Krebs on Security

JULY 24, 2019

Nearly three dozen journalists at a broad range of major publications have been targeted by a far-right group that maintains a Deep Web database listing the personal information of people who threaten their views. This group specializes in encouraging others to harass those targeted by their ire, and has claimed responsibility for dozens of bomb threats and “swatting” incidents, where police are tricked into visiting potentially deadly force on the target’s address.

Mobile 279

Mobile Government 279

Schneier on Security

JULY 24, 2019

Yesterday, Attorney General William Barr gave a major speech on encryption policy -- what is commonly known as "going dark." Speaking at Fordham University in New York, he admitted that adding backdoors decreases security but that it is worth it. Some hold this view dogmatically, claiming that it is technologically impossible to provide lawful access without weakening security against unlawful access.

Encryption 273

Encryption Telecommunications Risk Government 273

Troy Hunt

JULY 1, 2019

Early last year, I announced that I was making HIBP data on government domains for the UK and Australia freely accessible to them via searches of their respective TLDs. The Spanish government followed a few months later with each getting unbridled access to search their own domains via an authenticated API. As I explained in that initial post, the rationale was to help the departments tasked with looking after the exposure of their digital assets by unifying search and monitoring capabilities so

Government 232

Government Data breaches Authentication 232

Adam Levin

JULY 2, 2019

The former CIO of Equifax has been sentenced to prison for selling his stock in the company before news of its 2017 data breach was publicly announced. Jun Ying, the former Chief Information Office of Equifax U.S. Information Solutions, sold his shares in the company for over $950,000 ten days before the company admitted that its data had been accessed by hackers.

Data breaches 195

Data breaches 195

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Passwords

Adam Shostack

JULY 12, 2019

Conflict online — bullying, trolling, threats and the like are everywhere. The media coverage is shifting from “OMG what are we doing about this?!” to “ Wow, this is really hard.” (Ayup). I’ve been exploring how to engineer for these problems, and I joined Chris Romeo and Robert Hurlbut to talk about it on the AppSec Podcast.

Media 178

Media Engineering 178

The Last Watchdog

JULY 1, 2019

As the presidential debate season ramps up, the specter of nation-state sponsored hackers wreaking havoc, once more, with U.S. elections, looms all too large. It’s easy to get discouraged by developments such as Sen. McConnell recently blocking a bi-partisan bill to fund better election security , as well as the disclosure that his wife, Transportation Security Elaine Chao, has accepted money from voting machine lobbyists.

Cyber Risk 159

Cyber Risk DNS Phishing Backups 159

Schneier on Security

JULY 4, 2019

Pretty horrible story of a US journalist who had his computer and phone searched at the border when returning to the US from Mexico. After I gave him the password to my iPhone, Moncivias spent three hours reviewing hundreds of photos and videos and emails and calls and texts, including encrypted messages on WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram. It was the digital equivalent of tossing someone's house: opening cabinets, pulling out drawers, and overturning furniture in hopes of finding something -- any

Passwords 269

Passwords Media Encryption Internet 269

Troy Hunt

JULY 8, 2019

Almost 2 years ago to the day, I wrote about Passwords Evolved: Authentication Guidance for the Modern Era. This wasn't so much an original work on my behalf as it was a consolidation of advice from the likes of NIST, the NCSC and Microsoft about how we should be doing authentication today. I love that piece because so much of it flies in the face of traditional thinking about passwords, for example: Don't impose composition rules (upper case, lower case, numbers, etc) Don't mandate password rot

Passwords 231

Passwords Accountability Authentication Data breaches 231

Adam Levin

JULY 19, 2019

The Kazakhstan government is intercepting all HTTPS-encrypted internet traffic within its borders. Under a new directive effective 7/17, the Kazakhstan government is requiring every internet service provider in the country to install a security certificate onto every internet-enabled device and browser. Once installed, this certificate allows the government to decrypt and analyze all incoming internet traffic. .

