Krebs on Security

SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

MyPayrollHR , a now defunct cloud-based payroll processing firm based in upstate New York, abruptly ceased operations this past week after stiffing employees at thousands of companies. The ongoing debacle, which allegedly involves malfeasance on the part of the payroll company’s CEO, resulted in countless people having money drained from their bank accounts and has left nearly $35 million worth of payroll and tax payments in legal limbo.

Banking 279

Banking Financial Services Accountability Insurance 279

Schneier on Security

SEPTEMBER 5, 2019

A decade ago, the Doghouse was a regular feature in both my email newsletter Crypto-Gram and my blog. In it, I would call out particularly egregious -- and amusing -- examples of cryptographic " snake oil.". I dropped it both because it stopped being fun and because almost everyone converged on standard cryptographic libraries, which meant standard non-snake-oil cryptography.

Encryption 252

Encryption Artificial Intelligence Healthcare Technology 252

Troy Hunt

SEPTEMBER 17, 2019

Allow me to be controversial for a moment: arbitrary password restrictions on banks such as short max lengths and disallowed characters don't matter. Also, allow me to argue with myself for a moment: banks shouldn't have these restrictions in place anyway. I want to put forward cases for both arguments here because seeing both sides is important. I want to help shed some light on why this practice happens and argue pragmatically both for and against.

Banking 235

Banking Passwords Accountability Authentication 235

Adam Levin

SEPTEMBER 4, 2019

The CEO of a UK-based energy firm lost the equivalent of $243,000 after falling for a phone scam that implemented artificial intelligence, specifically a deepfake voice. The Wall Street Journal reported that the CEO of an unnamed UK energy company received a phone call from what sounded like his boss, the CEO of a German parent company, telling him to wire €220,000 (roughly $243,000) to a bank account in Hungary.

Scams 233

Scams Artificial Intelligence Insurance Technology 233

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Passwords

The Last Watchdog

SEPTEMBER 19, 2019

Internet 201

Internet Internet 201

Tech Republic Security

SEPTEMBER 19, 2019

If you had a Yahoo account between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2016, you may be entitled to a bit of money.

Data breaches 168

Data breaches Accountability 168

Schneier on Security

SEPTEMBER 16, 2019

Not that serious, but interesting : In late 2011, Intel introduced a performance enhancement to its line of server processors that allowed network cards and other peripherals to connect directly to a CPU's last-level cache, rather than following the standard (and significantly longer) path through the server's main memory. By avoiding system memory, Intel's DDIO­short for Data-Direct I/O­increased input/output bandwidth and reduced latency and power consumption.

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Troy Hunt

SEPTEMBER 29, 2019

It's been a bit of intense country-hopping since the last update so this one is a consolidated "this week in tweets" version. I actually found it kind of interesting going back through the noteworthy incidents of the week in lieu of having original content of my own, see what you think. Given the coming schedule (and a deep, deep desire for a few days of downtime), the next one might be more of the same so I hope it resonates!

IoT 172

IoT Accountability Technology Passwords 172

Adam Levin

SEPTEMBER 5, 2019

As much as I love this one friend of mine, nothing is private when we’re together. You probably have a friend like this. The relationship is really great so you stay friends despite all, but this particular friend simply cannot know something about you without sharing it with others no matter how hard you try to get them to understand it’s totally uncool. .

Scams 197

Scams Accountability Financial Services Insurance 197

The Last Watchdog

SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

Keeping track of badness on the Internet has become a thriving cottage industry unto itself. Related: ‘Cyber Pearl Harbor’ is upon us There are dozens technology giants, cybersecurity vendors, government agencies and industry consortiums that identify and blacklist IP addresses and web page URLs that are obviously being used maliciously; and hundreds more independent white hat hackers are doing much the same.

Firewall 193

Firewall Cybersecurity Internet Internet 193

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Software

Tech Republic Security

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

By abusing a little-known multicast protocol, attackers can launch DDoS attacks of immense power, but there may be an easy fix.

