I wake up with a good attitude every day. Then idiots happen ;-)
During the Cold War, Lefortovo prison in Moscow - where Russian authorities are detaining American citizen Paul Whelan on espionage charges - seemed a frightening place for political dissidents and foreigners accused of espionage. Isolation, intimidation and torture were the Soviet authorities' tools of the trade.
Cold Rivers: Daniel Damiloff Paul Whelan (not the former NSW Police Minister) The Dark side - world of espionage and spy swaps
During the Cold War, Lefortovo prison in Moscow - where Russian authorities are detaining American citizen Paul Whelan on espionage charges - seemed a frightening place for political dissidents and foreigners accused of espionage. Isolation, intimidation and torture were the Soviet authorities' tools of the trade.
Cold Rivers: Daniel Damiloff Paul Whelan (not the former NSW Police Minister) The Dark side - world of espionage and spy swaps
'Coma in a bottle': police seize $12m shipment sent from China
The seizure is the largest ever made in NSW and follows a joint operation by officers from NSW Police and the Australian Border Force.
Customer Data Isn’t Always an Asset: Lessons from the Marriott Data Breach
As data analytics have improved, the massive amounts of data that companies acquire from their customers has only gained in economic value. However, when it comes to corporate acquisitions, companies need to start treating customer data as a potential liability, as well as an asset.
As data analytics have improved, the massive amounts of data that companies acquire from their customers has only gained in economic value. However, when it comes to corporate acquisitions, companies need to start treating customer data as a potential liability, as well as an asset.
The
Washington Post
December
28, 2018
Hackers hit
the San Diego Unified School District’s computer system and obtained access to
a file that had detailed personal data on more than 500,000 students going back
a decade, authorities said. The school system, in a security report on its
website, said it is alerting those who may have had personal data viewed or
stolen. The data potentially includes Social Security numbers, health and
discipline information, addresses, and phone numbers, it said. School police
“have identified a subject of the investigation" but did not reveal
details on who it was or how many people were involved, the security report
said. “The data file contained information on students dating back to the
2008-09 school year, or more than 500,000 individuals. For that reason, all of
those individuals have been notified of the incident,” the website says.
“Additionally, some 50 district employees had their log-in credentials
compromised as part of the phishing operation. All students and staff who had
their information accessed have been alerted by district staff.”
WMYT
December
28, 2018
State
Treasurer Allison Ball revealed an attempt to steal millions of dollars from
the government Friday morning. Ball said her office dealt with a cybersecurity
issue just before Christmas. Since Treasurer Ball took office she has tightened
procedures to detect hacking and fraud. "Treasurer Ball has implemented a
top to bottom approach to pinpointing fraud," said spokeswoman Lorran
Ferguson. "Part of that approach is to have people and not computers
keeping an eye on state government accounts. Computers would not notice these
issues or have been able to verify the threats." Hackers apparently tried
to steal $5.3 million from the state. After their first attempt failed, they
tried a few more times to steal varying amounts of money.
Reuters
President
Donald Trump is considering an executive order in the new year to declare a
national emergency that would bar U.S. companies from using telecommunications
equipment made by China’s Huawei and ZTE, three sources familiar with the
situation told Reuters. It would be the latest step by the Trump administration
to cut Huawei Technologies Cos Ltd and ZTE Corp, two of China’s biggest network
equipment companies, out of the U.S. market. The United States says the
companies work at the behest of the Chinese government and that their equipment
could be used to spy on Americans. Huawei and ZTE did not return requests for
comment. Both in the past have denied that their products are used to spy.
Fifth
Domain
December
27, 2018
The Air
Force is beginning to build specialized cyber teams across the service whose
primary mission is to defend local installations and critical mission tasks
from cyberattacks. These teams will ensure that a particular wing or smaller
organization can complete their mission from a cyber perspective, Maj. Gen.
Robert Skinner, commander of 24th Air Force/Air Forces Cyber, told Fifth Domain
in a November interview. For example, Skinner said if a wing has an F-16 unit
that’s responsible for offensive counter air or defensive counter air support,
mission defense teams will understand those weapon system and everything that
goes into making those air sorties successful as a way to defend that mission
from a cyber standpoint.
