I gamergate Meredith Mciver
One of the basic skills of hackers is "doxxing". It's actually not a skill. All you need to do is a quick search of public records databases through sites like Spokeo, Intelius, and Ancestry.com and you can quickly dox anybody.During the Republican convention, Trump's wife plagiarized Obama's wife in a speech. A person in the Trump organization named "Meredith Mciver" took the blame for it. Trump haters immediately leapt to the conclusion that this person was fake, pointing out her Twitter and Facebook accounts were created after the controversy started.
So I'm going to go all gamergate on her and see what I can find.
According to New York public records, somebody named "Meredith Mciver" has been working for a company called the "The Trump Organization" as "Staff Writer" for many years. Her parents are Phyllis and James Mciver. Her older sister is Karen Mciver. She has an apartment at 588 W End Avenue in Manhattan (though I won't tell you which apartment -- find out for yourself). Through Ancestry.com, you can track down more information, such as her yearbook photo from 1962.
Now, all these public records could be fake, of course, but that would require Continue reading
SDN Security Researchers State Their Case at Black Hat
When Seungwon Shin was a grad student, few people wanted to talk about software-defined networking (SDN) security. So say two of his grad students, Seungsoo Lee and Changhoon Yoon (left and right, respectively, in the photo above). But along with Shin, who’s now an assistant professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology... Read more →
Three “Telco Catastrophes” Hackers are Able to Cause
Privacy catastrophe, financial catastrophe, and performance catastrophe are three vulnerabilities hackers might take advantage of.
SD-WAN: A Disruptive Game-Changer
As with many emerging technologies, there are pros and cons to SD-WAN adoption.
How Hackable Is the Philips Smart Bulb?
A smart-bulb worm is possible, but Philips at least made it hard to do.
FireEye Will Layoff 350 Employees to Reduce $20M in Costs
About 350 employees will be laid off.
Maybe Security Isn’t Just a ‘Human Stupidity’ Problem
Infosec could take some hints from the art of design.
Black Hat: 5 Ways to Avoid Losing the Internet We Love
Black Hat keynoter Dan Kaminsky has a few rants on his mind.
Black Duck Opens a Research Center for Open Source Security
Black Duck's technology scans a software repository, checking for license-compliance issues and known vulnerabilities.
The People Versus Security
It all comes back to people. People are the users of the system. They are the source of great imagination and great innovation. They are also the reason why security professionals pull their hair out day in and day out. Because computer systems don’t have the capability to bypass, invalidated, and otherwise screw up security quite like a living, breathing human being.
Climb Every Mountain
Security is designed to make us feel safe. Door locks keep out casual prowlers. Alarm systems alert us when our home or business is violated. That warm fuzzy feeling we get when we know the locks are engaged and we are truly secure is one of bliss.
But when security gets in our way, it’s annoying. Think of all the things in your life that would be easier if people just stopped trying to make you secure. Airport security is the first that comes to mind. Or the annoying habit of needing to show your ID when you make a credit card purchase. How about systems that scan your email for data loss prevention (DLP) purposes and kick back emails with sensitive data that you absolutely need to share?
Security only benefits us when it’s Continue reading
IBM Assembles X-Force Red for Security Testing
Because Watson can't do it all.
Distil Raises $21M to Improve Software and Possibly Make An Acquisition
Distil CEO mentions they are looking into another small acquisition.
Armor Comes to Black Hat Ready to Spread Security ‘Anywhere’
Secure-hosting specialist Armor reaches into other clouds.
Savvius and IBM Partner to Improve Security
Savvius' Vigil 2.0 will complement IBM QRadar in archiving suspicious network traffic.
Securing the SDDC with VMware NSX – Light Board Series
Is VMware the first company that springs to mind when you think about securing your software-defined data center (SDDC)? It should be.
In this new light board series, learn about the unique capabilities that VMware NSX brings to your SDDC for securing your virtualized environment.
Start out with some context on why networking and security go hand-in hand with the Network Virtualization is Inevitable video. Then, move on to the NSX as a Security Platform video, to learn why VMware can offer security options not possible in tradition environments.
But how to install NSX in an environment? Check out Hadar Freehling’s Castle Security with VMware NSX video. Curious about why the firewall in NSX is special? Watch the VMware NSX Distributed Firewall video. And finally, secure a VDI environment with Hadar’s VMware NSX and VDI video.
As your SDDC evolves, stay up-to-date with NSX and how it can help secure your assets. Any burning questions on securing your virtualized environment you don’t see addressed in the videos, and want to see? Let us know; and don’t be surprised if you see it addressed in a future video.
Julie
The post Securing the SDDC with VMware NSX – Light Board Series Continue reading
Micro-segmentation with Service Insertion – NSX Securing “Anywhere” Part IV
Welcome to part 4 in the Micro-Segmentation Defined– NSX Securing “Anywhere” blog series. Today we will cover the role of NSX as a foundational security platform through NSX Micro-segmentation with Service Insertion. Previous topics covered in this series includes
- Part I – Micro-segmentation Defined
- Part II – Securing Physical environments
- Part III –Operationalizing Micro-segmentation
This blog covers the following topics:
- Defining Service Insertion
- The Role of Service Insertion in Micro-segmentation
- Network and Guest Introspection
- NSX Service Insertion
Defining Service Insertion
In modern datacenters, network and compute services either have been or are being decoupled from the physical appliances on which they have traditionally run. In the past, a datacenter service required traffic to be steered through a series of such appliances in order to be serviced appropriately, through services such as firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention, and load balancing services. As infrastructure services transition from physical appliances to software functions, it becomes possible to deploy these services with greater granularity by inserting them into a specific forwarding path. Combining multiple functions in this manner is generally referred to as a service chain or service graph.
Figure 1: Two distinct service chains utilizing different functions
Once infrastructure Continue reading
5 Funding Insights from a Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist
Network monitoring could be ripe for startups.
NYTimes vs. DNCleaks
People keep citing this New York Times article by David Sanger that attributes the DNCleaks to Russia. As I've written before, this is propaganda, not journalism. It's against basic journalistic ethics to quote anonymous "federal officials" in a story like this. The Society of Professional Journalists repudiates this [1] [2]. The NYTime's own ombudsman has itself criticized David Sanger for this practice, and written guidelines to specifically ban it.Quoting anonymous federal officials is great, when they disagree with government, when revealing government malfeasance, when it's something that people will get fired over.
But the opposite is happening here. It's either Obama himself or some faction within the administration that wants us to believe Russia is involved. They want us to believe the propaganda, then hide behind anonymity so we can't question them. This evades obvious questions, like whether all their information comes from the same public sources that already point to Russia, or whether they have their own information from the CIA or NSA that points to Russia.
Everyone knows the Washington press works this way, and that David Sanger in particular is a journalistic whore. The NetFlix series House of Cards portrays this accurately in its Continue reading
Intel Puts Numbers on the Security Talent Shortage
25% of organizations have lost proprietary data to cyberattacks.
Security & Gross Margins Dampen Juniper’s Q2 Earnings
Juniper's CEO isn't happy with security revenues.