Cyberattack

No New Cybersecurity Regulations Needed, ISPs Tell U.S. Lawmakers

A group of ISPs on wednesday told U.S. Congress that passing new cybersecurity rules affecting broadband and mobile service providers is counterproductive and should be resisted. Jason Livingood, vice president of Internet systems engineering at Comcast, during a hearing before the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee's communications subcommittee, said: ISPs have "strong incentives" to secure their networks and invest heavily in cybersecurity because of competition. more

Malware Increasingly Uses DNS As Command and Control Channel to Avoid Detection

Number of malware threats that receive instructions from attackers through DNS is expected to increase, and most companies are not currently scanning for such activity on their networks, security experts said at the RSA Conference 2012 on Tuesday. While most malware-generated traffic passing through most channels used for communicating with botnets (such as TCP, IRC, HTTP or Twitter feeds and Facebook walls) can be detected and blocked, it's not the case for DNS (Domain Name System) and attackers are taking advantage of that, said Ed Skoudis, founder of Counter Hack Challenges and SANS fellow. more

Feds Ask for DNSChanger Deadline Extension As Millions of PCs Could Be Cut Off from the Web

Brian Krebs reporting in Krebs on Security: "Millions of computers infected with the stealthy and tenacious DNSChanger Trojan may be spared a planned disconnection from the Internet early next month if a New York court approves a new request by the U.S. government. Meanwhile, six men accused of managing and profiting from the huge collection of hacked PCs are expected to soon be extradited from their native Estonia to face charges in the United States." more

Our Nuclear Facilities are Cyberattack-Proof, Claims Iran

Iran's nuclear facilities are immune to cyber attack a senior Iranian military official has claimed today according to various reports. "Gholam Reza Jalali, who heads an Iranian military unit in charge of combatting sabotage, was quoted Monday by the official IRNA news agency as saying that Iran and its nuclear facilities possess the technology and knowledge to deal with malicious software." more

Public-Private Cooperation Policy for Cyber Security Suggested by Commissioner Kroes

At a speech during the Security and Defense Agenda meeting on 30 January Vice-President of the European Commission, Neelie Kroes, showed how the Commission envisions public-private cooperation on cyber security. more

DDoS Attacks Increased by 2000% in Past 3 Years, Asia Generating Over Half of Recent Attacks

In the past three years, Akamai has seen 2,000% increase in the number of DDoS attack incidents investigated on behalf of its customers. The latest State of the Internet report released today by Akamai also identifies top countries from which this observed attack traffic originates, as well as the top ports targeted by these attacks. more

Japan Developing Distinctive Anti-Cyberattack Virus

The Japanese Defense Ministry is creating a computer virus capable of tracking, identifying and disabling sources of cyberattacks, according to reports. The development of the virtual cyberweapon was launched in 2008. Since then, the weapon has been tested in a closed network environment. "The most distinctive feature of the new virus is its ability to trace cyber-attack sources. It can identify not only the immediate source of attack, but also all "springboard" computers used to transmit the virus." 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

South Korean Ruling Party Chief Offers Resignation Amidst DDoS Scandal

South Korea's ruling party chairman has offered to resign over a cyberattack reported to have been orchestrated by an aide to one of the conservative party's lawmakers. The move comes after police concluded the distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on the election watchdog's website on the day of by-elections in October was masterminded solely by a 27-year-old aide to the ruling Grand National Party. The aide has also admitted to orchestrating a similar cyberattack on the website of Park Won-soon, who was elected Seoul mayor in the Oct. 26 elections. more

White House Announces Agenda for Game-Changing Cybersecurity R&D

The United States White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has released a new report titled, Trustworthy Cyberspace: Strategic Plan for the Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development Program, specifying an agenda for "game-changing" cybersecurity R&D according to an official announcement today. The report is described as "a roadmap to ensuring long-term reliability and trustworthiness of the digital communications network that is increasingly at the heart of American economic growth and global competitiveness." 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

EU and US Carry Out First Joint Cyber Security Exercise

The first joint cyber security exercise between the EU and US is being held today in Brussels, with the support of the EU's cyber security Agency ENISA and the US Department of Homeland Security. The day-long table-top exercise, named "Cyber Atlantic 2011", is using simulated cyber-crisis scenarios to explore how the EU and US would engage each other and cooperate in the event of cyber-attacks on their critical information infrastructures. more

Reports of Possible Cyberattack in Palestine

According to reports today, hackers have attacked Palestinian servers, cutting off phone and Internet service across the West Bank and Gaza. Foreign governments are accused to be behind the attack. "Since this morning all Palestinian IP addresses have come under attack from places across the world," said the Palestinian communications minister today. Reneys reports these outages are the largest observed all year for this country, which normally has a fairly stable Internet. more

Nitro Attacks Target the Chemical Industry

New security report has revealed at least 48 companies involved in research, development, manufacturing of chemicals and advanced materials have been victims of a coordinated cyberattack traced to a source in China. The purpose of the attacks, code named Nitro, appear to be industrial espionage, collecting intellectual property for competitive advantage, according to Symantec. more

Duqu Reported as Precursor to a Future Stuxnet-Like Attack

Virus researchers at Symantec Corp. have revealed a variant of the Stuxnet worm, named Duqu, that is found to be stealing information about industrial control systems. Symantec reports: "Duqu's purpose is to gather intelligence data and assets from entities, such as industrial control system manufacturers, in order to more easily conduct a future attack against another third party. The attackers are looking for information such as design documents that could help them mount a future attack on an industrial control facility... Parts of Duqu are nearly identical to Stuxnet, but with a completely different purpose." more