Cybersecurity

Call for “ISP Point of Contact” Database for Neutrality “Event” Concerns

When I initiated NNSquad (Network Neutrality Squad), one of my primary concerns was that many seemingly reportable "events" that can occur on the Internet -- and that might seem on their face to be network neutrality "violations" -- might actually be caused by innocent technical issues related to ISP operations, testing anomalies, or misinterpretation of test or otherwise observed data. Analysis of these situations -- which may invoke security and privacy concerns -- can be quite complex, and without a reasonably complete picture of events can also be considerably problematic... more

Is the FCC Inviting the World’s Cyber Criminals into America’s Living Rooms?

In October 2012, the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee issued a joint statement warning American companies that were doing business with the large Chinese telecommunications companies Huawei and ZTE to "use another vendor." The bipartisan statement explains that the Intelligence Committee's Report, "highlights the interconnectivity of U.S. critical infrastructure systems and warns of the heightened threat of cyber espionage and predatory disruption or destruction of U.S. networks if telecommunications networks are built by companies with known ties to the Chinese state, a country known to aggressively steal valuable trade secrets and other sensitive data from American companies." more

The Importance of IPRC in Asia Pacific

I believe and strongly support Internet Principle and Right Coalition (IPRC) Charter is an important edition of document supplementing the principles and rights of individual internet users in any developing and least developed country. Especially in Asia Pacific region where the need and use of such document is immense, as there is a gap in recognition and awareness of rights of internet users. more

Hiding in Plain Sight: Post-Breach

The majority of network breaches begin and end with the installation of malware upon a vulnerable device. For the rest, once that initial malware beachhead has been achieved, the story is only just beginning. The breach disclosures that make the news are often confusing as they're frequently compiled from third-hand reports, opinions and technical assumptions. More often than not, they include a discussion about the malware - how advanced it was, etc. - and whether any 0-day vulnerabilities were likely used by the mysterious attacker. more

Equifax Announces Comprehensive Consumer Settlement for the 2017 Data Breach

Equifax has announced a comprehensive resolution for its 2017 cybersecurity incident that includes a fund of up to $425 consumer fund. more

Closing in on the Google Hackers

Joseph Menn has an article on CNN.com wherein the crux of the story is that US experts are closing in on the hackers that broke into Google last month. It is believed by some that the Chinese government sponsored these hackers. China, naturally, denied involvement. My own take is that tools today are sophisticated enough such that you don't necessarily need state sponsorship in order to launch a cyber attack. more

Today’s CISOs Are Contending With Oft-Changing Disclosure Standards

When it comes to breach disclosures, today's chief information security officers (CISOs) are struggling with an especially turbulent regulatory environment. Security teams are understaffed, and systems are more extensive, making them harder to monitor and defend, while threats are becoming more sophisticated, more frequent, and more varied. It's at precisely this difficult juncture that regulations and enforcement are rapidly changing, leaving CISOs feeling like they are running up the down escalator. more

Deadline of April 10 to Apply For CARIS Workshop on Coordinating Response to Internet Attacks

You have just a couple of days to either complete a survey or submit a paper to join the "Coordinating Attack Response at Internet Scale (CARIS)" Workshop happening on June 19, 2015, in Berlin, Germany... If you are interested in helping improve the overall security and resilience of the Internet through increased communication between the groups responding to the large-scale attacks happening on the Internet every day, I would strongly encourage you to apply! more

How Open Cloud Could Have Saved Sidekick Users’ Skins

The cloud computing scandal of the week is looking like being the catastrophic loss of millions of Sidekick users' data. This is an unfortunate and completely avoidable event that Microsoft's Danger subsidiary and T-Mobile (along with the rest of the cloud computing community) will surely very soon come to regret. There's plenty of theories as to what went wrong -- the most credible being that a SAN upgrade was botched, possibly by a large outsourcing contractor, and that no backups were taken... more

Is It Time for a Breakthrough in Securing Cyberspace?

This year in July gen. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency and head of the US Cyber Command participated at DefCon, the hackers conference in Las Vegas. In his address, gen. Alexander said, among other things, "This is the world's best cybersecurity community. In this room right here is the talent our nation needs to secure cyberspace."... As someone, who is regularly meeting the top Russian cyber folks, I already know (unofficially, of course) how the words of gen. Alexander were met in Moscow. more

Bruce Schneier: Government and Industry Have Betrayed the Internet, and Us

Bruce Schneier in an op-ed piece published in the Guardian on Thursday writes: "Government and industry have betrayed the internet, and us. By subverting the internet at every level to make it a vast, multi-layered and robust surveillance platform, the NSA has undermined a fundamental social contract..." more

DDoS Attacks on US Banks This Week Peaked at 60 Gbps

Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that targeted U.S. financial institutions this week have reached 60 Gbps, according to researchers from DDoS mitigation provider Arbor Networks. more

Are You Getting Your News From Spam? My Mother Does

This is a story about my mother and Obama. My mother: "Have you heard about Obama? Really impressive guy." Me: "What about him?" My mother: "x, y and z." Me: "Where did you hear about this?" My mother: "I read email too, you are not the only one who is into technology." Luckily, my mother bases her opinion on more than just spam messages... more

The Multinational Nature of Spam

I received a spam message the other day that went to my Junk Mail Folder. I decided to take a look at it and dissect it piece by piece. It really is amazing to see how spam crosses so many international borders and exploits so many different machines. Spammers have their own globally redundant infrastructure and it highlights the difficulties people have in combating the problem of it. more

The DNSSEC Groundswell

It's been 15 long years since the standard for DNSSEC was developed and sadly adoption has been painfully low until recently, thanks to Dan Kaminsky, the infamous Internet Researcher who indentified that gaping hole in the DNS. The discovery of the fundamental flaw in DNS sparked industry wide attention! Every day, we move a little closer to widespread DNSSEC adoption, so I thought I'd take a moment and highlight some of the most notable milestones... more