October, 2020

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Humans are Bad at URLs and Fonts Don’t Matter

Troy Hunt

Been a lot of "victim blaming" going on these last few days. The victim, through no fault of their own, has been the target of numerous angry tweets designed to ridicule their role in internet security and suggest they are incapable of performing their duty. Here's where it all started: This is a great example of how bad people are at reading and understanding even the domain part of the URL then making decisions based on that which affect their security and privacy (see the answer under the pol

Phishing 363
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New Privacy Features in iOS 14

Schneier on Security

A good rundown.

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Ransomware Victims That Pay Up Could Incur Steep Fines from Uncle Sam

Krebs on Security

Companies victimized by ransomware and firms that facilitate negotiations with ransomware extortionists could face steep fines from the U.S. federal government if the crooks who profit from the attack are already under economic sanctions, the Treasury Department warned today. Image: Shutterstock. In its advisory (PDF), the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said “companies that facilitate ransomware payments to cyber actors on behalf of victims, including financial in

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Barnes & Noble Experiences Major Data Breach

Adam Levin

Barnes & Noble has confirmed a data breach following a cyberattack that took many of their services offline. . The bookseller sent an email to customers notifying them that their personal information had been exposed, but that their financial information had not been compromised. . “While we do not know if any personal information was exposed as a result of the attack, we do retain in the impacted systems your billing and shipping addresses, your email address and your telephone number if yo

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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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Notice the Outrage Machines

Adam Shostack

With three days to the US election, the outrage machines are running on all cylinders. It’ll be easier to stay happy if you remember to notice them. To be clear, I’m not using a metaphor. Websites from news to social media use data to drive stories. Twitter’s top tweets, Facebook’s timeline, your local newspaper, but also Linkedin, Medium, Buzzfeed, – all are focused on keeping you on their site as long as possible to show you as many ads as possible.

Media 264
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Why Predator is the ultimate CISO movie

Javvad Malik

There’s often a lot of debate as to what the best security or hacking movie is. Many people talk about Hackers, or Sneakers, or try and slip Mr Robot into the mix. But they are all way way waaaaay off the mark. I was reminded of this by Phil Cracknell who posted on linkedin that in his opinion the Kevin Costner, Whitney Houston classic, Bodyguard was the best infosec movie.

CISO 246

LifeWorks

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On Risk-Based Authentication

Schneier on Security

Interesting usability study: “ More Than Just Good Passwords? A Study on Usability and Security Perceptions of Risk-based Authentication “: Abstract : Risk-based Authentication (RBA) is an adaptive security measure to strengthen password-based authentication. RBA monitors additional features during login, and when observed feature values differ significantly from previously seen ones, users have to provide additional authentication factors such as a verification code.

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Report: U.S. Cyber Command Behind Trickbot Tricks

Krebs on Security

A week ago, KrebsOnSecurity broke the news that someone was attempting to disrupt the Trickbot botnet , a malware crime machine that has infected millions of computers and is often used to spread ransomware. A new report Friday says the coordinated attack was part of an operation carried out by the U.S. military’s Cyber Command. Image: Shuttstock.

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Operation Fortify: A US Ransomware Plan

Daniel Miessler

The US is currently being ravaged by ransomware. Google News Results for US Ransomware. Our schools are being disabled, our small businesses are being pilfered, our cities are being taken offline, and now our hospitals are being attacked as well. I talk about the reasons here , but in short, we have long had a horrible state of security in our local governments, our small businesses, our schools, and our hospitals.

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Norwegian Government Blames Russia for Hacking Campaign

Adam Levin

The Norwegian government has blamed Russia for a hacking campaign that targeted the email accounts of parliament members. The attack was deployed in August. “This is a very serious incident, affecting our most important democratic institution… Based on the information the Government has, it is our view that Russia is responsible for these activities,” said Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ine Eriksen Søreide in an announcement released October 13.

