The CyberWire Daily Briefing 02.25.15

Summary

By The CyberWire Staff

Adware-associated firms Superfish and Comodo attract odium for their products' alleged enabling of man-in-the-middle attacks. Lenovo, still controlling reputational damage, swears it will never, ever pre-install adware (like Superfish's, anyway) again. AV vendors like Bitdefender roll out countermeasures.

Trend Micro continues to track Arid Viper around Gaza (amid some questions about individual attribution Forbes reports that remind all that real lives can be at stake).

Gemalto says its investigation reveals that a SIM card hack "probably happened," but that it didn't lead to "massive theft of SIM encryption keys." In any case, the company says only 2G devices would be affected, 3G and 4G remaining secure. Gemalto competitor G&D basically concurs.

Fallout from earlier cyber capers continues. Anthem says almost 9M non-customers may have been affected by its breach (the FBI is said to be closing in on a suspect), Target puts the cost of its PoS breach at $162M, and Gartner declares the Sony incident a "new breed of attack."

Ars Technica reports an Atlantic Council characterization of the Internet's dismal future: it's deteriorating from a rough neighborhood to a "failed state:" if you're looking for a movie metaphor, don't think Dirty Harry, think Snake Plissken.

Mozilla issues a set of patches.

Google, hoping to speed vulnerability disclosure (an important form of cyber intelligence-sharing, many think) makes Pwnium a year-round rolling program.

Congratulations to Europol and industry partners Symantec, AnubisNetworks, and Microsoft for their Ramnit botnet takedown.

The FBI puts a $3M bounty on alleged GameOverZeus master Evgeniy Bogachev.

Notes.

Today's issue includes events affecting Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, European Union, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Macedonia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Palestinian Territories, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam

Selected Reading

Cyber Trends

Cybergeddon: Why the Internet could be the next "failed state" (Ars Technica) If you think the Internet can go on being just like it is, here's some bad news

Hackers Are Now Posing As That Guy From Your IT Department (DCInno) In a cybersecurity report released Tuesday by FireEye's Mandiant, the firm announced that business services and retail operations — up 10 percent in the last year regarding total threat engagement — saw the most online intrusions from malicious hackers in 2014. Mandiant and its parent company, FireEye (FEYE), have made headlines recently because of efforts to address the massive Anthem Insurance data breach and to track pro-Assad government malware tactics

Insider threats continue to dominate (Help Net Security) Ordinary employees, privileged users and the supply chain — such as contractors and third party service providers — are all conduits for a traditional insider threat, according to Vormetric. But the spectrum of insider threats also includes the compromise of these insider accounts by hackers using APT attacks and other methods

From Hacking Systems To Hacking People (Dark Reading) New low-tech attack methods like 'visual hacking' demand an information security environment that values data privacy and a self-policing culture

CISOs: Our Organizations are Wide-Open for Cyber-Terrorism (Infosecurity Magazine) A majority of CISOs foresee cyber-terrorism and cybercrime posing significant risks to their organizations over the next three years

NSA Chief: China, Russia Capable of Carrying Out 'Cyber Pearl Harbor' Attack (National Defense) Nations such as China and Russia have enough offensive cyber capabilities to one day carry out a "cyber Pearl Harbor" attack, said the head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command

Gartner: Sony breach is a new breed of attack that needs new responses (Network World via CSO) Sony Attack is a wake-up call and businesses need to invest in staff, training and tools to avoid the disaster Sony faced

In cybersecurity, sharp eyes and speed are the new padlocks (CBS News) It's distressing to learn State Department computer experts — despite three months of trying — can't get hackers out of the agency's email system, even with the government's admirable commitment of money and tech prowess to cybersecurity. Pair this news with revelations of NSA malware burrowed within computer hard drives worldwide, and we can conclude one thing: a lot of old, clichéd security metaphors are obsolete

Cybersecurity in healthcare: Examining the state of the industry (FierceHealthIT) Cybersecurity in healthcare is easier said than done, something both Franklin, Tennessee-based provider Community Health Systems and Anthem, the nation's second-largest health insurer, know all too well. In 2014, CHS which operates 206 hospitals in 29 states--fell victim to hackers, compromising personal information for 4.5 million patients

Doctors say data fees are blocking health reform (Politico) The fees are thwarting the goals of a push to digitize health records

Internet of Things adoption is gaining momentum (Help Net Security) Enterprise adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) is starting to gain momentum, fueled by a mix of technological, political and social factors. The declining costs of sensors, connectivity and processing power has made IoT a more viable proposition to a broader set of organizations. Changing regulatory requirements across a number of industries are also making an impact

