Brecon Beacons win dark sky status

19 February 2013 Last updated at 16:19 ET

It has become Wales' first and only the fifth destination in the world to be granted the status of an international dark sky reserve

The night sky above the Brecon Beacons National Park has been granted special protection.

It has become Wales' first and only the fifth destination in the world to be granted the status of an international dark sky reserve.

The park society and the national park authority began their bid in 2011.

Jim Wilson, Chair of Brecon Beacons Park Society, said it recognised the area as one of the best places in Europe "to truly see dark skies".

The park joins Mont Megantic in Quebec, Canada; Exmoor National Park in south west England; Aoraki Mackenzie in New Zealand; and NambiRand Nature Reserve in Namibia with the status.

The status means the night-sky is protected and lighting controls are in place to prevent light pollution.

The national park said it already possessed some of the UK's darkest skies, which was ideal for stargazing.

Switching off

Officials claimed that on a clear night above the Beacons people could see the Milky Way, as well as numerous constellations, bright nebulas and even meteor showers.

Julia James, chair of Brecon Beacons National Park Authority, said attaining the status was a massive boost for the entire area.

Continue reading the main story

?Start Quote

The best views of the night sky come from places such as the Brecon Beacons, who have dedicated themselves to protecting and restoring the night sky for all to enjoy?

End Quote Martin Morgan-Taylor International Dark-Sky Association

She said it would bring many environmental, wildlife, economic, tourism and wellbeing benefits.

To get through the application process local astronomers conducted a survey to assess the levels of light pollution, and lighting engineers audited the existing external lighting in the national park.

Information leaflets and letters were distributed to residents living in the 'core zone' to help them understand the simple measures they could take, such as tilting outdoor security lights downwards instead of up, that could make difference to how dark the night sky appears.

Local communities supported the bid, with residents in Talybont-on-Usk holding their own Star Party and organising a community light switch off.

Martin Morgan-Taylor, board member of the International Dark-Sky Association, the US based organisation which awards the status, said the gradual loss of the view of the night sky was a loss of part of culture.

"Whilst no-one wants all the lights to be switched off, we can improve the lighting we use in towns and cities.

"However, the best views of the night sky come from places such as the Brecon Beacons, who have dedicated themselves to protecting and restoring the night sky for all to enjoy."

Jim Wilson, chairman of Brecon Beacons Park Society, thanked all those who had taken part in the project, saying it recognised the park as one of the best places in Europe to see truly dark skies.

Environment Minister John Griffiths called the accreditation a "massive coup".

He said: "It shows the level of commitment here in Wales to tackling climate change and improving peoples' physical, spiritual and mental well-being."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-21496562#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Source: http://www.gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=196536

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Spearphishing: Dirty email trick favored by nastiest hackers

Suzanne Choney , NBC News ? ? ? 13 hrs.

A new report says that the Chinese military is secretly obtaining sensitive data from U.S. companies. A key technique is "spearphishing," an approach that tricks a targeted individual to reveal information that can be used to infiltrate the company or government agency that person works for.

Security companies have been warning about spearfishing for the last two to three years, and its use is increasing. But now that it has become top news, thanks to a report from U.S. computer-security firm Mandiant Corp. explaining how Chinese operatives tricked workers at Coca-Cola and other major American firms, what is at the top of many people's minds is this: How do you know if you're being spearphished?

Different than phishing
You probably know to watch out for phishing attempts ? broad, massive email efforts to get you to hand over personal financial information like a credit card number or to click on a website link that could allow malware to steal information from your computer. They're usually riddled with spelling errors and terrible formatting.

Spearphishing is subtler, because it's aimed at intelligence gathering. It "often takes the form of key personnel inside an organization being emailed a malicious file," Graham Cluley of Sophos Security told NBC News Tuesday.

"It could be, for instance, a boobytrapped PDF file or Word document which when opened ? secretly and silently installs spyware onto your computer," he said. "The malicious spyware code can then open a backdoor on your computer, giving hackers remote access to all the files on your computer, as well as capture every keystroke, in order to steal passwords, and read everything on your screen."

But why would an employee open such an email? The information in the email is crafted to look and sound just right enough so that it's "remarkably easy to dupe someone into clicking on a link or opening an attachment in an email and for their computer to become compromised," Cluley said.

"Imagine you were a reporter covering human rights abuses in China. I simply send you an email (with a boobytrapped attachment), forge my 'from' address so you believe that the email has come from a human rights group, and in the body of the email tell you that attached you'll find shocking details of human rights abuses in China."

