CyBER-BlackSEC--Ex-CIA-DDO Cofer Black on Cybersecurity at BlackHAT

- OPEN SOURCE  US/1; ATTN:

US/30; CID/2; US/12; RT/66; TSP/2; JAG/5; US/17

Former CIA official cites rise in government cybersecurity awareness

Michael S. Mimoso, Editorial Director
Published: 3 Aug 2011

LAS VEGAS – Both white hat and black hat security researchers alike today received a sobering warning from the Central Intelligence Agency’s former director of operations: The opportunity has never been greater to foster government cybersecurity awareness, now that the threat paradigm at a national defense level has evolved to include cybersecurity.

Cyber is going to be a key component of future conflict against nations or terror groups.

Cofer Black, former director of operations, Central Intelligence Agency

During a keynote address at the Black Hat 2011 conference, Cofer Black urged the security community to influence and educate government decision makers, many of whom are ignorant of the threats posed by cybercriminals and nations carrying out online attacks that target major corporations, government agencies and the defense industry.

“The issues that you’re involved in are today are of great value to decision makers,” Black stressed. “That is huge.”

Black said cybersecurity is prominent among the different categories, alongside kinetic and bacteriological attacks, featured the government’s ongoing threat assessments. As a comparison, he said during the Cold War, intelligence agencies progressed from highlighting potential chemical attacks, to later emphasizing bacteriological, radiological and nuclear attacks.

Black spent 28 years working for the CIA and was appointed director of the agency’s Counterterrorist Center in 1999 and coordinator for counterterrorism for the Department of State. He’s seen the threat of the Cold War, the rise of terrorism and now threats to industry and national security from online attacks. He cautioned that the signs are present and discussions are being held that allow for the contingency that physical, kinetic attacks could accompany serious hacks.

“I am here to tell you the Stuxnet attack is the rubicon of our future,” Black said. “I can’t say I understand how it was executed, but the important point is this is expensive to pull off, which means a nation-state was involved. Another important point is, things happening in your world may lead to physical destruction of national resources. This is huge.”

Responses to cyberattacks, however, are tricky because of the difficulty in tracing the origin of attacks and the lack of international coordination in such cases.
 
“Cyber is going to be a key component of future conflict against nations or terror groups,” Black said. “The problem is decision makers don’t understand the threats completely because they have not personally experienced them. They may hear it, but they don’t believe it.”

Black’s keynote comes a little more than a month before the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. Black drew parallels between the intelligence gathered pre-9/11 and what is happening with cybersecurity today.

In the years and months leading up to September 11, Black recalls the dismissive attitude decision makers had about Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden, viewing the terror group and its leader as more a of financier of terror, and not an initiator. The threat from Al Qaeda was labeled overblown inside some government circles and by the press as well. This remained the case, even as attacks escalated against Americans overseas, including the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya, and in October 2000 against the U.S.S. Cole.

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Black recalls advising the Bush administration as the transference of power from the Clinton administration began, that terrorism would be its greatest threat. However, Black said, there was no personal experience, no validation of the threat, and it was downplayed. In the summer of 2001, as the volume of intelligence grew about a major impending attack on the U.S., decision makers were briefed and advised to go to a “war footing”, yet, Black said, there were delays in taking action because the threat had yet to be validated.

“Men’s minds have difficulty adapting to things they have not personally experienced,” Black said.

Black’s point is the lead-up to 9/11 may be analogous to what’s happening with targeted persistent attacks carried out against the defense industry and other high-profile targets.

“The validation of that threat will come into your world,” Black said. “There is an analogy to the tech world in all of this and the situation in your world is far more challenging than you may appreciate.”

Related Topics: Security Awareness Training and Internal Threats-Information, Security Industry Market Trends, Predictions and Forecasts, Information Security Laws, Investigations and Ethics, VIEW ALL TAGS

http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/news/2240039214/Former-CIA-official-cites-rise-in-government-cybersecurity-awareness

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BKNT--MEMBERS ON TRAIL OF 'PENTAGON SHOOTER'--NOT A TERRORIST?: FBI--LD

- LIMITED DISSEMINATION

Military.com ; JihadWATCH; US/[redacted]; US/8; [Ethiopian Sources/redacted]; US/1; ATTN: US/44; NEPH-1; HST/2; GIM.com; US/5; NSNS/1 et.al.