Legislation, Policy and Regulation

Ukraine Signs Defense Deal With UAE (Defense News) Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced a deal for unspecified military and technical cooperation with the UAE on Tuesday, and said negotiations are ongoing with the United States and unspecified European nations

A Comparative "Cyber" Study of National Security Strategies — UK and the U.S. (Tripwire: the State of Security) Recently, Tripwire published a study on the use of the term "cyber" in the United States' National Security Strategy (NSS) documents. This analysis reveals that each NSS report has used the word "cyber" more frequently than its immediate predecessor. It also demonstrates how the meaning of "cyber" has diversified and evolved over time

Admiral: Cyber deterrence policy remains 'relatively immature' (Inside Cybersecurity) Deterrence in the cyber domain is still "relatively immature" and not where it needs to be, according to Adm. Michael Rogers, the head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command

GOP lawmaker: ISIS shouldn't have access to Twitter (The Hill) Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) on Tuesday suggested that terrorist groups like the Islamic State should be barred from using social media sites like Twitter to spread their message

CIA to Expand Cyber Espionage Capabilities (The DIplomat) CIA director John Brennan considers creating a new cyber directorate in Langley

Lucia Savage: We can do a better job explaining federal data exchange efforts (FierceHealthIT) The challenges of allowing for exchange of patient data while ensuring proper consent for information sharing from patients was the bulk of discussion during a meeting of privacy and security advisers to the Office of the National Coordinator Monday afternoon

Army National Guard cyber protection teams announced (DVIDS) Army National Guard officials at the National Guard Bureau announced the location plan today for the first three of an eventual 10 new Army National Guard cyber protection teams to be established over the next three fiscal years

Net neutrality order could get last-minute change on peering disputes (Ars Technica) FCC Democrat reportedly questions Chairman Tom Wheeler's plan

Net Fix: 8 burning questions about Net neutrality (CNET) With the FCC set to vote this week on new rules governing the Internet, CNET breaks down everything you need to know about complicated, but critical, issue

Products, Services, and Solutions

Adallom and Check Point Announce Partnership for SaaS Document Protection (Marketwired) Adallom, the leading Cloud Access Security Broker, and Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., (NASDAQ: CHKP), the largest pure-play security vendor globally, today announced a new partnership aimed to protect business documents stored in SaaS environments

Multinational firms facing myriad data privacy laws can handle them all from one cloud-platform (FierceITSecurity) Multinational enterprise face a myriad of national and regional data privacy laws, from the strict data privacy regulations in the European Union to the sector specific rules in the U.S., such as HIPAA in healthcare

AdaptiveMobile launches SS7 Protection to secure operator core networks against privacy and fraud attacks (RealWire) Comprehensive security overlay combines global threat intelligence and advanced analytics to block known and emerging threats to subscriber privacy

Fortinet FortiSandbox Catches Zero-Day and Advanced Threats Hidden in IE, MS Office Files, PDFs, Web Page URLs, Zip Files and Network File Share Locations (MarketWatch) Further strengthens FortiGate and FortiMail with new integrated capabilities as part of Fortinet's broader advanced threat protection framework

Technologies, Techniques, and Standards

London BT Tower 'cyber-attack' preps brightest minds to counter (CNN) The U.K. is preparing its response to future cyber-attacks, and a simulated attack may help Britain find the brightest minds to help stop hackers. The iconic BT Tower rising above the London skyline, it's an international communications hub that fell victim to hackers

5 Ways To Prepare For IoT Security Risks (Dark Reading) As the Internet of Things begins to take shape, IT organizations must prepare for change

There is nothing like first-hand evidence (RSA Blog) It's a matter of fact that when a security incident occurs, it creates artifacts and traces either in a system or network. (Locard's Exchange Principle)

Threat Intelligence in an Active Cyber Defense (Part 2) (Recorded Future) In this second part of the discussion on threat intelligence we will explore how organizations can incorporate threat intelligence to better achieve security. Threat intelligence can be used in a number of ways — especially as part of an active defense. In this piece, one strategy for active defense, the Active Cyber Defense Cycle (ACDC), will be used

GPG And Me (Moxie Marlinspike (Thoughtcrime blog)) I receive a fair amount of email from strangers. My email address is public, which doesn't seem to be a popular choice these days, but I've received enough inspiring correspondence over the years to leave it be

Marketplace

Money managers see costs escalating for cyberthreat protections (Pensions and Investments) Constant changes make budgets hard to determine

