When the Necurs botnet went dark at the beginning of the month, so too did email campaigns bearing Locky ransomware and Dridex, prompting questions among observers about the reasons behind the pause and how long it would last. The second question now seems to be have an answer: on June 21, Proofpoint researchers observed the first multi-million message Locky email campaign since May 31st. On the evidence of reused IP addresses, this campaign appears to be originating from the Necurs botnet. As of the writing of this blog on June 22, a second, much larger Locky campaign was underway, signaling a clear…
ISBuzz Team
Following the news that hackers taken control of virtual cash worth $60m (£41m) by exploiting a bug in the DAO, a system designed to help start-ups, Chris Campbell, Solution Architect at Veracode commented below. Chris Campbell, Solution Architect at Veracode: “Crypto currencies and the markets that they are traded on have seen rapid expansion in the last few years. These currencies and markets are based on software code, just like the everyday applications that every company is developing to achieve an advantage over the competition. Unfortunately, the pressure to be the first/best/biggest causes the same problems with crypto currencies and their markets…
Following the news that AppRiver has warned that the Necurs botnet is back online and distributing malware, Jon French security analyst at AppRiver commented below. Jon French, Security Analyst at AppRiver: “Virus traffic has been huge so far in 2016. Mostly, this has been thanks to ransomware, and in particular, Locky distributed by the Necurs botnet. At AppRiver, we’ve been seeing malware traffic counts in the tens of millions daily for sometime now. It goes up and down, of course, but for the past three weeks it’s been almost entirely downs with volumes ranging from around 3-10 million malicious attachments…
In response to the news that the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation is said to be among the organizations breached by suspected Russian hackers in a dragnet of the U.S. political apparatus ahead of the November election, Mark Kraynak, SVP & GM of Enterprise Solutions at Imperva commented below. Mark Kraynak, SVP & GM of Enterprise Solutions at Imperva: “This situation demonstrates that all data has value to someone – even if it’s not commercial data. The problem is that the value to an intruder may be higher than it is to the data owner, at least until it is comprised. Situations like…
Google has announced an easier method to approve sign-in requests on both Android and iOS using two-step verification. The new Google Prompt requires just a simple yes/no to approve a log-in and is built right into Android and is available on iOS. Travis Smith, Senior Security Research Engineer at Tripwire commented below. Travis Smith, Senior Security Research Engineer at Tripwire: “When implemented correctly, 2FA is an improvement over traditional password based authentication. The key to 2FA success is keeping control of the two different factors of authentication. By requiring the attacker to acquire two pieces of information and/or hardware, it’s making their life more difficult. …
Allows adversary on any system which mounts GPFS to inject commands which are later executed as root MWR Labs has warned of a high severity vulnerability affecting IBM’s General Parallel File System (GPFS), also now known as Spectrum Scale. Exploitation of this vulnerability allows any user of a system with a GPFS filesystem mounted to execute commands as root across the GPFS cluster. Speaking about the discovery, John Fitzpatrick, [Managing Director] of MWR InfoSecurity explains, “GPFS is IBM’s parallel file system which is used extensively in the supercomputing and high performance computing world. It is also used by organisations that have…
Following the latest news that hackers have taken control of virtual cash worth $60m (£41m) by exploiting a bug in a system designed to help start-ups. Paul Cant, head of Enterprise Solutions Operation for EMEA, BMC Software commented below. Paul Cant, Head of Enterprise Solutions Operation for EMEA at BMC Software: “Hacking is a bit like fishing. Hackers know that most companies can’t keep up with patching known vulnerabilities. It is therefore critically important and overdue that enterprises have a strategy in place to enable SecOps teams to quickly identify the vulnerability and its threat to their system, prioritise it against other threats…
With Windows officially announcing it is entering the mobile payments arena, Mark Noctor, VP of EMEA at Arxan Technologies, commented below on the increasing risks that come with more payment apps. Mark Noctor, VP of EMEA at Arxan Technologies: “Although only available to a limited initial user-base, the launch of Windows Wallet is yet another case for the inexorable rise of mobile payments. The launch announcement comes the day after Mastercard predicted the end of cash within 20 years. “As a cloud-based solution, Windows Wallet will be more flexible and easier to update, but is also exposed to greater risk if cryptographic keys or binary…
Ransomware attacks are never far from the headlines and that’s likely to remain the status quo for the foreseeable future. Indeed, Verizon’s 2016 data breach investigation report states that attacks have grown 16% globally year on year, a worrying trend for security professionals everywhere. But what’s behind the explosive growth of this relatively new form of cyber attack? To answer that, we must first look at how ransomware has evolved to date. What is ransomware? Ransomware is a distinct type of cyber attack, in that it extorts payment from the victim in exchange for allowing access to something that was encrypted…
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has published a survey into the British public’s approach to personal data, showing widespread distrust in others’ handling of it. One of the key finding is that only a quarter of Brits trust businesses with our personal data. Paul Henry, IT Security Consultant, Blancco Technology Group provides an insight on this below. Paul Henry, IT Security Consultant at Blancco Technology Group: “One of the more startling findings of the ICO study is that 68 percent of UK adults fear that companies will sell their personal data to other companies for marketing purposes. This just brings to…