   [ed.note: Member LTC Charles USMC (Ret.), a former Marine recruiter and information warfare/intel officer. QUOTE(s) to follow, next dispatch. Former CIA-OS and NCIS Special Agent MEMBER has been queried on instant case of the NCIS concurrent investigation of Marine-reservist currently in federal custody, with negative response to present.

Lead pursuit BKNT Member INQUIRY post in preparation, and will include further information on MEMBERS’ preliminary investigation to DATE.

Ethiopian BKNT SOURCES and Members advise Melaku is Tigra Christian name. Members Scott Malone and Janine Schoonover are pursuing Ethiopian-end of investigation with Ethiopian ex-pat community, Falls Church, VA. Suspect, a former UNSUB, lived in Alexandria with his parents. Father is taxi driver. 

Several Ethiopian-descended/immigrant DC-area cab drivers interviewed yesterday. All so interviewed stated they were closely following news media accounts, but none had known Suspect’s father, or had heard of the Melaku family prior to Yonathan's detention and later arrest on 17 June 2011.  


See BlackBOX Intel-CENTER Post on the Media and FBI reluctance to describe Melaku as either a Muslim or a terrorist suspect.: 

...Ethiopian BlackNET Sources and MEMBERS tell us "Melaku" is indeed a 'Christian' name, but that is not quite a distinctively distinct distinction in 21st Century Ethiopia. While the current government is majority Christian, more than a third of the population are practicing Muslims.

 

BlackNET Members are continuing their investigation on this angle. Yonathan's father given - 'Christian'- name, is also Christian. The younger Melaku joined the Marine Corps in 2007, when he was 18-years of age.

 

It appears probable, at this point, that the young Yonathan converted to Islam in recent years and while living in the United States.

 

According to the FBI's complaint affidavit, the younger Melaku video-taped himself while firing [9mm handgun] rounds at the Marine Corps Museum at Quantico, while "repeatedly... exclaim[ing]" the [increasingly immortal] Arabic phrase "Allahu Akbar," (God is Great).

 

Ethiopian-descended and immigrant BlackNET Members stated 28 June 2011 that one could argue that "God is great" might conceivably, if not presumptively, be a Christian proclamation. But "not in Arabic--in present day Ethiopia," said one "Christian" BlackNET Member dryly.

-----------------------

The FBI Affiant Agent continued to quote the alleged, if disputed, 22-year old --- Al Qaeda and Taliban-quoting -- non-Islamist terrorist from the digital-tape recovered from the young Melaku's bedroom desk:

"I've already. . . that's the military building. . . last time I hit them, they turned off the lights for like three or four days. So now here we are again; this time I'm going to turn them off permanently. Alright, next time this video turns on I will be shooting. That's what they get. That's the military building. It's going to be attacked."

JTTF (Joint Terrorism Task Force) FBI lead investigator, Kelley Clark, further affirmed in the federal complaint that the Firearms and Toolmarks Unit at the FBI Quantico Lab had examined the recovered 9mm rounds and fragments from all FIVE sniper-scenes, as well as the 9mm Prvi Partizan expended shell casings discovered in Melaku's Arlington Cemetery mid-night backpack and concluded that "all [were] fired from the same firearm."


BlackNET Member Investigation continues apace…

Don’t touch that dial…err digital wireless remote radiation emitting control device…

‘PENTAGON SHOOTER’ is the BlackNET nomination, if not decree, for designated appellation for Mohammed Henry Oswald, err..Lee Yonathan Oswald--only the second best sniper in the Marine Corps history. Lone-wolf or not, that Marine sniper almost started a nuclear conflagration-- to the ever-liver-eaten chagrin of Osama bin Harvey, who also was denied his goal of circus trial propaganda platform. Oh well, never mind…]

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Individual Jihad: The message is the same, only the messenger has changed

