Cyber Attacks, Threats, and Vulnerabilities
DHS, FBI Warn of North Korea ‘Hidden Cobra’ Strikes Against US Assets (Threatpost) DHS and the FBI warned that North Korean attackers are targeting U.S. businesses with malware- and botnet-related attacks that are part of concerted effort dubbed “Hidden Cobra.”
US Warns of North Korea's Not-So-Secret 'Hidden Cobra' DDoS Botnet (Dark Reading) Reclusive government behind DDoS infrastructure is targeting organizations around the world US-CERT says.
US blames North Korea for series of cyberattacks (ABC News) U.S. officials are blaming the North Korean government for a series of cyberattacks dating to 2009 against media, aerospace, financial sectors and infrastructure in the United States and around the world. The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security issued a warning this week, saying the...
Russian fake news is not new: Soviet Aids propaganda cost countless lives (The Guardian) It’s easier than ever to spread myths and falsehoods, which shows how little we learned from one of the worst pieces of dezinformatsiya ever disseminated
Moscow’s Assaults on American Democracy Began 80 Years Ago (War on the Rocks) Over the last nine months, headlines have reverberated with questions regarding the Russian role in “hacking” the American electoral process. On January 5,
“Active measures”: a history of Russian interference in US elections (Prospect) Interconnectivity has made it easier than ever—but recent meddling has precedent.
Why linguistics can't always identify cyber attackers' nationality (CSO Online) The security whodunnit: analyzing the language used in an attack is just one tool to assign attribution, and it’s not always reliable.
CRASHOVERRIDE poised to affect Natural Gas? (CSO Online) New malware affecting Ukraine's electric grid poses a future threat to US natural gas industry
Sophos: Cyber Attacks Often Recycle Existing Malware And Hacker Techniques (Silicon UK) INTERVIEW: Silicon talks threat trends with Fraser Howard, principle threat researcher at Sophos Labs
As airlines crack down on devices, passengers’ data is still vulnerable (Newsweek) Airlines collect a surprising amount of data about travelers — information that could be exploited by criminals or terrorists if not properly protected.
Are Airlines Dropping the Ball when It Comes to Your Online Data Security? (Chargebacks911) Airlines are asking for more and more of your personal data when you make a reservation. Are they really doing enough to make sure it’s safe?
Malvertising redirecting victims to exploit kits (SC Media US) Although there's been a drop in the activity of exploit kits, threat actors have adapted by redirecting unwitting victims to exploit kit servers.
Xavier Malware Infects Hundreds of Android Apps on Google Play Store (HackRead) You might have heard researchers urging Android users not to download apps from a third party store since a lot of them contain malware.
Millions of Android users left vulnerable due to Samsung's ignorance (HackRead) After Samsung had failed to renew the domain of one of their pre-installed apps, millions of users were left open to malware attacks.
Login-stealing phishing sites conceal their evil with lots of hyphens in URL (Ars Technica) Compromised domains target Android users with fake login pages for cloud services.
A Dark Web service claims to track any phone and read text messages (HackRead) Experts who understand how phone networks work as well as what their vulnerabilities are have warned about its dangers for years. However, it would seem th
Bitfinex Undergoing DDOS Attack, IOTA Wallets Temporarily Unavailable (CoinTelegraph) Bitfinex has been undergoing DDOS attack causing disruption on IOTA deposits and withdrawals.
World’s Largest Bitcoin Exchange Bitfinex Crippled by DDoS (Infosecurity Magazine) World’s Largest Bitcoin Exchange Bitfinex Crippled by DDoS. Attack has rendered IOTA deposits unavailable
Compromised websites redirecting tech support scam hosted on numeric domains (Graham Cluley) US internet users are being targeted with technical support scams hosted on sites with numeric domain names.
Mazda cars hacked with just a USB (HackRead) It seems that Mazda car owners have discovered a hack that allows them to tweak the Mazda’s MZD Connect infotainment system by just inserting a USB that ha
Analyzing the Fileless, Code-injecting SOREBRECT Ransomware (TrendLabs Security Intelligence Blog) Fileless threats and ransomware aren’t new, but a malware that incorporates a combination of their characteristics can be dangerous. Take for instance the fileless, code-injecting ransomware we’ve uncovered—SOREBRECT, which Trend Micro detects as RANSOM_SOREBRECT.A and RANSOM_SOREBRECT.B.
