Author Archives: user469294

Estonian IT College offers “Cyber Security Engineering” curriculum in English

Cyber-Security-Engineering_Estonian-IT-College

Education: professional higher education
Language of instruction: English
Official length of programme: 3 years, 180 ECTS credits
Study form: daily study
Tuition fee: 2400 € per academic year
Start of studies: September 2015
Admission period: 11th of March – 7th of April 2015

Curriculum comprises the following modules:

Basic Skills and Competences (16 ECTS)

Basics of Information Technology (24 ECTS)

IT Systems Development (38 ECTS)

IT Systems Administration (22 ECTS)

Cyber Security (16 ECTS)

Elective subjects (32 ECTS)

Internship (27 ECTS)

Diploma Thesis (5 ECTS)

Links:
http://www.itcollege.ee/en/admission/

SignWise Chrome plugin leaks ID card certificate to arbitrary web sites

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signwise_privacy_leak

If you have installed the SignWise plugin (available for Windows and OSX, up to at least version 1.10) to your computer, beware of privacy considerations. SignWise Chrome extension forwards the end-user certificate of the inserted eID smart card without any user interaction to any website, in plain text!

A malicious web site has to embed only a few lines of JavaScript code to collect certificate information from its visitors:

var s = new SignWiseChromePlugin();
s.getAuthenticationCertificate(function(v, e) {…

Similar flaw in 2010 was observed in the official EstEID browser plugin. Will see how much time it will take for SignWise to fix this flaw.

Update from the SignWise Team:

SignWise is happy that our software and services are used by the experts who value the high level security. We are sorry that our provided software had such a problem as described in your post. As of today (12.03.2015) we are happy to inform that your described problem is solved and user information is not shared anymore as described in your post. Our products: SignWise Services (https://www.signwise.org) and SignWise Portal (https://portal.signwise.org) have been built following highest standards of security and strict confidentiality in mind and following the business and security requirements and demands to e-sign high-value electronic documents both in-country and cross borders.

Links:
http://martinpaljak.net/sign/swhack.html
http://id.anttix.org/leak/leak.html

Attacks against Gemalto do not endanger the security of Mobile-ID

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gemalto_ceo

Gemalto, which is the largest manufacturer of SIM cards in the world, launched an internal investigation after The Intercept six days ago revealed that the NSA and its British counterpart GCHQ hacked the company and cyberstalked its employees. In the secret documents, provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the intelligence agencies described a successful effort to obtain secret encryption keys used to protect hundreds of millions of mobile devices across the globe.

Some mobile operators in Estonia use Mobile-ID SIM cards supplied by Gemalto. Here is Estonian Certification Centre response:

Attacks against Dutch SIM card manufacturer Gemalto which became public yesterday does not endanger Mobile-IDs. AS SK (Certification Centre) confirmed that the attacks against the world’s largest SIM card manufacturer Gemalto does not threaten the security of Estonian Mobile-ID.

“We analyzed the information available to us about the attack and verified that the Mobile-ID security is not affected, Mobile-ID is still secure, and users do not need to make adjustments to their normal behavior in any way,” said the head of the Certification Center Kalev Pihl.

Gemalto has released a public report where the company tries to downplay the significance of NSA and GCHQ hack. But that is understandable:

The company was eager to address the claims that its systems and encryption keys had been massively compromised. At one point in stock trading after publication of the report, Gemalto suffered a half billion dollar hit to its market capitalization. The stock only partially recovered in the following days.

Fortunately, the exploitation of the stolen symmetric keys requires the attacker to be in close proximity of the victim’s mobile phone and requires to perform active MITM attack at the moment when the victim performs Mobile-ID transaction.

Update about Estonian mobile network operators’ use of Gemalto SIM cards:

Estonian National Electoral Commission’s e-voting commission’s deputy chairwoman Epp Maaten said that among Estonian mobile operators, only EMT uses SIM cards issued by Gemalto, but only as pre-paid call cards and Gemalto is not the only vendor of the cards.

