The CyberWire Daily Briefing 02.17.15

Summary

By The CyberWire Staff

Two major cyber stories break at Kaspersky's Cancun shindig, both still developing. First, Kaspersky Lab lays out its research on the "Equation Group," hacking "gods" (Kaspersky Lab is pretty star-struck here) who, researchers say, were able to install "permanent" surveillance and sabotage tools on the networks of countries and groups of interest. The campaign may go back as far as 2002. It's said to have used booby-trapped CDs among its earliest vectors, and succeeded in compromising commonly used hardware. Kaspersky suggests links among the Equation Group, Flame, Stuxnet, and Regin. (Journalists infer that Equation Group is a US Government operation.)

The second story is less surprising (Krebs and Cluley both point out that it's been breaking, at least in incipient form, for months) but shocking nonetheless: a Russian cyber criminal group has succeeded in siphoning off about $1B from banks worldwide. Don't be misled by Blofeldian details of ATMs in Kiev spitting out cash into reading this as a local story: "Carbanak" hit about 100 banks and seems to have made use of surveillance tools earlier deployed against government and industry targets. (Few journalists infer Russian government involvement with cyber Mafiosi.)

ISIS information operations (against a UAE newspaper and US service members' Twitter accounts among other targets) prompt a revamped US response (State Department has the lead). Trend Micro reports on Arid Viper, an anti-Israeli cyber campaign controlled from Gaza, using servers located in Germany.

President Obama's cyber Executive Order attracts more reviews. So does Apple CEO Cook's summit presentation.

Notes.

Today's issue includes events affecting Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Germany, Iceland, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Singapore, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Yemen, and and Zambia.

Selected Reading

Cyber Trends

Companies 'Must See Cyber Attacks as Inevitable' (Newsweek) A top executive from the firm whose forensic experts investigated the Sony Corporation cyberhack last year says we "shouldn't be surprised" by the recent cyber robbery of up to $1bn — deemed one of the world's biggest cyber heists to date — and that companies should plan for the worst and see attacks as an inevitability

Evolution and Adaptation in the Security Jungle (Threatpost) One of the more difficult aspects of defending a network or system is trying to keep up with the new tactics and techniques that attackers use. They modify their techniques constantly, and security teams must do they same or they won't survive. Evolve or die has become the rule

Preventing Silent Data Exits a Workable Problem for Businesses (Threatpost) Businesses, especially those in the financial sector, should operate under the assumption that data exfiltration either is or will soon happen in their organization

Android and Windows battle for top position on the malware front, claims report (Lumension Blog) We all know that malware is a huge problem on the Windows platform. Every day, something like 400,000 new Windows malware variants are dissected by security labs, and most people's anti-virus software is set to download updates on a pretty much continual basis in an attempt to keep up

Secuina Vulnerability Update, February 17, 2015 (Secunia [registration required]) Total number of new vulnerabilities in the Top 20 over the 3 month period: 1,357. Vendor with most vulnerable products in the 3 month period: IBM. Product with the most vulnerabilities: X.Org XServer

Legislation, Policy and Regulation

U.S. Intensifies Effort to Blunt ISIS' Message (New York Times) The Obama administration is revamping its effort to counter the Islamic State's propaganda machine, acknowledging that the terrorist group has been far more effective in attracting new recruits, financing and global notoriety than the United States and its allies have been in thwarting it

Israel establishes Cyber Defense Authority (San Diego Jewish World) Israel's Cabinet, at its weekly meeting on Sunday, Feb. 15, approved a comprehensive plan for national readiness in cyberspace; this is in addition to processes and efforts being advanced by the Israel National Cyber Bureau since its establishment three years ago in order to boost the State of Israel's strength in cyberspace

Obama, Tim Cook, Others Debate Sharing Cyber Security Data (InformationWeek) The Obama White House wants more effective sharing of cyber security data between the public and private sectors. Despite some snubs, Apple's Tim Cook spoke at a special summit on the issue

Obama to urge companies to share data on cyber threats (KPCC) In a move the White House says will help "quickly identify and protect against cyber threats," President Obama will sign an executive order today urging companies that come under attack to share information about the threat with both other companies and the government

Takeaways from Obama's cyber security summit (ITProPortal) US President Barack Obama led a cyber security summit in California last week, also attended by the likes of Apple CEO Tim Cook, with the aim of uniting the Government and technology companies on issues of national cyber security

