The Top 15 Security Posts – Vetted & Curated
*Threats & Defense*
1. Ransomware Gangs to Stop Attacking Health Orgs During Pandemic (BleepingComputer, Mar 23 2020)
Some Ransomware operators have stated that they will no longer target health and medical organizations during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
2. How Microsoft Dismantled the Infamous Necurs Botnet (Wired, Mar 18 2020)
A years-long investigation and global cooperation disrupted one of the biggest botnets ever.
3. Cisco issues urgent fixes for SD-WAN router flaws (Naked Security – Sophos, Mar 23 2020)
Cisco has patched a clutch of high-priority vulnerabilities in its SD-WAN routes and their management software.
Filter Out the Noise
Since I started this curated newsletter in June 2017, I’ve clipped ~13,000 articles and narrowed them down into the best 20 per day & best 15 per week. This is my favorite way to cut through all the security marketing and hype. If you’re enjoying it, tell a friend. If you hate it, tell an enemy.
Thanks! – Lucas Samaras
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*AI, IoT, & Mobile Security*
4. Zxyel Flaw Powers New Mirai IoT Botnet Strain (Krebs on Security, Mar 20 2020)
“In February, hardware maker Zyxel fixed a zero-day vulnerability in its routers and VPN firewall products after KrebsOnSecurity told the company the flaw was being abused by attackers to break into devices. This week, security researchers said they spotted that same vulnerability being exploited by a new variant of Mirai, a malware strain that targets vulnerable Internet of Things (IoT) devices for use in large-scale attacks and as proxies for other cybercrime activity.”
5. Russia’s FSB wanted its own IoT botnet (Naked Security – Sophos, Mar 24 2020)
If you thought the Mirai botnet was bad, what about a version under the control of Russia’s military that it could point like an electronic cannon at people it didn’t like?
6. Surveillance Firm Says It’s Selling ‘Coronavirus-Detecting’ Cameras in US (Vice, Mar 24 2020)
Athena Security previously sold a system that it claims can detect weapons in video feeds. Now it says it’s applying a similar approach to spotting fevers.
*Cloud Security, DevOps, AppSec*
7. Every presidential campaign website has suspicious 3rd-party code (SC Media, Mar 25 2020)
An analysis of 11 presidential campaign websites performed last September and again in December found multiple instances of potentially risky third-party code, unwanted code execution and unauthorized data tracking. According to a new report from The Media Trust, 81 percent of executing code on these websites was not internally developed, but rather from external third-party…
8. Skimmer May Have Put NutriBullet Customers’ Card Data at Risk for Nearly a Month (Dark Reading, Mar 18 2020)
Blender maker is the latest victim of Magecart.
9. Top 10 security items to improve in your AWS account (AWS Security Blog, Mar 20 2020)
“If you’re looking to improve your cloud security, a good place to start is to follow the top 10 most important cloud security tips that Stephen Schmidt, Chief Information Security Officer for AWS, laid out at AWS re:Invent 2019. Here are the tips, expanded to help you take action.”
*Identity Mgt & Web Fraud*
10. Smartphone data reveal which Americans are social distancing (Wash. Post, Mar 24 2020)
D.C. gets an ‘A’ while Wyoming earns an ‘F’ for following coronavirus stay-at-home advice, based on the locations of tens of millions of phones
11. Poland is making quarantined citizens use a selfie app to prove they’re staying inside (CBS News, Mar 24 2020)
App users will get a random request for a selfie and they have 20 minutes to upload it or else the police will pay them a visit
12. Apple Safari now blocks all third-party cookies by default (Naked Security – Sophos, Mar 26 2020)
Starting in 13.1, advertisers and analytics firms can’t track us through browser cookies. Apple says this also kills login fingerprinting.
*CISO View*
13. Elite hackers target WHO as coronavirus cyberattacks spike (Reuters, Mar 24 2020)
WHO Chief Information Security Officer Flavio Aggio said the identity of the hackers was unclear and the effort was unsuccessful.
14. What’s preventing organizations from making pragmatic security decisions? (Help Net Security, Mar 24 2020)
Human beings are poor judges of risk. For example, we perceive the risk of air travel to be higher than it actually is after a fatal aviation-related accident happens.
15. AMD Confirms Hacker Stole Information on Graphics Products (SecurityWeek, Mar 26 2020)
AMD has confirmed that a hacker has stolen files related to some of its graphics products, but the company says it’s not too concerned about the impact of the leak.