The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "cyber" ...
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Cyber Espionage: The Chinese Threat
It’s the biggest threat facing American business today but the least talked about by corporate executives. Experts at the highest levels of government agree, cyber espionage is threatening to steal American wealth, American jobs and ultimately America’s economic security and the biggest aggressor is China. Due to the nature of the crime, the cost to American businesses is nearly impossible to pinpoint. Experts say Chinese hackers are constantly probing corporate networks, sifting through endless amounts of data to decipher what is valuable intellectual property, chemical formulas or proprietary technology. One conservative estimate from the National Counter Intelligence Executive puts the cost of economic espionage at up to $400B annually, but the report states such estimates vary “so widely as to be meaningless,” reflecting the scarcity of data available. CNBC’s David Faber and the Investigations Inc. team spoke with many corporate executives about China’s aggressive effort to target American businesses and their most valuable assets, but many refused to comment on camera for our report, citing becoming more vulnerable to attack by speaking publicly about the issue. However, not one executive denied their company is at risk of cyber-attack on a daily basis or the possibility of losing valuable intellectual property to cyber spies. Government and industry experts we spoke with on-camera have witnessed such costly cyber-attacks during their careers and attest to the fact there are only two companies left in America today: Those who know they’ve been hacked and those who don’t. From a whistleblower claiming telecommunications giant Nortel was one of the first casualties of this all-out cyber war, to high profile and public attacks on Google and RSA, its clear defending against cyber espionage is the new normal for American business.
Tags: Chinese hackers; American businesses; cyber attacks; cyber espionage
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Digital Footprint & Sunshine Law
Our investigation led to a politician's resignation and criminal charges using social network search engines, traditional online databases and open records requests to identify his criminal past and as many as seven females who were pictured in nude photos, harassed, stalked or suffered cyber identity theft.
Tags: broadcast; criminal past; politician; resignation
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Fatal System Error
The book details the inner workings of the criminal internet hackers and their links to government.
Tags: internet; hacking; cyber criminals
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Sabotaging the System
This story includes the “first confirmed account of a successful cyber attack against an electric utility company, resulting in major blackouts that lasted for days”. The electric grid not only supplies electricity but also keeps water, telephones, trains, and air traffic control up and running. Also in the U.S., government agencies, defense contractors, and banks are hacked everyday by foreign spy agencies.
Tags: National Intelligence; Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); cyber security; Central Intelligence Agency (CIA); computers; technology
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The New War
The information age has created new vulnerabilities to US national security. This investigation reveals the holes in the nation’s defense against cyber spies and pushing policymakers to do something about it. Some examples are the “breaching of the US electric grid, an expensive fighter-jet project and the US drones in the war in Iraq.” Further, this investigation also reveals innovative technologies to stop these cyber spies.
Tags: information age; US national security; spies; cyberspies; cyber espionage; technology; cyberspace; US electric grid; Iraq
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Distracted
Distracted explores the steep societal and individual costs to our split-focus, hyper-mobile, cyber-centric lives. In our "knowledge" economy, the average worker switches tasks every three minutes on average, and a third of workers say they are so interrupted and busy that they don't have time to reflect on the work they do. We eat on the run, keep one eye on a gadget, and process the world in snippets. It's rare to pay attention to anyone or anything in full or for long. In this climate of diffused and splintered attention, workers, parents and children alike have less time to reflect, create and connect."
Tags: distracted; multitask; society; switch; busy; technology, tasking;
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Zero Day Threat
"Zero Day Threat is an accessible, important primer on an insidious public hazard that touches us all. As such, it sets the agenda for wrenching changes in business practices and public policy that must inevitably follow, and, in fact are in the early stages of playing out."
Tags: bank; finance; credit; identity; steal; cyber; crooks; truth; money; theft;
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China's Cyber Militia: Congress in the Cyber-Crosshairs
"This series focused on the threat of 'cyber' espionage against the U.S. government and U.S. corporations, as well as electronic interference with U.S. infrastructure, all by Chinese authorities or groups believed to be working under their auspices."
Tags: hack; cybercrime; hacking; China; online security; cyber-security;
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Cyber Snooping
Months of reporting led to this story about the growing fear of cyber espionage in the United States. For the first time the US Government admitted that an average person's communication devices are susceptible to hacking without there knowledge.
Tags: Hackers; technology; blackberry; cell phone; web security;
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The Great Spam Slam
In Nov. 2007, washingtonpost.com ran a series of stories and blog posts Mr. Krebs wrote about the Russian Business network (RBN) led to the company being effectively cut off from the Web. He pursuer a similar strategy in July 2008, when investigating the Silicon Valley-based hosting provider McColo. At the time, Krebs was chronicling the cyber crime activity of Atrivo, another Northern California hosting company. Due to Krebs' reporting, Atrivo's hosting companies cut off connectivity to it, effectively knocking Atrivo offline.
Tags: spam e-mail; Silicon Valley; internet service providers; e-mail scams; cyber crime