Wednesday - February 16, 2011

Today’s Face Palms

1

Stuxnet Worm Code Hacked and Released

The group of anonymous “hacktivists” that made headlines for online cyberattacks in December just released a bombshell online: a decrypted version of the same cyberworm that crippled Iran’s nuclear power program.

The ones and zeroes that make up the code called the Stuxnet worm—described as the most sophisticated cyberweapon ever created—were reportedly found when the faceless group hacked into the computers of HBGary, a U.S. security company that the anonymous collective viewed as an enemy. And the security experts FoxNews.com spoke with said the leaked code was serious cause for concern.

“There is the real potential that others will build on what is being released,” Michael Gregg, chief operating officer of cybersecurity firm Superior Solutions, told FoxNews.com. Gregg was quick to clarify that the group hasn’t released the Stuxnet worm itself, but rather a decrypted version of it HBGary had been studying—which could act almost like a building block for cybercrooks.

Stuxnet was designed specifically to take over those control systems and evade detection, and it apparently was very successful. But Dave Aitel, CEO of Immunity Inc., painted a firm line between the version of the worm that destroyed Iran’s nuclear plant and the code released by Anonymous.

“What they’ve released is essentially incomprehensible,” he told FoxNews.com, saying that what the group found was far removed from the raw worm that has been “travelling around Iran destroying nuclear things.”

“This is essentially just a translation. HBGary took the worm in the wild and translated it into a slightly easier to read format,” Aitel said. He notes that Stuxnet is still a threat, however, and the more dangerous raw version of the worm—or the “binary” version—is still easily accessible for those wishing to use it maliciously.

The Anonymous group released the Stuxnet code on February 13, after finding it in a database of e-mails it stole from HBGary. “First public Stuxnet decompile is to be found here,” one representative of the group wrote over Twitter.

Horry clap. The most powerful computer worm ever written, one custom design to wreak mayhem on industrial systems, and Dan Dipshit and his team at HBGary are sending the code around the office on an email. And it’s a cyber security firm. Do they know NOTHING about actual digital security? This is like putting a hydrogen bomb on the front seat of your car, then leaving the door open and the motor running while you run into the store for a quick plate of falafel in Gaza. Gosh, who would ever think the car would get stolen? You study computer viruses on completely isolated networks. No internet connections, no email servers, no floppy disks, no flash drive ports. No connections to anything outside that network whatsoever. IDIOTS. Oh, but don’t worry, this is just a decrypted version of the decompiled source code. Yeah, because nobody out there knows how to write Assembler anymore. And there is no such thing as decompilers that can take executable code and give you back Java, C, or whatever source language you want it in. We are utterly fucked.



2

Scandal at DOJ: smuggling to pad statistics on U.S. guns in Mexico

A brewing scandal at the Department of Justice involving an illegal scheme to pad statistics on U.S. guns in Mexico threatens to erupt as U.S. Senator Charles Grassley of the Senate Judiciary Committee begins an investigation.  ATF agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives--a DOJ agency--allegedly smuggled U.S. guns into Mexico in order to bolster the Department’s disputed contention that Mexican drug cartels are armed primarily with U.S. guns.  Whistleblowers within the ATF contend that one of the these guns was used to kill Border Patrol agent Brian A. Terry in December of 2010. News of the murder and the underlying scandal that prompted it was first reported on December 28, 2010.

Rather than launch an internal investigation into the murder and the illegal scheme, the Department of Justice under Eric Holder, according to ATF whistleblowers, instead attempted a coverup.

The ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee wants Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to explain why Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents allowed suspected gun smugglers to purchase and keep assault rifles that later may have been used in the fatal shooting of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

In a letter, Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa said ATF agents told his staff the agency allowed the sale to “known and suspected straw purchasers for an illegal trafficking ring near the Southwest border” and two of those weapons reportedly were recovered at the site of the Dec. 14 shootout that killed Border Patrol agent Brian A. Terry.

Mr. Grassley said the ATF had been tracking Avila‘s firearms purchases since November 2009 and while at least one Arizona gun dealer wanted to stop participating in sales “like those to Avila,” the ATF encouraged the dealer to continue selling to suspected traffickers and asked the dealer to forward information about the sales to the ATF.

He said the dealer who sold the weapons believed recovered at the scene of Terry‘s death met with both the ATF and federal prosecutors in December 2009 to “discuss his role as a FFL (federal firearms licensee) during this investigation.”

It has long been known that the ATF/BATFE is even more out of a loose cannon than the IRS. But this is just insanity. There’s a war going on across the border, and the meme the left puts out is that it’s all America’s fault because of a) our demand for drugs, so let’s legalize them, and b) if we weren’t selling them the guns there wouldn’t be much of a war. ( I guess the cartel boys would just have to cut each other with knives, like proper Mexicans ). So to prove their hypothesis, BATFE orders gun dealers to sell lots of guns to aliens and known straw purchasers, using the “reason” that this will let ATF know who these purchasers are and then put them on a list. And they’ll know where the guns are going. As if “south of the border to be used by the cartels in their ongoing drug war” isn’t 10,000% bloody obvious!

And Holder and his rats immediately deny the whole thing, and claim it’s all a political witch hunt. Sure it is.

Maybe I should have found a triple face palm graphic, because this story just keeps on giving. After using this guy Avila to make all these gun purchases, which the ATF enabled by twisting the gun dealer’s arms, they go and bust him and his ring, but only manage to collect 103 guns. The other 666 are missing!

the ATF allegedly encouraged the dealer to continue selling to suspected traffickers and asked the dealer to forward information about the sale to the Bureau . . .

In addition to these specific weapons, the indictment of Avila and others references approximately 769 firearms.  Of those, the indictment refers to the recovery of only about 103 weapons.  So, where are the other approximately 666 weapons referenced in the indictment?

There is lots more to this story. Google up “operation gunwalker” and follow as many links as you need to, to try and understand the situation. Hey, let’s not forget that half billion in special foreign aid Hillary just laid on Mexico to fight crime. Maybe that’s more like a “keep this on the down-low” payoff? Is it truly the US foreign policy to solve the cartel war down there by arming up both sides so that they’ll kill each other off faster? Isn’t that the same crap idea we used back when Iraq and Iran were poison gassing each other in the swamps? How’d that one work out for us in the long run? I forget. But this new twist, of using that arming as a political lever to push for taking away rights from our own citizens, is a first. Scumbags.

Posted by Drew458     on 02/16/2011 at 09:54 AM   
Filed Under: • Computers and Cyberspace • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Government • Guns and Gun Control • Stoopid-People •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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