Infection by mouseover – what you need to know about PowerPoint spam (Naked Security) Malware-laced PowerPoint files are nothing new – but several recent spam campaigns have added a new twist.
Abuse of Apple Search Ads Feature Leading to Fraud (Threatpost) Apple has removed one of its top 10 grossing productivity apps after an independent developer’s story about fraudsters’ abuse of the App Store’s Search Ads functionality went viral.
Hackers Steal 6 Million User Accounts for Cash-for-Surveys Site (Motherboard) The data includes email addresses, passwords and physical addresses.
Don't touch that mail! London uni fears '0-day' used to cram network with ransomware (Register) Antivirus didn't pick up software nasty, say UCL IT peeps
Georgia’s lax voting security exposed just in time for crucial special election (Ars Technica) Report uncovers a litany of lapses in voting system used state-wide.
The Simple Fix that'd Help Protect Georgia from Election Hacks (WIRED) Early voting in the runoff for Georgia’s Sixth District congressional seat kicked off May 30; election day itself comes on June 20.
Sorry ma‘am, you didn’t win $43M—there was a slot machine “malfunction” (Ars Technica) Casino had apologized "for any inconvenience this may have caused."
Security Patches, Mitigations, and Software Updates
Mozilla Fixes 32 Vulnerabilities in Firefox 54 (Threatpost) Mozilla fixed 32 vulnerabilities, including a critical bug that could have resulted in a crash, with the release Tuesday of Firefox 54, the latest version of its flagship browser.
Rare XP Patches Fix Three Remaining Leaked NSA Exploits (Threatpost) Microsoft released patches on Tuesday for unsupported versions of Windows, a decision prompted by three NSA exploits that remained unaddressed from April’s ShadowBrokers leak.
Blast from the past – Patch Tuesday updates for Windows XP (Naked Security) Dust off your company procedures for Patch Tuesday! XP gets a raft of official updates this month to fix publicly-known holes.
Microsoft Issues Windows XP Security Updates for Previously Ignored NSA Hacking Tools (BleepingComputer) In two blog posts today, Microsoft announced it issued new security patches for Windows XP users to protect them against "potential nation-state activity" that could cause "destructive cyber attacks" similar to the WannaCry outbreak that hit users last month.
Virgin Media routers contain vulnerability which allows admin access (SC Media UK) Security researchers have found that the encryption key used for custom configurations of Virgin Media broadband routers is the same for all hubs across the UK.
Symantec CA remediation plan faces more delays (SearchSecurity) Symantec CA responds to demands from Mozilla on consensus plan to rehabilitate trust in its certificates.
Top threats to cyber defenders, according to a senior DISA official (C4ISRNET) The nature of today’s world requires personnel to be on guard in both their public and private personas.
Cyber Trends
The 15 worst data security breaches of the 21st Century (CSO Online) Security practitioners weigh in on the 15 worst data security breaches in recent memory.
Is Europe ready for GDPR? (Help Net Security) What impact will GDPR have on businesses across the UK, France, Belgium and Luxemburg? 54% of businesses have little understanding of GDPR fines.
Insiders Often Responsible for $388B Annual Cost of Cyber Security Breaches (Benzinga) Human error, whether inadvertent or malicious, is a key factor in many cyber security threats. Organizations can mitigate the threat by identifying potential weaknesses,...
New Survey Shows Security Teams and Software Developers Can Get Along in Pursuit of Better Security (CA Technologies) DevOps processes provide meeting ground for collaboration and change
Enterprises spend $6M a year to detect and secure endpoints: Report (Techseen) Absolute and Ponemon Institute conducted a survey which reveals the opinion that IT professionals in enterprises have about their endpoint security solutions
Radware Survey Shows: Artificial Intelligence Joins the C-Suite as Execs Turn to Automated Cyber Defenses (GlobeNewswire News Room) Radware® (NASDAQ:RDWR), a leading provider of cyber security and application delivery solutions, released its 2017 Executive Application & Network Security Survey, which strikingly elicited that executives in the U.S. and Europe now place broad trust in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning systems, designed to protect organizations from more dynamic, pernicious cyber threats in addition to other key findings.
