Obama turns focus to Internet security, privacy

By Doina Chiacu WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will highlight plans next week to protect American consumers and businesses from cyber threats, a month after the most high-profile hacking attack on a U.S. company. Internet security became a national focus after a cyberattack on Sony Pictures that Washington blamed on North Korea

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MI5 chief warns al Qaeda in Syria planning mass attacks on West

By Guy Faulconbridge LONDON (Reuters) – Al Qaeda militants in Syria are plotting attacks to inflict mass casualties in the West, possibly against transport systems or “iconic targets”, the head of MI5 Security Service said on Thursday. Speaking after gunmen killed 12 people in an assault on a French satirical newspaper, MI5 boss Andrew Parker warned a strike on the United Kingdom was highly likely. “A group of core al Qaeda terrorists in Syria is planning mass casualty attacks against the West,” Director General Parker said in a rare public speech at MI5 headquarters in London

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FBI says Sony hackers ‘got sloppy,’ posted from North Korea addresses

By Emily Flitter and Mark Hosenball NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – FBI Director James Comey said on Wednesday that hackers behind the cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment provided key clues to their identity by sometimes posting material from IP addresses used exclusively by the North Korean government. The hackers, who called themselves “Guardians of Peace,” sometimes “got sloppy” and failed to use proxy servers that would hide their identity, Comey said at the International Conference on Cyber Security in New York.

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Japan, wary of North Korea, works to secure infrastructure after Sony attack

By Tim Kelly and Nobuhiro Kubo TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan, fearing it could be a soft target for possible North Korean cyberattacks in the escalating row over the Sony Pictures hack, has begun working to ensure basic infrastructure is safe and to formulate its diplomatic response, officials said. The hacking of the U.S. …

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South Korea seeks China’s cooperation in probe into cyberattack on nuclear operator

By Meeyoung Cho SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea is seeking the cooperation of Chinese authorities in a probe into a cyberattack on its nuclear power plant operator after tracing multiple Internet addresses involved to a northeastern Chinese city near North Korea, a prosecution official said on Wednesday. The location of the Internet addresses, which were used to connect to networks in South Korea for the attacks, did not prove the source of the hack was either China or North Korea, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. …

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