US builds net for cyber war games

17 June 2011 Last updated at 10:07 ET

The United States government is building its own "scale model" of the internet to carry out cyber war games.

Several organisations, including the defence company Lockheed Martin, are working on prototypes of the "virtual firing range".

The system will allow researchers to simulate attacks by foreign powers and from hackers based inside the US.

More than $500m (�309m) has been allocated by the Department of Defense to develop "cyber technologies".

The National Cyber Range project is being overseen by the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (Darpa), which was also involved in early network research that led to the internet.

When ready, it will function as a test-bed for defensive and possibly offensive technologies such as network protection systems.

Having a controllable mini-internet would allow researchers to carry-out experiments "in days rather than the weeks it currently takes," Darpa spokesman Eric Mazzacone told the Reuters news agency.

Unlike the real internet, the in-house version could be wiped or reset between tests, explained Mr Mazzacone.

Development of the National Cyber Range is currently in the hands of several organisations, including Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Lockheed Martin.

One of their prototypes will be selected to go into operation later in the year.

Act of war

The United States has been gradually increasing funding for internet security-related projects.

In 2008, the US military was the subject of a serious cyber attack when part of its network became infected by a worm known as agent.btz.

President Obama, in May 2009, declared the cyber threat to be one of the "most serious" challenges facing the country.

Since then, his government claims to have been the subject of several attempted attacks, originating from overseas.

Lockheed Martin, one of the contractors involved in the National Cyber Range project was itself the subject of a security breach in May 2011.

Earlier this month, the Pentagon said it planned to publish proposals to categorise cyber attacks as acts of war.

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Teen hacker stole Lady Gaga songs

Lady Gaga was one of the artists who had details stolen. <!-- Empty - Wide embedded hyper -->

An 18-year-old computer hacker who stole songs from artists including Lady Gaga has been sentenced to 18 months detention in Germany.

The court heard how the teenager, who called himself DJ Stolen, earned more than 15,000 euros (�13,260) by breaking copyright laws and hacking personal information from a number of singers.

The hacker used phishing emails and Trojan horse software to steal unpublished songs and then offer them for sale on the internet.

Anti-piracy teams in the UK and Germany noticed a growing number of pre-release tracks being leaked much earlier than normal.

Tracks were stolen from Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Leona Lewis, Kesha and Mariah Carey in 2009 and 2010.

Singer Kesha had private photos stolen from her computer

The teenager, referred to in court as 'Deniz A' because of his age, was also found guilty of downloading explicit private photos from Kesha's computer.

Apology to Gaga

The court in the German city of Duisburg also heard how a letter of apology was published in Daily Bild, a German tabloid newspaper, from the teenager saying:

"Dear Lady Gaga, I am ashamed of what I have done. I did not think about the consequences."

The judge ruled that the teen was "driven more by a desire for recognition than by criminal intent".

The 18-year-old was also ordered to have therapy for an addiction to the internet.

Another hacker, 23, whose name wasn't released, was also given an 18 months suspended sentence.

Jeremy Banks, from the International Federation of the Phonograhic Industry (IFPI), which helped with the investigation said the sentences acted as a "deterrent" to others.

He said the crimes caused "huge damage to artists and record companies".

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Virgin tackles infected customers

17 June 2011 Last updated at 03:27 ET

About 1500 customers of internet service provider Virgin Media have been warned that their PCs are infected with a malicious virus.

The targeted customers had fallen victim to the SpyEye trojan that steals logins for online bank accounts.

Letters have been sent to those affected, giving them advice on how to clean up their computers.

Virgin is understood to be the first UK ISP to give specific warnings to customers about viruses on their PCs.

The other major service providers tackle malware at the individual computer level, offering free anti-virus software and advice.

Virgin said it had received information about the SpyEye infections from the Serious and Organised Crime Agency.

Early warning

The company stressed that it had not been monitoring user activity, rather some of their customers' IP addresses were found by law enforcement while investigating criminal botnets.

"It's a small number compared to the four million customers we have," said a spokesman, "but regardless of that, because of the seriousness it's still important to communicate with our customers."

The letters stress the seriousness of the situation and urge customers to update their security software and scan their machine to find and remove the malicious program. Alternatively, customers can sign up for a help service that allows a Virgin to remotely find and fix problems.

The spokesman added that the Virgin campaign started in August 2010 and since then it had sent letters to "several thousand" customers about a serious infection on their home computer.

"The category we are looking at are the ones that put our customers at most risk or the ones that will steal from them," he said.

SpyEye first appeared in early 2010 and has steadily gathered victims ever since. Some machines are infected via booby-trapped webpages or by tricking people into clicking on links that lead to the trojan being installed.

The SpyEye trojan and its many variants are being produced with a software kit that allows novices to put together their own versions of the malware. The kit, which costs $500 (�310), also comes with a tool to help control all the PCs that are infected.

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