Anyone who has ever visited blog posts on the Forbes website has properly been irritated from time-to-time by its practice of displaying a "Thought of the Day" for a few seconds before it passes you onto the article that you actually wish to read. We all understand that Forbes has to make money like any other web publisher, but the "thought" (which...

The recent Anthem hack that may have compromised 80 million people’s personal health information reveals just how mainstream data breaches have become in recent years. In response to this rapidly evolving threat landscape, Boards of Directors (BoDs) and executives are now more aware of today’s cyber threats and how they might adversely affect...

I still remember my first time reading AlephOne’s ‘Smashing the Stack for Fun and Profit’ – despite not having the proper knowledge to understand it at the time, it put the security bug in my head. It was truly a consciousness raising experience to get that first glimpse of my computer’s inner workings. One thing I did understand from it, loud and...

In the face of the current wave of cyber threats, the U.S. government announced this week in Washington DC that as part of the Homeland Security initiative the current administration is creating a new agency called the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Centre (CTIIP) to monitor cybersecurity threats by acquiring, pooling and analysing any...

Facebook announced on Wednesday the launch of a new platform for companies to easily exchange information regarding cybersecurity threats, such as malware and phishing attacks that could be impacting users. The world’s largest social network introduced the program, called ThreatExchange, as “an API-based clearinghouse for security threat information...

In February’s Patch Tuesday, Microsoft issued an update to fix a privately reported critical vulnerability in Group Policy that could allow potential attackers to achieve remote code execution (RCE) in domain networks. If successfully exploited, an attacker could gain complete control of a vulnerable system, install programs, view data and even...

Last week, we interviewed Brian Engle, the Chief Information Security Officer and Cybersecurity Coordinator for the State of Texas, and discussed with him the importance of communication in shaping cybersecurity as an ongoing management concern that businesses everywhere need to appreciate. As part of our ongoing “The Voice of the CISO” series, we...

Patch Tuesday, the unofficial day on which Microsoft regularly releases security updates for its software products, has long been a staple of the information security community. On the second (and sometimes fourth) Tuesday of every month, Microsoft releases a unique set of security bulletins that provide patches for a range of new Common...

Last month, we interviewed Thom Langford, the Director of Sapient’s Global Security Office. Among other things, he explained to us how critical people are to an organization’s cyber security success, not to mention how the CISO is instrumental in framing security issues so that different target audiences can understand them. As part of our ongoing ...

U.S. Healthworks, an urgent care and occupational health service provider, has begun notifying patients of a possible data breach after an unencrypted laptop issued to one of its employees was stolen. According to the company's breach notification letter: "On April 22, 2015, we learned that a laptop issued to one of our employees had been stolen...

An anonymous message board was the alleged target of several denial of service (DoS) attacks launched by the free VPN service Hola earlier this week. Israeli-based Hola is one of the most popular free virtual private network (VPN) providers today. It boasts seven million users of its Chrome extension alone. However, according to Frederick Brennan,...

Although wireless communication technologies have matured to a great extent, their related communication protocols and stack implementations are still encumbered by a number of well known security problems. WiFi (802.11) management packets are not cryptographically protected against eavesdropping, modification or replay attacks. WEP, WPA and WPA2...

Over the years, I have written multiple articles on the subject of digital or cyber forensics and the importance it serves in supporting the modern world with regards to corporate and government incident response, first responder engagements, and more general aspects of scene-of-crime management in the digital age. Before we get into the detail,...

Earlier this month, several media outlets ran a story claiming that a new type of malware could be used to destroy victims’ computers. These stories might have fared well in views, but their fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) have proven useful to no one. Fortunately, a number of security experts including Graham Cluley were quick to correct the...

We at Tripwire would like to encourage everyone to vote for their favorite security blogs in the third annual EU Security Blogger Awards 2015! Tripwire is especially proud to have been named a finalist for five categories in this year's awards among numerous other respected publications and professionals. The State of Security is in the running for...

During my career, I have built and managed hundreds of production-level client and server systems, and nothing can be more worrisome than when it comes time to apply patches and upgrades to software. Why? Because things can, and often times, do go wrong during patch and upgrade cycles. According to a few reports, it is possible that system...

A security firm has discovered a vulnerability in Apple’s Safari Browser that allows attackers to spoof legitimate websites and phish for user credentials. Security firm Deusen reveals that the flaw works by using a short script to force Safari into loading one page while still displaying the URL of another page. This script is provided below: &lt...

Some mods of the popular computer game Grand Theft Auto V have been found to contain malware. In the game’s online forums, users have identified malicious code in the ‘Angry Planes’ and ‘Noclip’ mods. The former spawns planes that attack players, and the latter allows players to walk through walls and other objects. One GTAForums user aboutseven...

One of the most fundamental aspects of any information security program requires IT security leaders to effectively communicate how cyber security risks can affect the operation of any business. It’s crucial to gain the support of executives and board members not only for investment purposes but also to successfully execute an enterprise-wide...

Updated at 8:30 AM PST. A security researcher has discovered a new vulnerability that he claims could allow a hacker to infiltrate potentially every machine on a datacenter’s network, leaving millions of virtual machines vulnerable to attack. According to CrowdStrike Senior Security Researcher Jason Geffner, ‘VENOM’ (CVE-2015-3456), which is an...