Marketplace
Verizon completes £3.5bn Yahoo takeover, Marissa Mayer resigns (http://www.theinquirer.net) 2,000+ pink slips being prepped by US telecoms giant
Hexadite fired U.S. employees the day Microsoft announced its acquisition (VentureBeat) Last week, Microsoft confirmed plans to acquire Hexadite in a deal rumored to be valued at around $100 million. But on the same day, the cybersecurity startup laid off nearly all of its U.S.-based workforce, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Microsoft Ventures: A look at Redmond's latest 13 investments (ZDNet) Microsoft's venture-funding arm has disclosed investments in 13 companies since the start of this calendar year, primarily in the AI, security, and cloud and datacenter realms.
‘IBM’s Security Differentiator is Cognitive Technologies’ (BW CIOWORLD) Indian News - , Security-The security landscape and nature of threats is far different than what it was a few years ago. The nature, extent and velocity of attacks has changed today. And with businesses moving IT infrastructure to the cloud, application security becomes even more relevant. In this context, IBM changed its whole approach towards security.
McAfee: a timeline of transformation (CRN Australia) See how the security vendor has changed over 13 years.
How Buchanan & Edwards CEO Dennis Kelly Is Reaching Intelligence Community Customers (Washington Exec) Buchanan & Edwards is making big inroads into the intelligence community, and that’s just what Dennis Kelly had been envisioning as he settles into his first year as CEO of the Arlington, Virginia-based government IT consultancy.
SAIC CEO: 'still investing in' training, cyber areas as Marine vehicle programs advance (Washington Technology) SAIC's CEO tells investors the company's core government services investments remain intact as its vehicle platform integration programs for the Marine Corps move further along.
Cyber Threat Alliance Welcomes SK Infosec As Twelfth Member (Marketwired) The South Korean-based cybersecurity company joins industry leaders to enhance the cyber ecosystem through geographic expansion
Tufin to Open U.S. Headquarters in Boston (PRNewswire) Fueled by Rapid Growth, Leading Israeli Cybersecurity Company Will Open New U.S. Headquarters Led by CEO Ruvi...
Scott Darling of Dell Technologies Capital Joins Zscaler Board of Directors (Marketwired) Zscaler, Inc., the leading cloud security company, today announced the appointment of Scott Darling, president of Dell Technologies Capital, to the Zscaler™ board of directors.
Exabeam Adds Former FireEye EVP Tony Kolish to Executive Team (Marketwired) 25-year leading industry veteran will drive Exabeam's services offerings globally
Leidos Adds Veteran Defense-Sector Lawyer as General Counsel (Inside Counsel) Defense contractor Leidos Inc. announced last week the appointment of seasoned defense attorney Jerald Howe Jr. as executive vice president and general counsel.
Products, Services, and Solutions
GlobalPlatform Technology Deployed on 22 Billion Secure Elements (Fintech Finance) Adoption of industry specifications creates a collaborative, open ecosystem to efficiently deliver and protect secure digital services GlobalPlatform has conservatively estimated that 41% of all Se…
Farsight Security and Infoblox Provide Zero-Hour Protection Against Cyberattacks Due to New Domains (GlobeNewswire News Room) Farsight Security, Inc., a leading provider of DNS Intelligence, and Infoblox Inc., the network control company that provides Actionable Network Intelligence, today announced a reseller partnership that will integrate Farsight’s Newly Observed Domains (NOD) solution with the Infoblox ActiveTrust® platform to significantly reduce the risk of cyberattacks associated with new domains.
1 in 5 Enterprise Passwords Can Be Easily Compromised (Preempt Blog) The Results are In. Preempt Inspector Shows Weak Employee Passwords Putting Enterprises at Risk.
Threat Intelligence Provider Recorded Future Launches Partner Program (CRN) The initiative expands the vendor's channel outreach beyond MSSPs and technology partners so VARs can "get in on the next big thing."
One of These Things Is Not Like the Other – Defending Against Homograph Attacks (Cybrary) One of These Things Is Not Like the Other – Defending Against Homograph Attacks POSTED BY JULIAN DEFRONZO Recently there has been an increase in homograph attacks. These attacks take advantage of certain Unicode characters that look very similar to certain ASCII characters and use a similar-looking
Palo Alto Networks set to drive new era in security innovation (ComputerWeekly) Palo Alto Networks has announced a cloud-based application framework the company claims will enable its security platform to disrupt and change the security industry completely within a decade
RiskLens Awarded Best Risk Analytics Tool at 2017 OpRisk Awards Dinner In London (Marketwired) High-profile industry commendation results in back-to-back OpRisk award wins for RiskLens, cementing its leadership position as the provider of choice for purpose-built risk quantification solutions
Area 1 Security Announces Industry's First 'No Phish Guarantee'™ Backed by Area 1 Horizon™ New Capabilities (PRNewswire) Gartner Security and Risk Management Summit...Area 1 Security,...
