Cyber Attacks, Threats, and Vulnerabilities
Turkish Finance Ministry Office Hacked, 2006-2010 Incoming & Outgoing Data Leaked by Anonymous (Hack Read) A supporter of Anonymous hacker going with the Twitter handle of @RunaGalande has claimed to hack and breach the official website of Turkish Finance Ministry Office, resulting in leaking for income and outgoing data online. Anonymous Turkey who contacted me on Twitter, revealed Turkish Finance Ministry Office hack few hours ago that shows 23 MB leaked data is in Turkish language which has been divided
Attack services and databases of personal details are widely available online (SC Magazine UK) "A marketplace offering cyber crime tools and services provides would-be criminals with an arsenal that can either be used as a component of a cyber attack or a handy way of outsourcing the process entirely. "This underground marketplace is enabling an
Hackers Aggressively Scanning ICS, SCADA Default Credentials, Vulnerabilities (Threatpost) Honeypots and honeynets have long been used as enticements to lure hackers into a false network in order to study attacks. While long a favorite of many high-end enterprises and security researchers studying attacks against traditional IT infrastructures, a number of industrial control system honeypots have also been deployed
Threat of the month: SCADA "sport fishing" (SC Magazine) SCADA is not just a focus because of its often critical deployments, but also because performing vulnerability research on SCADA systems is easy, like 1990's stack buffer overflow type-of-easy
Using nmap scripts to enhance vulnerability asessment results (Internet Storm Center) SCADA environments are a big interest for me. As responsible of the information security of an utility company, I need to ensure that risks inside those platforms are minimized in a way thay any control I place does not interfiere at all with the protocol and system function. That is why running things like metasploit or nexpose could be really dangerous if they are not well parameterized, as it could block the control to the RTU and IED and potentially cause a disaster if a system variable goes beyond control
The Morning Download: Energy Companies Face More Cyberattacks (Wall Street Journal) U.S. energy companies are being subjected to a huge increase in the number of attempted cyberattacks, according to a new report from the Department of Homeland Security. There were 111 cyber incidents reported by the energy sector during the six
Document management error exposes data on 187,500 Indiana residents (SC Magazine) A contractor serving the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) committed a programming error, which led to private documents being sent to the wrong people
Boston Teachers Union Suffers Security Breach (eSecurity Planet) The names and Social Security numbers of 506 members of the union's Health and Welfare Fund were mistakenly made available online
Extortionist Hackers Threaten to Leak Data from Swiss Web Hosting Firm Hoststar (Softpedia) The extortionist hackers of the Rex Mundi group are back. This time, they claim to have breached the systems of Hoststar, a Switzerland-based provider of web hosting services
Symbiotic malware work together to avoid anti-virus detection (Infosecurity Magazine) Malware known as Win32/Vobfus works in a symbiotic relationship with other malware, Microsoft security has uncovered
Ransomware & Cyber Extortion: Computers Under Siege (Kaspersky Lab Daily) Extortion, blackmail and ransom requests have always been cornerstones of criminal activity. In today's global internet economy, criminals are adapting their techniques by attempting to extort money from people using "Ransomware"
'Significant deficiencies' in VA cybersecurity (FierceGovIT) Significant deficiencies in configuration management and identity management pervaded Veterans Affairs Department information technology during the last fiscal year, says an audit commissioned by the department's office of inspector general
Economic Development Administration's year long comedy of incident response errors (FierceGovIT) The computer malware crisis that shook the Economic Development Administration to its virtual core--causing months of disruptions, the destruction of $175,000 worth of equipment and another $2.57 million in spending on contractors and temporary network infrastructure--was all based on a series of mistakes. There was no reason to disconnect the agency from its own information technology systems
EDA's journey into the cyber abyss (FierceGovIT) Gaze long into an abyss, and the abyss also gazes into you, is the easy way to sum up the Economic Development Administration 18 month long adventure of a botched malware incident response that came to a close only this past March--a time for which during parts the Commerce Department bureau shut itself off from the Internet, during which its workers "became reacquainted with their neighborhood post office and the beep-squeak-hiss of the fax spitting out paper," reported The Washington Post in a now unintentionally funny story
Exploiting the Twitter Underground for Fun and Profit (Threatpost) The underground economy on Twitter is still flourishing, and it appears to be a buyer's market for followers right now, with new research showing that the price for 1,000 followers has dropped nearly 50 percent in the last few months
Cyber Trends
