The U.K. and Russia each expelled a
diplomat from the other country after what the U.K. said was
âclear evidenceâ of espionage.
The U.K. requested Dec. 10 that the Russian embassy in
London withdraw a staff member in response to âclear evidence
of activities by the Russian intelligence services against U.K.
interests,â Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a statement
today.
âRussia responded on Dec. 16 by requesting the removal of
a member of our embassy staff in Moscow,â Hague said. âWe
reject any basis for that action.â
Both diplomats have now been withdrawn, he said.
Russia protested earlier this month following media reports
that U.K. authorities had detained a 25-year-old Russian woman,
Yekaterina Zatuliveter, on suspicion of espionage. She was
working as a researcher in the House of Commons.
Russiaâs Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Dec. 7 that it
was âunder no illusionsâ regarding the continued presence in
the U.K. of âvery influential forces that have no interest in
normalizing Russo-British relations.â A week later, the
ministry said that Zatuliveter had been freed on bail while
appealing her deportation and condemned what it described as
ârampant, paranoid spy-mania.â
Relations between the two countries reached a post-Cold War
low after the 2006 killing of dissident KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London. Each country expelled four of the otherâs
diplomats in 2007, and in 2008 Moscow forced the British Council
cultural promotion body to shut its offices in Russia outside
the capital.
âWe remain open to a more productive relationship with
Russia, as with any other country, on the basis of respect for
our laws,â Hague said in his statement today.
Russiaâs foreign ministry declined to comment today on the
diplomatsâ withdrawal.
To contact the reporters on this story: Anna Shiryaevskaya in Moscow at
ashiryaevska [at] bloomberg [dot] net Henry Meyer in Moscow at
hmeyer4 [at] bloomberg [dot] net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Will Kennedy at
wkennedy3 [at] bloomberg [dot] net
Willy Morris at
wmorris [at] bloomberg [dot] net
The 802.11n standard was ratified in 2009 and WiFi really took off in 2010, with support showing up in an array of consumer electronic devices. Unfortunately security related issues escalated right along with growing acceptance. Here’s a look back at the WiFi security issues that emerged this year.
Virtual WiFi leads to rogue access points: The Windows 7 virtual WiFi capability, or soft AP, became popular in the early part of 2010, with users downloading millions of copies of free programs such as Connectify to exploit feature. But it didn’t take long for security experts to see the danger and warn organizations about the possibility of employees creating possible rogue access points using virtual WiFi. These rogue APs can create a hole in your network security and allow an unauthorized user to “ghost ride” into the corporate network. This type of access can be difficult to notice using traditional wire-side techniques, so experts advocated watching carefully for the appearance of rogue APs while upgrading machines to Windows 7.
MiFi gains popularity: Steve Jobs experienced a WiFi malfunction during the iPhone 4 launch in June 2010. An examination after the fact revealed that around 500 mobile hotspot networks were in use, supporting some 1,000 WiFi devices. This incident brought to light the security issues that can crop up from use of MiFi, and experts suggest using dedicated monitoring solutions capable of detecting these unauthorized devices on a 24×7 basis.
Google’s WiFi snooping controversy: In the middle of 2010 Google admitted that their cars used to collect Street View information also mistakenly collected payload data from unsecured WiFi networks. Many viewed the act as a privacy breach because the data collected included personal information such as email, passwords, fragments of files, browsed Internet data, pictures, video clips, etc. The controversy was a major black eye for Google but served as a big wake up call for all those WiFi users who still haven’t secured their WiFi networks.
Russian spies and peer-to-peer WiFi links: The use of private, adhoc WiFi networks for secret communication came to light when the FBI arrested a group of Russian spies who were using the tools to privately transfer data. Such adhoc WiFi networks set up links between WiFi users without using a centralized WiFi router. Corporations are advised to deploy monitoring tools that can snoop out such connections.
Fake WiFi stealing data from smartphones: Security experts discover that using a smartphone’s WiFi capability to access an open or public network can lead to a vulnerability if the user doesn’t tell the phone to forget the network. Users that don’t follow this advice are in danger of getting trapped into a fake WiFi network by someone with malicious intents. Once trapped, users can end up leaking passwords and other private data, and might be at risk of malware and worms.
Hole196 uncovered for WPA/WPA WiFi networks: The name Hole196 was used for the vulnerability that was uncovered at security conferences in Las Vegas in July by AirTight Networks. The vulnerability was mainly targeted at WPA2 (using AES encryption) WiFi networks configured with 802.1x Authentication mechanism. Before Hole196 showed up, such networks were considered some of the most secure WiFi deployments around. With Hole196, these networks can be subjected to a fatal insider attack, where an insider can bypass the WPA2 private key encryption and 802.1x authentication to scan devices for vulnerabilities, install malware and steal personal or confidential corporate information. Although specially targeted at WPA (AES)/802.1x networks, the vulnerability also applies to the WPA/WPA2-PSK networks.
The folks that found Hole196 say exploiting the vulnerability is simple and the attack isn’t detected by traditional wire-side IDS/IPS systems. Being an insider attack, the importance of Hole196 was downplayed by some experts, but reports point out that, with the rise of insider attacks, Hole196 is now considered important. Security experts strongly advocate the use of a comprehensive WIPS solution.
Firesheep turns layman into WiFi hackers: Firesheep, the Firefox extension developed by Eric Butler, was released for public use in late 2010. Since then it has gained tremendous attention because it has almost automated the task of hacking over insecure WiFi networks such as hotspots. With Firesheep and a compatible WiFi client card, a malicious user just needs a single click to see the details of various people in his/her vicinity, visiting their respective accounts on websites (using unencrypted after-login session), such as Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, etc.
