At least half a million routers and storage devices in dozens of countries around the world have been infected by a sophisticated botnet, in preparation for an alleged planned cyber attack on Ukraine. The botnet, which has been given the rather unglamorous name of VPNFilter, is believed to be likely to be controlled by a state-sponsored hacking...

Mozilla announced the rollout of two-step verification (2SV) as an optional security feature for all Firefox user accounts. The engineers at Mozilla Foundation designed the feature without support for SMS-based codes. They likely did so for the same reasons as Twitter when it moved away from this form of verification in December 2017. Criminals...

The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) published a minor revision to version 3.2 of its Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). On 17 May, PCI SSC published PCI DSS version 3.2.1. The purpose of the update was to clarify organizations' use of the Standard and when they would need to upgrade their use of common cryptographic...

Ransomware is a problem on the rise, a simple threat with some very large business implications. Statistics show it has reached new levels of menace, and it's growing at a remarkable rate: 6000% in 2016, an IBM study found, and a triple-digit increase into 2018. Although a very real and present danger (as shown by some very high profile infections...

Today’s VERT Alert addresses the Microsoft December 2017 Security Updates. VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-756 on Wednesday, December 13th. In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs This month, no Microsoft vulnerabilities have been publicly disclosed or are being actively exploited. There are, however, a...

As part of a three-part series on incorporating security into the container environment, I've talked all about containers and how to inject security into the pipeline. Let's now discuss tips on how to secure the container stack. What Do I Mean by "Stack"? What I’m calling the stack, in this case, refers to all of the layers or components involved...

NiceHash has temporarily ceased operations following a security breach in which a criminal gained unauthorized access to its Bitcoin wallet. The trouble started on 6 December when users of NiceHash, a service which enables people to exchange computing resources known as hashing power to mine for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, began reporting...

Enterprise access point maker Ruckus once again patched up command injection vectors that could completely compromise both the ZoneDirector controller, as well as the Unleashed AP. One of the vulnerabilities is in fact strikingly similar to an issue in another Ruckus Web-GUI I disclosed last year. While vulnerability is essentially an inevitable...

A hacker commandeered a tourism agency's Facebook page and abused that unauthorized access to make a series of bizarre postings. Early in the morning on 4 December, the Facebook page for Explore Minnesota Tourism began publishing some unusual content. The stories consisted of fake news items with headlines such as "Detroit woman gives birth to her...

Last year, I wrote a short blog post about tools I had added to my pentesting toolbox. I’ve decided to make this type of article a yearly tradition. In this post, I highlight some of the useful tools I’ve started to use this past year. Domain Password Audit Tool First, I will shamefully promote a tool I wrote myself that will generate password...

BULLETIN CVE Scripting Engine CVE-2018-1019, CVE-2018-0980, CVE-2018-0995, CVE-2018-0994, CVE-2018-0993, CVE-2018-0990, CVE-2018-0979, CVE-2018-1000, CVE-2018-0989, CVE-2018-0987, CVE-2018-0981, CVE-2018-1001, CVE-2018-0988, CVE-2018-0996 Browser CVE-2018-0870, CVE-2018-1018, CVE-2018-1020, CVE-2018-0997, CVE...

This week in Tripwire’s countdown of the FBI’s 10 most-wanted black-hat hackers, we name three hackers bound together in digital crime: Wen Xinyu, Huang Zhenyu and Sun Kailiang. The suspects made headlines in May 2014 when the United States Department of Justice indicted five suspected Chinese nationals for allegedly committing economic and cyber...

Last time, I spoke with Valerie Thomas. She specializes in SCADAs and industrial control systems; she enlightened me on their cybersecurity aspects. This time, I got to speak with Leila Powell. Her background in astrophysics taught her how to manage data to better understand the effectiveness of security controls. Kim Crawley: Hi, Leila! Please tell...

With continued debate around responsible disclosure and increased attention around security research techniques, Tripwire wanted to get a pulse on what the community considers responsible practices today. In surveying 147 attendees at the RSA Conference in San Francisco a couple weeks ago, we found out a number of interesting perspectives. Most...

Last week, I had the pleasure of talking to Tripwire’s own marketing specialist, Cindy Valladares. Marketing fits a valuable and overlooked need in the cybersecurity field. Cindy’s creative talent for bringing out the best in people helps Tripwire shine in this industry. This time, I got to chat with pen testing whiz Leanne Williams. Enjoy! Kim...

Most organizations have already adopted or are moving towards adopting a DevOps model into their work culture for improved productivity and workflow. In simple terms, DevOps is an application delivery methodology that encourages collaboration and communication between the developers and operations teams across all phases of the Software Development...

When hackers broke into the email account of a New Zealand grape-grower with the intent of stealing NZD $90,000 (approximately US $70,000) their plan came so very close to fruition. As Stuff New Zealand reports, it was only because of the careful eye of Kathryn Walker, the general manager of Marlborough Vintners (who - notably - previously had a 12...

An unidentified hacker is attempting to sell information pertaining to more than 6,000 Indian enterprises on a DarkNet forum. Researchers at Seqrite, the enterprise security brand of IT security firm Quick Heal, found an advertisement for the data on DarkNet. As of this writing, whoever is behind the posting is currently offering the information,...

October is here once again, and you know what means: National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM) is back with more advice on how Americans can bolster their digital security. Now in its 14th year, NCSAM 2017 kicks off its first week with STOP. THINK. CONNECT.™. This campaign is relatively straightforward: STOP to make sure security measures are...

Europol, the European Union's police agency, has warned of the significantly rising threat posed by ransomware. As Associated Press reports, delegates at an international conference were told by Europol Executive Director Rob Wainwright that ransomware had taken the cybercrime threat to "another level." An 80-page report published by the agency...