Category Archives: Five Eyes

Playing nice? FireEye CEO says U.S. malware is more restrained than adversaries

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Malware used by the United States in offensive cyber-operations plays “nice” when compared to other nation-state malware, according to FireEye CEO Kevin Mandia. Speaking at the Cyber Threat Intelligence Forum produced by Scoop News Group on Thursday, Mandia said when FireEye analyzes malware from state-backed hackers, the company usually finds elements of public policy baked into operations. Certain tells in the malware’s behavior or the code itself can be indicative of which state is behind it. “We find malware that sometimes has a time to live and then it doesn’t run anymore. I wonder who would do that,” Mandia said on stage. “Probably [the U.S.] because we’re the nicest hackers in cyberspace, besides maybe China.” The U.S. and China are more disciplined in their operations than adversaries like North Korea and Russia, who are instead unrestrained, he said. “We see guardrails on malware from nations like the United States, but do […]

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House of Representatives to boost info-sharing program with Five Eyes allies

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The U.S. House of Representatives is looking to ramp up a cyberthreat information-sharing program with the parliaments of allies Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Britain, according to House CISO Randy Vickers. The information traded could be unclassified threat intelligence used to bolster the legislative bodies’ security. Vickers said there were already strong information-sharing relationships with the allied parliaments, the goal was simply to leverage them more. “We’re looking at ways to better share information on a more routine basis,” Vickers told CyberScoop Thursday. “It really is just about ensuring that we all have a common knowledge across our environments.” In practice, the program could be as simple as notifying the group of a new cybersecurity advisory from the Department of Homeland Security, Vickers said on the sidelines of the Cyberthreat Intelligence Forum presented by FireEye and produced by CyberScoop and FedScoop. The U.S. and the four other countries comprise the Five Eyes […]

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Encryption debate is a top focus at Five Eyes meeting

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As the Five Eyes intelligence alliance meets in Ottawa this week, Australian officials are heading to Canada with encryption as a top priority. Australia’s attorney general, George Brandis, published a memo this weekend detailing a plan to seek greater legal powers against encrypted data in the meeting with representatives of the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and the United States. “As Australia’s priority issue, I will raise the need to address ongoing challenges posed by terrorists and criminals using encryption,” Brandis, who also serves in Australia’s Senate, said in a statement. “These discussions will focus on the need to cooperate with service providers to ensure reasonable assistance is provided to law enforcement and security agencies.” Some of the biggest tech companies in the world, including Apple and Facebook, have adopted strong encryption for their products. The mainstreaming of encryption helped spark an international debate — famously referred to as the […]

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