Infosecurity News
Europe furious over latest Snowden revelations
Spiegel Online reported Saturday that it had seen Snowden documents indicating that the NSA had 'spied' on both the EU's diplomatic representation in Washington and its representation to the United Nations.
NIST revamps mobile device security guidelines for smartphone era
The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published a mobile device management guide for federal agencies seeking secure methods for workers to use smartphones and tablets.
Fake Opera 'update' pushes Zbot malware
Norway’s Opera Software has issued an advisory this week detailing a June 19 attack by hackers who breached the company’s network and used one of its older, expired code-signing certificates to digitally sign a Zeus-based piece of malware and package it as an update for the Opera internet browser.
Lotus F1 builds a secure, reliable network
While the Lotus F1 Team prepares for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone this weekend, Infosecurity talked to its CIO about the network and security demands in a very unusual business.
Facebook Fix SMS Hack Bug
A UK security researcher has disclosed a bug in Facebook's code that allowed him to take over any Facebook account in less than a minute - and earned himself a $20,000 bug bounty in the process.
Bruce Schneier joins EFF; stays with BT
Schneier, author of Applied Cryptography, Secrets and Lies and other books, founder of Counterpane (now BT Managed Security Solutions), and designer of the Blowfish and Twofish encryption algorithms, has joined the board of EFF.
Vormetric receives $15 million cash infusion from investors
A group of investors led by venture capital firm Split Rock Partners has provided $15 million in new funding to Vormetric, the San Jose-based firm that specializes in security and encryption services for virtual, cloud-based and physical environments.
Malware attackers leave behind digital clues
Just as the science of fingerprints, DNA, and fiber analysis have become invaluable in criminal forensics, connecting the dots of an advanced cyber-attack can help identify even the most sophisticated threat actors – if researchers know what to look for.
BAE Systems Detica Reports on BYOD Problems
Nobody doubts that BYOD is a security issue – the connection of employees’ personal devices to the corporate network worries IT staff. There are security solutions; but study after study surprisingly shows that many companies simply ignore the problem – either not allowing the use of BYOD even though they know it happens, or allowing it but doing nothing to secure it.
Cutwail spamming out Andromeda – using Qantas as the lure
A current spam campaign from the Cutwail botnet is sending out the Andromeda bot loader (aka Gamarue) which subsequently downloads the Zeus banking trojan. Numerous spam themes are employed, including flight/ticket details, courier, tax, hotel, payroll, invoice, social media and others.
CREST launches CRESTx at Lancaster university
CREST is the council for registered ethical security testers, a standards based organisation that provides assurance and trust in penetration testers and ethical hackers. On 3 July 2013 it is running its first CRESTx conference at Lancaster university, one of the EPSRC-GCHQ Academic Centres of Excellence in Cyber Security.
Phishing targets UK businesses 3,000 times per day
Phishing attacks are evolving, and becoming more widespread over time: Kaspersky Lab has found that 3,000 UK internet users were subjected to phishing attacks each day for the past year, a notable increase from 1,000 the year before.
Google adds phishing and malware levels to Transparency Report
Google, which flags 10,000 unsafe websites each day, has expanded its Transparency Report to add a section that will shed more light on the sources of malware and phishing attacks.
(ISC)² kicks off Women in Security mentoring program
Women in Security (WiS), a special interest group led by (ISC)²'s London Chapter, is launching a mentoring scheme to help women interested in information security to explore the profession and the opportunities its offers.
'Hidden' SOCA Report Shows UK Businesses Regularly Hack Rivals
The Independent has claimed that a report produced and suppressed by the Serious Organized Crime Agency demonstrates that law firms, telecoms giants and insurance companies routinely hire criminals to steal rivals' information.
Fake anti-virus jumps from PCs to Android
A fresh ransomware scheme is plaguing Android users by way of the well-known FakeAV malware, which has now made the leap from computers to mobile devices.
ATM-like cryptology aims to banish IDs and passwords
Finding a clever way to eliminate the use of passwords and user IDs entirely in a way that offers airtight security is, naturally, an identity technologist’s Holy Grail. CertiVox is the latest security Parsifal, debuting the open-source M-Pin Strong Authentication System for banishing the use of credentials.
Bitcoin Foundation told to cease and desist
The Bitcoin Foundation has received a cease and desist letter from the California Department of Financial Institutions, alleging that it may be engaged in money transmissions without the requisite state license.
(ISC)² launches Cyber Warrior Scholarship for veterans
To help combat the widening of the gap between demand for and supply of cybersecurity professionals, the (ISC)²’s nonprofit arm has launched the U.S.A. Cyber Warrior Scholarship program, aimed at providing cybersecurity career training to qualified veterans who served in the US military.
The effect of PRISM on Europe's General Data Protection Regulation
PRISM is the US surveillance program that allows the NSA to gain access to the accounts of major US cloud services providers, including the accounts of non-US citizens. The GDPR is the proposed data protection law for the EU. The two are, on the surface, incompatible.
