Thursday, July 16, 2015

"Darkode" Cyber Crime Forum Taken Down

The U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI, with the assistance of law enforcement authorities in 19 countries, have taken down "Darkode" -- underground, password-protected, online forum for buying, selling, and trading malware, botnets, stolen personally identifiable information, credit card information, hacked server credentials, and other pieces of data and software that facilitated complex cyber crimes all over the globe.

Operation Shrouded Horizon has resulted in legal charges, arrests, and searches involving 70 Darkode members and associates around the world; U.S. indictments against 12 individuals associated with the forum, including its administrator; the serving of several search warrants in the U.S.; and the Bureau’s seizure of Darkode’s domain and servers.

Access to the Darkode forum was "by invitation only" and authorities believe 200~300 individuals participated.

"Hackers and those who profit from stolen information use underground Internet forums to evade law enforcement and target innocent people around the world,” said Assistant Attorney General Caldwell. “This operation is a great example of what international law enforcement can accomplish when we work closely together to neutralize a global cybercrime marketplace.”

“Of the roughly 800 criminal Internet forums worldwide, Darkode represented one of the gravest threats to the integrity of data on computers in the United States and around the world and was the most sophisticated English-speaking forum for criminal computer hackers in the world,” said U.S. Attorney David J. Hickton. “Through this operation, we have dismantled a cyber hornets’ nest of criminal hackers which was believed by many, including the hackers themselves, to be impenetrable.”

Some charges announced by the FBI include:

  • Johan Anders Gudmunds, aka Mafi aka Crim aka Synthet!c, 27, of Sollebrunn, Sweden, is charged by indictment with conspiracy to commit computer fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He is accused of serving as the administrator of Darkode, and creating and selling malware that allowed hackers to create botnets. 
  • Morgan C. Culbertson, aka Android, 20, of Pittsburgh, is charged by criminal information with conspiring to send malicious code. He is accused of designing Dendroid, a coded malware intended to remotely access, control, and steal data from Google Android cellphones. The malware was allegedly offered for sale on Darkode.
  • Eric L. Crocker, aka Phastman, 39, of Binghamton, New York, is charged by criminal information with sending spam. He is accused of being involved in a scheme involving the use of a Facebook Spreader which infected Facebook users’ computers, turning them into bots which Crocker controlled through the use of command and control servers. Crocker sold the use of this botnet to others for the purpose of sending out massive amounts of spam.
  • Naveed Ahmed, aka Nav aka semaph0re, 27, of Tampa, Florida; Phillip R. Fleitz, aka Strife, 31, of Indianapolis; and Dewayne Watts, aka m3t4lh34d aka metal, 28, of Hernando, Florida, are each charged by criminal information with conspiring to send spam. 
  • Murtaza Saifuddin, aka rzor, 29, of Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan, is charged in an indictment with identity theft. Saifuddin is accused of attempting to transfer credit card numbers to others on Darkode.
  • Daniel Placek, aka Nocen aka Loki aka Juggernaut aka M1rr0r, 27, of Glendale, Wisconsin, is charged by criminal information with conspiracy to commit computer fraud. He is accused of creating the Darkode forum, and selling malware on Darkode designed to surreptitiously intercept and collect e-mail addresses and passwords from network communications.

https://www.fbi.gov/pittsburgh/press-releases/2015/major-computer-hacking-forum-dismantled

Google Puts its Weight Behind the Open Stack Foundation

Google is becoming a sponsor of the OpenStack Foundation, the industry effort dedicated to creating an open infrastructure-as-a-service stack for enterprises.

Google said it sees OpenStack is emerging as a standard for the on-premises component of hybrid clouds. It also sees container-oriented computing, and the Kubernetes container cluster scheduling and management tool, as the second key trend for the future of computing in the enterprise.


“OpenStack is a platform that frees users to run proven technologies like VMs as well as new technologies like containers,” said Mark Collier, COO of the OpenStack Foundation. “With Google committing unequaled container and container management engineering expertise to our community, the deployment of containers via proven orchestration engines like Kubernetes will accelerate rapidly. OpenStack continues to set itself apart as the single open source cloud platform for the widest diversity of workloads, all supported by one environment with one control plane, one API, one dashboard.”

http://googlecloudplatform.blogspot.com/2015/07/Containers-Private-Cloud-Google-Sponsors-OpenStack-Foundation.html

Google Container Engine Enters Beta Along with Container Registry



Google Container Engine entered public beta and the new Google Container Registry became generally available. Google Container Engine, based on the Kubernetes open source container orchestration system, provides tools for setting-up and managing a cluster of containers. Container Engine supports the common Docker container format. Google also announced pricing for once the free beta period is over: standard clusters that run up to 100 virtual...

Crowdstrike Raises $100M for SaaS-based Endpoint Protection

CrowdStrike, a start-up based in Irvine, California, has completed a $100 million Series C financing round for its Software-as-a Service (SaaS) based next-generation endpoint protection platform.

The company says its Falcon platform enables organizations to detect, prevent and respond to attacks, at any stage – even malware-free intrusions - more effectively than traditional antivirus and malware-centric security solutions. CrowdStrike said it has seen massive deployments by Fortune 500 companies worldwide and that total billings have triple year-over-year.

The new funding round was led by Google Capital. Rackspace, a CrowdStrike customer, also participated in the round along with existing investors Accel and Warburg Pincus. This brings the company’s total funding raised to $156 million.

http://www.crowdstrike.com

JDSU Separation to be completed August 1

JDSU confirmed that its pending separation into two publicly-traded companies will occur on August 1, 2015, and that Lumentum shares to be distributed to shareholders the first trading day thereafter, August 3, 2015.

