June 2011

Private computer experts advised US officials on how cyberattacks could damage Libya's oil and gas infrastructure and rob Moammar Gadhafi's regime of crucial oil revenue, according to a study obtained by hackers.

It remains unclear who commissioned "Project Cyber Dawn" and how much of a role the US government played in it, but it shows the increasing amount of work being done by private companies in exposing foreign governments' vulnerabilities to cyberattack. "For the private sector to be making recommendations ... that's a level of ambition that you would not have seen until very recently," said Eli Jellenc, a cybersecurity expert with VeriSign who is not linked to the study or its authors. The study outlined ways to disable the coastal refinery at Ras Lanouf using a computer virus similar to the Stuxnet worm that led to a breakdown in Iran's enrichment program late last year. It catalogued several pieces of potentially exposed computer hardware used at the refinery. The study was discussed in some of nearly 1,000 e-mails stolen by hacking group Lulz Security from Delaware-based Internet surveillance firm Unveillance as part of an effort to show how vulnerable data can be. Most of the e-mails detail the day-to-day trivia of running a small technology startup, but others concern an effort to scout out vulnerabilities in Gadhafi's electronic infrastructure.

Think of it as a mansion with a high-tech security system — but the front door wasn't locked tight. Using the Citigroup customer Web site as a gateway to bypass traditional safeguards and impersonate actual credit card holders, a team of sophisticated thieves cracked into the bank’s vast reservoir of personal financial data, until they were detected in a routine check in early May. That allowed them to capture the names, account numbers, e-mail addresses and transaction histories of more than 200,000 Citi customers, security experts said, revealing for the first time details of one of the most brazen bank hacking attacks in recent years. The case illustrates the threat posed by the rising demand for private financial information from the world of foreign hackers.

[Commentary] In a filing at the Federal Communications Commission on AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile, the Competitive Enterprise Institute said:

• AT&T will be able to use T-Mobile cell sites and spectrum in order to address increases in traffic. This increased spectrum will also allow AT&T to expand its LTE coverage to underserved rural areas.
• Operating system (OS) vendors and device manufacturers will constrain the power of network operators. Network operators are consolidating in order to have enough scale and power in order to fight back. (The battle is vertical, not horizontal.)
• The special access/backhaul market is highly competitive. Don't worry about incumbents’ market power there.
• Don't impose conditions. You'll just stifle investment. Uncertainty and delay will harm the public.

A post on cracked.com says that the rich are underserved by monopolistic carriers; poor/rural are often unserved. Internet access is more essential than phone services ever were, because quality of life/livelihoods/access to services depend on it. Offline equivalents are disappearing.
Think of all the jobs we could create with a combination of regulatory reforms and a major open-fiber infrastructure project nationwide for areas that aren't served. Not just the jobs that have to do with digging up the streets (although we'd have a lot of those). We'd be building a basic building block for the country’s future. Instead, because we think there is little we can do, we do little. Other than merge.

Italy, trying to cut its deficit, may be thwarted in a bid to raise 2.4 billion euros ($3.5 billion) by auctioning frequencies, as broadcasters and phone companies resist the “chaotic” sale. Local television channels, who occupy most of the frequencies to be sold, say they may refuse to free the spectrum if the government doesn't offer higher compensation.

Mobile- phone operators, the likely buyers, say the frequencies aren't worth the price if the broadcasters don't allow immediate access. The Italian auction has been handled in “a quite chaotic way,” Tommaso Valletti, a professor of economics at London’s Imperial College, said in an interview. “There’s been a bit of the ‘Wild West’ in the Italian frequency sector. It won't be easy to disentangle.” The broadcasters’ resistance may hamper the country’s deficit-cutting plans and expansion ambitions of mobile-phone operators. Italy, whose credit-rating outlook was lowered on May 21 to negative from stable by Standard & Poor’s, included the expected auction proceeds in its 2011 budget. Operators such as Telecom Italia and Vodafone Group need bandwidth to meet surging data demand as clients use smartphones to watch films and surf the Web.