Cyber Warfare and the Mutually-Assured Destruction of Cyberspace

I frequently read the writings of Lenny Zeltser; he's a smart guy who always has something interesting to say.  He posted a short entry on his blog in July of 2012 stating his theory of how countries will use the principle of mutually-assured destruction to deter each other from a major world war in cyberspace.
Worth a read, check it out here:
http://blog.zeltser.com/post/27846821868/mutually-assured-destruction-in-cyberspace

NON-SECURITY: Definition of 'sale'?

I was doing some grocery shopping the other day and while in the beer isle I noticed a great 'deal'.

Sure would like to know what their definition of 'sale' is.  lolz

Windows 8 Runs 7-Year Old Malware (ouch)

One of the key points being marketed about Windows 8 is that it has much better security built into it than previous versions. I find it interesting that Microsoft will be releasing critical patches already.

Anyway, the fine folks at Bitdefender Labs decided to test Windows 8 against some malware and have posted the results. What they found is trully astonishing and I suspect Microsoft isn't going to be thrilled with it.

http://labs.bitdefender.com/2012/11/newest-windows-version-runs-oldest-malware-still-in-wildcore/

2008 Malware Challenge Revisited

My buddy Tyler Hudak has posted our a malware challenge contest that we ran in 2008.  We thought it would be a good idea to give those who haven't tried it an opportunity to do so.

Check out the challenge here at Security Shoggoth's blog:
http://secshoggoth.blogspot.com/2012/11/2008-malware-challenge.html#links

Wired writers digital life hacked...and wiped

A few weeks ago Wired magazine writer Mat Honan's digital life was completely erased.  The attacker was able to do this in only one hour.  The hack exposed some weaknesses in Apple and Amazon's password reset processes.  These holes have since been closed.

I feel bad for Mat, but this story serves as a good learning lesson in areas such as:

• Password resent processes
• Helpdesk personnel training
• Connecting everything with one email account
• Backing up your files

Articles:
http://www.emptyage.com/post/28679875595/yes-i-was-hacked-hard
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/08/apple-amazon-mat-honan-hacking/

Video by Matt:
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/08/mat-honan-video/
 

Free Local Cleveland Security Event July 13th

Security B-Sides is coming to Cleveland again this year on July 13, 2012. One full day of interesting talks....for FREE! You don't want to miss it. Hurry, seating is limited!

Security B-Sides Cleveland When: Friday, July 13, 2012 Where: Embassy Suites Cleveland - Rockside Address: 5800 Rockside Woods Boulevard, Independence 44131 Cost: Free (as always!)

It is co-sponsored by the Northeast Ohio Information Security Forum (NEOISF.ORG).

Apple & Android Mobile Application Steals Phonebook

I thought I'd share with you a recent blog post from the good folks @ Kaspersky Labs spotlights a suspicious mobile application that they discovered.

The application is called "Find and Call" and is on the iOS Apple App Store and Android’s Google Play that performs malware-type behaviors. It appears to act like a trojan that uploads a user’s phonebook to remote server which results in your contacts receiving SMS spam.

Check out their blog post detailing what they found.

http://www.securelist.com/en/blog/208193641/Find_and_Call_Leak_and_Spam

Receive an email from Google? Your website might be hacked

As you know Google scans the websites on the Internet regularly. So it only makes sense that they are able to detect when sites have been hacked. Recently they have notified the webmasters of 20,000 websites where code on the sites redirect visitors to a malicious site. The code they look for in this latest scan is an eval() function used to execute Javascript.

The email provides a link to a page with instructions on how to clean the website: Google's Webmaster Tools support page.

I applaud Google's efforts and would like to see them continue this. A part of me, though, wonders how long until spammers start sending out fakes notices with link to their malicious site. Maybe they should just tell people to visit their search site and search for removing eval function from website -- I'm pretty sure they have the ability to redirect users to their fix page. ;)

This article talks about this item in further detail. http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/Google-warns-the-operators-of-thousands-of-hacked-web-sites-1542374.html

Un-stealthify short links

Have you seen a short link and wonder where it leads to, without visiting it? You never know where it will take you. We all use these services ourselves for legitimate purposes but we also know there have been and continue to be numerous attacks using these link shortening services.

Well unlike Kiss' Unmasked album, where the band doesn't show their faces as promised,

I recently found a very handy website that will show you where that short link leads to. This website gives you a way to see the link without having to visit it directly. Check it out.

http://unshorten.com/

World Economic Forum Global Risks 2011 Report (Jan 2011)

This past January 2011, the WEF released a report which detailed out what they see as the global risks in 2011(http://riskreport.weforum.org/). The report is called Global Risks 2011 Sixth Edition: An Initiative of the Risk Response Network
(http://riskreport.weforum.org/global-risks-2011.pdf).

It's an interesting read especially for those of us who deal with risk regularly in our profession. They identified two cross-cutting global risks, focused on 3 risk clusters, and noted 5 risks to watch.

The two cross-cutting global risks are Economic Disparity and Global Governance Failures. They note that these influence many other global risks and are a result of the globalization. Quote from the report:

"Globalization has generated sustained economic growth for a generation. It has shrunk and reshaped the world, making it far more interconnected and interdependent. But the benefits of globalization seem unevenly spread – a minority is seen to have harvested a disproportionate amount of the fruits. Although growth of the new champions is rebalancing economic power between countries, there is evidence that economic disparity within countries is growing."

The 3 risk clusters they focus in on are "macroeconomic imbalances" nexus, "illegal economy" nexus, and the "water-food-energy" nexus.

Illegal Economy Nexus:
This nexus examines state fragility, illicit trade, organized crime, and corruption. Quote from the report:

"A networked world, governance failures and economic disparity create opportunities for such illegal activities to flourish. In 2009, the value of illicit trade around the globe was estimated at US $1.3 trillion and growing. These risks, while creating huge costs for legitimate economic activities, also weaken states, threatening development opportunities, undermining the rule of law and keeping countries trapped in cycles of poverty and instability.
International cooperation – both on the supply side and on the demand side – is urgently needed."

For those of us who are constantly fighting cyber criminals it's nice to see a validation of what we've been saying about how it's growing rapidly, threatens our economies, and we are lacking the legal tools (policies, cooperation between countries) to help with deterrence and prosecution.

Speaking of cyber security, it's identified as one of the 5 risks to watch. Interestingly survey respondents assessed them with low levels of confidence while experts consider they may have severe, unexpected or under-appreciated consequences. The specific text in the report was:

"Cyber-security issues ranging from the growing prevalence of cyber theft to the little-understood possibility of all-out cyber warfare."

They note 4 distinct global risk-related activities as stand outs:
* Cyber theft
* Cyber espionage
* Cyber war
* Cyber terrorism

I'm particularly concerned with cyber theft. From the report:

"Cyber theft has become a growing industry with a long tail, particularly in countries where economic disparity has recently been combined with access to global communication technologies. Actors in this field range from entrepreneurial individuals to shell corporations built with the hope of economic gains offset by acceptable risks. Interestingly, some assessments indicate that cyber thieves experience a substantially lower feeling of guilt than is apparent in other criminal activities."

They spell out the potential for disruption causing a large impact:

"The pervasiveness of the Internet and importance of related technologies to everyday life and business means that should a major disruption occur, it is likely to have high impact globally."

I agree wholeheartedly!

I recommend checking out the report (link below). It's an interesting read.
http://riskreport.weforum.org/global-risks-2011.pdf

Main site:
http://riskreport.weforum.org/