It has been revealed that The United States’ Department of Homeland Security currently has a litany of security problems including running old, outdated software and operating with computers which haven’t received patches for 5 years. Some of the vulnerabilities were so serious that they “expose DHS data to unnecessary risks,” said the investigators, and that the agency needed to protect its systems “more fully and effectively.” Travis Smith, Principal Security Researcher at Tripwire commented below. Travis Smith, Principal Security Researcher at Tripwire: “There are many organizations which are in the same boat as the DHS. They’re also running older software which is ridden…
ISBuzz Team
Reacting to an announcement from Corero that they discovered a Memcached DDoS attack kill switch, Mounir Hahad, head of threat research at Juniper Networks, commented below. Mounir Hahad, Head of Threat Research at Juniper Networks: “This kill switch is unfortunately just a band-aid. It will take an attacker only a few minutes to overcome by replanting the large file in the memcached servers again. It becomes a game of whack-a-mole: the attacker replants the file repeatedly and the good guys try to flush it out again and again. Try doing this on about 100,000 servers at the same time and you’ll realize it’s a cat…
Connected technology companies will be expected to integrate a string of tough security measures into their devices under new government plans unveiled today. After conducting a comprehensive review into Internet of Things (IoT) device security, the government has outlined a range of new security processes that tech manufacturers will need to consider when designing devices. Andy Norton, Director of Threat Intelligence at Lastline commented below. Andy Norton, Director of Threat Intelligence at Lastline: “These new measures move the burden of security for IoT devices away from the user towards the vendors of the technology. The 13 guiding principles are very similar to existing best practices…
A year on from Amazon’s S3 outage at its US-East-1 datacentre region, a power loss incident in the same place has caused a fresh round of service disruption for the cloud giant’s customers. A power outage affecting one of Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) largest US datacentre regions reportedly knocked hundreds of online services offline across the world on Friday 2 March. Ashley Stephenson, CEO at Corero Network Security commented below. Ashley Stephenson, CEO at Corero Network Security: “It is estimated that ninety percent of businesses will be making a decision to move into the cloud over the next two years,…
Following the news that changes in Air Traffic control regulations might make drone deliveries a reality as early as 2019. Christiaan Beek, Lead Scientist and Senior Principal Engineer at McAfee commented below. Christiaan Beek, Lead Scientist and Senior Principal Engineer at McAfee: “Drones will potentially make it cheaper and easier for us to get deliveries from companies such as Amazon and UPS so for many, this news from Nats will be a welcome step. However, as always, we have to consider the security implications. “Drones are often manufactured in a way that makes them relatively easy for criminals to hack. As they are…
It has been revealed that a newly discovered phishing campaign is targeting humanitarian aid organisations and using North Korean political topics as bait to lure victims into opening malicious Microsoft Word documents. Based on the names of the malicious documents used in the attacks, McAfee analysts have named this Operation Honeybee. IT Security Experts commented below. Javvad Malik, Security Advocate at AlienVault: Phishing remains a popular attack vector as there remains a chance that someone will click on a link in error. This is particularly true during a major event or disaster where interest in a particular topic is high. It is…
The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has released its first guidance document for charities, warning that the sector is “absolutely not immune” to attacks. The GCHQ spin-off penned a new blog post last week claiming that third sector workers may be overly trusting of unsolicited emails, making them more susceptible to social engineering. Tim Helming, Director of Product Management at DomainTools commented below. Tim Helming, Director of Product Management at DomainTools: “Cybercriminals are not likely to suddenly locate their moral compasses and avoid targeting charities, which means that third sector organisations need to remain just as vigilant as those in more corporate environments.…
Threat intelligence is a category of intelligence that focuses on information security. As defined by Gartner, it is “evidence-based knowledge…about an existing or emerging menace or hazard…to inform decisions regarding the subject’s response to that menace or hazard.” Essentially, threat intelligence provides you with curated information to inform you about potential malicious activity and helps you make better decisions about how to prevent bad things occurring to you or your organisation. In order to sustain a strong security posture, an organisation must develop and answer questions specific to the business, many of which must be answered continually as situations and…
News broke yesterday that US restaurant giant Applebees had been infected with POS malware at up to160 locations, leading to the credit card data of customers to be breached. Giovanni Vigna, CTO and Co-Founder at Lastline commented below. Lisa Baergen, Director at NuData Security Inc.: “Cybercriminals are being increasingly successful at finding weaknesses in Point-of-Sale (PoS) systems. In this case, 160 restaurants were hit by bad actors trying to steal credit card information. Restaurants and other hospitality industries must continuously monitor PoS devices and distribute patches regularly. “On the other side, to combat online fraudulent transactions after the credit card information has been stolen, businesses offering…
Neustar International Security Council (NISC) research reveals the latest cybersecurity worries across Europe The majority (80 per cent) of organisations have expressed interest in using cryptocurrencies – such as bitcoin – for business transactions, despite widespread fears of being compromised by associated DDoS attacks, according to new research from the Neustar International Security Council (NISC). While 48 percent highlighted alternative forms of currency as a way to generate income through potential increased value, 26 per cent of businesses also pointed out the heightened risk of currencies being used as an alternate form of ransom. This ongoing fear has encouraged the…