Google, Mozilla and Microsoft have banned the DigiNotar Certificate Authority in their browsers.

<p><span style="color: #252525; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; background-color: #ffffff;"><p class="space-2 content fancy s-7" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px !important; margin-left: 0px; font-style: italic; font-size: 1.17em; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"> </p><div class="content-1 entry space-1 clear" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px !important; margin-left: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><span style="color: #005399; font-family: inherit;"><span style="cursor: pointer; font-style: inherit; border: initial initial initial;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-9338 aligncenter" height="355" src="http://i.zdnet.com/blogs/diginotar.jpg" style="font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: initial none initial;" width="376" /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">With the <strong style="font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: #005399; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">DigiNotar saga</strong><span style="color: #005399; font-family: inherit;"><span style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-style: inherit; cursor: pointer;"> </span></span>continuing, it’s time to summarize some of the current events surrounding it.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">According to multiple blog posts, <strong style="font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: #005399; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Google</strong><span style="color: #005399; font-family: inherit;"><span style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-style: inherit; cursor: pointer;">,</span></span> <strong style="font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: #005399; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Mozilla</strong><span style="color: #005399; font-family: inherit;"><span style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-style: inherit; cursor: pointer;"> </span></span>and <strong style="font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: #005399; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Microsoft</strong><span style="color: #005399; font-family: inherit;"><span style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-style: inherit; cursor: pointer;"> </span></span>have already banned the DigiNotar Certificate Authority in their browsers. This preemptive move comes as a direct response to the mess that DigiNotar created by issuing over 200 rogue certificates for legitimate web sites and services — see <strong style="font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: #005399; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">a complete list of the affected sites and services</strong><span style="color: #005399; font-family: inherit;"><span style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-style: inherit; cursor: pointer;">.</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Earlier this week, Google reported of <strong style="font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: #005399; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">attempted man-in-the-middle attacks</strong><span style="color: #005399; font-family: inherit;"><span style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-style: inherit; cursor: pointer;"> </span></span>executed against Google users, and most recently, TrendMicro offered insights into <strong style="font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: #005399; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">a large scale spying operation launched against Iranian web users</strong><span style="color: #005399; font-family: inherit;"><span style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-style: inherit; cursor: pointer;">.</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><span style="color: #005399; font-family: inherit;"><span style="cursor: pointer; font-style: inherit; border: initial initial initial;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-9339 aligncenter" height="320" src="http://i.zdnet.com/blogs/diginotar1.jpg" style="font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: initial none initial;" width="471" /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">According to TrendMicro:</p><blockquote style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 15px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 15px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: ''; color: #68737f; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">From analysis of Smart Protection Network data, we see that a significant part of Internet users who loaded the SSL certificate verification URL of Diginotar were from Iran on August 28, 2011. On August 30, 2011 most traffic from Iran disappeared and on September 2, 2011 about all of the Iranian traffic was gone and Diginotar received mostly Dutch Internet users, as expected.</p></blockquote><blockquote style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 15px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 15px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: ''; color: #68737f; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">These aggregated statistics from Trend Micro Smart Protection Network clearly indicates that Iranian Internet users were exposed to a large scale man-in-the-middle attack, where SSL encrypted traffic can be decrypted by a third party. For example: a third party probably was able to read all e-mail communication an Iranian Internet user has sent with his Gmail account.</p></blockquote><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Meanwhile, the <strong style="font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: #005399; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Dutch government issued a statement</strong><span style="color: #005399; font-family: inherit;"><span style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-style: inherit; cursor: pointer;"> </span></span>saying that it “cannot guarantee the security of its own websites” and is “taking over the company’s (DigiNotar) operations.”</p><blockquote style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 15px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 15px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: ''; color: #68737f; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">“the user of government sites no longer has the guarantee … that he is on the site where he wanted to be,” Interior Minister Piet Hein Donner said at a pre-dawn press conference.</p></blockquote><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Moreover, Illinois-based VASCO, which owns the Dutch-based DigiNotar <strong style="font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: #005399; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">issued the following statement</strong><span style="color: #005399; font-family: inherit;"><span style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-style: inherit; cursor: pointer;">:</span></span></p><blockquote style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 15px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 15px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: ''; color: #68737f; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">DigiNotar detected an intrusion into its Certificate Authority (CA) infrastructure, which resulted in the fraudulent issuance of public key certificate requests for a number of domains, including Google.com. Once it detected the intrusion, DigiNotar has acted in accordance with all relevant rules and procedures. At that time, an external security audit concluded that all fraudulently issued certificates were revoked. Recently, it was discovered that at least one fraudulent certificate had not been revoked at the time.  After being notified by Dutch government organization Govcert, DigiNotar took immediate action and revoked the fraudulent certificate.</p></blockquote><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Who’s behind the attacks? According to the <strong style="font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: #005399; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Tor Project</strong><span style="color: #005399; font-family: inherit;"><span style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-style: inherit; cursor: pointer;">, clues were found in one of the certificates, including messages in Farsi:</span></span></p></div></span></p>

Google, Mozilla and Microsoft have banned the DigiNotar Certificate Authority in their browsers.

  With the  DigiNotar saga   continuing, it’s time to summarize some of the current events surrounding it. According to multiple blog posts,...

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