Internet 190

Internet Internet Government Banking 190

Adam Shostack

JULY 30, 2019

Alexandre Sieira has some very interesting and actionable advice from looking at the Capital One Breach in “ Learning from the July 2019 Capital One Breach.” Alex starts by saying “The first thing I want to make clear is that I sympathize with the Capital One security and operations teams at this difficult time. Capital One is a well-known innovator in cloud security, has very competent people dedicated to this and has even developed and high quality open source solutions such

Software 160

Software Engineering 160

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Software

The Last Watchdog

JULY 22, 2019

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Krebs on Security

JULY 8, 2019

The crooks behind an affiliate program that paid cybercriminals to install the destructive and wildly successful GandCrab ransomware strain announced on May 31, 2019 they were terminating the program after allegedly having earned more than $2 billion in extortion payouts from victims. What follows is a deep dive into who may be responsible for recruiting new members to help spread the contagion.

Ransomware 264

Ransomware Accountability Cybercrime Passwords 264

Schneier on Security

JULY 5, 2019

My Applied Cryptography is on a list of books banned in Oregon prisons. It's not me -- and it's not cryptography -- it's that the prisons ban books that teach people to code. The subtitle is "Algorithms, Protocols, and Source Code in C" -- and that's the reason. My more recent Cryptography Engineering is a much better book for prisoners, anyway.

Engineering 263

Engineering 263

Troy Hunt

JULY 18, 2019

The very first feature I added to Have I Been Pwned after I launched it back in December 2013 was the public API. My thinking at the time was that it would make the data more easily accessible to more people to go and do awesome things; build mobile clients, integrate into security tools and surface more information to more people to enable them to do positive and constructive things with the data.

Authentication 227

Authentication Firewall Data breaches Mobile 227

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Adam Levin

JULY 25, 2019

The U.S. National Security Agency announced the formation of a new Cybersecurity Directorate earlier this week. Effective October 1, the directorate’a mission is will be the creation of a “major organization that unifies NSA’s foreign intelligence and cyber defense missions,” according to the agency’s website. It will be led by Anne Neuberger, the former NSA deputy director of operations and lead of the Russia Small Group.

Cybersecurity 169

Cybersecurity Government 169

Adam Shostack

JULY 20, 2019

Today is the 50th Anniversary of “One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” It’s an event worth celebrating, in the same way we celebrate Yuri’s Night. The holy days — the holidays — that we celebrate say a great deal about us. They shape who we are. The controversies that emerge when we try to add (Martin Luther King) or remove a holiday (Columbus Day) are controversies because they express who we are, and how that could be changing.

Engineering 140

Engineering Risk 140

The Last Watchdog

JULY 15, 2019

Cyber crime can be extremely financially damaging to businesses. However, if you believe that money is the only thing that a cyber-attack costs your organization, you would be wrong. In fact, a recent academic analysis identified 57 specific individual negative factors that result from a cyber-attack against a business. Here are six ways, worth considering, that a attack can affect your organization.

Cyber Attacks 127

Cyber Attacks Penetration Testing Data breaches Hacking 127

Krebs on Security

JULY 22, 2019

Big-three credit bureau Equifax has reportedly agreed to pay at least $650 million to settle lawsuits stemming from a 2017 breach that let intruders steal personal and financial data on roughly 148 million Americans. Here’s a brief primer that attempts to break down what this settlement means for you, and what it says about the value of your identity.

Data breaches 264

Data breaches Identity Theft Banking Cybercrime 264

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How many people would you trust with your house keys? Chances are, you have a handful of trusted friends and family members who have an emergency copy, but you definitely wouldn’t hand those out too freely. You have stuff that’s worth protecting—and the more people that have access to your belongings, the higher the odds that something will go missing.

Cybersecurity

Schneier on Security

JULY 16, 2019

The Zoom conferencing app has a vulnerability that allows someone to remotely take over the computer's camera. It's a bad vulnerability, made worse by the fact that it remains even if you uninstall the Zoom app: This vulnerability allows any website to forcibly join a user to a Zoom call, with their video camera activated, without the user's permission.

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Troy Hunt

JULY 2, 2019

I've become especially reflective of my career this year, especially as Project Svalbard marches forward and I look back on what it's taken to get here. Especially as I have more discussions around the various turning points in my professional life, there's one that stands out above most others: my first MVP award. This is not a path I planned, in fact when I originally got that award I referred to myself as The Accidental MVP.

