Beware Trojan Horse Laptops bearing Gifts: Security Risk

The FBI has launched an investigation to find out who is sending unsolicited laptops to state governors across the country.

The Service is reporting that governors and state officials in at least 10 US states have received mysterious computers in the mail.

The mystery began in West Virginia earlier this month when Gov. Joe Manchin’s office received five Compaq computers on Aug. 5. A week later, Manchin’s office received a sixth notebook, a Hewlett-Packard model.

The Charleston Gazette, which first reported the story, said Manchin’s office didn’t turn on the machines for security reasons. Very wise! West Virginia state police said HP confirmed the notebooks were ordered online for delivery to the governor’s office, but didn’t reveal who made the purchase.

Wyoming and Vermont have also reported similar incidents, which has led to the FBI investigation.

The incidents are raising concerns that hackers are taking advantage of low-cost laptops to circumvent digital security and anti-virus controls to infiltrate high-value targets. It’s an intriguing and ingeniously simple idea, provided that they actually take possession of a machine in the supply chain.

The entire idea of having an inside, physical component to a hack is nothing new. Security history is replete with stories of hackers using social engineering techniques to enter buildings to gain access to unsecured workstations, plant bugs and monitoring devices and steal information necessary for remote access.

If you have seen the movies “Hackers,” “Sneakers,” “Mission: Impossible,” “Eraser” and others, with similar plot lines, then you know how this works. While it's possible for people to don janitor and Fedex uniforms to gain access to offices, the most common, cost-effective and likely way of making such an attack is 'Dumpster diving'. Simply, sifting through other people's trash to find discarded clues that may lead to establishing remote access.

Putting malware on a free machine that just shows up in the office, is different and arguably ingenious. Notebook, desktop and hardware costs have shrunk to the point where everyday hackers can afford the investment of buying a dozen for planting in high-value targets and the pay-off would be well worth th eeffort.

Mental Stress Training Needed for U.S. Soldiers

The US Army plans to require that all 1.1 million of its soldiers take intensive training in emotional resiliency, military officials say.

The training, the first of its kind in the military, is meant to improve performance in combat and head off the mental health problems, including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide, that plague about one-fifth of troops returning from Afghanistan and Iraq.

Active-duty soldiers, reservists and members of the US National Guard will receive the training, which will also be available to their family members and to civilian employees.

The new program is to be introduced at two bases in October and phased in gradually throughout the service, starting in basic training. It is modeled on techniques that have been tested mainly in middle schools.

Usually taught in weekly 90-minute classes, the methods seek to defuse or expose common habits of thinking and flawed beliefs that can lead to anger and frustration — for example, the tendency to assume the worst. (“My wife didn’t answer the phone; she must be with someone else.”) This is sometimes re-enforced by their colleagues teasing them, further.

The US Army wants to train 1,500 sergeants by next summer to teach the techniques.

In an interview, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the US Army’s chief of staff, said the $117 million program was an effort to transform a military culture that has generally considered talk of emotions to be so much hand-holding, a sign of weakness.

“I’m still not sure that our culture is ready to accept this,” General Casey said. “That’s what I worry about most.”

In an open exchange at an early training session here last week, General Casey asked a group of sergeants what they thought of the new training. Did it seem too touchy-feely?

“I believe so, sir,” said one, standing to address the general. He said a formal class would be a hard sell to a young private “who all he wants to do is hang out with his buddies and drink beer.”

Others disagreed, saying the program was desperately needed and in the interview, General Casey said the mental effects of repeated deployments — rising suicide rates in the US Army, mild traumatic brain injuries, post-traumatic stress — had convinced commanders “that we need a program that gives soldiers and their families better ways to cope.”