November, 2021

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How to Avoid Being Scammed When Giving Charity

Joseph Steinberg

Giving Tuesday has arrived… and, so have many criminals who seek to exploit people’s sense of generosity. While evildoers perpetrate charity-related scams throughout the year, they know that the holiday spirit in general, and the concentrated focus on charity on Giving Tuesday specifically, both improve their odds of success. During this time of year, therefore, we must be extra vigilant to ensure that our charity dollars reach proper destinations and actually do good, rather than enrich c

Scams 363
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Hoax Email Blast Abused Poor Coding in FBI Website

Krebs on Security

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) confirmed today that its fbi.gov domain name and Internet address were used to blast out thousands of fake emails about a cybercrime investigation. According to an interview with the person who claimed responsibility for the hoax, the spam messages were sent by abusing insecure code in an FBI online portal designed to share information with state and local law enforcement authorities.

Internet 363
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Will Artificial Intelligence Help or Hurt Cyber Defense?

Lohrman on Security

The world seems focused on new developments in artificial intelligence to help with a wide range of problems, including staffing shortages. But will AI help or harm security teams?

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Is Microsoft Stealing People’s Bookmarks?

Schneier on Security

I received email from two people who told me that Microsoft Edge enabled synching without warning or consent, which means that Microsoft sucked up all of their bookmarks. Of course they can turn synching off, but it’s too late. Has this happened to anyone else, or was this user error of some sort? If this is real, can some reporter write about it?

Passwords 351
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Prevent Data Breaches With Zero-Trust Enterprise Password Management

Keeper Security is transforming cybersecurity for people and organizations around the world. Keeper’s affordable and easy-to-use solutions are built on a foundation of zero-trust and zero-knowledge security to protect every user on every device. Our next-generation privileged access management solution deploys in minutes and seamlessly integrates with any tech stack to prevent breaches, reduce help desk costs and ensure compliance.

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Beg Bounties

Troy Hunt

When someone passed me hundreds of thousands of records on kids taken from CloudPets a few years ago , I had a nightmare of a time getting in touch with the company. They'd left a MongoDB instance exposed to the public without a password and someone had snagged all their data. Within the data were references that granted access to voice recordings made by children, stored in an S3 bucket that also had no auth.

Scams 68
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MY TAKE: lastwatchdog.com receives recognition as a Top 10 cybersecurity webzine in 2021

The Last Watchdog

Last Watchdog’s mission is to foster useful understanding about emerging cybersecurity and privacy exposures. Related article: The road to a Pulitzer. While I no longer concern myself with seeking professional recognition for doing this, it’s, of course, always terrific to receive peer validation that we’re steering a good course. That’s why I’m thrilled to point out that Last Watchdog has been recognized, once again, as a trusted source of information on cybersecurity and privacy topics.

More Trending

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The ‘Zelle Fraud’ Scam: How it Works, How to Fight Back

Krebs on Security

One of the more common ways cybercriminals cash out access to bank accounts involves draining the victim’s funds via Zelle , a “peer-to-peer” (P2P) payment service used by many financial institutions that allows customers to quickly send cash to friends and family. Naturally, a great deal of phishing schemes that precede these bank account takeovers begin with a spoofed text message from the target’s bank warning about a suspicious Zelle transfer.

Scams 363
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Ransomware Attacks and Response: What You Need to Know Now

Lohrman on Security

Not only is ransomware the top cybersecurity story in 2021, but new twists, turns and countermeasures keep coming. Here are the latest headlines and what news you need.

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“Crypto” Means “Cryptography,” not “Cryptocurrency”

Schneier on Security

I have long been annoyed that the word “crypto” has been co-opted by the blockchain people, and no longer refers to “cryptography.” I’m not the only one.

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Merry #pwnedmas!

Troy Hunt

Like most of my good ideas, this one came completely by accident. The other day I was packaging up some swag to send to the winner of my impromptu best "Anonymous" meme competition and I decided to share the following tweet: Time to ramp up the 3D @haveibeenpwned printing too, been giving away a heap of these! pic.twitter.com/ffZpM5aZtx — Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) November 14, 2021 And I was promptly hit by many, many requests for 3D printed HIBP logos.

