Iran uses fabricated WikiLeaks cable to smear UN rights rapporteur

State-run agencies and semi-official websites run articles in effort to discredit Ahmed Shaheed

Iran has launched a sophisticated smear campaign against the UN special rapporteur investigating its human rights violations by widely spreading a fabricated WikiLeaks cable purporting to show he received bribes from Saudi Arabia.

In a concerted effort aimed at discrediting Ahmed Shaheed in the eyes of the general public, Iranian state-run agencies and semi-official websites simultaneously carried articles claiming that the Saudi embassy in Kuwait had paid the UN envoy $1m to take an anti-Iran position. It dominated many Iranian front pages on Tuesday and an Iranian official later used the false information to question Shaheed’s credibility.

The allegations are based on what is claimed to be a WikiLeaks cable the authenticity of which has been challenged by the organisation itself. “Please show which cable this claim is based on. You fail to link to one of our cables in the article,” the official account of the WikiLeaks tweeted in response to a website carrying the news. Shaheed has also strongly denied the claims.

A deeper examination of the forged document when compared with genuine Saudi cables published on the WikiLeaks website showed that it had been fabricated with help from a computer technique to merge two sets of different real diplomatic Saudi letterheads and creating an entirely new letterhead which does not exist elsewhere. It was then put on alwaienews.com and awdnews.com, two amateur websites that duplicate materials from other sources.

The apparently orchestrated campaign against Shaheed seems to fit into a familiar pattern of Iran smearing activists, dissidents, or even journalists by propagating misinformation about them. In a similar tactic used in 2013, a number of staff members at the BBC’s Persian service, which is loathed by the Iranian establishment, were falsely accused of sexual misconduct and were the victims of online identity theft designed to discredit them.

The timing of the recent campaign against Shaheed is also curious. It comes at the time when the WikiLeakshave released cables written by Saudi diplomatic missions across the world, showing an obsession on their behalf towards their regional rival, Tehran.

One of those cables incidentally revealed that Saudi Arabia had given a bursary, worth thousands of pounds, to the son of a former Iranian reformist minister, Ataollah Mohajerani, who currently lives in exile in London. Mohajerani is yet to react to the cable but it brought much embarrassment for the Iranian opposition which had the reformist politician on its side. Iran used the cable as evidence that the Iranian opposition is under the influence of the Saudis, which Tehran is increasingly viewing as its new enemy.

Against the backdrop of that real WikiLeaks cable about Mohajerani, Iran appears to have seized an opportunity to intentionally make similar allegations, albeit this time untrue, directed at Shaheed. Alwaienews was used by Iran’s state television and other agencies as the main source of their reports about Shaheed.

On Wednesday, Mohammad-Javad Larijani, the head of Iran’s state-run high council for human rights, treated the bogus allegations against Shaheed as fact and said it was not a coincidence Shaheed and Mohajerani are based in London. But he later denied making those comments which were reported by a number of semi-official news agencies, including Isna and Fars.

“Iran is the biggest democracy in the region,” Larijani was quoted as saying. “In some of our neighbouring countries women are not allowed to drive [referring to Saudi Arabia]. People get shot in the street for voting but because these countries are western allies, no one picks on their human rights record.” News agencies which carried Larijani’s comments later removed the entire interview from their websites and published his subsequent denial.

Shaheed, a former foreign minister of the Maldives, follows rights violations in Iran closely and has submitted a number of damning reports to the UN, documenting widespread and systematic violations in the country, especially its use of the death penalty and arbitrary arrests of peaceful activists.

Iran has repeatedly condemned Shaheed’s reports as unsubstantiated, biased and collated from anti-Iranian outlets and terrorist groups. Shaheed has never been allowed to travel to Iran since his initial mandate was approved by the UN in 2011. He recently joined other human rights activists in calling on Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, to follow his nuclear deal success with human rights progress.

Hadi Ghaemi of the New York-based international campaign for human rights in Iran (ICHRI) said the recent claims against Shaheed were a continuation of a longstanding campaign by Iranian officials to discredit both his work and his personality.

“The attacks against Shaheed are nothing new: Iranian officials and hardline media outlets have been trying for years to defame Shaheed and destroy the credibility of his work,” he told the Guardian. “With the nuclear accord reached, demands for political and social reforms in Iran are expected to increase. Hardliners want to pre-empt increased momentum for reforms. Trashing the special rapporteur, whose work is internationally lauded – and who has explicitly called for a renewed focus on human rights now that the deal has been reached – is one way to do this.”

Ghaemi said the smear campaign was an attempt to deflect attention from Iran’s “egregious” human rights record. “By discrediting Shaheed and his work, the authorities seek to influence public opinion in Iran,” he said. “The current allegations are a blatant attempt to garner domestic support for their refusal to cooperate with the special rapporteur, and to create supposed ‘facts on the ground’ that support their vilification of Shaheed.”

