St. Louis School Wins Award for Internet Safety

St. Louis School Wins Award for Internet Safety from FBI’s Safe Online Surfing Program

A school located on the Hill is the first in eastern Missouri two win a national FBI internet safety challenge.

Dean C. Bryant, the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI St. Louis Division, presented the award to St. Ambrose School for winning the FBI Safe Online Surfing (FBI-SOS) Internet Challenge.

FBI-SOS is a free, web-based initiative designed to educate 3rd through 8th grade students about cyber safety. The students learn about how to protect personal information, password strength, cell phone safety, social networking, and online gaming safety. Then, they take an exam about what they learned.

St. Ambrose is the national winner for January 2013 in the Stingray category (51-100 participants).

The FBI’s Safe Online Surfing program has rules that include awards, games, and an exam.

The awards include the FBI-SOS Cyber Trophy. This goes to top scoring schools in each category. When possible, winning schoos receive a visit from a local FBI Special Agent to congratulate them on their victory.

Categories are determined by the amount of people participating from each school:
                        Starfish            1-50 participants
                        Stingray           1-100 participants
                        Shark               More than 100 participants

Schools wanting to get involved can access the SOS program any time during the year, but can only participate in the competition once per school year.

There are several games that the students can play to learn about internet safety and security. All of the games take place on Cyber Surf Island. Each grade level has different games to navigate while on the island. Once students have completed all of the numbered learning portals for their grade level, they can click on the exam balloon to take the exam.

There is no need to complete the program all at one sitting. However, the exam can only be taken once, so 

students should be careful not to click on the exam balloon until all of the learning portals have been completed.

 Online safety and security programs like this one by the FBI are giving elementary children an introduction to the potential problems with internet identity theives and hackers. 

Watch video of the award ceremony at St. Ambrose here:        
http://www.ksdk.com/news/article/368603/3/St-Louis-school-wins-internet-safety-award

Prison Personnel Lets Super Hacker Use Their Computer

Guess what happens next. 

Before we tell you, let’s give you a little background. Before he was arrested in 2011, Nicholas Webber described himself as the world's "most wanted cybercriminal." At the tender age of seventeen, he created the site GhostMarket, where he gave tips on harvesting credit card data and writing computer viruses.

But that’s not all; he also provided a clearinghouse for hundreds of thousands of stolen credit cards. Webber used stolen financial data to buy high-end electronics and reserve rooms in luxury hotels, including a penthouse at London's Park Lane Hilton.

This infamous British hacker, who was responsible for as much as $22 million in financial fraud before going to prison,hacked into his its computer system after he was allowed to use a computer while attending an IT class.

Needless to say, Webber didn't need any lessons in information technology. It is a mystery as to why the prison allowed him to take a class and access a computer in the first place. They either didn’t know about his past crimes or didn’t care. Let’s give the prison workers the benefit of the doubt and say that he gained access to the class by bribing another inmate who looked like him and then wore sunglasses and a hoodie to disguise himself. 

Although the incident took place in 2011, it has come to light now because the worker whom the prison blamed for the hack—and who was subsequently fired—is suing his former employer. Michael Fox (wait, is that his real name or is this yet another case of identity theft?) claims he had no idea Webber was a hacker when he allowed him into the class.

Officials continue to assert that Webber did not access private data. But according to The Daily Mail, the hack caused "major panic" at the prison, and issues began happening that had not happened previously.

HM Isis, the brand-new, $150 million facility where Webber is imprisoned, has been "bedeviled" by a series of technological breakdowns, most related to its state-of-the-art biometric system, where prisoners must swipe their fingerprints to move from one section of the prison to another. According to an inspection last January, the system broke down once every day for five days. We're sure Webber had nothing to do with it.

Many online business owners are just as naïve as this prison worker – allowing vulnerabilities to exist on their websites and servers without ever scanning to see what they are so that they can remove them – simply because they erroneously believe that everyone should worry about hackers except them.

The Growing Threat of Cyber Crime

Among the topics most discussed by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper during the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on ‘Current and Projected National Security Threat to the United States,” Clapper confessed that the U.S. economy is vulnerable to relatively unsophisticated cyber attacks. 

Yes, Iran is making progress toward developing nuclear weapons. Yes, Al Qaeda sympathizers are resurging across North Africa and the Middle East. But the danger of online attacks to the United States’ crucial infrastructure by enemy hackers is also a significant concern to the country’s security and even tops the other two considerable issues.

As a result, America’s intelligence agencies are reevaluating how they operate.“Threats are more diverse, interconnected and viral than at any time in history. Attacks, which might involve cyber and financial weapons, can be deniable and unattributable,” he says. 

“Foreign intelligence and security services have penetrated numerous computer networks of U.S. government, business, academic and private sector entities…. This is almost certainly allowing our adversaries to close the technological gap between our respective militaries, slowly neutralizing one of our key advantages in the international arena.”

Although his 34-page statement listed cyber-threats as first among global perils, he says the likelihood of a major computer-driven attack over the next two years is remote. Russia and China, the two most capable nations, “are unlikely to launch such a devastating attack against the United States outside of a military conflict or crisis that they believe threatens their vital interests.”

But he warns that “isolated state or non-state actors might deploy less sophisticated cyber-attacks as a form of retaliation or provocation. These less advanced but highly motivated actors could access some poorly protected U.S. networks that control core functions, such as power generation.”

It’s interesting to think about the 30 minute power outage at this year’s NFL Super Bowl and not at least consider that an enemy to the United States might have hacked into the online platform that supported the electrical system. 

Even if the attacks start small, the damage could spread because networks are so inter-connected.Cyber-espionage is rampant and growing. Business owners and companies loyal to the United States of America should seriously consider securing their online portals with SSL certificates, business verification tools and daily payment-card-industry compliant website and server security scans for vulnerabilities used by hackers unfriendly to the US to access personal 

and financial data.

http://www.blog.trust-guard.com