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Optimizing The Modern Developer Experience with Coder

Many software teams have migrated their testing and production workloads to the cloud, yet development environments often remain tied to outdated local setups, limiting efficiency and growth. This is where Coder comes in. In our 101 Coder webinar, you’ll explore how cloud-based development environments can unlock new levels of productivity. Discover how to transition from local setups to a secure, cloud-powered ecosystem with ease.

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GUEST ESSAY: The three horsemen of cyber risks: misinformation, disinformation and fake news

The Last Watchdog

Industry 4.0 has brought about a metamorphosis in the world of business. The new revolution demands the integration of physical, biological and digital systems under one roof. Related: Fake news leveraged in presidential election. Such a transformation however, comes with its own set of risks. Misleading information has emerged as one of the leading cyber risks in our society, affecting political leaders, nations, and people’s lives, with the COVID-19 pandemic having only made it worse.

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We have failed to stop phishing, even after 2 decades. Can we finally agree that emails need digital signatures?

Joseph Steinberg

Email serves as one of the primary mechanisms of communication within the Western world – yet, decades after it first appeared on the scene, email still remains a source of security headaches. There has likely not been a single hour during the last decade, for example, during which criminals did not carry out successful phishing-based attacks by exploiting the inherent lack of security within standard and ubiquitous email technology.

Phishing 244
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The Internet is Held Together With Spit & Baling Wire

Krebs on Security

A visualization of the Internet made using network routing data. Image: Barrett Lyon, opte.org. Imagine being able to disconnect or redirect Internet traffic destined for some of the world’s biggest companies — just by spoofing an email. This is the nature of a threat vector recently removed by a Fortune 500 firm that operates one of the largest Internet backbones.

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Dedicated State and Local Cyber Grants Are Finally Arriving

Lohrman on Security

The newly approved federal infrastructure deal brings with it a great holiday present for state and local governments: dedicated cyber funding. Here’s the history, and the future, of cyber grants.

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The Tumultuous IT Landscape Is Making Hiring More Difficult

After a year of sporadic hiring and uncertain investment areas, tech leaders are scrambling to figure out what’s next. This whitepaper reveals how tech leaders are hiring and investing for the future. Download today to learn more!

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Hiding Vulnerabilities in Source Code

Schneier on Security

Really interesting research demonstrating how to hide vulnerabilities in source code by manipulating how Unicode text is displayed. It’s really clever, and not the sort of attack one would normally think about. From Ross Anderson’s blog : We have discovered ways of manipulating the encoding of source code files so that human viewers and compilers see different logic.

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Weekly Update 270

Troy Hunt

I'm outdoors! I've really wanted to get my mobile recording setup slick for some time now and after a bunch of mucking around with various mics (and a bit of "debugging in production" during this video), I'm finally really happy with it. I've just watched this back and other than mucking around with the gain in the first part of the video, I reckon it's great.

Wireless 296
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GUEST ESSAY: Securely managing access controls is vital to preserving the privacy of healthcare data

The Last Watchdog

There’s no doubt, the increasing use of telemedicine, the explosion of health-based cloud apps, and innovative medical IoT devices are improving the patient care experience. Related: Hackers relentlessly target healthcare providers. However, healthcare data ranks at the top of the list for needing improvements in security and privacy protections. This data is managed by different entities, such as primary care facilities, acute care facilities and within associated applications that collect, sto

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Cybersecurity startup ideas

Javvad Malik

I’ve seen VC’s fund many security and tech startups. Lots of the ideas are rubbish, so I’ve come up with my own ideas that aren’t rubbish so VC’s can fund me instead. Don’t steal any of my ideas or I will sue you! Take a human skull and 3D print an eyeball on it, add Linux to the inside where the brain would be. Website uses photo of person looking out from screen with windows environment running, call this cyberSURVIVOR.

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The Importance of User Roles and Permissions in Cybersecurity Software

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.