"Similarly, if you were a military supplier, I might make my email appear as though it came from a sister company or another supplier."

Dave Jevans, founder and CTO of Marble Security, said "spearphishers know that the easiest way to break into a company's network is not to breach their firewalls and intrusion prevention systems, but rather to compromise an employee's computer, smartphone or online passwords."

Employees who use cloud-based, shared document apps like Google Docs can be sitting ducks for spearphishing attempts.

"Google Docs is a very convenient way to fool employees or end users into divulging passwords," Jevans said. For one thing, it is a "trusted website that won't be blocked by Web filters," with invitations to view documents or forms "hosted by a trusted company ? Google ? not some hacked server in Russia." Also, he said, "Google Docs connections are HTTPS encrypted, and cannot be filtered by Web-filtering gateways to scan for malicious content."

No easy fix
Battling spearphishing is an ongoing effort, with no easy-fix solutions in sight.

"It's a massive problem," Kurt Baumgartner, Kaspersky Lab senior researcher, told NBC News Tuesday. Jevans, of Marble Security, called spearphishing "one of the most dangerous of all the advanced persistent threats" that exist.

In 2010, Sophos Security said it intercepted an attack against a firm tied to the defense indutry in which emails "carried a malicious PDF file claiming to be about the Trident D-5 missile, launched from nuclear submarines."

A report from McAfee Labs at the end of 2011 noted the worrisome rise in spearphishing, saying the problem "doesn't really lend itself to a pure technology solution. The best defense against spearphishing is employee ? particularly executive employee ? education. Next-generation firewall technology can also help prevent employees from accessing rogue sites."

Baumgartner told NBC News on the "human side, the old adage 'do not open suspicious emails or links,' is, well, old. While it's sensible advice, it's proven to be ineffective because you are dispensing that advice to people." And people, of course, don't always pay close enough attention.

Security vendors, he said, "have improved their product capabilities as well," but still, "the attackers sometimes up their game to beat all of those technologies. So you can stop 'it,' but at some level you can't always stop 'it.'

"For some organizations and targets, learning how to best tolerate and maintain intrusions becomes an attractive option," he said. Tools to expel invaders, or minimize exposure once they are in, may prove to be more important than just relying on "defensive technology protecting against spearphishing components," he said.

Cluley, of Sophos, says companies and agencies can "reduce the chances of a targeted attack" being successful by keeping software such as PDF readers, Web browsers, word processing software and the computer's operating system itself as up-do-date as possible, with the latest patches.

"Furthermore, you should run a layered defense ? that means not just using up-to-date anti-virus software, but also firewalls, email filtering technologies, data-loss protection technology and strong encryption to secure your most sensitive data," he said.

And back to that human element?

"Also, it's amazing how many people re-use passwords, and use the same weak password in multiple places," Cluley said. "That means if you get hacked in one place, and your password is compromised, it may also unlock accounts elsewhere on the Net."

All of these steps "can reduce your chances of suffering from a targeted attack," he said. "But ultimately, there's no 100 percent technological solution, as human beings can still make bad decisions. And that's why it's important to train users about threats, and warn them to be suspicious of unsolicited links and attachments and to always report suspicious activity."

Check out Technology, GadgetBox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/spearphishing-dirty-email-trick-favored-nastiest-hackers-1C8422406

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Burger King's US Twitter Account Hacked, McDonalds Promoted!

Burger King is known to have its share of bloopers as far as social networking is concerned. After the famous "un-friend for a free burger" Facebook campaign, its latest "run in" with adversity comes via Twitter. But this time around, they were the victim of a hack, and not their own stupidity!

A report by the Mirror.co.uk suggests that the fast food company's Twitter account was hacked into by someone calling themselves McDonald's. The rival company made several scathing posts starting with the fake news of a takeover. After quite a bit of damage was done, Twitter finally suspended the account. (Head over to the source site to check out some of the tweets.)

The website is now up and running with all the malicious tweets taken off. Rival McDonald's in response tweeted: "We empathize with our @BurgerKing counterparts. Rest assured, we had nothing to do with the hacking."

We live in an extremely competitive world, where social media can make or break a brand. Hopefully after so many unsavoury incidents, BK will learn to use the medium better.

TAGS: Internet, Security, Twitter

Source: http://techtree.com.feedsportal.com/c/33242/f/624768/s/28b5e765/l/0L0Stechtree0N0Ccontent0Cnews0C30A740Cburger0Ekings0Etwitter0Eaccount0Ehacked0Emcdonalds0Epromoted0Bhtml/story01.htm

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U.S. ready to strike back against China cyberattacks

WASHINGTON (AP) ? As public evidence mounts that the Chinese military is responsible for stealing massive amounts of U.S. government data and corporate trade secrets, the Obama administration is eyeing fines and other trade actions it may take against Beijing or any other country guilty of cyberespionage.