Palantir: Financial institutions must collaborate to defeat cyber threats (Wired) "The relative inability of commercial organisations to share [cyber] threat information, to collaborate and to build off one another is hampering the resilience of the industry as a whole," says Palantir's Meline von Brentano, speaking at Wired Money
Phishing surge shows human element weakest link in cyber-defense (Infosecurity Magazine) Although the key part of the term "cyber-security" is certainly the "cyber" portion, Kaspersky Lab's David Emm argues that the human element of infosecurity is perhaps the most important
Advanced Threats, Imagination and Perception (Dark Reading) Why some industries are staring down the barrel but still don't know it, putting others at risk. It's no secret that the tech, defense industrial base and a select few other industries (which we'll call tier one targets) have been heavily targeted by advanced threat actors in recent years. However there exists a group of less discussed or publicized industries, who have found themselves subjected to targeted, often sophisticated attacks, are creating exposure for many of their clients and are only left with one question – why us? I'm often asked by business executives from this collective, to help characterize why they are now under the microscope of an adversary from a nation where they have no business, nor competitors; they don't have source code, industrial research or other intellectual property to steal and their finances pale in comparison to those of their adversary. So what gives
Cyber Insights Blog Warns Firms Against Ignoring Growing Cyber Security Threat. Vir2us CEO Looks to Make Top Execs Cyber Security Savvy. (Digital Journal) Vir2us CEO, Ed Brinskele blogs about what government security experts are calling next-generation cyber security; a new and different approach to a rapidly growing problem that, according to the U.S. Government, is costing global business up to $1 trillion annually. According to Rebecca Brown, spokesperson for Vir2us, Mr. Brinskele was responsible for the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) adopting new specifications for implementing next-generation cyber security for Smart Grid; a national project to overhaul the nation's aging power grid
Marketplace
Defense Contractors' Cyber Expertise Behind PRISM (Defense World) A string of U.S. and international defense contractors helped in developing the now infamous 'PRISM' and 'Boundless Informant' systems that spy's on American and international internet and telephone traffic. Defenseworld.net took a close look at the contractors which supplied equipment and expertise to the U.S. National Security Administration (NSA) to help develop the all-pervasive spying technology
DoD inks MDM, app store contract potentially costing $16M (FierceGovIT) The Defense Information Systems Agency has awarded a mobile device management and mobile application store contract that will serve as the foundation of the Defense Department's mobile implementation plan, announced the agency in a June 28 statement
Defense Contractors And Military Personnel Can't Fill In For Furloughed Civilians (GovExec.com) During furlough days set to begin July 8, Defense Department managers may not borrow military manpower nor step up assignments to contractors to make up for idled civilian employees, a Pentagon official directed on Friday
CSA Goes CSI with Forensics, Incident Management Working Group (Talkin' Cloud) The Cloud Security Alliance has formed a new working group that will focus on examining incident handling and forensics in cloud environments. The new Incident Management and Forensics Working Group was formed to create a better understanding of the
BAE Systems Detica's ATD to fight cyber-crime in Australia (Australian Defence Magazine) BAE Systems Detica has launched its Advanced Threat Detection (ATD) service in Australia in response to growing concerns around targeted cyber attacks with
AT&T Invests $80M in Three Foundry Centers (ExecutiveBiz) AT&T plans to invest $80 million in three foundry innovation centers as the company looks to help customers respond to challenges using technology, Washington Technology reported June 21
New Lockheed Org Aims to Boost Global Partnerships (ExecutiveBiz) Lockheed Martin has created a new organization that will aim to strengthen the company's relationships with customers and partners worldwide
Paul Lemmo Promoted to Lockheed SVP Role, Patrick Dewar to Lead New Intl Org (GovConWire) Paul Lemmo, formerly a vice president in Lockheed Martin's (NYSE: LMT) information systems and global solutions business, has been promoted to senior vice president of corporate strategy and business development
DoD steps up contractor performance assessments (FierceGovernment) The Defense Department has completed significantly more contractor performance assessments in recent years, in terms of both number and percentage, a report from the Government Accountability Office says
Cloud security managers are in demand (SC Magazine) Companies are increasingly incorporating cloud technologies to enhance business in the global market. This has increased demand for cloud security engineers to manage the advanced network security architecture
Defense Point Security, LLC Appoints Bryce Kunz as Vice President of Computer Network Exploitation (PRWeb) DPS, the choice provider of Cyber Security services to the Federal Government, announced the appointment of Bryce Kunz as Vice President of Computer Network Exploitation. Kunz is an avid researcher and developer in the field of network exploitation who creates real world solutions to help organizations effectively address the latest cyber threats