Stocks Of Cyber Security Companies Drop After JPMorgan Downgrades Cyberark Software Ltd (CYBR) Stock To Underweight (Bidness Etc) After rallying strongly during recent weeks, stocks of cyber security companies including FireEye, Palo Alto Networks, and Imperva slumped yesterday after JPMorgan downgraded Cyberark stock from Neutral to Underweight

As More Cyber Threats Emerge, These Three Cybersecurity Firms Bear Watching (The Street) Cyber attacks against U.S. companies have become almost impossible to stop. So cybersecurity companies like FireEye (FEYE — Get Report) , CyberArk (CYBR) and Palo Alto Networks (PANW — Get Report) are focusing not only on prevention but minimizing the damage from such attacks when they inevitably occur

NSA staffers rake in Silicon Valley cash (The Hill) Former employees of the National Security Agency are becoming a hot commodity in Silicon Valley amid the tech industry's battle against government surveillance

Defense Firms Put Down Roots in UAE (Defense One) Global defense companies are opening offices and forming partnerships with local industry in hopes of winning business in the United Arab Emirates

New Singtel-FireEye cybersecurity centre launched (Channel News Asia) The privately-funded Advanced Security Operations Centre is a partnership between the local telco and US-based cybersecurity firm FireEye, and will service customers from both public and private sectors, including banks

Milpitas-based FireEye mans the front line in fight against cyberattacks (Silicon Valley) The security breach of a giant U.S. retail company began quietly, and imperceptibly, when an attacker used a valid password to tap into a virtualized desktop

Kaspersky Lab Announces Training And Competition For Startups (JBG News) It's practically a given that cyber-crime is almost always evolving — but we receive grim reminders of that fact more often than anyone would like. The unspoken hope is that those who actually know how to stop them — or know anything about computers — will step in on the average Joe's behalf, and in a lot of ways Kaspersky Lab has done its part to fight back. Even so, it's still just one organization, and can't possibly prevent every cyber-crime. The obvious counter to that is to empower others to fight for themselves; as luck would have it, that's exactly what Kaspersky Lab intends to do from here on

Former McAfee president leaves Intel to run ForeScout (Reuters) Mike DeCesare, a senior executive with Intel Corp's security group, has left the company and taken a job running privately held cybersecurity firm ForeScout

Research and Development

Spy Research Agency Is Building a Machine To Predict Cyber Attacks (Defense One) The intelligence community is holding a contest to design software that combs open source data to predict cyber attacks before they occur

BioCatch granted patent for behavioral biometric authorization of mobile device users (Biometric Update) BioCatch announced it has been granted a patent for a "System, device, and method of detecting identity of a user of a mobile electronic device" through the application of behavioral biometric technology

Project Loon (MIT Technology Review) Billions of people could get online for the first time thanks to helium balloons that Google will soon send over many places cell towers don't reach

Security Patches, Mitigations, and Software Updates

Bitdefender Adware Removal Tool updated to remove Superfish (Beta News) Bitdefender has announced that its stand-alone Bitdefender Adware Removal Tool has been updated to remove the Superfish root certificate, while also "disinfecting drivers or executables that have been affected by the malware"

Mozilla Releases Security Updates for Firefox, Firefox ESR, and Thunderbird (US-CERT) The Mozilla Foundation has released security updates to address multiple vulnerabilities in Firefox, Firefox ESR, and Thunderbird. Exploitation of these vulnerabilities may allow a remote attacker to obtain sensitive information or execute arbitrary code on an affected system

Google Pwnium Program Now Open All Year (Threatpost) Google is expanding its successful Pwnium vulnerability reward program — which has run at various security conferences for a couple of years now — to run continuously and offer an unlimited pool of financial rewards

Google scraps annual Pwnium bug-hunting contest (IDG via CSO) Google said the change will prevent researchers from holding onto dangerous bugs in order to claim a big prize

Cyber Attacks, Threats, and Vulnerabilities

SSL-busting adware: US cyber-plod open fire on Comodo's PrivDog (Register) Superfish sequel: I'm looking at the man in the middle

Lenovo CTO promises firm will never install Superfish adware on laptops again (V3) Lenovo's chief technology officer has promised that the company will never load the Superfish adware on any of its devices again and is working to remove other third-party 'bloatware' from its machines

Has PC maker Lenovo committed the ultimate breach of customer security? (Los Angeles Times) The Chinese company Lenovo has become known as the world's largest PC maker. Now it's also becoming famous as the computer company that may have committed the worst breach on record of its own customers' privacy and security

