Cyber Attacks, Threats, and Vulnerabilities
Venezuelan 'Cyber-Attack' Possible But Unlikely, Experts Say (SecurityWeek) Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government says the massive power outage was caused by a cyberattack launched by the United States, but experts say a breakdown of old equipment is much more likely.
Threat actors leverage credential dumps, phishing, and legacy email protocols to bypass MFA and breach cloud accounts worldwide (Proofpoint) Proofpoint researchers examine a range of techniques threat actors are using to increase the effectiveness of attacks against people and organizations via major...
Pakistani Government Site Compromised, Logs Visitor Keystrokes (BleepingComputer) A Pakistani government site used as a tracking platform for passport applications has been compromised to deliver a ScanBox framework payload which captures the visitors' machine information and logs their keystrokes.
Threat Groups SandCat, FruityArmor Exploiting Microsoft Win32k Flaw (Threatpost) Newly patched CVE-2019-0797 is being actively exploited by two APTs, FruityArmor and SandCat.
Talking to RATs: Assessing Corporate Risk by Analyzing Remote Access Trojan Infections (Recorded Future) Recorded Future analyzed network communications relating to a selection of RAT command-and-control servers across several malware families in order to profile targeted victim organizations and sectors. This report is based on data sourced from the Recorded Future® Platform, VirusTotal, Farsight DNS, Shodan, GreyNoise, and other OSINT techniques.
Serious Crypto Flaw Affects Swiss, Australian E-Voting Systems (SecurityWeek) A critical crypto-related vulnerability that can be exploited to manipulate votes without being detected impacts e-voting systems in Switzerland and Australia.
Source Code Error in Swiss Post E-Voting System (Infosecurity Magazine) Researchers discover a flaw in the shuffle proof used to secure votes.
Top Navy Admiral Warns of Cyber Attacks Against Brass (Defense One) CNO says that’s why the service stopped publishing promotion lists in October.
Chinese IT Services Giant Harvests Contacts, Tracks Users (BleepingComputer) Servers controlled by Chinese IT and services giant Hangzhou Shunwang Technology collect phone contact lists, geolocation, and QQ messenger login info through a data-stealing component present in up to a dozen Android apps available from major third-party stores in the country.
New Variant of Ursnif Targeting Japan (SecurityWeek) Japan is a common target for Ursnif, but the latest version, delivered by Bebloh, goes to increased lengths to ensure that the victim is indeed Japanese.
DMSniff Point-of-Sale Malware Silently Attacked SMBs For Years (BleepingComputer) A Point-of-Sale (POS) malware which uses a domain generation algorithm to create command-and-control domains on the fly was detected in attacks against small and medium-sized businesses for the past four years according to a team of security researchers from Flashpoint.
Update: Facebook, Instagram and Messenger were down for many users (TechCrunch) Update: Instagram has confirmed that service is now restored via a tweet sent in the early hours of this morning (CET)… Anddddd… we're back. pic.twitter.com/5E8UdlcsPJ — Instagram (@instagram) March 14, 2019 Facebook has yet to tweet confirmation of its return to stable uptime…
Facebook turns to Twitter to explain outages (CNN) Facebook, the world's largest social network, relied on Twitter on Wednesday to explain that its apps inclding WhatsApp and Instagram were experiencing outages around the world.
When Facebook Goes Down, Don't Blame Hackers (WIRED) Facebook and its related properties spent several hours offline in many parts of the world today. Just don't call it a DDoS attack.
Google confirms issues affecting Gmail, Google Drive (CRN Australia) Australia, Asia-Pacific hit hardest.
Google removed 2.3B bad ads, banned ads on 1.5M apps + 28M pages, plans new Policy Manager this year (TechCrunch) Google is a tech powerhouse in many categories, including advertising. Today, as part of its efforts to improve how that ad business works, it provided an annual update that details the progress it’s made to shut down some of the more nefarious aspects of it. Using both manual reviews and mac…
Ad Network Sizmek Probes Account Breach (KrebsOnSecurity) Online advertising firm Sizmek Inc. [NASDAQ: SZMK] says it is investigating a security incident in which a hacker was reselling access to a user account with the ability to modify ads and analytics for a number of big-name advertisers.
“FINAL WARNING” email – have they really hacked your webcam? (Naked Security) In the last 24 hours, SophosLabs received 1,700 samples of just one new sextortion campaign. Good news? It’s all a pack of lies. Don’t reply. Don’t engage.
