Comodo CEO Says DigiNotar Hack Was State-Sponsored

An approach on a European nation company that issues certificates used to authenticate websites was land-sponsored, according to the Chief Executive of Comodo, a company that likewise issues extremity certificates and suffered a twin blow in March.

Asked away PC World to characterize the DigiNotar attack, Melih Abdulhayoglu, chairwoman and chief executive of Comodo, said in an e-mail, "We believe this is state-sponsored."

"IT seems that they need these certificates, as we stated in March, they will not stop offensive," He added.

Bear witness suggests Iran is the state behind the attacks. An analysis by Trend Micro of the rogue SSL certificates issued by the DigiNotar hackers led that security firm to resolve that the attack was "used to spy on Iranian Internet users on a large shell."

"We found that Internet users in more than 40 different networks of ISPs and universities in Iran were met with rogue SSL certificates issued by DigiNotar," it said in a company blog. "Even worse, we found evidence that some Iranians World Health Organization secondhand software program designed to circumvent traffic censorship and snooping were not protected against the massive mankin-in-the-midsection assail."

A man-in-the-middle attack is one where an assaulter intercepts communication betwixt two systems, so much as between a Microcomputer and user accessing their Gmail account.

If Iran is behind the DigiNotar and Comodo attacks, though, IT seems intent on hiding the fact posterior a one-man hacker with the handle Comodohacker. In a placard on Pastebin yesterday, Comodohacker bragged about stealing certificates from some Comodo and DigiNotar. What's more than, the hacker said he has access to four more high-profile certificate issuing authorities that he'll use in future attacks.

Although holding the names of the four high-profile certificate issuance government close to the vest, Comodohacker did mention two others — GlobalSign and StartCom Atomic number 20 — he claimed to have breached. When asked about those claims by IDG News, GlobalSign said it was investigation the count and StartCom said IT detected the attack and foiled IT before whatsoever fraudulent certificates could be issued.

As evidence that he was tail end the DigiNotar assail, Comodohacker, who was inarticulate for months in front yesterday's Pastebin mailing, published the password atomic number 2 used to gain access to DigiNotar's administrative functions. A preliminary report discharged yesterday by Fox-It, the security firm chartered away DigiNotar to investigate the break-in, noted that in a handwriting used in the flack "fingerprints from the hacker are left by choice, which were also found in the Comodo breach investigation of March 2011."

In his posting, the hacker said his attack on DigiNotar was in retaliation for Dutch and Serbian actions against Muslims 16 years agone. He also said he intended to hurt the finances of DigiNotar, which is closely-held aside an American company, Vasco. Vasco stock was selling at $13.44 share on July 19 when DigiNotar revealed the breach. Today, information technology's selling at $6.62 a share. Yet, over that catamenia the stock market has been in a general decline so the plummet of Vasco's lineage May have less to do with the DigiNotar attack than with universal market trends.

Comodo's chief executive warned his competitors that they should protect their infrastructure. "The days of wiretapping phone lines are gone; the days of reading e-mails or Facebook Oregon intercepting Skype communication is here," Abdulhayoglu declared. "The key to reading these communications are held away authentication authorities. So that is why they suffer become the new target for states that have a need for intercepting communication."

Succeed freelance technology writer John P. Mello Jr. and Nowadays@PCWorld happening Twitter.