Sat.Aug 22, 2020 - Fri.Aug 28, 2020

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Confessions of an ID Theft Kingpin, Part I

Krebs on Security

At the height of his cybercriminal career, the hacker known as “ Hieupc ” was earning $125,000 a month running a bustling identity theft service that siphoned consumer dossiers from some of the world’s top data brokers. That is, until his greed and ambition played straight into an elaborate snare set by the U.S. Secret Service. Now, after more than seven years in prison Hieupc is back in his home country and hoping to convince other would-be cybercrooks to use their computer sk

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Cory Doctorow on The Age of Surveillance Capitalism

Schneier on Security

Cory Doctorow has writtten an extended rebuttal of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff. He summarized the argument on Twitter. Shorter summary: it's not the surveillance part, it's the fact that these companies are monopolies. I think it's both. Surveillance capitalism has some unique properties that make it particularly unethical and incompatible with a free society, and Zuboff makes them clear in her book.

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Weekly Update 206

Troy Hunt

Since I recorded this morning, I've had an absolute breakthrough - I CAN OPEN MY GARAGE DOOR WITH MY WATCH ! I know, I know, it shouldn't be this hard and that's a lot of the point I'm making in this week's video. Having said that, some parts have been hard because I've made simple mistakes , but the nature of the IoT ecosystem as it stands today predisposes you to mistakes because there's so freakin' many moving parts that all need to be aligned.

InfoSec 256
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What to Do If and When Zoom Goes Down Again

Adam Levin

Zoom’s service outage on August 24 caused a ripple effect felt in schools and companies across the world. Students were unable to attend classes via remote learning, meetings were cancelled and for roughly three hours users were wondered if the now-ubiquitous platform had been brought down by hackers. Although the company later released an announcement attributing the outage to an “application-level bug,” it made clear that most of us are not prepared for an interruption to a service we’ve grown

Education 246
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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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Confessions of an ID Theft Kingpin, Part II

Krebs on Security

Yesterday’s piece told the tale of Hieu Minh Ngo , a hacker the U.S. Secret Service described as someone who caused more material financial harm to more Americans than any other convicted cybercriminal. Ngo was recently deported back to his home country after serving more than seven years in prison for running multiple identity theft services.

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US Postal Service Files Blockchain Voting Patent

Schneier on Security

The US Postal Service has filed a patent on a blockchain voting method: Abstract: A voting system can use the security of blockchain and the mail to provide a reliable voting system. A registered voter receives a computer readable code in the mail and confirms identity and confirms correct ballot information in an election. The system separates voter identification and votes to ensure vote anonymity, and stores votes on a distributed ledger in a blockchain.

Software 342

More Trending

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Protest App Bridgefy Riddled with Vulnerabilities

Adam Levin

A messaging app popular with activists and protesters around the globe was found to have several major vulnerabilities that could compromise user privacy. Bridgefy is a mesh messaging app that lets users send and receive texts to others nearby without requiring an internet connection. While the developers of the app say it’s ideal for communicating during large gatherings, natural disasters, or in school settings, the app’s publicized security and encryption features have made it a favorite for

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GUEST ESSAY: Skeptical about buying life insurance online? Here’s how to do it — securely

The Last Watchdog

Purchasing life insurance once meant going to an insurer’s office or booking an appointment with an insurance agent. Then, in most cases, you’d have to undergo a medical examination and wait a few weeks to get approved and complete the whole process. But this scenario doesn’t seem to fit the fast-paced world we live in anymore. Today’s generation is used to getting everything done fast and easy, so life insurance providers had to get with the times and cover all customers’ needs and requirements

Insurance 154
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Identifying People by Their Browsing Histories

Schneier on Security

Interesting paper: " Replication: Why We Still Can't Browse in Peace: On the Uniqueness and Reidentifiability of Web Browsing Histories ": We examine the threat to individuals' privacy based on the feasibility of reidentifying users through distinctive profiles of their browsing history visible to websites and third parties. This work replicates and extends the 2012 paper Why Johnny Can't Browse in Peace: On the Uniqueness of Web Browsing History Patterns [ 48 ].

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Top 5 programming languages for security admins to learn

Tech Republic Security

SecAdmins working to protect infrastructure, whether in a defensively or offensively, may find these programming languages helpful in safeguarding apps, systems, and hardware from threats.

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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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The Uber CSO indictment

Adam Shostack

Mark Rasch, who created the Computer Crime Unit at the United States Department of Justice, has an essay, “ Conceal and Fail to Report – The Uber CSO Indictment.” The case is causing great consternation in the InfoSec community partly because it is the first instance in which a CSO or CISO has been personally held responsible (other than by firing) for a data breach response, and the first time that criminal sanctions of any kind have been sought against the corporate victim of

CSO 124
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Lemon_Duck cryptomining malware evolves to target Linux devices

Security Affairs

A new variant of the infamous Lemon_Duck cryptomining malware has been updated to targets Linux devices. Security researchers from Sophos have spotted a new variant of the Lemon_Duck cryptomining malware that has been updated to compromise Linux machines via SSH brute force attacks. The new variant also exploits SMBGhost bug in Windows systems, and is also able to target servers running Redis and Hadoop instances.

