Cyber Attacks, Threats, and Vulnerabilities
Winter Olympics Site Taken Out for 12 Hours (Infosecurity Magazine) Winter Olympics Site Taken Out for 12 Hours. Russia suspected of pre-ceremony cyber-attack
Cyber Attack Disrupts Winter Olympics Website During Opening Ceremony (HackRead) The Winter Olympics Games Organizing Committee is investigating a cyber attack on the event's Internet and Wi-Fi system.
Pyeongchang Olympics Hit By Cyber Attack, With Widespread Rumors Russia to Blame (Gizmodo) Officials at the 2018 Pyeonchang Winter Olympics have occurred that a cyber attack hit the games, taking its website as well as TV and internet access at its main press center offline, the Guardian reported.
Winter Olympics website downed by cyber attack (Register) There was nothing to see here, but please move along, nothing to see here, say authorities
McAfee discovered 'malicious documents' targeting Winter Olympics ahead of opening ceremony 'hack' (ZDNet) The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremonies were briefly impacted when servers belonging to Olympic organisers were hacked.
Cryptojacking attack hits ~4,000 websites, including UK’s data watchdog (TechCrunch) At first glance a CoinHive crypto miner being served by a website whose URL contains the string ‘ICO’ might not seem so strange.
Government websites hijacked by cryptomining plugin (Graham Cluley) More than 4000 websites, including many belonging to governments around the world, were hijacked this weekend by hackers who managed to plant Coinhive cryptocurrency-mining code designed to exploit the resources of visiting computers.
U.S. & UK Govt Sites Injected With Miners After Popular Script Was Hacked (BleepingComputer) Thousands of sites were injected with a in-browser Monero miner today after a popular accessibility script was compromised. With 4, 275 sites affected, this included government websites such as uscourts.gov, ico.org.uk, & manchester.gov.uk.
Data security investigation underway at Texthelp (Texthelp) At 11:14 am GMT on Sunday 11th February 2018, a JavaScript file which is part of the Texthelp Browsealoud product was compromised during a cyber attack.
Cryptomining script poisons government websites – What to do (Naked Security) Reports surfaced over the the weekend of many government websites that were “infected with malware”. Here’s what we know, and what to do.
Californian Voter Records Held for Ransom Again (Infosecurity Magazine) Californian Voter Records Held for Ransom Again. Newspaper’s error means firewall was down for two weeks
Domain Theft Strands Thousands of Web Sites (KrebsOnSecurity) Newtek Business Services Corp. [NASDAQ:NEWT], a Web services conglomerate that operates more than 100,000 business Web sites and some 40,000 managed technology accounts, had several of its core domain names stolen over the weekend.
How a Low-Level Apple Employee Leaked Some of the iPhone's Most Sensitive Code (Motherboard) This is how a small group of friends lost control of the leaked iBoot source code. The story behind one of Apple's most embarrassing leaks.
Hackers are exploiting the CVE-2018-0101 CISCO ASA flaw in attacks in the wild (CP Blog) Hackers are exploiting the CVE-2018-0101 CISCO ASA flaw in attacks in the wild and a Proof-of-concept exploit code is available online.
Uh-oh. How just inserting a USB drive can pwn a Linux box (HOTforSecurity) Remember the notorious Stuxnet worm? It was a highly-sophisticated piece of malware - developed by the United States and Israeli intelligence - which targeted Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment facility. One of the things which made Stuxnet so notable was that it... #kdeplasma #linux #malware
DarkSky botnet spotted evading security measures (SC Media UK) A new botnet has been discovered by security researchers that has anti-virtual machine capabilities to evade security controls such as a sandbox.
Turns out Equifax breach was way bigger than initially thought (HackRead) Equifax suffered a hack attack in 2017 in which 143 million customer data was stolen - It turns out that Equifax didn't fully reveal what exactly was stolen.
Buffett's Business Wire now 'stable' after cyber attack (Reuters) Business Wire, the corporate news release distributor owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc, on Friday said it had fended off a cyber attack designed to disable it, and that its system was now "stable."
DDoS Extortion and Attack Techniques (BankInfo Security) DDoS extortion comes in many forms. Campaigns over the past three years have varied in their nature and continue to evolve over even the past few months. What
Expect cyber attacks on supply chains: Eset (Techgoondu) Attackers are trying to use the weakest element in the organisation’s supply network to infiltrate larger companies, according to security firm Eset
Half of All Cryptojacking Scripts Found on Porn Sites (BleepingComputer) Almost 50% of all cryptojacking scripts (in-browser miners) are deployed on adult-themed sites, according to new numbers released this week by Qihoo 360's Netlab division.
