File Integrity Monitoring solutions have been around for a few decades now, with one purpose in mind: to monitor changes to files on the endpoint. However, there is more to integrity monitoring than just looking at files. Over the past year or so, whilst working with Tripwire, I have met a large number of people who define FIM (File Integrity...

In part 1 and part 2 of this series, I reviewed some of the administrative and technical evolution of the cybersecurity legislation that has been proposed for all financial entities in New York State. As I started to write this, the final regulation was adopted. The good news is that most of the changes that were proposed in the first revision have...

In the Army, we see the basic military fundamental skills being tested on every mission and operation. Whether the operator is jumping out of C-130 to scuba submersion or securing a post in country, their basic skills are always being tested. This goes for information security professionals, as well. Your basic skills sets will be tested every day....

A "Facebook password stealer" is capable of covertly pilfering sensitive information from any wannabe attacker who uses it. On 3 August, a security researcher by the name of MalwareHunterTeam tweeted about the credential-collecting tool's hidden nature. https://twitter.com/malwrhunterteam/status/893053328057413634 The phrase "how to hack facebook...

A high school student has received a $10,000 bug bounty award for reporting a security vulnerability in Google's App Engine. Back in July, 17-year-old Ezequiel Pereira decided to use the Burp Suite graphical tool to test the web application security of Google's App Engine. He wanted to see if he could access pages protected by MOMA, a portal for...

A new analysis of over 40 popular consumer and enterprise websites revealed that many fail to implement the most basic password security requirements. According to the Password Power Rankings study conducted by Dashlane, a surprising 46 percent of consumer sites have “dangerously lax” password policies, including widely used Dropbox, Netflix and...

The WannaCry and NotPetya attacks caused disruption on a global scale in the spring and early summer of June 2017. Following those malware campaigns, businesses around the world should have heard the alarms and responded by tightening their security systems in an effort to mitigate against similar attacks in the future. But reality doesn't always...

Today’s VERT Alert addresses the Microsoft August 2017 Security Updates. VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-737 on Wednesday, August 9th. In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs CVE-2017-8627 The first publicly disclosed vulnerability this month is a denial of service in the Windows Subsystem for Linux....

July was relatively slow in terms of ransomware. Some crooks must have been on vacation spending ill-gotten money at deluxe resorts. Well, why not? They sure can afford it. The rest were busy releasing small shoddy strains and reanimating old ones. Here’s what the month looked like in the numbers: 42 new samples went live, 33 existing ones were fine...

Is the internet monitored, or is it just hanging out there without anyone looking over it? That’s a very good question. The fact is that no one is looking over the internet in a supervisory kind of way aside from governments that may create legislation that has an influence in some way. It is up to individuals, companies and other entities to...

They say you should never meet your heroes—often they will just disappoint you. But thankfully, there are also exceptions to this rule. In this series, I will be introducing you to five of my key cyber security/infosec heroes. These individuals inspire me to continuously strive for more, with one even motivating me to move across the pond. All five...

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released Special Publication 800-171. The document covers the protection of Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) in Nonfederal Information Systems and Organizations. The document was designed to provide guidance on ensuring that all systems that process, store, or transmit CUI...

One of the key challenges with what we now call cyber is the shortage of relevant technical cyber skills. This is directly linked to what would seem to be an inability to recognise or accept the real scale of the cyber threat, which is, of course, playing into the hands of the criminals and hackers who are harvesting millions in revenue as a result of...

A lack of skilled information security professionals poses a threat to most organizations. In Tripwire's 2016 Security Challenge Survey – Skills Gap, 75 percent of IT security professionals said they don't have enough skilled personnel to detect and respond to a breach. Almost the same percentage (66 percent) of respondents reported a dearth of...

A malicious Google Chrome extension punishes users who search for certain keywords by redirecting them to a tech support scam. Attackers introduce users to the rogue extension via a malvertising campaign. Most of the time, malicious adverts redirect users to an exploit kit that installs ransomware or other baddies. In this case, the advertisement...

The revised – and still draft – version of the Trump Administration's first Executive Order (EO) on cybersecurity shows both continuity and positive change over the Obama Administration's policy pronouncements, addressing federal agency network protection, critical infrastructure cybersecurity, and national cyber defense priorities. Federal...

As the cloud continues to gain momentum, companies worldwide are increasing their spending towards the IT sector. Traditional IT systems are declining as modern digital technologies like AI and virtual reality are proving to be strong business driving forces. Indeed, the IT sector is being dominated by emerging cloud infrastructure, AI, VR,...

The perceived silver bullet of cyber insurance has existed since the 1990s, but companies were forced to consider coverage limitations when a New York Court ruled in February 2014 that Sony’s general liability policy would not cover the $2 billion in costs the company had incurred from the huge data breach in 2011 involving the online network for...

With such a lively 2016 ­for infosec – mega-breaches, new malware strains, inventive phishing techniques, and big debates between security and privacy – there’s plenty of reason to pause and consider what the security community should be most concerned about for 2017 and what they can do to prepare. http://www.slideshare.net/Tripwire/tripwire-survey...

Securing critical infrastructure is becoming a priority for the public and private sectors. Cyber professionals everywhere are rejoicing about the increasing investments in protecting the networks and systems that keep us safe at night. The Oval Office has even signaled its intentions to make security a priority. We welcome the new administration’s...