cyber crime: Latest Russian Cyber Attack on White House a Boon for CISA
- 04/09/15 10:57 PM
The Russians have come…again—in the form of hackers. Not long ago Russian cyber criminals busted into the U.S.’s State Department system and mangled it for months.
This time, they got into a computer system at the White House. Luckily, this system did not hold any classified information, but nevertheless, the hackers got ahold of President Obama’s private itinerary. So it just goes to show you just what hackers a world away can do.
This isn’t the first time that the White House has been hacked into. Remember the attacks that were allegedly committed by the Chinese? These, too, did not involve sensitive information, … (1 comments)
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cyber crime: Fear of Fraud trumps Terrorism
- 12/30/14 09:14 PM
Okay, what’s more likely? Getting bombed … or some punk racking up charges on your credit card?
The yearly Crime Poll says that two-thirds of the respondents were edgy about data breaches involving their credit cards, as well as their computer and smartphones getting hacked—far more so than being robbed or taken hostage.
It’s easier to thwart a mugger or burglar than it is to thwart cybercrime. Just because you never click links inside e-mail messages doesn’t mean a cybercriminal won’t still figure out a way to nab you.
Interestingly, many people who’ve been digitally victimized don’t even bother filing … (4 comments)
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cyber crime: It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like the Holiday Shopping Season
- 12/07/14 02:48 AM
The holiday season is in full force. Not only is it time to bring out the tinsel while jamming out to holiday music, it’s also time to buckle down on your holiday shopping. Have you made your holiday shopping list yet? Luckily, in the U.S., the biggest shopping days of the year are coming up meaning lots of shopping deals at stores on and offline to help you complete your holiday shopping list.
There are people out there who are really gung-ho about Black Friday—camping outside a department store the night before and fighting the masses for the half-price widescreen … (0 comments)
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cyber crime: What is a Computer Worm?
- 11/23/14 02:27 AM
Worms. Most of us probably think of them as those squirmy invertebrates we dissected as a kid or found on the sidewalk after a storm. You might have used them as bait for fishing (not phishing), to pull a prank or have even eaten them (no judgment).
Whether you like worms or not, there’s one kind of worm that definitely isn’t your friend—the computer worm. This kind of worm is a computer program that can replicate and send copies of itself to other computers in a network. Worms are considered a subset of viruses, but unlike viruses they can travel without any … (6 comments)
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cyber crime: Hackers and Banks win, Clients lose
- 11/11/14 08:50 PM
Don’t blame the hackers; don’t blame the bank; apparently it’s the victim’s fault that a Missouri escrow firm was robbed of $440,000 in a cybercrime, says a report on computerworld.com.
The attack occurred in 2010, but the appeals court’s March 2013 ruling declared that the firm, Choice Escrow and Title LLC, can’t hold its bank accountable. The victimized firm might even have to pay the bank’s attorney fees. The court says that the firm failed to abide by the bank’s recommended security procedures.
BancorpSouth Bank was sued by Choice Escrow following a cyber assault in which the password and username … (1 comments)
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cyber crime: Security is Everyone’s responsibility
- 11/07/14 09:04 PM
In the movies, the good guys always get the bad guys. In cyber reality, no such thing exists.
A survey of 5,000 IT security professionals turns up the following:
63% doubt they can stop data breaches. 69% think threats slip through the cracks of their security systems. 57% believe their company lacks protection from advanced attacks. 80% think their company’s leaders fail to connect the dots between a data breach and potential profit loss. A survey of customers shows:
59% are quite concerned about credit and debit card information theft. 57% are very concerned about ID theft. About 60% believe … (1 comments)
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cyber crime: 5 ways Criminals hack your PC
- 10/24/14 11:06 PM
Hackers are hell-bent on busting into the network of their targets. They are persistent—never giving up. When you build your defense against cyber criminals, it must be done with the idea that they WILL succeed. When you operate on this assumption rather than thinking that your anti this and anti that are all you need, you’ll have the best cyber security in place.
Another mistake is to assume that hackers hound only small businesses or weak networks. The cyber criminal doesn’t care so much about vulnerabilities; he wants the goods. It’s like a burglar wanting a million dollars worth of … (4 comments)
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cyber crime: 6 Ways to Protect your Internet of Things from Hackers
- 09/14/14 02:41 AM
Everything seems like it is connected to the Internet, just about, including TVs, home thermostats, sprinkler controls, door locks, egg trays (yes, there’s an app for that), tooth brushes (cray cray), and more.
A study by HP shows that 70 percent of devices have vulnerabilities. Researchers have revealed that most of the devices in their study, plus the devices’ mobile and cloud applications, had a welcome mat for hackers.
Most of these devices had weak passwords (like qwerty) or weakly protected credentials (unencrypted): beacons for hackers. Seventy percent of the devices lacked encryption. Sixty percent had insecure software updates.
The … (1 comments)
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cyber crime: The Beginners Guide to using TOR
- 09/09/14 11:23 PM
Want to be invisible online? Get to know Tor.
Tor will make you cyber-anonymous, concealing your cyber footprints, ID, browsing history and physical location. It even makes the sites you visit anonymous. Now, all that being said, there seems to be a concerted effort by certain US government agencies and others to crack Tor, but that hasn’t been completely accomplished…yet.
More on Tor
Realize, that Tor can’t provide 100 percent security. On paper, the Tor network is secure. But the typical Joe or Jane may unintentionally exit Tor using an “exit node,” and end up getting on a website or … (2 comments)
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cyber crime: Botnets Here, Botnets There, Botnets EVERYWHERE
- 09/05/14 11:09 PM
What are these “botnets” you keep hearing about? Botnets (think roBOT + NETwork—gets you “BOTNET”) are a network of secretly compromised, run-of-the-mill home and office computers that have malicious software—controlled by a solitary hacker or cybercrime ring.
