March 15, 2018, was a momentous day for U.S. homeland security officials. On that date, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) for the first time ever attributed digital attacks on American energy infrastructure to actors associated with the Russian government. Their joint technical alert (TA)...

If you have followed our work for any amount of time, you will note that we are fans of certain information security technologies such as encryption, AI and machine learning as well as blockchain. But you will also note we are very specific, cautious and surgical about their use. Encryption is a must-have but does little for you if your underlying...

I’ve written about ITIL and Tripwire Enterprise, offering a secure approach to managing your Change Management processes, but ITIL’s guidelines offer more than just recommendations around ensuring changes happen as expected. Problem management is another key area where Tripwire Enterprise can help you on your ITIL journey. ITIL sensibly focuses on...

Hackers planted malware on an automated teller machine (ATM) server belonging to an Indian bank as part of a criminal scheme which saw the theft of nearly 944 million rupees (US $13.5 million) in a co-ordinated attack across 28 countries last weekend. India's Cosmos Bank, based in the western city of Pune, suffered an attack which saw hackers use...

Sextortion scammers are now using potential targets' redacted phone numbers in an attempt to trick them into submitting payment. Perhaps after having obtained a list that ties people's phone numbers and email addresses together, scammers are sending out sextortion emails that use redacted phone numbers to lure in victims. Here's an example, as...

What is Caller ID? Caller identification (Caller ID) is a service that allows the receiver of a phone call to determine the identity of the caller. Caller ID is initially sent over at the start of the phone call and identifies the incoming caller before the receiver answers the phone. Caller ID is not associated with the actual phone number but is...

A man received a prison sentence for his part in helping to "cash out" ransom payments made by victims of a specific ransomware family. On 13 August, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the sentencing of Raymond Odigie Uadiale, 41, of Maple Valley, Washington to 18 months in jail and three...

The last book campaign was on “The Phoenix Project,” which is an easy-to-read story about a fictional company’s transformation into the world of DevOps. “Accelerate” is nothing like that, and if you’re a sucker for raw data like I am, then you may enjoy it more. “Accelerate” details the results of a multi-year study analyzing company’s software...

Without a doubt, log management should be part of the core of any IT security platform of a government agency. It has a role in not only security but also in operations and compliance requirements. Logging can provide situational awareness of things happening within an environment by keeping track of events recorded in the logs of the different...

Today’s VERT Alert addresses Microsoft’s August 2018 Security Updates. VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-792 on Wednesday, August 15th. In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs CVE-2018-8373 A vulnerability exists within the scripting engine in Internet Explorer. An attacker exploiting this vulnerability...

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and HackerOne together announced the creation of a new bug bounty program called "Hack the Marine Corps." On 12 August, DoD kicked off its new vulnerability disclosure initiative at DEF CON 26 in Las Vegas, Nevada with a live hacking session. For the launch event,...

Alarms and alerts surround us every day. From the moment our clocks wake us up in the morning, we rely on alarms for many things. But what happens when those alarms and alerts malfunction? What does it do to us and how does that affect our day to day life? Recall the Dallas Emergency Alert Malfunction. As it turns out, getting tired of these alarms...

Researchers demonstrated the feasibility of taking over a enterprise network and abusing that access to exfiltrate data using just a fax number. On 12 August, Yaniv Balmas and Eyal Itkin of Check Point's malware research team presented their findings on fax security at DEF CON 26 in Las Vegas. They wanted to see if it was possible to attack an all...

ICS security is concerned with securing and safeguarding industrial control systems, keeping processes and machinery running smoothly, and ensuring that the information and data shown on the control room dashboards and screens are accurate. Like every system that is networked to the Internet, ICS must be properly secured. The problem is that ICS...

The Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the greatest forces driving technology today. According to Statista, the number of IoT devices is expected to reach 1.2 billion by the end of 2018. That number will grow to over 20 billion by 2020, per Gartner’s estimates, with more than 65 percent of enterprises deploying IoT products at that time. Such growth...

Digital attackers targeted the computer servers of a golfers' association with ransomware and encrypted files stored on those assets. Staff at the Professional Golfers' Association of America (PGA) discovered the attack on 7 August. When they attempted to access certain work files that morning, those...

Poor security measures have reportedly put the personal details of Comcast Xfinity customers at risk, a researcher has revealed. According to a BuzzFeed News report, security researcher Ryan Stevenson found a vulnerability in the high-speed ISP's online customer portal that could allow unauthorised parties to determine the partial home address of...

The Center for Internet Security’s Critical Security Controls (“the CIS Controls”) are incredibly useful in helping organizations defend themselves against digital threats. By adopting the first five controls alone, it’s possible for companies to prevent 85 percent of attacks. Adopting all 20 controls can prevent as much as 97 percent of attacks....

What does the chairman of MIT’s board of trustees and a Supreme Court judge for New York State have in common with the Weintraubs of Lebanon, Oregon? They were all victims of real-estate spoofing scams, a form of cyber-security fraud that has grown from $19 million in 2016 to over $1B in 2017. Thieves have learned that large sums of money change...

The landmark NYS DFS cybersecurity regulation that took effect in New York State in March 2017 is approaching its third of four milestones. This was the first regulation of its kind that included prescriptive direction for the protection of personally identifiable information handled by all financial institutions that conduct business in the State....