Cyber Attacks, Threats, and Vulnerabilities
Atos, IT provider for Winter Olympics, hacked months before Opening Ceremony cyberattack (Cyberscoop) Hackers appear to have compromised Atos, the main IT service provider for the Winter Olympic Games months before last week's highly publicized cyberattack.
Stopping Olympic Destroyer: New Process Injection Insights (Endgame) The International Olympic Committee confirmed that the 2018 opening ceremonies experienced a range of digital attacks, resulting in internet disruption and containing the capability to cause destruction.
Russian actors mentioned as possibly launching Olympics cyber-attack (SC Media UK) Industry executives have gathered evidence showing the culprit behind the cyber-attack that hit the 2018 Winter Olympics might be a Russian group.
UK: Russia behind 'malicious' cyber-attack (BBC News) The defence secretary points finger at Kremlin for Ukraine attack, which also hit British businesses.
UK blames Russia for cyber attack, says won't tolerate disruption (Reuters) Britain blamed Russia on Thursday for a cyber-attack last year, publicly pointing the finger at Moscow for spreading a virus which disrupted companies across Europe including UK-based Reckitt Benckiser .
Russia was behind 'malicious' cyber attack on Ukraine, Foreign Office says (The Telegraph) Russia was behind a devastating cyber attack on Ukraine’s banks, government and power grid, the Foreign Office has said.
Vulnerabilities in Apache CouchDB Open the Door to Monero Miners (TrendLabs Security Intelligence Blog) Based on data from our sensors that we deployed worldwide, we have observed a new attack that exploits two vulnerabilities in a popular database system to deliver miners (detected by Trend Micro as HKTL_COINMINE.GE, HKTL_COINMINE.GP, and HKTL_COINMINE.GQ) for the Monero cryptocurrency.
Coinherder Campaign Nets $50 Million from Bitcoin Phishing (Infosecurity Magazine) The campaign was unique because adversaries leveraged Google AdWords to poison user search results in order to steal users’ wallets.
Vulnerabilities found in Broadcom Wi-Fi adapter of Lenovo laptop chipsets (Quick Heal Technologies Security Blog) Lenovo recently released an advisory, warning customers about two critical Broadcom vulnerabilities which impact 25 models of its popular ThinkPad lineup. The Broadcom Wi-Fi chipsets used by Lenovo ThinkPad devices are affected by the CVE-2017-11120 & CVE-2017-11121 vulnerabilities. Both these issues are rated as “critical” and received a CVSS 10 score...
DoubleDoor Botnet Chains Exploits to Bypass Firewalls (BleepingComputer) Crooks are building a botnet that for the first time is bundling two exploits together in an attempt to bypass enterprise firewalls and infect devices.
IoT botnet bypasses firewalls to get to ZyXEL modems (Help Net Security) NewSky Security's honeypots have detected a new IoT botnet in the making. The botnet was named DoubleDoor, as it leverages two distinct backdoors to get to the target: ZyXEL PK5001Z modems.
A potent botnet is exploiting a critical router bug that may never be fixed (Ars Technica) With Internet stability hanging in the balance, router maker maintains radio silence.
This new text bomb crashes most Mac and iOS apps with a single unicode symbol (TechCrunch) TechCrunch has learned of a potentially serious new bug affecting a wide range of Apple devices. During their development work on an international news feed,..
Cryptocurrency startup LoopX exit scams with $4.5M in ICO (Naked Security) It was one flaky pastry: “great profits continuously every month,” zero details on its “Loop Algorithm,” and nary a single detail on its team.
Scammers Abuse Google Ads to Steal Millions in Bitcoin (PCMAG) The cybercriminals used Google Ads to promote fake Blockchain.info pages that were designed to steal victims' login credentials.
How cybercriminals exploited Telegram flaw to deliver malware (Help Net Security) A "vulnerability" in Telegram's desktop instant messaging client for Windows was exploited for months by Russian cybercriminals to deliver malware to users.
Cryptomining malware continues to drain enterprise CPU power (Help Net Security) Cryptomining malware continues to impact organizations globally as 23% were affected by the Coinhive variant during January 2018, according to Check Point’s Global Threat Impact Index January 2018.
Who has the most to gain from cryptocurrency? Criminals (CNET) Cryptocurrency has earned a reputation for fast returns on investment, but it’s a vehicle for exploitation too.
Twitter deleted Russian troll tweets. So we published more than 200,000 of them. (NBC News) Twitter doesn't make it easy to track Russian propaganda efforts — this database can help
Email Fraud Attacks Continue to Grow, Proofpoint Reports (eWEEK) Proofpoint analyzed 160 billion emails and found a growing trend of fraud, as attackers spoof email identities.