Hackers use botnets to execute a variety of cybercrimes like page rank sabotage, mass spamming, bitcoin mining, and more. The FBI says there are 18 botnet infections every second worldwide and these infiltrations pose one of the gravest online threats ever. That figure means over 500 million computers a year are infected.
Needless to say, these attacks can occur without the user knowing … (2 comments)
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cyber crime: Majority of Executives believe Attackers will overcome Corporate Defenses
- 08/29/14 10:35 PM
Many technology executives don’t have a favorable outlook on their ability to sideswipe cybercriminals, according to research conducted by McKinsey and World Economic Forum.
The research also shows that both big and small businesses lack the ability to make sturdy decisions, and struggle to quantify the effect of risk and resolution plans. As the report authors state, “Much of the damage results from an inadequate response to a breach rather than the breach itself”.
These results come from interviews with more than 200 business leaders such as chief information officers, policy makers, regulators, law enforcement officials and technology vendors spanning … (1 comments)
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cyber crime: Cybersecurity Insurance still Requires Cybersecurity
- 08/24/14 05:27 AM
OpenSSL vulnerabilities are sticking around for a while. In fact, recently two new ones were announced: One allows criminals to run an arbitrary code on a vulnerable computer/device, and the other allows man-in-the-middle attacks. A more famous openSSL vulnerability that made headlines earlier this year is the Heartbleed bug.
Might cybersecurity insurance be a viable solution?
As reported in SC Magazine, Yes, says Hunton & Williams LLP. Cybersecurity insurance fixes the problems that these vulnerabilities cause—that technology alone can’t always mitigate.
Hunton & Williams LLP reports that GameOver Zeus malware infiltrated half a million to a million computers, resulting in … (2 comments)
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cyber crime: Cyber Security Insurance Difficult for Business to Navigate
- 08/03/14 04:25 AM
Cyber insurance is now booming, with about 50 carriers in the industry. An increasing number of companies have cyber insurance to protect against cyber crime. However, businesses claim it’s not easy to get adequate coverage.
Losses from data breaches are difficult to quantify. The tangible losses are more easily insured, says a New York Times online report. When it comes to a data breach, there are often related losses such as reputational damage and loss of customer loyalty that are harder to quantify.
Add to this the fact that underwriters don’t yet have sufficient data to estimate the likeliness or … (0 comments)
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cyber crime: How Law Enforcement Detects Breaches Before Victims Do
- 07/24/14 11:02 PM
Law enforcement agencies detect data breaches before businesses do because the former seeks evidence of the cyber crime, reports a networkworld.com article.
Unlike law enforcement agencies, businesses don’t go undercover in hacker forums. Nor do they get court permission to bust into enclaves of cyber thieves. Businesses don’t have moles. It continues: Law enforcement agencies interview imprisoned cyber crooks. The FBI does a lot of undercover work.
Law enforcement may then approach a company and say, “You’re being victimized; we have the evidence.” But often, the company may be skeptical of such a claim. Admittance means facing government response and … (0 comments)
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cyber crime: Bankers on the Front lines of Cyber Defense
- 06/29/14 10:48 PM
There was once a time when the only threat to a bank’s security was when that innocent-looking man hands a note to the bank teller that makes her face go ashen. And the only security, save for video surveillance, was the armed guards and the silent alarm that the teller triggers.
Nowadays, terms like firewalls, encryption, anti-virus and cloud providers are just as important to a bank’s security as are the armed guards, huge windows, security cameras and steel vaults. No longer is the masked robber who says “Hand over the money” a bank’s biggest threat. ATM skimming, where nobody … (0 comments)
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cyber crime: ATM Skimming, Cyber Fraud Keep Bankers up at Night
- 06/12/14 10:48 PM
Last year there were hundreds of cyber fraud incidents that struck banks and put consumers’ personal data at risk, even though the one involving Target stole the scenes. These crimes included payment card skimming, denial-of-service and web app tampering.
As we’ve discussed, security is a top concern for banks at the board level. It’s not that the criminals are particularly bright and that’s why they’re causing so many problems, but rather, security for banks just cannot keep up with the volume and type of attacks. Security can also be under-resourced and/or putting too much of its attention in the wrong … (4 comments)
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cyber crime: Study Shows Businesses not prepared for Attacks
- 05/26/14 11:03 PM
Amazing: With the proliferation of cyber attacks globally, most businesses are ill-prepared to deal with this, says research from the Economist Intelligence Unit and Arbor Networks.
Perhaps businesses have an “It won’t happen to us” mindset, even though hackers steal the most sensitive data, force the company to make enormous payments to fix the situation, and crush its customers’ trust, in turn damaging future profits. It’s a pebble-thrown-into-a-pond effect: Those ripples just keep going out and out.
Haven’t companies learned from that giant retailer breach in December of 2013? That big retailer was left toppled. Companies don’t realize that if … (5 comments)
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cyber crime: What is a Backdoor Threat?
- 05/15/14 10:21 PM
Did you accidentally leave the back door open? This thought can be scary because you know that leaving the back door open at home could allow someone to enter your home and take your personal belongings.
The same is true for a backdoor in the computer world. It is a vulnerability that gives an attacker unauthorized access to a system by bypassing normal security mechanisms. This threat works in the background, hiding itself from the user, and it’s very difficult to detect and remove.
Cybercriminals commonly use malware to install backdoors, giving them remote administrative access to a system. Once an attacker … (1 comments)
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The Russians have come…again—in the form of hackers. Not long ago Russian cyber criminals busted into the U.S.’s State Department system and mangled it for months.
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