The CyberWire Daily Briefing for 1.8.2014
Sweden's FRA laconically acknowledges that the country sustained a number of cyber attacks from foreign intelligence services during 2013.
It's difficult to find a good word to say about cyber fraudsters, but here at least one might say the criminal ecosystem is a relatively healthy one, with predators culling the right prey: cyber stalkers are found particularly vulnerable to cyber fraud (at least so says Bitdefender).
The Target point-of-sale breach highlights a common problem: large volumes of data accessible to a single user (or process).
Guccifer (Romanian intelligence still hot on his heels) took an obvious approach to cracking celebrity security questions: names of pets, high schools, etc. are freely available on Wikipedia and elsewhere.
The World-of-Warcraft hack is interesting in defeating two-factor authentication, puzzling in that such skill would be deployed to so little purpose.
Zeus is back in the news, targeting 64-bit systems and smaller banks (lucrative in themselves, more so as gateways to bigger partners) and also using more sophisticated evasion techniques.
Two takedowns remain success stories: ZeroAccess seems gone, and a successor to BlackHole is proving difficult to find. Redkit, on the other hand, may have returned in an enhanced version.
Industry observers continue to publish trend stories. One, in ;login;logout's "This World of Ours," is a sensible (and funny) appreciation of how security professionals communicate.
In industry news, analysts look at FireEye and Palo Alto acquisitions and think they see an opportunity not seized: counter-surveillance. BAE preps a major push into the US cyber market.
Notes.
Today's issue includes events affecting Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, European Union, France, Germany, Iran, Ireland, Pakistan, Romania, Russia, Sweden the United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and United States..
For a complete running list of events, please visit the Event Tracker.
Upcoming Events
U.S. Department of Commerce Technology Expo (, Jan 1, 1970) Department of Commerce is interested in hearing from you! The OCIO Office is specifically looking for speakers on Vulnerability Management and Implementation of Continuous Monitoring. Please contact your FBC representative to submit an abstract today.
FBI HQ Cloud Computing Vendor Day (, Jan 1, 1970) As part of its FAR mandated market research efforts and in order to keep FBI employees informed of new products, technologies and services available in the industry, ITED has been tasked with organizing four 'Vendor Days' a year focusing on technology that can enhance current IT capabilities. These market research events will enhance exposure for all Department of Justice (DOJ)/Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) employees to new products and services and to have an opportunity to interact directly with the industry. Vendor days are for demo purposes only and are designed to facilitate FBI market research efforts. Attending vendors shall make all inquiries concerning pending or future FBI requirements to the cognizant FBI contracting officer.
Creech AFB Technology & Cyber Security Expo (, Jan 1, 1970) The Armed Forces Communications & Electronics Association (AFCEA) - Las Vegas Chapter, with support from the 432d Wing, will host a Cyber Security Awareness Day & Technology Expo at Creech AFB. This is an excellent opportunity for technology, cyber and tactical technology companies to meet with remote personnel at Creech AFB. At the 1st Annual event held in February 2013 over 100 Creech AFB personnel attended this event. Some of their job descriptions included: Commander, Flight Chief, Communications Officer in Charge, IT Lead, Systems Admin, Wing Training, Information Assurance Officer, Knowledge Management, Section Chief, Avionics, Physical Security, Project Manager, Director and more.
27th Annual Federal Information Systems Security Educators' Association (FISSEA) Conference (, Jan 1, 1970) The 27th Annual Federal Information Systems Security Educators' Association (FISSEA) Conference will be held at the National Institute of Standards and Technology on March 18-20, 2014, exhibits will be on display March 19 only. This year's theme "Partners in Performance: Shaping the Future of Cybersecurity Awareness, Education, and Training" will focus on developing a better understanding of current information systems/cybersecurity projects, emerging trends, and initiatives. Through numerous high quality sessions, approximately 200 attendees will learn new ways to improve their IT security program and practical solutions to training problems while earning Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credits. The vendor fair gives attendees a tactical look at the products and services available to meet their professional goals.
NSA Hawaii (, Jan 1, 1970) Be a part of the 2nd Annual Information Technology Expo set to take place at the new National Security Agency (NSA) Regional Operations Center in Wahiawa, HI. The event is being sponsored once again by the NSA Hawaii NSA/CSS Technology Directorate. The focus of this event will be Cyber Security, Big Data and Cloud Computing technologies but all interested companies are welcome to exhibit.