WISeKey Partners with the Blockchain Interface Company RIDDLE&CODE to Develop Innovative Solutions for Securing IoT via Blockchain Technology and Crypto-Hardware (BusinessWire) WISeKey International Holding Ltd (“WISeKey”) (SIX:WIHN), a leading global cybersecurity company announced today, that they will embark on
Bay Dynamics Announces Risk Fabric Analytics Platform is Now on CDM BPA for Civilian Agencies | 06/13/17 (Business Insider) Bay Dynamics® is now in an agreement with EC America, a subsidiary of immixGroup, Inc., the distributor of the Bay Dynamics flagship analytics platform, Risk Fabric®, for Continuous Diagnostics & Mitigation (CDM) program contracts.
IBM Cloud Identity Connect Brings IDaaS to Hybrid Cloud Shops (eSecurity Planet) IBM Cloud Identity Connect brings secure single sign-on capabilities to businesses looking to manage user access on-premises and in the cloud.
End-to-end email encryption with no central point of attack (Help Net Security) PreVeil offers end-to-end email encryption, and works in conjunction with mail applications, or can be used when you access your email from a web browser.
Technologies, Techniques, and Standards
Decrypted: Kaspersky Releases Decryptor for the Jaff Ransomware (BleepingComputer) Fedor Sinitsyn, a senior malware analyst at Kaspersky Labs, has discovered a weakness in the Jaff ransomware and was able to release a decryptor for all current variants For those who were infected with Jaff and had their files encrypted with the .jaff, .wlu, or .sVn extensions, this decryptor can recover your files for free.
What will it take for the Army to succeed in multi-domain battle? (C4ISRNET) Army CECOM's Liz Miranda discusses sustainment and logistics priorities for the service.
Cyber 'beat cop' needed to add context for SWAT teams (C4ISRNET) In the experience of one combatant command official, there needs to be a beat cop performing a daily patrol to provide context to the SWAT team when an incident happens.
How to stop wasting money on security shelfware (CSO Online) Investing in security tools that end-up on the shelf or underutilized is not inevitable, and it can be reduced or even eliminated by some proactive and surprisingly simple first steps.
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Preparedness & Cyber Risk Reduction Part Three: Organize & Equip (SurfWatch Labs, Inc.) In Parts One and Two of this blog series, “Introduction to the Preparedness Cycle,” we took a general look at threats, risks and preparedness, as well as a slightly deeper look into planning —…
Protecting the Large Enterprise vs Securing the Smaller Business (Infosecurity Magazine) The challenge of maintaining effective oversight of our security posture is exciting and challenging in equal measure.
Counterpoint: Securing the Smaller Business (Infosecurity Magazine) It is natural to think that it is more difficult for smaller firms to implement security as the perception is that it’s a specialist area.
Design and Innovation
Facebook requests input on hard questions about censorship (TechCrunch) How should Facebook decide what's allowed on its social network, and how to balance safety and truth with diverse opinions and cultural norms? Facebook wants..
Getting to grips with machine learning (Computing) Jean-Cyril Schütterlé explains how ML is taking us from rules-based algorithms to data-driven processes
SailPoint turns to AI to protect users (Enterprise Times) SailPoint demonstrates the future of its security products as it show off IdentityAI to customers at its annual conference, Navigate '17.
Research and Development
DARPA Programs Create Defense Systems for Data, Networks (U.S. Department of Defense) The internet is an infrastructure that supports all aspects of modern life, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is creating technology to protect U.S. data, networks and national security, DARPA’s acting director said in Baltimore today.
DARPA works to ensure man can trust machine (C4ISRNET) “A lot of AI today is a black box, you have this neural net that you put in the inputs, it spits out an answer and 90 percent of the time it’s right. But that last 10 percent, sometimes it really screws up,” says DARPA's acting director.
3 ways DARPA will attack the cyber problem (C4ISRNET) The acting director of DARPA outlined three research areas his organization is focusing on.
Academia
University of Edinburgh and Huawei collaborate on joint data lab (ComputerWeekly) University is setting up a research and development lab dedicated to distributed data management and processing, with help from Chinese company.