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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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GUEST ESSAY: ‘CyberXchange’ presents a much-needed platform for cybersecurity purchases

The Last Watchdog

There is no shortage of innovative cybersecurity tools and services that can help companies do a much better job of defending their networks. Related: Welcome to the CyberXchange Marketplace In the U.S. alone, in fact, there are more than 5,000 cybersecurity vendors. For organizations looking to improve their security posture, this is causing confusion and vendor fatigue, especially for companies that don’t have a full time Chief Information Security Officer.

eCommerce 235
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Hacking Grindr Accounts with Copy and Paste

Troy Hunt

Sexuality, relationships and online dating are all rather personal things. They're aspects of our lives that many people choose to keep private or at the very least, share only with people of our choosing. Grindr is "The World's Largest Social Networking App for Gay, Bi, Trans, and Queer People" which for many people, makes it particularly sensitive.

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Google Responds to Warrants for “About” Searches

Schneier on Security

One of the things we learned from the Snowden documents is that the NSA conducts “about” searches. That is, searches based on activities and not identifiers. A normal search would be on a name, or IP address, or phone number. An about search would something like “show me anyone that has used this particular name in a communications,” or “show me anyone who was at this particular location within this time frame.” These searches are legal when conducted for the

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Attacks Aimed at Disrupting the Trickbot Botnet

Krebs on Security

Over the past 10 days, someone has been launching a series of coordinated attacks designed to disrupt Trickbot , an enormous collection of more than two million malware-infected Windows PCs that are constantly being harvested for financial data and are often used as the entry point for deploying ransomware within compromised organizations. A text snippet from one of the bogus Trickbot configuration updates.

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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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I Actually Like Remote and Pre-recorded Presentations

Daniel Miessler

I have an unpopular opinion about the security conference scene. Basically, it’s the opposite of what John Strand said here: Can we all agree that pre-recorded Conference talks are horrible? I mean… Why? — strandjs (@strandjs) October 28, 2020. I see this sentiment a lot from a lot of people in infosec, and I think I’ve figured it out.

InfoSec 229
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Cybersecurity policy is a must in government

Tech Republic Security

One policy expert says cybersecurity measures should be an expected item that comes with every purchase, like the safety measures in your car.

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Microsoft Targets Trickbot Botnet

Adam Levin

Microsoft has stepped up its efforts to disrupt the Trickbot malware botnet after receiving permission to take on its network infrastructure. Citing concerns of potential activity to disrupt the upcoming elections, Microsoft was granted approval from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to disable online servers connected to the botnet. .

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I've Joined the 1Password Board of Advisers

Troy Hunt

Almost a decade ago now, I wrote what would become one of my most career-defining blog posts: The Only Secure Password is the One You Can't Remember. I had come to the realisation that I simply had too many accounts across too many systems to ever have any chance of creating decent unique passwords I could remember. So, I set out to find a password manager and 10 Christmas holidays ago now, I spent the best 50 bucks ever: I choose 1Password way back then and without a shadow of a doubt, it has b

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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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Swiss-Swedish Diplomatic Row Over Crypto AG

Schneier on Security

Previously I have written about the Swedish-owned Swiss-based cryptographic hardware company: Crypto AG. It was a CIA-owned Cold War operation for decades. Today it is called Crypto International , still based in Switzerland but owned by a Swedish company. It’s back in the news : Late last week, Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said she had canceled a meeting with her Swiss counterpart Ignazio Cassis slated for this month after Switzerland placed an export ban on Crypto International , a

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Microsoft Uses Trademark Law to Disrupt Trickbot Botnet

Krebs on Security

Microsoft Corp. has executed a coordinated legal sneak attack in a bid to disrupt the malware-as-a-service botnet Trickbot , a global menace that has infected millions of computers and is used to spread ransomware. A court in Virginia granted Microsoft control over many Internet servers Trickbot uses to plunder infected systems, based on novel claims that the crime machine abused the software giant’s trademarks.