How Cyber-security Leaders Evaluate White House Strategy (eWeek) Industry leaders agree: Cyber-security is everyone's business. More significant public-awareness campaigns are needed

Healthcare Industry Responds to President’s New Executive Order on Cybersecurity (BusinessWire) The Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) announced today a statement in response to the Presidential "Executive Order — Promoting Private Sector Cybersecurity Information Sharing"

Did Obama's Cyber Summit Miss the Mark? (GovInfoSecurity) Critics: action items lack specifics for payments security

What Apple Is Missing About Cyber Security (Huffington Post) Last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook attended a cyber security conference sponsored by the White House, in which he signed up for a framework to share information on cyber threats between companies

Cybersecurity: Beware untrustworthy partners (Muscatine Journal) Before the ink had time to dry on his Feb. 12 executive order "promoting private sector cybersecurity information sharing," US president Barack Obama launched a campaign to re-write history and make the case for trusting government to bolster network security and data privacy

US lawmakers introduce two bills to protect email privacy (IDG via CSO) A long-standing effort to extend privacy protections to email and other data in the cloud got new life Thursday when U.S. lawmakers introduced not one, but two bills to reform the country's electronic privacy laws

Is student data at risk due to out-of-date privacy laws? (CIO via CSO) Members of Congress warn that an aging privacy statute hasn't kept pace with technology in the classroom and urge that restrictions be placed on third-party use of student data

For Net Neutrality, Political Theater (TechCrunch) The FCC is moving on net neutrality. And past internal dissension at the agency, Congressional forces are lining up to mostly kick up dust and whine as the Commission readies to vote on stringent rules in under two weeks

Net Neutrality's Technical Troubles (IEEE Spectrum) The debate has centered on policy, law, and finance, as if the network itself were a given. It is not

OMB reaffirms cyber oversight role (Federal News Radio) Agencies should expect a cybersecurity revival of sorts from the Office of Management and Budget this year. OMB is reasserting its cyber oversight role with a new group of experts called the E-Gov Cyber and National Security Unit

Adm. Michael Rogers, NSA and Cybercom Head, Inducted Into Wash100 for Tech Security Leadership (GovConExec) Executive Mosaic is honored to introduce U.S. Navy Adm. Michael Rogers, commander of the U.S. Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency, as the newest inductee into the Wash 100 — a group of influential leaders in the government contracting arena

Products, Services, and Solutions

DARPA's New Search Engine Puts Google in the Dust (Defense One) After only one year in use, DARPA's Memex search engine has already played a key role in nearly 20 different investigations

Antivirus Tools Slow To Respond To New Threats, Another Study Confirms (Dark Reading) A 10-month study of four scanning tools by Damballa highlights some familiar weaknesses

VirusTotal tackles false positive malware detections plaguing antivirus and software vendors (IDG via CSO) VirusTotal, a Google-owned online malware scanning service, is creating a whitelist of products from large software vendors to reduce bad detections by antivirus programs

Web Host SingleHop Launches Premium Security Service to Combat DDoS Attacks (The Whir) Hosted private cloud and managed hosting provider SingleHop has launched a new set of premium security features designed to help enterprises identify and combat online threats including Distributed Denial of Service attacks

Technologies, Techniques, and Standards

Who's Using Cyberthreat Intelligence and How? (SANS Institute Infosec Reading Room) In the last several years, we've seen a disturbing trend — attackers are innovating much faster than defenders are

Three Keys to a Successful Cybersecurity Defense Program (Tripwire: the State of Security) I've been a finance professional for over 25 years and spent the last 15 years in senior finance roles, mostly as a CFO of both public and private companies

Awareness on the cheap (Computerworld via CSO) Our manager finds several ways to expand awareness training without breaking the bank

SNMP Brute — Fast SNMP brute force, enumeration, CISCO config downloader and password cracking script (Kitploit) SNMP brute force, enumeration, CISCO config downloader and password cracking script. Listens for any responses to the brute force community strings, effectively minimising wait time

News flash: hacker turns Apple's Lightning connector into a jailbreak conductor (Naked Security) The only external data port for connecting into recent Apple iPhones and iPads is the so-called Lightning connector

Security implications for cloud as Microsoft ends its support for Windows Server 2003 (Business Cloud News) Another year approaches and we are about to see yet another Microsoft Server reach its end of life. Windows Server 2003 (WS2003) is widely used within the industry and in a recent survey conducted by Microsoft, it was estimated that 22 million instances were still running on Windows Server 2003

