September, 2018

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Credit Freezes are Free: Let the Ice Age Begin

Krebs on Security

It is now free in every U.S. state to freeze and unfreeze your credit file and that of your dependents, a process that blocks identity thieves and others from looking at private details in your consumer credit history. If you’ve been holding out because you’re not particularly worried about ID theft, here’s another reason to reconsider: The credit bureaus profit from selling copies of your file to others, so freezing your file also lets you deny these dinosaurs a valuable reven

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Extended Validation Certificates are Dead

Troy Hunt

That's it - I'm calling it - extended validation certificates are dead. Sure, you can still buy them (and there are companies out there that would just love to sell them to you!), but their usefulness has now descended from "barely there" to "as good as non-existent" This change has come via a combination of factors including increasing use of mobile devices, removal of the EV visual indicator by browser vendors and as of today, removal from Safari on iOS (it'll also be gone in M

Marketing 272
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Quantum Computing and Cryptography

Schneier on Security

Quantum computing is a new way of computing -- one that could allow humankind to perform computations that are simply impossible using today's computing technologies. It allows for very fast searching, something that would break some of the encryption algorithms we use today. And it allows us to easily factor large numbers, something that would break the RSA cryptosystem for any key length.

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MY TAKE: Here’s why we need ‘SecOps’ to help secure ‘Cloud Native’ companiess

The Last Watchdog

For many start-ups, DevOps has proven to be a magical formula for increasing business velocity. Speed and agility is the name of the game — especially for Software as a Service (SaaS) companies. Related: How DevOps enabled the hacking of Uber. DevOps is a process designed to foster intensive collaboration between software developers and the IT operations team, two disciplines that traditionally have functioned as isolated silos with the technology department.

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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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State Department’s Email Server Breached

Adam Levin

An email server containing “sensitive but unclassified” data belonging to the State Department was breached, the government agency announced earlier this month. The information included personally identifiable information of an undisclosed number of employees who have since been notified. While the breach itself is relatively minor, it highlights the relative lack of progress made by the department to enact more rigorous security measures, despite repeated hack attempts and security breaches.

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Reflective Practice and Threat Modeling (Threat Model Thursday)

Adam Shostack

Lately, I’ve been asking what takes threat modeling from a practice to a mission. If you’re reading this blog, you may have seen that some people are nearly mad about threat modeling. The ones who say “you’re never done threat modeling.” The ones who’ve made it the center of their work practice. What distinguishes those people from those who keep trying to teach developers about the difference between a hactivist and a script kiddie?

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Mmm. Pi-hole.

Troy Hunt

I have a love-hate relationship with ad blockers. On the one hand, I despise the obnoxious ads that are forced down our throats at what seems like every turn. On the other hand, I appreciate the need for publishers to earn a living so that I can consume their hard-earned work for free. Somewhere in the middle is a responsible approach, for example the sponsorship banner you see at the top of this blog.

DNS 272
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AES Resulted in a $250 Billion Economic Benefit

Schneier on Security

NIST has released a new study concluding that the AES encryption standard has resulted in a $250 billion world-wide economic benefit over the past twenty years. I have no idea how to even begin to assess the quality of the study and its conclusions -- it's all in the 150-page report, though -- but I do like the pretty block diagram of AES on the report's cover.

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MY TAKE: Here’s how diversity can strengthen cybersecurity — at many levels

The Last Watchdog

Of the many cybersecurity executives I’ve interviewed, Keenan Skelly’s career path may be the most distinctive. Skelly started out as a U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Technician. “I was on the EOD team that was actually assigned to the White House during 9/11, so I got to see our national response framework from a very high level,” she says.

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Facebook hacked – 50 Million Users’ Data exposed in the security breach

Security Affairs

Facebook hacked – Attackers exploited a vulnerability in the “View As” feature that allowed them to steal Facebook access tokens of 50 Million Users. Facebook hacked, this is news that is rapidly spreading across the Internet. A few hours ago, Facebook announced that an attack on its computer network exposed the personal information of roughly 50 million users.

Hacking 111
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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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The Facebook Security Meltdown Exposes Way More Sites Than Facebook

WIRED Threat Level

The social networking giant confirmed Friday that sites you use Facebook to login to could have been accessed as a result of its massive breach.