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Google discloses unpatched Windows zero-day exploited in the wild

Security Affairs

Google researchers disclosed today a zero-day vulnerability in the Windows operating system that is currently under active exploitation. Security researchers from Google have disclosed a zero-day vulnerability in the Windows operating system, tracked as CVE-2020-17087, that is currently under active exploitation. Ben Hawkes, team lead for Google Project Zero team, revealed on Twitter that the vulnerability was chained with another Chrome zero-day flaw, tracked as CVE-2020-15999 , that Google re

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Security firm identifies 5 biggest cybersecurity risks for hospitals and healthcare organizations

Tech Republic Security

Wandera finds malicious network traffic and configuration vulnerabilities on mobile devices as popular entry points for cybercriminals.

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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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Facebook Tightens Restrictions on Election Ads

Adam Levin

Facebook has announced that it will place greater restrictions on advertisements for social and political issues ahead of the upcoming U.S. presidential election. The company announced the new restrictions on its corporate blog earlier this week, which prohibit the following content: Ads discouraging participation in the voting process. Ads seeking to delegitimize lawful voting practices as fraudulent, illegal, or corrupt.

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Weekly Update 211

Troy Hunt

This week there's a lot of connected things: connected shoes, connected garage camera and connected GoPro. And then there's Scott's Grindr account. Awkward. Actually, since recording this weekly update the details of the issue have now been released so I'll talk about that in more detail next week. This week there's all the above and, on a more personal note, my relationship with Charlotte.

Firmware 338
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Reverse-Engineering the Redactions in the Ghislaine Maxwell Deposition

Schneier on Security

Slate magazine was able to cleverly read the Ghislaine Maxwell deposition and reverse-engineer many of the redacted names. We’ve long known that redacting is hard in the modern age, but most of the failures to date have been a result of not realizing that covering digital text with a black bar doesn’t always remove the text from the underlying digital file.

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Breach at Dickey’s BBQ Smokes 3M Cards

Krebs on Security

One of the digital underground’s most popular stores for peddling stolen credit card information began selling a batch of more than three million new card records this week. KrebsOnSecurity has learned the data was stolen in a lengthy data breach at more than 100 Dickey’s Barbeque Restaurant locations around the country. An ad on the popular carding site Joker’s Stash for “BlazingSun,” which fraud experts have traced back to a card breach at Dickey’s BBQ.

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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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REvil ransomware gang hacked gaming firm Gaming Partners International

Security Affairs

The REvil ransomware operators made the headlines again, this time the gang claims to have hacked the Gaming Partners International (GPI). Gaming Partners International (GPI) is a full-service supplier of gaming furniture and equipment for casinos worldwide. The REvil ransomware gang (aka Sodinokibi) claims to have stolen info from the systems at the company before encrypting them.

Hacking 145
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Why ransomware has become such a huge problem for businesses

Tech Republic Security

Ransomware has evolved into a significant threat for all types of organizations. How and why is it such a pervasive issue, and how can organizations better defend themselves against it?

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REMnux Tools List for Malware Analysis

Lenny Zeltser

REMnux ® offers a curated collection of free tools for reverse-engineering or otherwise analyzing malicious software. How to find the right tool for the job, given how many useful utilities come as part of the distro? To guide you through the process of examining malware, REMnux documentation lists the installed tools by category. Each grouping, which you’ll find in the Discover the Tools section of the documentation site, represents the type of actions the analysts might need to take: Exa

Malware 145
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Weekly Update 215

Troy Hunt

It was a bit of a slow start this week. "Plan A" was to use the new GoPro with the Media Mod (including light and lapel mic) and do an outdoor session. This should really be much easier than it was with multiple issues ranging from connectivity drops to audio sync to simply not having a GoPro to tripod adaptor. I'll need to get on top of that before my big Xmas holiday trip and none of these are insurmountable problems, but this stuff should be easy!

Media 293
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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.