US capital a magnet for foreign spies
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Espionage against the US is increasing, rather than decreasing,in the post-cold-war era, experts say.
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The camera scans the holy terrain, the domed mosques and people strolling along a tree-shaded plaza. It zooms in on a group of foreigners who turn out, after a few mouse clicks, to be visiting US security
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History suggests the spy technology we build to catch terrorists will eventually be used to bust minor scofflaws. Commentary by Jennifer Granick.
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Get INQ7 breaking news on your Smart mobile phone in the Philippines. Send INQ7 BREAKING to 386. WASHINGTON, Washington, United States of America -- The two top leaders of the CIA&#39;s clandestine services have
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Foreigners entering the United States in three cities were fingerprinted, photographed and subjected to background checks Monday in a test of a program that will eventually
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Visitors from Europe and elsewhere who  don't need visas for short trips to the United States were  fingerprinted and photographed on arrival at U.S. airports on  Thursday as part of an expanded effort to secure American  borders.
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The practice of cyber-espionage is rapidly moving beyond the government sector and finding its way into the world of international business, according to experts with SANS Institute, one of the world's top IT security training organizations.While the United States and Chinese governments, most notably, have accused each other in recent years of carrying out surreptitious hacking campaigns aimed at stealing strategic information from their respective IT systems -- and many security experts believe that both countries, and many others, are actively engaging in such electronic warfare -- leaders with SANS maintain that the practice has recently begun to spill over into the private sector with greater frequency.According to the training institute's latest research, cyber-espionage efforts funded by "well-resourced organizations" -- including both government-backed and private efforts -- will expand significantly during 2008, in particular as overseas companies look to gain an upper hand in negotiating business deals with large companies based in the U.S. and Europe.In one common scenario, said Alan Paller, director of research for SANS, organizations in the process of establishing legitimate partnerships with such companies are willing to pay hackers to break into those firms' IT systems to gather competitive information to gain an advantage at the bargaining table.More companies than ever before are finding out that they have been victimized in such a manner based on the discovery of their sensitive data in the hands of hackers and other fraudsters who have been apprehended by law enforcement officials, the expert contends."Cyber-espionage is clearly growing across the board. It was much bigger in 2007 than in previous years, and it is expanding slowly into economic espionage involving both businesses and government entities," Paller said. "This really has a lot of significant implications because people who have never thought of themselves as targets for this type of attack have suddenly become a sweet spot, and many are not prepared to defend themselves."Paller said that federal law enforcement agencies have been contacting private industry firms directly to inform them that their data may have been compromised. From closely-protected product designs to company financials, the expert said that cyber-espionage is already working its way into many different areas of business."If you live in a foreign country and you want to do business with a big American company, you want to negotiate the best possible deal, and we're seeing more evidence of instances where parties have clearly been paid to break into a companies' computers, as well as those of their accountants, consultants and lawyers, to find information that can be used to tilt deals in their favor," Paller said. "In some cases, it's fair to say that the people who are negotiating these deals overseas end up with more information than the people that are being paid to negotiate with them."Paller said that while in many cases the business data being stolen is being used to the advantage of private industry players, the training organization believes that a fair amount of the corporate espionage activity may be backed by government sponsors.While such attacks have been somewhat common among government and defense contractors for years, he said, the process is highlighting a lack of perception regarding security risks inside other major U.S. businesses.SANS reported that the attack of choice in many cases of cyber-espionage is a targeted spear phishing campaign that attempts to dupe workers into opening tainted attachments made to appear as if they come from people they work with.The content of the virus-laden attachments is often tailored to look exactly like legitimate materials that the employees involved might send to each other, making it more likely that users will open the messages and remain unaware that they may have been compromised, Paller said.Attackers crafting the messages most often use newly discovered Microsoft Office vulnerabilities, also known as zero day flaws, to further hide their activities and to circumvent anti-virus systems, according to the expert."This type of business-driven cyber-espionage is already happening a lot more frequently than some people might think," said Paller. "We're only finding real evidence because more companies are hearing from law enforcement when someone finally discovers the stolen data."On the flip side, SANS is also predicting that so-called insider data theft carried out against U.S. businesses by trusted employees will also continue to flourish.One of the factors accelerating that trend is the ability for attackers to attempt to attack their employers both from inside their networks and from the outside using known vulnerabilities they discover in their work, the group said.With traditional security perimeters increasingly being taxed by the use of mobile devices that are allowed to come onto corporate networks from outside the workplace, SANS said that workers are finding many new opportunities to sneak information out the door and sell for a profit.One of the key strategies that organizations need to embrace to thwart the insider problem is to put into place more substantial defenses that limit access to various IT systems and data stores based on the specific level of admission to those assets that individuals need to do their jobs, the training group said.
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PRAGUE, Dec 18 (IPS) - A report by U.S. intelligence services minimising  the Iranian threat has meant another embarrassment for Czech  politicians supportive of U.S. plans to set up a radar base in  Central-Eastern Europe.
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A European investigator says he has proof Poland and Romania hosted secret CIA prisons under a post-9/11 pact to hunt down "high value" terrorist suspects wanted by the United States.
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A senior al-Qaida operative accused of conducting surveillance on U.S. financial buildings as possible terror targets got into the United States on a student visa, according to the FBI.
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In some quarters, they were seen as outside intruders trying to tell the United States how to run its affairs. They were welcomed and honored in others, even asked to pose for souvenir photographs.
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A European investigator says he has proof Poland and Romania hosted secret CIA prisons under a post-9/11 pact to hunt down and interrogate "high value" terrorist suspects wanted by the United States.
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The future location of the U.S.  anti-missile shield in Poland is still an official secret but  in the northern city of Slupsk the locals already know they may  live next to it.
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HELSINKI, Finland - US embassies in Finland and Latvia issued a rare warning to Americans in the Nordic and Baltic region to be wary of shopping centers and public transport amid a threat of a possible terror attack Monday.
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The FBI is investigating a suspected spy deep in the Pentagon who have may have fed secrets about US policy on Iran to Israel. Officials are believed to be preparing for an arrest as soon as this week.
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US authorities turn to Scotland Yard's expertise to catch one of the most wanted men in America.
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NEW YORK-- With credit such a big part of Americans&#39; lives, it should come as no surprise that it&#39;s a fertile field for fraudsters.