Cyber Attacks, Threats, and Vulnerabilities
Analysis | The Cybersecurity 202: U.S. adversaries are raising their cyber game, intel officials warn (Washington Post) They are "threatening both minds and machines," DNI Coats says.
Iran-Linked Hackers Use Array of Tools to Steal Data: FireEye (SecurityWeek) An Iran-linked cyber-espionage group (APT39) responsible for widespread theft of data is using a broad range of custom and off-the-shelf tools, FireEye security researchers say.
Special Report - Inside the UAE’s secret hacking team of U.S.... (Reuters) Two weeks after leaving her position as an intelligence analyst for the U.S. Nat...
Iran's Cyber Spies Looking to Get Personal (VOA) New reports from cybersecurity firm FireEye, and others, indicate Tehran is swallowing up PII - personally identifiable information – to gain leverage in future operations
APT39: An Iranian Cyber Espionage Group Focused on Personal Information « APT39: An Iranian Cyber Espionage Group Focused on Personal Information (FireEye) APT39 is an Iranian cyber espionage group responsible for widespread theft of personal information.
Exclusive: UAE used cyber super-weapon to spy on iPhones of foes (Reuters) A team of former U.S. government intelligence operatives working for the United ...
Israel Blocks Iran Cyber-attacks 'Daily': Netanyahu (SecurityWeek) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran of regularly launching cyber-attacks on Israel that the Jewish state blocks each day.
FaceTime Bug an AppSec Fail (Dark Reading) Apple has shut off Group FaceTime while it prepares a fix for a newly found security flaw found by a 14-year-old gamer.
This 14-year old found Apple's FaceTime bug before it went viral (CNN) Fourteen-year old Grant Thompson was just trying to play video games with friends on a day off from school when he made an alarming discovery: a bug in Apple's FaceTime tool that could turn iPhones into eavesdropping devices.
Discover Card Users Affected by Data Breach, New Credit Cards Issued (BleepingComputer) Discover Financial Services learned that a number of Discover card accounts might have been part of a data breach according to a notice filed on January 25, 2019, with the California Attorney General's office
Attackers scanning unpatched Cisco small business routers after exploit code published (SC Media) Cisco issued security advisories for two vulnerabilities in its RV320 and RV325 routers, which attackers are already trying to exploit.
Data management giant Rubrik leaked a massive database of client data (TechCrunch) A server security lapse has exposed a massive database of customer information belonging to Rubrik, an IT security and cloud data management giant. The company pulled the server offline Tuesday within an hour of TechCrunch alerting the company, after the data was found by security researcher Oliver…
Russia hit by new wave of ransomware spam (WeLiveSecurity) January 2019 has seen an uptick in detections of malicious JavaScript email attachments with Russian users hit by a large wave of ransomware-spreading spam.
Redaman banking malware returns with new attack targeting Russian speakers (SiliconANGLE) Redaman banking malware returns with new attack targeting Russian speakers
Most of the Fortune 100 still use flawed software that led to the Equifax breach (TechCrunch) Almost two years after Equifax’s massive hack, the majority of Fortune 100 companies still aren’t learning the lessons of using vulnerable software. In the last six months of 2018, two-thirds of the Fortune 100 companies downloaded a vulnerable version of Apache Struts, the same vulnera…
Microsoft Exchange vulnerable to 'PrivExchange' zero-day (ZDNet) Proof-of-concept tool lets attackers escalate a hacked inbox to admin on a company's internal domain controller.
Azorult via fake inquiry email using Microsoft Office Equation Editor exploits (My Online Security) Another malware campaign using malformed RTF files involving Microsoft Office Equation Editor exploits to extract or drop a zip file from an embedded ole object containing the payload and an…
This DDoS Attack Unleashed the Most Packets Per Second Ever. Here’s Why That’s Important. (Imperva) DDoS attacks are usually measured by the amount of bandwidth involved, such as the 1.35 Terabits per second (maximum) attack directed at GitHub last year, the largest DDoS attack ever at the time. However, in DDoS attack mitigation, it’s not the amount of bandwidth that matters – it’s the absolute number of packets directed at …
The DDoS that wasn’t: a key takeaway for web domain security (ZDNet) Four billion requests were sent to a website in one burst but a DDoS attack was not the reason.
