Category: The State of Security

The War of Passwords: Compliance vs NIST

The most recent National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidelines have been updated for passwords in section 800-63B. The document no longer recommends combinations of capital letters, lower case letters, numbers and special characters. Yet most companies and systems…

What is ISO 27701?

If you have a familiarity with any information security frameworks and certifications, it’s more than likely you have heard of International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and possibly the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). From my experience, the most commonly referred to…

Beware secret lovers spreading Nemty ransomware

Digital attackers are sending around love-themed malicious emails in an attempt to infect recipients with the Nemty ransomware. If you’ve been kicking around in the world of IT security for more years than you’d like to admit, then you’ll surely…

Tripwire Patch Priority Index for February 2020

Tripwire’s February 2020 Patch Priority Index (PPI) brings together important vulnerabilities from Microsoft and Adobe. Up first on the patch priority list this month are patches for Microsoft Edge and Scripting Engine. These patches resolve information disclosure, elevation of privilege,…

Red Teaming: How to Run Effective Cyber-Drills?

What is red teaming? How is it different from conventional penetration testing? Why do we need blue, red, and white teams? How are cyber-drills carried out, and what results should be expected? In this article, we will answer these and…

NSA Releases Cloud Vulnerability Guidance

The United States’ National Security Agency (NSA) has put together a short guidance document on mitigating vulnerabilities for cloud computing. At only eight pages, it is an accessible primer for cloud security and a great place to start before taking…

Attack Campaign Leveraged Coronavirus Theme to Deliver Remcos RAT

Security researchers discovered an attack campaign that abused fears surrounding the global coronavirus outbreak to deliver the Remcos RAT. Yoroi Security detected the attack campaign when its threat intelligence activities uncovered a suspicious artifact named “CoronaVirusSafetyMeasures_pdf.” In their analysis, Yoroi’s…

The MITRE ATT&CK Framework: Impact

Not all attackers are trying to exfiltrate data. In security, we’re all familiar with CIA triad—confidentiality, availability, and integrity. While Exfiltration describes adversarial behavior with the goal of violating confidentiality, attackers may look to manipulate, interrupt, or destroy your systems…

How to Get Started in Digital Forensics

If you want to become a digital forensic expert, be aware that when entering the field, you will be presented with an abundance of information that you will not know. It is a wonderfully challenging career path. Some believe that…

U.S. Department of Defense Disclosed Data Breach at DISA

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) warned that a data breach at the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) might have compromised some individuals’ personal information. In a photograph of a letter obtained by Reuters, DISA CIO and Risk Management Executive…

Top Email Security Threats of 2020 – How To Stop Them

As hackers’ methods become more sophisticated, the scale of email security breaches and the frequency at which they occur grow greater with each passing year. In 2019 alone, an estimated 2 billion unique email addresses, accompanied by over 21 million…

AZORult Trojan Disguised Itself as Fake ProtonVPN Installer

Security researchers observed samples of the AZORult trojan disguising themselves as fake ProtonVPN installers for distribution. Back in November 2019, malicious actors launched this attack campaign by registering the domain “protonvpn[.]store” with a registrar based in Russia. One iteration of…

10 Must-See Talks to Attend at RSA Conference 2020

RSA Conference USA is one of the most anticipated digital security events of the year. Last year, its 31 keynote presentations, more than 621 speaker sessions, 700 presenting companies on the exposition floor attracted over 42,000 attendees. Given such popularity,…

Payment Card Data Security Incident Disclosed by Rutter’s

Convenience store and gas station chain Rutter’s disclosed a security incident that might have affected customers’ payment card data. According to a notice posted on its website, Rutter’s launched an investigation after receiving a report from a third-party of someone…

MOSE: Using Configuration Management for Evil

Post-exploitation can be one of the most time-consuming but worthwhile tasks that an offensive security professional engages in. Fundamentally, it is where you are able to demonstrate what an adversary may do if they compromise a business. A big component…

A Guide to Digital Privacy for You and Your Family

Having worked with many individuals responding to incidents where their digital private images were shared without consent, social media or email accounts had unauthorised access, and even physical safety was a concern, it is all too familiar how terrifying the…

VERT Threat Alert: February 2020 Patch Tuesday Analysis

Today’s VERT Alert addresses Microsoft’s February 2020 Security Updates. VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-870 on Wednesday, February 12th.  In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs CVE-2020-0674 A vulnerability exists in the way that Internet…

Cyber Resilience – Everything You (Really) Need to Know

What is cyber resilience? If you search the definition within the Oxford Dictionary, resilience alone is defined as “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.” If you narrow the definition down to cyber resilience, it shifts to maintaining vs…

Data Privacy Event Disclosed by Affordable Preschool Provider

A San Diego-based provider of affordable preschool disclosed that a data privacy incident might have affected some customers’ personal information. In a notice of data breach published on February 5, Educational Enrichment Systems, Inc. (EES) announced that it had suffered…

