Saturday, May 21, 2011

Kaspersky wants Interpol for the web


The world needs an Internet Interpol, as well as enforceable online identities and an “Internet passport”, Eugene Kaspersky has told the AusCERT 2011 conference this week.

The founder of Kaspersky Labs said his “Interpol” needed to be a global, borderless cybercrime unit that would exist with the support cooperation of international law enforcement agencies.

Kaspersky told AusCERT conference in Queensland that the “embedded” nature of cybercrime in the online world could be compared to the omnipresence of sharks in Australia waters.

The "digital world is under attack," he said. Although the idea has been discussed by government authorities and the security industry have been discussed for more than a decade, nothing’s been done.

He said another reason cybercrime has risen is that “some cybercriminals from non English-speaking countries don’t release malware in their own country because they don’t want police to connect them to it," something that an international agency could help monitor.

"Sooner or later we will have [an Internet Interpol],” Kaspersky said. “I am also talking about Internet passports and having an online ID. Some countries are introducing this idea, so maybe in 15 years we will all have it,” he forecast.

The security software millionaire said an international online identification system could help in the fight against identity theft and the illicit theft of passport documents online.

He also believes the rise of cloud computing demands industry standards for cloud security.

Pirate Party raided two days before elections

German police have seized a number of servers belonging to the Pirate Party just two days before (Bremen) state elections.

The equipment was confiscated after French authorities demanded German law enforcement officials investigate the collaborative Piratepad platform.

Pirate Party raided two days before elections

The service was apparently exploited to publish an SSH key, which was then used to attack a server belonging to the French energy group EDF.

"[Although] the investigations are not directed against the Pirate Party, the scope and damage is enormous. Two days before state elections in Bremen, our homepage and much of our communication infrastructure [has been] paralyzed," German Pirate Party chairman Sebastian Nerz confirmed in an official statement.



"The [scope] of the action and [its timing] is an absolute scandal. [We] will examine [if the investigation and seizure] breached § 21 of the Basic Law."

Nerz also emphasized that the Pirate Party opposed ongoing retaliatory attacks against the Federal Criminal Police Office (bka.de) and the police (polizei.de). 



"We criticize and condemn the totally inappropriate action by the investigating authorities, but the events are not a reason to attack other websites - which we distance ourselves from."

It should be noted the Pirate Party is the sixth largest in Germany.