In the world of information security, port scanning is a vital part. Enterprises, organizations or regular users use port scans to probe systems for open ports and their respective services. If you think of a computer as a hallway of doors, port scanning can be compared with walking through the hallway looking for open doors. Penetration testers...

Researchers have created a decryption tool for MIRCOP ransomware that demands 30,000 USD in ransom from its victims. Trend Micro explains the ransomware is currently being delivered via malicious macros as part of a spam campaign. Users open what appears to be a Thai customs document for importing and exporting goods. But when they click to enable...

As is often the case in cybersecurity, just when you think you are writing or talking about the "issue of the day" (most recently ransomware), some other issue comes up that makes you shake your head and wonder why each of us is working so hard to secure our networks when it appears so easy for attackers to steal important data or money. That is...

The Android malware "Hummer" is now the number one mobile trojan in the world, finds researchers. Threat analysts at Cheetah Mobile Security Research Lab reveal in a blog post the extent to which Hummer malware infections took off in 2016: "During the first half of 2016, the Hummer trojan infected nearly 1.4 million devices daily at its peak. In...

If there’s one thing I’ve come to know about the tech crowd, it’s this: we all want free Wi-Fi connections everywhere we go, and we want them now. Now finding that free Wi-Fi is great, and we’ll look at how to find some anywhere you go, but we’ll also look at staying safe on that free Wi-Fi. There are many risks lurking around public Wi-Fi, and it...

A court has bailed the alleged hacker Lauri Love, 31, and temporarily adjourned his case following a two-day extradition hearing. On Wednesday, District Judge Nina Tempia at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London adjourned the case until a later time when attorneys for the prosecution and defense will make their final arguments regarding Love's...

If you need any more evidence that ransomware has become a major problem, just look at how online criminals are busily developing attacks against platforms other than Windows. Yes, Windows continues to be the operating system most commonly targeted with ransomware threats - but malware that attempts to extort money out of you is also being actively...

LinkedIn, MySpace and all of the other recent (sort of) password breaches have resulted in many articles that advise everyone to not use the same password on more than one site. This is known as “password re-use,” and the only way to effectively accomplish the task of setting up unique passwords for all of our web accounts is to use a password...

In my ongoing blog series “Hacker Mindset,” I’ll explore an attacker's assumptions, methods and theory, including how information security professionals can apply this knowledge to increase cyber-vigilance on the systems and networks they steward. In this first article, I examine how email provides a tool for hackers to gain a foothold into company...

Terrible news shook the web the other day, as reports surfaced of a new ransomware virus circulating the web. A new version of the infamous Locky ransomware has been unleashed upon users worldwide, affecting computers all across the globe from the USA to Mexico, Japan, Germany, and beyond. The unwelcome arrival of the new virus was first reported...

Well, if you're reading this blog, then I suggest you should! The European Union General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) takes effect on 25th May 2018. But don’t be misled by the title. The EU reference should be treated as an indication of the Regulation's birth place, not some form of virtual boundary restricting its influence. This...

On June 7-9, information security professionals from all over the world gathered together at Infosecurity Europe 2016, one of The State of Security‘s top 11 conferences in information security. Anyone who’s attended Infosecurity Europe knows how difficult it is to choose which presentations they’d like to see. It’s simply impossible to attend all of...

Attackers leveraged a botnet consisting of thousands of closed-circuit television (CCTV) devices to launch distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. Daniel Cid, CTO of Sucuri Security, explains that a small jewelry shop recently signed up with his company. At the time, the new customer was experiencing a DDoS attack that had knocked it offline...

I'm pleased to say someone very close to me was recently nabbed by a phish. The phish came into her email looking important and innocuous, so she opened it (and the attachment) and was immediately presented with a message that read, "Your corporate IT security team is conducting phishing training. You just opened what could have been a malicious...

A Filipino man has been charged with running a large-scale identity theft scheme targeting numerous celebrities and other high-profile victims, reported Reuters. Last week, federal prosecutors in the District of New Jersey, charged Peter Locsin, 35, of Talisay City, Philippines, with one count of bank fraud conspiracy and two counts of aggravated...

A hacker who goes by the name "TheDarkOverlord" is selling more than 650,000 patients' healthcare records on the dark web. Motherboard reports that TheDarkOverlord obtained access to three separate databases containing the records by first exploiting an unknown vulnerability in how certain companies implement remote desktop protocol (RDP), which...

Security products are not simple e-commerce websites. They are enterprise software products that enable pivotal business goals for customers. Yet as complexity grows, ease of use and other aspects of user experience (UX) can be overlooked and de-prioritized to make way for more features. But as Haroon Meer of Thinkst was quoted in CSO Online: "It...

Online backup service Carbonite is requiring all users to change their passwords after it observed password reuse attacks targeting their accounts. On Tuesday, the company announced the password reset in a statement posted to its website: "As part of our ongoing security monitoring, we recently became aware of unauthorized attempts to access a...

Earlier in June, I attended the Gartner Security Summit in National Harbor Maryland, where I had a chance speak to many great CISOs and security experts. Together, we shared and learned a lot of information. The conference focused on seven key principles that are integral to building trust and resilience:Business OutcomesFacilitatorDetect &...

Researchers have identified an ongoing campaign that has infected over 200 point-of-sale terminals leveraging ‘PunkeyPOS’ – a malware variant first uncovered in April 2015. According to security experts at PandaLabs, the malware sample has been predominantly targeting US businesses – more specifically, restaurants. In a blog post, researchers...