January, 2021

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A @TomNomNom Recon Tools Primer

Daniel Miessler

There are recon tools, and there are recon tools. @tomnomnom —also called Tom Hudson—creates the latter. I have great respect for large, multi-use suites like Burp , Amass , and Spiderfoot , but I love tools with the Unix philosophy of doing one specific thing really well. I think this granular approach is especially useful in recon. Related Talk: Mechanizing the Methodology.

Internet 364
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Every Computer and Smartphone in the Capitol Should be Considered Compromised and Dangerous

Joseph Steinberg

While much of the security-oriented focus regarding the storming of the Capitol building by protesters yesterday has rightfully been on the failure of the Capitol Police to prevent the breach of security, the country also faces a potentially serious cyber-threat as a result of the incident. Laptops, smartphones, printers, and other computing devices that were left behind in offices and other areas by elected officials, staffers, and others as they retreated from the advancing protesters all must

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Sealed U.S. Court Records Exposed in SolarWinds Breach

Krebs on Security

The ongoing breach affecting thousands of organizations that relied on backdoored products by network software firm SolarWinds may have jeopardized the privacy of countless sealed court documents on file with the U.S. federal court system, according to a memo released Wednesday by the Administrative Office (AO) of the U.S. Courts. The judicial branch agency said it will be deploying more stringent controls for receiving and storing sensitive documents filed with the federal courts, following a d

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Extracting Personal Information from Large Language Models Like GPT-2

Schneier on Security

Researchers have been able to find all sorts of personal information within GPT-2. This information was part of the training data, and can be extracted with the right sorts of queries. Paper: “ Extracting Training Data from Large Language Models.” Abstract: It has become common to publish large (billion parameter) language models that have been trained on private datasets.

Internet 361
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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 224

Troy Hunt

It's a new year! With lots of breaches to discuss already ? Ok, so these may not be 2021 breaches but I betcha that by next week's update there'll be brand new ones from the new year to discuss. I managed to get enough connectivity in the middle of the Australian outback in front of Uluru to do the live stream this week, plus talk a bunch more about what we've been doing on our epic Australian journey.

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SolarWinds attack: Cybersecurity experts share lessons learned and how to protect your business

Tech Republic Security

The highly sophisticated SolarWinds attack was designed to circumvent threat detection—and it did, for much too long. Two cybersecurity experts share some valuable lessons learned from the attack.

More Trending

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Joseph Steinberg Appointed To CompTIA Cybersecurity Advisory Council

Joseph Steinberg

Long-time cybersecurity-industry veteran, Joseph Steinberg , has been appointed by CompTIA, the information technology (IT) industry’s nonprofit trade association that has issued more than 2-million vendor-neutral IT certifications to date, to its newly-formed Cybersecurity Advisory Council. The council, comprised of 16 experts with a diverse set of experience and backgrounds, will provide guidance on how technology companies can both address pressing cybersecurity issues and threats, as well as

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Ubiquiti: Change Your Password, Enable 2FA

Krebs on Security

Ubiquiti , a major vendor of cloud-enabled Internet of Things (IoT) devices such as routers, network video recorders, security cameras and access control systems, is urging customers to change their passwords and enable multi-factor authentication. The company says an incident at a third-party cloud provider may have exposed customer account information and credentials used to remotely manage Ubiquiti gear.

Passwords 332
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Amazon Has Trucks Filled with Hard Drives and an Armed Guard

Schneier on Security

From an interview with an Amazon Web Services security engineer: So when you use AWS, part of what you’re paying for is security. Right; it’s part of what we sell. Let’s say a prospective customer comes to AWS. They say, “I like pay-as-you-go pricing. Tell me more about that.” We say, “Okay, here’s how much you can use at peak capacity.

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The Future of Payments Security

Thales Cloud Protection & Licensing

The Future of Payments Security. madhav. Tue, 01/26/2021 - 09:17. Criminals use a wide range of methods to commit fraud. The increasing trend of using mobile payments for in-store purchases (especially during the pandemic) is leading criminals to increasingly focus their efforts on defrauding people through online fraud and scams. Fraud and scams move to the web.