Cyber COMSEC and IT Day at Fort Huachuca (, Jan 1, 1970) This one-day vendor expo is a unique opportunity to demonstrate your products and services to military and civilian personnel at Fort Huachuca. Exhibitors will have a casual atmosphere to share ideas, concerns and build relationships with the men and women of Fort Huachuca.
Fort Meade Technology Expo (, Jan 1, 1970) The Ft. Meade Technology Expo is a one-day event held at the Officers' Club (Club Meade) on base. Industry vendors will have the unique opportunity to showcase their products and services to personnel that may otherwise be unattainable.
NSA SIGINT Development Conference 2014 (, Jan 1, 1970) This classified conference will focus on the preeminent intelligence issues facing those who are tasked with SIGINT as part of their mission. Over 1500 participants from the US intelligence community and throughout the world will attend this conference.
FloCon2014 (Charleston, South Carolina, USA, Jan 13 - 16, 2014) FloCon 2014, a network security conference, takes place at the Francis Marion Hotel in Charleston, South Carolina, on January 13–16, 2014. This open conference provides a forum for operational network analysts, tool developers, researchers, and other parties interested in the analysis of large volumes of traffic to showcase the next generation of flow-based analysis techniques.
NASA Langley Cyber Expo (Hampton, Virginia, USA, Jan 14, 2014) The 2013 NASA Langley Cyber Expo is an annual event dedicated to Cyber Security and Information Technology at this secure facility. As the Cyber Expo hosts, the Office of the Chief Information Officer will be recruiting top federal speakers to provide informational sessions on relevant Cyber issues. Industry exhibitors may sit in on the sessions.This event will be promoted to all NASA Cyber and IT-focused personnel, as well as the entire workforce at this location.
Federal Intel Summit (, Jan 1, 1970) The Potomac Officers Club is proud to host the 2014 Federal Intel Summit featuring Congressman Mike Rogers and leadership from across the Federal Agencies focused on protecting our national interests.
cybergamut Tech Tuesday: Malware Reverse Engineering: An Introduction to the Tools, Workflows, and Tricks of the Trade to Attack Sophisticated Malware (, Jan 1, 1970) Reverse engineering malware can be an integral part of every security team's calculus. This session provides a technical review of the tools, workflows, and advanced analytic insight a senior reverse engineer brings to the fight. It will help demystify the process and illustrate the value-proposition associated with deep analytics of malware. Moreover, understanding the detail available through reverse engineering gives the security professional deeper insight into the tactics and techniques the attackers use to circumvent their defensive solutions. The session empowers cyber security professionals at every level to make better-informed judgments on how to improve their response and remediation protocols.
Federal Mobile Computing Summit (, Jan 1, 1970) The Federal Mobile Computing Summit: Digital Government Strategy II will feature government leaders who played an instrumental role in the development of the DGS and worked on the resulting deliverables. These IT thought leaders will examine the mobile landscape over the next 18 months — and beyond.
Cybertech: Cyber Security Conference and Exhibition (, Jan 1, 1970) Cybertech Israel, the first event of its kind, will present world-leading companies in the field of cyber defense alongside young companies that offer unique solutions to advance the discipline of cyber security. The conference will focus on commercial problem-solving strategies and solutions for cyber infrastructure experts across multiple sectors: energy, utilities, finance, defense, R&D, manufacturing, service sectors, health, government, telecommunications, transportation and more.
U.S. Census Data Protection & Privacy Day (Suitland, Maryland, USA, Jan 28, 2014) The Census Bureau's Privacy Compliance Branch of the Policy Coordination Office is hosting a Data Protection and Privacy Day on January 28. This event is intended to provide a forum for Census employees and contractors to discuss current data protection and privacy policy and to generate ideas to help evolve the current policies . The event will feature various participants from the U.S. Census Bureau as well as other government agencies and industry.
2014 Cybersecurity Innovation Forum (Baltimore, Maryland, USA, Jan 28 - 30, 2014) The 2014 Cybersecurity Innovation Forum (CIF) is a three-day event, sponsored by the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) with DHS, NIST, and NSA as primary participating organizations. The CIF will cover the existing threat landscape and provide presentations and keynotes on current and emerging practices, technologies and standards. The 2014 CIF will provide action-oriented outputs to fuel voluntary principle-driven consensus-based standards efforts, create opportunities for industry growth and drive research activities, and define use cases for subsequent exploration, which in turn will feed back into the subsequent CIF's, continually evolving the state of the art.