Products, Services, and Solutions
Special Forces, Marines Embrace CIA's Palantir Intelligence Software (Business Insider) Special forces and Marines are embracing the commercial software Palantir for analyzing battlefield intelligence even as the Army seeks to downplay its effectiveness, according to a new report from government auditors. Both U.S. Special Operations
GAO Report Conflicts With Army Over Battlefield Intelligence System (Washington Times) The Army's vaunted battlefield intelligence processor is "difficult to operate" and suffers "workstation system failures," a confidential government report says
Visual Tools Track Cyber Attacks In Real Time (TechWeekEurope UK) The image on the screen (see below) shows a cyber-attack in progress, but it doesn't look like the rows of reports that you usually expect to see as event data flows from intrusion prevention systems, next-generation firewalls and security reporting
Leading Data Erasure Vendor Tabernus Certified by NATO Information Assurance and British DIPCOG (SBWire) Tabernus, leader in Certified data erasure solutions, have announced today that the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) has formally Certified the latest version of Tabernus data erasure software, Enterprise Erase 5.3
First full Firefox OS smartphones to launch "this week" as operators around the world ready them for market (The Next Web) The first Firefox OS-based handsets aimed at consumers will go on sale as early as this week as operators around the world ready themselves to start selling the open source devices
EventTracker Launches Log Manager (Digital Journal) EventTracker, a leading provider of comprehensive SIEM solutions, announced today the general availability of EventTracker Log Manager, a robust log management solution designed to provide significant business value through proactive monitoring and real-time alerting for network and system administrators
Facebook introduces policy to prevent ads from showing up next to controversial content (FierceCMO) After several complaints from advertisers that their ads were appearing next to controversial content, Facebook announced that it is instituting a review policy to determine whether the content on Pages or Groups might be objectionable to advertisers or users. The upshot? Your ads will no longer appear next to sex toys, Facebook said
Technologies, Techniques, and Standards
How Enterprises Can Use Big Data To Improve Security (Dark Reading) Big data analytics could bring new capabilities to SIEM, security forensics
3 Steps For SMBs To Tame Their Mobile Threats (Dark Reading) Before jumping into managing employees' smartphones and tablets, companies should try a few other ways of protecting their data from non-business-owned devices
Combating attacks with collaborative threat intelligence (Help Net Security) Advanced Persistent Attacks (APTs) get most of the attention from the cyber security community because, as defenders, we want to be vigilant against the most insidious techniques. And let's face it
Hacking The Human Side Of The Insider Threat (Dark Reading) The details on how a young systems administrator for an NSA contractor was able to access and walk away with highly classified program information from the super-secretive agency may never be fully revealed, but the Edward Snowden case has spurred debate over how best to catch a rogue insider before he incurs any damage
Design and Innovation
Telecommuting, Serendipity, and Innovation (IEEE Spectrum) Does proximity spur collaboration? A new study finds it does
Research and Development
Teaching a computer to play Memory advances security (Help Net Security) Computer science researchers have programmed a computer to play the game Concentration (also known as Memory). The work could help improve computer security – and improve our understanding of how the
Study Confirms Quantum Computers are Actually Quantum (Slashdot) How do you confirm uncertainty? Who knows what's going on in there? Confirming anything whose defining characteristic is uncertainty is obviously difficult, even when the confirmation involves whether a computer sold two years ago works the way it's supposed to. Confirming that the first quantum computer developed and sold for commercial use uses specific quantum phenomena to perform calculations is a pretty complicated matter—especially when one of the phenomena in question is finding the simplest solution to a problem based on changes in probability
Academia
U.S. Cyber Challenge and Virginia Tech Hosted Successful Cyber Challenge (Broadway World) Virginia Tech, in partnership with US Cyber Challenge, hosted the US Cyber Challenge… SANS Institute senior instructors and other cyber security experts
Legislation, Policy, and Regulation
Obama: Many nations have intelligence agencies (USA TODAY) All that said, Obama said his team would speak with European counterparts about news reports that the National Security Agency has bugged European Union offices in Washington, New York and Brussels. Obama pointed out that he is "the end user of this
Cyber Command Suffers Second Defeat, Dump It (Cryptome) Cyber Command suffered its second defeat with the win of Edward Snowden. The first defeat was won by Bradley Manning. This suggests Cybercom deserves dissolution and a better command instituted, or, best, nothing like it