Retail 143
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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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5 cybersecurity preparedness tips from two attorneys

Tech Republic Security

Cybersecurity bad actors are taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic and attacking businesses. Follow these best practices for protecting your organization before a security attack.

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The Top 21 Security Predictions for 2021

Lohrman on Security

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Emotet botnet takedown – what you need to know

Graham Cluley

Law enforcement agencies across the globe say that they have dealt a blow against Emotet, described by Interpol as "the world's most dangerous malware", by taking control of its infrastructure. Read more in my article on the Tripwire State of Security blog.

Malware 145
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SolarWinds: What Hit Us Could Hit Others

Krebs on Security

New research into the malware that set the stage for the megabreach at IT vendor SolarWinds shows the perpetrators spent months inside the company’s software development labs honing their attack before inserting malicious code into updates that SolarWinds then shipped to thousands of customers. More worrisome, the research suggests the insidious methods used by the intruders to subvert the company’s software development pipeline could be repurposed against many other major software p

Software 307
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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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Finding the Location of Telegram Users

Schneier on Security

Security researcher Ahmed Hassan has shown that spoofing the Android’s “People Nearby” feature allows him to pinpoint the physical location of Telegram users: Using readily available software and a rooted Android device, he’s able to spoof the location his device reports to Telegram servers. By using just three different locations and measuring the corresponding distance reported by People Nearby, he is able to pinpoint a user’s precise location. […].

Software 327
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How You Can Start Learning Malware Analysis

Lenny Zeltser

Malware analysis sits at the intersection of incident response, forensics, system and network administration, security monitoring, and software engineering. You can get into this field by building upon your existing skills in any of these disciplines. As someone who’s helped thousands of security professionals learn how to analyze malware at SANS Institute , I have a few tips for how you can get started.

Malware 145
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Bosses are using monitoring software to keep tabs on working at home. Privacy rules aren't keeping up

Tech Republic Security

Worker's union Prospect warned that the UK was at risk of 'sleepwalking into a world of surveillance' as more businesses turn to digital tools to keep tabs on remote workers.

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Facebook ads used to steal 615000+ credentials in a phishing campaign

Security Affairs

Cybercriminals are abusing Facebook ads in a large-scale phishing scam aimed at stealing victims’ login credentials. Researchers from security firm ThreatNix spotted a new large-scale campaign abusing Facebook ads. Threat actors are using Facebook ads to redirect users to Github accounts hosting phishing pages used to steal victims’ login credentials.

Phishing 145
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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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Taking a Data-Centric Approach to Cloud Security

Security Boulevard

The pandemic and resulting migration to remote work emphasized the importance of having a digital transformation process in place. The companies that did so appeared to be the companies that had the smoothest transition. Cloud computing played a pivotal role, allowing employees to have the access they needed to do their work. The downside was. The post Taking a Data-Centric Approach to Cloud Security appeared first on Security Boulevard.

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The Taxman Cometh for ID Theft Victims

Krebs on Security

The unprecedented volume of unemployment insurance fraud witnessed in 2020 hasn’t abated, although news coverage of the issue has largely been pushed off the front pages by other events. But the ID theft problem is coming to the fore once again: Countless Americans will soon be receiving notices from state regulators saying they owe thousands of dollars in taxes on benefits they never received last year.

Insurance 291
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Changes in WhatsApp’s Privacy Policy

Schneier on Security

If you’re a WhatsApp user, pay attention to the changes in the privacy policy that you’re being forced to agree with. In 2016, WhatsApp gave users a one-time ability to opt out of having account data turned over to Facebook. Now, an updated privacy policy is changing that. Come next month, users will no longer have that choice. Some of the data that WhatsApp collects includes: User phone numbers.

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Poor password security at the British branch of Mensa?

Graham Cluley

The website of Mensa - the club for people who have scored highly in an IQ test but who feel their social lives would be improved by hanging out with other people who chose to join a club after scoring highly in an IQ test - is said to have suffered a cyber attack. Coincidentally (or not) the news comes as a board member of British Mensa resigns, citing poor password security.