X-rated scam that could cost you thousands if you've ever watched p[0]rn (Daily Record) This scammer claims he knows what you did when your partner was out…and even has a film of it
Facebook's free VPN acts like spyware to iOS users in the U.S. (CSO Online) Facebook's new VPN service for iOS users in the U.S. claims to provide security protections, but it also tracks users -- collecting mobile data traffic.
Security Patches, Mitigations, and Software Updates
Dell EMC Patches Critical Flaws in VMAX Enterprise Storage Systems (Threatpost) Attacks include a hard-coded password vulnerability that could give attackers unauthorized access to systems.
Dell EMC Isilon OneFS Multiple Vulnerabilities (Core Security) 1. Advisory InformationTitle: Dell EMC Isilon OneFS Multiple VulnerabilitiesAdvisory ID: CORE-2017-0009Advisory URL: http://www.coresecurity.com/advisories/dell-emc-isilon-onefs-multiple-vulnerabilitiesDate published: 2018-02-14Date of last update: 2018-02-14Vendors contacted: Dell EMCRelease mode: Coordinated release
How Chrome’s built-in ad blocker will work when it goes live tomorrow (TechCrunch) Chrome's built-in ad blocker will go live tomorrow. It's the first time Google will automatically block some ads in Chrome, but while quite a few online..
Microsoft boosts Windows Analytics to help squash Meltdown and Spectre bugs (Help Net Security) Windows Analytics' latest update is primarily geared towards making administrators' job easier when it comes to mitigating and removing the risk of Meltdown and Spectre attacks.
Bitmessage Zero-Day Used in Attacks That Steal Bitcoin Wallet Files (BleepingComputer) The maintainers of the Bitmessage P2P encrypted communications protocol have released a fix after discovering that hackers were using a zero-day in attempts to steal Bitcoin wallet files from users' computers.
Cyber Trends
With 100 days to go, 72% of organizations worldwide are GDPR ready (EfficientIP) EfficientIP X-Day study discovers average global spend on GDPR compliance tops $1.5 million, bringing increased trust and loyalty from customers
A five-year analysis of reported Windows vulnerabilities (Help Net Security) Avecto conducted an analysis of reported Windows vulnerabilities spanning five years. Last year, 685 vulnerabilities were found versus 325 vulnerabilities that were found in 2013.
Financial Services Sector Breaches Triple in Five Years (Infosecurity Magazine) Financial Services Sector Breaches Triple in Five Years. Accenture report claims cybercrime costs are higher than any other sector
Financial services firms most adept at making balanced security investments (Help Net Security) Financial services firms continue to make prudent and sophisticated security technology investments that contribute to reducing the cost of breaches significantly.
CISOs fear 'perfect storm' of cybercrime (IT Pro Portal) Combination of the lack of staff and a hard-hitting cyberattack could prove deadly.
Marketplace
10 Ways to Lose That Security Sale (SecurityWeek) Josh Goldfarb shares some observations made throughout the years around behaviors that aggravate the “culture clash” between salespeople and security practitioners.
European bankers scoff at bitcoin for its risk, huge energy inefficiency (Ars Technica) Top officials from Bundesbank, ECB push for the necessity of fiat currency.
Why multimillionaire Pavel Durov wants to mint his own cryptocurrency (Evening Standard) The Russian-born entrepreneur Pavel Durov was once caught on camera throwing paper aeroplanes out of his St Petersburg office window, carefully folded from 5,000-rouble notes. If helping one of his lieutenants give away his bonus was the outspoken libertarian’s way of showing contempt for money, he appears to have changed his tune.
Intel expands bug bounty program to include Spectre-like side-channel attacks, dangles $250K (GeekWire) Intel is promising up to $250,000 to security researchers who uncover new side-channel vulnerabilities in its processors, in the wake of the Meltdown and Spectre exploits that took advantage of such…
'Out-of-the-box move' by General Dynamics shows how big defense companies are shifting business strategies (Washington Business Journal) General Dynamics is well-suited to pursue critical mass in federal IT even as its peers got out of that business, because “more than any of its peers in the sector, General Dynamics has made out-of-the-box moves," an analyst says.
The Awake Threat Hunter Olympics 2018 (Awake Security) Awake has put together the threat hunting olympics for security analysts. Much like the athletes at Pyeongchang, winning this challenge will require solving six security challenges/puzzles. These challenges are built on real-world attack scenarios that we see in customer environments today.
