Former Army specialist hacks ‘T-Spot,’ shows U.S. not ready for cyber attack

By Chuck Frank / chuck@theklaxon.com / 02.09.2010

Updated on: 02.08.10 at 11:46 pm

Former U.S. Army computer-security specialist Christopher Tarnovsky stood up in front of the audience at the Black Hat Technical Security Conference and demonstrated how to do the impossible.

Tarnovsky hacked into a chip carrying a “Trusted Platform Module” or TPM. TPM chips are the computer industry’s highest standard of security and are present in more than 100 million computers sold to businesses and individuals.

Hacking the TPM in a computer allows access to all highly sensitive documents in government and business—and virtually every secret on a personal computer.

Tarnovsky’s discovery comes on the heels of the most expansive cyber attack on American business in history.

Operation Aurora in December 2009 silently was launched by Chinese hackers. Their goal: Retrieve the source codes from Google, Adobe, Juniper and 34 other high-profile companies.

The opportunity they exploited was a little-known programming hole called “zero-day” in the Internet Explorer software.

Their ultimate goal was to be able to compromise U.S. energy, communication and financial infrastructure by not only invading without detection, but being able to control it.

Tarnovsky unlocked the most secure chip manufactured by Infineon Technologies and claimed that his technique will work on the entire line of security chips manufactured by Infineon. Infineon is the leading maker of TPM chips.

The only good news is that hackers trying to attempt the “Tarnovsky Torquemada,” must first get their hands on a smart phone, laptop or X-box, and literally torture the TPM chip in acid baths, rust remover, and finally use acupuncture to get to the nerve center of the chip. But once they have found the “T-Spot,” it’s goodness, gracious, great balls of data.

From personal video game peripheral to war plan documents at the Pentagon, there will be no stopping data streams.

Tarnovsky is the cyber watchman on the wall. It’s midnight, and all is definitely not well.

It’s time to wake up world and demand an accounting before every pocket is emptied while we sleep.