Mani Mostofi of the Impact Iran group, which works to draw attention to human rights in the Islamic Republic, said: “Conveniently, WikiLeaks is a fully searchable archive. A simple search for Ahmed Shaheed or other keywords produces zero documents to support these absurd claims. Nothing. Given this story is so easy to verify or disprove, you’ve got to wonder why an Iranian state media outlets would rush to publish something so baseless on their front pages.”

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University of Connecticut says hit by hackers from China

MILFORD, Conn. The social safety numbers and bank card particulars of as much as 6,000 University of Connecticut college students, school and others might have been stolen by cyberhackers from China, the college stated on Friday

Officials detected a possible breach of the School of Engineering’s community in March and an investigation uncovered that hackers might have gained entry to it as early as September, 2013, spokesman Tom Breen stated.

He stated 6,000 college students, school, alumni and analysis companions of the varsity have been notified that their private info might have been compromised.

“The breach is way extra in depth, might influence many extra accounts and began a lot sooner than we initially believed,” stated Breen. “There is not any approach this present day to find out the precise quantity of accounts hacked,” he added.

Breen stated the hack has been traced to China “based mostly on the sort of cyber-attack that was launched

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Alert as hackers send bogus Windows 10 emails

Windows 10 is a case of Back to the Future. Specifically, Windows Hello will authenticate you based on your face, iris or fingerprint, so it will be easier and faster to log into your devices and Web accounts without sacrificing security and privacy, Microsoft says.

According to Microsoft’s figures, millions of users made the jump to Windows 10 in its first 24 hours of general availability. TheAction Center also provides quick-action tabs for common functions, such as enabling Bluetooth, connecting to a virtual private network, adjusting brightness, making battery tweaks and more. Just like a Microsoft Kinect. A ninety day trial gives them a fairly long windows to evaluate if Windows 10 Enterprise is worth the investment.

Clicking on this icon previously to Windows 10’s release would prompt a user to reserve their Windows 10 upgrade.

“The piece that is given away free is a piece that nobody was buying anyway”, Gartner analyst Stephen Kleynhans told AFP. Don’t fall for hype that the Windows 8.1 on the machine can be easily upgraded by you free of charge.

It also helped that as early as late last year, the Redmondian company already released the technical preview of Windows 10before subsequently seeding to developers the beta version of the OS early this year.

On the flip-side, some of the folks who did install Windows 10 are unpleasantly stunned by the amount of Microsoft’s spying and that’s on top of the company’s sketchy new privacy policy. But try as I may, I have never quite been able to get Microsoft Windows out of my life.

“This the first time they have gone two generations back and said you are getting it free”.

But not everyone has upgraded to Windows 8!

Microsoft has high hopes for Windows 10, which it wants to see installed in a billion devices around the world by 2018.

StatCounter measures page views to the sites that deploy its analytics, signaling how actively users of a specific operating system browse the Web. But why? Microsoft Microsoft’s decision to make Windows 10 free plays a big part (especially given warnings to wait) but it is also just the tip of the iceberg.

Mozilla Firefox thinks Microsoft is being a Web bully again. Some users have refused to use Microsoft Edge, until the “extensions” feature is not supported.

Beard further adds that these changes hamper the overall Windows user experience who have love Windows because of the plethora of customization options at their disposal. It did suffer a $7.6 billion write-down and restructuring of the company’sNokia mobile-phone segment, but it appears to have little effect on the success of Windows 10.With Mac computers and previous versions of Windows, you can resize windows however you like.

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Five things that should never be connected to the internet

Today’s mantra in cyber security circles is that everything is hackable if it’s connected to the internet.

And while the new craze in connected devices promises to bring convenience to our lives like never before (cook the perfect steak, get location-based traffic updates, and never forget to take your medication again) there is a dangerous trade-off that experts warn is not being given proper attention.

This past month alone has brought worrying revelations of security flaws in internet-enabled objects from guns to medical devices and cars – all of which, if subjected to malicious interference, have the potential to kill us.

CQR Security co-founder Phil Kernick says as more manufacturers jump on the hi-tech bandwagon, regulatory authorities the world over are lagging on how to keep consumers safe.

For instance, medical regulators such as Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration have strict approvals processes but no security testing, leaving safety issues incumbent on manufacturers, which may not be up to the task.

“If you’re a medical technology company, you’re not a security firm – you don’t even understand why this is a problem,” Kernick says.

He worries that nothing will change until someone dies.

Here are five connected objects you may want to think twice about using, so long as we live in this regulatory “Wild West”:

1. Medical devices

Medical device manufacturer Hospira came under fire this month after US security and regulatory authorities urged hospitals to stop using its internet-enabled Symbiq infusion system, which pumps drugs into a patient’s bloodstream via a drip.

Cyber security expert Billy Rios discovered the pump was hackable via a hospital’s staff network, meaning it could be controlled remotely to change a patient’s dosage, with potentially lethal consequences.

More than three years ago, the late security expert Barnaby Jack demonstrated a similar vulnerability with an insulin pump, which could be hacked to mete out a dangerous dose of insulin to a diabetic.

