News Items

A majority of DDoS attacks that were launched in the third quarter of 2017 were multi-vector attacks, according to Nexusguard's Q3 2017 Threat Report. Multi-vector DDoS attacks used attack vectors such as universal datagram protocol (UDP) flood, network time protocol (NTP) amplification, and more. Imperva's Global DDoS Threat Landscape Report also revealed that attacks on bitcoin exchanges are increasing. This article further discusses the findings shared within these reports in relation to the increase of multi-vector DDoS attacks, overall increase of DDoS attacks, and perpetrators of these attacks in the third quarter of 2017, along with findings from other reports regarding DDoS attacks.

eSecurity Planet reports "DDoS Attacks Increasingly Blended Multiple Attack Vectors in Q3 2017"

Three cyber protection technologies named DigitalAnts, MLSTONES, and SerialTap have been licensed to Cynash Inc. by the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in order for these innovations to be brought to the market. The protection provided by DigitalAnts for large scale networks or connected devices, is inspired by the swarm behavior practiced by ants to protect their colonies. MLSTONES uses a biological-based approach in which high performance computing is applied to detect and classify evolving, newly emerged malware. The purpose of SerialTap is to address vulnerabilities posed by a gap within industrial control systems. This article further discusses the details of these technologies as well as the support behind them.

Homeland Security News Wire reports "Innovative Technologies for Preventing Cyberattacks"

Threat modeling is a procedure that is often overlooked in the analysis of cybersecurity risks. The performance of threat modeling can help organizations or individuals determine the types of protection needed for their data through the identification of probable attackers, processes used to launch attacks, data that would be targeted by such attacks, and more. This article further discusses the concept and phases of threat modeling, along with recommendations pertaining to the determination of security measures to implement following the performance of threat modeling.

TechRepublic reports "Threat Modeling: a Critical, yet Underused, Element of Cybersecurity Risk Analysis"

Recent major industry breaches emphasize the importance of implementing security into the software development and software operation (DevOps) process. However, developers lack the skills to perform secure coding due to inadequate security education, according to CA Veracode and DevOps.com's 2017 DevSecOps Global Skills Survey. Organizations are encouraged to provide developers with proper security training beyond what it is offered by formal education in order to keep up with the constantly evolving threat landscape. This article further discusses the need for increased support for security education, the concept of DevSecOps, analytics, the top 10 most critical web application security risks highlighted by OWASP, predictions pertaining to security assessments, and technologies that will pose the biggest threats in 2018.

SD Times reports "2017: Security Was Not an Afterthought"

A small spike in attacks through the use of Canon, HP, and Epson printer and scanner email attachments has been highlighted by Barracuda Networks. Many attempts have been made by cybercriminals to launch malware attacks through spoofed emails that appear to be sent from widely-used printer and scanner brands. This article further discusses the recent increase of this type of attack, along with its process and capabilities.

Infosecurity Magazine reports "Printer-spoofing Campaign Installs Espionage-Bent Backdoors Inside the Enterprise"

According to Carbon Black's 2017 Threat Report, there has been a significant increase in fileless malware attacks as they account for the majority of cyberattacks in 2017. Fileless malware attacks require less steps to be deployed and use native operating system tools such as PowerShell and WMI in order to exploit in-memory access, Web browsers, and Office applications, thus making the use of such attacks more attractive to cybercriminals. This article further discusses the findings of the report in relation to the surge of fileless malware attacks, overall increase of cyberattacks, and top malware families in 2017, in addition to the growth of the ransomware industry.

Dark Reading reports "Fileless Malware Attacks Hit Milestone in 2017"

Security researchers at UpGuard revealed that information on 123 million American households was leaked as a result of an unsecured cloud-based data repository from marketing analytics company Alteryx. The Alteryx database exposed a variety of different information on US households such as home addresses, contact information, financial information, and much more. This article further discusses the details of this database breach in relation to the types of information leaked, how this information could be misused, the agency that this data belongs to, and the response to this discovery.

CNET reports "Massive Leak Exposes Data on 123 Million US Households"

Federal, state, and local government agencies continue to experience cyber incidents at a significantly higher rate than industries within the private sector as a result of slow digital transformation. Email phishing is still the most used threat vector by malicious actors to attack government agencies. Most private and public sector employees now attempt to avoid phishing by increasing their use of SMS text messaging for communication in the workplace. However, SMS texts are still vulnerable to a form of phishing known as smishing. This article further discusses the use of text messaging in business communications, the concept of smishing, and the importance of implementing a secure messaging platform to be used by government agencies.

GCN reports "Why Defense in Depth Must Include Secure Messaging"

Researchers at the University of Helsinki, Aalto University, and Waseda University of Tokyo have developed a new privacy-aware machine learning method. According to researchers, this method ensures that information on each data subject of a machine learning model or result is kept confidential. This article further discusses the concept and research behind privacy-aware machine learning.

University of Helsinki reports "New AI Method Keeps Data Private"

A Visa survey conducted by AYTM Market Research indicates strong consumer interest in new biometric technologies to ease the processes of authentication and payment. A considerable majority of the 1,000 Americans that participated in the survey, show more interest in using biometric authentication rather than traditional forms of authentication such as passwords or PINs. This article further discusses key findings from the survey in relation to consumer awareness and understanding of biometric authentication.

Help Net Security reports "Consumers Are Ready to Say Goodbye to Passwords"

A new strain of ransomware by the name of Spider was found by Netskope Threat Research labs. This ransomware was discovered to have targeted victims in Balkans through the launch of an email phishing campaign that distributes malicious Office documents. Once activated, the Spider ransomware demands that victims pay a ransom in bitcoin within 96 hours to recover their files and avoid damage to their PC. This article further discusses the details of this attack and how it could be avoided.