DDOS 167

DDOS 167

Krebs on Security

SEPTEMBER 9, 2019

The U.S. Secret Service is investigating a breach at a Virginia-based government technology contractor that saw access to several of its systems put up for sale in the cybercrime underground, KrebsOnSecurity has learned. The contractor claims the access being auctioned off was to old test systems that do not have direct connections to its government partner networks.

Cybercrime 250

Cybercrime Government Data collection Internet 250

Schneier on Security

SEPTEMBER 3, 2019

China is being blamed for a massive surveillance operation that targeted Uyghur Muslims. This story broke in waves, the first wave being about the iPhone. Earlier this year, Google's Project Zero found a series of websites that have been using zero-day vulnerabilities to indiscriminately install malware on iPhones that would visit the site. (The vulnerabilities were patched in iOS 12.1.4, released on February 7.).

Hacking 244

Hacking Surveillance Malware Government 244

Troy Hunt

SEPTEMBER 13, 2019

Turns out it's actually a sunny day in Oslo today, although it's the last one I'll see here for quite some time before heading off to Denmark then other European things for the remainder of this trip. I'm talking a little about those events ( all listed on my events page ), this week's changes to EV, more data breaches and a somewhat semantic argument about the definition of "theft".

Data breaches 166

Data breaches Accountability Hacking 166

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Adam Levin

SEPTEMBER 2, 2019

Data breaches 192

Data breaches 192

The Last Watchdog

SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

Hear about the smart toaster that got attacked three times within an hour after its IP address first appeared on the Internet? That experiment conducted by a reporter for The Atlantic crystalizes the seemingly intractable security challenge businesses face today. Related: How 5G will escalate DDoS attacks Caught in the pull of digital transformation , companies are routing ever more core operations and services through the Internet, or, more precisely, through IP addresses, of one kind or anothe

DDOS 171

DDOS Internet Internet Digital transformation 171

Tech Republic Security

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

Don't let your Android's MAC address give away your location--use a Randomized MAC address instead.

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Krebs on Security

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

A reader forwarded what he briefly imagined might be a bold, if potentially costly, innovation on the old Nigerian prince scam that asks for help squirreling away millions in unclaimed fortune: It was sent via the U.S. Postal Service, with a postmarked stamp and everything. In truth these old fashioned “advance fee” or “419” scams predate email and have circulated via postal mail in various forms and countries over the years.

Scams 211

Scams Phishing 211

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Cybersecurity

Schneier on Security

SEPTEMBER 30, 2019

The United States government's continuing disagreement with the Chinese company Huawei underscores a much larger problem with computer technologies in general: We have no choice but to trust them completely, and it's impossible to verify that they're trustworthy. Solving this problem ­ which is increasingly a national security issue ­ will require us to both make major policy changes and invent new technologies.

Government 240

Government Internet Internet Artificial Intelligence 240

Troy Hunt

SEPTEMBER 8, 2019

From the emerging spring to the impending autumn, I'm back in Oslo at the beginning of another series of European events that'll take me across Norway, Denmark, Hungary and Switzerland. This week's update comes from under the glow of a warm outdoor heater at ridiculous o'clock as my sleep cycle keeps me making early starts. But it's all transient and by this time next month I'll be back to a very warm, very familiar Aussie landscape.

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Adam Levin

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

A federal appellate court ruled that mining and aggregating user data publicly posted to social media sites is allowable by law. In an opinion released earlier this month, the 9th Circuit U.S.Court of Appeals upheld an injunction against employment-centric social network LinkedIn from blocking access to hiQ, a data mining company that sells aggregated user information. .

Passwords 158

Passwords Media Cybersecurity 158

The Last Watchdog

SEPTEMBER 4, 2019

The convergence of DevOps and SecOps is steadily gaining traction in the global marketplace. Some fresh evidence of this encouraging trend comes to us by way of shared intelligence from WhiteHat Security. Related: The tie between DevOps and SecOps. Organizations that are all-in leveraging microservices to speed-up application development, on the DevOps side of the house, have begun acknowledging the importance of incorporating SecOps along the way.