Facebook pays teens to install VPN that spies on them (TechCrunch) Desperate for data on its competitors, Facebook has been secretly paying people to install a “Facebook Research” VPN that lets the company suck in all of a user’s phone and web activity, similar to Facebook’s Onavo Protect app that Apple banned in June and that was removed i…
Facebook has been quietly offering teenagers £15 a month to spy on their phones (The Telegraph) Facebook has been paying teenagers £15 ($20) per month to give it complete access to their mobile phones, including their emails, their browsing habits and their private messages in other apps.
Exposed! Facebook pays teenagers to install app that harvests personal data (Graham Cluley) Since 2016 Facebook has been paying users aged 13-35 up to $20 per month to install an app which has almost unlimited limitless access to their smartphones and most sensitive data.
The Case of the Bumbling Spy: A Watchdog Group Gets Him on Camera (New York Times) Citizen Lab has reported on surveillance software used to target dissidents around the world. Now it is being targeted by mysterious, if bumbling, spies.
Undercover who targeted Citizen Lab over Israeli cyber-arms dealer is an ex-Israeli spook linked to black ops firm used by Harvey Weinstein (Boing Boing) Undercover who targeted Citizen Lab over Israeli cyber-arms dealer is an ex-Israeli spook linked to black ops firm used by Harvey Weinstein
Various Google Play “Beauty Camera” Apps Sends Users Pornographic Content, Redirects Them to Phishing Websites and Collects Their Pictures (TrendLabs Security Intelligence Blog) We discovered several beauty camera apps (detected as AndroidOS_BadCamera.HRX) on Google Play that are capable of accessing remote ad configuration servers that can be used for malicious purposes.
Security Alert: Danish E-Shoppers Targeted by Another Wave of Nets.eu Phishing Campaign (Heimdal Security Blog) Yet another phishing campaign poses as a reputable payments processor Nets.eu
Bashe attack (Lloyd's) Assessing the impacts of a global ransomware attack
Cyber Security Impact Analysis of US Government Shutdown (SecurityScorecard) SecurityScorecard developed this report to outline observable changes within the external security postures of US federal government entities during the period throughout the US Government Shutdown of 2018 - 2019.
Hackers Target SMBs That Support US Power Grid | Avast (Security Boulevard) Supply chain attacks may not be new, but they are evolving, thanks to smarter malware and more insidious tactics. Today’s reality is that there is a mounting magnitude of supply chain cyberattacks that are taking down small businesses, large enterprises, and even utilities as massive and critical as the US power grid.
City of Akron’s 311, email still affected by last week’s cyber attack (Fox8.com) The city of Akron is still dealing with the effects of last week's cyber attack. City officials learned of an unsuccessful attempt to access city funds on Tuesday. There is no evidence to suggest the personal information of taxpayers or residents was compromised. The FBI, the Ohio State Highway Patrol and the National Guard aided in the investigation.
Credit cards sold on 'dark web' for over a year after Saint John parking system hacked (CBC) The City of Saint John is beefing up security systems, increasing training and buying cyber insurance in the wake of a breathtaking security breach that left credit card information from members of the public wide open to hackers.
Family issues warning about social media identity thieves (Good Morning America) Ann Tisdale said users are "trying to scam people" by creating fictitious pages that post images and videos of their daughter.
State’s voting machines pose ‘clear and present danger’ warns Pennsylvania election security commission (StateScoop) In a new report, the body urges the state to replace its touchscreen-based machines with those producing paper ballots as soon as possible.
It’s tax season — this is how email scammers are trying to fool you (MarketWatch) After years of declines, there’s been a marked increase in email ‘phishing’ scams.
