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Testing Scan Credentials for More Accurate Vulnerability Assessment

If your doctor walks into the exam room for your annual physical and listens to your heart, takes a quick look at your throat, and then gives a clean bill of health without asking many questions, a quick interaction might make you feel good if you’re not worried about your health. However, if you haven’t been feeling well, or if you are at risk for...
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Twitter Warns Users of Possible 'State-Sponsored' Attacks

At least 30 Twitter accounts received a disturbing message from the site late last week, warning that they may have been targeted by government or state-sponsored hackers. Canadian non-profit Coldhak, which focuses on privacy and freedom of speech issues, was one of the first to reveal that they had received the warning from Twitter, and included a...
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Retailers: Keep Your Guard Up This Season

For most retailers, the holiday season is easily the most profitable time of the year, bringing in huge crowds of shoppers the last couple weeks of the year. However, the much-anticipated holiday season is also notorious for being the season of hacking, as illustrated by several massive breaches during this time in previous years. Hence, retailers...
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The Tale of the '1718 File'

An interesting ruling was released by the Federal Trade Commission a few weeks ago. The ruling dealt with a case in which LabMD, a cancer research company, was accused of improperly protecting consumer data that, if disclosed, is likely to cause substantial consumer injury. The initial incident, which led to the FTC investigation, started back in...
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InterApp Claims It Can Steal Information from Any Phone User

Earlier this fall, a contributor to The State of Security explained that one of the greatest privacy and security challenges confronting our smartphones today are the apps we choose to install. He noted in his post how app developers often make money by harvesting data from users' devices and in turn selling this information to marketers. They also...
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Microsoft Warns XBox Live Users of MitM Attacks After Leaking Private Keys

Microsoft is warning XBox Live users of possible man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks after accidentally leaking users' private keys. In an advisory released on December 8th, Microsoft states that a a disclosed digital certificate could lead to spoofing attacks against users. "Microsoft is aware of an SSL/TLS digital certificate for *.xboxlive.com for...
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The Agent vs Agentless Debate – Part 1: The Security Side

Over the past 20 years, I have implemented many different security solutions – from IDS in the 90s to browser protection in 2014, and just about everything else in between. One thing that quickly became obvious during my time in information security is that security considerations are just one part of the equation for most organizations. Involving...
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Monitoring The Unknown

File Integrity Monitoring (FIM) has been around for a long time. In fact, Tripwire has been a pioneer in FIM since the early 1990s when Gene Kim released the first version of Tripwire. Monitoring for change enables you to know what changes were made, who made the changes, and the changes that occurred. This allows you to easily roll back to a known...
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Adobe Patches 79 'Critical' Vulnerabilities in Flash Player

Adobe has patched 79 "critical" vulnerabilities affecting Flash Player in its December 2015 security bulletin. The alert, which bears the vulnerability identifier APSB15-32, warns that all platforms are affected by the flaws. This includes Windows and Macintosh regarding the Flash desktop version 19.0.0.245 and earlier, as well as the Google Chrome,...
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Fancy Bear Threat Group Deploys 'Rare' Modification of AZZY Backdoors

Last month, Microsoft released a report on the advanced threat group Fancy Bear. This alert, as noted by security blogger Graham Cluely, explains how the group—otherwise known as "Sofacy," "Sednit," "STRONTIUM," and "APT 28"—stalks mailing lists, social media sites, and public forums in search of potential victims from whom it can steal login...
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What's New in CVSSv3?

CVSSv3 was released this past summer and a number of vendors, including Tripwire, are beginning to adopt it both internally and within their tools. I wanted to talk about some of my favourite (and not-so-favourite) aspects of CVSSv3. Up first, we have the addition of Scope. I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with the notion of Scope. I think...
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VERT Threat Alert: December 2015 Patch Tuesday Analysis

Today’s VERT Alert addresses 12 new Microsoft Security Bulletins. VERT is actively working on coverage for these bulletins in order to meet our 24-hour SLA and expects to ship ASPL-648 on Wednesday, December 9th. Ease of Use (published exploits) to Risk Table Automated Exploit Easy ...
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How Do You Solve a Problem Like Passwords?

I’ve been enjoying Bob Covello’s recent posts on passwords and password managers – A LastPass Hack with a Happy Ending shows how idiot simple it can be to find someone’s “hidden” password list. A surprising interchange on passwords came up in November, during a Chertoff Group Security Series panel entitled “Enough with Getting Pwned Through...
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The New Privacy Paradigm

There was an interesting court case that took place back in 2010. The case involved an employee who was injured on the job and sued the employer. A few years later, the employer wanted to see how the employee’s quality of life was affected, and they requested access to the employee’s social media pages. The employee objected, asserting the right to...
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Mentor to Silk Road Mastermind Arrested in Thailand

Federal authorities have confirmed that Roger Thomas Clark, the alleged mentor of Silk Road mastermind Ross Ulbricht, has been arrested in Thailand. A press release issued by the Department of Justice reveals that Clark, who went by the names "Variety Jones," "VJ," "Cimon," and "Plural of Mongoose," regularly advised Ulbricht on the ongoing...
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Hacker Holds United Arab Emirates Bank to Ransom, Demands $3 Million

A malicious hacker that successfully breached the IT systems of a large bank in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) demanded nearly $3 million worth of cryptocurrency or the financial information of hundreds of its customers would be leaked online. The hacker – who goes by the alias ‘Hacker Buba’ – reportedly gained access to the bank’s systems last...