Have federal nuclear supercomputer? GO CRYPTOMINING! (Naked Security) News of arrests at a Russian nuclear physics lab for “unauthorised cryptomining” reminded us of SETI@work in the 1990s…
Bitcoin’s ‘Civil War’ Hit InfoWars Last Night and It Was Bizarre (Motherboard) We've hit peak... something.
8 Nation-State Hacking Groups to Watch in 2018 (Dark Reading) The aliases, geographies, famous attacks, and behaviors of some of the most prolific threat groups.
Op-ed: Logan Paul tases a dead rat, draws YouTube’s harshest crackdown yet (Ars Technica) Op-ed: Logan Paul tases a dead rat, draws YouTube’s harshest crackdown yet
Security Patches, Mitigations, and Software Updates
IBM Patches Spectre and Meltdown for Power Servers (Infosecurity Magazine) IBM Patches Spectre and Meltdown for Power Servers. Big Blue also warns of new Notes vulnerability
If you haven't already killed Lotus Notes, IBM just gave you the perfect reason to do it now, fast (Register) Also: Big Blue's Meltdown, Spectre status updated, and a mystery bug in AIX
Lenovo Warns Critical WiFi Vulnerability Impacts Dozens of ThinkPad Models (Threatpost) Lenovo issued a security bulletin Friday warning customers of two previously disclosed critical Broadcom vulnerabilities impact 25 models of its popular ThinkPad laptops.
VMware Addresses Meltdown, Spectre Flaws in Virtual Appliances (Security Week) VMware starts releasing patches and workarounds for Virtual Appliance products in response to the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities
Chrome will mark HTTP pages as "not secure" (Help Net Security) Starting with Chrome 68, which is scheduled to be released in July 2018, Google will explicitly mark all HTTP sites as “not secure."
Cyber Trends
Cybercrime shifts: Rise of Russian cybercrime, attacks on cryptocurrency marketplaces (Help Net Security) Cryptocurrency marketplaces, designed to facilitate trading on the full range of digital currencies, are experiencing a range of fraudulent activity. The w
The Time to Focus on Critical Infrastructure Security is Now (Security Week) The software that controls our infrastructure is vulnerable to attack, and the potential results are far more destructive and pervasive than even science fiction would have us believe.
The technology takeover: Connectivity creates chaos culture (SiliconANGLE) The technology takeover: Connectivity creates chaos culture - SiliconANGLE
Internet users hate marketing spam more than cybercrime (iNews) More than one third of internet users have intentionally supplied false information about themselves when signing up for products and services online, acco
Consumers prefer security over convenience for the first time ever, IBM Security report finds (TechRepublic) Mobile and web users are aware of the data breaches happening around them, and are now prioritizing strong security and privacy--especially when it comes to their financial accounts.
Marketplace
Polish electric company looks to Israel as ‘partner in fighting cyber-crime’ (Times of Israel) Despite strained ties over Holocaust bill, 2 countries sign agreement; visiting Polish delegation to tour 10 cybersecurity firms and the National Cyber Institute
Cyber Warranties: What to Know, What to Ask (Dark Reading) The drivers and details behind the growth of cyber warranties, which more businesses are using to guarantee their products.
Demand for email security escalates consolidation of phishing awareness & training point solutions (IT Pro Portal) Organisations must empower their employees with right tools and techniques to fight phishing at every phase of an attack.
Can we trust Intel Inside to mean secure computing? (ComputerWeekly) Intel has just released an updated patch after its previous update failed spectacularly. Now its CEO is promising security assurance
General Dynamics buying CSRA in watershed federal IT deal (Washington Technology) General Dynamics will pay $6.8 billion in cash to acquire CSRA in a move that consolidates two of government IT's largest players.
Lockheed gets extension on cyber range work (Washington Technology) Lockheed Martin will continue to support the National Cyber Range as the Defense Department continues to develop a larger and broader multiple award contract.
Zerodium Offers $45,000 for Linux 0-Days (Security Week) Hackers willing to find unpatched vulnerabilities in the Linux operating system and report them to exploit acquisition firm Zerodium can earn up to $45,000 for their findings, the company announced on Thursday.
Why Security Collaboration Is Critical for Luring Companies Like Amazon in Boston (Bost Inno) To no one’s surprise Boston has made it into the final round for selection of Amazon’s HQ2. While Boston ticks the boxes off Amazon’s list, we have additional assets that have real benefits to Amazon, or any large enterprise.
