February, 2019

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A Deep Dive on the Recent Widespread DNS Hijacking Attacks

Krebs on Security

The U.S. government — along with a number of leading security companies — recently warned about a series of highly complex and widespread attacks that allowed suspected Iranian hackers to siphon huge volumes of email passwords and other sensitive data from multiple governments and private companies. But to date, the specifics of exactly how that attack went down and who was hit have remained shrouded in secrecy.

DNS 279
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Blockchain and Trust

Schneier on Security

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Facebook May Be Fined for Billions for Cambridge Analytica Scandal

Adam Levin

Facebook’s long string of privacy scandals may (finally) have some meaningful repercussions by way of a multi-billion dollar fine from the Federal Trade Commission. The social media giant has been under investigation by the FTC since March 2018 in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which affected 87 million users and may have been a pivotal influence in the 2016 election campaign.

Media 248
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The Race to the Bottom of Credential Stuffing Lists; Collections #2 Through #5 (and More)

Troy Hunt

A race to the bottom is a market condition in which there is a surplus of a commodity relative to the demand for it. Often the term is used to describe labour conditions (workers versus jobs), and in simple supply and demand terms, once there's so much of something all vying for the attention of those consuming it, the value of it plummets. On reflecting over the last 3 and a half weeks, this is where we seem to be with credential stuffing lists today and I want to use this blog post to explain

Passwords 236
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How to Avoid Pitfalls In Automation: Keep Humans In the Loop

Speaker: Erroll Amacker

Automation is transforming finance but without strong financial oversight it can introduce more risk than reward. From missed discrepancies to strained vendor relationships, accounts payable automation needs a human touch to deliver lasting value. This session is your playbook to get automation right. We’ll explore how to balance speed with control, boost decision-making through human-machine collaboration, and unlock ROI with fewer errors, stronger fraud prevention, and smoother operations.

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The Queen of the Skies and Innovation

Adam Shostack

The Seattle Times has a story today about how “ 50 years ago today, the first 747 took off and changed aviation.” It’s true. The 747 was a marvel of engineering and luxury. The book by Joe Sutter is a great story of engineering leadership. For an upcoming flight, I paid extra to reserve an upper deck seat before the last of the passenger-carrying Queens of the Skies retires.

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MY TAKE: Identity ‘access’ and ‘governance’ tech converge to meet data protection challenges

The Last Watchdog

As companies make more extensive use of evermore capable – and complex — digital systems, what has remained constant is the innumerable paths left wide open for threat actors to waltz through. Related: Applying ‘zero trust’ to managed security services. So why hasn’t the corporate sector been more effective at locking down access for users?

LifeWorks

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Attacking Soldiers on Social Media

Schneier on Security

A research group at NATO's Strategic Communications Center of Excellence catfished soldiers involved in an European military exercise -- we don't know what country they were from -- to demonstrate the power of the attack technique. Over four weeks, the researchers developed fake pages and closed groups on Facebook that looked like they were associated with the military exercise, as well as profiles impersonating service members both real and imagined.

Media 273
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ICANN Urges Greater Domain Name Security

Adam Levin

The infrastructure at the core of the internet is vulnerable to attack from state-sponsored hackers, its governing body warned. . The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), charged with overseeing Domain Name Systems (DNS), published an announcement that companies have moved too slowly to adopt security standards that would have mitigated several recent large-scale cyberattacks.

DNS 183
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Weekly Update 126

Troy Hunt

Another week, another conference. This time it was Microsoft Ignite in Sydney and as tends to happen at these events, many casual meetups, chats, beers, selfies, delivery of HIBP stickers and an all-round good time, albeit an exhausting one. That's why I'm a day late this week having finally arrived home late last night. Moving on though, I've got a bunch of other events coming up particularly in conjunctions with the folks at NDC.

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Nature and Nurture in Threat Modeling

Adam Shostack

Josh Corman opened a bit of a can of worms a day or two ago, asking on Twitter: “ pls RT: who are the 3-5 best, most natural Threat Modeling minds? Esp for NonSecurity people. @adamshostack is a given. ” (Thanks!). What I normally say to this is I don’t think I’m naturally good at finding replay attacks in network protocols — my farming ancestors got no chance to exercise such talents, and so it’s a skill I acquired.

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Why Giant Content Libraries Do Nothing for Your Employees’ Cyber Resilience

Many cybersecurity awareness platforms offer massive content libraries, yet they fail to enhance employees’ cyber resilience. Without structured, engaging, and personalized training, employees struggle to retain and apply key cybersecurity principles. Phished.io explains why organizations should focus on interactive, scenario-based learning rather than overwhelming employees with excessive content.