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SMS About Bank Fraud as a Pretext for Voice Phishing

Krebs on Security

Most of us have probably heard the term “smishing” — which is a portmanteau for traditional ph ishing scams sent through SMS text messages. Smishing messages usually include a link to a site that spoofs a popular bank and tries to siphon personal information. But increasingly, phishers are turning to a hybrid form of smishing — blasting out linkless text messages about suspicious bank transfers as a pretext for immediately calling and scamming anyone who responds via text

Banking 362
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Holiday Travel Surge Brings Back Vaccine Passports — Or Not

Lohrman on Security

As global travel returns, airline rules, checks and tests are hard to track. But get ready for more as travel returns for the holidays and 2022. Here’s the latest.

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Advice for Personal Digital Security

Schneier on Security

ArsTechnica’s Sean Gallagher has a two – part article on “securing your digital life.” It’s pretty good.

Risk 328
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Weekly Update 269

Troy Hunt

Where does the time go? The video is an hour and 35 mins today, I suspect in part because I've done it on a Saturday morning with a bit more time to spare and, well, there was just a lot of stuff happening. I did make up for working on a Saturday by then heading straight down to the beach and it was perfect! Everything here is perfect 😎 🌴 🐋 [link] — Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) November 12, 2021 The water looked so perfect that true to my word, we then had to go jet

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IDC Analyst Report: The Open Source Blind Spot Putting Businesses at Risk

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.

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GUEST ESSAY: Until we eliminate passwords, follow these 4 sure steps to password hygiene

The Last Watchdog

More Americans than ever are working remotely and seeking out entertainment online, and this increase of internet activity has fueled a dramatic spike in cybercrime. With so much critical data now stored in the cloud, how can people protect their accounts? Related: Training human sensors. Until biometrics or a quantum solution change our everyday approach to encryption, passwords remain our first line of defense against data breaches, hackers, and thieves.

Passwords 244
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8 advanced threats Kaspersky predicts for 2022

Tech Republic Security

Advanced threats constantly evolve. This year saw multiple examples of advanced persistent threats under the spotlight, allowing us to predict what threats might lead the future.

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‘Tis the Season for the Wayward Package Phish

Krebs on Security

The holiday shopping season always means big business for phishers, who tend to find increased success this time of year with a lure about a wayward package that needs redelivery. Here’s a look at a fairly elaborate SMS-based phishing scam that spoofs FedEx in a bid to extract personal and financial information from unwary recipients. One of dozens of FedEx-themed phishing sites currently being advertised via SMS spam.

Phishing 345
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5 Tips to be an awesome CISO

Javvad Malik

I’m not a CISO, I never have been and hope I never will be. It seems like a lot of hard work and stress, and if you’re the CISO at a company when you suffer a breach it’s difficult to blame the intern without a mob of security professionals criticising you. But I do observe CISO’s very closely, and as a result I have figured out how to be an awesome CISO.

CISO 195
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Beware of Pixels & Trackers on U.S. Healthcare Websites

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.

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Apple Sues NSO Group

Schneier on Security

Piling more on NSO Group’s legal troubles, Apple is suing it : The complaint provides new information on how NSO Group infected victims’ devices with its Pegasus spyware. To prevent further abuse and harm to its users, Apple is also seeking a permanent injunction to ban NSO Group from using any Apple software, services, or devices. NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware is favored by totalitarian governments around the world, who use it to hack Apple phones and computers.

Spyware 325
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Weekly Update 271

Troy Hunt

It's been a busy week with lots of little bits and pieces demanding my attention. Coding, IoT'ing, 3D printing and a milestone academic event for Ari: Primary school - done! pic.twitter.com/IvUt6lBJRr — Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) November 24, 2021 No major things in this weeks update, but plenty of things on all the above topics and more.

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SHARING INTEL: Here’s why it has become so vital to prioritize the security-proofing of APIs

The Last Watchdog

Application Programming Interface. APIs. Where would we be without them? Related: Supply-chain exposures on the rise. APIs are the snippets of code that interconnect the underlying components of all the digital services we can’t seem to live without. Indeed, APIs have opened new horizons of cloud services, mobile computing and IoT infrastructure, with much more to come.

Big data 240
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Your weak passwords can be cracked in less than a second

Tech Republic Security

Easy-to-crack phrases "123456," "123456789," "12345," "qwerty" and "password" are the five most common passwords, says NordPass.

Passwords 218
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Software Composition Analysis: The New Armor for Your Cybersecurity

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?