Cyber Attacks, Threats, and Vulnerabilities
Official websites of WWF and Earth Hour Philippines Hacked by Indonesian hackers (HackRead) The official websites of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Earth Hour Philippines have been hacked and defaced by Indonesian based hacking group Gantengers Crew
Hacktivists Target Philippines Government Sites in Protest Against Cybercrime Law (Softpedia) Anonymous hackers have once again targeted several websites of the Philippines government. The hacktivists are protesting against a provision of the Cybercrime Prevention Act that violates freedom of speech
Scientists demonstrate first contagious airborne WiFi virus (PhysOrg) Researchers at the University of Liverpool have shown for the first time that WiFi networks can be infected with a virus that can move through densely populated areas as efficiently as the common cold spreads between humans
Mac users warned against using public Wi-Fi networks (MacWorld) Connecting to unsecured networks not advisable for Apple users until patch is released for vulnerability
Mac malware spread disguised as cracked versions of Angry Birds, Pixelmator and other top apps (Graham Cluley) Mac users are warned not to download pirated software from file-sharing peer-to-peer networks, as ESET researchers have discovered Bitcoin-stealing malware being spread via cracked apps. Learn more in my article on the We Live Security blog
British Airways e-ticket malware attack launched via email (WeLiveSecurity) If you have received an unexpected email, claiming to come from British Airways, about an upcoming flight that you haven't booked — please be on your guard
IE Zero-day Exploit Being Used in Widespread Attacks (CIO) The exploit is being distributed from many compromised websites around the world, researchers from Symantec said
Dissecting the newest IE10 0-day exploit (CVE-2014-0322) (Bromium Labs) Few days ago the news about a fresh Internet Explorer 10 zero-day exploit popped up. Now the exploit code is publicly available and we managed to analyze the vulnerability and find out some details that were not mentioned so far. At the time of writing this blog, this exploit is still unpatched
ZeuS KICKS that SaaS: Trojan raids Salesforce.com accounts (The Register) Miscreants have forged a variant of the infamous ZeuS banking Trojan that targets enterprise data held by clients of CRM giant Salesforce.com
Android Botnets Hop on the TOR Train (Malwarebytes Unpacked) Botnet creators have attempted numerous tactics for hiding their presence, traffic and locations of their command and control (CnC) servers
EC-Council Says Its Servers Haven't Been Hacked (Softpedia) The EC-Council denies that its website has been hacked. The organization says that the hacker simply redirected the site's visitors via a DNS hijack to a defacement page hosted with a company located in Finland
Are you sure you want to unsubscribe from our mailings? (SecureList) Spammers are relentless in their attempts to bypass anti-spam filters and confuse recipients of spam. Recently we detected a mass mailing disguised as an automated reply to a request to unsubscribe from a news blog. The authors noted their regret at losing one of their subscribers and asked if the user really wanted to unsubscribe
Non-profit tax forms posted by IRS expose 630,000 SSNs (Help Net Security) An estimated 630,000 social security numbers (SSNs) on non-profit organizations' tax returns—Form 990s—have been posted online by charities and the IRS since 2001, leaving unprotected consumers at risk
How a founder almost lost his entire startup to social engineering (FierceCIO: TechWatch) The co-founder of a tech startup recently shared the story of how he almost lost access to his company's online service, which was hosted entirely on Amazon's EC2 cloud infrastructure. This was an almost eerie reenactment of what happened to a developer who lost his $50k Twitter account, with the only exception being that disaster was averted in this instance—though only narrowly so
Dubai residents falling victims to sexual blackmail via social media (Emirates 24/7) Professional gangs lured men to appear naked in the front of webcams, recorded scenes and then blackmail them
Wot a COCKUP: Poorly NHS websites spawn SPAMMY VIAGRA ads (The Register) Up to individual orgs to deal with security, sniffs HSCIC
Stolen Laptop Exposes 1,100 Indianapolis Hospital Patients' Data (eSecurity Planet) The unencrypted laptop contained patients' names, birthdates, genders, dates of service, types of service and physician names
Memphis Police Department Acknowledges Year-Old Data Breach (eSecurity Planet) An undisclosed number of Social Security numbers and driver's license numbers were exposed in April of 2013
Security Patches, Mitigations, and Software Updates
Apple releases OS X 10.9.2 patching SSL vulnerability and updates Safari (Internet Storm Center) Apple has released an update for OS X which patches the SSL vulnerability discussed by Rick on Sunday. For more information visit Apple's page about it. In addition, Apple has also released a security update for Safari and QuickTime
If You Haven't Updated to iOS 7.0.6, Do it NOW so You Don't Get Hacked (Complex Tech) "It's as bad as you could imagine, that's all I can say," Johns Hopkins University cryptography professor, Matthew Green, told Reuters