Can businesses stick with Windows XP and still avoid a hacking disaster? (TechRadarPro) Many organisations are still using XP and old versions of IE

Marketplace

Cybercrime moves from server room to the boardroom (The Tally) Cybersecurity analysts have for years lamented that banks weren't paying sufficient attention to the threat posed by online attacks. Now, after a slew of high-profile breaches, it seems bank chief executives are taking not

CyberArk Leads These 5 Top Security Software Stocks (Investor's Business Dail) Security software makers are back in the spotlight since health insurer Anthem (NYSE:ANTM) became the latest high-profile victim of a massive data breach

Founded by spies and mathematicians, Darktrace isn't your typical cybersecurity firm (Washington Post) The last time British spies and mathematicians from Cambridge University joined forces to battle a global enemy was during World War II, to crack the Germans' Enigma code

Cyber intelligence firm Digital Shadows gets £5.2m in venture funding (TechWorld) Mayor of London Boris Johnson announced the investment during his trade mission in the US this week

Elastica stretches into channel (CRN) New-kid-on-the-block claims cloud application security market is "exploding" as it hunts 15-20 UK partners

Threat intelligence firm One World Labs appoints new CEO (SC Magazine) The board of directors at One World Labs, a Denver-based cyber threat intelligence firm, has appointed a new CEO for the company

Research and Development

The Pentagon is building an app store for cyberoperations (Christian Science Monitor Passcode) An exclusive inside look at DARPA's futuristic Plan X

IARPA Seeks SIGINT-Based Crises Forecasting Methods (ExecutiveGov) The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity plans to enlist industry expertise to develop methods to predict dire international scenarios using signals intelligence data

Security Patches, Mitigations, and Software Updates

Microsoft pulls PowerPoint-killing patch KB2920732 (Naked Security) Microsoft has been forced to withdraw one of the patches it released this month after complaints from users who couldn't open PowerPoint

Microsoft February Patch Failures Continue: KB3023607 vs. Cisco AnyConnect Client (Internet Storm Center) Another patch released by Microsoft this month is causing problems. This time it is KB3023607,which was supposed to mitigate the POODLE vulnerability. Once applied, Cisco AnyConnect users are no longer able to connect to their VPN

After rift with Microsoft, Google to give vendors 14 day grace period to fix security flaws (Tech 2) Google has been in the news for a rift with Microsoft over its strict 90-day vulnerability disclosure, where it makes security vulnerabilities public if vendors don't take steps to remedy them within the stipulated time period

Visa to track your smartphone location to 'prevent' credit card fraud (HackRead) Visa, famed payment processing company, will be rolling out its new software with location-tracking capabilities this summer

Firefox to get a "walled garden" for browser extensions, Mozilla to be sole arbiter (Naked Security) Mozilla is the latest vendor, if you will excuse me not referring to it as a foundation or a community, to announce a walled garden for its software ecosystem

Cyber Attacks, Threats, and Vulnerabilities

U.S. Embedded Spyware Overseas, Report Claims (New York Times) The United States has found a way to permanently embed surveillance and sabotage tools in computers and networks it has targeted in Iran, Russia, Pakistan, China, Afghanistan and other countries closely watched by American intelligence agencies, according to a Russian cybersecurity firm

Suite of Sophisticated Nation-State Attack Tools Found With Connection to Stuxnet (Wired) The last two years have been filled with revelations about NSA surveillance activities and the sophisticated spy tools the agency uses to take control of everything from individual systems to entire networks

How "omnipotent" hackers tied to NSA hid for 14 years — and were found at last (Ars Technica) "Equation Group" ran the most advanced hacking operation ever uncovered

Newly Discovered 'Master' Cyber Espionage Group Trumps Stuxnet (Dark Reading) The so-called Equation Group epitomizes the goal of persistence in cyber spying — reprogramming hard drives and hacking other targets such as air-gapped computers — and points to possible US connection

Carbanak Ring Steals $1 Billion from Banks (Threatpost) Hackers in Eastern Europe are bleeding banks dry, stealing as much as $1 billion from more than 100 financial institutions in a string of attacks that borrow heavily from targeted attacks against sensitive government and industrial targets

New Report Says Computer Criminals Stole Millions From Banks (Wall Street Journal) Banks in Russia, U.S. and Eastern European may have lost $1 billion, report says

