Cybersecurity

DNS Tunneling: Is It a Security Threat?

DNS tunneling -- the ability to encode the data of other programs or protocols in DNS queries and responses -- has been a concern since the late 1990s. If you don't follow DNS closely, however, DNS tunneling likely isn't an issue you would be familiar with. Originally, DNS tunneling was designed simply to bypass the captive portals of Wi-Fi providers, but as with many things on the Web it can be used for nefarious purposes. For many organizations, tunneling isn't even a known suspect and therefore a significant security risk. more

Industrial Plant Attack Generates Renewed Concerns Over Critical Infrastructure Hacking Threats

A recent malware attack on the control systems of an industrial plant has renewed concerns about the threat hacking poses to critical infrastructure. more

Putting Cyber Threats Into Perspective

As society uses more digital technologies we are increasingly also faced with its problems. Most of us will have some horror stories to tell about using computers, smartphones, and the internet. But this hasn't stopped us from using the technology more and more. I believe that most people would say that their lives would be worse without technology -- in developed countries but equally in the developing world. more

FISMA Failings: Could EPA’s IT Defense Deficiencies Silence the Agency?

The possibility of unauthorized access to EPA information raises an array of concerns since EPA-held data includes various types of Confidential Business Information, scientific research data, environmental databases, agency plans for responding to "incidents of national significance" and other security-related matters, and environmental monitoring data used in regulatory enforcement actions. more

Google Dumps Illicit Pharmacy Advertisements

Garth Bruen writes: Within the next few weeks Google plans to update its pharmacy policy which will restrict pharmacy advertisements. Once in effect, the updated policy will only allow VIPPS and CIPA certified pharmacies to advertise. Additionally these pharmacies can only target ads within their country. more

Whither Passwords

The primary means of authentication on the Internet is the password -- a half-century old, shared secret mechanism that is difficult to use (especially on mobile devices) and has acknowledged security flaws including attacks at scale. Even so, passwords remain the most prevalent form of authentication with efforts to enhance security typically relying on "bolt on" solutions that increase user friction. more

FBI, Department of Homeland Security Issue Warning About a North Korean Trojan Malware Variant

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) this week issued a malware analysis report on Trojan malware variants linked to the North Korean government. more

A Few More Thoughts on Email Authentication… errr… Trust

Mike Hammer's thoughtful article, A Few Thoughts on the Future of Email Authentication, should trigger thoughtfulness in the rest of us. Email abuse has been around a long time. Anti-abuse efforts have too. Yet global abuse traffic has grown into the 90+% range, with no hint of trending downward. The best we hear about current effectiveness is for last-hop filtering, if you have the money, staff and skills to apply to the problem... more

IPv6: SAVA, Ca va pas?

Sender Address Validation and Authentication (SAVA) is the silver bullet. It will send to Cyberia all dark forces that make us shiver when we make a purchase on the internet, pose a threat to our very identities and have made DDoS a feared acronym. Some of you will remember the heated debates when Calling Line Identification (CLID) was first introduced in telephony. Libertarians of all stripes called passionately to ban such an evil tool... more

Is Your New TLD Protected Against Phishing and Malware?

Until now, the criminals behind malware and phishing have had only 22 generic top-level domain names (TLDs) to abuse -- names like .com, .net or .org. But with hundreds of new TLDs entering the marketplace, e.g. .buzz, .email, and .shop, there are many more targets than ever... What can attackers do with domain names? more

Proactive Cybersecurity: What Small Businesses Can Actually Do

In the business world, there are two main paths a company can take with cybersecurity -- the reactive and the proactive approach. The problem with a purely reactive attitude is that it can easily put companies in constant firefighting mode. And for small companies with limited resources, this can turn out to be an increasingly uncomfortable place to be in.
With that in mind, experts today suggest proactive cybersecurity by monitoring suspicious activity and identifying risks before they turn into full-blown attacks. more

Open Source Software Is the Worst Kind Except for All of the Others

Heartbleed, for anyone who doesn't read the papers, is a serious bug in the popular OpenSSL security library. Its effects are particularly bad, because OpenSSL is so popular, used to implement the secure bit of https: secure web sites on many of the most popular web servers such as apache, nginx, and lighttpd. A few people have suggested that the problem is that OpenSSL is open source, and code this important should be left to trained professionals. They're wrong. more

Water Supply System Apparently Hacked, with Physical Damage

According to press reports, a water utility's SCADA network was hacked. The attacker turned a pump on and off too much, resulting in physical damage to the pump. ... For years, security specialists have been warning that something like this could happen. Although more and more people have started to believe it, we still hear all of the usual reassuring noises -- the hackers don't know enough, we have defenses, there are other safeguards, etc. That debate is now over... more

Reducing Cybersquatting, Phishing

Solutions to cybersquatting and phishing must target brand customers instead of the trademark infringers, who are in effect liars. This post outlines why online-based traditional solutions fail, and it offers solutions to two types of lying (cybersquatting and phishing). more

Israel’s Entire Voter Registry Exposed, the Massive Data Leak Involves 6.5 Million Voters

Israel's entire voter registry was recently uploaded to a vulnerable voting management app which effectively left the data wide open for days. more