NPR
December
27, 2018
Leading up
to Nov. 6, 2018, anyone with a stake in American democracy was holding their
breath. After a Russian effort leading up to 2016 to sow chaos and
polarization, and to degrade confidence in American institutions, what sort of
widespread cyberattack awaited the voting system in the first national election
since? None, it seems. High turnout overwhelmed election administrators,
causing some voters to wait hours to cast ballots. Florida maintained its
reputation as a state that's been working out the kinks in its voting system
for nearly two decades. And a congressional race in North Carolina is still up
in the air as the state's Board of Elections investigates alleged election
fraud by a political operative. But an operation like the one Russia waged two
years ago? "We didn't see any coordinated effort or targeting that
interrupted the elections process," said Matt Masterson, a senior
cybersecurity adviser at the Department of Homeland Security. "[Nothing]
that prevented folks from voting or compromised election systems in any way ...
certainly nowhere close to what we saw in 2016." Experts say that is not
because U.S. election systems are hardened in a way that prevents such attacks.
Fifth
Domain
December
25, 2018
President
Donald Trump announced in a Dec. 23 tweet that Patrick Shanahan will become
acting secretary of defense Jan. 1, replacing outgoing Pentagon chief Jim
Mattis two months early. While it is not clear how long Shanahan will remain in
the job, he is on the short list of officials who could become the full-time
Pentagon chief. Regardless of the length of his tenure, Shanahan, the Pentagon
deputy since 2017, has been one of the Pentagon’s top advocates for stronger
contractor cybersecurity and IT acquisition and will lead the department months
after it was given expansive and loosely defined authorities to conduct
offensive cyber operations. How Shanahan will handle these greater cyber
authorities, even on a temporary basis, remains an open question that will be
tested immediately amid evolving challenges, such as an alleged hacking
campaign from China.
AP
December
24, 2018
It's called
the "Dark Side" because the 50 workers there prefer to keep the
lights low so they can dim the brightness on their computer screens. Or maybe
it's because of what they do in cyber research and development. Questions about
exactly what goes on at the heart of one of the United States' primary
cybersecurity facilities at the Idaho National Laboratory aren't always
answered, and photos by outsiders aren't allowed. What is shared is that the
U.S. is rushing to catch up with what cybersecurity experts say are threats by
hackers to systems that operate energy pipelines, hydroelectric projects,
drinking water systems and nuclear power plants across the country. Hackers
opening valves, cutting power or manipulating traffic lights, for example,
could have serious consequences. Scott Cramer, who directs the lab's
cybersecurity program, said current efforts mostly involve "bolting
on" cybersecurity protections to decades-old infrastructure control
systems amid concerns they've already been infiltrated by malicious entities
waiting for the opportune time to strike. "This is no joke — there are
vulnerabilities out there," he said. "We're pretty much in reaction
mode right now."
INDUSTRY
Ars
Technica
December
28, 2018
US-based
PNC Bank is in the middle of a pilot project that aims to test out credit cards
with constantly changing card verification values (or CVVs) to reduce online
credit card fraud. The dynamic CVV is displayed on the back of such a card in
e-ink, and changes according to an algorithm supplied by Visa. Credit card
fraud has long been a problem in the US. To stop thieves from re-using credit
card numbers in brick-and-mortar stores, the US has been moving to chip-based
credit and debit cards, which create a unique code for each transaction
(although this transition to chip cards has been less successful than was
hoped). But online credit card fraud is another beast. Once a fraudster has
stolen a credit card number, they often can use the static number to make
online purchases without being thwarted by chip complications.
ZDNet
December 27,
2018
A hacker
(or hacker group) has made over 200 Bitcoin (circa $750,000 at today's
exchange) using a clever attack on the infrastructure of the Electrum Bitcoin
wallet. The attack resulted in legitimate Electrum wallet apps showing a
message on users' computers, urging them to download a malicious wallet update
from an unauthorized GitHub repository. The attack began last week on Friday,
December 21, and appears to have been temporarily stopped earlier today after
GitHub admins took down the hacker's GitHub repository. Admins of the Electrum
wallet expect a new attack to soon get underway, with either a new GitHub repo
or a link to another download location altogether. This is because the
vulnerability at the heart of this attack has remained unpatched, albeit
Electrum wallet admins taking steps to mitigate its usability for the attacker.
BBC
December
25, 2018
Thousands
of hot tubs can be hacked and controlled remotely because of a hole in their
online security, BBC Click has revealed. Researchers showed the TV programme
how an attacker could make the tubs hotter or colder, or control the pumps and
lights via a laptop or smartphone. Vulnerable tubs are designed to let their
owners control them with an app. But third-party wi-fi databases mean hackers
can home in on specific tubs by using their GPS location data. Balboa Water
Group (BWG), which runs the affected system, has now pledged to introduce a
more robust security system for owners and said the problem would be fixed by
the end of February. Pen Test Partners - the UK security company that carried
out the research - warned that hot tubs were not the only household items at
risk.