Cyber Attack Shuts Down Part of Public Defender Agency (NBC10 Boston) A cyber-attack has shut down part of Massachusetts' public defender agency—leaving thousands of attorneys unable to access their own network for weeks. The shutdown is causing a domino effect as some cases...
Kathmandu reveals data breach (CRN Australia) Not quite the kind of adventure the store wants you to go on.
How Google Influences the Conversation in Washington (WIRED) Google has spent more money on lobbying in each of the last two years than any other company. But that's only the tip of the firm's efforts to influence federal policy.
Security Patches, Mitigations, and Software Updates
Update now! WordPress abandoned cart plugin under attack (Naked Security) Hackers have been spotted targeting websites running unpatched versions of the WordPress plugin Abandoned Cart for WooCommerce.
Intel Windows 10 Graphics Drivers Riddled With Flaws (Threatpost) Intel has patched several high-severity vulnerabilities in its graphics drivers for Windows 10, which could lead to code code execution.
Google has quietly added DuckDuckGo as a search engine option for Chrome users in ~60 markets (TechCrunch) In an update to the chromium engine, which underpins Google’s popular Chrome browser, the search giant has quietly updated the lists of default search engines it offers per market — expanding the choice of search product users can pick from in markets around the world. Most notably it h…
Chrome will soon block drive-by-download malvertising (Naked Security) A new Chrome feature hopes to choke off one of the most malicious forms of malware infection: drive-by advertising downloads.
Cyber Trends
The “splinternet” is already here (TechCrunch) Keith Wright Contributor Share on Twitter Keith Wright is a Villanova School of Business instructor of Accounting and Information Systems, founder of Simplicity On-Demand LLC and former Senior Vice President for Global Sales Operations for SAP. There is no question that the arrival of a fragmented …
The 2019 What Keeps You up at Night Report (KnowBe4) Maintaining organizational security against cyberthreats last year was a unique challenge.
7 hot cybersecurity trends (and 4 going cold) (CSO Online) Is that security trend hot or not? From tools and technologies to threats, tactics, and training, the numbers don't lie.
Trust and Reputation in the Digital Era (SecurityWeek) When trust is broken either rightly or wrongly, reputation suffers and, in turn, trust is harder to come by.
The adversarial persuasion machine: a conversation with James Williams (TechCrunch) James Williams may not be a household name yet in most tech circles, but he will be. For this second in what will be a regular series of conversations exploring the ethics of the technology industry, I was delighted to be able to turn to one of our current generation’s most important young philosop…
How AI Will Rewire Us (The Atlantic) For better and for worse, robots will alter humans’ capacity for altruism, love, and friendship.
IoT Security Meets Healthcare: What You Need to Know (SecurityWeek) Healthcare organizations believe that most of their security woes come from the flaws in legacy devices more than their implementations — a debatable topic
Existing security solutions can't keep up with threats: claim (iTWire) With more than 350,000 new machine-generated threats appearing every day, existing solutions to combat them are unable to keep up as most are openly r...
Marketplace
Companies With Tech Expertise on the Board See Higher Revenue Growth, MIT Study Finds (Wall Street Journal) Companies that have experienced technologists on their board outperform others in areas such as revenue growth, return on assets and market capitalization growth, according to a study released this week by Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Information Systems Research.
Czech network operator CETIN sees Huawei risks as manageable:... (Reuters) The Czech Republic's largest telecommunications network operator CETIN said...
Facebook won’t store data in countries with human rights violations — except Singapore (TechCrunch) As soon as Mark Zuckerberg said in a lengthy 3,225-word blog post to not build data centers in countries with poor human rights, he had already broken his promise. He chose to ignore Singapore, which the Facebook founder had only months earlier posted about, declaring the micro-state home to the co…
Cloudflare Raises $150 Million (SecurityWeek) Internet performance and security firm Cloudflare raises $150 million in new funding round. The money will be used to extend product ranges and continue international expansion.
Arceo flies into US cyber insurance space (FinTech Futures) Start-up wants to bridge the insurance and cybersecurity worlds.
BlackBerry morphs into billion-dollar AI cyber company (Fox Business) BlackBerry encryption technology is hard to crack, said CEO John Chen.
CUJO AI Joins RDK Community (PR Newswire) CUJO AI, a network intelligence company delivering revolutionary AI-driven solutions for major network...
New Study Finds Cybersecurity Employment is on the Rise in San Diego (PR Newswire) Cyber Center of Excellence, a San Diego-based nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the region's cyber...
