Malware researchers for Kaspersky Lab took to Reddit’s IAmA chat today and pronounced an affection for the hacker-hero TV show “Mr. Robot” but not NSA hacker Edward Snowden.Responding to a question about how they like it, the team’s global director Costin Raiu says, “Mr Robot is a strong 9.5 for me. Most of the scenes are top class and the usage of tools, operating systems and other tiny details, from social engineering to opsec is very good. I guess having help from some real world security experts (the folks at Avast did a great job!”+More on Network World: Cisco: Potent ransomware is targeting the enterprise at a scary rate+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Malware researchers for Kaspersky Lab took to Reddit’s IAmA chat today and pronounced an affection for the hacker-hero TV show “Mr. Robot” but not NSA hacker Edward Snowden.Responding to a question about how they like it, the team’s global director Costin Raiu says, “Mr Robot is a strong 9.5 for me. Most of the scenes are top class and the usage of tools, operating systems and other tiny details, from social engineering to opsec is very good. I guess having help from some real world security experts (the folks at Avast did a great job!”+More on Network World: Cisco: Potent ransomware is targeting the enterprise at a scary rate+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A vulnerability across at least eight brands of wireless keyboards lets hackers read keystrokes from 250 feet away, according to wireless security vendor Bastille.The problem is that the keyboards transmit to their associated PCs without encryption, and it’s just a matter of reverse engineering the signals to figure out how to read what keys are being hit, say Bastille researchers. An attacker could inject keystrokes while the keyboard is idle and the machine is logged in, they say, using a dongle that can be fashioned for less than $100.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A vulnerability across at least eight brands of wireless keyboards lets hackers read keystrokes from 250 feet away, according to wireless security vendor Bastille.The problem is that the keyboards transmit to their associated PCs without encryption, and it’s just a matter of reverse engineering the signals to figure out how to read what keys are being hit, say Bastille researchers. An attacker could inject keystrokes while the keyboard is idle and the machine is logged in, they say, using a dongle that can be fashioned for less than $100.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
SentinelOne is offering a to pay customers $1,000 per endpoint for customers’ machines that get infected by ransomware if its products don’t either block or remediate the problem.The deal is for customers who use the company’s Endpoint Protection Platform in a mandatory configuration running on computers with fully patched operating systems and applications, and that have volume shadow copy service enabled, the Microsoft service that backs up files in use.Customers must also be quick to respond to alerts about infections by adding threats to a blacklist and to remediate and rollback within an hour.The $1,000 per machine offer only applies to payment of ransom, not for costs related to the disruptions ransomware causes. SentinelOne also won’t pay if the ransom doesn’t lead to successful recovery of the encrypted data.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
SentinelOne is offering a to pay customers $1,000 per endpoint for customers’ machines that get infected by ransomware if its products don’t either block or remediate the problem.The deal is for customers who use the company’s Endpoint Protection Platform in a mandatory configuration running on computers with fully patched operating systems and applications, and that have volume shadow copy service enabled, the Microsoft service that backs up files in use.Customers must also be quick to respond to alerts about infections by adding threats to a blacklist and to remediate and rollback within an hour.The $1,000 per machine offer only applies to payment of ransom, not for costs related to the disruptions ransomware causes. SentinelOne also won’t pay if the ransom doesn’t lead to successful recovery of the encrypted data.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A spear phishing tool to automate the creation of phony tweets - complete with malicious URLs – with messages victims are likely to click on will be released at Black Hat by researchers from ZeroFOX.
Called SNAP_R (for social network automated phisher with reconnaissance), the tool runs through a target Twitter account to gather data on what topics seem to interest the subscriber. Then it writes a tweet loaded up with a link to a site containing malware and sends it.
More on Network World: FBI needs to beef-up high-tech cyber threat evaluations says DoJ Inspector General+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A spear phishing tool to automate the creation of phony tweets - complete with malicious URLs – with messages victims are likely to click on will be released at Black Hat by researchers from ZeroFOX.
Called SNAP_R (for social network automated phisher with reconnaissance), the tool runs through a target Twitter account to gather data on what topics seem to interest the subscriber. Then it writes a tweet loaded up with a link to a site containing malware and sends it.