Passwords 145
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From Complexity to Clarity: Strategies for Effective Compliance and Security Measures

Speaker: Erika R. Bales, Esq.

When we talk about “compliance and security," most companies want to ensure that steps are being taken to protect what they value most – people, data, real or personal property, intellectual property, digital assets, or any other number of other things - and it’s more important than ever that safeguards are in place. Let’s step back and focus on the idea that no matter how complicated the compliance and security regime, it should be able to be distilled down to a checklist.

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Gartner: The future of AI is not as rosy as some might think

Tech Republic Security

A Gartner report predicts that the second-order consequences of widespread AI will have massive societal impacts, to the point of making us unsure if and when we can trust our own eyes.

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Two kids found a screensaver bypass in Linux Mint

Security Affairs

The development team behind the Linux Mint distro has fixed a security flaw that could have allowed users to bypass the OS screensaver. The maintainers of the Linux Mint project have addressed a security bug that could have allowed attackers to bypass the OS screensaver. The curious aspect of this vulnerability is related to its discovery, in fact, it was found by too children that were playing on their dad’s computer.

Hacking 145
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North Korean hackers attempt to hack security researchers investigating zero-day vulnerabilities

Hot for Security

Threat experts at Google say that they have identified an ongoing hacking campaign that has targeted computer security experts, specifically those researching the very type of software vulnerabilities exploited by cybercriminals. Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog.

Hacking 144
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Ransomware: Analyzing the data from 2020

Digital Shadows

Note: This blog is a roundup of our quarterly ransomware series. You can also see our Q2 Ransomware Trends, Q3. The post Ransomware: Analyzing the data from 2020 first appeared on Digital Shadows.

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Successful Change Management with Enterprise Risk Management

Speaker: William Hord, Vice President of ERM Services

A well-defined change management process is critical to minimizing the impact that change has on your organization. Leveraging the data that your ERM program already contains is an effective way to help create and manage the overall change management process within your organization. Your ERM program generally assesses and maintains detailed information related to strategy, operations, and the remediation plans needed to mitigate the impact on the organization.

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Latest on the SVR’s SolarWinds Hack

Schneier on Security

The New York Times has an in-depth article on the latest information about the SolarWinds hack (not a great name, since it’s much more far-reaching than that). Interviews with key players investigating what intelligence agencies believe to be an operation by Russia’s S.V.R. intelligence service revealed these points: The breach is far broader than first believed.

Hacking 314
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The biggest data breach fines, penalties and settlements so far

CSO Magazine

Sizable fines assessed for data breaches since 2019 suggest that regulators are getting more serious about organizations that don’t properly protect consumer data. Marriott was hit with a $124 million fine, later reduced, while Equifax agreed to pay a minimum of $575 million for its 2017 breach. This comes after an active 2018. Uber’s poor handling of its 2016 breach cost it close to $150 million.

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Cybercriminals use psychology--cybersecurity pros should, too

Tech Republic Security

Most successful cybercrimes leverage known human weaknesses. Isn't it time we stop getting psyched by the bad guys? Here are five steps cybersecurity pros can take now.

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The IoT Cybersecurity Act of 2020: Implications for Devices

eSecurity Planet

A universe of devices and technology has fallen into our laps at a speed that organizations struggle to manage effectively. And that boom in devices shows no signs of stopping. In 2019, there were an estimated 9.9 billion Internet of Things (IoT) devices. By 2025, we expect 21.5 billion. As more information about IoT device vulnerabilities is published, the pressure on industry and government authorities to enhance security standards might be reaching a tipping point.

IoT 143
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Cybersecurity Predictions for 2024

Within the past few years, ransomware attacks have turned to critical infrastructure, healthcare, and government entities. Attackers have taken advantage of the rapid shift to remote work and new technologies. Add to that hacktivism due to global conflicts and U.S. elections, and an increased focus on AI, and you have the perfect recipe for a knotty and turbulent 2024.