King Mill to get new life with plans for 250 apartments on the horizon (WRDW) Work continues at Sibley Mill to create what they're calling Augusta Cyberworks, a cyber tech campus with a data center and office spaces. The same developer at Sibley Mill has just bought the even larger King Mill right next door. They have plans to turn that old mill into apartments.
Government Cyber Contractor Eyes Texas Expansion (Government Technology) Noblis, a research and technology nonprofit, is looking to expand its San Antonio workforce focusing on artificial intelligence, data science and cybersecurity.
Cyber Deception Company Cymmetria Hires Lloyd's of London Exec (CTECH) The company recruited Marcus Alldrick, the former head of digital risk and compliance at the London-based insurance market
Products, Services, and Solutions
New infosec products of the week: February 9, 2018 (Help Net Security) This week's new infosec product releases showcase the following vendors: BeyondTrust, Cylance, Hitachi ID Systems, Waratek, and IOGEAR.
Blockchain consulting: Accenture, Synechron in pilot projects (SearchITChannel) Blockchain consulting is gaining momentum as Accenture and Synechron deliver prototype and pilot projects in the travel and financial services sectors.
Five smart TVs tested for security, privacy issues (Help Net Security) Consumer Union, a US-based nonprofit organization dedicated to unbiased product testing, has conducted a privacy and security evaluation of five smart TVs from the most widely sold TV brands in the US.
IBM QRadar vs Splunk: Top SIEM Solutions Compared (eSecurity Planet) While both SIEM solutions are popular industry leaders, each has its strengths and weaknesses. We take a close look at both.
NetIX launches new DDoS mitigation service (Capacity Media) NetIX has launched a new distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack mitigation product aimed at its telecoms customers and partners.
Parity Technologies engages Trail of Bits (Security Boulevard) We’re helping Parity Technologies secure their Ethereum client. We’ll begin by auditing their codebase, and look forward to publishing results and the knowledge we gained in the future. Parity Technologies combines cryptography, cellular systems, peer-to-peer technology and decentralized consensus to solve the problems that have gone unaddressed by conventional server-client architecture. Their Ethereum client is designed for
PhishMe Attains SOC 2 Type I Compliance Across PhishMe Simulator and Hosted PhishMe Triage Product Offerings (Benzinga) The leading provider of human phishing defense solutions today announced it has successfully completed a Service Organization Controls (SOC) 2 Type I examination
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Technologies, Techniques, and Standards
Belgian police release decryption keys for Cryakl ransomware (V3) Decryption keys for the Cryakl ransomware have been released to the No More Ransom website following an operation led by Belgian police, assisted by security software firm Kaspersky Lab.
GDPR best practice use cases highlight burden and opportunity (Diginomica) Marketing executives and IT decision makers can help organisations cope with growing customer concerns and regulatory pressures.
Why is Cyber Threat Intelligence Sharing Important? (Infosecurity Magazine) Information-sharing forms one of the main pillars that will allow those organizations to better respond to the general cyber threat.
What government agencies tell us about cloud security (The Stack) Michael Mudd discusses the impact of the Snowden Revelations on businesses' understanding of cloud security.
Why it’s harder for threats to hide behavior on a corporate network (CSO Online) If signatures in cybersecurity are like fingerprints in a criminal investigation, behavioral detection is like profiling – it’s harder to hide, but it’s not foolproof either.
Security pros need a better way of pooling threat intelligence (C-Suite) Infoblox Inc. has released the results of its third annual study on the state of threat intelligence exchange conducted by the Ponemon Institute.
Stay on Track: High Tensions Often Cause Incident Response to be Derailed (Security Week) Inside look at the “response” phase of the incident response lifecycle. NIST 800-61 guidelines outline this in two phases: Detection & Analysis and Containment, Eradication & Recovery
Why Is Blockchain Technology The Perfect Fit For IP Exchange? | TechBullion (TechBullion) The bold push for blockchain technology and cryptography by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 when he invented the cryptocurrency; Bitcoin, has brought on a wave of solutions to problems in different fields from fashion to finance and luxury shopping. It’s a whole new world for anyone looking to leverage the inherent security of blockchain technology and […]
Design and Innovation
No more Windows 10 passwords? Microsoft says Hello to palm-vein biometrics (ZDNet) Microsoft and Fujitsu have teamed up to enable palm-vein authentication on Windows 10 as part of Windows Hello.