Links:
https://theintercept.com/2015/02/25/gemalto-doesnt-know-doesnt-know/
https://sk.ee/uudised/runnakud-gemalto-vastu-ei-ohusta-mobiil-id-turvalisust/
http://democracychronicles.com/estonian-internet-voting-safety/

New director general of EISA Taimar Peterkop

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Taimar-Peterkop

Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure Uve Palo signed a decree to appoint Taimar Peterkop for the Estonian Information System Agency (EISA) director-general. Taimar Peterkop is currently working in Ministry of Defence as Undersecretary for Legal and Administrative Affairs. He begins his work at EISA this May.

From the CV:

Taimar Peterkop was born on 20th January 1977 in Tallinn. He has graduated from the University of Tartu Faculty of Law and he has completed many in-service trainings, including the Higher Command Studies Course in Baltic Defence College. Mr Peterkop holds a Master`s degree in Strategic Studies from the United States Army War College. He is also a reserve officer.

During 2000–2001 Taimar Peterkop worked as a lawyer in the Government Office. During 2001–2005 Mr Peterkop worked in the Ministry of Defence as the Director of International Law Office and during 2005–2008 as the Director of Operations and Crisis Management Department. From 2008 until July 2010 he worked as a Defence Counsellor in the Estonian Embassy in Washington.

Taimar Peterkop has also worked as a national defence teacher in several high schools and as an international law lecturer at Estonian Business School.

Links:
http://uudised.err.ee/v/eesti/c9740dca-b127-49e1-923b-71be3b8bbf3f
https://www.ria.ee/ria-peadirektoriks-saab-taimar-peterkop/

Estonian ID card users detected Lenovo’s malware months ago

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lenovo_mitm_malware

Lenovo’s been caught going a bit too far in its quest for bloatware money, and the results have put its users at risk. The company has been preloading Superfish, a “visual search” tool that includes adware that fakes the encryption certificates for every HTTPS-protected site you visit, on its PCs since at least the middle of 2014. Essentially, the software conducts a man-in-the-middle attack to fill the websites you visit with ads, and leaves you vulnerable to hackers in its wake.

While the rest of the world is just starting to talk about Lenovo’s malware, it turns out that Estonians have detected it already in the beginnning of 2015. This is due to the TLS client certificate authentication used by Estonian ID card, which has protection against these kind of MITM attacks.

Congratulations to Estonian ID card!
Unfortunately, Mobile-ID users are not protected against these MITM attacks.

Links:
http://id.ee/index.php?id=37045
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2886278/how-to-remove-the-dangerous-superfish-adware-presintalled-on-lenovo-pcs.html

PhD thesis: “Privacy-preserving statistical analysis using secure multi-party computation”

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Linna Kamm PhD thesis: “Privacy-preserving statistical analysis using secure multi-party computation”
Defense date: 09.03.2015 – 16:15 to 17:45 (J. Liivi 2-404, Tartu, Estonia)

Thesis supervisor: Senior Research Fellow Sven Laur

Opponents:
PhD Rebecca N. Wright Rutgers University (USA)
PhD George Danezis University College London

Summary:
This work focuses on how to perform statistical analyses in a way that preserves the privacy of the individual. To achieve this goal, we use secure multi-party computation. This cryptographic technique allows data to be analysed without seeing the individual values. Even though using secure multi-party computation is a time-consuming process, we show that it is feasible even for large-scale databases.

Links:
http://www.ut.ee/en/events/liina-kamm-privacy-preserving-statistical-analysis-using-secure-multi-party-computation

CyCon 2015 Call for Student Papers

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cycon_logo

We are seeking novel and previously unpublished short paper which would provide an overview of a recent Master thesis in the field of cyber security. Students from various disciplines such as computer sciences, law and political sciences are invited to participate. Submissions will be evaluated based on their originality and significance to the conference’s theme “Architectures in Cyberspace”.