More on Network World: FBI needs to beef-up high-tech cyber threat evaluations says DoJ Inspector General+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Carbon Black has bought Confer to boost its protection for network endpoints using a behavioral form of antivirus combined with cloud analysis of threats rather than traditional signature-based software.Called Cb Defense, the renamed Confer product uses behavior-based techniques to prevent attacks from getting started and blends in attack-detection and response as a way to halt ongoing attacks.These are supported by analytics based in the cloud that help detect malwareless attacks that employ legitimate tools that are built into operating systems as a way to stay below the radar of defenses that use hashes and signatures to detect.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Carbon Black has bought Confer to boost its protection for network endpoints using a behavioral form of antivirus combined with cloud analysis of threats rather than traditional signature-based software.Called Cb Defense, the renamed Confer product uses behavior-based techniques to prevent attacks from getting started and blends in attack-detection and response as a way to halt ongoing attacks.These are supported by analytics based in the cloud that help detect malwareless attacks that employ legitimate tools that are built into operating systems as a way to stay below the radar of defenses that use hashes and signatures to detect.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
How ants decide where to move their nests may hold lessons for computer scientists seeking efficient ways to gather data from distributed networks of sensors, according to MIT researchers.It turns out that the frequency with which explorer ants bump into each other as they wander around looking for a new home for their colony is a pretty good indicator of how many other explorer ants are investigating the same site.+More on Network World: What’s hot at Cisco Live | Hungry ants knock out FiOS service … again +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
How ants decide where to move their nests may hold lessons for computer scientists seeking efficient ways to gather data from distributed networks of sensors, according to MIT researchers.It turns out that the frequency with which explorer ants bump into each other as they wander around looking for a new home for their colony is a pretty good indicator of how many other explorer ants are investigating the same site.+More on Network World: What’s hot at Cisco Live | Hungry ants knock out FiOS service … again +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Shlomo Kramer
Recently, endpoint-protection startup LightCyber announced a second round of funding - $20 million – including an investment from an individual investor with an impressive track record backing successful security startups: Shlomo Kramer.Kramer, who is Israeli, has a long-term relationship with the company’s CEO Gonen Fink, who worked with him for years at Check Point Software where Kramer was one of the founders.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Shlomo Kramer
Recently, endpoint-protection startup LightCyber announced a second round of funding - $20 million – including an investment from an individual investor with an impressive track record backing successful security startups: Shlomo Kramer.Kramer, who is Israeli, has a long-term relationship with the company’s CEO Gonen Fink, who worked with him for years at Check Point Software where Kramer was one of the founders.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Security-analytics firm Bay Dynamics has pulled down $23 million more in venture funding to help the company speed up its international expansion and execution of its action plan to reach customers and differentiate itself from competitors.The Series B financing is led by Carrick Capital Partners and includes Series A investor Comcast Ventures.The company claims hundreds of customers including some of the Fortune 50.Bay Dynamics’ Risk Fabric ranks the riskiest users, devices, applications and other network entities, according to a report by Gartner on User and Entity Behavior Analytics, the category in which it places Bay Dynamics. The platform can discover insider threats as well as data theft, and can analyze likely attack surfaces in customer networks, Gartner says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Security-analytics firm Bay Dynamics has pulled down $23 million more in venture funding to help the company speed up its international expansion and execution of its action plan to reach customers and differentiate itself from competitors.The Series B financing is led by Carrick Capital Partners and includes Series A investor Comcast Ventures.The company claims hundreds of customers including some of the Fortune 50.Bay Dynamics’ Risk Fabric ranks the riskiest users, devices, applications and other network entities, according to a report by Gartner on User and Entity Behavior Analytics, the category in which it places Bay Dynamics. The platform can discover insider threats as well as data theft, and can analyze likely attack surfaces in customer networks, Gartner says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
At Cisco Live today the company is rolling out a set of new services and cloud-based security features that better integrate existing Cisco gear with products it acquired through acquisition.
These products essentially grow the features of some existing gear and expand security coverage to devices not connected to the corporate network.
+More on Network World: Cisco will need to tackle these high-tech issues in 2016+
The Cisco mantra is that there are too many point security products for businesses to effectively manage and that generate too much unanalyzed data to be used effectively. The company contends that adding one more security product can add just a small percentage of new capabilities but a vast amount of complexity and work to integrate the new product.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
At Cisco Live today the company is rolling out a set of new services and cloud-based security features that better integrate existing Cisco gear with products it acquired through acquisition.
These products essentially grow the features of some existing gear and expand security coverage to devices not connected to the corporate network.
+More on Network World: Cisco will need to tackle these high-tech issues in 2016+
The Cisco mantra is that there are too many point security products for businesses to effectively manage and that generate too much unanalyzed data to be used effectively. The company contends that adding one more security product can add just a small percentage of new capabilities but a vast amount of complexity and work to integrate the new product.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The new documentary about Stuxnet, ‘Zero Days’, says the U.S. had a far larger cyber operation against Iran called Nitro Zeus that has compromised the country’s infrastructure and could be used as a weapon in any future war.Quoting unnamed sources from inside the NSA and CIA, the movie says the Nitro Zeus program has infiltrated the systems controlling communications, power grids, transportation and financial systems, and is still ready to “disrupt, degrade and destroy” that infrastructure if a war should break out with Iran.The multi-million dollar program was run from within the NSA during the same time Stuxnet was active, and was put in place should the U.S. be drawn into a war there because Israel launched an attack against Iran, according the film by academy award winning director Alex Gibney. The movie opened in U.S. theaters today.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The new documentary about Stuxnet, ‘Zero Days’, says the U.S. had a far larger cyber operation against Iran called Nitro Zeus that has compromised the country’s infrastructure and could be used as a weapon in any future war.Quoting unnamed sources from inside the NSA and CIA, the movie says the Nitro Zeus program has infiltrated the systems controlling communications, power grids, transportation and financial systems, and is still ready to “disrupt, degrade and destroy” that infrastructure if a war should break out with Iran.The multi-million dollar program was run from within the NSA during the same time Stuxnet was active, and was put in place should the U.S. be drawn into a war there because Israel launched an attack against Iran, according the film by academy award winning director Alex Gibney. The movie opened in U.S. theaters today.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Tim Greene