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Secret Service Warns of Surge in ATM ‘Wiretapping’ Attacks

Krebs on Security

The U.S. Secret Service is warning financial institutions about a recent uptick in a form of ATM skimming that involves cutting cupcake-sized holes in a cash machine and then using a combination of magnets and medical devices to siphon customer account data directly from the card reader inside the ATM. According to a non-public alert distributed to banks this week and shared with KrebsOnSecurity by a financial industry source, the Secret Service has received multiple reports about a complex form

Banking 252
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The Effectiveness of Publicly Shaming Bad Security

Troy Hunt

Here's how it normally plays out: It all begins when a company pops up online and makes some sort of ludicrous statement related to their security posture, often as part of a discussion on a public social media platform such as Twitter. Shortly thereafter, the masses descend on said organisation and express their outrage at the stated position. Where it gets interesting (and this is the whole point of the post), is when another group of folks pop up and accuse the outraged group of doing a bit o

Media 256
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Security Vulnerability in ESS ExpressVote Touchscreen Voting Computer

Schneier on Security

Of course the ESS ExpressVote voting computer will have lots of security vulnerabilities. It's a computer, and computers have lots of vulnerabilities. This particular vulnerability is particularly interesting because it's the result of a security mistake in the design process. Someone didn't think the security through, and the result is a voter-verifiable paper audit trail that doesn't provide the security it promises.

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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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MY TAKE: The no. 1 reason ransomware attacks persist: companies overlook ‘unstructured data’

The Last Watchdog

All too many companies lack a full appreciation of how vital it has become to proactively manage and keep secure “unstructured data.”. One reason for the enduring waves of ransomware is that unstructured data is easy for hackers to locate and simple for them to encrypt. Related video: Why it’s high time to protect unstructured data. Ironically, many victimized companies are paying hefty ransoms to decrypt unstructured data that may not be all that sensitive or mission critical.

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Cracked Windows installations are serially infected with EternalBlue exploit code

Security Affairs

According to Avira, hundreds of thousands of unpatched Windows systems are serially infected with EternalBlue exploit code. The EternalBlue , is the alleged NSA exploit that made the headlines with DOUBLEPULSAR in the WannaCry attack. The malicious code was leaked online by the Shadow Brokers hacking group that stole it from the arsenal of the NSA-linked Equation Group.

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Understanding IoT Security Challenges – An Interview with an Industry Expert

Thales Cloud Protection & Licensing

The Internet of Things (IoT) is rapidly growing and expected to affect all industry verticals as well as our private lives. It is no secret that security plays a very important part in the successful deployment and management of this technology, and its applications are set to transform the way we live and do business. In this blog, we reached out to our technology partner Nexus to better understand the challenges that the industry faces to ensure safe deployment and management of IoT technologi

IoT 92
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GovPayNow.com Leaks 14M+ Records

Krebs on Security

Government Payment Service Inc. — a company used by thousands of U.S. state and local governments to accept online payments for everything from traffic citations and licensing fees to bail payments and court-ordered fines — has leaked more than 14 million customer records dating back at least six years, including names, addresses, phone numbers and the last four digits of the payer’s credit card.

Mobile 248
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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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Serverless to the Max: Doing Big Things for Small Dollars with Cloudflare Workers and Azure Functions

Troy Hunt

As time has gone by, one of the things I've enjoyed the most in running Have I Been Pwned (HIBP) is seeing how far I could make the dollars stretch. How big can it go whilst at the same time, running it on a shoestring? I keep finding new ways of optimising cost and the two most significant contributions to that since launching almost 5 years ago have come via serverless technology provided by 2 of my favourite tech companies: Cloudflare and Microsoft.

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Using Hacked IoT Devices to Disrupt the Power Grid

Schneier on Security

This is really interesting research: " BlackIoT: IoT Botnet of High Wattage Devices Can Disrupt the Power Grid ": Abstract : We demonstrate that an Internet of Things (IoT) botnet of high wattage devices-such as air conditioners and heaters-gives a unique ability to adversaries to launch large-scale coordinated attacks on the power grid. In particular, we reveal a new class of potential attacks on power grids called the Manipulation of demand via IoT (MadIoT) attacks that can leverage such a bot

IoT 238
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NEW TECH: Critical Start applies ‘zero-trust’ security model to managed security services

The Last Watchdog

All companies today are exposed to intense cyber-attacks. And yet the vast majority simply do not have the capability to effectively defend their networks. That’s where managed security services providers, or MSSPs, come in. MSSPs monitor and manage cybersecurity systems as a contracted service. This can include spam filtering, malware detection, firewalls upkeep, vulnerability management and more.

