08/19/2011
'Counterstrike' details U.S. intelligence agencies' cyberwar efforts in Iraq
The U.S. military has hacked and temporarily disabled Iraqi insurgent and terrorist-based websites, a little-known tactic that's part of a government "counterstrike" capability, according to a new book.
At least two sites were "knocked off the web" before Iraq's March 2010 national election after "the largest interagency meetings held since" the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, write New York Times reporters Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker in "Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America's Secret Campaign Against Al-Qaeda."
The sites, including one sponsored by a "shadowy organization" called the JRTN, "were posting specific operational information that was considered a clear and emerging threat to the security of the vote," they wrote.
At least one site, hosted by a U.S.-based Internet service provider, was shut down after a visit from U.S. lawyers "presenting snapshots of virulent, extremist and violent web pages carried on their server," they wrote. The U.S. provider was not identified.
The book, in chapters called "Terror 2.0" and "The New Network Warfare," sheds light on offensive U.S. cyber operations seldom discussed by U.S. officials. The book's cites tactics such as "overloading," without details.
Pentagon said otherwise
The book's disclosures contrast with the Pentagon's public description of its strategy for blunting cyberattacks, which focuses on improving defenses instead of deterring intrusions or threatening retaliation.
Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn on July 14 released the Pentagon's "Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace," which outlines five "strategic initiatives." One is to partner with other U.S. agencies and private industry to craft a "whole-of-government" approach.
Left unsaid was that the approach includes a capability to review and approve selective U.S. attacks under a forum known as the "Strategic Operational Planning Interagency Group for Terrorist Use of the Internet," the authors write.
Proposals for attacks are reviewed by what Schmitt and Shanker call a "powerful board of governors assigned to oversee counterstrikes on the Internet," under a "three-way agreement" among the Pentagon, intelligence agencies and the Justice Department "for considering timely attacks on terrorist websites, with the president making the final decision on whether to proceed."
Then-President George W. Bush, in a secret authorization, in effect "declared Iraq an official battle space for America's cyberwarriors," as it became "a real-world laboratory for computer network warfare," they write.
To sow distrust and confusion among jihadists, the United States also uses a technique of "webspoofing" called "false band replacement," where U.S. intelligence officers infiltrate networks to post their own materials.
The agencies have forged an al-Qaida "web watermark" that in effect "makes messages posted on these sites official," Schmitt and Shanker wrote.
One official told them, "We have learned to mimic their watermarks."
The U.S. military also "had the ability to hack into their phones and we would text message guys" telling them "another guy is cheating you out of money," one "senior official" told the reporters.
Radio jam
Pentagon and State officials in Kabul devised an "over-broadcast" technique to jam insurgent pirate radio networks using a strong signal cover to block the adversaries' message and send "counterprogram" coalition messages on adjacent channels.
"The goal is fuzzing out the militants' radio broadcasts so everybody has to turn to another station -- and that station is yours," said a U.S. official. The commercial technology to track, locate and "overbroadcast a signal" costs about $10,000, the official said.
Perhaps the U.S. greatest technological advance in the war on terror is the eavesdropping National Security Agency's supercomputers that can "collect, analyze, sort and store data from a range of communications, in particular cell phone conversations, emails and websites, billions of times faster than humans can."
The NSA computers scan and store the call history of cell phones turned over by thousands of temporary and permanent detainees that pass through U.S. camps in Iraq and Afghanistan or voluntary applicants for government jobs, they write.
"Each of these cell phones can be copied or cloned in seconds" and scanned for any matches to terrorist group members. "It opens the door to a whole command and control network," he told the authors.
http://www.mercurynews.com/books/ci_18718411
Showing posts with label Internet Crime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Internet Crime. Show all posts
Friday, August 19, 2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
Internet Poker Entrepreneurs Charged With Fraud, U.S. Says
April 15, 2011 Internet Poker Entrepreneurs Charged With Fraud, U.S. Says
Founders of Internet gambling companies PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker were among 11 people charged by the U.S. in a case that seeks at least $3 billion in forfeitures and penalties.
