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Managing Cyber Risks and Budgets

According to the 2015 Information Security Breaches Survey, 44 percent of both large and small organizations increased their security expenditure in 2015 compared with 53 percent and 27 percent in 2014, respectively. Despite the increase in expenditure, however, 90 percent of large organizations and 74 percent of small organizations reported that...
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15 Million T-Mobile Customers' Information Exposed in Experian Hack

Hackers have compromised the personal information of 15 million T-Mobile customers after successfully infiltrating one of Experian's servers. John Legere, CEO of T-Mobile, has published a letter about the incident: "We have been notified by Experian, a vendor that processes our credit applications, that they have experienced a data breach. The...
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Homo Sapiens and the Human Equation of Ethics

I recall engaging into a conversation with a fellow security professional this year on the subject of where the CISO role should reside and to whom they should report.My opponent’s opinion was very much contrary to my own, vocalising the value of the CISO having full alignment with the main board and the company executive.I, on the other hand, feel...
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Targeted Security Risk Assessments Using NIST Guidelines

What a whirlwind the past few months have been for data security, breaches and hacking events. From the Wyndham v. FTC ruling to yet another breach by a BCBS affiliate, there is increasing pressure across the information security industry to push organizations to perform those pesky security risk assessments touted by the National Institute of...
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Russian AV Firm Firebombed for Malware Report

A Russian antivirus (AV) firm was firebombed back in 2014 as a result of a report it published on a particular malware sample. On December 18, 2013, the AV company Doctor Web published a news item announcing that Trojan.Skimmer.18 had been added to the company's virus database. Later that same day, the company received a threatening email presumably...
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Post Office Email Scams Target Denmark, Drop Crypt0l0cker Ransomware

The post office email scam is a time-tested method of attack among malicious actors. Indeed, when users see that they have received an email from an actor purporting to be their local post office, most of them buy into the familiarity of this governmental institution and click on a link without taking the time to inspect the sender address....
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Thousands of Medical Systems Exposed to Web Attacks, Find Researchers

Two security researchers uncovered thousands of medical systems exposed online that are vulnerable to web attacks. On Saturday, September 26, researchers Scott Erven and Mark Collao presented their findings at Derby Con 5.0 in a presentation entitled "Medical Devices: Pwnage and Honeypots." "We know medical devices are exposed to the Internet both...
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Securing the Smart Home (and Office)

Today, a segment will air on Crime Watch Daily where Tripwire Senior Security Researcher Craig Young and I reveal on camera how vulnerable smart homes can be when not properly secured. We show firsthand that the key weaknesses in most smart homes are a combination of insecure networks and default configurations, including systems that installers may...
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GreenDispenser ATM malware found in the wild, stealing cash from banks

Banks have another security headache on their hands, as ATM-infecting malware is becoming increasingly sophisticated in its attempt to help criminals audaciously empty out cash machines on the high street on demand, without having to have previously stolen the payment cards of legitimate customers. Dubbed GreenDispenser by researchers at Proofpoint,...
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US Navy Develops New System to Protect Ships Against Cyber Attacks

The United States Navy has announced it is currently working on developing a new system aimed at protecting its ships from pervasive Internet attacks, often leading to network spying and confidential data theft. Codenamed the Resilient Hull, Mechanical, and Electrical Security (RHIMES) system, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) revealed the enhanced...
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Hackers Have Stolen Almost Six Million US Government Fingerprints

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has revealed in a statement that when hackers breached its systems earlier this year they made away with approximately 5.6 million fingerprints - a significant increase from the 1.1 million previously reported. As is now well known, in addition to fingerprint data being stolen the Social Security numbers,...
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It's 2AM – Do You Know Who Your Smartphone is Talking to?

Our smartphones know everything about us – who our friends are, where we have been, our financial details, our health information and other intimate details of our lives. But can we trust our phones to keep these our personal information secret? One of the biggest security and privacy challenges of smartphones are the very apps we install on them...
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The Top 10 Tips for Building an Effective Security Dashboard

Today, enterprises must grapple with a panoply of numerous and highly sophisticated threats. In response to this dangerous landscape, it is no wonder that businesses are increasingly turning to security dashboards – a powerful communication vehicle for all information security professionals. An effective security dashboard provides personnel,...
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The Anatomy of a Sakawa Scam

The styles associated with Sakawa scammers have been highlighted in previous articles, but today I would like to describe the anatomy of a scam for people to be aware of just how they complete these wicked assaults on our inboxes. This could serve as a guide for Sakawa, but is intended to give insight. Nothing is new here – these guides are passed...
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VERT IoT Hack Lab @ SecTor

The one-month countdown is on and I figured it was time for a reminder that Tripwire VERT will be at SecTor in the Expo area running an IoT Hack Lab. If you aren’t considering attending SecTor, you really should be. Even if you don’t want to attend the full conference, there’s an Expo Only admission that is free on their website until the start of...