Security News
THE THREAT. THEN: U.S. intelligence agencies say Russia was the only nation that significantly interfered in the 2016 election. CYBERSECURITY IN THE STATES. THEN: Before the 2016 election, state election offices were mostly focused on ensuring orderly elections and that voting-related equipment functioned properly.
White Ops, the global leader in bot mitigation, verifying the humanity of more than 1 trillion digital interactions per week, announced the appointment of Dr. Russell Handorf, former Computer Scientist with the FBI, to Principal Threat Intelligence Hacker. In his new role, Dr. Handorf will lead investigations and operations into dark corners of the open, deep, and dark net to uncover and detail the workings of cybercriminals in an effort to protect White Ops customers-and internet customers on the whole-from malicious activity and sophisticated bot attacks.
A honeypot set up to observe the current security landscape in smart manufacturing systems observed numerous threats-including cryptomining malware and ransomware-in just a few months, highlighting the new threats that industrial control systems face with increased exposure to the internet. To further study these threats, researchers with Trend Micro simulated the fake smart factory system last year in what they called "Our most realistic honeypot to date," according to their report.
The malvertising-focused trojan known as Shlayer has burbled to the top of the malware heap when it comes to targeting Mac users. Shlayer is a trojan downloader, which spreads via fake applications that hide its malicious code, according to Kaspersky.
GoSecure, a leading provider of Managed Detection and Response services and a predictive Endpoint Detection and Response platform, announced the addition of Insider Threat Detection and Response to their portfolio. With the remaining 68% the result of end-use negligence, the challenge increasingly is knowing good behavior from bad. Whereas many Insider Threat solutions are focused on data, GoSecure Insider Threat Detection and Response is focused on users, actions and behaviors.
The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad bin Salman, has been officially fingered as the man responsible for hacking Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos's iPhone X, causing a massive stir in diplomatic circles. Following a report yesterday that Bezos's smartphone had been compromised by a malware-poisoned video sent directly by bin Salman to Bezos through WhatsApp, on Wednesday two UN special rapporteurs named the head of the oil state as the source of digital spyware, and called for an "Immediate investigation by US and other relevant authorities" into the "Continuous, multi-year, direct and personal involvement of the Crown Prince in efforts to target perceived opponents."
Security firm Cynet has released a report on The State of Breach Protection in 2020 that paints a picture of a cybersecurity landscape that is evolving quickly-maybe too quickly for IT teams to keep up. The report, which predicts security trends for 2020 based on responses from cybersecurity professionals, finds that that most are planning to roll out advanced protection products in 2020.
Email security miss rates are definitely a huge issue. BitDam conducted an empirical study to measure leading email security products' ability to detect unknown threats at first encounter.
Trend Micro researchers have set up a factory honeypot and found that industrial organizations should be more concerned about attacks launched by profit-driven cybercriminals rather than the threat posed by sophisticated state-sponsored groups. The honeypot mimicked a factory and was designed to be as realistic as possible.
Iran is widely expected to ramp up cyberattacks against the United States in response to the US killing of a top Iranian leader this month even as fears have receded about a military confrontation between the two countries. While Iran appeared to be "Standing down" from a military response, according to US President Donald Trump, the cyber threat remains real, said analysts.