A presentation at Black Hat on hacking into ATM’s was halted. Reassuring.
Barnaby Jack, a security researcher at the computer networking giant Juniper, had planned to hack into an automatic teller machine (ATM) live onstage at the Black Hat Security Conference in Las Vegas later this month. But his presentation, designed to demonstrate the insecurity of various ATMs, attracted the attention of the financial industry as well as security professionals, and under pressure from ATM manufacturers, Juniper canceled the presentation last week, citing concerns that the vulnerabilities involved had still not been fixed… The presentation would have focused on exploiting vulnerabilities in devices running the Windows CE operating system, including some ATMs… In November 2008, thieves stole nearly $9 million from more than 130 cash machines in a matter of hours using fake payroll cards…
The US and Russia are at odds in negotiations to limit the militarisation of cyberspace. The Russians want a treaty, similar to those on chemical and biological weapons. The US wants better information sharing among law enforcement and the right for government actors to investigate suspected violations without the knowledge or permission of the host country.
Many countries, including the United States, are developing weapons… like “logic bombs” that can be hidden in computers to halt them at crucial times or damage circuitry; “botnets” that can disable or spy on Web sites and networks; or microwave radiation devices that can burn out computer circuits miles away… The Pentagon is planning to create a military command to prepare for both defense and offensive computer warfare… Russia’s proposed treaty would ban a country from secretly embedding malicious codes or circuitry that could be later activated from afar in the event of war…