Microsoft testing EMET's new protection mechanisms (Help Net Security) Just as researchers made public their successful attempt of creating attack code for bypassing the protections of the latest version of Microsoft's Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (v4.1), the Redmond giant has announced the preview release of EMET 5.0
Cyber Trends
Cybersecurity threats against aviation on the rise (FierceITSecurity) Cybersecurity threats targeting airports, airlines and air traffic control systems are on the rise, creating a $1.7 billion opportunity for IT security providers this year, estimates market research firm Visiongain
Grayware: Casting a Shadow over the Mobile Software Marketplace (Symantec) One of the most problematic areas in mobile security today is "grayware." The dividing line between legitimate software and malware is not clearly drawn and grayware often occupies this murky middle ground
Is Cyber Resilience the Future of Cyber Security? (IT Governance Blog) Forward thinking leaders, including Alan Calder, founder of IT Governance Ltd, predict that "cyber resilience will become a big thing in the next 5 years"
Nearly half of companies assume they have been compromised (Help Net Security) A majority of organizations are operating under the assumption that their network has already been compromised, or will be, according to a survey conducted by the SANS Institute on behalf of Guidance Software
New Survey Indicates Rise Of Data Loss In Education Sector (Information Security Buzz) Almost half of respondents to a survey by iStorage at education technology show Bett 2014 reveal losing portable storage devices containing confidential data
IT leaders indifferent to unknown threats generated by mobile, cloud technology (FierceITSecurity) IT leaders are not concerned about unknown security threats generated by BYOD, mobility, cloud computing and Internet usage, according to a survey of 1,440 global IT leaders by Vanson Bourne on behalf of Dell
Australian companies are world's second most-attacked: Fortinet (CSO) Customers in Australia comprised a third of all malware victims reported to security research facility FortiGuard Labs during 2013, according to new figures in Fortinet's 2014 Threat Landscape Report
Marketplace
BlackBerry's Chen Would Consider BBM Sale, Spinoff in Future (Bloomberg BusinessWeek) BlackBerry Ltd. (BBRY:US) Chief Executive Officer John Chen said he'd eventually consider spinning off or selling the smartphone maker's BlackBerry Messenger service once he's built it into a more formidable competitor
IBM Buys Cloudant, Eyes Amazon's Turf (InformationWeek) IBM's planned Cloudant buy will advance cloud-based database services, but can the underlying database compete against Amazon DynamoDB, MongoDB, Couchbase, and DataStax
Mt.Gox has VANISHED. So where have all the Bitcoins gone? (The Register) Rumours swirl of buyout, 750,000 AWOL BTC
Bitcoin's life-or-death moment (BBC) Like many, I am gripped by the concept of Bitcoin. I am not talking about the value of the individual bits of the new virtual currency, which has had a somewhat volatile history and is currently spiralling down
Mt Gox is dying. That's a good thing for Bitcoin. (The Week) Bitcoin can do better than an overwhelmed website formerly known as a hub for trading Magic the Gathering cards
The bitcoin industry embraces what it was built to avoid—rules and regulation (Quartz) Bitcoin was designed to be unregulated by any government or central authority. But according to some of the cryptocurrency's biggest supporters, the crash of the prominent bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox is the latest sign that bitcoin needs to adopt some sort of oversight if it is going to survive and thrive
Panda Security Positioned As "Visionary" in of Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms (PRWeb) Company moves from 'Niche Players' to 'Visionaries' Quadrant
Working with security customers and vendors (TechDay) Hamish Soper, Check Point Software Technologies New Zealand country manager looks at strategies to create real value for customers when selling security
Emanuele Conti Named Kroll CEO; Charlie Gottdiener Comments (Executive Mosaic) Emanuele A. Conti, Dun & Bradstreet North America president, will become the chief executive at Kroll Inc., effective April 1. Conti will be responsible for all operations at Kroll, a global provider of cybersecurity solutions, data, information and ediscovery services, the company announced Monday
CSG Invotas Introduces Board of Advisors (Wall Street Journal) CSG Invotas, the exciting new enterprise security business from CSG International, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSGS), today announced the addition of two new members to its advisory board
Cyber Defense Magazine Names RiskVision Most Innovative Risk Management Product of 2014 (Herald Online) Agiliance®, Inc., the Big Data Risk Company™ and leading independent provider of integrated solutions for Operational and Security Risk programs, today announced that Cyber Defense Magazine (CDM) has named RiskVision™ Most Innovative Risk Management Product in its 2014 Most Innovative InfoSec Awards competition
How investors should play the cybersecurity war (CNBC) As companies and governments battle to protect their systems from the threat of online attacks and malware, Bank of America Merrill Lynch has published a list of stocks that could gain from the global drive to improve cybersecurity
Products, Services, and Solutions