Lockheed Martin Launches new Cyber Era at Port (Port San Antonio) Lockheed Martin Cyber Solution established a site at the Port’s new secure facility for cybersecurity operations
Tony Moraco on SAIC exit: ‘They look for a back story, and there isn’t one’ (Defense News) CEO Tony Moraco and Chief Operating Officer Nazzic Keene, who will take the helm in July, spoke to Defense News about the timing and the transition.
Avast CEO Succession (PR Newswire) Avast (LSE:AVST), the leading global cybersecurity provider, announces today that Vince Steckler has notified the Board...
Liveops Hires Security Expert to Accelerate Virtual Contact Center Innovation (Globe Newswire) As enterprise adoption grows, company hires Vice President of Technology & Security, Paul Leavens to lead ongoing security evolution
SCADAfence Strengthens Management Team to Meet the Increasing Demand for Scalable OT Security (PR Newswire) SCADAfence, the technology leader in providing cybersecurity and visibility solutions for Operational...
Jamaica Plain Resident Named Boston’s First-Ever Chief Information Security Officer (Jamaica Plain News) Jamaica Plain's Gregory McCarthy was recently named Boston's first-ever Chief Information Security Officer, and will lead the city's cybersecurity team. "I'm proud to welcome Gregory to a leadership position in our Department of Innovation and Technology, which works to utilize technology in the best and smartest ways possible to make residents lives better," said Boston Mayor Marty Walsh via […]
Products, Services, and Solutions
Wrike Bolsters Enterprise-Grade Security with New Features, Wrike Lock, and ISO Certification (BusinessWire) Wrike, the collaborative work management (CWM) platform for high-performance teams, continues to remove the security barriers preventing enterprise co
Fugue Adds PCI Monitoring and Reporting to its Autonomous Cloud Compliance Solution (Fugue) New capabilities provide continuous auditing and drift detection to ensure enterprise cloud environments meet PCI compliance standards
SlashNext Launches Industry's First Real-Time Threat Intelligence Service Covering All Major Types of Phishing Threats (PR Newswire) SlashNext, a leading provider of real-time anti-phishing solutions, today announced SlashNext Real-Time...
Asigra and Secret Double Octopus Partner to Provide Top-flight Authentication for Cloud-based Data Backups Susceptible to Ransomware Attacks (PR Newswire) Asigra Inc., a leading cloud backup, recovery and restore software provider and Secret Double...
BlueVoyant and IronNet Cybersecurity Form Partnership to Provide Cyber Collective Defense Capabilities to Energy Providers (PR Newswire) BlueVoyant and IronNet Cybersecurity today announced a partnership to deliver advanced, collective cyber defense and...
DataVisor integration with Azure AI enables real-time fraud detection (Help Net Security) DataVisor integrated its AI platform with Microsoft Azure AI, enabling users to have reliable, real-time fraud detection across billions of cloud accounts.
Druva enhances its Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service offering for enterprise workloads (Help Net Security) Druva, the leader in cloud data protection and management, announced enhancements to its DRaaS offering for enterprise workloads.
ManageEngine ADSelfService Plus now supports self-service password management for Linux (Help Net Security) ManageEngine, the real-time IT management company, announced that ADSelfService Plus supports self-service password management for Linux end users.
SlashNext Launches Industry's First Real-Time Threat Intelligence Service Covering All Major Types of Phishing Threats (PR Newswire) SlashNext, a leading provider of real-time anti-phishing solutions, today announced SlashNext Real-Time...
RiskRecon launches their Risk Search capability to pinpoint third-party and fourth-party risks (Help Net Security) RiskRecon released the Risk Search capability, enabling companies to conduct ad hoc searches and custom reporting across their entire third-party portfolio.
WISeID continues its commitment to a Web that is run by people and not platforms (AP NEWS) This content is a press release from our partner Globe Newswire. The AP newsroom and editorial departments were not involved in its creation.
BlackBerry to Offer Secure Voice Communication to NCI Agency (Zacks Investment Research) BlackBerry (BB) provides one of the most secure mobile enterprise solutions in the market through a broad portfolio of products and services. Growth in its cybersecurity business is a huge positive.
Technologies, Techniques, and Standards
Three Ways DNS is Weaponized and How to Mitigate the Risk (Threatpost) Why are hackers using the DNS infrastructure against us? The answer is more complex than you might think.
GDPR - Improving Data Privacy and Cyber Resilience? (SecurityWeek) By implementing the core pillars of GDPR, organizations can assure they meet the mandate’s requirements while strengthening their cyber security posture.