The Wall Street Journal
December
24, 2018
Two years
after a congressional report labeled Huawei Technologies Co. a
national-security threat, the Chinese firm unexpectedly scored a big-name ally
in Washington. It was the Redskins, the capital’s National Football League
franchise. Huawei reached an agreement in 2014 to beam Wi-Fi through the suites
at the team’s FedEx Field, in exchange for advertising in the stadium and
during broadcasts. It was a marketing coup for a company hankering to beef up
its meager U.S. business and boost its image inside the Beltway. But the deal
didn’t last long. A government adviser read about the partnership. He knew the
FedEx Field suites were a frequent haunt for lawmakers and senior officials
across many agencies. So he triggered an unofficial federal complaint to the
Redskins, who quietly tore up the deal. That previously unreported backroom
maneuver is an example of a yearslong effort by U.S. officials, often working
outside formal channels, to blacklist the Chinese technology giant. Washington
has since intensified the campaign and taken it mainstream, with Congress and
federal agencies working this year to snuff out Huawei’s small U.S. business
and curtail its much bigger overseas ambition.
CNBC
December
23, 2018
Most people
are familiar with identity theft, which happens when someone pretends to be
someone else to make purchases, apply for credit or even get their tax refund.
However, an increasing number of criminals are doing the same thing, but
stealing business data. Business identity theft was up 46 percent
year-over-year in 2017, the latest numbers available, according to data and
analytics company Dun & Bradstreet. Cyber-criminals "actually take on
their client lists or the special sauce that makes that company operate and
compete with them directly. In other instances, they're pretending to be that
business," Steven Shapiro, a unit chief at the FBI, told CNBC in a recent
interview. At stake are businesses' brand, reputation and trade secrets. One
recent case cost the company $1 billion in market share and hundreds of jobs,
according to the FBI.
Ars
Technica
December
21, 2018
Four months
after a mysterious group was outed for a digital espionage operation that used
novel techniques to target Mac users, its macOS malware samples continued to go
undetected by most antivirus providers, a security researcher reported on
Thursday. Windshift is what researchers refer to as an APT—short for
"advanced persistent threat"—that surveils individuals in the Middle
East. The group operated in the shadows for two years until August, when Taha
Karim, a researcher at security firm DarkMatter, profiled it at the Hack in the
Box conference in Singapore. A few things make Windshift stand out among APTs,
Karim reported in August. One is how rarely the group infects its targets with
malware. Instead, it relies on links inside phishing emails and SMS text
messages to track the locations, online habits, and other traits of the
targets. Another unusual characteristic: in the extremely rare cases Windshift
uses Mac malware to steal documents or take screenshots of targets' desktops,
it relies on a novel technique to bypass macOS security defenses. On Thursday,
Mac security expert Patrick Wardle published an analysis of Meeting_Agenda.zip,
a file Karim had said installed the rare Mac malware. To Wardle's surprise,
results from VirusTotal at the time showed that only two antivirus
providers—Kaspersky and ZoneAlarm—detected the file as malicious. Wardle then
used a feature that searched VirusTotal for related malicious files and found
four more. Three of them weren't detected by any AV providers, while one was
detected by only two providers. The reason the findings were so surprising is
that Apple had already revoked the cryptographic certificate the developers
used to digitally sign their malware.
INTERNATIONAL
Reuters
December 28,
2018
The
personal information of nearly 1,000 North Koreans who defected to South Korea
has been leaked after unknown hackers gained access to a resettlement agency’s
database, the South Korean Unification Ministry said on Friday. The ministry
said it discovered last week that the names, birth dates and addresses of 997 defectors
had been stolen through a computer infected with malicious software at an
agency called the Hana center, in the southern city of Gumi. A ministry
official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of
the matter, told reporters that the malware had been planted through emails
sent from a Hana center email account. The Hana center is among 25 institutes
that the Unification Ministry runs across South Korea to help some 32,000
defectors adjust to life in the country by providing jobs, medical and legal
support.
The
Washington Post
December 28,
2018
Nina
Loguntsova arrives at school early to stand at soldier-style attention, and she
leaves late after extra classes that have included cryptography. Three
different military uniforms hang in her closet. The 17-year-old student is part
of an expanding military-education program at Moscow’s public schools that aims
to inculcate respect for security services and boost the math and computer
knowledge of potential recruits. One of the program’s partners is the Russian
military intelligence agency known as the GRU — whose fingerprints, the West
claims, are increasingly found on suspected Kremlin-ordered operations around
the world. The list includes hacking into Democratic National Committee emails
in 2016, spearheading Russia’s intervention in Ukraine and the nerve-agent
attack in Britain earlier this year.