Fighting malware with malware logic, Shape Security secures $40M (VentureBeat) Shape Security adopts one of malware's key strategies — altering its code to avoid detection — to protect enterprises from cyberattacks. It calls its product ShapeShifter
Damballa Addresses Advanced Threat Protection with HP (Yahoo Finance) Damballa, the experts in advanced threat protection and containment, today announced technology interoperability with HP that provides enhanced visibility of advanced threats within a network, automating and streamlining prevention and remediation. As a result, enterprises can reduce time to containment and the manpower required to keep up with advanced threat
Booz Allen Unveils New Approach to Address Reform; Angela Zutavern Comments (Executive Mosaic) Booz Allen Hamilton has rolled out a program designed to help enterprises deal with what Angela Zutavern, vice president and Strategic Innovation Group leader, terms as the "new normal" of constant change associated with reforms and compliance
RSA announces Managed Security Partner programme (Computer Weekly) RSA, the security division of EMC, has announced a programme designed to enable a new generation of managed security services
Skybox Security Announces Skybox View Enterprise Suite 7.0 (Fort Mill Times) Skybox Security, the leading provider of risk analytics for cyber security, today announced the achievement of a record milestone for integrations with network devices and security management systems, continuing Skybox Security's lead as the most comprehensive context-aware analytics solution for enterprise IT security
Blue Ridge® Networks and AOL Partner to Bring AOL Tech Fortress Powered by AppGuard® to AOL Members (PRNewswire) Blue Ridge Networks, a leading provider of cybersecurity solutions to government, enterprises and consumers, today announced that AOL has commenced distribution of AOL Tech Fortress powered by AppGuard to its members
Guidance Software and Blue Coat Join Forces to Provide a 360-Degree View of Advanced Threats and Security Risks (Wall Street Journal) Guidance Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:GUID), the World Leader in Digital Investigations™, and Blue Coat Systems, Inc., the market leader in business assurance technology, today announced that they are partnering to deliver a groundbreaking approach for detecting evasive cyber threats. The partnership will integrate EnCase® Cybersecurity with the Blue Coat Security Analytics Platform to provide an unprecedented level of visibility into both network traffic and endpoint devices that will enable enterprises to close the gap between breach and detection
WhitePages Current For Android Now Protects Against "One Ring" Scam (TechCrunch) WhitePages Current, a free Caller and text identification application for Android users, has been updated today to counter the plague that is the "one ring scam." In case you're unfamiliar, scammers are now trying to exploit smartphone owner's "missed call" screen by programmatically dialing thousands of numbers per hour, all of which they immediately hang up on after just one ring
Free vulnerability management service for SMBs (Help Net Security) Tripwire debuted Tripwire SecureScan, a free, cloud-based vulnerability management service for up to 100 Internet Protocol (IP) addresses on internal networks
Free cloud anti-spam email service for small businesses (Help Net Security) Halon Security announced Inumbo.com, a contract-free, pay-as-you-go cloud anti-spam email service for small businesses
Identify and fix vulnerabilities in your SSL certificates (Help Net Security) DigiCert announced DigiCert Certificate Inspector, a tool designed to quickly find problems in certificate configuration and implementation, and provide real-time analysis of an organization's entire certificate landscape, including SSL termination endpoints
Cisco Quantum Virtualized Packet Core Demonstrates Industry-Leading Portability, Enabling Service Providers to Offer Mobile Internet Services (Wall Street Journal) At the GSMA Mobile World Congress 2014, Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced that its Cisco Quantum(TM) Virtualized Packet Core (Quantum vPC), a software solution of the new Cisco Evolved Services Platform
FireEye launches security platform with 24/7 threat monitoring (ZDNet) FireEye has launched a managed defense subscription service to give enterprise users 24x7 continuous monitoring against cyberattacks
First Anti-Mobile Malware Diagnostics Solution Is NOW Available (Information Security Buzz) Cellebrite, the leading provider of retail mobile data solutions, and Webroot, a leader in cloud-based security intelligence solutions, today announced a technology partnership
A Closer Look At Blackphone, The Android Smartphone That Simplifies Privacy (TechCrunch) One of the more interesting devices here at Mobile World Congress is Blackphone: a pro-privacy handset being developed by Spanish startup Geeksphone, in partnership with U.S. security company Silent Circle using a "security-oriented" Android build called PrivatO
Veracode Launches Software Composition Analysis Service (Dark Reading) Integrates software composition analysis (SCA) with application security analysis in a cloud-based platform
Technologies, Techniques, and Standards
Cloud security tools only half the battle against shadow IT (TechTarget) A majority of businesses reported they bypass corporate IT departments to deploy cloud services; what are IT pros to