Bank Hackers Steal Millions via Malware (New York Times) In late 2013, an A.T.M. in Kiev started dispensing cash at seemingly random times of day. No one had put in a card or touched a button. Cameras showed that the piles of money had been swept up by customers who appeared lucky to be there at the right moment

What we know about the bank hacking ring — and who's behind it (CNN Money) It looks like a few Russian hackers have just pulled off the biggest bank heist ever

The Great Bank Heist, or Death by 1,000 Cuts? (KrebsOnSecurity) I received a number of media requests and emails from readers over the weekend to comment on a front-page New York Times story about an organized gang of cybercriminals pulling off "one of the largest bank heists ever." Turns out, I reported on this gang's activities in December 2014, although my story ran minus many of the superlatives in the Times piece

High-tech hackers stole $300 million from 100 banks. But here's what the media forgot to tell you (Graham Cluley) This weekend, the New York Times published details of a high-tech criminal campaign which saw banks in Russia, Japan, Europe and the United States hit by a major malware attack and the theft of millions of dollars

Banking bosses say a cyber attack is among their biggest fears (Telegraph) A day after hackers were found to have stolen £650m from global banks, chief executives raise security concerns

Calls for greater banking security in light of major cyber attack (MicroScope) The revelations by Kaspersky that hackers were able to gain access to 100 banks across 30 countries and steal around $1bn over a period of two years is not only a major concern but also an indication that while a lot of focus has been drawn to nation state attacks the criminals are still busy getting their hands on cash illegally

Hackers steal £650m — 10 ways to protect your bank account (Telegraph) More than £650m has gone missing from banks around the world in what is thought to be the biggest ever 'cybercrime'. Read this essential guide to protecting your money

Cyber Security Centre warns of hacker attacks (Copenhagen Post) Centre's research shows cyber attacks rise after events such as weekend's shootings

Website of UAE's oldest newspaper Al Ittihad hacked by ISIS hackers (HackRead) On 14th February, 2015, when people were busy celebrating Valentines day; the ISIS hackers were busy targeting UAE's oldest Arabic language newspaper Al Ittihad

Spouses: Hostile tweets produce reverse effect (Military Times) When Lori Volkman got the tweet and the Facebook message from someone claiming to be CyberCaliphate, she admits to being "pretty scared at first"

Arid Viper: Gaza vs Israel Cyber Conflict (TrendLabs Security Intelligence Blog) Today, Trend Micro publishes a research report on an ongoing malware campaign that targets Israeli victims and leverages network infrastructure in Germany. The campaign has strong attribution ties to Arab parties located in the Gaza Strip and elsewhere

Is there an overarching organization that helps Arab hackers? (Help Net Security) Trend Micro researchers have unearthed two separate but closely linked malware campaigns attributed to Arab parties

Banking Trojan Dyreza sends 30,000 malicious emails in one day (Help Net Security) A massive spam wave is installing banking Trojan Dyreza on tens of thousands of computers to steal sensitive financial data from unsuspecting customers, warns Bitdefender

NetGear WNDR Authentication Bypass / Information Disclosure (Darkarnium) A number of WNDR series devices contain an embedded SOAP service for use with the NetGear Genie application. This service allows for viewing and setting of certain router parameters, such as

Report: PlugX Is RAT of Choice for Nation States (eSecurity Planet) Crowdstrike's Global Threat Intel report details tactics used in nation-state attacks

Lizard Squad is back: group 'attacks Xbox Live and Daybreak Games' (Guardian) Hacking group springs back into life, reportedly launching DDoS attacks against range of games and services

Sony Hack: Poster Child For A New Era Of Cyber Attacks (Dark Reading) What made the Sony breach unique is the combination of four common tactics into a single orchestrated campaign designed to bend a victim to the will of the attackers

Security CEO: Breach Could Affect Consumers 'Forever' (Inside Indiana Business) The chief executive officer of Indianapolis-based Rook Security Inc. says the recent Anthem Inc. (NYSE: ANTM) data breach involves more sensitive data than other high profile hacks

Fuel Station Skimmers: Primed at the Pump (KrebsOnSecurity) I recall the first time I encountered an armed security guard at a local store. I remember feeling a bit concerned about the safety of the place because I made a snap (and correct) assumption that it must have been robbed recently. I get a similar feeling each time I fuel up my car at a filling station and notice the pump and credit card reader festooned with security tape that conjures up images of police tape around a crime scene