Stealth Security® Raises $8M From Shasta Ventures to Help Enterprises Fight Malicious Bots (BusinessWire) Stealth Security® Raises $8M from Shasta Ventures to Help Enterprises Fight Malicious Bots.
inBay Technologies’ Financing Round Oversubscribed by $1 Million (inBay) Cybersecurity firm exceeds funding target through a key investment by Global Alliance Inc. – early investors in PayPal and Fortinet
inBay Technologies Connects to Silicon Valley Through Its Board of Directors (InBay) Cybersecurity firm adds two new directors to its board
Canadian managed detection services firm goes south for new CEO (IT World Canada) Last year Kerry Bailey was part of a U.S. private equity firm considering taking a big ownership in one of Canada’s biggest
Kenna Security Strengthens Cyber Risk Research Expertise (PR Newswire) Kenna Security, a leader in predictive cyber risk, announced today that...
Paul Parker Named Chief Technologist for SolarWinds’ Federal & Natl Govt Business (GovCon Wire) Paul Parker, a 22-year information technology industry veteran, has joined SolarWinds as chief techn
Bill Solms Named Qualys Federal VP, GM (GovCon Wire) Bill Solms, formerly president and CEO of WildRock Security Group, has joined Qualys (Nasdaq: QLYS)
Former DiData CEO hooks up with Ubusha Technologies (BusinessLive) Brett Dawson joins the Johannesburg-based IT security firm with a plan to expand its global footprint
Security Vendor eSentire Lands Ex-HPE Channel Chief Kerry Bailey As CEO In Push To $1B Sales Mark (CRN) Just 28 percent of eSentire's sales went through partners in the second half of 2017, but new CEO Kerry Bailey wants to boost that to between 50 percent and 55 percent within the next 18 months.
FireEye Promotes Craig Mueller to Vice President of Federal Sales (Homeland Security Today) Mueller will be responsible for defining, growing and executing the sales strategy for FireEye’s U.S. federal government sector, which includes federal civilian, defense, and intelligence agencies.
Products, Services, and Solutions
Webroot Offers SecureAnywhere® DNS Protection for Guest WiFi (Markets Insider) Webroot, the Smarter Cybersecurity® company expanded its SecureAnywhere® DNS Protection solution to include...
NTT Security and ThreatQuotient Partner (ThreatQuotient) ThreatQuotient's threat intelligence platform, ThreatQ, will serve as the cornerstone of NTT Security's new threat intelligence services offering.
ScramFS officially launches, exactly 100 days before GDPR becomes enforceable | ScramFS (ScramFS) Scram Software launches Scram FS Encryption System to safeguard cloud data and help SME customers reduce risk and ensure stringent HIPPA and GDPR requirements
Fitbit’s bug bounty program | Powered by Bugcrowd (Bugcrowd Inc.) Bugcrowd's bug bounty and vulnerability disclosure platform connects the global security researcher community with Fitbit to help keep their customers secure.
Radware neutralises evasive zero-day malware threats with cloud malware protection service (Totaltelecom) Radware, a leading provider of cyber security and application delivery solutions and services, today launched its Cloud Malware Protection Service, built to detect, alert and block upon evasive zero-day malware that elude existing anti-malware defences and steal data.
Why Microsoft spends over $1 billion on cybersecurity each year (TechRepublic) Azure Government CISO Matthew Rathbun explains how Azure uses artificial intelligence to defend business infrastructure.
CyberSponse Announces Full Integration with RSA Archer (PRWeb) CyberSponse, the leader in case management, security orchestration and automation, continues to expand its inter-tehnology collaboration and is proud to a
QuintessenceLabs harnesses diode 'flaw' for new quantum number generator (ZDNet) Hijacking a flaw in diodes to harness quantum physics, Australia's QuintessenceLabs has built a full-entropy quantum random number generator with a 1Gbps output.
Technologies, Techniques, and Standards
The GDPR Clock Is Running Out. Now What? (Dark Reading) Many organizations impacted by new European Union data privacy rules that go into effect May 25 are still blind to some of the basics.
7 threat modeling mistakes you’re probably making (CSO Online) The relative lack of maturity around threat modeling can cause big problems for organizations seeking to adopt the practice to bolster their network and services security.
Why blockchain holds ‘great promise’ for securing connected devices and systems (Cloud Tech News) Blockchain technologies hold ‘great promise’ for securing connected devices and systems, according to a new paper from the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA).
IBM sees blockchain as ready for government use (Computerworld) In testimony before a congressional committee, IBM's Jerry Cuomo warned against over-regulation because of cryptocurrency volatility, said the government should embrace the distributed ledger technology and encouraged its use in the enterprise.