American firms need to be aware of GDPR guidelines (Maryland Daily Record) Rick Arthur, chief information technology and security officer at Harman Executive Advisors, said American companies need to be aware of the European Union’s GDPR guidelines. A recent $57 million fine of Google for alleged violations of personalized data is the best reason yet for U.S. organizations to finally pay attention to the EU’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), according to Rick Arthur, chief information technology and security officer at Hartman Executive Advisors in Timonium.
#DPI19: Privacy Playbooks Can Help Navigate Data Protection Act Rules (Infosecurity Magazine) How a privacy playbook can help with data protection compliance
Protecting applications against DFA attacks (Help Net Security) There are several steps you can take to ensure that you are doing as much as possible to defend against DFA attacks. Learn more in this article from Arxan.
Establishing Software Root of Trust Unconditionally (NDSS Symposium) Visit the post for more.
Moving from traditional on-premise solutions to cloud-based security (Help Net Security) In this Help Net Security podcast recorded at RSA Conference 2019, Gary Marsden, Senior Director, Data Protection Services at Gemalto, talks about the
71% of U.S. Businesses Plan to Use More AI & ML in 2019 (PR Newswire) New research from Webroot, the Smarter Cybersecurity® company, reveals that 71 percent of businesses surveyed ...
Cybersecurity risk in retail and how to handle it (IT Pro Portal) It’s vital that retailers step up their IT security game when it comes to protecting their customers’ personal information.
What Government Leaders Need to Know About Managed Services (Via Satellite) In exploring whether to move forward with a managed services model for satellite communications acquisition, certain circles of government leadership have expressed some reservation, which essentially reflects uncertainly or even fear of the unknown — if I do not own it, I cannot “control” the availability,
City of Raleigh implements ICS monitoring tool for water treatment plants (CSO Online) Securing operational technology systems is a different game than IT, but the City of Raleigh has deployed a CSO50 award-winning network monitoring solution that gives them greater visibility into its PLCs.
How the Army is taking cyber units to the battlefield (Fifth Domain) The Army is moving out on establishing new cyber and information related units.
Design and Innovation
Facebook Can Make VR Avatars Look—and Move—Exactly Like You (WIRED) "Codec avatars," as Facebook researchers call them, are all but indistinguishable from the humans they represent—and may be a staple of our virtual lives sooner than we think.
Research and Development
A Machine Learning Model to Detect Malware Variants (TrendLabs Security Intelligence Blog) We discuss a machine learning model that uses adversarial autoencoder and semantic hashing to find malware variants with limited samples.
IBM Publishes Patent for Resisting Replay Attacks in Permissioned Blockchains (Cointelegraph) Multinational computing giant IBM is adding to its arsenal of blockchain patents with an application for improving the security of permissioned blockchain networks. The patent, first filed in October 2016, was published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on March 12.
China Is Catching Up to the US in AI Research–Fast (WIRED) Chinese researchers publish more papers about artificial intelligence than their US counterparts. A new study finds the quality of Chinese research is improving too.
Academia
Inside Tufts University’s grade-hacking case (TechCrunch) This week, security reporter Zack Whittaker discussed his exclusive report about Tufts University veterinary student Tiffany Filler who was expelled on charges she hacked her grades. Being Canadian and therefore in the U.S. on a student visa, she had to immediately leave the country.
Legislation, Policy, and Regulation
Huawei Isn't Trustworthy 5G Partner, German Spy Agency Says (Bloomberg) Official cites past security-related events as example. Auctioning of 5G licenses in Germany starts next week
Opinion | Where Spying Is the Law (New York Times) China requires its citizens and corporations to conduct espionage for the state. Did Huawei comply?
US military steps up cyberwarfare effort (GCN) Cyber Command's campaign against the Russian Internet Research Agency indicates a priority shift from reacting to electronic intrusions into military networks to engaging in active operations that seek to stop enemies from achieving their objectives.
US ready to take more aggressive stance toward cyberdefense (New York Post) The US is ready to take a more aggressive approach to cyberdefense as it prepares for possible attacks and threats related to the 2020 presidential election cycle, according to Pentagon officials. …
Russia sought to interfere with US election systems in 2018 midterms, US official says (CNN) Russia sought to interfere with US election systems during the 2018 midterm elections, a US official told CNN Wednesday.
Analysis | The Cybersecurity 202: Trump’s bold hack back strategy actually sounds pretty tame. (Washington Post) There’s still a lot of bureaucracy before the U.S. strikes back in cyberspace.