According to officials familiar with the plans, the White House will lay out a new report Wednesday that suggests initial, more-aggressive steps the U.S. would take in response to what top authorities say has been an unrelenting campaign of cyberstealing linked to the Chinese government. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the threatened action.

The White House plans come after a Virginia-based cybersecurity firm released a torrent of details Monday that tied a secret Chinese military unit in Shanghai to years of cyberattacks against U.S. companies. After analyzing breaches that compromised more than 140 companies, Mandiant has concluded that they can be linked People's Liberation Army's Unit 61398.

Military experts believe the unit is part of the People's Liberation Army's cyber-command, which is under the direct authority of the General Staff Department, China's version of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. As such, its activities would be likely to be authorized at the highest levels of China's military.

The release of Mandiant's report, complete with details on three of the alleged hackers and photographs of one of the military unit's buildings in Shanghai, makes public what U.S. authorities have said less publicly for years. But it also increases the pressure on the U.S. to take more forceful action against the Chinese for what experts say has been years of systematic espionage.

"If the Chinese government flew planes into our airspace, our planes would escort them away. If it happened two, three or four times, the president would be on the phone and there would be threats of retaliation," said former FBI executive assistant director Shawn Henry. "This is happening thousands of times a day. There needs to be some definition of where the red line is and what the repercussions would be."

Henry, now president of the security firm CrowdStrike, said that rather than tell companies to increase their cybersecurity the government needs to focus more on how to deter the hackers and the nations that are backing them.

James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that in the past year the White House has been taking a serious look at responding to China, adding that "this will be the year they will put more pressure on, even while realizing it will be hard for the Chinese to change. There's not an on-off switch."

The Chinese government, meanwhile, has denied involvement in the cyber-attacks tracked by Mandiant. Instead, the Foreign Ministry said that China, too, is a victim of hacking, some of it traced to the U.S. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei cited a report by an agency under the Ministry of Information Technology and Industry that said in 2012 alone that foreign hackers used viruses and other malicious software to seize control of 1,400 computers in China and 38,000 websites.

"Among the above attacks, those from the U.S. numbered the most," Hong said at a daily media briefing, lodging the most specific allegations the Chinese government has made about foreign hacking.

Cybersecurity experts say U.S. authorities do not conduct similar attacks or steal data from Chinese companies, but acknowledge that intelligence agencies routinely spy on other countries.

China is clearly a target of interest, said Lewis, noting that the U.S. would be interested in Beijing's military policies, such as any plans for action against Taiwan or Japan.

In its report, Mandiant said it traced the hacking back to a neighborhood in the outskirts of Shanghai that includes a white 12-story office building run by the PLA's Unit 61398.

Mandiant said there are only two viable conclusions about the involvement of the Chinese military in the cyberattacks: Either Unit 61398 is responsible for the persistent attacks or they are being done by a secret organization of Chinese speakers with direct access to the Shanghai telecommunications infrastructure who are engaged in a multi-year espionage campaign being run right outside the military unit's gates.

"In a state that rigorously monitors Internet use, it is highly unlikely that the Chinese government is unaware of an attack group that operates from the Pudong New Area of Shanghai," the Mandiant report said, concluding that the only way the group could function is with the "full knowledge and cooperation" of the Beijing government.

The unit "has systematically stolen hundreds of terabytes of data from at least 141 organizations," Mandiant wrote. A terabyte is 1,000 gigabytes. The most popular version of the new iPhone 5, for example, has 16 gigabytes of space, while the more expensive iPads have as much as 64 gigabytes of space. The U.S. Library of Congress' 2006-2010 Twitter archive of about 170 billion tweets totals 133.2 terabytes.

"At some point we do have to call the Chinese out on this," said Michael Chertoff, Homeland Security secretary under President George W. Bush and now chairman of the Chertoff Group, a global security firm. "Simply rolling over and averting our eyes, I don't think is a long-term strategy."

Richard Bejtlich, the chief security officer at Mandiant, said the company decided to make its report public in part to help send a message to both the Chinese and U.S. governments.

"At the government level, I see this as a tool that they can use to have discussions with the Chinese, with allies, with others who are concerned about this problem and have an open dialogue without having to worry about sensitivities around disclosing classified information," Bejtlich said. "This problem is overclassified."