InfoSec 192

InfoSec Media Cybersecurity 192

Adam Levin

JULY 22, 2019

Equifax has reached a settlement for the 2017 data breach that exposed the Social Security numbers and personal information of nearly 150 million people. The proposed deal with the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Federal Trade Commission and attorneys representing 48 states would cost the company a maximum of $700 million and would bring to a close several investigations as well as settle all class action lawsuits against the company. . $175 million of the proposed fine wou

Data breaches 157

Data breaches Identity Theft Technology Cybersecurity 157

Adam Shostack

JULY 8, 2019

“ Safety First For Automated Driving ” is a big, over-arching whitepaper from a dozen automotive manufacturers and suppliers. One way to read it is that those disciplines have strongly developed safety cultures, which generally do not consider cybersecurity problems. This paper is the cybersecurity specialists making the argument that cyber will fit into safety, and how to do so.

Risk 140

Risk Architecture Manufacturing Cybersecurity 140

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

Thales Cloud Protection & Licensing

JULY 3, 2019

I recently had the pleasure of sharing some industry insights from our 2019 Data Threat Report-Federal Edition on Cyberwire’s Daily Podcast –specifically addressing the gap in security responsibility many federal agencies face today as they move tremendous amounts of sensitive data into multicloud environments. We also discussed a new digital landscape where perimeter defense is no longer effective.

Government 120

Government Cloud Migration IoT Encryption 120

Krebs on Security

JULY 15, 2019

The cybercriminals behind the GandCrab ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) offering recently announced they were closing up shop and retiring after having allegedly earned more than $2 billion in extortion payments from victims. But a growing body of evidence suggests the GandCrab team have instead quietly regrouped behind a more exclusive and advanced ransomware program known variously as “ REvil ,” “ Sodin ,” and “ Sodinokibi.” “We are getting a well-deserv

Ransomware 216

Ransomware Cybercrime Media Encryption 216

Schneier on Security

JULY 9, 2019

A sophisticated attacker has successfuly infiltrated cell providers to collect information on specific users: The hackers have systematically broken in to more than 10 cell networks around the world to date over the past seven years to obtain massive amounts of call records -- including times and dates of calls, and their cell-based locations -- on at least 20 individuals. [.].

Hacking 261

Hacking Telecommunications Malware Passwords 261

Troy Hunt

JULY 26, 2019

What. A. Week. I've been in San Fran meeting with a whole bunch of potential purchasers for HIBP and it's been. intense. Daunting. Exciting. It's actually an amazing feeling to see my "little" project come to this where I'm sitting in a room with some of the most awesome tech companies whilst flanked by bankers in suits. I try and give a bit of insight into that in this week's video, keeping in mind of course that I'm a bit limited by how much detail I can go into right now.

Password Management 186

Password Management Passwords Authentication 186

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The healthcare industry has massively adopted web tracking tools, including pixels and trackers. Tracking tools on user-authenticated and unauthenticated web pages can access personal health information (PHI) such as IP addresses, medical record numbers, home and email addresses, appointment dates, or other info provided by users on pages and thus can violate HIPAA Rules that govern the Use of Online Tracking Technologies by HIPAA Covered Entities and Business Associates.

Healthcare

Adam Levin

JULY 30, 2019

Consumer audio recorded by Apple’s Siri platform has been shared with external contractors. A whistleblower working as a contractor revealed that the company’s digital voice assistant software records audio collected by consumer devices–including iPhones, Apple Watches, and HomePods–and shares it with external contractors. The recordings contained potentially sensitive information.

IoT 146

IoT Software 146

Adam Shostack

JULY 26, 2019

There was a really interesting paper at the Workshop on the Economics of Information Security. The paper is “ Valuing CyberSecurity Research Datasets.” The paper focuses on the value of the IMPACT data sharing platform at DHS, and how the availability of data shapes the research that’s done. On its way to that valuation, a very useful contribution of the paper is the analysis of types of research data which exist, and the purposes for which it can be used: Note that there has b

Cybersecurity 133

Cybersecurity Technology Information Security Risk 133

WIRED Threat Level

JULY 29, 2019

VxWorks is designed as a secure, "real-time" operating system for continuously functioning devices, like medical equipment, elevator controllers, or satellite modems.

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Krebs on Security

JULY 25, 2019

Much has been written about the need to further secure our elections, from ensuring the integrity of voting machines to combating fake news. But according to a report quietly issued by a California grand jury this week, more attention needs to be paid to securing social media and email accounts used by election officials at the state and local level.

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Media Accountability Mobile Authentication 213

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