“By operating as two independent companies, we believe Lumentum and Viavi Solutions will each be able to leverage a strong history while being more flexible and better positioned to capitalize on new opportunities in their respective markets,” said Tom Waechter, president and chief executive officer of JDSU, and CEO-designate for Viavi Solutions. “We look forward to completing the final steps in this process and launching exciting, new chapters for Lumentum and Viavi Solutions.”

For every five shares of JDSU common stock held, JDSU shareholders will receive one share of Lumentum common stock.  Shareholders will receive cash in lieu of fractional shares.

http://www.jdsu.com/


JDSU Companies to be Lumentum and Viavi Post-Split

Following its upcoming split into two companies, JDSU’s stand-alone Communications and Commercial Optical Products (CCOP) business segment will be called Lumentum while its Network Enablement (NE), Service Enablement (SE) and Optical Security and Performance Products (OSP) business will be named Viavi.  JDSU anticipates that the split will occur by Q3 this year.

The new Lumentum brand was chosen to reflect CCOP’s leadership in optical technologies, commitment to driving innovation, and its ability to effectively address its customers’ unique requirements while scaling with quality through well-established technological and operational expertise.  The company will be a global leader in optical components and subsystems for the telecommunications market, with high growth opportunities in data communications, driven by the rapid expansion of cloud networking and data center infrastructure, and in high performance lasers for both macro and micro materials processing applications.  The company will be led by Alan Lowe as chief executive officer. He joined JDSU in September 2007 as senior vice president of the Lasers business and became president of JDSU’s newly formed CCOP business segment in 2008, which combined JDSU’s Optical Communications and Lasers businesses.

Viavi Solutions, which includes JDSU’s Network Enablement, Service Enablement  and Optical Security and Performance Products will provide solutions for end-to-end network and application visibility from a portfolio of instruments, software and services. These solutions address its customers’ need to profitably scale to meet the demands of the fast-growing volume of connected devices and applications, and to transition to virtualized, software-based networks. In addition, Viavi’s OSP business is a leader in anti-counterfeiting solutions for currency authentication and high-value optical components and instruments for security, safety, electronics and other applications. Tom Waechter, JDSU’s current president and chief executive officer, will continue to lead Viavi. He became president and chief executive officer of JDSU in January 2009.

SUSE Linux Enterprise is coming to 64-bit ARM Processors

SUSE is working to extend support for its Linux Enterprise 12 to 64-bit ARM server processors.

This will enable partners to develop, test and deliver products to the market using 64-bit ARM chips from vendors including AMD, AppliedMicro and Cavium along with server manufacturers Dell, E4 Computer Engineering, HP and SoftIron.

"SUSE has always been a leader in porting Linux to other platforms, and this program brings the same benefits and interaction to the ARM AArch64 ecosystem that our partners providing x86-64, Power and System z solutions already experience," said Ralf Flaxa, SUSE vice president of engineering. "SUSE's ARM partner program will provide ARM ecosystem partners access to AArch64-supported SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 software and expertise, establishing relationships that will result in supported enterprise solutions on different hardware platforms to meet a variety of customer needs."

https://www.suse.com

Arianespace Launches Embratel Star One Satellite

Arianespace has successfully launched two geostationary satellites: Star One C4 for Embratel Star One, and MSG-4 for EUMETSAT, the European organization dedicated to weather, climate and environmental monitoring.

The Brazil-based Embratel Star One is the leading satcom operator in South America. Star One C4, built by Space Systems/Loral (SSL), is the company's tenth satellite.

Star One C4 features 48 Ku-band transponders, which will be used for broadcast satellite services from its orbital slot at 70 West longitude. The satellite will provide Direct-To-Home television service in Brazil and will expand Embratel Star One’s broadcasting services to other Latin American countries and to the United States. It uses the SSL 1300 platform and is designed to provide service for 15 years or more.

With this launch, there are 79 SSL-built GEO satellites currently on orbit.

SSL is also building a second satellite for Embratel Star One, which will be launched in 2016.  Star One D1 is a multi-mission satellite that includes a high throughput satellite (HTS) payload and will be used for telecommunications, television broadcast, broadband, Internet access and other services such as digital inclusion in Brazil and in the Latin American region.

http://www.arianespace.com/news-press-release/2015/7-15-2015-VA224-launch-success.asp
http://sslmda.com/html/pressreleases/pr20150716.html

ZTE and KT Collaborate on 5G Research

ZTE has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with KT Corporation on research and commercialization of 5G technology.

Specifically, ZTE and KT will launch 5G Test Bed construction in Seoul, and jointly develop, present, and design the future 5G network architecture based on the Test Bed. The partnership between ZTE and KT will help advance 5G standardization and the development of the industry ecosystem globally. The agreement was announced at the Mobile World Congress Shanghai conference.

ZTE said its pre-5G base station enhances spectral efficiency more than fourfold by using Massive MIMO technology. ZTE is working on other significant pre-5G technologies, such as UDN and MUSA.

“ZTE is committed to help operators transition successfully to 5G technology, and the agreement with a strong partner such as KT will strengthen our core capabilities,” said Xu Huijun, Senior Vice President of ZTE. “ZTE has a wealth of experience in technology development and network evolution. We believe that the Pre5G technology can better meet practical requirements for seamless development of networks.”

http://www.zte.cn.com