Mobile 170

Mobile Banking Internet Internet 170

Advertiser: Revenera

In a recent study, IDC found that 64% of organizations said they were already using open source in software development with a further 25% planning to in the next year. Most organizations are unaware of just how much open-source code is used and underestimate their dependency on it. As enterprises grow the use of open-source software, they face a new challenge: understanding the scope of open-source software that's being used throughout the organization and the corresponding exposure.

Risk

Tech Republic Security

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

The average breach causes an average of $149,000 in damages, yet most small-to-medium-sized businesses thought cyberattacks would cost them under $10,000, survey reports.

Small Business 165

Small Business 165

Krebs on Security

SEPTEMBER 3, 2019

A 21-year-old man from Vancouver, Wash. has pleaded guilty to federal hacking charges tied to his role in operating the “ Satori ” botnet, a crime machine powered by hacked Internet of Things (IoT) devices that was built to conduct massive denial-of-service attacks targeting Internet service providers, online gaming platforms and Web hosting companies.

IoT 206

IoT Internet Internet Hacking 206

Schneier on Security

SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

Yahoo News reported that the Russians have successfully targeted an FBI communications system: American officials discovered that the Russians had dramatically improved their ability to decrypt certain types of secure communications and had successfully tracked devices used by elite FBI surveillance teams. Officials also feared that the Russians may have devised other ways to monitor U.S. intelligence communications, including hacking into computers not connected to the internet.

Hacking 233

Hacking Surveillance Encryption Internet 233

Troy Hunt

SEPTEMBER 1, 2019

How's that for a setting in this week's video? ?? First day of spring here which aligned with a father's day on the water: May all your father’s days be full of fun and laughter ?? pic.twitter.com/pN1dQ38cDr — Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) September 1, 2019 Back on business as usual, there's the SIM hijacking issue with Jack Dorsey's Twitter account, more data breaches and joyously, the HIBP API being back in full swing with the 500 subscription limit issue on Azure's APIM now being overcome.

CISO 158

CISO Data breaches Accountability 158

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Healthcare

Adam Levin

SEPTEMBER 9, 2019

Insider risk, supply chain vulnerability and vendor risk all boil down to the same thing: the more people have access to your data, the more vulnerable it is to being leaked or breached. This summer brought an interesting twist to that straight-forward situation: Can data leaked by an employee or a contractor be a good thing? In July, a Belgian contractor who had been hired to transcribe Google Home recordings shared several of them with news outlet VRT.

Risk 158

Risk Data breaches IoT Firewall 158

The Last Watchdog

SEPTEMBER 30, 2019

Homomorphic encryption has long been something of a Holy Grail in cryptography. Related: Post-quantum cryptography on the horizon For decades, some of our smartest mathematicians and computer scientists have struggled to derive a third way to keep data encrypted — not just the two classical ways, at rest and in transit. The truly astounding feat, aka homomorphic encryption, would be to keep data encrypted while it is being actively used by an application to run computations.

Encryption 159

Encryption Technology Healthcare Marketing 159

Tech Republic Security

SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

Nearly half of office workers said they had their data compromised. Here's why they keep falling for phishing scams.

Phishing 164

Phishing Scams 164

Krebs on Security

SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

Microsoft today issued security updates to plug some 80 security holes in various flavors of its Windows operating systems and related software. The software giant assigned a “critical” rating to almost a quarter of those vulnerabilities, meaning they could be used by malware or miscreants to hijack vulnerable systems with little or no interaction on the part of the user.

Software 173

Software Backups Malware Hacking 173

Speaker: Blackberry, OSS Consultants, & Revenera

Software is complex, which makes threats to the software supply chain more real every day. 64% of organizations have been impacted by a software supply chain attack and 60% of data breaches are due to unpatched software vulnerabilities. In the U.S. alone, cyber losses totaled $10.3 billion in 2022. All of these stats beg the question, “Do you know what’s in your software?

Cybersecurity