Arid Viper Update: Attacks Ongoing, Threat Actors on the Move (TrendLabs Threat Intelligence Blog) Last week, we released a research paper titled "Operation Arid Viper: Bypassing the Iron Dome" where we detailed two related campaigns. To recall, here are our key findings related to the two campaigns

Gaza Resident Linked To Cyber Attacks On Israel: Security Company Has Put My Life In Danger (Forbes) If ever there was proof attribution of digital attacks is a sticky and risky business, the following story provides it. Last week, security giant Trend Micro released a report on attacks aimed at Israeli government, military and infrastructure providers, amongst many others. Trend linked the hacks, dubbed Arid Viper, to a group of Gaza-based males who appeared to have set up the infrastructure used by the attackers and had evinced some form of anti-Israeli emotion online. But one of those named tells Forbes that he's not a hacker at all, but a businessman providing IT services, and that by naming him in the report, Trend has put his life, and the future of his family, in danger

Gemalto: NSA/GCHQ Hack 'Probably Happened' But Didn't Include Mass SIM Key Theft (TechCrunch) Gemalto — the world's biggest maker of SIM cards for mobile phones — says that it has "reasonable grounds" to believe that the NSA and GCHQ carried out an operation to hack its network in 2010 and 2011, but the consequences of those actions were not as far-reaching as has been reported. The hack breached Gemalto's office networks, but it "could not have resulted in a massive theft of SIM encryption keys," and "in the case of an eventual key theft, the intelligence services would only be able to spy on communications on second generation 2G mobile networks. 3G and 4G networks are not vulnerable to this type of attack"

Gemalto rival G&D reviewed security following hacking report (Mobile World Live) The recent attack on Gemalto proves how secure the SIM card actually remains, argued Giesecke & Devrient (G&D), although the German vendor did review its own security and that of its customers following last week's report

Snowden: Spy Agencies 'Screwed All of Us' in Hacking Crypto Keys (Wired) NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden didn't mince words during a Reddit Ask Me Anything session on Monday when he said the NSA and the British spy agency GCHQ had "screwed all of us" when it hacked into the Dutch firm Gemalto to steal cryptographic keys used in billions of mobile SIM cards worldwide

Anthem hack puts at least 8.8 million NON-customers at risk (We Live Security) It's bad enough when a company you are doing business with gets hacked, and your personal information is exposed

Anthem: 78.8 million affected, FBI close to naming suspect (CSO) Insurer says millions of non-customers are impacted too

Target Says Credit Card Data Breach Cost It $162M In 2013-14 (TechCrunch) When it comes to data breaches, retailers are one of the biggest targets these days, and today we have some detail on the costs around one of the more high-profile attacks. Target today said that it has booked $162 million in expenses across 2013 and 2014 related to its data breach, in which hackers broke into the company's network to access credit card information and other customer data, affecting some 70 million customers

From the Labs: more advances in Advanced Persistent Threats (Naked Security) SophosLabs researcher Gabor Szappanos is back with another installment in the ongoing saga of PlugX

Banking malware spreading via Microsoft Word macros (Graham Cluley) Back in 1995, the anti-virus world took a sharp intake of breath as it realised that malware wasn't just limited to boot sectors, EXE and COM files

WordPress Analytics Plugin Leaves 1.3 Million Sites Vulnerable to Hackers (Hacker News) A critical vulnerability has been discovered in one of the most popular plugins of the the WordPress content management platform that puts more than one Million websites at risks of being completely hijacked by the attackers

10,000 motorists' names and addresses published online by parking fine company (Naked Security) An investigation by Sky News has revealed how a UK parking fine collection company inadvertently published its database online

How the Military Will Fight ISIS on the Dark Web (Defense One) ISIS already is on the Dark Web raising money through Bitcoin. The military is on the Dark Web, too

Cybercrime, Cyber Espionage Tactics Converge (Dark Reading) Real-world cyberattack investigations by incident response firm Mandiant highlight how hackers are adapting to better achieve their goals

Hacked Hardware Could Cause the Next Big Security Breach (Popular Science) Microchips govern our homes, cities, infrastructure, and military. What happens when they're turned against us?

