Nigerian troops retake two Boko Haram-held towns, while Boko Haram attacks a Cameroonian army base, Yemeni Shiite rebels eye the oil fields, European Jewish leaders reject Netanyahu’s summons, a Netanyahu coalition partner denies Palestinian statehood or a land return, an Indian newspaper closed for reprinting a Charlie Hebdo cartoon, Japan’s Shinzo Abe uses Hormuz Straits minesweeping to push remilitarization, and Abe reaffirms his implacable push for remilitarization while Japan ups the fees for foreigners spying on Japanese corporations. . .
The Guardian covers a truce disintegrating:
Ukraine ceasefire in tatters as clashes escalate in east
Pro-Russia and government forces fight for control of Debaltseve, with Ukrainian military saying rebels have fired on its troops 112 times in last 24 hours
Fighting has escalated in eastern Ukraine as government and pro-Russia forces struggle for control of the besieged town of Debaltseve, leaving the new ceasefire in tatters on its second day.
The Ukrainian military said on Monday that rebels had fired on its troops 112 times in the past 24 hours. At least five Ukrainian fighters have been killed and 25 wounded since the ceasefire began on Sunday, a military spokesman, Vladislav Seleznyov, told the Guardian.
Most of the fighting was concentrated around Debaltseve, where thousands of soldiers have been cut off from the main Ukrainian lines near Artemivsk by rebel artillery. Pro-Russia forces have been trying for weeks to take the town, which holds a rail junction connecting the main rebel centres of Donetsk and Luhansk.
The apocalyptic eschatology ideology of ISIS, via CNN:
Why does ISIS keep making enemies?
A key window into understanding ISIS is its English language “in-flight magazine” Dabiq. Last week the seventh issue of Dabiq was released, and a close reading of it helps explains ISIS’ world view.
The mistake some make when viewing ISIS is to see it as a rational actor. Instead, as the magazine documents, its ideology is that of an apocalyptic cult that believes that we are living in the end times and that ISIS’ actions are hastening the moment when this will happen.
The name of the Dabiq magazine itself helps us understand ISIS’ worldview. The Syrian town of Dabiq is where the Prophet Mohammed is supposed to have predicted that the armies of Islam and “Rome” would meet for the final battle that will precede the end of time and the triumph of true Islam.
In the recent issue of Dabiq it states: “As the world progresses towards al-Malhamah al-Kubra¯, (‘the Great Battle’ to be held at Dabiq) the option to stand on the sidelines as a mere observer is being lost.” In other words, in its logic, you are either on the side of ISIS or you are on the side of the Crusaders and infidels.
The U.S. takes the lead in the Boko Haram fight, via Reuters:
Chad begins U.S.-backed military exercise as warm-up for Boko Haram
Chad launched a U.S.-backed counter-terrorism exercise on Monday with 1,300 soldiers from 28 African and Western countries, billing it as a warm-up for an offensive against Nigeria’s Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram.
The “Flintlock” manoeuvres unfolded as Chad and four neighbouring states prepare a task force to take on Boko Haram, the biggest security threat to Africa’s top oil producer Nigeria and an increasing concern to countries bordering it.
The Sunni jihadist group killed an estimated 10,000 people last year in its drive to create an Islamic emirate in northern Nigeria.
Nigerian troops retake two Boko Haram-held towns, via Reuters:
Nigerian troops recapture two towns from Boko Haram
Nigerian soldiers recaptured two towns from Boko Haram on Monday as U.S. and regional troops began war games in neighbouring Chad in a growing international campaign to counter the Islamist group.
But militants from Boko Haram, which has killed and kidnapped thousands in a six-year-old insurgency in Africa’s most populous nation, still managed to attack a military camp near Waza in northern Cameroon, killing five soldiers.
After coming under fire, the soldiers in Cameroon, where 100 people were massacred in a Boko Haram border raid two weeks ago, hit back in an intense battle lasting hours, army sources said.
“Five soldiers killed, seven wounded and over 80 Boko Haram assailants (were) killed in the waves of attacks,” Colonel Didier Badjeck said in Maroua, a town just south of the Lake Chad region where Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon meet.
While Boko Haram attacks a Cameroonian army base, via Reuters:
Boko Haram insurgents attack Cameroon army base, several wounded
Nigerian Boko Haram insurgents attacked a Cameroon military camp near the town of Waza in the north of the country on Monday, wounding several soldiers, an army spokesman said.
Chad, Niger and Cameroon have begun a joint offensive against Boko Haram militants who have killed thousands of people in a bid to carve out an Islamist emirate in northern Nigeria, and have increasingly staged raids across nearby borders.
“The wounded are being evacuated. The insurgents have been stopped. An APC (armored personnel carrier) was taken from them and several of them were killed,” a Cameroonian military officer told journalists in Maroua, adding the incident was continuing.
Yemeni Shiite rebels eye the oil fields, via the Washington Post:
Houthi rebels in Yemen eye oil-rich province, sparking fears of all-out civil war
The Shiite insurgents who have toppled Yemen’s government are threatening to take over a key oil-producing province to the east of the capital, triggering fears that the country could explode in all-out civil war.