He said the release of an unclassified report that provides detailed evidence will allow authorities to have an open discussion about what to do.

Mandiant's report is filled with high-tech details and juicy nuggets that led to its conclusion, including the code names of some of the hackers, like Ugly Gorilla, Dota and SuperHard, and that Dota appears to be a fan of Harry Potter because references to the book and movie character appear as answers to his computer security questions.

The White House would not comment on the report expected Wednesday.

"We have repeatedly raised our concerns at the highest levels about cybertheft with senior Chinese officials, including in the military, and we will continue to do so," said Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the National Security Council. "The United States and China are among the world's largest cyber actors, and it is vital that we continue a sustained, meaningful dialogue and work together to develop an understanding of acceptable behavior in cyberspace."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the report reinforces the need for international agreements that prohibit cybercrimes and have a workable enforcement mechanism.

___

Associated Press writers Christopher Bodeen, Gillian Wong, Charles Hutzler and Joe McDonald contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-ready-strike-back-against-china-cyberattacks-225730552--finance.html

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IIPM websites brought down by Anonymous as angry reactions continue to pour in on Twitter

IIPM websites were targeted by hacker group Anonymous on Saturday who
claim to have brought down as many as 16 IIPM-related websites for
around 9 hours. Meanwhile, the reactions to IIPM blockgate continue to
pour in and there's very little support for IIPM or 'Director of IIPM
Think Tank' Arindam Chaudhuri.

The controversy began on Friday when MediaNama posted copy of a new DoT order asking ISPs to block 78 URLs. Interestingly, 73 of these URLs contained material related to IIPM and/ or Arindam Chaudhuri.

The blocked URLs included content from The Indian Express, The Economic Times, The Times of India, The Wall Street Journal, Outlook Magazine, FirstPost, Rediff, The Caravan Magazine, and others. On the face of it, all blocked URLs seemed to carry content critical of IIPM and/ or Arindam Chaudhuri.

Interestingly, the list of entities also featured a government organisation, the UGC, which found its order highlighting the unrecognised status on IIPM on the banned list. Reacting to the development, UGC Chairman Ved Prakash said, "We will be talking to our advocates on Monday about this development before taking any action."

A report over at Livemint later noted that the DoT directive was issued on the basis of a Gwalior court order.

As expected, Twitter users were up in arms against the order, with the move being criticised by one and all. Minister of State for Human Resources, Shashi Tharoor, was forced to issue an explanation with many irate users looking towards him for a reaction. "I have written to @milinddeora asking him to remove the DOT block on the UGC website" and "Assume @milinddeora will look into those. Blocking a UGC site concerns my Ministry." @milinddeora is the Twitter handle of Milind Deora, the Minister of State, Communications and IT, the ministry under whose purview the DoT falls.

"As per routine process, we only complied with court order and did not have any role in making the list of URLs (web pages) to be blocked," Director General Indian CERT (under DEITY) Gulshan Rai told PTI.

Other users on Twitter, including organisations and individuals whose names featured in the block list, continued to react in defiance as well as anger. The Caravan tweeted saying they were posting the blocked article at a new URL."The article on IIPM's lawsuit against The Caravan, blocked by DoT, is now available on our website here", the tweet read.

Advertising professional Mahesh Murthy, who has over 52,000 followers on Twitter, also reposted his 'bundle' of IIPM links and, in a separate tweet, said, "Was told @arindam_iipm moved DoT to ban all i wrote on IIPM. Pls RT till he bans this: IIPM's a scam, ponytail's a fraud".

Meanwhile, the man at the centre of the entire controversy, Arindam Chaudhuri, said since everything was happening within the legal frameworks of the country, there should be no questions asked of him. "Go and ask why in the first place they had shamefully put defamatory content? If the law says defamatory URLs should be banned ,and that is how it is world over, everyone should rejoice because tomorrow they could be at the receiving end of a malicious campaign and they might want justice," he told PTI.

#IIPM continued to trend on Twitter throughout the weekend and early Monday morning.

Image courtesy: The Caravan

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NDTV-LatestNews/~3/V-1_O1bZzB4/story01.htm

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El descenso de cuota de mercado de Windows XP y Windows Vista ha provocado que p...

El descenso de cuota de mercado de Windows XP y Windows Vista ha provocado que por primera vez, Windows 7 supere el 50 por ciento de cuota de uso en sistemas operativos para ordenadores personales. Son los datos de la firma de an?lisis StatCounter ?

Source: http://www.facebook.com/muycomputer/posts/10151301014828175

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