Infosecurity News
61.5% Web Traffic Comes from Bots
The internet is a pretty busy place, with traffic increasing year over year exponentially. According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index, global IP traffic has increased more than fourfold in the past five years, and will increase threefold in the coming five years. Overall, IP traffic will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23% from 2012 to 2017. And yet, most of that traffic will be non-human in origin.
China's Plot to Brick the US Economy
NSA Information Assurance Director Debora Plunkett made a remarkable accusation on CBS 60 Minutes: the NSA had spotted and foiled a plot to unleash a supervirus capable of bricking computers. "The attack would have been disguised as a request for a software update," she told CBS. "If the user agreed, the virus would’ve infected the computer... Think about the impact of that across the entire globe. It could literally take down the U.S. economy."
Disqus May Not Have Been Hacked; But It Was Certainly Exploited
Earlier this week a politically motivated group of Swedish investigative journalists linked some supposedly anonymous right-wing comments posted via Disqus to their actual authors. While several of the authors freely admitted to the posts, it also led to a few resignations from the far-right Sweden Democrat political party.
100% of Top Paid Android Apps Have Been Hacked
Word that mobile malware is rather pervasive has been making the rounds for months, but a new report has found that a shocking 100% of the Top 100 paid Android apps and 56% of the Top 100 paid Apple iOS apps have been hacked. Averaged together, users have a 78% chance of running into an app that has been compromised at some point.
64-bit, Tor-enabled Zeus Variant Spotted in the Wild
Perhaps it was inevitable, but a 64-bit version of the Zeus banking trojan has been spotted in the wild – and it now comes enhanced with Tor.
Sweden's Intelligence Agency has Access to NSA's XKeyscore system
Sweden has sometimes been called the 'Sixth Eye' – referring to the English-speaking Five Eyes SIGINT alliance – suggesting a close working relationship between Sweden's FRA and the NSA and GCHQ. New documents suggest that it has access to the XKeyscore tool, and has helped in the Quantum hacking program.
Hacked WordPress Site Hosts Thousands of Links to Pharmacy Scams
The issue of hacked WordPress sites continues to persist, as evidenced by one victimized URL being used to host links to thousands if not millions or billions of shady pharmaceutical sites without the knowledge of the owners.
Patch Tuesday: December 2013
Eleven Microsoft bulletins including ten critical vulnerabilities – some of which are already being actively exploited – affecting all supported versions of Windows, Office, SharePoint, Exchange, and Lync make for a busy last month of a busy year (106 bulletins all told) for sys admins.
Obamacare-baited Malware Scam Mashes Up iPhones, Video Players
The old adage of "if it’s too good to be true that it usually is," continues to hold water. An elaborate social engineering lure using the Affordable Care Act as bait is unfolding, with the end goal of serving up an executable file containing malware.
Cyber-espionage Campaign Ahead of G20 Summit Compromised Several European Ministries
Ahead of the G20 summit in Russia in late summer, a group of perpetrators (who may be Chinese) carried out a targeted attack on diplomatic missions, including ministries of foreign affairs (MFA), using the crisis in Syria as social engineering bait.
Major Browsers Block an Improperly Issued Certificate
SSL certificates are designed to provide trust in the internet. They are issued by trusted Certificate Authorities to prove that a site is indeed the site it claims to be. But if a certificate is forged, lost, or improperly issued, it provides false trust that can lead to man-in-the-middle cyber attacks.
NSA/GCHQ Turn World of Warcraft into World of Spycraft
Online gamers use false names and characters to meet, chat and interact with other people from all over the world anonymously. NSA and GCHQ began to suspect that criminals and terrorists were using these virtual worlds, such as World of Warcraft, XBox Live and Second Life to 'hide in plain site' – and began a concerted effort to infiltrate gaming.
FBI Can Activate Webcams Remotely Without the Light Coming On
Whether hackers are able to remotely switch on victims' webcams without the camera light giving the game away has been the subject of some debate. Now we learn that not only can it be done, it is done by the FBI.
Lawyer Throws Spanner in EU Data Protection Regulation
Two months after European justice ministers agreed the principle of the 'one-stop-shop' for data protection rulings, Hubert Legal (head of legal services for the European Council; that is, the member states) declared it would be a bad outcome likely in breach of European human rights.
Dexter POS Malware Returns to Target Holiday Shoppers
At least three distinct versions of the Dexter point of sale (POS) malware are making the rounds this holiday season, designed to steal credit and debit card data from unwitting shoppers.
2 Million-Strong ZeroAccess Botnet Disrupted by Microsoft and Law Enforcement
An international cooperative effort involving Microsoft, the FBI, Europol and A10 Networks has disrupted the ZeroAccess (Sirefef) P2P ad fraud botnet. ZeroAccess is believed to use up to 800,000 out of a total of two million infected PCs at any time, mostly in the US and Europe, capable of stealing $2.7 million from online advertisers every month.
SkyJack: For Taking Over and Zombifying Drones
Amazon made headlines this week with the news that its experimenting with using airborne drones to deliver goods within 30 minutes of order. What could possibly go wrong? Infamous hacker Samy Kamkar highlights one issue with the release of SkyJack – a drone that’s meant to take over other drones.
German Police Arrest Two Bitcoin-mining Botnet Operators
Two alleged hackers have been arrested in Bavaria and Lower Saxony on suspicion of operating a botnet of compromised PCs to perform bitcoin mining. In related raids, the authorities discovered bitcoins currently valued at around €700,000 and evidence of other criminal activity involving copyright and pornography offenses.
Cameron Says China Should Be More Open About Cyber-spying, but Guardian Should be Less
In Beijing, UK Prime Minister David Cameron has challenged the Chinese Government to discuss its industrial-scale cyber-espionage, while in London the Guardian is under legal threat for disclosing GCHQ's own efforts in this area.
ENISA Issues Good Practice Guide for Industrial Control System CERTs
The European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) has published a good practice guide designed to help the critical infrastructure mitigate cyber-attacks against the industrial control systems supporting vital industry processes.