Inland Revenue: Always use IR secure channels to update bank details (CIO New Zealand) Warns against latest scam targeting taxpayers
Security Patches, Mitigations, and Software Updates
Apple Working on Patch to Prevent FaceTime Spying (SecurityWeek) Apple is working on a patch for a FaceTime vulnerability that can be exploited to spy on people. The attack involves a FaceTime call to the targeted user, but the victim doesn’t have to pick up.
Mozilla releases anti tracking policy, enhances tracking protection in Firefox 65 (Help Net Security) Mozilla has released Firefox 65, with enhanced, configurable protection against online tracking, and has published an official anti tracking policy.
The biggest cybersecurity challenge? Communicating threats internally (Help Net Security) IT executives responsible for cybersecurity feel a lack of support from company leaders, and 33 percent feel completely isolated in their role, according
Cyber Trends
State of the Internet, Volume 5, Issue 1 (Akamai) Is it too late to still say "Happy New Year?"
The History of Fake News (The National Interest) Why can’t America reliably separate out fact, falsehood, opinion and reasoned analysis?
5G is Coming - Where's IoT Security? (Acreto IoT Security) 5G is a game-changer. The highly decentralized 4G/LTE networks cannot support IoT and connected device platforms. A whole new security model is essential.
Fake news on social media is the next big challenge: CyberArk CEO (The Indian Express) Israel, with hostile neighbours, is second after United States on perception of cyber attacks as a threat. It is also among the countries with which New Delhi has close ties on cyber security.
Potential global cyber attack could cause $115b-$261b worth of damage, says report (The Straits Times) A coordinated global cyber attack, spread through malicious e-mail, could cause economic damages anywhere between US$85 billion and US$193 billion (between S$115 billion and S$261 billion), a hypothetical scenario developed as a stress test for risk management showed...
Enterprises are struggling with cloud complexity and security (Help Net Security) The rush to digital transformation is putting sensitive data at risk for organizations worldwide according to the 2019 Thales Data Threat Report – Global
Bringing People And Technology Together Will Help Us Win The Cyber Battle (Forbes) Cyber threats are changing at such a rapid pace that detection and defence skills can’t keep up and, while innovation in the cybersecurity market is helping, people are still a crucial step in protecting businesses. Now we need to get better at pairing people and technology.
Marketplace
All This Newfound Cynicism Is Going to Hamper Big Tech (WIRED) The public no longer gives Facebook, Google, Twitter, and the other tech giants the benefit of the doubt. And that's going to hamper their growth.
Pentagon Security: Combating the Cybersecurity Skills Shortage (Bugcrowd) The Defense Digital Service’s mission to “drive a giant leap forward in the way the Department of Defense builds and deploys technology and digital services” is something we can all get behind. As citizens we commend the work they have done as well as their plans to expand on these efforts — we are thrilled
Huawei: how the telecoms giant is seen around the world (Phys.org) US charges against Chinese telecoms giant Huawei have cranked up tensions between the world's two biggest economies, but the company is already facing obstructions around the world over alleged cyber-security risks.
Lord Browne under pressure to reconsider Huawei board role as firm faces US criminal charges (The Telegraph) Lord Browne of Madingley and other members of Huawei’s UK board are under pressure to review their ties to the Chinese telecoms giant after it was hit with a slew of criminal charges by the US government.
nCipher Security, Spun Off by Thales, Expects to Announce Buyer Shortly (Computer Business Review) Bids are piling in for UK-founded encryption hardware specialist nCipher Security, which is back on the market 11 years after being bought by Thales.
Israeli co Salt Security raises $10m (Globes) Salt Security will use the funding to increase R&D for its core platform and add support for new use cases and broader requirements in response to growing customer demand.
Cato Networks raises $55 million to protect cloud-based computing services (VentureBeat) Cato Networks has raised $55 million as the cybersecurity company continues expanding its cloud-based platform to protect networks.
Thales, Centech team to support AI start ups (Jane's 360) Thales and Canadian company Centech have formed a strategic partnership dubbed AI@Centech to support start-ups developing artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.