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FBI IC3 warns of cyber attacks exploiting Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP)

Security Affairs

The FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) warns of cyber attacks exploiting Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) vulnerabilities. Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is a widely adopted protocol for remote administration, but it could dramatically enlarge the attack surface if it isn’t properly managed. The FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and the DHS issued a joint alert to highlight the rise of RDP as an attack vector.

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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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To Make the Internet of Things Safe, Start with Manufacturing

Thales Cloud Protection & Licensing

Vincent Van Gogh is believed to have said “Great things are … done … by a series of small things brought together.” This aptly describes the Internet of Things (IoT), where many small things are coming together to shape what we all hope will deliver a great leap in the way we live and do business. In this blog, and in and accompanying interview with our colleague Daniel Hjort from Nexus Group, we discuss the challenges that industry faces to ensure safe deployment and management of IoT technolog

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In a Few Days, Credit Freezes Will Be Fee-Free

Krebs on Security

Later this month, all of the three major consumer credit bureaus will be required to offer free credit freezes to all Americans and their dependents. Maybe you’ve been holding off freezing your credit file because your home state currently charges a fee for placing or thawing a credit freeze, or because you believe it’s just not worth the hassle.

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Weekly Update 106

Troy Hunt

Home again! Another NDC is down and I talk a little about how the talks were rated and about PubConf (make sure you get to one of these one day!) I've got another couple of weeks at home before any more travel and I'll talk more about the next things as they draw closer. This week, I'm on my new iPhone (which is very similar to my old iPhone), I'm talking about Uber getting fined, Cloudflare introducing some very cool new things, Firefox Monitor launching on top of the HIBP APIs and my newfound

IoT 186
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NSA Attacks Against Virtual Private Networks

Schneier on Security

A 2006 document from the Snowden archives outlines successful NSA operations against "a number of "high potential" virtual private networks, including those of media organization Al Jazeera, the Iraqi military and internet service organizations, and a number of airline reservation systems.". It's hard to believe that many of the Snowden documents are now more than a decade old.

Media 238
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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?

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NEW TECH: WhiteSource leverages automation to mitigate lurking open-source vulnerabilities

The Last Watchdog

Just like the best sourdough bread derives from a “mother” yeast that gets divided, passed around, and used over and over, open-source software applications get fashioned from a “mother” library of code created and passed around by developers. Related: Equifax hack highlights open source attack vectors. In today’s world, quick innovations are a necessity, and software developers would rather not lose valuable time reinventing the wheel.

Software 179
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Hide and Seek (HNS) IoT Botnet targets Android devices with ADB option enabled

Security Affairs

The latest samples of the HNS bot were designed to target Android devices having the wireless debugging feature ADB enabled. The Hide and Seek (HNS) IoT botnet was first spotted early this year, since its discovery the authors continuously evolved its code. The IoT botnet appeared in the threat landscape in January, when it was first discovered on January 10th by malware researchers from Bitdefender, then it disappeared for a few days, and appeared again a few weeks later infecting in a few

IoT 111
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Facebook's Massive Security Breach: Everything We Know

WIRED Threat Level

Up to 50 million Facebook users were affected—and possibly 40 million more—when hackers compromised the social network's systems.

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Beware of Hurricane Florence Relief Scams

Krebs on Security

If you’re thinking of donating money to help victims of Hurricane Florence , please do your research on the charitable entity before giving: A slew of new domains apparently related to Hurricane Florence relief efforts are now accepting donations on behalf of victims without much accountability for how the money will be spent. For the past two weeks, KrebsOnSecurity has been monitoring dozens of new domain name registrations that include the terms “hurricane” and/or “flor

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The Cloud Development Environment Adoption Report

Cloud Development Environments (CDEs) are changing how software teams work by moving development to the cloud. Our Cloud Development Environment Adoption Report gathers insights from 223 developers and business leaders, uncovering key trends in CDE adoption. With 66% of large organizations already using CDEs, these platforms are quickly becoming essential to modern development practices.