News and Analysis - Analysis
Written by Administrator
Monday, 06 June 2011 23:30
Everyone, including myself, is writing about it – the “doctrine of individual jihad”, the age of the lone-wolf terrorist – the jihadist taking action in their homelands.  In recent months, discussion on this topic has increased dramatically, with imams like Anwar Awlaki encouraging this activity, Inspire, the internet magazine published under the name Al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula providing ideas on how to get the job done, and in recent days with last week’s words from Adam Gadahn in an As Sahab message released Friday: Let's take America as an example. America is absolutely awash with easily obtainable firearms. You can go down to a gun show at the local convention center and come away with a fully automatic assault rifle, without a background check, and most likely without having to show an identification card. So what are you waiting for? Yet this is not a new concept for Al Qaeda. Individual jihad has long been part of the “action plan” of Osama bin Laden and his leadership team in charge of the “Global Jihad”. In 1998, Bin Laden issued his now-famous fatwa calling for Muslims to rise up and attack Christians and Jews On that basis, and in compliance with Allah's order, we issue the following fatwa to all Muslims: The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque [Mecca] from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the words of Almighty Allah, "and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together," and "fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah." Let’s look at those words from Bin Laden again: “The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it”  Nothing has changed, has it? Al Qaeda’s message remains the same. The only difference is the messenger. Since the release of that Fatwa in 1998, there have certainly been a significant number of acts of terror – the USS Cole, the French tanker Limberg, the nightclub in Bali, and so many more. None of us alive that day will ever forget September 11, 2001, just like those in Madrid at the time will ever forget the March 11, 2004 train bombings, and London will always remember the July 7, 2005 bombings. 9/11, 3/11, and 7/7 are days that have been engraved in our respective national consciousness. There have been scores, if not hundreds, of plots disrupted – plots which could have let to the loss of considerable numbers of souls if Bin Laden’s devotees would have had been allowed to continue. Others have thankfully failed. Some have succeeded. There has been a move towards decentralization of the jihad; of empowering individuals to take action in their own countries at a time of their choosing. This trend isn’t accidental. This trend is something that was described by Abu Mus’ab al Suri in his 1600 page treatise “Call to Global Islamic Resistance”, where he described what he called “Individual Terrorism”, seeing it as the direction in which jihadist “resistance” would by necessity evolve. (Al Suri’s writing career was cut short in 2005 when he was arrested.)  Even before the release of Al Suri’s book, there was a trend towards exploiting internet resources for the sake of jihad.  Detailed “how-to” guides were released in Arabic, such as Moaskar al Battar, an internet publication which covered the full spectrum from military strategy to physical fitness. In recent years, similar guides have been released; the most recent iteration is the Inspire series in English, out of Al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula. It’s interesting to note that two of the most infamous publications of jihad, Sout al Jihad and Moaskar al Battar, also were released by Al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula back in 2004 and 2005. Videos and PDF files showing how to create any kind of weapon including cyanide bombs, suicide bomb vest, cell phone detonated bombs, VBIED’s – Car and Truck bombs often using propane tanks, and many other types of IED’s. The “Mujahideen’s Poison Handbook” was a detailed “encyclopedia”, detailing how to produce many kinds of poisons, including ricin and botulinum. It is undisputed that there is a wealth of information out there on the web that is readily accessible in Arabic and much of that information is also in English.  It appears that a growing number of youth are being radicalized, not only in street corner mosques, but in also cyberspace, in forums, chatrooms, YouTube, and on Facebook.  Each year, the number of youth migrating to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and now Yemen and Somalia to participate in the jihad grows. So what is the next step? Young who don’t hesitate to go to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia and die on the battlefield of jihad seem to be a little less anxious to blow themselves up on the US homeland, and even in Europe. When Inspire magazine called upon Muslims to attack in the US, suggesting how to modify a truck with blades to mow down civilians in Washington DC, there was a tremendous outcry in the media. Last week, when Adam Gadahn called for Muslims in the US to take up arms and carry out attacks in their home country, the reaction was likewise swift. Yet these are not new calls; they are readily visible in Bin Laden’s 1998 fatwa against the United States. So what makes these calls different? Is there really any difference? Or is it simply that the Al Qaeda message has failed. Certainly Al Qaeda has succeeded in attracting those misfit souls who, like mosquitos seeking light, clinging to any message or movement that can fulfill their innate need for belonging, for fitting in with something or someone. Yet Al Qaeda has not succeeded in reaching the masses. Over recent years, Bin Laden, Zawahiri, and Gadahn began to incorporate video clips from Malcolm X in their messages, in an attempt to gain a foothold in the communities where Malcolm X’s legacy remains strong. These not-so-subtle attempts to foment racial strife in the US are almost certainly largely driving by Adam Gadahn, whose views are warped by his own personal experiences. Gadahn is one of those misfit souls; if he had not been attracted to radical Islam, he would have been attracted to some other fringe group or cult. Gadahn is quite simply not mainstream anything. This is obvious when you go back and review the open source news reports. There are interviews with Gadahn’s immediate family, his aunt, a few people who knew him at the mosque. I have yet to find a single interview with a girlfriend or even a close friend. He is a loner, painting American society, which he was unable to fit into, as the bogeyman. People like Gadahn are drawn to Al Qaeda, not because they deeply believe in that specific ideology, but because they need to believe something that gives them a feeling of belonging. It doesn’t matter to them what they belong to – they just want to be a part of something. Al Qaeda knows this. This is what makes internet radicalization so dangerous. Charismatic cyberimams offer that degree of instant intimacy that the internet provides so well. It has been said many times that you can be anything on the internet. It is easy to email and chat online with someone you’d never be able to tolerate in the real world. We see this every day as young teens get head over their heels in trouble in romantic encounters with adults 20, 30, and 40 years older – people they never would have been attracted to in the real world. This is also readily apparent in the cyberjihad world. This is a world where a self-taught imam with a history of vice arrests, who is barely competent as an imam, can become a celebrity. This is a world where a misfit from Orange County can draw the attention of law enforcement and news media worldwide, just by going on camera and spewing vague threats. There are only a handful of things setting Anwar Awlaki apart from Adam Gadahn. First, Awlaki answers emails; at least he did until the last year. Secondly, Awlaki has a fan club on the internet that uploads videos of his sermons; Gadahn doesn’t have any sermons videotaped to be uploaded – just a short article that he wrote as a teenager when he was at USC. The bottom line is both have warped visions of American society. Neither can make it in American society; both have retreated to remote locations, making their only incursions into the world through the internet.  Neither has the understanding, insight, or ability to appeal to the mainstream American – which is what Al Qaeda would like to do. All they can do is reach out to those disaffected individuals who like them never fit in. These cyberjihad celebrities really believe that they are having their 10 minutes of fame. They really believe they are special. It’s even sadder to think that people are destroying their lives following a couple of narcissistic warped minds.  And the worst part of all is that innocent civilians have died and will continue to die because of it.

