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Authoritative Asset Repository: What’s That?!

A Configuration Management Database (CMDB) is a repository that is an authoritative source of information of what assets are on the corporate network. At least, that’s what it’s supposed to be. However, in many of my recent discussions, the more common definition given for CMDB is “a struggle.” Does that sound familiar? If so, keep reading. If not,...
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Dozens of Android VPN Apps Fail to Protect Users' Privacy, Study Reveals

One of the best friends a user can have in today's digital age is a virtual private network (VPN). This tool masks a user's IP address and tunnels their data through a network of servers. In so doing, a VPN helps a user anonymously and more securely browse the web. Unfortunately, not all VPNs fulfill that purpose. A group of researchers from Queen...
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U.S. Top-Ranked Globally in 2016 Data Breaches, Finds Report

The United States takes the number one spot worldwide in data breaches disclosed last year, revealed a new report analyzing breach activity in 2016. Risk Based Security’s annual report released on Wednesday found that the U.S. accounted for nearly half – 47.5 percent – of all incidents, and a whopping 68.2 percent of all exposed records. Close to 2...
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Hacker Sentenced to Nine Months in Jail for 'Celebgate' Scandal

A hacker has received nine months in prison for compromising hundreds of people's accounts as part of the 'Celebgate' scandal. From 23 November 2013 through August 2014, Edward Majerczyk, 29, of Orland Park, Illinois orchestrated a phishing scheme that targeted 30 celebrities and 270 others. He sent each victim an email that directed them to a...
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Proactive vs. Reactive Compliance Management

Much of my time spent working is focused on performing technology assessments against some kind of baseline. Most of the time, these are specific government or industry standards like HIPAA, NIST, ISO and PCI. But when some of my clients reach out to me about evaluating their environment in light of these standards, it’s often done out of a feeling...
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VERT Threat Alert: Cisco WebEx Browser Extension Remote Code Execution

Vulnerability Description A vulnerability in the Cisco WebEx Browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer could be used to execute code on a victim system. It is trivial to exploit the vulnerability and sample exploit code has been released publicly. The vulnerability leverages command execution in the launch_meeting message via a...
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SpyNote RAT Masquerades as Netflix App to Infect Android Devices

A new variant of the SpyNote remote access trojan (RAT) is infecting Android devices by masquerading as a mobile Netflix app. The malware, which is based off the SpyNote RAT builder leaked in 2016, displays the same icon used by the official Netflix app that's found on Google Play. But it's a fake. Clicking on the app causes the icon to disappear...
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Charger Android Ransomware Spread via the Official Google Play App Store

We all know that ransomware is a growing problem for businesses and home users alike, and that most of it is targeted against Windows users. And we're also familiar with warnings to avoid downloading Android apps from third-party marketplaces rather than officially-sanctioned ones such as the Google Play marketplace. But infosecurity is not a world...
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Digging for Security Bugs in Python Code

Python is a great development language for so many reasons. Its developers enjoy huge library support. Do you want to deploy a simple web server or implement a RESTful API? There are modules for that. Capture, analyze, and visualize network traffic flow? There are simple and free modules for all of that, too. Developers using Python can create a...
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Breaking Out of the Checkbox with PCI 3.2 Compliance

Since 2004, merchant companies that handle branded credit cards have worked to maintain compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS). These regulations, which consist of six fundamental control objectives and 12 core requirements, aim to protect payment card data for customers. They also help card issuers and banks...
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DNS Evil Lurking Around Every Corner

Today, I came across a blog post that once again showcases the importance of properly managing DNS through its entire lifecycle. The article entitled “Respect My Authority – Hijacking Broken Nameservers to Compromise Your Target” (sic) was written by Matthew Bryant (@IAmMandatory). It can be found here. It’s a bit of long read but serves as a great...
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Heartbleed Still a Heartache 1,000 Days In

A recent report released by Shodan found that as of January 22, 2017, nearly 200,000 publicly accessible internet devices were vulnerable to Heartbleed. The detailed report gives some insight into those who continue to be exposed to this vulnerability. It's no surprise that the majority of these systems are HTTPS pages hosted by Apache and running...
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Consumer Carelessness Leaves Sensitive Data in Returned Devices

My boyfriend works a demanding day job at a major Canadian big box furniture and appliance retailing chain. Knowing that I write about information security for a living, he had an interesting story to tell me: "An LG Smart TV was returned to us by the customer, and it had their credit card credentials in it! Why didn't they do a factory reset first...