Other devices, including some pacemakers, can communicate wirelessly too, and unlike smartphones or PCs which automatically receive software update notifications, it’s much harder to patch vulnerabilities on these types of devices.

The Symbiq infusion system, used in hospitals worldwide.

2. Vehicles

A security flaw discovered in Jeep Cherokees sold in the US made big headlines last month, resulting in an unprecedented recall from maker Fiat Chrysler of 1.4 million vehicles.

Hackers demonstrated they could take over a car’s controls remotely via the Jeep Uconnect infotainment system – potentially smashing it into a wall at high speed, or hurtling it over a cliff.

Earlier this year, the aviation sector also came under scrutiny after hacker Chris Roberts claimed he had been able to gain access to flight control systems via a plane’s entertainment system.

Hackers remotely disabled the Jeep’s brakes causing it to crash in a ditch. Photo: Twitter/Wired

3. Weapons

Bad aim? No problems – firearm manufacturer TrackingPoint has created a “smart rifle” which can correct your shot by factoring in blustery winds, distance and ammunition weight, and will calculate the best moment to fire a shot after the trigger is pulled. It can record this all on video, too.

Except, a hacker can mess with its “smarts” using a simple default password, causing you to miss your target, big-time.

Runa Sandvik manipulates the gun’s file system on a laptop to make Michael Auger’s shot miss one target and hit another. Photo: Wired/YouTube

4. Home appliances

Smart kitchen and laundry appliances are all the rage right now for companies like Samsung, LG and Panasonic.

Turn your oven on using an app before you arrive home for a better roast, and let your busted washing machine “diagnose itself” for better customer care service.

Now imagine you’ve gone away for the weekend and someone’s hacked into your home appliances, which variously use water, electricity and fire. Some of them have blades, too.

Not such a good idea to be able to fire up that oven remotely on full blast, now, is it?

Whirlpool’s smart washing machine connects via Wi-Fi, can be stopped or started remotely, and pings your phone when its detergent is low. Photo: Courtesy of Whirlpool

5. Smoke and security alarms

There are dozens of “smart alarms” on the market nowadays which can notify you of fire or break-in remotely via an app.

But Phil Kernick warns they could “almost certainly” be disabled remotely given enough time and effort.

That could have potentially lethal consequences if, say, your oven caught alight and your smart alarm didn’t alert you.

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The `internet of things’ has opened up new opportunities for cyber attacks

Hackers are not just after your computer: connected devices from cars to home security systems are now targets for those looking to steal or cause mischief.

The rapid growth in the `internet of things’ has opened up new opportunities for cyber attacks and new markets for cyber defenders.

The `internet of things’ are all those physical objects that work with connectivity devices embedded in them.

The problem is among the hot topics at a Black Hat computer security conference that kicked off in Las Vegas on Sunday and an infamous Def Con hacker gathering that follows.

Early glimpses have been provided of scheduled presentations about how to commandeer control of some Chrysler Fiat vehicles or accurately retarget self-aiming sniper rifles.

“The internet of things is definitely one of the big new frontiers,” said Christopher Kruegel, co-founder of cyber security firm Lastline and a professor of computer science at a state university in southern California.

Fiat Chrysler issued a safety recall for 1.4 million US cars and trucks in July after hackers showed they could take control of their systems while they are in operation.

The recall came after cybersecurity experts Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek of the firm IOActive Labs remotely commandeered a Jeep Cherokee, made by Chrysler, to demonstrate the vulnerability of the vehicles’ electronic systems.

As reported in Wired magazine and elsewhere, working from laptop computers at home, the two men were able to enter the Jeep’s electronics via its online entertainment system, changing its speed and braking capability and manipulating the radio and windshield wipers.

After the report, Chrysler issued a free software patch for vulnerable vehicles even while saying it had no first-hand knowledge of hacking incidents.

Miller and Valasek are to reveal more about their Jeep hack at Black Hat.

“The ambiguous nature of automotive security leads to narratives that are polar opposites: either we’re all going to die or our cars are perfectly safe,” read a description a scheduled briefing by the researchers.”

Iran was hit in 2010 by several computer attacks including the Stuxnet virus — widely believed to be developed by the US government — targeting Tehran’s nuclear program.

“The idea of bridging the gap between the cyber world and the physical world has been around for a while,” Kruegel said.

“Now, these proof-of-concepts show that it is a real threat. All these devices are out there and reachable, and security is terrible.”

Stuxnet-type attacks were seen as the work of sophisticated, state-sponsored actors with ample resources and time.

The explosion of connected devices in the booming internet of things has created easy targets for independent hackers motivated by greed or malice, according to security researchers.

“It’s hard to find a way into Windows 10, but now you have these devices that are not hard to get into,” Kruegel said, referring to latest generation Microsoft computer operating system.

“It is low-hanging fruit, in a way.” Protecting gadgets in the internet of things is possible but increases costs of smart gadgets while manufacturers prefer to keep prices low.

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