Week in review: Fileless malware, usable cybersecurity, Magecart goes after S3 buckets
Here’s an overview of some of last week’s most interesting news and articles:
Inside the NIST team working to make cybersecurity more user-friendly
Cybersecurity is usually not a user’s primary duty, yet they suffer an increasing burden to respond to security warnings, maintain many complex passwords, and make security decisions for which they are not equipped. This is the main reason why security needs to be usable and why the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has a team of researchers working on projects aimed at understanding and improving the usability of cybersecurity software, hardware, systems, and processes.
Why identity is the foundation of security
Though some information may still be hosted on in-house servers, much of it has migrated to the cloud. According to a recent Flexera survey, 84% of enterprises have a multi-cloud strategy, with public cloud adoption surpassing private cloud adoption.
German banks to stop using SMS to deliver second authentication/verification factor
German banks are moving away from SMS-based customer authentication and transaction verification (called mTAN or SMS-TAN), as the method is deemed to be too insecure.
British Airways is facing £183 million fine for 2018 data breach
The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) wants British Airways to pay a £183.39 million (nearly $230 million) fine for failing to protect personal and financial information of approximately 500,000 of its customers. It also wants to fine Marriott International £99,200,396 (around $123 million) for infringements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The pervasive use of second screens endangers corporate IT networks
Despite techies having argued for years that having a second computer screen is a great way to improve productivity in the workplace, a new study from Gigamon has revealed that many people today use their additional monitor to stream music and watch sporting events and companies are struggling to cope with the extra internet bandwidth.
Insider attacks still far more difficult to detect and prevent than external cyber attacks
A recent survey conducted by Gurucul of more than 320 IT security experts, found that 15 percent of people said they would delete files or change passwords upon exiting a company.
Magecart compromised 17,000+ sites through unsecured Amazon S3 buckets
We often hear about misconfigured Amazon S3 buckets exposing sensitive business and customer data, but there’s another present danger: Magecart attackers have been exploiting them to inject payment card skimming scripts into websites.
Citrix plugs critical Citrix SD-WAN flaws, patch ASAP!
Researchers have found critical vulnerabilities in Citrix SD-WAN, one of the most widely used SD-WAN solutions out there, and are urging administrators to patch them as soon as possible.
Most SMB devices run Windows versions that are expired or will expire by January 2020
There is a steady increase in attacks and changes in attack methods that target weaknesses in encryption, workload configuration, limited visibility into vulnerabilities and outdated and unsupported operating systems, according to a research by Alert Logic.
July 2019 Patch Tuesday: Microsoft plugs two actively exploited zero-days
For July 2019 Patch Tuesday, Microsoft has pushed out patches for 78 CVE-numbered vulnerabilities (15 of them critical) and Adobe for three, but none of them in its most widely used software.
Are humans ready for AI to take control of digital security?
Just over a quarter (26%) of people in EMEA would prefer their cybersecurity to be managed by AI rather than a human, an online study conducted by Palo Alto Networks and YouGov alongside Dr Jessica Barker reveals.
What can financial institutions do to improve email security?
Financial institutions are in a fully-fledged war against data breaches. And rightly so – the finance sector is a frequent target of ransomware, phishing, and other malicious attacks. Sensitive communications are particularly vulnerable, with thousands getting leaked every year.
A fileless campaign is dropping the Astaroth info-stealer
Attackers are delivering the Astaroth info-stealing backdoor by leveraging a combination of fileless malware and “living off the land” techniques, Microsoft’s security team warns.
Discovering and fingerprinting BACnet devices
BACnet is a communication protocol deployed for building automation and control networks. The most widely accepted networks include Internet Protocol (BACnet/IP) and the Master-Slave Token-Passing network (BACnet MS/TP). Generally, routers are required to interconnect BACnet networks while gateways are preferred for connecting non-compliant devices to a primary BACnet network.
U.S. Coast Guard shares cybersecurity best practices for commercial vessels
Spurred by a recent cyber incident they were called in to help resolve, the U.S. Coast Guard has detailed basic measures to improve vessels ‘cybersecurity.
Whitepaper: Know your enemy, know your risk
Understanding the risks to your most sensitive data begins with understanding the mindset of the hackers attacking it.
How mobile use cases in financial services are affecting security
Financial services organizations are increasingly exposed to cyber threats, according to Wandera. The report “Mobile Security in the Financial Services,” includes analysis of six months of security data from 225 financial services customers with 50,000 devices collectively under management.
How businesses can become more nimble and secure by moving to the cloud
Today’s business landscape is more dynamic than ever before. Organizations are being inundated with data, generated by an ever-increasing number of connected devices and systems. According to IDC, volume of data worldwide will grow ten-fold to 163ZB by 2025, and the majority of that will be created and managed by enterprises.
Do cloud apps make you a target for cyber attacks?
Almost half (49%) of businesses believe cloud apps make them a target for cyber attacks, a Thales research reveals.
How companies innovate as they face industry disruption
Nearly three-quarters (72%) of industry sectors experienced an increase in disruption over the past eight years, leaving $41 trillion in enterprise value (market capitalization + net debt) exposed to disruption today, according to a new report from Accenture.
New infosec products of the week: July 12, 2019
A rundown of infosec products released last week.