A school district located in Massachusetts paid attackers $10,000 after they infected its computer network with crypto-ransomware. Officials at Leominster Public Schools decided to meet the demand after the district suffered a ransomware attack on 14 April. It's unclear what types of files the...

Last time, I got to speak with Leanne Williams. As a pen testing professional, she knows there’s a lot more to penetration testing than pointing a network vulnerability scanner at an IP address. This time I had the pleasure of chatting with Jen Fox. She’s all about cybersecurity in the very challenging compliance space. Kim Crawley: Tell me a bit...

A lending website ceased all operations over concerns with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Chris Beach, the founder of Streetlend.com, decided to shut down the service after five years of operation due to uncertainty and risk created by the GDPR. He explained in a message posted to the site that the penalties...

Organizations face a number of security challenges when migrating to the cloud from on-premise data centers. Their work isn't done once they've completed the move, either. At that stage, enterprises must decide on the best approach to fulfill their end of the Shared Responsibility Model and ensure "security in the cloud" with respect to protecting...

Cyber security is a field both deep and broad with a large number of complicated facets. As no one can be an expert in all things, it can sometimes be difficult even for experienced security professionals to know where vulnerabilities are in the system. That’s where risk assessments come in; they can help you identify problems that need to be...

The government of Canada has unveiled new regulations that specify how organizations must report and respond to a data breach. The Canadian Parliament in Ottawa, Canada. (Source: Wikipedia) On 18 April, the Governor General of Canada released the Breach of Security Safeguards Regulations (SOR/2018-64...

In 2017, an independent security researcher discovered that a vulnerability had been exploited in the Kennesaw State University Election Center. The researcher responsibly reported the breach to authorities. In response, the Georgia Attorney General’s office requested that a bill be drafted to criminalize any unauthorized access to any computer or...

What's happened? Security researchers at F-Secure have discovered a flaw that could allow millions of hotel rooms around the world to be accessed by unauthorised parties, without leaving a trace. A design flaw in the widely-used Vision by VingCard electronic lock software could have been exploited by intelligence agencies, thieves, and other...

Last week, I had the pleasure of talking to Tripwire’s own marketing specialist, Cindy Valladares. Marketing fits a valuable and overlooked need in the cybersecurity field. Cindy’s creative talent for bringing out the best in people helps Tripwire shine in this industry. This time, I got to chat with pen testing whiz Leanne Williams. Enjoy! Kim...

Medical devices can be vulnerable to security breaches in the same way as any other networked computing device. This may potentially affect its safety and effectiveness. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has issued final guidelines for manufacturers to consider cybersecurity risks as part of their medical device design and development. Its...

A privacy breach at a school district in New Jersey exposed portions of 1,200 employees' Social Security Numbers. The breach occurred at Irvington Public Schools on 16 April when an "unknown source" sent out an email to an undetermined number of recipients. The email contained the names of current...

Most organizations have already adopted or are moving towards adopting a DevOps model into their work culture for improved productivity and workflow. In simple terms, DevOps is an application delivery methodology that encourages collaboration and communication between the developers and operations teams across all phases of the Software Development...

Blockchain and other emerging distributed ledger technologies offer the promise of increased security, transparency and resilience based on the use of distributed, immutable records. At the same time, the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which takes effect May 25, 2018, governs the use and protection of personal data...

FedRAMP, or the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, is a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization, and monitoring for cloud applications. It was created by the U.S. General Services Administration in response to growing government usage of the cloud, which has obvious benefits at many levels of operation and...

Defense Evasion has the most techniques of any of the other tactics discussed in the MITRE ATT&CK Framework so far. What I find interesting about these techniques is that they expose the tradecraft of the various threat actors behind malware attacks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDT2qnpvKTk Another interesting piece of this tactic is some malware...

Now in its 11th installment, Verizon’s Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) is a must-read for cybersecurity professionals across the globe. The 2018 edition dives deep into more than 53,000 real incidents and 2,216 confirmed data breaches with the ultimate goal of informing defenders on the threats they face and how to protect against them. The...

The MITRE ATT&CK Framework is an excellent resource when it comes to defining threat intelligence. The hundreds of techniques mapped across various tactics help define an adversary’s behaviors in enterprise networks. What’s better is that it provides prescriptive level guidance on how to both mitigate and detect the techniques. While it is not...

London's Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea has been fined £120,000 (approximately US $170,000) by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) after it unlawfully identified 943 people who owned vacant properties in the borough. How did the sensitive data leak out? Because of a sloppy understanding of how to wipe information properly out of Excel...

A while ago, I had the crazy idea that I needed to read more technical books, so I purchased a pair of books that appealed to me: Attacking Network Protocols and Serious Cryptography, both published by No Starch Press. I was interested in reading along with others and sharing our thoughts and opinions, so I spoke with members of VERT and our...

When the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force on May 25, 2018, what will happen to currently-available domain registration data in WHOIS? The GDPR restricts how personal data about natural persons residing in the European Union can be collected, used and transferred, and it defines “personal data” very broadly....