Malware 144
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Malicious Attachments Remain a Cybercriminal Threat Vector Favorite

Threatpost

Malicious attachments continue to be a top threat vector in the cybercriminal world, even as public awareness increases and tech companies amp up their defenses.

Phishing 128
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How the pandemic and remote work initiatives forced organizations to change IT priorities

Tech Republic Security

Global tech professionals reveal recruiting projects fueled by budgets prioritizing staff education, according to a recent IT trends report from Netwrix.

Education 218
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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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Podcast with Sidney Dekker

Adam Shostack

This is a really interesting podcast interview with Sidney Dekker, who’s one of the most important thinkers in safety. The Jay Allen Show on Safety. (Fast forward through the first 3 minutes, the content is quite interesting.). Particularly interesting is his discussion of some ‘best practices’ which come out of a poorly supported chain of work by an insurance analyst. “It turns out, the deeper you dig, he made it up.

Insurance 100
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FBI arrested a Russian national for recruiting employee of US firm to plant malware

Security Affairs

FBI authorities arrested a Russian national in the U.S. after attempting to recruit an employee at a targeted company to plant a malware. US authorities arrested the Russian national Egor Igorevich Kriuchkov (27) after attempting to recruit an employee at a targeted company to plant a piece of malware. The man was arrested on August 22 and appeared in court on August 24.

Malware 143
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How CISOs Can Play a New Role in Defining the Future of Work

Dark Reading

Rather than just reacting to security issues in the COVID-19 era, CISOs are now in a position to be change agents alongside their C-suite peers.

CISO 129
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North Korean hackers are actively robbing banks around the world, US government warns

Tech Republic Security

The BeagleBoyz have made off with nearly $2 billion since 2015, and they're back to attacking financial institutions after a short lull in activity.

Banking 216
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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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Elevation of Privilege In The Time of Cholera

Adam Shostack

The Elevation of Privilege game has had way more staying power than I would have expected. But the online experience in this time of global pandemic has left out some of the magic that made it work. So I was really skeptical when Simon Gibbs from Agile Stationery mailed me about an approach to playing remotely. But when I look at it, and I look at the logic behind it, I find myself intrigued: The player receives the (physical) deck and looks it over The player receives his hand from the Games Ma

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A Google Drive weakness could allow attackers to serve malware

Security Affairs

A bug in Google Drive could be exploited by threat actors to distribute malicious files disguised as legitimate documents or images. An unpatched weakness in Google Drive could be exploited by threat actors to distribute weaponized files disguised as legitimate documents or images. enabling bad actors to perform spear-phishing attacks comparatively with a high success rate.

Malware 140
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Why Should Physical Security Professionals Learn Cybersecurity Skills?

Dark Reading

In the first of a series of columns set to be hosted exclusively on IFSEC Global, Sarb Sembhi, CISM, CTO & CISO, Virtually Informed outlines why physical security professionals should be investing in their cyber security skillset.

CISO 116
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IoT botnets: Smart homes ripe for a new type of cyberattack

Tech Republic Security

The burgeoning smart home device market has given rise to digital intrusion and potential energy market manipulation on a massive scale.

IoT 215
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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.

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Medical Data Leaked on GitHub Due to Developer Errors

Threatpost

Up to 200,000 patient records from Office 365 and Google G Suite exposed by hardcoded credentials and other improper access controls.

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Anubis, a new info-stealing malware spreads in the wild

Security Affairs

Microsoft warned of a recently uncovered piece of malware, tracked as Anubis that was designed to steal information from infected systems. This week, Microsoft warned of a recently uncovered piece of malware, tracked as Anubis, that was distributed in the wild to steal information from infected systems. Anubis is the name of an Android malware well-known in the community of malware analysts, but the family reported by Microsoft is not related to it.

Malware 125
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Redefining What CISO Success Looks Like

Dark Reading

Key to this new definition is the principle that security programs are designed to minimize business risk, not to achieve 100% no-risk.

CISO 132
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Extra security or extra risk? Pros and cons of password managers

Tech Republic Security

Tech consultants and journalists have their own conflicting opinions about the best way to manage access in a world full of security risks.

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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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Magecart’s Success Paves Way For Cybercriminal Credit Card ‘Sniffer’ Market

Threatpost

Magecart's successes have led to threat actors actively advertising 'sniffers' that can be injected into e-commerce websites in order to exfiltrate payment cards.

Marketing 119
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350 million decrypted email addresses left exposed on an unsecured server

Security Affairs

Experts found an unsecured data bucket containing seven gigabytes worth of unencrypted files that include 350,000,000 strings of unique email addresses. Original post at: [link]. The CyberNews research team uncovered an unsecured data bucket owned by an unidentified party, containing seven gigabytes worth of unencrypted files that include 350,000,000 strings of unique email addresses.

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The Fatal Flaw in Data Security

Dark Reading

Simply stated: No matter how sophisticated your security software is, data cannot be simultaneously used and secured. But that may be changing soon.

Software 123
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Security threats have already moved on from COVID-19-themed attacks, report finds

Tech Republic Security

The pandemic is old news for cybercriminals who are still targeting remote workers, but are doing so with botnets and familiar exploits.

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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.