BuzzFeed
December
25, 2018
India’s government wants to make it mandatory for platforms like
Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Google to remove content it deems “unlawful”
within 24 hours of notice, and create “automated tools” to “proactively
identify and remove” such material. It also wants tech companies to build in a
way to trace the source of the content, which would require platforms like
WhatsApp to break end-to-end encryption. India’s Ministry of Electronics and
Information Technology (MeitY) published the proposed rules on its website
following a report on Monday by the Indian Express revealing the government’s
proposal to modify the country’s primary IT law to work them in. The report
comes days after India’s government seemingly authorized 10 federal agencies to
snoop into every computer in the country last week.
AP
December
23, 2018
The U.S.
dispute with China over a ban on tech giant Huawei is spilling over to Europe,
the company's biggest foreign market, where some countries are also starting to
shun its network systems over data security concerns. Some European governments
and telecom companies are following the U.S.'s lead in questioning whether
using Huawei for vital infrastructure for mobile networks could leave them
exposed to snooping by the Chinese government. Bans in Europe could
significantly increase the financial pressures on Huawei. They would also cost
Europe tens of billions of dollars as the region looks to build up
"5G" networks, which are meant to support a vast expansion in
internet-connected things, from self-driving cars to factory robots and remote
surgery. "Europe is still divided over Huawei, but the trendline is moving
in a fairly clear direction" as the U.S. exerts pressure on allies to
block it, said Thorsten Benner, director of the Berlin-based Global Public
Policy Institute think tank.
TECHNOLOGY
USA Today
December
28, 2018
When it
comes to data breaches, 2018 was neither the best of times nor the worst of
times. It was more a sign of the times. Billions of people were affected by
data breaches and cyberattacks in 2018 – 765 million in the months of April,
May and June alone – with losses surpassing tens of millions of dollars,
according to global digital security firm Positive Technologies. Cyberattacks
increased 32 percent in the first three months of the year and 47 percent
during the April-June period, compared to the same periods in 2017, according
to the firm, which was founded in 2002. There wasn't a breach "quite as
significant" as the Equifax data breach from September 2017 in which an
estimated 143 million Americans faced potential lifelong threat of identity
theft, said Marta Tellado, president and CEO of Consumer Reports. "But the
sheer volume of breaches of major companies was stunning," she said.
Breaches and cyberattacks continue to escalate "and it’s not like it's
slowing down,” said Gary Davis, chief consumer security evangelist for McAfee,
the California-based maker of antivirus and computer security software.
Vice Motherboard
December
27, 2018
Devices and
security systems are increasingly using biometric authentication to let users
in and keep hackers out, be that fingerprint sensors or perhaps the iPhone’s FaceID.
Another method is so-called ‘vein authentication,’ which, as the name implies,
involves a computer scanning the shape, size, and position of a users’ veins
under the skin of their hand. But hackers have found a workaround for that,
too. On Thursday at the annual Chaos Communication Congress hacking conference
in Leipzig, Germany, security researchers described how they created a fake
hand out of wax to fool a vein sensor. "It makes you feel uneasy that the
process is praised as a high-security system and then you modify a camera, take
some cheap materials and hack it," Jan Krissler, who goes by the handle
starbug, and who researched the vein authentication system along with Julian
Albrecht, told Motherboard over email in German.
Wired
December
24, 2018
Cybersecurity
can feel like a chaotic free-for-all sometimes, but it's not every day that a
whole new conceptual type of attack crops up. Over the last 15 months, though,
cryptojacking has been exactly that. It's officially everywhere, and it's not
going away. The concept of cryptojacking is pretty simple: An attacker finds a
way to harness the processing power of computers she doesn't own—or pay the
electric bills on—to mine cryptocurrency for herself. Malicious mining malware
has lurked for a while, but attackers didn't realize its full potential until a
group called Coinhive created a simple mining module in September 2017 that
could embed in virtually any website. Once it's there, anyone who goes to the
page will contribute CPU cycles to mining for the module's owner for however
long they have the tab open. Coinhive has said that it intended for the tool to
provide an alternate revenue stream for websites, but criminals quickly
realized that they could find and exploit vulnerabilities in all sorts of
highly trafficked sites to quietly implant their own cryptojacking modules.
