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 "network security" ...
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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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Justice in the Shadows
Although immigration is one of America’s most divisive, visceral, and hotly debated issues, the public rarely gets a close look at the vast law enforcement network that every year detains more than 400,000 suspected illegal immigrants. Courts often operate inside prisons, far from view. Immigration officials play by rules that would not be permitted for the police or the FBI. Here is a system heavily shielded from public scrutiny. Reporting even routine activities is a challenge. Boston Globe reporters Maria Sacchetti and Milton J. Valencia, however, penetrated the wall of secrecy. Their three-part series, “Justice in the Shadows,” revealed a dysfunctional and largely unaccountable system that locks up people who pose little threat while releasing dangerous criminals back to US streets because their home countries won’t take them back. The results, Sacchetti and Valencia showed, at times can be deadly for Americans and foreigners alike. The reporting was anything but quick or easy. Sacchetti and Valencia filed more than 20 Freedom of Information Act requests to federal agencies that comprise the immigration system. Nearly all of them were partially or wholly denied, purportedly to protect the privacy of the immigrants. With the federal government blocking the way, Sacchetti and Valencia found other avenues to document what was happening inside this Byzantine system, investing a year to do so. The effort to shed light on the immigration system continues: The Globe has filed a federal lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security to force the agency to reveal the names of more than 8,000 criminal foreigners released in the US because they couldn’t be deported.
Tags: security; Department of Homeland Security; illegal immigrants; FBI
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Cyber-War
The series contains three articles detailing the extent of computer breaches, technology blunders and data theft that puts the U.S. defense industry, military and space agency in a vulnerable position.
Tags: NASA; Booz Allen Hamilton; computer; satellite; national security; espionage; microchip; networks;
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"Greekgate" and "Italygate"
Two pieces aired on Al Jezeera's "People and Power" program, "Greekgate" and "Italygate" investigate two big cover-ups and possible murders in the European countries. In "Greekgate," the author looked at "the biggest espionage scandal in Greek history, involving the wiretapping of leading members of the government including the prime minister," leading to the mysterious death of the head of the network's technical operations. "Italygate" reported on the death of Adamo Bove, the head of security at Telecom Italia, who died under mysterious circumstances.
Tags: scandal; cover-up; wiretapping; Greek; espionage; death; murder; policeman; Adamo Bove; Military Secrete Services
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Enemies at the Gate
"This hour-long NBC News broadcast is an unprecedented investigation into the international black market in passports. It exposes what the head of Interpol considers a "gaping hole" in global security, especially in terms of terrorism."
Tags: black market; passports; criminal networks; fraudulent identity papers; document brokers;
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Whistle Blower Outs NSA Spy Room
In San Francisco, a "secret Internet switching room packed with surveillance gear and wired to AT&T's backbone network" was interconnected to other major Internet providers. The documents detailing this setup had been sealed due to a class-action lawsuit against AT&T, in which a civil liberties group "charged that the company had helped the government eavesdrop on Americans' domestic and international Internet traffic without a warrant."
Tags: Internet; national security; government eavesdropping; Web surveillance; AT&T; NSA
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A million LIttle Pixels
Kansas City's Pitch Weekly reporter David Martin pokes holes in claims made by entrepreneur John FLowers, who got $500,000 in venture capital support from Kansas state's Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation.
Tags: Kozoru; background checks; venture capital; skunk works; computer hacker; DefCon; network security; Hiverworld; nCircle; natural language; Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation; KTEC; OPen Prairie Equity Partners; David Warthen; Ridgely Evers; Ask Jeeves; open records; instant messaging; mobile devices; cell phone; Wikipedia; Industry Ventures; reality-challenged statements
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Trouble on the Farm: From Research to Waste
This investigation of animal neglect at the University of Nevada, Reno revealed that: administrators set up a camera in a smoke detector outside a faculty whistleblower's lab; students alleged late-night intruders tampered with e-coli experiments to discredit the professor; a network of unregulated "homeland security" cameras kept the campus under surveillance; "valueless" sheep injected with human stem cells were sent to a university ranch as part of a weed eradication project and were swiftly killed by predators. And, although the University denied all the animal abuse allegations, the USDA cited it for 46 violations in May and another 10 in October, which included many of the same neglects documented in the story.
Tags: University of Nevada - Reno; animal abuse; animal neglect; United States Department of Agriculture; USDA; surveillance; human stem cells; e-coli
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Border Insecurity
The series examined the vulnerability of America's borders despite the millions spent to secure them after September 11, 2001. Stories focused on smuggling networks that channel thousands of illegal immigrants from 'special interest countries' (nations identified by the government as fostering terrorism)into the US; on the so-called 'catch and release' policy that frees large numbers of illegal immigrants with a court notice-to-appear that many ignore; and on the continued lack of monitoring on large stretches of the U.S.-Canada border, which has allowed some serious breeches.
Tags: border security; gangs; human trafficking; terrorism; Department of Homeland Security; special interest countries; catch-and-release policy; Border Patrol; FOIA
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Hacker Hunters
The authors investigated a battle of wits between the U.S. secret service and a cyber-crime gang known as the ShadowCrew. The story covers a rare victory by law enforcement to shut down a web-based crime outfit. It gave a face to the ShadowCrew, a network of over 4,000 people run by a part time college student and gave a reminder to internet users to be wary of doing business on the Web.
Tags: Internet; cyber-crime; web-based crime outfit; ShadowCrew; the U.S. Secret Service; e-business; Internet security