Twitter Provides New Way to Fight Pharmacy Crime

Purdue Pharma L.P. announces the launch of its new pharmacy crime prevention tool: Twitter.com/rxpatrol. Pharmacy staff, law enforcement officials and loss prevention personnel can follow updates about pharmacy robberies, burglaries and potential threats in their area and nationwide. The tweets provide safety and security tips for pharmacy staff that may help them better protect customers and their businesses. Followers also receive notices for reward offers that are funded through Purdue's partnership with CrimeStoppers and other local anti-crime organizations.

The RxPatrol Program tracks and analyzes reports of pharmacy crime across the United States and posts important crime related information on its web site: www.rxpatrol.org. The program also issues alerts and updates via email to registered users in the pharmacy and law enforcement communities. However, since many pharmacists do not have Internet access during work hours, but do have access to cell phones, RxPATROL® is now using Twitter to instantly deliver pharmacy crime updates and tips to followers via their cell phones. RxPATROL's Twitter followers receive timely pharmacy crime information that is often not
reported by the media.

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6 Ways Law Enforcement Uses Social Media to Fight Crime

From felons on Facebook to tips through Twitter, social media is being used more and more by law enforcement agencies, and not just to fight Internet (Internet)-related crimes. We’re talking about solving crimes that are happening on the street and in your community. According to Lauri Stevens, founder of LAwS Communications and organizer of the SMILE (Social Media In Law Enforcement) Conference being held in Washington D.C. this April, adoption of social media is still in the “very, very, early stages,” but she sees it making an upward turn. “I expect 2010 will be a monumental year,” she said.

But many police departments that have embraced social media are still trying to figure it out. “Most agencies … are not significantly proactive with keeping up with content and updates,” said Terry Halsch from CitizenObserver.com, developers of the tip411 system for police agencies. “There are some limitations because of uncertainty of how secure information is, how can it be efficiently maintained, and the risks and liabilities of entering the world of social media.”

Below are six different ways law enforcement is utilizing social media and real-time search to enhance tactics, disseminate public information, and ultimately prevent criminal activity:

1. Police Blotter Blogs
2. The Digital "Wanted Poster"
3. Anonymous E-Tipsters
4. Social Media Stakeout
5. Thwarting Thus in the Social Space
6. Tracking and informing with Twitter

See also:

• "Gangs in New York talk Twitter: Use tweets to trash-talk rivals, plan fights", NY Daily News, 11/29/09.
  
• "Police Use Web To Track Down Gang Members", 219 Magazine, 8/13/09.

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Man Found Guilty After Twitter Joke About Blowing Up An Airport

In June 2008, while I was working part time security at a baseball stadium, I was confronted by a belligerent fan who was angered at my request to search his bag, which was and remains standard practice. The fan told me that he had a bomb in his bag and that he hoped it "blew me the [expletive] up". My first instinct was separate his head from the scrawny shoulders it sat on, but instead I gritted my teeth and escorted him to my supervisor and had him banned from the ground for a year. In this day and age, these types of idiotic remarks are not tolerated and in certain circumstances can be deemed very serious indeed. Certainly enough to warrant the intervention of criminal law.

For example: A man who threatened on Twitter to blow up Doncaster airport in England has been found guilty of sending a “menacing electronic communication”. He is thought to be the first person in the United Kingdom to have been arrested for comments on Twitter. He is now the first person to be found guilty for being “menacing” on Twitter. On January 6, 2010, Paul Chambers joked on Twitter “Robin Hood airport is closed,” he wrote. “You’ve got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!!” He was annoyed that snowfall threatened to delay his plans to travel to Ireland on January 15.

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When Ordered, Twitter Monitors Tweet-Bangers For Authorities

Representatives of Twitter and Facebook said they cooperate with authorities investigating gangs that use the social-networking tools to communicate about crime, according to a report. "Representatives from Twitter and Facebook say they regularly cooperate with police and supply information on account holders when presented with a search warrant," states the Associated Press. Authorities say they're increasingly coming across gangs that use Twitter and Facebook to communicate. In one example cited in the Associated Press, a gang warned members that an affiliate released early from behind bars might have cut a deal and could be a snitch. It did so via Twitter. Is this the era of tweet-banging? Facebangers?

If so, that sword cuts both ways: Authorities were following members' tweets as part of its ongoing investigation of the Bay Area gang. Law enforcement seems to be finding social media as useful as gangs are. Prosecutors said they found evidence on YouTube that helped them crack down on the Eastside Riva gang in Riverside last week. "You find out about people you never would have known about before," Dean Johnston of the California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement told AP. "You build this little tree of people." AP reports that (even) gangsters are moving on from MySpace to Twitter and Facebook to keep their own social networks alive. Threats, boasts and tips are shared this way, law enforcers say. Some gangs even have groups on Facebook. But gangs such as Mara Salvatrucha and Florencia still prefer MySpace, according to the report.

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Twittergate: Update 3

Twittergate Reveals E-Mail is Bigger Security Risk than Twitter

First, everyone needs to calm down. Twitter.com itself was not breached. According to Evan Williams as quoted in a TechCrunch article, the attack did not breach Twitter.com or its administrative functions, nor were user accounts affected in any way. So everyone can just stop with the “Twitter needs to revamp its security!” and “Twitter isn’t secure” headlines and articles because it’s not only blatantly wrong, it’s diverting attention that should be devoted to the real problem: e-mail and account self-service.