A revised indictment issued yesterday includes charges of bank fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling. It is the latest in a series of criminal cases against Internet gambling companies brought by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan.
PokerStars, based on the Isle of Mann, Ireland’s Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker of Costa Rica are the leading online poker sites doing business with U.S. customers, according to the indictment. The charging documents name two principals from each company and others who allegedly worked with them to illegally process payments.
“These defendants concocted an elaborate criminal fraud scheme, alternately tricking some U.S. banks and effectively bribing others to assure the continued flow of billions in illegal gambling profits,” Bharara said today in a statement. “To circumvent the gambling laws, the defendants also engaged in massive money laundering and bank fraud.”
Prosecutors allege that after the U.S. enacted a law in 2006 barring banks from processing payments to offshore gambling websites, PokerStars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker worked around the ban to continue operating in the U.S.
_$5.1 Billion Market
The Internet poker market was $5.1 billion last year, 7.1 percent higher than 2009, according to U.K.-based H2 Gambling Capital, which supplies data on the industry. The global online gambling market now is about $30 billion.
None of the poker company principals indicted are in the U.S. and they haven’t been arrested, Bharara’s office said. Those charged include Isai Scheinberg and Paul Tate of PokerStars; Raymond Bitar and Nelson Burtnick of Full Tilt Poker; and Scott Tom and Brent Beckley of Absolute Poker.
Michele Clayborne, a spokeswoman for Full Tilt, didn’t immediately return a voice-mail message left at her office seeking comment. An e-mail sent to Absolute Poker’s spokesman, David Clainer, was returned as “undeliverable” and a telephone number posted on the company’s website was inoperable.
Jennifer Roberts, a spokeswoman for PokerStars, didn’t immediately return a voice-mail left at her office after regular business hours.
_Tricked Banks_
The poker companies named in the indictment are accused of using fraudulent means to circumvent federal laws and “trick” banks into processing the payments on their behalf.
In one instance, after U.S. banks and financial institutions detected and shut down multiple fraudulent bank accounts used by the betting websites in late 2009, Scheinberg and Bitar developed a new processing strategy that didn’t involve lying to banks, prosecutors said.
They allegedly concealed the money they received from gamblers by disguising it as payments to hundreds of non- existent online merchants purporting to sell items online such as jewelry and golf balls.
Of the billions of dollars in payment transactions that the poker companies tricked the U.S. banks into processing, about one-third of the funds went directly to the poker companies as revenue for so-called “rake” charges to players on almost every poker hand played online, prosecutors said.
PokerStars, Full Tilt and their payment processors persuaded the principals of a few, small local banks facing financial difficulties to engage in such processing in return for multimillion dollar investments in the banks, the U.S. said.
Civil Complaint
The indictment and a related civil complaint filed by Bharara’s office seek at least $3 billion in money laundering penalties and forfeiture from the poker companies and the defendants.
A federal judge has seized about 76 bank accounts in 14 countries which the U.S. says contained the proceeds of the charged offenses. A judge has also ordered the seizure of five domain names used by the poker companies to operate their illegal online businesses in the U.S., Bharara’s office said.
In September, Sportingbet Plc (SBT) agreed to forfeit $33 million in proceeds that the company provided to U.S. customers. The U.K. Internet gambling company said it would maintain a permanent restriction on providing Internet gambling services to U.S. customers unless the law changes, according to the agreement reached with Bharara’s office to avoid prosecution.
The same month, a Canadian charged with laundering $350 million for foreign Internet gambling companies was sentenced to six months of house arrest after pleading guilty to processing offshore bets of U.S. citizens. Douglas Rennick, who faced as long as 12 months in prison, also was ordered by U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein in New York to forfeit $17 million.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-15/internet-poker-entrepreneurs-charged-with-fraud-money-laundering-by-u-s-.html
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Frankly speaking .. internet crime in the U.S. continues to climb ...
March 13, 2011 Frankly Speaking, Internet Crime is rising faster due to unemplyoment. Most notable are the religous charities that are popping up all over the country. The criminal mind finds it easy to exploit money from those down and out on their luck and believe their only hope lies with the church ... If you suspect a crime, it is easy to report.