Threatpost reports "New Spider Ransomware Comes With 96-Hour Deadline"

The growing complexity and frequency of cyberattacks call for advanced methods to enhance the detection and prevention of such attacks. Deception is a cyber defense technique that is drawing more attention from organizations as it could be used to detect, deceive, and lure attackers away from sensitive data upon infiltration into a system. This article further discusses the concept of deception as well as common features and benefits offered by distributed deception platforms.

Dark Reading reports "Advanced Deception: How It Works & Why Attackers Hate It"

The repeal of net neutrality is predicted to decrease the transparency of the Internet, which could increase cybersecurity threats. Without net neutrality, ISPs would have the authority to alter content or its transmission through their networks. With this kind of power, ISPs could negatively impact end-to-end encryption by charging more to support encrypted traffic. This article further discusses FCC's vote to repeal net neutrality, how the absence of net neutrality poses a threat to cybersecurity, skepticism surrounding promises made by the commission in regards to transparency and government oversight, along with other expected ramifications posed by the repeal and actions that will be taken to challenge this decision.

SC Media US reports "FCC Votes to Repeal Net Neutrality, Could Increase Cybersecurity Threats"

Security researchers at Mandiant have discovered a new malware called Triton, which is capable of deactivating systems put in place to control a variety of industrial processes. Hackers used Triton to compromise Schneider Electric's Triconex Safety Instrumented System (SIS) controllers, which disabled plant operations. This article further discusses the speculated intent behind the launch of Triton, potential perpetrators of this attack, and the rise of vulnerabilities within ICS systems.

eSecurity Planet reports "Nation State Attackers Shut Down Industrial Plant with New ICS Malware"

The 6th Annual Best Scientific Cybersecurity Paper Competition is now open for nominations. This year's nominating period runs through midnight on March 30, 2018. We look forward to receiving your nominations.

Protecting the data of military personnel is critical as the exposure of their information to adversaries could pose serious threats to their safety. The military, along with businesses and individuals are seeking to improve upon the efficiency of protecting information through the use of new methods. The implementation of physical unclonable function (PUF) devices to secure data, is a proposed alternative to traditional methods that involve software. This article further discusses a PUF based on nano-electro mechanical switches (NEMs) that has been designed by researchers to operate within hostile environments such as that of the military.

Science Daily reports "Improving Cyber Security in Harsh Environments"

Security researchers at 4IQ, a dark web analysis firm, have found a database on the dark web that holds a shocking 1.4 billion breached credentials. The database combines credentials deriving from 252 previous breaches. The process of hijacking accounts could be automated by hackers as the credentials stored within this highly interactive database show high reuse of passwords across different types of accounts. This article further discusses the data dump that has been discovered by researchers and what this discovery indicates about traditional password authentication systems.

Infosecurity Magazine reports "Researchers Find Trove of 1.4 Billion Breached Credentials"

A team of researchers at The University of California, San Diego, has developed a tool that could be used to detect whether a website has been compromised by hackers. The tool, called Tripwire, is able to discover if a website has suffered a data breach by checking the activity of email accounts that are associated with accounts on the website. This article further discusses the concept behind Tripwire and how the testing of this tool was conducted by researchers, along with the results of this study and disclosure of this information to sites' security teams.

Science Newsline reports "Computer Scientists Develop a Simple Tool to Tell If Websites Suffered a Data Breach"

A new report released by security vendor Malwarebytes has identified the "New Mafia" to be behind the significant increase of cyberattacks against businesses in 2017. According to the report, the New Mafia is composed of four different groups of cybercriminals, which include traditional gangs, state-sponsored attackers, ideological hackers, and hackers-for-hire. This article further discusses the findings of this report in relation to the increase of cyberattacks targeted at businesses, how each group within the New Mafia are characterized, vigilance, along with the potential critical impacts of cyberattacks on organizations.

Enterprise Times reports "Malwarebytes Sees New Mafia Launching Cyber-Attacks"

Nominations to the 6th Annual Best Scientific Cybersecurity Paper Competition will open on December 15, 2017.

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC) aim to put the Integrated Adaptive Cyber Defense (IACD) framework into operation. The IACD framework provides a structure of which cybersecurity automation, orchestration, and information sharing should follow. This initiative is in support of improving upon the speed and distribution of information amongst companies within the financial services industry, as well as the prevention and response to cyberattacks. This article further discusses the support and development behind IACD, the benefits of this framework, along with the roles of APL and FS-ISAC in the advancement of the IACD framework.

Homeland Security News Wire reports "Improving Critical Sectors' Cybersecurity by Bolstering Sharing, Acting on Information"

Security researchers at the Kromtech Security Center have discovered a major exposure of personal data belonging to over 31 million users of AI.type, which is a popular virtual keyboard app. Leaked data contains full names, email addresses, phone numbers, and more. This article further discusses how this exposure of data occurred, the data that has been leaked, the level of access usually granted to on-screen keyboards, and the potential dangers of using free apps.

ZDNet reports "A Popular Virtual Keyboard App Leaks 31 Million Users' Personal Data"

In support of diversifying the STEM workforce, Girl Scouts of the USA and Raytheon have announced the launch of a national computer science program that will offer young girls the opportunity to prepare for careers in the fields of cybersecurity, artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and data science. Content provided by this program will be age-appropriate and focused on building computer science skills as well as problem-solving and leadership skills. This article further discusses the goals and structure of this program, along with other ways in which cybersecurity skills are being fostered by the Girl Scouts.

TechRepublic reports "Girl Scouts to Train Next Generation of Cybersecurity, AI, and Robotics Professionals"