Cybersecurity Focus of Conference at Suffolk County Community College (LongIsland.com) Presiding Officer Gregory, Legislator Hahn partner with college to address cyber threats and assess IT skills gaps.
Legislation, Policy, and Regulation
Could an independent NGO solve the problem of cyber attack attribution? (Help Net Security) Cyber attack attribution is a necessary prerequisite for holding actors accountable for malicious cyber activity, but is notoriously difficult to achieve.
Russia eyes controlling soldiers' online accounts to boost secrecy (Reuters) The Russian Defense Ministry has drawn up a draft law allowing it to ban soldiers from posting certain personal data on social networks, something that reporters and researchers have used in the past to monitor Russia's activities in Syria and Ukraine.
Senate overwhelmingly approves new sanctions on Russia for election meddling (Fifth Domain | Cyber) The Senate has voted overwhelmingly to approve new sanctions against Russia to punish Moscow for meddling in the 2016 election and its aggression in other parts of the world.
The Middle East’s Crisis Factory (Foreign Policy) The Iran-Qatar-Saudi conflict shows that the sclerotic, unpredictable, petulant dictatorships of the region produce nothing but endless conflict and brutal repression.
A cyber-attack on our ambassador is an assault on all of us (The National) We will not abide those who promote the destabilisation of our state, writes Mohammed Fairouz.
How BAE sold cyber-surveillance tools to Arab states (BBC News) BBC Arabic found the sales included decryption software that could be used against the West.
Hacking threat soaring as countries fail to unite, cybersecurity leader warns (The Times of Israel) ‘Israel is probably the best protected country in the world today,’ declares Kaspersky Lab’s CEO. ‘But given the threats it faces, it can’t be complacent’
Crypto-politics: A sleeper awakes (InnovationsAus.com) Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s assertion that technology companies should help security services circumvent encryption measures has drawn a sharp response from Greens senator Scott Ludlam.
No end in sight for NSA and CIA exploit leaks (The Parallax) Zero-day exploit leaks from U.S. intelligence agency stockpiles highlights internal security and cultural structures that aren’t likely to change.
Is it time for cash for medical “Clunkers”? (Naked Security) What will it take to improve cybersecurity in the problem-plagued healthcare industry?
Fasoo Announces Release of Ponemon Report on NYDFS Cybersecurity Regulations at Gartner Summit (PRNewswire) Fasoo, Inc., a leader in data security and compliance, will join Dr. Larry...
Litigation, Investigation, and Law Enforcement
Additional Release of FISA Section 702 Documents (IC on the Record) Today, the ODNI, in consultation with the Department of Justice, is releasing additional FISA Section 702 documents.
US internet company refused to join NSA's PRISM program, documents reveal (ZDNet) The company, which wasn't named, quietly pushed back in the government's secret court against the National Security Agency's surveillance program, but ultimately failed.
Company Lost Secret 2014 Fight Over ‘Expansion’ of N.S.A. Surveillance (New York Times) The 2014 fight is the first time that a communications company that works with the N.S.A. is known to have challenged a law on warrantless surveillance.
Robert Mueller Chooses his Investigatory Dream Team (WIRED) President Donald Trump had almost certainly never heard the name Aaron Zebley before the announcement that the former FBI agent was joining the special counsel investigation into ties between Trump’s campaign and Russia.
International operation targets customers of counter anti-virus and crypter services (Help Net Security) Between 5 and 9 June, 6 suspects were arrested and 36 were interviewed during an internationally coordinated operation in 6 European countries.
Thai Police Bust Major Click Farm, Arresting Three (Infosecurity Magazine) Thai Police Bust Major Click Farm, Arresting Three. Chinese men allegedly paid by company back home to game system
Northern Ireland teen charged in connection with TalkTalk cyber attack (BelfastTelegraph) A north Antrim teenager has been charged in connection with a cyber attack on telecom giant TalkTalk.
Alleged Latvian cybercriminal extradited to US in costly ‘scareware’ investigation (Fifth Domain | Cyber) Peteris Sahurovs has been extradited from Poland for his alleged involvement in a scheme that spread malware through fraudulent online advertising for an American hotel chain on the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s website, resulting in the ransoming of over $2 million from affected users.
IT security expert warns cybercrime to continue to grow (The Irish Times) Low chance of getting apprehended makes cybercrime attractive
