Posted at: Mar 3, 2018, 5:49 PM; last updated: Mar 3, 2018, 6:42 PM (IST)
At the 9th annual edition of Nullcon, the international security conference, in Goa. — Tribune photo
Rachna Khaira
Tribune News Service
Goa (Cavelossim), March 3
It is easy to differentiate between an ordinary malware from 'state-sponsored' ones by identifying the patters on the victims, said researchers at the 9th annual edition of the Nullcon, the international security conference, that kicked off in Goa on Friday.
Leading security researcher Eva Galperin, Director of cyber security, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), who has published research on malware in Syria, Vietnam and Kazakhstan, said if a malware is targeting only activist Ahmed Mansoor in UAE, it is not necessarily a state-sponsored malware.
"However, along with Mansoor, if it is also targeting an activist of Human Rights Watch and somebody in the New York Times who cover the Middle east, then we can draw the conclusion that it is probably a nation-sponsored malware," said Eva, adding that if a particular malware is targeting more activists in a particular region, a conclusion can also be drawn as to which state is sponsoring the malware.
She also spoke on her world-acclaimed research to track down Dark Caracal, a leading espionage programme, which was allegedly found to have been routed from a building in Beirut belonging to the Lebanese General Security Directorate.
Analysis made by EFF showed that devices of military personnel, businesses, journalists, lawyers, educators, and medical professionals were compromised.
In yet another exciting hacking workshop, security researcher Adam Laurie, better known by his hacker name 'Major Malfunction' showed how easy it is to hack credit cards, office keys and even the passports having electronic chip fitted inside them.
He even demonstrated the hacking of his son's British passport and how he changed the facial recognition configuration embedded inside the electronic chip to replace his own picture on it. Laurie claimed that he has informed the British authorities about the cracked software around six years ago but they did not paid heed to it and are using the same technology till date.
This was despite the fact that over 3,000 blank passports having an electronic chip embedded inside were stolen from a van few years ago, Laurie said calling it a grave security concern for UK facing terrorist attacks from the last many years.
In another panel discussion moderated by Saikat Datta, an award-winning journalist whose research papers were published by the Centre for Land warfare studies (CLAWS), centre for Airpower studies (CAPS) and the National Security Guards (NSG), the complexity of regulation and cyber security issues were discussed.
Also, technology entrepreneur Abhinav Srivastava, an MSc graduate from IIT Kharagpur, and also the prime accused in the online Aadhaar data theft in 2017 spoke as to how he astonished the investigators by explaining the shortcuts he used to hack the government website to get Aadhaar data.
The Tribunes report 'Rs 500, 10 minutes and you can have access to a billion Aadhaar details' on Aadhaar data breach published on January 4 this year was also discussed in the session.
The researchers also spoke about how they hacked Google and a workshop on bug hunter methodology was also held.
According to Antriksh Shah, co-founder of Nullcon, more than 1,400 people, including security experts and researchers, are participating in the two-day event.
The idea of Nullcon came from null, an open security community having presence in over 13 national and international chapters. With everyone leading a digital life everyday, cyber research and security has become a global concern nowadays and to address this concern, the conference is being held every year from the last nine years, said Shah.
In addition to speeches, exhibitions, workshops, hacking competitions and job fairs are also being held at the venue