These companies will benefit from Thales’ technology experience and business know- how, which will be applied to the concepts
Cybersecurity investment in Israel surges 47% to over $1b in 2018 (Times of Israel) Data protection is fastest-growing vertical, with 13 new startups in the field, according to an industry tracker report
This Stock Could Be a Top Cybersecurity Pick for 2019 (The Motley Fool) Check Point Software could break out this year.
ReFirm Labs Finishes Strong First Full Year, Expands Management Team (BusinessWire) ReFirm Labs today announced that the company concluded its first full year of bookings with strong momentum and an expanded management team.
Remediant Begins 2019 With Record Growth and New Industry Recognition (PR Newswire) Remediant, Inc., a leading provider of Privileged Access Management (PAM) software, today announced record growth...
SEWORKS Expands Executive Team in Response to Growing Cybersecurity Protection Market Needs (BusinessWire) SEWORKS, an innovator of offensive and defensive application security solutions, today announces the appointment of Yaniv Karta as Chief Technology Of
Meet the hacker mom big companies hire for cybersecurity (TODAY.com) NBC’s Stephanie Gosk travels to Montana to meet Sherri Davidoff, a mother, CEO and MIT grad who’s being paid to hack into major companies around the world, all in the name of cybersecurity.
EFF lawyer joins WhatsApp as privacy policy manager (TechCrunch) In an effort to bolster its public credibility in the wake of a very rough year, Facebook is bringing a fierce former critic into the fold. Next month, longtime Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) counsel Nate Cardozo will join WhatsApp, Facebook’s encrypted chat app. Cardozo most recently h…
Facebook just hired a handful of its toughest privacy critics (Ars Technica) EFF's Nate Cardozo once said Facebook "depends on our collective confusion."
Cyberbit Welcomes Amnon Bar-Lev to Its Board of Directors (PR Newswire) Cyberbit Ltd., the market leading provider of Cyber Range training and simulation platforms, and one of the...
Products, Services, and Solutions
Kudelski Security Launches New Blockchain Security Center (Kudelski Security) With Support of New Blockchain Business Leader, Scott Carlson, and Renowned Cryptographer, JP Aumasson, New Initiative Will Accelerate Safe and Secure Adoption of Blockchain Technology.
ExpressVPN Releases Audit and Open-Sources Browser Extension (Home of internet privacy) These two new trust and transparency initiatives further enable everyone to verify that ExpressVPN lives up to our security promises.
AttackIQ Announces Global “Accelerate” Channel Program (GlobeNewswire News Room) Value-based Program Offers Suite of Benefits Including Sales and Technical Enablement, Compelling Discount Structure and Marketing Support for Three Distinct Partner Segments
Untangle Expands Cloud Deployments, Remote Management Product Offerings & Increases Endpoint Visibility (Untangle) Untangle Enhances Network Security, Visibility and Control for SMB IT
Dragos updates its asset identification, threat detection, and response platform (Help Net Security) Dragos Platform v1.4 codifies threat analytics to provide OT and IT practitioners visibility of ICS assets and procedures to respond to adversaries.
Accenture launches SynOps to help enterprises achieve competitive advantage (Help Net Security) SynOps is an assembly of talent, capabilities and technologies to help clients transform business operations, create user experiences and deliver results.
Syncurity Partners with SentinelOne to Accelerate Alert Triage and Orchestrate Automated Incident Response (BusinessWire) Syncurity and SentinelOne enable customers to accelerate alert triage and automatically orchestrate response to threats across all endpoints.
Dynatrace opens its AIOps solution to third parties for smart autonomous cloud management (Help Net Security) Dynatrace Davis, now powered by new and enhanced algorithms, and an ability to ingest data and events from third-party solutions.
Dark Rhino Security Selects JASK to Bring Autonomous Security Solutions to its Turn-Key Cyber Protection Offering (BusinessWire) JASK will be the advanced security information and event management (SIEM) solution provider of choice for Dark Rhino’s DRS Shield Foundation.