Indian embassy among 38 'targets' spied upon by US National Security Agency (Times of India) The Indian embassy in the US is among the list of 38 diplomatic missions which were being spied upon by American intelligence agencies, as per the latest top secret US National Security Agency documents leaked by whistleblower
US to Pressure China on Intellectual Property Cyber-Theft (IBTimes.co.uk) The meeting comes after the Department of Homeland Security issued a report to US businesses warning them of cyber-theft being committed by hackers based in both China and Saudi Arabia. The US is also in the midst of a scandal involving cyber-security
Outrage In Europe Grows Over Spying Disclosures (New York Times) Damage from the disclosures of United States spying on its European and Asian allies spread on Monday, threatening negotiations on a free trade agreement, hurting President Obamas standing in Europe and raising basic questions of trust among nations that have been on friendly terms for generations
Echoes Of Echelon In Charges Of NSA Spying In Europe (Wall Street Journal) It isn't the first time the U.S. has found itself in the center of a storm about spying on allies. The allegations that the National Security Agency spied on European Union institutions and friendly countries in continental Europe and further afield echo a furor of more than a decade ago
Europe's Faux Outrage on NSA Spying (Bloomberg) Captain Renault of the European Union is apparently shocked, shocked to find out that the U.S. has been spying on the EU's official communications. Some EU officials have called for suspending talks on a trans-Atlantic trade and investment partnership because, as Elmar Brok, chairman of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, put it, "How are you supposed to negotiate when you have to worry that your negotiating positions were intercepted?
Further deliberations on the Data Protection Regulation may be held in secret (Infosecurity Magazine) Article 42, the 'anti-FISA' clause, was quietly abandoned earlier this year. The PRISM revelations have fueled calls for its re-instatement; but that would complicate EU-US trade negotiations. Secrecy may be the solution
GOP Maj. Leader Eric Cantor On NSA And Investing In Small Government Technology (Tech Crunch) The House Republican Majority Leader and Congressman with the most charming southern drawl, Eric Cantor, sat down with me at The Atlantic's Aspen Ideas Festival for an interview on the National Security Agency, Immigration, and the conservative case for supporting government-funded technology
'Many misconceptions' in federal social media accessibility, says official (FierceGovIT) Agency accessibility requirements don't stop with federal websites; they extend to agencies' presence on social media as well
DoD subcontractor whistleblowers now protected (FierceGovernment) Starting July 1, Defense Department subcontractors will be covered under a protection provision that became law through the fiscal 2013 national defense authorization act
Litigation, Investigation, and Law Enforcement
Reports: Retired general target of leaks probe (Stamford Advocate) A former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is under investigation for allegedly leaking classified information about a covert cyberattack on Iran's nuclear facilities, according to media reports
Plug These Leaks (Washington Post) The best solution for both Mr. Snowden and the Obama administration would be his surrender to U.S. authorities, followed by a plea negotiation. It's hard to believe that the results would leave the 30-year-old contractor worse off than living in permanent exile in an unfree country. Sadly, the supposed friends of this naive hacker are likely advising him otherwise
Snowden damaged security of US: Bush (Business Standard) "I think he damaged the security of the country," Bush said on Snowden, the 30-year-old former technical contractor and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee who worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, a contractor for the US National Security Agency (NSA)
Snowden Is No Daniel Ellsberg (Washington Post) I pleaded last month for an end to the breathless comparisons between Edward Snowden and Daniel Ellsberg. News that the present-day intelligence leaker has asked Russia for asylum should put those comparisons to rest. Sure, Snowden made the same request of other nations. But flirting with Moscow is a credibility killer
Snowden speaks: by revoking passport, US gov't is "using citizenship as a weapon" (Ars Technica) Meanwhile, former President Bush says PRISM was designed "to protect the country." Today, Edward Snowden spoke for himself for the first time since being holed up in a Moscow airport over a week ago
Reddit to thwart the NSA's tracking plans with a gift exchange? Yup. (Venture Beat) Reddit's gift exchange service has come up with a rather unique way of derailing the NSA's over-reaching efforts to collect data on U.S. citizens. One of the ways the NSA is doing this is by tracking a large list of flagged keywords that are pretty common to everyday conversation. Sites like Motherboard.tv's "Hello, NSA" takes that list of terms and automatically generates a phrase using a few of them that you can then post all over the Internet. The purpose is to basically skew all of the NSA's efforts by going out of your way to mention these terms — thus making them less unique to terrorism (I mean, if they really were unique to terrorism in the first place.