Another click and the malicious user can log into these sites, meaning even laymen can become hackers. Security experts remind people to exercise extra precaution while enjoying unsecured WiFi connections. The world is hoping Firesheep’s popularity will motivate the popular social network websites to take further steps to protect user security.
Smartphone as WiFi attacker: The year 2010 witnessed the release of many new high end smartphones but these devices are now being seen as active threats. While attackers previously needed to carry a notebook to eavesdrop on WiFi links or launch sophisticated WiFi attacks, they can now perform these tasks using a high end smartphone.
Reviewing the list of WiFi security issues that came up in 2010, it can be expected that 2011 will witness more of the same. With new WiFi attack vectors emerging, corporations will realize they need additional layers of security that can provide active protection.
About the author: Ajay Kumar Gupta is presently working with an enterprise dealing in WiFi security products. He has been in the field of wireless security for more than five years and is a frequent contributor to leading security magazines and blogs. He holds a master’s of technology degree from IIT Bombay in India.
London: Fearing that his freedom may be “short lived”, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said on Friday that the US is preparing to indict him on espionage charges and it was likely that he may be extradited.
Assange he had an emotional reunion with his mother at the 600-acre Suffolk estate where he is currently under house arrest after being released on bail, Assange told newsmen: “The US is preparing to indict me on espionage charges. I am afraid my freedom may be short-lived.” It was increasingly likely that that the US would try to extradite him, he said.
He said an “illegal investigation” is being carried out against him, the Daily Mail reported.
A spokeswoman for the US Department of Justice would confirm only that there is “an ongoing investigation into the wikiLeaks matter.”
The whistleblower’s mother Christine Assange, who traveled to London to show her support, joined some of her son’s supporters to celebrate his release from jail at 10-bedroom Ellingham Hall, owned by Vaughan smith, founder of London’s Frontline club.
Assange had champagne and a meal of stew and dumplings to mark the end of his nine-day incarceration at Wandsworth prison as he fights extradition to Sweden on sex assault allegations, which he denies.
Smiling and hugging his mother, Assange, who remains under ‘mansion arrest’ said: “This is not the beginning of the end. It is the end of the beginning.
It has not altered my position, in fact it has confirmed my position to me personally that we are on the right path.”
Assange said he had not been provided with any evidence relating to claims he sexually assaulted two women and claimed certain institutions were involved in an “illegal investigation”.
“We can see that by how certain people who are allegedly affiliated with us were contained at the US border and had their computers seized, and so on.”
Assange said: “I would say that there is a very aggressive investigation, that a lot of face has been lost by some people, and some people have careers to make by pursuing famous cases, but that is actually something that needs
monitoring.”
“We’ve seen the Swedish government, let’s not say the government, a Swedish prosecutor in these representations to the British Government and British coruts said he needed not to provide a single shred of evidence.”
Assange said he had spent 9 days in solitary confinement at Wandsworth Prison, south west London, and had still not been presented with “a single piece of evidence.”
More on: wikileaks, julian assange, US extradition, espionage charges
*Upon private request, the personal details of those involved in this matter were removed in 2016*
2010
A jealous husband confessed to his wife that he had bugged her phone because he wrongly suspected her
of having an affair. A successful businessman, was sued by his now ex-wife and agreed to pay her a five-figure out-of-court settlement. But last week, on the day the payment was due, he filed for bankruptcy and now she may never see a penny of the money she is owed.
The couple met through relatives in 1997 and married two years later. But wedded bliss soon gave way to his jealousy and insecurity, according to his wife.
She said she became an âopen bookâ in an effort to make her husband, who was a director and share-holder at his familyâs company, feel more secure.
However, in 2008 he sat her down at their home in West Midlands, and told her he had been recording all her phone calls for six months and played her a CD of conversations with family and friends.
âI was completely shocked,â she said.
âI asked him why and he didnât really have an answer for me. It just comes back to the fact that he was insecure. Maybe he was trying to get something on me having an affair, but there wasnât one.â
The wife, then, 34, described that moment as âthe straw that broke the camelâs backâ following years of being questioned about her every move.
The sales manager ended their marriage and sued her husband at the High Court for breach of confidence and misuse of private information. She claimed her ex-husband, then 36, violated her privacy and ruined her career after relaying the recordings to relatives and friends.
At the High Court, he denied tracking his wife, disputing that he had bugged her phone. He did, however, concede that he had told her that he had done so.
However, the two legal teams agreed the undisclosed settlement after the hearing in July. The wife said that she has not seen any money and now fears she never will.
Her solicitor said: âWe believe that [the husband] disposed of substantial assets by transferring shares to other individuals before declaring himself bankrupt.
âWe will pursue further court action if necessary after considering the report from the Official Receiver.â
How can you âhum-bugâ proofed your holidays? Identity thieves are the new Ebenezers of the season. They are stealing your identity by preying on your festive holiday spirit. Whether it is at a house party or an office party, you need to be alert. What takes a second to steal will take years to fix.
The Colo Bureau of Investigation says you shouldâŠ
Travel light-Donât take every credit card known to mankind with you when you go holiday shopping; also photocopy the ones you do take with and leave those copies at home.
Keep purse/wallet with you-Donât leave your wallet or purse in the coat room or on a bed in a room that you canât see who has access to it.
If youâre having a holiday house party, donât leave your personal information out in the open (that includes your laptop). Also, lock your car as it contains your personal information as well.
More on: wikileaks, julian assange, US extradition, espionage charges