Cyber Round Up: ‘Human Rights in Cyberspace’ — CCDCOE NATO Report, NSA Reports it Releases Most Zero-day Vulnerabilities, Australia Submarine Project Experiences Hacking Attempts

‘Human Rights in Cyberspace’ — NATO CCD COE Report (CCDCOE NATO):  The NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (“CCDCEO”) and the Institute of National Security and Counterterrorism (“INSCT”) hosted a workshop on October 1st and 2nd on Human Rights in Cyberspace, according to the CCDCOE.  The workshop resulted in a report containing the findings of the workshop concerning the legal aspects of human rights as it applies to cyberspace.  The five findings are:

• How does international human rights law (“IHRL”) apply in cyberspace?;
• Extraterritorial aspects of human rights in cyberspace;
• Protecting and promoting IHRL in cyberspace?;
• Sources and kinds of conflicts involving IHRL in cyber; and
• Reforms of cybersecurity norms — future aspects.

The full report can be found here.

NSA Reports it Releases Most Zero-day Vulnerabilities (ZDNet.com):  The National Security Agency (“NSA”) has spoken out about its “stockpile” of zero-day exploit in the wake of the most recent Snowden leaks revealing that the agency “will exploit vulnerabilities” it finds, ZDNet reports.  A zero-day exploit is a flaw in software or hardware that creates a vulnerability that can be exploited before the developer has an opportunity to fix the issue, according to FireEye.  The NSA claims it releases the “vast majority” of zero-day vulnerabilities that it discovers, according to ZDNet.  The article states that the NSA tells companies about the “most severe” flaws in “about nine-out-of-ten cases.”  Further, the NSA said that in cases where it does not release the information, it is because of national security reasons, the article stated.  Additionally, according to the article, the leaked documents revealed that the NSA also purchases these types of vulnerabilities.  The full article can be found here.

Australia Submarine Project Experiences Hacking Attempts (Tech Times):  Contractors bidding for an Australian submarine project have expressed concerns over hacking attempts on their “extensive plans” on the project, reports Tech Times.  The three bidders, companies from Germany, Japan, and France, have not yet identified who the actors are, but the bidders have named Chinese and Russian spies as “primary suspects”, according to the article.  The German bidder, ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, reported that it is experiencing “40 hacking attempts every night”, the article continued.  Since the discovery of the hacking attacks, the bidders have resorted to hand-delivered messages to communicate sensitive information concerning the project, Tech Times reports.  The full article can be found here.