Morning Security Brief: Shahzad Pleads Guilty, Afghan Protection Racket, DoS Attacks, Cyberdefense, & Base Security

♦ Failed Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad pled guilty to 10 counts of terrorism and weapons charges yesterday in federal court and had a message for the United States: "I'm going to plead guilty a hundred times over because until the hour the U.S. pulls its forces from Iraq and Afghanistan and stops the drone strikes ... we will be attacking the U.S.," reports New York's Daily News. He faces life in prison.

♦ The United States military has indirectly bought off Afghan warlords, corrupt public officials, and Taliban insurgents to allow supply convoys to pass through the country unscathed, according to a congressional report called "Warlord, Inc." "The security arrangements, part of a $2.16 billion transport contract, violate laws on the use of private contractors, as well as Defense Department regulations, and 'dramatically undermine' larger U.S. objectives of curtailing corruption and strengthening effective governance in Afghanistan," reports The Washington Post, in what it describes as a "massive protection racket."

♦ You've heard of hackers using denial-of-service attacks to take down Web sites. Now some criminals have tweaked the tactic and aimed it at telephone lines, warns the FBI. "Why are they doing it?" asks the feds rhetorically. "Turns out the calls are simply a diversionary tactic: while the lines are tied up, the criminals—masquerading as the victims themselves—are raiding the victims’ bank accounts and online trading or other money management accounts."

♦ The Pentagon's way out there R&D agency Darpa is taking criticism for not producing a "cyberwar range" fast enough. The replica Internet will be used to run cyberwar tests and shore up the nation's defenses, reports Noah Shachtman at Wired.com's Danger Room blog. "But now, some in the armed services are grumbling that Darpa isn’t working quickly enough on this all-important, $130 million mission," he writes, adding the Navy, the National Security Agency, and the Air Force are all building Internet programs of their own.

♦ There's been a surge of security incidents at U.S. military bases recently, but there's no evidence any of the incidents are connected to terrorism in anyway, reports CNN.com. Yesterday, a deliveryman told a guard at the Naval Air Engineering Station in Lakehurst, New Jersey, that he had a legal firearm on him at the same time reports of gunfire occurring at another gate at the base. The base was locked down for an hour and the deliveryman was allowed to leave.