Infosecurity News
RSA Received $10 Million from the NSA to Make Flawed Crypto its Default Offering
The accusation, made Friday by Reuters, is that "RSA received $10 million in a deal that set the NSA formula as the preferred, or default, method for number generation in the BSafe software."
UK's ICO Issues Guidelines for an 'Appy' Christmas
The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is warning consumers to protect their personal information when downloading mobile apps, ahead of the busiest day of the year for app downloads. In tandem, it also issued guidance to help developers look after people’s information correctly and comply with the UK's Data Protection Act.
Target Breach Affecting 40 Million Was Likely an Inside Job
The US, originator of Black Friday holiday sales and the dubious homeland of in-store, post-Thanksgiving brawls over hot toys (remember Tickle-Me Elmo?), has been hit with the largest retail breach of credit and debit card information of 2013. In fact, at 40 million affected and counting, the security incident at Target may be one of the largest retail breaches ever.
Industry Predictions for 2014; Part 3: The Effect and Influence of Government
In Part 3 of our week-long look at industry predictions, we examine the effect and influence of government. There are two primary aspects: the influence of government (regulations); and the effect of government (which has been shown in the latter half of 2013 to have turned the internet into its own private surveillance machine).
Bruce Schneier Leaves BT
Bruce Schneier, BT's security futurologist, is leaving the company after eight years. In June 2013 he joined the board of digital rights firm Electronic Frontier Foundation, and has – since the Snowden revelations began – been a fierce critic of NSA/GCHQ mass surveillance. With BT increasingly implicated in GCHQ collaboration, it has become clear that the two positions are incompatible.
Big Botnet, Posing as Firefox Add-on, Scans Web for SQL Vulnerabilities
A slaving operation masquerading as a legitimate add-on for the Mozilla Firefox browser has created a 12,500-PC strong botnet army whose purpose is to find exploitable websites.
Department of Energy Failed to Address Known Cybersecurity Weaknesses
The US Department of Energy’s failure to address known cybersecurity weaknesses was a direct cause of a July 2013 data breach that affected more than 104,000 individuals, according to federal auditors.
61.5% Web Traffic Comes from Bots
The internet is a pretty busy place, with traffic increasing year over year exponentially. According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index, global IP traffic has increased more than fourfold in the past five years, and will increase threefold in the coming five years. Overall, IP traffic will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23% from 2012 to 2017. And yet, most of that traffic will be non-human in origin.
China's Plot to Brick the US Economy
NSA Information Assurance Director Debora Plunkett made a remarkable accusation on CBS 60 Minutes: the NSA had spotted and foiled a plot to unleash a supervirus capable of bricking computers. "The attack would have been disguised as a request for a software update," she told CBS. "If the user agreed, the virus would’ve infected the computer... Think about the impact of that across the entire globe. It could literally take down the U.S. economy."
Disqus May Not Have Been Hacked; But It Was Certainly Exploited
Earlier this week a politically motivated group of Swedish investigative journalists linked some supposedly anonymous right-wing comments posted via Disqus to their actual authors. While several of the authors freely admitted to the posts, it also led to a few resignations from the far-right Sweden Democrat political party.
100% of Top Paid Android Apps Have Been Hacked
Word that mobile malware is rather pervasive has been making the rounds for months, but a new report has found that a shocking 100% of the Top 100 paid Android apps and 56% of the Top 100 paid Apple iOS apps have been hacked. Averaged together, users have a 78% chance of running into an app that has been compromised at some point.
64-bit, Tor-enabled Zeus Variant Spotted in the Wild
Perhaps it was inevitable, but a 64-bit version of the Zeus banking trojan has been spotted in the wild – and it now comes enhanced with Tor.
Sweden's Intelligence Agency has Access to NSA's XKeyscore system
Sweden has sometimes been called the 'Sixth Eye' – referring to the English-speaking Five Eyes SIGINT alliance – suggesting a close working relationship between Sweden's FRA and the NSA and GCHQ. New documents suggest that it has access to the XKeyscore tool, and has helped in the Quantum hacking program.
Hacked WordPress Site Hosts Thousands of Links to Pharmacy Scams
The issue of hacked WordPress sites continues to persist, as evidenced by one victimized URL being used to host links to thousands if not millions or billions of shady pharmaceutical sites without the knowledge of the owners.
Patch Tuesday: December 2013
Eleven Microsoft bulletins including ten critical vulnerabilities – some of which are already being actively exploited – affecting all supported versions of Windows, Office, SharePoint, Exchange, and Lync make for a busy last month of a busy year (106 bulletins all told) for sys admins.
Obamacare-baited Malware Scam Mashes Up iPhones, Video Players
The old adage of "if it’s too good to be true that it usually is," continues to hold water. An elaborate social engineering lure using the Affordable Care Act as bait is unfolding, with the end goal of serving up an executable file containing malware.
Cyber-espionage Campaign Ahead of G20 Summit Compromised Several European Ministries
Ahead of the G20 summit in Russia in late summer, a group of perpetrators (who may be Chinese) carried out a targeted attack on diplomatic missions, including ministries of foreign affairs (MFA), using the crisis in Syria as social engineering bait.
Major Browsers Block an Improperly Issued Certificate
SSL certificates are designed to provide trust in the internet. They are issued by trusted Certificate Authorities to prove that a site is indeed the site it claims to be. But if a certificate is forged, lost, or improperly issued, it provides false trust that can lead to man-in-the-middle cyber attacks.
NSA/GCHQ Turn World of Warcraft into World of Spycraft
Online gamers use false names and characters to meet, chat and interact with other people from all over the world anonymously. NSA and GCHQ began to suspect that criminals and terrorists were using these virtual worlds, such as World of Warcraft, XBox Live and Second Life to 'hide in plain site' – and began a concerted effort to infiltrate gaming.
FBI Can Activate Webcams Remotely Without the Light Coming On
Whether hackers are able to remotely switch on victims' webcams without the camera light giving the game away has been the subject of some debate. Now we learn that not only can it be done, it is done by the FBI.