What was compromised remains somewhat of a mystery. Following through the TechCrunch article to a blog on the same subject reveals some interesting details, however. A screen shot of what appears to be an internal memo to Twitter employees requires a change in passwords (along with instructions on improving the strength of said passwords) but mentions the password to be changed is the password you use to login to internal sites. From this one might infer that a breach was perpetrated through an intra/extranet, as opposed to twitter’s core infrastructure. Regardless, the breach of Twitter was only ancillary to the real security risk: the access to e-mail. That’s where the real meaty data was obtained; not from Twitter or its internal systems.

In this case, it was GMail access that enabled the miscreant to use password recovery techniques (“Forgot your password?”) to gain access to other related information and sites: personal credit cards, GoDaddy registrar accounts, etc… Did the attacker really need to breach Twitter’s internal applications to get that information? Probably not. Certainly gaining access to Twitter’s internal applications made accessing employees’ GMail accounts that much easier, but it likely wasn’t necessary except as a means to garner attentiongmail-logo which was, the miscreant claims, the intent of the attack. The danger of a GMail breach is that Google is very integrated across applications, so gaining access to one often makes it a no-brainer to gain access to others.

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Twittergate: Update 2

Hacker used Twitter to control infected PCs

Twitter's been having a rough couple of weeks. A researcher looking into the attacks that knocked Twitter offline last week discovered another, unrelated security problem.

At least one criminal was using a Twitter account to control a network of a couple hundred infected personal computers, mostly in Brazil. Networks of infected PCs are referred to as "botnets" and are responsible for so much of the mayhem online, from identity theft to spamming to the types of attacks that crippled Twitter.

Jose Nazario with Arbor Networks said he found a Twitter account that was used to send out what looked like garbled messages. But they were actually commands for computers in a botnet to visit malicious websites, where they download programs that steal banking passwords.

The affected Twitter account was taken down. Nazario said what appeared to be the same person was doing the same thing on an account with a Google Inc. service called Jaiku, which is similar to Twitter. Google said the affected account was shut down.

The technique Nazario described isn't sophisticated, and a couple of hundred infected computers is small when some botnets contain hundreds of thousands of infected PCs. But it shows how criminals are finding inventive ways to exploit legitimate social networking services to help with their dirty work. One reason social networks are an attractive target for crooks is because their content is hard to monitor, and because people click on lots of links inside their accounts, which is a key way computer infections are spread.

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Twittergate: Update 1

Anti-Georgia Russian hackers may have been behind yesterday's global cyber attacks on Google, Facebook and Twitter. The organised web assaults completely shut down social networking site Twitter and disrupted access to Facebook — nearly a year to the day since the outbreak of the Georgia-Russia war.

Search engine Google was also targeted but managed to fend off the "denial-of-service" attacks. Hackers used the popular technique to hijack thousands of computers and use them to send messages to a target website at the same time — causing it to crash.

And a Facebook executive revealed that a Georgian blogger called Cymxymu — who has accounts on all the websites — was the target of the attack.

Facebook boss Max Kelly said: "It was a simultaneous attack across a number of properties targeting him to keep his voice from being heard. "We're actively investigating the source of the attacks and we hope to be able to find out the individuals involved in the back end and to take action against them if we can."

• "Russian Hackers Eyed in Attack on Twitter, Google and Facebook", Fox News, 8/7/09.
• "Twitter attack is a growth pang", LA Times, 8/7/09
• "Facebook 1, Twitter 0", Forbes, 8/6/09.
  

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Twitter Network Closed by Denial-of-Service Attacks

Micro-blogging service Twitter was taken offline for more than two hours on Thursday in what the company believes was a co-ordinated attack. The popular site has been subject to a so-called denial-of-service attack, according to the firm's official blog. Denial-of-service (DOS) attacks take various forms but often involve a company's servers being flooded with data in an effort to disable them.

"Attacks such as this are malicious efforts orchestrated to disrupt and make unavailable services such as online banks, credit card payment gateways, and in this case, Twitter for intended customers or users," said Twitter co-founder Biz Stone on the company's blog. The service was restored shortly after the blog post, but the company's status page suggests that the site is "continuing to defend against and recover from this attack".

Comment

Twitter is a great way to monitor breaking news, often well before the major media networks. The network has also been used by activists to coordinate their movement while demonstrating and protesting against specific government or commercial activities. This allows intelligence officers to keep abreast of new developments.

Analysis

Not only is Twitter faster than networks, it has been shown to get news out 15 minutes earlier even than Google can. This speed allows millions of people to connect speedily with what is happening around the world or to their particular cause. Twitter has become a very valuable and respected resource. However, with Twitter being hacked into three previous times this year and confidential files being made public, confidence could well erode quickly after today's DDOS attacks. Great strides will need to be made soon with their security to prevent further breaches.

Sources

• "Did Koobface [Virus] Cause the Twitter DDoS Attack?", PC Magazine, 8/6/09.
• "Twitter Outage Raises Concerns For Government", Government Technology, 8/6/09.
• "Twitter site reopens after attack", BBC News, 8/6/09.
• "Twitter Hacked, Confidential Files Made Public", Fox News, 7/16/09.
• "How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live", Time, 6/7/09.
  
• "Students‐use‐Twitter‐to‐storm‐presidency‐in‐Moldova", Telegraph, 4/7/09.
• "G20: Twittering from the demos", Guardian UK, 4/1/09.

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