387 new malware samples arriving every minute: McAfee (India Today) Mobile app providers have reportedly been very slow to address the most basic secure sockets layer (SSL) vulnerabilities of gadgets like smartphones and computers. More than 387 new samples of malware are affecting the smart devices every minute, besides the mobile malware samples have grown up by 14 per cent during the fourth quarter of 2014

Academia

MBA Programs In Cyber Security Bring New Tools To Executives (Business Because) High-ranking business schools are launching cyber security MBA programs, as the threat of cyber crime becomes a focus for company executives

Cyber-bullies to lose cellphones at schools (New Zealand Herald) Guidelines give teachers power to give students' devices to police

Litigation, Investigation, and Enforcement

Ramnit cybercrime group hit by major law enforcement operation (Symantec Security Response Blog) Assisted by Symantec and other industry partners, Europol has seized large amount of gang's infrastructure

Cybercrime ring controlling millions of PCs crippled (Business Times) A cybercrime ring using 3.2 million hacked computers worldwide to steal banking information by seizing control of servers has been disrupted by European police and technology companies, officials said on Wednesday

U.S. announces record $3 million bounty for alleged Russian hacker (Washington Post) The FBI and the State Department announced a record $3 million reward Tuesday for information leading to the arrest of a Russian accused of executing a sophisticated computer heist that siphoned more than $100 million from American bank accounts

NSA Director: Snowden's Leaks Helped Terrorists Avoid Tracking (Washington Free Beacon) Former NSA contractor dismisses 'traitor' remark

Medical Identity Theft Costs Victims $13,450 Apiece (Dark Reading) New study shows not only is medical identity fraud costly for individuals, it's happening a lot more often

South Africa spycraft on show in leaked intelligence cables (Stars and Stripes) Once the small talk had subsided, the 2012 meeting between intelligence agents from Iran and South Africa in an Iranian guesthouse reportedly went downhill

Macedonia Is Edging Towards Tipping Point Thanks to an Intelligence File Called 'The Bomb' (Vice News) Macedonia's government stands accused of arranging the imprisonment of a political rival and tapping the phones of over 20,000 citizens, including politicians, judges, activists, journalists, academics, religious leaders, and even its own president

Industry Events

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

newly Noted Events

St. Louis SecureWorld 2015 (St. Louis, Missouri, USA, September 22 - 23, 2015) Join your fellow security professional for affordable, high-quality cybersecurity training and education at a regional conference near you. Earn CPE credits while learning from nationally recognized industry experts on many diverse topics such as: Risk Mitigation, Malware Detection, Digital Forensics, Cloud Security, Privacy, Big Data, PCI Compliance, Security Metrics, Encryption, Mobile Device Management, Incident Response, and much more. The security implications of the Internet-of-things will be among the topics discussed

upcoming Events

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: 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

Boston SecureWorld (Boston, Massachusetts, USA, March 4 - 5, 2015) Join your fellow security professional for affordable, high-quality cybersecurity training and education at a regional conference near you. Earn CPE credits while learning from nationally recognized industry experts on many diverse topics such as: Risk Mitigation, Malware Detection, Digital Forensics, Cloud Security, Privacy, Big Data, PCI Compliance, Security Metrics, Encryption, Mobile Device Management, Incident Response, and much more. Among the speakers are several leading figures in cyber law enforcement

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

Philadelphia SecureWorld (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, March 18 - 19, 2015) Join your fellow security professional for affordable, high-quality cybersecurity training and education at a regional conference near you. Earn CPE credits while learning from nationally recognized industry experts on many diverse topics such as: Risk Mitigation, Malware Detection, Digital Forensics, Cloud Security, Privacy, Big Data, PCI Compliance, Security Metrics, Encryption, Mobile Device Management, Incident Response, and much more. Keynote speakers will be Larry Ponemon (of the Ponemon Institute) and Christopher Pierson (General Counsel & Chief Security Officer, Viewpost)

2015 Cyber Security Summit (McLean, Virginia, USA, March 19, 2015) During Congressman Mike Rogers' "The Code War in America" talk at the June 2013 POC breakfast, he challenged all of us to "recognize that every day U.S. businesses are targeted by governments like China for exploitation and theft. This results in huge losses of valuable trade secrets and sensitive customer information. This rampant industrial espionage costs American jobs." Join us for our annual Cyber Summit where thought-leaders from across the public and private sectors who have real-world experience effectively managing large scale policies and programs will provide information and updates to the POC attendees

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

Cyber Security Conference 2015 (Bolton, UK, March 23 - 24, 2015) Cyber Security Conference 2015 is a coming together of the North of England's two most successful Cyber Security Conferences; BEC Information & Data Security Conference and Lancaster University's North West Cyber Security Conference. From large corporations to micro businesses the importance of protecting personal and commercial information has become much more important with the introduction of the smart phone and other portable device's. When it comes to Information Security Systems small businesses and large corporations believe they are doing all they need to secure themselves and their clients

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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