The rebels, known as Houthis, have already seized much of the north of the country with relative ease. But they are likely to encounter stiff resistance if they move into Marib province. Already, the largely Sunni tribes in the region are arming themselves with everything from tanks to rocket-propelled grenades, according to tribal leaders, and the governor has ringed the area with tribal fighters and military units.
“It will be civil war if they come here,” said Mohammed al-Wills, a leader of the Murad tribe in Marib, who has begun coordinating with fellow tribesmen and soldiers to defend the province.
From the Guardian, European Jewish leaders reject Netanyahu’s summons:
Leaders reject Netanyahu calls for Jewish mass migration to Israel
Israeli prime minister’s offers in wake of recent attacks blasted as politically motivated and disappointing by politicians and Jewish leaders
European leaders have rejected calls by the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, for Jews to migrate en masse to Israel, pledging to ensure their safety at home.
Following shootings in Copenhagen at the weekend, Netanyahu echoed remarks he made after the Paris attacks on Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket in January, saying on Sunday: “This wave of terror attacks can be expected to continue, including antisemitic and murderous attacks. We say to the Jews, to our brothers and sisters, Israel is your home and that of every Jew. Israel is waiting for you with open arms.”
But the French prime minister, Manuel Valls – who was speaking after several hundred Jewish headstones were vandalised at a cemetery in eastern France – said that he regretted Netanyahu’s call, noting that the Israeli prime minister was “in the midst of a general election campaign”.
And a Netanyahu coalition partner denies Palestinian statehood or a land return, via the Associated Press:
AP Interview: Netanyahu election ally tough on Palestinians
With the Israeli prime minister under fire internationally for his hard-line policies, a key partner of Benjamin Netanyahu is standing firmly behind him ahead of the March parliamentary elections — heralding what could be an even tougher stance toward the Palestinians if the two sit together in the next government.
Naftali Bennett, leader of the Jewish Home party — a lynchpin of Israel’s nationalist right that takes an even tougher line toward the Palestinians than Netanyahu’s Likud — told The Associated Press that the Palestinians should lower their expectations and forget about statehood.
“We are not going to give up more land. This approach has failed,” says Bennett, who is angling to become defense minister as part of the next coalition government if Netanyahu prevails in the March 17 vote. “Now, if it means that the world will penalize us, that is unfair but so be it.”
An Indian newspaper closed for reprinting a Charlie Hebdo cartoon, via the New York Times:
Newspaper in India Pays a Price for Reprinting a Charlie Hebdo Cartoon
The Charlie Hebdo slaughter in Paris has reverberated into the multireligious ethnic sprawl of Mumbai, where an Urdu newspaper has closed and its editor faces charges and death threats for having reprinted a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad from the satirical French weekly.
The prosecution of the editor, Shirin Dalvi, has focused attention on limits of freedom of the press in India, where news coverage often conflicts with the government’s efforts to protect religious groups from insult and disrespect.
All the employees of the daily newspaper, Avadhnama, were dismissed in the days after Jan. 17, when it published a 2006 cover from Charlie Hebdo showing Muhammad weeping. That image was part of the newspaper’s coverage of the aftermath of the deadly assault on Charlie Hebdo’s Paris offices on Jan. 7 by Islamist militants, who said they were avenging Muslims offended by the French newspaper’s cartoons.
Japan’s Shinzo Abe uses Hormuz Straits minesweeping to push remilitarization, via Jiji Press:
Abe Positive on SDF Minesweeping in Hormuz
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday took a positive stance toward allowing his country’s Self-Defense Forces to engage in minesweeping operations in the Strait of Hormuz.
A blockade of the straits using undersea mines “could be considered a situation that clearly causes as serious and significant damage as a direct armed attack on Japan,” Abe told a plenary session of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament.
The impact of such a blockage “would be far greater than those of the past oil crises and the world economy would be thrown into total disarray,” Abe said, warning that Japan would face a serious energy crisis.
And Abe reaffirms his implacable push for remilitarization, via Kyodo News:
Abe positive about permanent law on SDF dispatch overseas
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday he wants to create a permanent law aimed at sending the Self-Defense Forces overseas to give logistical support, as Japan reviews its legal constraints.
“It’s important to be able to respond to any situations in a seamless manner. I’m not of the view that we should develop legislation after specific needs arise in the future,” Abe told the lower house of parliament.
Japan’s ruling parties resumed talks on security last week, hoping to reach an agreement by the end of March on an outline of security legislation. The government is expected to submit more than 10 security-related bills to the regular Diet session through June 24.
And to close, a fine time for foreigners spying on Japanese corporateers, via Jiji Press:
Japan to Raise Maximum Fine for Spying by Foreign Firms
The Japanese government plans to raise the maximum fine for thefts of domestic trade secrets by foreign firms, such as product designs and marketing manuals, from 300 million yen to one billion yen, informed sources said Monday.
The government hopes the larger fine will discourage spying activities by companies of other countries, particularly emerging economies, and therefore help Japanese companies maintain their competitiveness, the sources said.
The maximum fine for individuals taking part in corporate information leaks overseas will also go up, from 10 million yen to 30 million yen.