Not Your Typical Hackathon: Symantec's Cyberwar Simulation Transforms Employees into Criminals (Fast Company) For years, tech companies have turned to hackathons to rapidly build new products, foster team bonding, spur innovation—and squeeze out extra man hours from employees. But at Symantec's Mountain View, Calif., headquarters last week, the security software company hosted a different kind of hackathon: Employees were tasked with breaking into a fictitious bank
ICANN SSAC on DDoS, DNS and BCP 38 (Spamhaus) ICANN's Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) document Advisory on DDoS Attacks Leveraging DNS Infrastructure, published this week, provides a much-needed touchstone for the Internet in its current state. DDoS attacks, such as the one directed at Spamhaus last spring, continue to grow in size
Design and Innovation
A Plan to Rebuild Computer Security From the Ground Up (Wired) Martin Casado once worked on some of the most secure computer networks ever built. And keeping them secure, he says, was a complete nightmare
The Fingerprint Scanner On The Samsung Galaxy S5 Will Be Accessible By Developers (TechCrunch) Samsung's Galaxy S5 includes a fingerprint scanner embedded in the home button, and that hardware will be made available to third-party devs, the company announced
Research and Development
DARPA Targets Counterfeit Electronics (InformationWeek) Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's SHIELD program aims to develop a method to authenticate electronic components
DARPA seeks to automate battlefield decision aids (GCN) Today's battlefield commanders have a spectrum of flexible and powerful tools, including manned and unmanned platforms, weapons, sensors and electronic warfare systems that interact over robust satellite and tactical communications links
Google's Schmidt: We don't (yet) have a connection inside your brain (C/Net) Google's Schmidt: We don't (yet) have a connection inside your brain. In conversation with Glenn Beck, Google's executive chairman explains that humans can still occasionally be useful — for now
A New Laser for a Faster Internet (California Institute of Technology) A new laser developed by a research group at Caltech holds the potential to increase by orders of magnitude the rate of data transmission in the optical-fiber network—the backbone of the Internet
Academia
MSU makes top three in cybersecurity education ranking (Mississippi Business Journal) According to a Hewlett Packard-sponsored survey by the Ponemon Institute, Mississippi State University's cybersecurity courses and degree programs rank among the top three for academic excellence and practical relevance
Legislation, Policy, and Regulation
White House Weighs Four Options for Revamping NSA Phone Surveillance (Wall Street Journal) Proposals range from running program through phone companies to ditching it altogether
Le rapport interministériel sur la cybercriminalité à nouveau reporté (PCINpact) Avec trois mois de retard sur le calendrier initial, les conclusions du groupe de travail interministériel sur la cybercriminalité seront remises au gouvernement la semaine prochaine. Jean-Marc Ayrault en a fait l'annonce ce matin, lors de l'inauguration des nouvelles installations de l'Agence nationale de la sécurité des systèmes d'information
DHS intelligence nominee pledges to provide industry better threat data (Inside Cybersecurity) Francis Taylor, the White House's nominee to be the Department of Homeland Security's under secretary for intelligence and analysis (I&A), said Tuesday that if he is confirmed by the Senate he will improve the threat information that DHS provides industry
NATO debates policy for cyber defense of public and private sectors (Inside Cybersecurity) The prospect that NATO might formally do more to prevent and mitigate cyber threats to governments and critical infrastructure looms this week as the alliance prepares for a defense ministerial in Belgium that will pave the way for a major fall summit in Wales
Litigation, Investigation, and Law Enforcement
NSA watchdog: Snowden should have come to me (Politico) The National Security Agency's top watchdog slammed Edward Snowden on Tuesday for failing to follow official protocol in relaying his concerns about wayward intelligence gathering and also faulted Congress for not vetting the details of post-9/11 surveillance programs
Japanese authorities looking into Mt. Gox amid US subpoena report (TechWorld) Tokyo is trying to grasp the facts surrounding the bitcoin exchange, which has been shut down
Settlement talks in landmark data-breach case postponed (Inside Cybersecurity) A federal district court has postponed for more than two months a settlement conference in a data-breach case that could determine the Federal Trade Commission's authority to require security measures
Surveillance evangelist arrested in California in bribery investigation (Ars Technica) Jose Susumo Azano Matsura wanted to expand his spying business in the US
Stoke-on-Trent man, 43, to be charged with attack on Home Office and Theresa May websites (Stoke Sentinel) Mark Lynden Johnson was arrested after Theresa May's website and the Home Office site suffered a cyber attack in 2012
Twitter restores $50,000 @N username to its owner (Ars Technica) A simple social engineering attack lost Naoki Hiroshima a very valuable handle
Two Men Jailed for Identity Theft at Medical Lab (eSecurity Planet) Angelo Ponds and Sean Guillaume were sentenced to 48 months and 94 months in prison, respectively