C-93 Virus Alert Email from Microsoft is a Phishing Scam (HackRead) An email is being received by users of Microsoft's email accounts claiming to be sent from Windows Outlook. It has been titled C-93 Virus Alert and informs the user that a virus has been detected by Microsoft in your mailbox. Also present in that email is the method to eliminate this virus

Are Miami cops really flooding Waze with fake police sightings? (Naked Security) According to a local NBC affiliate in Miami, "hundreds" of police are polluting Waze as they "fight back" against the app's tracking of police, speed trap and driving under intoxication (DUI) checkpoint locations

WhatsApp spy tool lets anyone track when you're online (Naked Security) Just a few weeks after WhatsApp was found to be flashing photos that users weren't supposed to see, we've got another privacy glitch: this time, it looks like changing your privacy settings doesn't stop people from tracking your status and any changes you've made to profile photos, status messages and settings

Did You Remove That Debug Code? Netatmo Weather Station Sending WPA Passphrase in the Clear (Internet Storm Center) (BTW: it looks like the firmware update released this week by netatmo after reporting this issue fixes the problem. Still trying to completely verify that this is the case.) I have the bad habit of playing with home automation and various data acquisition tools. I could quit any time if I wanted to, but so far, I decided not to. My latest toy to add to the collection was a "Netatmo" weather station. It fits in nicely with the aluminum design of my MacBook, so who cares if the manufacturer considered security in its design, as long as it looks cool and is easy to set up

Bulletin (SB15-047) Vulnerability Summary for the Week of February 9, 2015 (US-CERT) The US-CERT Cyber Security Bulletin provides a summary of new vulnerabilities that have been recorded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) National Vulnerability Database (NVD) in the past week. The NVD is sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) / United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT). For modified or updated entries, please visit the NVD, which contains historical vulnerability information

Academia

Carnegie Mellon response team has battled computer virus attacks since 1988 (Pittsburgh Tribune) Pittsburgh's prominent and growing role as a national center for cybersecurity started with a chance encounter more than 25 years ago

Norwich University Partners with U.S. Army Reserver in Cyber-Education (Vermont Digger) Norwich University has officially partnered with the United States Army Reserve (USAR) to develop cyber-education curricula that align with federal standards and cybersecurity needs

Litigation, Investigation, and Enforcement

Without Laws Governing Cyber Crime, Is Africa Safe For Cyber Criminals? (AFK Insider) While there are international efforts to help stop cyber criminals, very little is being done in Africa to strengthen cyber security

Hackers fear arms control pact makes exporting flaws illegal (Register) 'Wassenaar Arrangement' scaring infosec reserchers away from Pwn2Own contest

Robot tweets "I seriously want to kill people", prompts police response (Naked Security) When Twitter user @jeffrybooks tweeted "I seriously want to kill people" at an upcoming event in Amsterdam, police decided to pay the account owner a visit

US wireless carriers now legally have to unlock our phones (Naked Security) After two years behind bars and a whole lot of petition-signing, US mobile phone owners have regained their gadgets' freedom: we now have the ability to legally unlock our phones and take them to whatever network carrier has compatible cell towers

Megaupload programmer pleads guilty, sentenced to a year in prison (Ars Technica) Andrus Nõmm "was aware that copyright-infringing content was stored" on-site

Design and Innovation

Turing And The Increasingly Important Case For Theory (TechCrunch) Like many in Silicon Valley, I recently saw Morten Tyldum's The Imitation Game. I have a soft spot for underdog academic narratives and actually teared up. However, I couldn't shake the feeling the film pigeonholed the breadth and depth of Turing's work to early cryptography and its mechanized instantiation during WWII

Industry Events

For a complete running list of events, please visit the Event Tracker on the CyberWire website.

upcoming Events

To be rescheduled due to snow: Cybergamut Technical Tuesday: An Hour in the Life of a Cyber Analyst (Hanover, Maryland, USA, February 17, 2015) This hands-on workshop will demonstrate how easy it is for a breach to occur by analyzing a virtualized web server environment. Participants will use open source tools such as port scanners and protocol analyzers to identify security issues and then attempt to exploit the discovered vulnerabilities. Following the hands-on activity, the workshop will conclude with a discussion about how to avoid some of the security failures that were identified. The workshop will be presented by Ryan Harvell of OPS Consulting and Marcelle Lee of Anne Arundel Community College CyberCenter

