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Now Available: The IronKey Workspace W200

Adriel Mercado — Sun, 13 Sep 2015 21:30:01 +0000

Just last week, IronKey unveiled the Workspace W200, which is the brand’s most affordable Windows to Go USB drive yet. It’s a USB 3.0 SuperSpeed Windows To Go device that’s highly secure, easy to use, and features a lightweight but robust design. The W200 is top-notch performance-wise, as it boasts of maximum read speeds of 310MB/second and a maximum write speeds of 159MB/second.

Other notable features:

Certified by Microsoft
Windows 10-ready
Usable with all IronKey deployment tools
Allows Bitlocker To Go Encryption
Shockproof
Waterproof
Meets MIL-STD-810G test specifications

Simply put, it’s another first-rate product from IronKey. The IronKey Workspace W200 USB is now available starting at US$96 for the 32GB variant.

For more info on the product, click here.

Here Are the Top-Level Domains Everyone Should Avoid

Adriel Mercado — Sun, 06 Sep 2015 22:00:27 +0000

In an ideal digital world, people would be able to easily avoid spam and malware sites because they’ll be grouped together under a common top-level domain. But according to a new report from Blue Coat, such domain groupings do exist. Yes, they aren’t tagged as “.spam” or something blatantly obvious, but there are indeed top-level domains in which roughly 95% of sites are potentially harmful.

The worst offenders among the dubious top-level domains include “.zip”, “.review”, “.country”, “.kim”, “.cricket”, and “.science” since approximately 99% of those sites are rated as “shady” by the report that’s based on Blue Coat’s study of tens of millions of websites visited by its 75 million users. The security and networking solutions company recommends everyone to block all sorts of traffic related to these sites.

The original article also talks about cyber-squatting, which you can read here.

Theory: The Ashley Madison Hacker is Australian

Adriel Mercado — Sun, 30 Aug 2015 22:00:26 +0000

By now, you’ve probably read about the hacking of AshleyMadison.com, the site that’s been helping married people cheat on their spouses. This led to the data leak of more than 30 million Ashley Madison users. The site has put up a bounty ($500,000 Canadian) for any information that would lead to the arrest and prosecution of the Impact Team, the name used by the hackers. As of this writing, no one still has any solid leads as to the identity of the hacker, but Krebs on Security has a theory on who it is—the hacker is Australian. This post details the theory, and he just might be on to something. Is this the answer to the month-long mystery?

It Usually Takes 205 Days Before a Company Detects a Security Breach

Adriel Mercado — Sun, 23 Aug 2015 22:00:22 +0000

According to a recent report, it takes approximately seven months before a company recognizes that it’s been or being hacked. And that’s seven months too long. As reported before, the volume of security threats that organizations deal with regularly are enormous, and that number is more likely to increase than decrease in the future.

Examples of major companies that have been hacked in recent times are Sony’s movie studio and Apple. The attack Sony suffered last year cost the company tens of millions of dollars, along with the exposure of sensitive data and trade secrets. Naturally, it also tarnished Sony’s reputation when it came to security. Apple, on the other hand, experienced a much-publicized breach when hackers were able to access the iCloud accounts of celebrities such as Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton. Hundreds of nude images were leaked online and Apple’s security capabilities were put in question as a result.

In Australia, Russian scammers were detected to have been trying to rip money from the online share trading accounts of Morgan Stanley and Commsec, which are two of the country’s biggest brokers. Corporate watchdog ASIC and the Australian Federal Police have been investigating the hacking.

These stories have barely scratched the surface of the damage being caused by hackers. However, these should serve as prime examples of how security attacks can have adverse effects on finances and consumer confidence, among others. Again, all of these show just how important security is to a company.

To read the original article, click here.