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MY TAKE: Why companies should care about 2.2 billion stolen credentials circulating in easy reach

The Last Watchdog

Some chilling hard evidence has surfaced illustrating where stolen personal information ultimately ends up, once it has flowed through the nether reaches of the cyber underground. Wired magazine reported this week on findings by independent security researchers who have been tracking the wide open availability of a massive cache of some 2.2 billion stolen usernames, passwords and other personal data.

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Crooks Continue to Exploit GoDaddy Hole

Krebs on Security

Godaddy.com , the world’s largest domain name registrar, recently addressed an authentication weakness that cybercriminals were using to blast out spam through legitimate, dormant domains. But several more recent malware spam campaigns suggest GoDaddy’s fix hasn’t gone far enough, and that scammers likely still have a sizable arsenal of hijacked GoDaddy domains at their disposal.

DNS 277
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Can Everybody Read the US Terrorist Watch List?

Schneier on Security

After years of claiming that the Terrorist Screening Database is kept secret within the government, we have now learned that the DHS shares it "with more than 1,400 private entities, including hospitals and universities.". Critics say that the watchlist is wildly overbroad and mismanaged, and that large numbers of people wrongly included on the list suffer routine difficulties and indignities because of their inclusion.

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Phishing Campaign Hits Credit Unions

Adam Levin

A phishing campaign targeting credit unions and other financial institutions recently found its way into the email inboxes of anti-money laundering officers. Credit unions and banks are both required by the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) to report potential money laundering operations and to dedicate at least two staff members to ensure compliance. The phishing emails seemed to specifically target the accounts of these BSA officers, which raises the concern that a database containing their information m

Phishing 181
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Zero Trust Mandate: The Realities, Requirements and Roadmap

The DHS compliance audit clock is ticking on Zero Trust. Government agencies can no longer ignore or delay their Zero Trust initiatives. During this virtual panel discussion—featuring Kelly Fuller Gordon, Founder and CEO of RisX, Chris Wild, Zero Trust subject matter expert at Zermount, Inc., and Principal of Cybersecurity Practice at Eliassen Group, Trey Gannon—you’ll gain a detailed understanding of the Federal Zero Trust mandate, its requirements, milestones, and deadlines.

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Weekly Update 124

Troy Hunt

I'm pumping this weekly update out a little bit later, pushing it just before I get on the plane back home to Australia. I've just wrapped up a week in London with Scott doing all things NDC including a couple of days of workshops and a couple of talks each. We discuss that, and how the UK seems to have an odd infatuation with doing anything that could even remotely be deemed a health and safety risk.

Risk 204
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Podcast: DevSecOps

Adam Shostack

I did a podcast with Mark Miller over at DevSecOps days. It was a fun conversation, and you can have a listen at “ Anticipating Failure through Threat Modeling w/ Adam Shostack.

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MY TAKE: Why Satya Nadella is wise to align with privacy advocates on regulating facial recognition

The Last Watchdog

We’re just a month and change into the new year, and already there have been two notable developments underscoring the fact that some big privacy and civil liberties questions need to be addressed before continuing the wide-scale deployment of advanced facial recognition systems. This week civil liberties groups in Europe won the right to challenge the UK’s bulk surveillance activities in the The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights.

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Email Provider VFEmail Suffers ‘Catastrophic’ Hack

Krebs on Security

Email provider VFEmail has suffered what the company is calling “catastrophic destruction” at the hands of an as-yet unknown intruder who trashed all of the company’s primary and backup data in the United States. The firm’s founder says he now fears some 18 years’ worth of customer email may be gone forever. Founded in 2001 and based in Milwaukee, Wisc., VFEmail provides email service to businesses and end users.

Hacking 276
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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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Using Gmail "Dot Addresses" to Commit Fraud

Schneier on Security

In Gmail addresses, the dots don't matter. The account "bruceschneier@gmail.com" maps to the exact same address as "bruce.schneier@gmail.com" and "b.r.u.c.e.schneier@gmail.com" -- and so on. (Note: I own none of those addresses, if they are actually valid.). This fact can be used to commit fraud : Recently, we observed a group of BEC actors make extensive use of Gmail dot accounts to commit a large and diverse amount of fraud.

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Small Breaches Can Make Big News: How to Protect Your Organization

Adam Levin

A recent leak compromised the personal data of all 4,557 active students at the California State Polytechnic University Science School. This was not a case of hackers gaining access through illicit means or an accidental exposure of an unsecured database. The data was inadvertently sent in a spreadsheet as an email attachment by a university employee.

