September 2017 - Cyber Security Minute

Sophisticated Phishing Attacks Target Internet Freedom Activists

Issued by: Security Week

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) revealed on Wednesday that employees of Internet freedom NGOs “Free Press” and “Fight for the Future” have been targeted in sophisticated spear-phishing attacks. The EFF is aware of nearly 70 attempts to steal the credentials of net neutrality activists between July 7 and August 8. The attacks, believed to be…

Vulnerabilities

Amazon’s Whole Foods Investigating Payment Card Breach

Issued by: Security Week

Whole Foods Market, the supermarket chain acquired recently by Amazon for $13.7 billion, informed customers this week that it has launched an investigation after learning that some of its point-of-sale (PoS) systems may have been hacked. The company has provided only few details as the investigation is ongoing. However, it said the incident appears to…

Software Security

Is your Mac software secure but firmware vulnerable?

Issued by: Help Net Security

Mac users who have updated to the latest OS version or have downloaded and implemented the most recent security update may not be as secure as they originally thought, Duo Security researchers have found. That’s because many of them did not receive the newest firmware along with OS and software updates.

Network Security

Searching for unicorns: Managing expectations to find cybersecurity talent

Issued by: CSO

Attrition is up, and cyber attacks are on the rise. With continued burnout and a growing skills gap in an industry where mentorship is a lost art, how can enterprises prepare for resiliency? Feeding the pipeline to fill the jobs of today and tomorrow means IT leaders must change their hiring biases, broaden their gaze,…

Malware & Threats

Thousands of Malware Variants Found on Industrial Systems: Kaspersky

Issued by: Security Week

Kaspersky said it had detected roughly 18,000 malware samples belonging to more than 2,500 families on industrial control systems (ICS) in the first half of 2017. According to the company’s “Threat Landscape for Industrial Automation Systems” report for the first six months of the year, nearly 38 percent of the industrial systems protected globally by…

Mobile Security

How Apple’s Face ID works, learns, and protects

Issued by: Help Net Security

Apple has unveiled a new version of its privacy page and a paper throwing more light on how Face ID, its newest biometric authentication option, works on iPhone X (“Ten”). The former places even more importance on security and privacy features and policies, something that Apple is becoming even more vocal about than before. It’s abundantly clear that Apple…

Vulnerabilities

Six Key Traits of an Effective Cyber Risk Advisor

Issued by: Security Intelligence

What makes a good cyber risk advisor? What skills do they need to help board directors address cybersecurity? According to a report by BayDynamics, board directors “may not be experts in security, but they do know how to steer a business away from risk and toward profit by listening to subject matter experts. However, they expect…

Application Security

Researchers Use Heart Rhythms for Continuous Authentication

Issued by: Security Week

Researchers from the University at Buffalo SUNY, and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas Tech University have proposed a novel new continuous user authentication method using cardiac motion (a heart-based function determined by users’ unique heart geometry). Their paper, ‘Cardiac Scan: A Non-Contact and Continuous Heart-Based User Authentication System’ (PDF), will be…

Network Security

How to Live by the Code of Good Bots

Issued by: Dark Reading

Although my company fights problems caused by malicious bots on the Internet, many bots are doing good things. These beneficial bots may help a site get better exposure, provide better product recommendations, or monitor critical online services. The most famous good bot is the Googlebot, which crawls links to build the search engine many of…

Malware & Threats

ATM hackers switch to network-based attacks

Issued by: Help Net Security

More and more attacks against ATMs are network-based, Trend Micro researchers have found. Since the discovery of the first ATM malware back in 2009, criminals have concentrated on opening the ATM’s case and accessing the machine’s internals to boot the malware up from an external USB or CD. But lately, as banks have ramped up…