Urgent need for IT security legal framework in Europe (Help Net Security) Information transmission, transport, industrial production, research - hardly any area can manage without modern information and communication technologies.
Regulate to Liberate (Foreign Affairs) In an world increasingly driven by the ability of private companies and governments to collect vast amounts of personal data online, the European Union's ambitious new data rules enshrine data privacy as a fundamental right rather than a luxury.
Companies unprepared for PSD2, stricter EU requirements will drive fraud to other regions (Help Net Security) A new iovation report includes original research and analyzes the consequences for the global online payments market around the revised Payment Services
House Dem introduces bill requiring public firms to disclose cybersecurity expertise in leadership (TheHill) A Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee introduced a bill on Wednesday that would require publicly traded companies to disclose to investors whether any members of their board of directors have cybersecurity expertise amid growing cybe
SBA Cyber Awareness Act (Office of Senator Rubio) The SBA Cyber Awareness Act, introduced by Senator Rubio and Senator Ben Cardin, works to ensure that the information technology (IT) systems at the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) are protected from cyber criminals by...
Small Business Cyber Training Act (Office of Senator Rubio) The Small Business Cyber Training Act, introduced by Senator Rubio and Senator Jeanne Shaheen, creates a program to train the counselors at the Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) across the country in cyber strategy assistance by...
New bill would give parents an ‘Eraser Button’ to delete kids’ data (Naked Security) The COPPA overhaul would ban targeting ads at kids under 13 and ad targeting based on race, socioeconomics or geolocation on kids under 15.
pdvWireless Announces Adoption of Notice of Proposed Rulemaking by FCC (PR Newswire) pdvWireless, Inc., (the "Company"), today announced that the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") has...
CYBERCOM Seeks Troops Who Can Unleash Artificial Intelligence (Nextgov.com) AI won’t solve the military’s shortage of cyber professionals but can act as a force multiplier to ease the strain.
Erin Joe tapped to lead DNI's Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center (CyberScoop) Erin Joe becomes the second director of the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center at a time when nation-state hacking threats have been steady.
Litigation, Investigation, and Law Enforcement
'Ghost votes': Indonesia's election plagued by China hacking allegations, false identities (ABC News) More than 100 foreign nationals are blacklisted from Indonesia's electoral roll as the country struggles to contain misinformation and cyber attacks.
Indonesia says cyber attacks won't disrupt elections (The Times of India) Presidential and legislative polls in Indonesia next month are not at risk of disruption from cyber attacks, the head of the election commiss.
Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation (New York Times) A federal grand jury is looking at partnerships that gave major tech companies broad access to Facebook users’ information.
T-Mobile Reveals More Location Data Abuse Following Questions from Senator Wyden (Motherboard) “It is now abundantly clear that you have failed to be good stewards of your customers’ private location information,” Senator Wyden wrote in a letter addressed to AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon.
Senate Hack Stats Letter (Office of Senator Wyden) Dear Mr. Stenger: We write to you today...
Release of Joint Assessments of Section 702 Compliance (IC ON THE RECORD) Today the DNI, in consultation with the Department of Justice, is releasing in redacted form the 18th Semiannual Assessment of Compliance with Procedures and Guidelines Issued Pursuant to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Submitted by the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence (“Joint Assessment”). The DNI is releasing this semiannual assessment proactively, in keeping with the Principles of Intelligence Transparency for the Intelligence Community (IC) (“IC’s Transparency Principles”).
Block in Russia Unjustified, Says ProtonMail (Infosecurity Magazine) Russia blocks two ISPs after allegedly receiving bomb threat emails.
India's New Cyber Protection Awareness and Detection Center (Cypad) to Fight Crypto Fraud via Forensics (BitcoinExchangeGuide) In a bid to adequately tackle cybercrime, carry out cryptoanalysis and more, Rajnath Singh, India's Union Home Minister, has unveiled the nation's first cybercrime detection and awareness centre dubbed the Cyber Protection Awareness and Detection Center (Cypad) on Monday, February 18, 2019, according to local news source, The Hindu.
Silicon Valley venture debt firm CEO charged in college admissions scandal steps 'aside' (Silicon Valley Business Journal) Manuel Henriquez of Hercules Capital "stepped aside," the company said, after he was charged in the sweeping college admissions scandal.
Sydney man charged for selling stolen Netflix, Spotify credentials (CRN Australia) For alleged involvement in WickedGen.com.
Purveyor of Cracked Netflix, Hulu, Spotify Accounts Arrested (Threatpost) A Sydney man is accused of selling nearly 1 million compromised accounts, for a significant profit.