 

Anwar Awlaki: Al Qaeda’s Forrest Gump?

News and Analysis - Analysis
Written by Administrator
Monday, 06 June 2011 02:41
As Sahab, Al Qaeda’s media production arm, released a two-part video Friday promoting ingenuity and “get up and go”. The problem is what they want us to do when we get up and go. The theme can be summed up in a just a few words: “It’s your responsibility to kill Americans in jihad, and you need to do it now. No more excuses.” This video should be right up the alley of Anwar Awlaki; after all he is supposedly a staunch proponent of the doctrine of individual jihad. Inspire, a flashy English language internet magazine that claims affiliation with Awlaki, champions that doctrine every month, plagiarizing passages on the subject by Abu Musa’ab Al Suri that were translated in Brynjar Lia’s book “Architect of Individual Jihad”. You would think Awlaki would be starring in this video. Yet this jihadist darling of the internet is conspicuous in his absence. There is one short clip of Awlaki included, and that clip is in Arabic.
Read more...

 

From Tehran to Abbottabad: the return of Osama bin Laden’s family

News and Analysis - Analysis
Written by Administrator
Saturday, 21 May 2011 02:01
It is approximately 3,600 kilometers from Tehran, Iran, to Abbottabad, Pakistan. That’s just over 2,200 miles, just a couple of hundred miles less than the distance from New York City to Los Angeles. One of Osama bin Laden’s wives, and several of his children made this journey, along with a number of Al Qaeda operatives including Saif al Adil.
Read more...

 

In the end, the messages were Bin Laden’s undoing

News and Analysis - Analysis
Written by Administrator
Monday, 02 May 2011 16:00
Since the early days after 2001, Al Qaeda leadership has been playing a game of cat and mouse with American forces. Each time a video or audio message was released, analysts examined every frame in the footage carefully, and analyzed the background, the sounds, the foliage, and anything else that might provide a clue as to the location of Bin Laden and his leadership core.
Read more... [Information contained in BKNT E-mail is considered Attorney-Client and Attorney Work Product privileged, copyrighted and confidential. Views that may be expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of any government, agency, or news organization.]