Cyber Risk Wednesday: Breaking the Cyber Information-Sharing Logjam (Washington, DC, USA, February 18, 2015) A moderated discussion on challenges and solutions for information-sharing, the Administration's recent proposals for better practices between the private sector and government, and goal-directed approaches to sharing. The event will be accompanied by the release of a report, supported by CISCO, which examines the challenges of information-sharing, the Administration's emerging proposals, along with solutions to breaking the current logjam

Cyber Framework and Critical Infrastructure: A Look Back at Year One (Washington, DC, USA, February 19, 2015) Last February, the Obama administration rolled out the nation's first cybersecurity standards to protect critical infrastructure. One year later, Dr. Phyllis Schneck, the Department of Homeland Security leader responsible for helping institutions implement the new standard, will reflect on how the nation has improved its protection of critical infrastructure over the last year. We'll discuss the effectiveness of the standard so far, whether security protections are strong enough, and if incentives are attractive enough to induce companies to take on the new standard

DEFCON &#124 OWASP International Information Security Meet (Lucknow, India, February 22, 2015) Defcon &#124 OWASP Lucknow International Information Security Meet is a combined meet of Defcon and OWASP Lucknow. Defcon Lucknow is a DEF CON registered convention for promoting, demonstrating & spreading awareness regarding the field of Information Security and OWASP Lucknow is a chapter of OWASP Community

10th Annual ICS Security Summit (Orlando, Florida, USA, February 22 - March 2, 2015) Attendees come to the Summit to learn and discuss the newest and most challenging cyber security risks to control systems and the most effective defenses. The Summit is designed so you leave with new tools and techniques you can put to work immediately when returning to your office. The summit will allow you to learn from industry experts on attacker techniques, testing approaches in ICS, and defense capability in ICS environments

Cybersecurity for a New America: Big Ideas and New Voices (Washington, DC, USA, February 23, 2015) In addition to featuring keynote remarks by Admiral Mike Rogers, Director of the National Security Agency, this event will convene experts and practitioners from the public and private sector, military, media, academia, non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations for a series of discussion panels and first person "pop-up" style speeches on the wide range of cybersecurity issues that are affecting and infecting everything from personal devices and corporate networks to national defense and international affairs. The focus of the event will be to push past the status quo and instead explore the next generation of challenges, as well as highlight bold, new ideas to face them. CNN is the event's media partner and will provide a live-stream of the event

Workforce Development Forum — CyberWorks Information Session (Baltimore, Maryland, USA, February 24, 2015) Are you a technology company that would like to actively participate in growing the right candidates for your open IT and cybersecurity positions? Are you a job seeker interested in pursuing a career in IT/cybersecurity who would benefit from business mentorship and hands-on practical work experience? If you said yes to either question please join us at the upcoming CyberWorks information session to learn how you can benefit from this innovative program. CyberWorks is an industry-led, workforce development program designed to help Maryland companies fill their cybersecurity needs with qualified candidates, while simultaneously helping individuals start careers and improve Maryland's economy

Cybersecurity: You Don't Know What You Don't Know (Birmingham, Alabama, USA, February 24 - 25, 2015) What: Connected World Conference in partnership with University of Alabama at Birmingham's Center for Information Assurance and Joint Forensics Research (The Center) have teamed up to bring professionals together to discuss security and connected devices. Purpose: Convene the leading industry, government, and academia leaders. Chief Objective: Influence professionals from the most innovative and influential organizations in the world will meet to unravel the relationship between the connected society and cybersecurity

The Future of Cybersecurity Innovation (Washington, DC, USA, February 26, 2015) The US intelligence community has ranked cyberattacks as the No. 1 threat to national security — more than terrorist groups or weapons of mass destruction. But the military's cyberwarriors fight these battles hunkered over computers, working with strings of code — a laborious process that requires advanced engineering skills. That's why the Pentagon's advanced research arm, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is building a system to give the military instantaneous knowledge of network attacks by displaying them in real-time with rich graphics and 3-D visualizations

NEDForum: Cyber Network Exploitation and Defence: "Darknet & the Primordial Soup of Cyber Crime" (Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, February 27, 2015) Speakers will cover such topics as: "Fear and loathing on Darknet," (Greg Jones, Managing Consultant, Digital Assurance), "Securing the internet of everything" (Rik Ferguson, Global Vice President Security Research, Trend Micro), and "Is your organisation setup for success in security?" (Patrick Brady, Independent Consultant)

