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United States, Canada Issue Joint Alert on Ransomware

The United States and Canada have issued a joint alert on ransomware and the threat it poses to both individuals and businesses. In their bulletin, the Canadian Cyber Incident Response Centre (CCIRC) and the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), which operates under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), provide an overview...
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Creating a Malware/Ransomware Defendable Network

The risk of sophisticated malware, especially of ransomware, has grown exponentially over the years. This means we need to evolve our techniques for mitigation, detection and monitoring of malicious behavior on our assets. It's a wise move given the durability of this threat. Indeed, ransomware, which attempts to scare users and organizations into...
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Catching Stingrays at BSides Canberra

Stingrays (also known as IMSI Catchers) are devices that are used to spy on cellphones and their owners. A Stingray mimics the operation of a legitimate cellphone base station to reveal the movements, communications and personal information of the cellphones that attach to them. Some illicit IMSI Catchers have been discovered attached to the light...
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Reuse Attacks Threaten Users of Popular Firefox Extensions

Millions of users are open to attacks that can quietly compromise machines by exploiting a weakness in some of Firefox's most popular browser extensions. On Thursday, Boston University PhD Ahmet Buyukkayhan and Northeastern University Professor William Robertson presented their research on the attacks at Black Hat Asia in Singapore. Black Hat Asia...
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Opportunistic Knocks – TLS & Mail Security

Transport Layer Security (TLS) is the unsung champion and defender of all good citizens of the Internet. Rather like some invisible, altruistic Marvel superhero, it works tirelessly behind the scenes each and every day helping to protect the things we need and like to do online. Along with its now atrophied predecessor Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), it...
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FBI vs. Apple - Did Anyone Win?

I’ve been following the FBI vs. Apple case, and now that it seems it's tentatively over, I find myself keeping up with the conversations around who won and who lost. In my opinion, the software industry should strive to provide the strongest possible protections for users' individual privacy and security. Apple has done just that – so well, in fact,...
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The Real Cost of Ransomware Cyber Lockouts

It’s been a month since Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center joined the ranks of Premera Blue Cross, Anthem, CareFirst BCBS, and a considerable number of other healthcare institutions that have experienced recent hacks where personal patient data might have been exposed. While it may have played out like the plot of a bad "cyber"-thriller movie,...
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FBI Investigates Hacks Against U.S. Law Firms

The Federal Bureau of Investigations is investigating a series of hacks against some of the United States' most prestigious law firms. On Tuesday, the FBI disclosed its investigation into data breaches affecting Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP, Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP, and a number of other high-profile New York-based law firms. Cravath Swaine & Moore...
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Malicious Maturation: Three Ongoing Trends in the Evolution of Malware

If there is one truth about today's threat landscape, it is that nothing remains the same. Such dynamism rests partially with the sheer volume of threats circulating the web. Multiple reports indicate that bad actors are developing as many if not more threats than security personnel have time to remediate. Indeed, in the second quarter of 2015 alone...
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Communication Is Key in the Battle Against Cybercrime

Information Security conferences should form part of the front line when it comes to tackling cybercrime. Unless we learn to share information as an industry, we are always going to be on the back foot. I’m spending a little down time with my family after the relentless pace of the Can Sec West conference in Vancouver, where I had the pleasure of...
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Speeding Ticket Spam Targeting Users with Fake Email Citations

Authorities are warning users to be on the lookout for a speeding ticket scam that attempts to extort money from victims using fake email citations. Earlier in March, the Tredyffrin Police Department wrote a post on the web portal for Chester County, Pennsylvania in which it explains how it came across the spam campaign. "A local corporation...
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Six Suspects Arrested for Manipulating 5 Card Cash Lottery Game Terminals

Six people have been charged with manipulating terminals to produce more winning tickets for the 5 Card Cash lottery game. Back in November of 2015, Connecticut lottery officials suspended 5 Card Cash after they noticed that it was producing more winning tickets than expected. The lottery game consists of tickets on which five playing cards are...
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Countering Cyber Adversary Tradecraft

“The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson. Why and how do cyber adversaries – criminals, spies, competitors, activists – continue to find success in fraud, extortion, espionage and sabotage? Governments, corporations and...
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Security Event Monitoring and NERC CIP

I work daily with organizations regulated by NERC CIP, and it always helps to place things into perspective. One of those challenges is security event monitoring. Security event monitoring involves the identification of observable events that may or do represent unauthorized access attempts into a secure environment. One of the most important...
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Survey: 62% of Companies Lack Confidence in Ability to Confront Ransomware Threat

2016 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for ransomware. Just look at the attack campaigns we have witnessed thus far. Back in February, news first broke about Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, a hospital located in southern California that temporarily suspended its computer systems following a ransomware attack. The medical center ultimately...
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Security Speaks: Breaking Through at BSides

Last summer, we celebrated BSides as a growing and well respected institution in the field of information security. Each BSides event emphasizes interaction between speakers and topics, a focus which makes for a uniquely collaborative atmosphere among security professionals. In this type of setting, each event's organizers are more than happy to...