Security – Membrane.com

Huge Credit Agency Data Breach

Posted on 2017/09/082017/09/08 by admin

by Daniel Brouse and Sidd Mukherjee for Membrane Domain Security

Equifax is one of the largest credit reporting agencies in the world. Ironically, Equifax provides “identity protection tools with daily monitoring and alerts today!”

From May to July, 2017, Equifax allowed a cybersecurity breach to steal 143 million people’s identity. The stolen information includes social security numbers, birthdays, addresses and driver’s license numbers.

On September 7, Equifax released a statement via Twitter: “We recently discovered a cybersecurity incident involving consumer information. Once discovered, we acted immediately to stop the intrusion. We apologize to our consumers and business customers for the concern and frustration this causes. Learn more: http://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com .”

The data breach compromised about half the population of the United States.

Cyber security specialist Sidd Mukherjee said, “The main issue not addressed is the collection of the data in the first place. There would be no target if there were no centralized database. If the data were maintained in a distributed mechanism, with strict privacy guarantees and guaranteed update (such as blockchain/bittorent/tor allows) we would not be in this situation.

‘But that’s so hard and we need to make money this quarter’

OK, that is actually quite a cruel summary, so let me expand. Back in the day, centralized was the only way to go. The Internet made a lot of things possible and mathematics did as much. Companies like Equifax began in response to a need. They
glommed on to a need twenty years before the Internet and made big databases because they watched ATT and SABRE and railroads, and such. The Internet came along and they lumbered over. And now, they find they are in a strange and terrible land beset with pitfall and with snare.

Equifax makes money through collection and controlled distribution of data. Both those avenues and control are threatened in this brave new world, as Mr. Assange pointed out some time ago.

Don’t get me wrong. I actually think assaults on privacy have done the evolution thing, selected for those schemes which resist assault. And as such, the centralized databases will get selected out of the game. It will take a while, though.”

In other news, until you had many to many communication with latency lower than human attention span, which seems to be about 20 seconds, you can’t really do hive intelligence like the kids are doing with the cell phones. Watch the kids. Demographic is destiny, as someone said.”

NSA Hack Set Loose on World

Posted on 2017/05/13 by admin

by Daniel Brouse for The Membrane Doamin

It appears that malware hacked from the NSA in April 2017 has been set loose on the world. The massive ransomware infection hit at least 99 countries. The ransomware is called WannaCry. The source was leaked as part of the NSA spytools. The code was modified by hackers to takeover computers. Then, a ransom note says you must pay $300 in BitCoin to save your computer. The price increases every couple of hours if the ransom isn’t paid. The ransomware spreads by taking advantage of a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. Microsoft issued a patch after the NSA leak; however, computers that did not apply the patch were at risk.

In the UK, 16 National Health Service organizations were taken off-line. Europol said the attack was of an “unprecedented level and requires international investigation.” Cybersecurity firm Avast said, “the majority of the attacks targeted Russia, Ukraine and Taiwan. But U.K. hospitals, Chinese universities and global firms like Fedex also reported they had come under assault.”

Later in the day, the “accidental hero” halted the global spread. The Guardian reported, “The researcher, who identified himself only as MalwareTech, is a 22-year-old from south-west England who lives with his parents and works for Kryptos logic, an LA-based threat intelligence company.”

“I was out having lunch with a friend and got back about 3pm and saw an influx of news articles about the NHS and various UK organizations being hit,” he said. “I had a bit of a look into that and then I found a sample of the malware behind it, and saw that it was connecting out to a specific domain, which was not registered. So I picked it up not knowing what it did at the time.”

The fake domain name was a “kill switch” in the malware. When the domain really showed up on the Internet, the virus stopped replicating. “The intent was to just monitor the spread and see if we could do anything about it later on. But we actually stopped the spread just by registering the domain,” he said. “This is not over. The attackers will realize how we stopped it, they’ll change the code and then they’ll start again. Enable windows update, update and then reboot.”

At the writing of this article it is estimated that 1/2 million pounds have already been paid in ransom.

Big Brother Is Watching: FBI and NSA Spying on You

Posted on 2013/06/072013/06/07 by admin

Two newspapers, The Washington Post and the Guardian (UK), have published articles about the United States government invading the civil rights of its own citizens. The information was obtained from a “top secret” document and states that the National Security Agency and the FBI are collecting information directly from the servers of Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple.

The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs that enable analysts to track foreign targets, according to a top-secret document obtained by The Washington Post.

Find out about connecting to the Internet through a secure private server.

More on cyber security and privacy.

Good News: FaceBook IPO Flops

Posted on 2012/05/19 by admin

The initial puplic offering of FaceBook flopped on the NASDAQ. This is good news. It is rumored that the sinister bad bank Morgan Stanley had to eat it. When the offering price failed, the bad bankers had to come in and prop up the price. As it turns out, Mark Zuckerberg may be one of the largest criminals in our times. Just say NO to proping up sketchy shysters.

Will the New Owners of FaceBook Be Responsible?

Posted on 2012/01/28 by admin

PHILADELPHIA, PA: The word on the street is FaceBook may be going public (in an IPO) as soon as this coming week.

Will the new owners of FaceBook, those people who buy shares, be responsible for my privacy and security? Is it possible for individual shareholders to be accountable for what their company does?

At one point in time, people believed the corporate umbrella might shield them from illegal activities. Then, board members and executives found they were the defendants in civil and criminal suits. They thought a new type of insurance would protect them. It does not.

Google and Wikipedia Blackout Protest Over U.S. Internet Legislation

Posted on 2012/01/18 by admin

#SOPA #PIPA

If you go to Wikipedia.org today, you get a black page asking you to protest. If you to Google today, you will find their logo blacked-out and a plea to protest. WordPress.org, The Membrane.com and KingArthur.com have also *blacked-out* in support of the protest.

What has Internet intellectuals all in an up-roar?

Millions of Americans oppose SOPA and PIPA because these bills would censor the Internet and slow economic growth in the U.S.

Two bills before Congress, known as the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, would censor the Web and impose harmful regulations on American business. Millions of Internet users and entrepreneurs already oppose SOPA and PIPA.

The Senate will begin voting on January 24th. Please let them know how you feel. Sign this petition urging Congress to vote NO on PIPA and SOPA before it is too late.

Tell Congress: Don’t censor the Web

Fighting online piracy is important. The most effective way to shut down pirate websites is through targeted legislation that cuts off their funding. There’s no need to make American social networks, blogs and search engines censor the Internet or undermine the existing laws that have enabled the Web to thrive, creating millions of U.S. jobs.

Too much is at stake – please vote NO on PIPA and SOPA.

— Google

Wikipedia Homepage Blackout Protesting USA Legislation

Google Homepage Blackout Protesting USA Legislation