2015 Cyber Risk Insights Conference — San Francisco (San Francisco, California, USA, March 3, 2015) Following on the success of the 2014 half-day cyber risk event, Advisen will present a full day of learning and networking for risk managers, CISOs, CROs, insurance brokers, insurance underwriters, reinsurers and other risk professionals. An expert faculty comprised of leading security, regulatory, risk management, and cyber insurance authorities will provide their insights into the critical privacy, network security and insurance coverage now issues facing organizations and their insurers, with an emphasis on the business, technology and regulatory factors that make California and the West Coast unique

Cybergamut Technical Tuesday: Tor and the Deep Dark Web (Columbia, Maryland, Sioux Falls, March 3, 2015) This talk will explore the use of Tor and how it relates to garnering useful intelligence. Distinguishing attribution or valuable intelligence from limited event data is difficult. Leveraging external threat data can be helpful in evaluating intelligence but how do you identify relevance? Created as a means of protecting the privacy and anonymity of its users, Tor — the managed network of private computers leveraged by criminal elements to minimize the risk of surveillance and capture — is being exploited by the most technically proficient, aggressive, and organized of criminal syndicates. Presented by Scott FitzPatrick of Norse

Mercury Proposers' Day Conference (IARPA1, Washington, DC, March 5, 2015) The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) will host a Proposers' Day Conference for the Mercury Program on March 5, in anticipation of the release of a new solicitation in support of the program

Financial Services Cyber Security Summit: Middle East and North Africa (Dubai, UAE, March 9 - 10, 2015) Building on the success and feedback of our Cyber Security Summit in Europe — 180 attendees, 3 streams, CPE certified — we are pleased to invite you to the Financial Services Cyber Security Summit MENA — a highly interactive experience sharing platform for top experts from banks, insurance companies, monetary organizations and government institutions, accountancy companies, consumer finance, investment funds, stock brokerages and more

The Vulnerability Economy: Zero-Days, Commerce and National Security (Rockville, Maryland, USA, March 10, 2015) Dr. Ryan Ellis (Belfer Center, Harvard University) will explore a series of topics around cybersecurity including the challenges and opportunities associated with the growing trade in previously unknown and undisclosed software vulnerabilities ("zero days"). Drawing from a real-world case study, Dr. Ellis investigates the tension between the development of offensive cyber capabilities and cybersecurity. The discussion considers different approaches to disclosing newly discovered vulnerabilities and highlights the key roles that government and industry can play in promoting enhanced cybersecurity

OISC: Ohio Information Security Conference (Dayton, Ohio, USA, March 11, 2015) Technology First invites you to participate in the 12th Annual Ohio Information Security Conference Wednesday, March 11, at the Sinclair Community College Ponitz Center in Dayton, Ohio. The conference will focus on three areas/tracks: management, technical and implementation. CEUs (7) are available for this event

RiSK Conference 2015 (Lasko, Slovenia, March 11 - 12, 2015) In recent years RISK conference has become one of the leading events on computer security in the Adriatic region and is attended by engineering as well as executive staff of companies from the region. Much has changed in the field of security and data protection in recent times. There are popular new technologies in the form of SaaS (Security as a Service) and services in a cloud (cloud computing), green computing, etc

B-Sides Vancouver (Vaqncouver, British Columbia, Canada, March 16 - 17, 2015) The third annual Security B-Sides Vancouver is an information security conference that will be held March 16th and 17th. We love to see brand new speakers, seasoned speakers, and everyone in between

Insider Threat 2015 Summit (Monterey, California, USA, March 16 - 17, 2015) The Insider Threat 2015 Summit is about bringing Government and Industry organizations and their cybersecurity leaders together in order to better understand the type of threats that may impact their infrastructure and overall operations. Our two-day summit will provide insights on the most unique and thought provoking active defenses currently available for physical and personnel security, as well as, cyber threats. By supplying intelligent focus through tailored solutions our presenters and sponsors will be contributing to a forum to discuss ways to mitigate the risk of insider threats. This event allows for a truly unique opportunity to hear from experts in the field talk about their current and future solutions, giving way to an optimal setting for networking

2015 North Dakota Cyber Security Conference (Fargo, North Dakota, USA, March 17, 2015) The North Dakota Cyber Security Conference brings together community members from academia, government and industry to share strategies, best practices and innovative solutions to address today's challenges in cyber security. The vast scope of modern cyber threats calls for active participation from individuals and organizations across the state