CrowdStrike Unveils Tiered Reseller Program With Big Discounts, MDF (CRN) CrowdStrike channel chief Matthew Polly said resellers for the first time will be required to hold a certain number of accreditations to advance to the upper two tiers of the Elevate Partner Program.
SIRIN LABS selects KoolSpan to secure communication for FINNEY blockchain phone (CryptoNinjas) SIRIN LABS, the creator of the secure FINNEY blockchain smartphone, ann...
CyberSponse Proud to Announce CyOPs SOAR Platform Integration with Pol (PRWeb) CyberSponse, Inc., the global leader in Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) is proud to announce their integration with Polarity, the lea
Siemens awarded its biggest contract in Oman for power and water project (Gulf Business) The contract, valued at $229m, is for a project in Oman's Duqm Special Economic Zone
Portcullis Group, One of The Largest Asian Independent Wealth Managers, Selects CyGlass to Beef Up Its Cyber Defense Portfolio (PR Newswire) CyGlass, a SaaS Al-driven network-centric dark threat detection solution, and Oyster Security,...
Technologies, Techniques, and Standards
Will DNS Flag Day affect you? Infoblox's Cricket Liu explains (SearchSecurity) Why is DNS Flag Day important? Infoblox's chief DNS architect Cricket Liu explains what will happen to old and broken DNS servers starting on Feb. 1, 2019.
Software Defined Perimeter - a Modern VPN with Traditional Challenges (Akamai) Application Servers are implemented as a means of providing services and making resources available to users. However, any server connected to the Internet is inevitably targeted by malicious users using open listening ports. There are millions of these ports on...
OSCP cheating allegations a reminder to verify hacking skills when hiring (CSO Online) A former student’s claim of widespread cheating on the OSCP exam underscores need to test security job candidates.
Japan to Survey 200 Million Gadgets for Cyber Security (SecurityWeek) Japan is preparing a national sweep of some 200 million network-connected gadgets for cyber-security lapses ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, an official said.
Blockchain 101: A General Counsel's Guide (Forbes) Most financial institutions rely on complex infrastructures and lengthy processes to settle trades, send money abroad, reconcile records and secure transactions. But that could all change as blockchain revolutionizes the financial services sector and the legal teams that work within it. As its name implies, blockchain is a series of connected [...]
Baylor Privacy Officer Shares Seven ‘Pre-Spring Cleaning’ Tips to Protect Personal Information (Media and Public Relations | Baylor University) A few simple steps taken today to protect personal and private information can save people from a nightmare of future challenges, said Doug Welch, Baylor University’s chief privacy officer.
Passwords in a file (Security Boulevard) My dad is on some sort of committee for his local home owners association. He asked about saving all the passwords in a file stored on Microsoft's cloud OneDrive, along with policy/procedures for the association.
Design and Innovation
Security Isn't Enough. Silicon Valley Needs 'Abusability' Testing (WIRED) Former FTC chief technologist Ashkan Soltani argues it's time for companies to formalize and test not just a product's security, but how it can be abused.
Real Facebook Oversight Requires More Than a 40-Expert Board (WIRED) A new draft charter provides details about how an independent “Supreme Court” for Facebook’s content decisions might work, but crucial questions remain.
IBM hopes 1 million faces will help fight bias in facial recognition (CNBC) IBM thinks the data being used to train facial recognition systems isn't diverse enough.
Research and Development
Online Piracy Can Be Good for Business, Researchers Find (Motherboard) Ham-fisted attacks on internet pirates may actually be counterproductive, researchers warn.
Singtel to develop cyber security solutions for self-driving vehicles with international partner (The Straits Times) Telco Singtel will work with a global leader in automotive cyber security - Argus Cyber Security - to create a secure ecosystem to position Singapore at the forefront of connected and autonomous vehicle (AV) technologies, the firms announced on Monday (Jan 28)...
Academia
The Cybersecurity Workforce Gap (CSIS) As cyber threats continue to grow in sophistication, organizations face a persistent challenge in recruiting skilled cybersecurity professionals capable of protecting their systems against the threat of malicious actors.
