Cyberattack

Multi-Layer Security Architecture - Importance of DNS Firewalls

In today's world with botnets, viruses and other nefarious applications that use DNS to further their harmful activities, outbound DNS security has been largely overlooked. As a part of multi-layer security architecture, a DNS Firewall should not be ignored. After serving as a consultant for multiple organizations, I have encountered many companies that allow all internal devices to send outbound DNS queries to external DNS servers - a practice that can lead to myriad problems. more

Security Experts Urge Shifting from Defense to Offense in Cybersecurity

A report, released today by McAfee, Inc., titled "Security Takes the Offensive," says that traditionally, security technology companies and computer users have taken a defensive posture, putting the cyber equivalent of body armor on computers, networks and in the cloud. The report's authors say it is now time to avoid enemy strikes altogether by taking a more aggressive stance, aligning forces and involving law enforcement. more

Trump Names Former Bush Aide Thomas Bossert Chief Adviser on Cybersecurity, Counterterrorism Role

President-elect Donald J. Trump has named Thomas P. Bossert, a top national security aide under President George W. Bush, to be his homeland security adviser, the Trump transition team announced Tuesday morning," Michael D. Shear reporting in the New York Times. more

SANS Develops Small-Scale City to Train Cyber Warriors

SANS has announced NetWars CyberCity, a small-scale city located close by the New Jersey Turnpike complete with a bank, hospital, water tower, train system, electric power grid, and a coffee shop. NetWars CyberCity was developed to teach cyber warriors from the U.S. Military how online actions can have kinetic effects. more

Researchers Detail Faster Methods to Defeat Botnets Like Conficker and Kraken

Michael Cooney reporting in NetworkWorld: "Security researchers this week will detail a prototype system they say can better detect so-called Domain Name Generation- (DGA) based botnets such as Conficker and Kraken without the usual labor- and time-intensive reverse-engineering required to find and defeat such malware. The detection system, called Pleiades, monitors traffic below the local DNS server and analyzes streams of unsuccessful DNS resolutions..." more

Kansas System Hacked, Social Security Numbers of Millions Accessed Spanning 10 States

Hackers breached a Kansas Department of Commerce data system used across multiple states and gained access to more than 5.5 million Social Security Numbers, according to local news sources. more

EU Launches First European Public-Private Partnership on Cybersecurity, Plans $2B Investment

The European Commission has launched a new public-private partnership on cybersecurity expected to trigger €1.8 billion ($2B) of investment by 2020. more

Airplanes Vulnerable to Hacking, Says U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Researchers have been able to successfully demonstrate a commercial aircraft can be remotely hacked. more

ICANN Security Team Reports on Conficker Post-Discovery Analysis

A paper released today by ICANN provides a chronology of events related to the containment of the Conficker worm. The report, "Conficker Summary and Review," is authored by ICANN's Dave Piscitello, Senior Security Technologist on behalf of the organization's security team. more

Botnets: Most Prevalent Threat on the Internet for the Enterprises

Based on the total number of transactions, Zscaler reports botnets as the biggest security risk on the Internet for the enterprises. "Once a host gets infected, the botnet usually spreads quickly within an enterprise. It also generates a significant amount of traffic to the command and control server, to download additional malware or perform other actions." more

Cybercriminals Weaponize Bulk-Registered Domain Names

Domain names that can be rapidly acquired, used in an attack, and abandoned before they can be traced are a critical resource for cybercriminals. Some attacks, including spam and ransomware campaigns and criminal infrastructure operation (e.g., "botnets"), benefit particularly from the ability to rapidly and cheaply acquire very large numbers of domain names – a tactic known as bulk registration. more

ICANN Targeted in Spear Phishing Attack

In an announcement on Tuesday, ICANN reports that it is investigating a recent intrusion into its systems. The agency believes a "spear phishing" attack was initiated in late November 2014. It involved email messages that were crafted to appear to come from its own domain being sent to members of its staff. more

Mobile Malware Growing Exponentially, Limited Capability of Current Security Solutions Big Concern

Security analysis suggest troubling and escalating trends in the development of malware that exploits vulnerabilities on mobile devices. "From turning mobile devices into bots, to infiltration of mobile applications, driven by the use of personal devices in the workplace, cybercriminals are taking full advantage of this market," reports M86 Security Labs in its just released Threat Predictions Report. more

Watching the Watchers Watching Your Network

It seems that this last holiday season didn't bring much cheer or goodwill to corporate security teams. With the public disclosure of remotely exploitable vulnerabilities and backdoors in the products of several well-known security vendors, many corporate security teams spent a great deal of time yanking cables, adding new firewall rules, and monitoring their networks with extra vigilance. more

French Presidential Candidate Confirms Massive Hack, Emails Dumped Online Two Days Before Election

Leading French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron's campaign confirmed on Friday a "massive" computer hack that dumped its campaign emails online less than two days before the election. more