IT Security Entrepreneurs Forum: Bridging the Gap Between Silicon Valley & the Beltway (Mountain View, California, USA, March 17 - 18, 2015) IT Security Entrepreneurs Forum (ITSEF) — SINET's flagship event — is designed to bridge the gap between the Federal Government and private industry. ITSEF provides a venue where entrepreneurs can meet and interact directly with leaders of government, business and the investment community in an open, collaborative environment focused on addressing the Cybersecurity challenge

BSides Salt Lake City (Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, March 20 - 21, 2015) BSides is a community-driven framework for building events for and by information security community members. The goal is to expand the spectrum of conversation

CarolinaCon-11 (Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, March 20 - 22, 2015) CarolinaCon-11 (also hereby referred to as "The Last CarolinaCon As We Know It") will occur on March 20th-22nd 2015 in Raleigh NC (USA). We are now officially accepting speaker/paper/demo submissions for the event. If you are somewhat knowledgeable in any interesting field of hacking, technology, robotics, science, global thermonuclear war, etc. (but mostly hacking), and are interested in presenting at CarolinaCon-11, we cordially invite you to submit your proposal

CyberTech Israel 2015 (Tel Aviv, Israel, March 24 - 25, 2015) In the face of these enemies and threats, individuals, organizations and states are required to produce innovative, unique solutions that would improve the resistance and resilience of the sensitive systems they rely on every day. For this purpose, it is essential to maintain a direct, on-going contact with the latest developments and changes in the cyber defense market. To this end, we are pleased to invite you to Cybertech 2015, the International Conference & Exhibition for Cyber Solutions, taking place on March 24th-25th, 2015 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Cybertech Conference and Exhibition, an initiative of Israel Defense, is the largest exhibition and conference of cyber technologies outside of the US

2nd Annual ISSA COS Cyber Focus Day (Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA, March 25, 2015) Join us for the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) — Colorado Springs Chapter — Cyber Focus Day set to take on Wednesday, March 25, 2015 at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS). The theme for CFD 2015 will "Cybercrime". Industry experts will be on hand to brief attendees on the latest trends, and best practices, in cybersecurity. This one-day forum will offer IT, business, law enforcement, government, military, academic, training, and other professionals a unique, local opportunity to get up-to-date information on rapidly evolving cybersecurity challenges

CYBERWEST: the Southwest Cybersecurity Summit (Phoenix, Arizona, USA, March 25 - 26, 2015) The purpose of CYBERWEST is to bring together Government and businesses to: Exchange information and learn in areas of policy and strategy; technology and R&D; workforce training and education; and economic, legal, regulatory and insurance impacts. Discuss cybersecurity issues and to focus on applied cybersecurity (i.e. implementing the NIST framework, R&D, legal and regulatory perspectives, state and local approaches). Present content that attendees can take back and use in their organizations

Women in Cyber Security (Atlanta, Georgia, USA, March 27 - 28, 2015) Despite the growing demand and tremendous opportunities in the job market, cybersecurity remains an area where there is significant shortage of skilled professionals regionally, nationally and internationally. Even worse, women's representation in this male-dominated field of security is alarmingly low. Through the WiCyS community and activities we expect to raise awareness about the importance and nature of cybersecurity career. We hope to generate interest among students to consider cybersecurity as a viable and promising career option

Automotive Cyber Security Summit (Detroit, Michigan, USA, March 30 - April 1, 2015) The debut Automotive Cyber Security Summit will bring together CTOs, CSOs, Engineers and IT professionals from GM, KIA, Nissan, Bosch, Qualcomm and more for three days of case studies, workshops, panel discussions and networking sessions

Insider Threat Symposium & Expo (Laurel, Maryland, USA, March 31, 2015) The National Insider Threat Special Interest Group (NITSIG) announced that it will hold FREE 1 day Insider Threat Symposium & Expo (ITS&E) on March 31, 2015 in Laurel, Maryland. The symposium is exclusively focused on insider threat awareness, insider threat program development and implementation and insider threat risk mitigation.The ITS&E will provide attendees with access to a broad network of security professionals to collaborate with on insider threat risks, insider threat detection, insider threat risk mitigation strategies and insider threat program development, implementation and management. The expo will include vendors that have proven technologies and services for insider threat risk mitigation

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