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Month: March 2017

ComputerWorldIndependent
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Hackers use dangerous Petya ransomware in targeted attacks

Credit to Author: Lucian Constantin| Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2017 11:19:00 -0700

In a case of no honor among thieves, a group of attackers has found a way to hijack the Petya ransomware and use it in targeted attacks against companies without the program creators’ knowledge.

A computer Trojan dubbed PetrWrap, being used in attacks against enterprise networks, installs Petya on computers and then patches it on the fly to suit its needs, according to security researchers from antivirus vendor Kaspersky Lab.

The Trojan uses programmatic methods to trick Petya to use a different encryption key than the one its original creators have embedded inside its code. This ensures that only the PetrWrap attackers can restore the affected computers to their previous state.

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ComputerWorldIndependent
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The NSA's foreign surveillance: 5 things to know

Credit to Author: Grant Gross| Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2017 09:27:00 -0700

A contentious piece of U.S. law giving the National Security Agency broad authority to spy on people overseas expires at the end of the year. Expect heated debate about the scope of U.S. surveillance law leading up to Dec. 31.

One major issue to watch involves the way the surveillance treats communications from U.S. residents. Critics say U.S. emails, texts, and chat logs — potentially millions of them — are caught up in surveillance authorized by Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

U.S. residents who communicate with foreign targets of the NSA surveillance have their data swept up in what the NSA calls “incidental” collection. The FBI can then search those communications, but it’s unclear how often that happens.

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FortinetSecurity
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Fortinet Welcomes New Industry-Leading Technology Partners to Our Security Fabric Ecosystem

Credit to Author: John Welton| Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2017 07:22:34 -0700

Today we announced the addition of eight industry-leading information technology providers to our Fortinet Fabric-Ready Partner Program. These new partners further extend the Fortinet Security Fabric across traditional, cloud, virtual, and software-defined environments, while simplifying multi-vendor security deployments for enterprises.

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ComputerWorldIndependent
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It's time to turn on HTTPS: The benefits are well worth the effort

Credit to Author: Lucian Constantin| Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2017 05:30:00 -0700

After Edward Snowden revealed that online communications were being collected en masse by some of the world’s most powerful intelligence agencies, security experts called for encryption of the entire web. Four years later, it looks like we’ve passed the tipping point.

The number of websites supporting HTTPS — HTTP over encrypted SSL/TLS connections — has skyrocketed over the past year. There are many benefits to turning on encryption, so if your website does not yet support the technology it’s time to make the move.

Recent telemetry data from Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox shows that over 50 percent of web traffic is now encrypted, both on computers and mobile devices. Most of that traffic goes to a few large websites, but even so, it’s a jump of over 10 percentage points since a year ago.

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SecurityTrendMicro
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Challenges and Opportunities for 2017: Trend Micro Global Research Peels Back the Layers

Credit to Author: Raimund Genes (Chief Technology Officer)| Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2017 12:00:08 +0000

The year 2017 could be a pivotal moment for cybersecurity in Europe. And that’s thanks to two things: alleged state-sponsored interference in forthcoming national elections in the region, and looming European data protection laws. Both have escalated the issue of online threats and data security right up to board level, in Europe and the U.S….

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