10 Tenets for Cyber Resilience in a Digital World

Companies are facing increased and complex cybersecurity challenges in today’s interconnected digital economy. The cyber threats have become more sophisticated and may harm a company via innovative new forms of malware, through the compromise of global supply chains or by…

3 Malware Trends to Watch Out for in 2020

Malware closed out 2019 on a strong note. According to AV-TEST, malware authors’ efforts throughout the year helped push the total number of known malware above one billion samples. This development wouldn’t have been possible without the vigor exhibited by…

So You Want to Achieve NERC CIP-013-1 Compliance…

Is an electricity provider’s supply chain its weakest link in the event of a cyberattack? The evidence is compelling that third parties often play unwitting roles. For example, the NotPetya ransomware attacks in mid-2017 originally gained a foothold via a…

What Is Log Management, and Why Is It Important?

I think we all know what log management is. As discussed in a 2017 article for The State of Security, log management is about systematically orchestrating the system and network logs collected by the organization. That being said, there’s still…

Tripwire Patch Priority Index for January 2020

Tripwire’s January 2020 Patch Priority Index (PPI) brings together important vulnerabilities from Microsoft, Oracle, VMware, and Linux. Exploit Alert: Metasploit Up first on the patch priority list this month are vulnerabilities that have been recently added to Metasploit. Two vulnerabilities…

Email Attackers Abusing Coronavirus Outbreak to Spread Emotet

Security researchers observed email attackers abusing the coronavirus outbreak to infect concerned users with the Emotet trojan. IBM X-Force found that the attack emails appeared to originate from a Japanese disability welfare service provider. Those emails informed recipients that officials…

Assessment Frameworks for NIS Directive Compliance

According to the NIS Directive, Member States should adopt a common set of baseline security requirements to ensure a minimum level of harmonized security measures across EU and enhance the overall level of security of operators providing essential services (OES)…

Change Is Inevitable: Tripwire File Analyzer

One of the only things that is constant in life is change. It’s the same with cybersecurity. There are different types of changes to consider. Changes that we accept Changes that are good Changes that are bad A lot of…

On Authorization and Implementation of Access Control Models

There are dozens of implementations of authorization mechanisms. When there are complex requirements dictated by business processes, authorization mechanisms may often be implemented incorrectly or, at least, not optimally. The reason for that, in my opinion, is the low attention…

Navigating ICS Security: Having your Action Plan Ready

Trust, respect, understanding. These are all two-way relationships that must be earned over time. Whilst someone being hired in a senior position will likely already have a certain level of each, part of your job is to continuously cultivate all…

The Top 19 Information Security Conferences of 2020

With the 2010s now over, the infosec industry is now fully invested in 2020 and beyond. The 2020s will no doubt present their fair share of challenging digital security threats. But they will also enable security professionals to discuss shared…

NIS Directive: Who are the Operators of Essential Services (OES)?

The NIS Directive is the first EU horizontal legislation addressing cybersecurity challenges and a true game-changer for cybersecurity resilience and cooperation in Europe. The Directive has three main objectives: Improving national cybersecurity capabilities Building cooperation at EU level Promoting a…

You’ve Bought Security Software. Now What?

Many years ago when I first started my career in network security as a support engineer, I received a phone call from a customer. (Let’s call him “Frank.”) He used our vulnerability scanner as a consultant for his own customers,…

Domain Name of WeLeakInfo.com Seized by FBI and DOJ

The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that they have seized the domain name for weleakinfo.com. On January 16, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia announced that the FBI and DOJ…

Ako Ransomware Using Spam Attachments to Target Networks

Security researchers observed that Ako ransomware is using malicious spam attachments to go after organizations’ networks. On January 14, AppRiver Senior Cybersecurity Analyst David Pickett contacted Bleeping Computer and told the computer self-help site that his company had observed Ako…

ISA Global Cybersecurity Alliance: Your Expertise is Needed

The ISA/IEC 62443 series of standards, developed by the ISA99 committee and adopted by the International Electrotechnical Commission, provides a flexible framework to address and mitigate current and future security vulnerabilities in industrial automation and control systems. These standards not…

Emotet Used Phishing Emails to Target the United Nations

The Emotet trojan recently leveraged a phishing campaign to target email addresses associated with users at the United Nations. In an email provided by Cofense to Bleeping Computer, Emotet’s handlers pretended to be representatives of Norway to the United Nations…

VERT Threat Alert: January 2020 Patch Tuesday Analysis

Today’s VERT Alert addresses Microsoft’s January 2020 Security Updates. VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-866 on Wednesday, January 15th.  In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs CVE-2020-0601 While there are no in-the-wild and disclosed CVEs…

Texas School District Lost $2.3M to Phishing Email Scam

A school district in Texas announced that it lost approximately $2.3 million after falling victim to a phishing email scam. On January 10, the Manor Independent School District (MISD) published a statement on Twitter and Facebook in which it revealed…