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Cyberwarfare / Nation-State Attacks

Securing the 2020 Election

Tom Field  •  December 13, 2019

In 2016, Retired Brigadier General Francis X. Taylor had a front-row seat to the election interference threat picture. Today, as a leader of U.S. CyberDome, what's his view on how well the U.S. is prepared to protect the 2020 federal election?

3rd Party Risk Management

Is your Organization Suffering From Third-Party "Compliance Drift"?

Tony Howlett  •  December 13, 2019

Third-party vendors accessing your most critical systems and networks can also bring in security incidents along with all those wonderful things they promised in the sales presentation.

Cyberwarfare / Nation-State Attacks

Electrical Grid Cybersecurity Measure Advances

Scott Ferguson  •  December 12, 2019

A proposal that won U.S. House approval Wednesday calls for crafting a strategy for securing the nation's electrical grid. It also would create a two-year pilot program within the U.S. Energy Department's National Laboratory to identify vulnerabilities within the grid.

Encryption & Key Management

Visual Journal: Black Hat Europe 2019

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  December 12, 2019

Black Hat Europe returned to London last week, featuring two days of briefings covering topics from cryptography and breach response to exploit development and application security. Plus, a packed business hall offered technical demonstrations. Here are visual highlights of the event.

Blockchain & Cryptocurrency

Five Charged in $722 Million Cryptomining Ponzi Scheme

Scott Ferguson  •  December 11, 2019

The Justice Department has charged five individuals with running a high-tech Ponzi scheme that allegedly fleeced investors out of $722 million by falsely promising clients big returns as part of a cryptomining operation.

Endpoint Security

Intel Chips Vulnerable to 'Plundervolt' Attack

Jeremy Kirk  •  December 11, 2019

Intel issued a firmware update on Tuesday to mitigate an attack developed by researchers, dubbed Plundervolt, which uses voltage fluctuations to reveal secrets such as encryption keys. The findings are the latest bad news for Intel as researchers have dug deep into its chip architecture.

Endpoint Security

McAfee Considers Purchase of NortonLifeLock: Report

Akshaya Asokan  •  December 11, 2019

McAfee's ownership team is exploring a deal to acquire NortonLifeLock, the renamed, publicly traded firm that was formerly the consumer and small business security division of Symantec, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cites "people familiar with the matter."

Breach Notification

Health Data Breach Tally: Trends in 2019

Marianne Kolbasuk McGee  •  December 11, 2019

The federal tally of health data breaches shows that hacking attacks and incidents involving business associates dominated this year. Here's an analysis of all the latest trends.

Business Continuity Management / Disaster Recovery

Decryptor Bug Means Ryuk Victims Stuck in Ransomware Rut

Jeremy Kirk  •  December 10, 2019

Emsisoft has spotted a buggy decryptor for the Ryuk ransomware and developed a custom tool to fix it. But victims will still have to pay the ransom to recover files.

Account Takeover

GDPR Violation: German Privacy Regulator Fines 1&1 Telecom

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  December 10, 2019

One of the largest fines to date for violating the EU's General Data Protection Regulation has been announced by Germany's federal privacy and data protection watchdog, the BfDI, against 1 & 1 Telecommunications, in part for inadequate authentication mechanisms. The company plans to appeal.

Cybercrime

Vietnamese APT Group Targets BMW, Hyundai: Report

Akshaya Asokan  •  December 10, 2019

German automaker BMW was hit by suspected Vietnamese hackers in an apparent industrial espionage attack, German media outlet Bayerischer Rundfunk reports, adding that the same attackers apparently also targeted South Korea's Hyundai. Experts say Vietnamese government-backed APT attackers are on the rise.

Encryption & Key Management

Quantum-Proof Cryptography: What Role Will It Play?

Suparna Goswami  •  December 10, 2019

CISOs need to begin investigating the use of quantum-proof cryptography to ensure security is maintained when extremely powerful quantum computers that can crack current encryption are implemented, says Professor Alexander Ling, principal investigator at the Center for Quantum Technologies in Singapore.