The Immorality of Bad Software Design (Weekly Standard) You surely saw the news: At 8:07 on January 13, a quiet Saturday morning in Honolulu, Hawaii’s Emergency Management Agency sent out to a million cell phones a text that read, “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”
The National Inventors Hall of Fame to Induct 15 Innovators in 2018 Class (Multivu) National Inventors will induct 15 innovation pioneers for their world-changing inventions on May 2-3 during the Greatest Celebration of American Innovation
Academia
DSU cyber-ethicist to discuss technology’s threat to human nature (Dakota State University) What you find at DSU might surprise you. We offer an update on the traditional college experience that’s both rigorous and fun, with a technological twist that will prep you for a successful career in any field.
Legislation, Policy, and Regulation
Deterring Cyberattacks (Foreign Affairs) For years, the United States has failed to devise a strategy to deter or respond to cyberattacks. In the future, it must communicate what behavior is acceptable and what is not—and what Washington will do about it.
Cybersecurity can't be seen in isolation, it has to be a concerted international effort, says ex-DHS cybersec chief Sean McGurk (Tech2) From digital identity, digital banking and data usage, India is ideally positioned to provide worldwide leadership in the digital era
Bill In US Senate Calls For Cryptocurrency Terror Threat Assessment (ETHNews.com) A bill currently in the US Senate would call on federal personnel, including from the Department of Homeland Security, to develop and share with other law enforcement bodies a threat assessment describing how cryptocurrencies could be used to support terrorist activity.
Krebs Nominated to Lead NPDD at Homeland Security (Homeland Security Today) He's been serving in the role as undersecretary since 2017, overseeing the cyber and physical infrastructure security mission for the department.
Politicians urge parents to get involved in 'child's e-safety' to detect cyber bullying (NZ City) Youth mental health experts say parents need more help to deal with cyber bullying.
Huawei claims national security is used as plausible excuse for 'protectionism' (Register) Global government affairs Veep wants trade rules to apply
Why Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google Need to Be Disrupted (Esquire) Four companies dominate our daily lives unlike any other in human history: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. We love our nifty phones and just-a-click-away services, but these behemoths enjoy unfettered economic domination and hoard riches on a scale not seen since the monopolies of the gilded age. The only logical conclusion? We must bust up big tech.
Litigation, Investigation, and Law Enforcement
CIA: 'Patently false' that we lost $100K to Russian offering Trump secrets (TheHill) The CIA, in a recent statement, pushed back against reporting that said U.S. spies were swindled out of $100,000 during secret negotiations meant to obtain stolen cyber tools.
U.S. Secretly Negotiated With Russians to Buy Stolen NSA Documents — and the Russians Offered Trump-Related Material, Too (The Intercept) The secret communications channel has opened rifts between CIA and NSA officials, some of whom fear getting damaging material on Donald Trump.
U.S. Spies, Seeking to Retrieve Cyberweapons, Paid Russian Peddling Trump Secrets (New York Times) After months of negotiations, the Russian insisted on including information about the president as part of a deal involving stolen hacking tools.
US intelligence negotiating return of classified NSA documents (TheHill) American intelligence officials have been conducting a top-secret operation to recover stolen National Security Agency (NSA) documents through meetings with Russian intermediaries, according to The Intercept.
The NSA sent coded messages to a shadowy Russian on its official Twitter account (Business Insider) The NSA fired off roughly a dozen coded tweets over a period of months last year, each time giving the Russian advance notice of the messages they would tweet.
The Inside Scoop on the New York Times’ Russian Spy Story from the Guy Who Reported It (Slate Magazine) “You never know entirely who is who. And with the Russians it is especially hard.”
Supreme Court fight could stir up fears of US spying overseas (Yahoo) The Supreme Court will hear a digital privacy case this month against Microsoft that could attract international attention and reignite fears that the U.S. government is harnessing tech giants to spy on the rest of the world.
2nd Circuit Vacates Arab Bank's Hamas Terrorism Verdict (New York Law Journal) The Second Circuit vacated Arab Bank's Hamas terrorism verdict but 597 plaintiffs are still set to receive a substantial settlement.
Russian Nuke Scientists, Ukrainian Professor Arrested for Bitcoin Mining (BleepingComputer) Authorities in Russia and Ukraine have arrested suspects this past week on accusations of using work computers to mine Bitcoin.
It’s all over: Why the Waymo v. Uber self-driving settlement makes sense (Ars Technica) By giving up just 0.34 percent of the company, Uber essentially got off cheaply.
Former Employee Arrested for Trying to Sell Company's Database for $4,000 (BleepingComputer) Officers from Ukraine's Cyber Police Department arrested a suspect last week for attempting to sell customer data belonging to his former employer.
Cloudflare Terminates Service to 'The Pirate Bay of Science' (Motherboard) Supporters tell Sci-Hub to “stay strong” while academic publications celebrate their victory.
