Computer Security Updates Week 2 of Dec 2013

We are back after some period of hiatus - this update is going to be a massive one.

Refer to Computer Security Updates Week 4 of Oct 2013; the biggest news was a report by USA Today about the shutdown of Silk Road by FBI.

For this week / last week, here are / were the biggest news.
  • Yahoo, Bernama - Dec 6, 2013 - Hundreds of millions swindled from banks in past 5 years, mostly by staff, say police
  • Press release - McAfee - Dec 5, 2013 - McAfee Finds 80% of Employees User Unapproved Apps at Work
  • USA Today - Dec 5, 2013 - Hackers stole almost 1.6 million login credentials and 320,000 e-mail credentials
  • Press release - Prolexic - Dec 2, 2013 - Akamai to Acquire Prolexic.
  • Press release - Prolexic - Nov 20, 2013 - Survey Results for DDoS Protection
  • Press release - Trend Micro - Nov 16, 2013 - Reports Cyber crimes from Nigeria.
  • Press release - Trend Micro - Nov 14, 2013 - Microsoft Releases 8 Security Advisories
  • Yahoo - Nov 3, 2013 - Philippine government sites hacked by Anonymous
  • USA Today - Oct 31, 2013 - Reports claimed that major Internet players' Data Centers were intercepted
  • Press release - IBM - Oct 18, 2013 - Made in IBM Labs: Two-Factor Security for Mobile Transactions.
  • Press Release - Huawei - Oct 18 2013 - Huawei Releases Cyber Security White Paper.



Yahoo, Bernama - Dec 6, 2013 - Hundreds of millions swindled from banks in past 5 years, mostly by staff, say police

Report from;Yahoo - Bernama,no-follow, http://my.news.yahoo.com/hundreds-millions-swindled-banks-past-5-years-mostly-155349378.html; that Malaysian banks were subjected to internal security threats in the form of money swindling, mostly carried out by internal staffs, over the past 5 years.

The reported quoted that overall the banks suffered losses amounting to RM789,106,376 for various types of fraud during the period.



Press release - McAfee - Dec 5, 2013 - McAfee Finds 80% of Employees User Unapproved Apps at Work

Today, McAfee released the results of a market research survey designed to uncover the extent and risks of unauthorized Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications.

The study was conducted by Stratecast (a division of Frost & Sullivan), and found that more than 80 percent of survey respondents admit to using non-approved SaaS applications in their jobs.

Furthermore, IT employees use a higher number of non-approved SaaS applications than other company employees.

Some other interesting results include:
  • Microsoft Office 365 is the top unapproved SaaS application (9% of respondents), followed closely by Zoho (8%), LinkedIn (7%) and Facebook (7%)
  • On average, 15% of users have experienced a security, access, or liability event while using SaaS
  • IT professionals use Shadow IT more than business users (81% of Line of Business users, and 83% of IT users)
  • 39% of IT respondents use unauthorized SaaS because, “it allows me to bypass IT processes”, while 18% agreed that IT restrictions “make it difficult to do my job.”
Details.

USA Today - Dec 5, 2013 - Hackers stole almost 1.6 million login credentials and 320,000 e-mail credentials

It was reported by; USA Today,no-follow,http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/12/04/internet-hack-web-cybersecurity/3875333/;that a Chicago-based cybersecurity firm, Trustwave, tracked down a server which was found to have been used by hackers who had stolen these information via software maliciously installed on computers around the world.

It was found that among other items, the server contained information for 318,121 passwords from Facebook, 59,549 from Yahoo, 54,437 from Google, 21,708 from Twitter and 8,490 from LinkedIn.



Press release - Dec 2, 2013 - Akamai to Acquire Prolexic

Akamai Technologies, Inc. and Prolexic Technologies, Inc. announced today that the two companies have signed a definitive agreement for Akamai to acquire Prolexic, a provider of cloud-based security solutions for protecting data centers and enterprise IP applications from distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.