Best submissions will be presented and prizes awarded at CyCon 2015. The awards comprise of a free conference pass for all invited candidates and the following cash prizes for the top three student papers:
1st place: 1000 Euro
2nd place: 600 Euro
3rd place: 400 Euro

And as it turns out – under the meaningless “Architectures in Cyberspace” title falls pretty much anything.

Links:
https://ccdcoe.org/cycon/student-awards-0.html
https://ccdcoe.org/cycon-2015.html

President of Estonia gives state awards to cyber security people

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president_decorations

President Toomas Hendrik Ilves will hand out 99 state decorations, same number as last year, with Siim Kallas, Andrus Ansip and Timothy John Berners-Lee receiving high honors.

In the field of IT the decoration is awarded to internationally renowned computer scientist John Berners-Lee, who invented the internet underlying network technologies such as HTTP and the first browser; Computer Doctor Dan Bogdanov, Cybernetica researcher who led the privacy preserving Sharemind system and its application development; Cybernetica researcher and company GuardTime creator, Tallinn University of Technology professor Ahto Buldas; Free WIFI spread leader Veljo hammer.

Dan Bogdanov is known for his work on secure multi-party computation. Ahto Buldas on digital timestamping and other topics.

Congratulations!

Links:
http://www.president.ee/et/meediakajastus/pressiteated/11027-2015-02-04-08-51-57/
http://www.president.ee/et/ametitegevus/otsused/11028-576-riiklike-autasude-andmine/index.html
http://news.err.ee/v/society/6665f69e-592c-45e3-94eb-a773e38ae433

Secure multi-party computation considered for fighting VAT fraud in Estonia

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mpc_tax

In 2013 parliament mandated an invoice data annex to the VAT return whereby all firms must report all transactions with other firms exceeding 1000 Euros, with a view to checking that the buying and selling companies were declaring the same amount. Following lobbying by businesses about the accounting overhead and business secrets, the president vetoed the bill.

Sander and colleagues approached the tax and customs board with a proposal to use secure multiparty computation, and built a research prototype using Sharemind. The idea is to break VAT declarations into three shares, on servers run by the tax board, the business association, and another party, and run distributed computations to get risk scores for companies. His tests show that it’s feasible; the Estonian economy’s monthly tax returns could be processed in ten days. The remaining problem is that the tax board currently keeps its algorithms proprietary, and would prefer not to reveal them in case they get gamed; at present we don’t know how to run obscure queries in practical amounts of time. Revised legislation has now been accepted and secure MPC is on the tax board’s roadmap for the next few years. In conclusion, MPC can solve some real problems, although business processes may have to be changed.

Links:
https://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2015/01/26/financial-cryptography-2015/
http://fc15.ifca.ai/preproceedings/paper_47.pdf

IT College organizes hacking competition CyberOlympics 2015

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Kyberolympia

We invite You to take part in CyberOlympics for students on the 14th of February 2015 starting at 9:00 at Estonian Information Technology College, Raja 4C.

Your skills and toughness will be tested on the Estonian Defence Cyber Training Platform. All students from bachelor’s, applied science and master’s level are welcomed to apply. FIRST PRIZE: BLACKHAT EUROPE in Amsterdam

Sounds interesting and You would like to know more, but You’re not quite ready to jump on board this time?
No worries! Come join us still on the event day, because at 12:00 we open a CyberCaffeteria where You can:

watch the whole competition live in action

take part in sumorobot workshop

compete in hands-on hacking competition

listen to short presentations on life in the cyberworld, possible field related studying and working possibilities.

Jaanus_Kaap_cyberolimpics_winner

Winners:
1. Jaanus Kääp, Estonian IT College (IT System Development)
2. Henri Ots, Estonian IT College (IT System Administration)
3. Andres Elliku, Tallinn University of Technology (Cyber Security), Estonian IT College alumni
4. Karl-Martin Karlson, Estonian IT College (IT System Administration)
5. Urmo Lihten, Tallinn University of Technology (Cyber Security), Estonian IT College alumni

Links:
http://www.kyberolympia.ee/en
http://www.goodnews.ee/kuberolumpia-2015-voitis-jaanus-kaap-kolledzist