Four best practices outlined to prevent health care cyberattacks (Medical Express) Four best practices outlined that can help prevent health care cyberattacks, which increased from 2016 to 2017, according to a report published in Managed Healthcare Executive.
Rise of the data protection officer, the hottest tech ticket in town (Reuters) They may not have the cachet of entrepreneurs, or geek chic of developers, but data protection officers are suddenly the hottest properties in technology.
Research and Development
MIT unveils energy-efficient encryption for Internet of Things (My Broadband) A special-purpose chip reduces power consumption of public-key encryption by 99.75%.
Radioactive Material From Chernobyl Will Help Secure the Next Version of Zcash (Motherboard) How to use toxic waste to generate “toxic waste.”
Academia
A former TSA and NSA executive reveals how to break into the cybersecurity field (TechRepublic) Emma Garrison-Alexander has had a long career in cybersecurity, engineering, counterterrorism, and academia. She recommends how to have a cyber career, and encourages women to pursue that field.
Legislation, Policy, and Regulation
Filing Deadline for New Infosec Law Hits NY Finance Firms Thursday (Dark Reading) Banks and financial services companies in New York must file by tomorrow to certify they are compliant with the state Department of Financial Services' new cybersecurity regulation, 23 NYCRR 500.
Singapore passes new Cybersecurity Bill: Here's what you need to know before it comes into force (Data Protection Report) The Singapore Parliament passed the much discussed Cybersecurity Bill (the Bill) on 5 February 2018 and it is anticipated that the new law will come into force soon.… Continue reading
Ex-Mossad head: Israeli cybersecurity isn’t enough (Jerusalem Post) Sovereign governments face many challenges in erecting cyberdefenses, notably the many months or years it takes to develop and install defensive software.
DHS to Scrutinize Government Supply Chain for Cyber Risks (Nextgov.com) The department wants to integrate cyber vetting into existing supply chain checks.
Wyden grills FBI chief on encryption (FCW) Following an exchange with the FBI director over encryption standards, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) released a letter from four experts arguing that 'responsible encryption' is not possible.
Crypto-Experts Slam FBI’s Backdoor Encryption Access Demands (Infosecurity Magazine) Crypto-Experts Slam FBI’s Backdoor Encryption Access Demands. Schneier et al want Feds to show exactly how they’d propose doing it
U.S. Democrats push $1 billion bill for election security (Reuters) Congressional Democrats introduced legislation on Wednesday that would provide more than $1 billion to boost cyber security of U.S. voting systems, and Vice President Mike Pence defended the administration's efforts to protect polls from hackers.
DoD’s secret weapon against election meddling: its reputation (Fifth Domain) According to experts, convincing the public to be on the lookout for Russian cyber operations will require leveraging the people's trust in the military.
Georgia Says No Thanks To In-Depth Election Security Help From Feds (90.1 FM WABE) Despite increasing scrutiny of Georgia’s voting technology ahead of the 2018 midterms, the state will not join more than a dozen others asking the U.S. Dep
Secretary of Energy Rick Perry Forms New Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (Energy.gov) Secretary of Energy Rick Perry Forms New Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response
Litigation, Investigation, and Law Enforcement
BuzzFeed Is Suing the D.N.C. Over Issues Involving the Russia Dossier (The Hive) BuzzFeed believes that evidence of the alleged D.N.C. break-in by Russian hackers might help the online publisher in a libel suit. But the D.N.C. says releasing information might make it vulnerable to more hacking.
Trump Russia, Clinton Email Scandals Are Claiming A Lot of Bodies — At FBI And Justice (Investor's Business Daily) What accounts for the growing pile of top officials involved in those investigations who've been reassigned, demoted, or have suddenly quit?
Ex-F1 boss begins legal bid to limit free speech (Times) The former head of Formula One is seeking to gag the media using a law never intended to limit press freedom. Max Mosley, 77, is attempting to use data protection law to force newspapers including...
“Troll” loses Cloudflare lawsuit, has weaponized patent invalidated (Ars Technica) Cloudflare says it will be "ready to respond" if Blackbird appeals.
Growing Number of State Attorneys General Alarmed over Cyber Risks from Illegal Websites (Markets Insider) Attorneys General representing California, Texas, Virginia and 25 other states have warned consumers ab...
State launches lab to fight growing problem of cyber crime (AL.com) Joining Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall at a Montgomery press conference was Louis Franklin, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama, as well as representatives from the FBI, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations, the Alabama Fusion Center and the Alabama Office of Prosecution Services.
Newly Declassified Documents (IC on the Record) The ODNI, consistent with prior practice, recently added newly released documents pursuant to FISA litigation to the prior posts pertaining to that litigation.
