This is the conclusion to a three-part series of building a successful vulnerability management program. The first installment focused on Stage One, the vulnerability scanning progress. Without a foundation of people and process, the remaining stages are prone to failure. The second installment focused on Stage Two and Three, using a vulnerability...

For twenty years people have been running Java in their browsers. And for much of that time, malicious hackers have been exploiting vulnerabilities in the plugin to infect computers. Although the number of outbreaks caused by zero-day vulnerabilities found in the Java plugin has reduced in recent years, many users have found it hard to muster move...

Today, the modern IT environment has evolved beyond personal computers to include servers, workstations and point-of-sale (PoS) terminals. This complexity is forcing admins and security personnel everywhere to rethink how to protect all of their new endpoints. Eric Ogren, Senior Security Analyst at 451 Research, in particular sees that a new era in...

Critical infrastructure is under attack with disastrous implications that could alter our environment, such as disrupting service or even threatening public safety. The Ukraine attack resulting in six hours of loss of power for more than 80,000 customers is a recent reminder. According to an October 2015 report in CyberWarNews, “every bit of U.S....

In January, I discussed how scammers commonly use money-based schemes, bot spam, pay-per-follower ploys, illegitimate direct messages (DMs), and worms to harass Twitter users. These malicious actors are in it for the money and/or for unauthorized access. They do not care where or how they need to compromise someone in order to obtain what they want,...

The nationwide fast-food chain Wendy’s is reportedly investigating claims of a potential credit card breach at some of its restaurant locations. According to independent security journalist Brian Krebs, multiple sources in the banking industry found a pattern of fraud on payment cards that had all...

Centene Corporation has begun the process of notifying 950,000 members who may have been affected by a possible data breach. On Monday, the multi-line healthcare enterprise announced that it was launching a search for six hard drives that are currently unaccounted for among its information technology assets: "Centene takes the privacy and security...

We left 2015 talking about exponential increases in ransomware attempts on a quarter over quarter basis. No surprise that we begin 2016 talking ransomware and its many variants, as this threat vector has been a financial bonanza for cyber criminals and cyber attackers having extorted tens of millions of dollars over the past 18 months from victims....

In the 21st century, we can expect information technology to play a major role in international espionage and conflict. We hear constant news reports of data theft. Accusations made by world powers of online tampering or detrimental hacking are a common occurrence. Many of these accusations go unfounded, but they prove that the internet is...

There’s an old principle in tabletop RPG (Role Playing Games) circles that goes something like this: If you find yourself in the company of a halfling and an ill-tempered dragon, remember that you do not have to outrun the dragon; you simply have to outrun the halfling. In the context of security and specifically password creation, this principle...

It’s not much of a stretch these days to say that technology is becoming essential to our daily lives. We trust so much to our technology, from our bank accounts and financial statements to sensitive medical records and even (potentially) embarrassing personal information. We have complex interactions with non-human entities in which we share...

A ransomware attack campaign based in India has caused millions of dollars of damages after infecting three banks and a pharmaceutical company. The research team at Malwarebytes has identified LeChiffre, whose name means "encryption" in French, as the malware responsible for the attack campaign. "It is different than most of the ransomware present...

People ask me, “What do you do?” When I answer with, “I am a penetration tester,” I find that people generally just nod along and pretend they know what it is that I actually do. However, on the day where I am in the mood to razzle dazzle, I answer with “I am a hacker!” The reactions generally vary between priceless disbelief and excitement. But in...

Online criminals are more interested in getting their hands on stolen Uber, PayPal and even Facebook accounts, than credit card numbers and other personally identifiable information (PII). The price of these stolen identifiers on the underground marketplace, or “the Dark Web,” shows the value of credit cards has declined in the last year, according...

In November 2014, researchers from Ben-Gurion University unveiled "AirHopper," a type of malware which forces a computer to transmit sensitive information in the form of keystrokes to a mobile receiver via FM radio waves. The team went on to demonstrate that an AirHopper-based attack could succeed without the availability of a network, SIM, or Wi-Fi...

Researchers have uncovered an attack campaign that is using social engineering techniques in order to deliver remote access trojans (RATs) to SMBs located in India, the UK, and the United States. The Security Response team at Symantec provides an overview of the campaign, which began early last year, in a blog post: "The attackers operate with few...

Aerospace parts manufacturer FACC says that its financial accounting department has been attacked by hackers, who managed to steal approximately €50 million ($54.5 million) from its coffers. Perhaps surprisingly, the company, whose largest shareholder is a Chinese aviation corporation, appears not to have been hacked for its data or intellectual...

In my previous post in this series, we discussed that a "SIEM" is defined as a group of complex technologies that together, provide a centralized bird's-eye-view into an infrastructure. Furthermore, it provides analysis and workflow, correlation, normalization, aggregation and reporting, as well as log management. In this next post, I hope to answer...

Online security trends continue to evolve. This year, online extortion will become more prevalent. We also expect that at least one consumer-grade IoT smart device failure will be lethal. Ransomware will make further inroads, since the majority go unreported. China will drive mobile malware growth to 20M, and cybercrime legislation will take a...

With mobile phones in almost every pocket today, the payphone has lost its usefulness for perhaps everyone – except maybe Clark Kent. This is why New York City held a competition looking for the best ideas to make appropriate use of this valuable real-estate spread throughout the city. About a year after the contest winner was announced, the city...