Airport Security Networks Can Be Compromised With a Common Laptop

Adriel Mercado — Sun, 16 Aug 2015 22:00:42 +0000

This is the alarming discovery of renowned security expert Billy Rios. He discovered that hackers could have the capability to shut down an airport’s security network just by using a laptop. And this is particularly dangerous, as criminals or terrorists may manipulate the system to conceal weapons from x-ray scanners or the like. What’s ironic about this is the fact that the improved security system in airports is supposed to boost safety, and not be the entry point hackers could use for it to be compromised. “Walking by these devices and knowing how poorly secure they are, it doesn’t sit well with me. It’s pretty bad—probably no thought has been given to cyber security at all,” said Rios.

To read the full article, click here.

The Australian: The Number of Online Security Attacks Have Tripled in the Last 3 Years

Adriel Mercado — Sun, 09 Aug 2015 22:00:46 +0000

The threat of security breaches has risen to alarming levels and is expected to cost more than $1 billion, according to a report by The Australian. Moreover, the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) cautioned that such attacks have been unrelenting (which confirms the suspicions of a lot of IT managers today), noting that a 20% increase in the number of cyber threats. The industries said to be most at risk are banking, communications, and energy. The ACSC also warned that Australian government networks are being targeted daily by cyber espionage activity.

Click here to see the original article.

Report: Nearly 50% of IT Managers Believe that They Are Targets of Weekly Security Attacks

Adriel Mercado — Sun, 02 Aug 2015 22:00:35 +0000

About half of Australian IT managers believe their respective organisations are targeted by security attacks every week. More distressingly, one in eight of them think that they had been attacked in the past minute—which supports the idea that attacks are non-stop. These are the findings of a survey conducted by Centrify, an identity management firm, at the recent AusCERT conference. More than 100 attendees were asked to participate in the study, and 56% of those also stated that their biggest concern in the coming year is security. 83% of those surveyed said that they were more concerned about security this year compared to a year ago.

Senior director of APAC sales with Centrify, Niall King, wasn’t surprised that security has become the top priority of both business and IT executives since high-profile hackings such as the major breach of Target a few years ago has finally brought warranted attention to the issue. “IT managers all over the world want to make data and applications more open and usable, but they are also concerned about security. These challenges seem to be consistent across geographies—but we only hear about them when there is someone famous involved,” said King.

To read the original article, click here.

Check Point Takes a Look at the Malware Called Matsnu

Adriel Mercado — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 06:12:59 +0000

Stanislav Skuratovich, a researcher at Check Point, recently set his sights on a malware called Matsnu, which is an x86 infector that serves as a backdoor after infiltrating a computer system. This malware is able to upload and execute any code—which could potentially encrypt files on disc or uncover sensitive data—on the infected system.

The creator of Matsnu uses domain generation algorithm (DGA) to communicate with a C&C server. This allows the malware to be shielded from attempts of string dumping, blacklisting dumped domains, or shutting down domains. Basically, it renders blocking malicious network activities more difficult since new domains are generated on specified intervals. The malware also employs anti-disassembling features and packing techniques that make the analysis process even tougher.

To view the original article, click here.

Acunetix Can Help You Identify Sites that Host Malware

Adriel Mercado — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 10:53:59 +0000

Identifying which sites are infected by malware or are used for phishing attacks shouldn’t be a problem with the Acunetix Vulnerability Scanner v10. If you’re running a website, Acunetix will detect the sites that you shouldn’t be linking to. This is valuable, as linking to compromised websites may affect your site’s SEO.

Acunetix utilizes the Google and Yandex Safe Browsing databases to carry out its detection duties.

To read the original post, click here.

Surveillance Court Allows the NSA to Resume Its Bulk Data Collection

Adriel Mercado — Mon, 06 Jul 2015 07:04:26 +0000

As per the ruling of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the National Security Agency may temporarily resume its program—which was once hidden from the public eye—of systematically collecting bulk records of Americans’ domestic phone calls.

Naturally, the American Civil Liberties Union said that it would raise the issue to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which previously ruled that the NSA’s surveillance program was illegal. The Union will ask for an injunction to once again suspend the program, a plea that could potentially pit the two courts against each other.

To read the complete story, click here.