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Weekly Update 127

Troy Hunt

It was another travel week so another slightly delayed weekly update, but still plenty of stuff going on all the same. Along with a private Sydney workshop earlier on, I'm talking about some free upcoming NDC meetup events in Brisbane and Melbourne and I'd love to get a great turnout for. I've just ordered 10k more HIBP stickers to last me through upcoming events so they'll be coming with me.

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What Should Training Cover?

Adam Shostack

Chris Eng said “ Someone should set up a GoFundMe to send whoever wrote the hit piece on password managers to a threat modeling class. ” And while it’s pretty amusing, you know, I teach threat modeling classes. I spend a lot of time crafting explicit learning goals, considering and refining instructional methods, and so when a smart fellow like Chris says this, my question is why?

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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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MY TAKE: Why the next web-delivered ad you encounter could invisibly infect your smartphone

The Last Watchdog

Google, Facebook and Amazon have gotten filthy rich doing one thing extremely well: fixating on every move each one of us makes when we use our Internet-connected computing devices. Related: Protecting web gateways. The tech titans have swelled into multi-billion dollar behemoths by myopically focusing on delivering targeted online advertising, in support of online retailing.

Retail 138
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Payroll Provider Gives Extortionists a Payday

Krebs on Security

Payroll software provider Apex Human Capital Management suffered a ransomware attack this week that severed payroll management services for hundreds of the company’s customers for nearly three days. Faced with the threat of an extended outage, Apex chose to pay the ransom demand and begin the process of restoring service to customers. Roswell, Ga. based Apex HCM is a cloud-based payroll software company that serves some 350 payroll service bureaus that in turn provide payroll services to s

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USB Cable with Embedded Wi-Fi Controller

Schneier on Security

It's only a prototype, but this USB cable has an embedded Wi-Fi controller. Whoever controls that Wi-Fi connection can remotely execute commands on the attached computer.

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“Digital Gangster” Facebook’s Faceplant in the EU and UK Markets

Adam Levin

As Brexit looms, the UK and the EU can still agree that Facebook needs to be reined in. A report published earlier this month by the U.K. Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee likened the social media company to “‘digital gangsters’ in the online world, considering themselves to be ahead of and beyond the law.” The committee came to the conclusion that Facebook knowingly violated U.K. privacy and anti-competition laws and required further regulation and investigation.

Marketing 158
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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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Weekly Update 125

Troy Hunt

I'm back home! It was an amazing trip in many ways, not least of which was the time it gave both Scott and myself to reflect on workload and managing lives which can be a bit of a never-ending series of commitments. To that effect, I've been backing off Twitter a bit and as I say in this update, I very quickly remembered why after a couple of short engagements yesterday.

Passwords 166
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Spoofing in Depth

Adam Shostack

I’m quite happy to say that my next Linkedin Learning course has launched! This one is all about spoofing. It’s titled “ Threat Modeling: Spoofing in Depth.” It’s free until at least a week after RSA. Also, I’m exploring the idea that security professionals lack a shared body of knowledge about attacks, and that an entertaining and engaging presentation of such a BoK could be a useful contribution.

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MY TAKE: Can Project Furnace solve DX dilemma by combining serverless computing and GitOps?

The Last Watchdog

Assuring the privacy and security of sensitive data, and then actually monetizing that data, — ethically and efficiently — has turned out to be the defining challenge of digital transformation. Today a very interesting effort to address this complex dilemma is arising from the ferment, out of the UK. It’s called Project Furnace , an all-new open source software development platform.

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Former Russian Cybersecurity Chief Sentenced to 22 Years in Prison

Krebs on Security

A Russian court has handed down lengthy prison terms for two men convicted on treason charges for allegedly sharing information about Russian cybercriminals with U.S. law enforcement officials. The men — a former Russian cyber intelligence official and an executive at Russian security firm Kaspersky Lab — were reportedly prosecuted for their part in an investigation into Pavel Vrublevsky , a convicted cybercriminal who ran one of the world’s biggest spam networks and was a majo

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Next-Level Fraud Prevention: Strategies for Today’s Threat Landscape

Speaker: Sierre Lindgren

Fraud is a battle that every organization must face – it’s no longer a question of “if” but “when.” Every organization is a potential target for fraud, and the finance department is often the bullseye. From cleverly disguised emails to fraudulent payment requests, the tactics of cybercriminals are advancing rapidly. Drawing insights from real-world cases and industry expertise, we’ll explore the vulnerabilities in your processes and how to fortify them effectively.