The NSA's Mini-Coverups Are Out There (The Atlantic Wire) When President Obama referred to Edward Snowden as a "hacker," it might have been meant as an insult, but it was accurate. While National Security Agency officials have been referring to Snowden as a "systems administrator" -- which makes him sound like an unimportant office drone, an "IT guy," as many have called him -- he was actually an "infrastructure analyst," he told The Guardian. That means he was a kind of hacker, but he wasn't hacking the NSA, The New York Times's Scott Shane and David E. Sanger explain. He was hacking the world for the NSA. It's one of the many ways NSA and Obama administration officials have shaded the truth in the wake of Snowden's revelations. Here are some other little untruths, and at least one whopper
Snowden Asylum Requests Sent to 21 Countries: WikiLeaks (SecurityWeek) Fugitive US intelligence analyst Edward Snowden has submitted asylum requests to 19 more nations including Cuba, Venezuela, Brazil, India, China, Russia, Germany and France, Wikileaks said Monday
Kremlin: Snowden gives up on plan to stay in Russia (CNN) Edward Snowden has abandoned his effort to seek asylum in Russia after President Vladimir Putin warned that he would have to stop leaking information about U.S. surveillance programs if he wanted to stay, a Russian official said Tuesday
Snowden Can Stay in Russia if he Stops US Leaks: Putin (SecurityWeek) Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that his country had never extradited anyone before and added that US fugitive Edward Snowden could remain in Moscow if he stopped issuing his leaks
Prosecutors Near the End of Their Case Against Bradley Manning (Reason) After parking and having the car I was using sniffed by a dog I and fewer than twenty other journalists drove with an escort to a small hall near the courtroom where Pfc. Bradley Manning's trial was being live-streamed. The auditorium
Prosecutors: Al-Qaeda Studied WikiLeaks Records (Washington Post) Al-Qaeda leaders reveled in WikiLeaks' publication of reams of classified U.S. documents, urging members to study them before devising ways to attack the United States, according to evidence presented by the prosecution Monday in the court-martial of an Army private who leaked the material
Detective's stolen laptop risks data of 2,300 in Washington state (SC Magazine) An unencrypted laptop was stolen from a Washington state detective's vehicle, exposing the data of thousands of people, including crime victims, witnesses, suspects and police
N.Y. Webmaster Arrested for Cyber Attack on Former Employer (eSecurity Planet) Google, Verizon and Optimum Online provided customer data in support of the FBI's investigation. Christopher Gardner, a British citizen living in New York, was recently arrested by the FBI and charged with breaching his former employer, the newspaper publisher Dan's Papers, and disabling the company's Web site
Bulgarian National Charged In Largest Identity Theft Ring Extradited To Face Indictment (Dark Reading) Shadowcrew.com was an illegal online marketplace that trafficked in at least 1.5 million stolen credit and bank card numbers
Anonymous Hacker Dr. Evil caught and charged (Cyberwarzone) Michael Mancil Brown, who allegedly called himself "Dr. Evil" on the internet, has been charged with six counts of extortion and six counts of wire fraud for attempting to extract $1 million in Bitcoins from Mitt Romney
Facebook abuse tops cyber crime chart in Indian Punjab (Hack Read) In the state of Punjab, India, 170 cyber-crime complaints have been made in total and the state has topped the chart of such crimes. The latest complaint was made by a local resident man who uses Facebook and the compliant was his son and wife is threatening him through this online platform. The platform has been believed to be medium which helps people bringing closer, but it is turning out to be opposite