Akamai provides leading solutions for defending Web sites and Web applications by leveraging the scale and intelligence of its global platform to protect against even the largest and most sophisticated DDoS and application-layer attacks. Prolexic combines DDoS mitigation solutions with security operations expertise for protecting data centers and enterprise IP applications.

By acquiring Prolexic, Akamai intends to provide customers with a comprehensive portfolio of security solutions for enterprises and data centers.

Details.

Press release - Prolexic - Nov 20, 2013 - Survey Results for DDoS Protection

Prolexic today unveils the results of a survey of global e-Commerce companies who were asked about DDoS protection and the effectiveness of different types of DDoS mitigation services.

Survey responses show that online retailers:
  • Find content delivery networks (CDNs) and Internet service providers (ISPs) to be the least effective of DDoS protection services, and especially ineffective against direct-to-origin DDoS attacks and application-layer attacks.
  • Prefer a mature, pure-play DDoS mitigation service provider with proven competence and capabilities that can scale to stop the largest DDoS attacks on the Internet, with low false positives, and the fastest mitigation backed by a service level agreement (SLA). They also want a mitigation provider with a proven track record of ensuring the client’s site availability and business continuity during a DDoS attack.
  • Seek a total DDoS protection solution that only a specialist in DDoS mitigation services can provide. e-Commerce companies want network protection for all IPs with a single DDoS mitigation solution, not add-on services from multiple ISPs or CDNs. They want a total-protection provider that sits in front of all IPs and carriers and provides routed protection against all avenues of attacks.
Details.

Press release - Trend Micro - Nov 16, 2013 - Reports Cyber crimes from Nigeria

Trend Micro published a report on cyber cimes from Nigeria that involved Ice IX and the 419 scams. The Ice IX is a banking trojan, reportedly heavily utilized by a cybercrime gang that operated out of Lagos, Nigeria.

Beside identifying all relevant details, the report also identified key members of the gang.

ICe IX is known as the first generation of the much publicized Zeus banking trojan - it collects email addresses, bank account and credit card numbers and email login credentials.

It is c&C-powered.

The scam was discovered through analysis of trails leftover by the gang.

The 419 scam is referring named the 419 Nigerian penal law that outlawed advance-fee fraud - it was found that the gang was actively involved in such propagation of such scams.

Details.

Press release - Trend Micro - Nov 14, 2013 - Microsoft Releases 8 Security Advisories

Microsoft released 8 security updates which cover OS and products: Internet Explorer, Office, Hyper-V, Outlook.

Details.

Yahoo - Nov 3, 2013 - Philippine government sites hacked by Anonymous

It ware reported by; Yahoo,no-follow,http://my.news.yahoo.com/philippine-government-sites-hacked-anonymous-041222396.html;that a total of seven Filipino government sites have been hacked by Anonymous collective, motivated by social-political agenda.

The hackers apparently calling the government to buckle up by paying attention more to addressing people's needs.



USA Today - Oct 31, 2013 - Reports claimed that major Internet players' Data Centers were intercepted

I've read from; USA Today,no-follow,http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/10/30/nsa-yahoo-google-data-centers/3314793/; it was reported that based on the Snowden leaks, information flows between technology giants Yahoo and Google were intercepted through a program known as MUSCULAR.


Press release - IBM - Oct 18, 2013 - Made in IBM Labs: Two-Factor Security for Mobile Transactions

The solution Addresses two challenges:

1.) Pay anywhere using NFC devices - you can own the devices too

2.) To prove that user is indeed in possession of the card

As quoted, the IBM technology is based on end-to-end encryption between the smartcard and the server using the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) scheme. Current technologies on the market require users to carry an additional device, such as a random password generator, which is less convenient and in some instances less secure.

The way I see it, the solution offers a chance for the industry to rely more heavily on software platform than hardware for mobile security.

Details.

Press Release - Huawei - Oct 18 2013 - Huawei Releases Cyber Security White Paper

Huawei released a second white paper on cyber security with focus on helping organization coping the burden of cyber security insecurity by including cyber security as part of corporate's DNA and the recognizing the need for international standards and global community support.

Download the white paper now.

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