Legislation, Policy, and Regulation
Facebook, Google and Twitter told to do more to fight fake news ahead of European elections (TechCrunch) A first batch of monthly progress reports from tech giants and advertising companies on what they’re doing to help fight online disinformation have been published by the European Commission. Platforms including Facebook, Google and Twitter signed up to a voluntary EU code of practice on the i…
First results of the EU Code of Practice against disinformation (Digital Single Market - European Commission) Online platforms have submitted a first implementation report setting out the state of play of the measures taken by each of them to comply with their commitments under the Code of Practice on Disinformation. The Commission welcomes these actions but calls on online platforms to intensify their efforts in the run up to the 2019 European elections.
Canada 'some ways off' on decision over whether to ban Huawei 5G (Reuters) A Canadian government decision on whether to ban Huawei Technologies Co Ltd from...
Trump Intervened on Behalf of China's ZTE. Will He Do the Same for Huawei? (Fortune) The cases echo one another, but the stakes are arguably higher this time around.
UK Government Pledges Skills and IoT Funding (Infosecurity Magazine) Wants nation to be a leader in hardware security
AI, Deepfakes and the Other Tech Threats That Vex Intel Leaders (Nextgov.com) Top U.S. intelligence officials had a lot to say about tech at the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing.
Spy chiefs say Chinese, Russian cyber strengths are top threats to U.S. (Roll Call) The nation's spy chiefs told Congress Tuesday that the cyber strengths of Russia and China are the top threats to United States interests.
For evidence of new cyber strategy, look to midterms (Fifth Domain) U.S. efforts to head off cyber events and impose consequences on adversaries has worked, at least in the short-term, the head of U.S. Cyber Command told Congress Jan. 29.
Opinion: Cyber security law is a step in right direction (Newsday) There is a growing realization that a piecemeal, case-by-case approach to cyber security based on blocking "bad" companies must eventually be replaced by an assurance framework that manages risk from all vendors.
Cyberbullying bill draws free-speech concerns from ACLU (Daily Record) Bill to expand law against cyberbullying of youngsters draws scorn from free-speech advocate but support from senators and parents of suicide victim.
Litigation, Investigation, and Law Enforcement
If Convicted, Huawei Faces Bigger Problems Than Fines (WIRED) China's Huawei, charged in two indictments Monday, might lose access to American-made components, a move that nearly put rival ZTE out of business.
United States of America, Plaintiff, v. Huawei Device Co., Ltd., and Huawei Device USA, Inc., Defendants (US District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle) The Grand Jury charges that...
Lawyer sues Apple, claims FaceTime bug “allowed” recording of deposition (Ars Technica) Texas attorney: I didn't update my iPhone to enable "unsolicited eavesdropping."
Ukraine stages cybercrime raids in international probe (France 24) Ukraine stages cybercrime raids in international probe
Supreme Court Grants Cert. to Interpret Meaning of “Confidential” or “Trade Secret” Under FOIA (Seyfarth Shaw) Supreme Court Grants Cert. to Interpret Meaning of “Confidential” or “Trade Secret” Under FOIA
Judge rejects proposed settlement to Yahoo data breach lawsuit (Ars Technica) "Yahoo’s… lack of transparency related to the data breaches [is] egregious."
A Bounty Hunter Tracked a Phone for $300. Now Comes the Lawsuit (Bloomberg) Credit firm claims bail company misused its geolocation tool
Huawei accused of stealing robotic arm from T-Mobile in slew of charges (CRN) US government reveals charges against Chinese vendor including money laundering, obstruction of justice and theft of trade secrets
Senators ask Facebook why it tricked kids into spending parents’ money (Ars Technica) Zuckerberg is asked when he knew about kids inadvertently spending parents' money.
$1.7 billion in cryptocurrency was stolen and scammed in 2018 (Help Net Security) $1.7 billion in cryptocurrency was stolen and scammed in 2018 — a dramatic rise in criminal activity despite a slump in the market, according to