admin – Page 2403 – Computer Security Articles

Credit to Author: Michael Kan| Date: Thu, 09 Mar 2017 03:57:00 -0800

WikiLeaks has attracted plenty of haters over its controversial disclosures. But the site may be in a unique position to help tech vendors better secure their products.

That’s because WikiLeaks has published secret hacking tools allegedly taken from the CIA, which appear to target smartphones, smart TVs and PCs.

Companies including Apple and Cisco have been looking through the stolen documents to address any vulnerabilities the CIA may have exploited. However, WikiLeaks might be able to speed up and expand the whole process.

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Security TrendMicro

March 9, 2017 admin

The Culture of Cybercrime in West Africa

Credit to Author: Ed Cabrera (Chief Cybersecurity Officer)| Date: Thu, 09 Mar 2017 11:00:52 +0000

As part of our ongoing research into the cybercriminal underground markets of the world, Trend Micro researchers today released a report detailing Cybercrime in West Africa. This report leverages our ongoing partnership with INTERPOL to provide survey data and a deeper understanding of the regions cybercriminal ecosystem. While tactics play a role in the success…

Microsoft Security

March 8, 2017 admin

Uncovering cross-process injection with Windows Defender ATP

Credit to Author: msft-mmpc| Date: Thu, 09 Mar 2017 06:16:01 +0000

Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (Windows Defender ATP) is a post-breach solution that alerts security operations (SecOps) personnel about hostile activity. As the nature of attacks evolve, Windows Defender ATP must advance so that it continues to help SecOps personnel uncover and address the attacks. With increasing security investments from Microsoft—read how Windows 10 continues to raise…

Fortinet Security

March 8, 2017 admin

Microsoft Excel Files Increasingly Used To Spread Malware

Credit to Author: Xiaopeng Zhang| Date: Wed, 08 Mar 2017 15:27:03 -0800

Over the last few years we have received a number of emails with attached Word files that spread malware. Now it seems that it is becoming more and more popular to spread malware using malicious Excel files. Lately, Fortinet has collected a number of email samples with Excel files attached (.xls, .xlsm) that spread malware by executing malicious VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) code. VBA is a programming language used by Microsoft Office suite. Normally, VBA is used to develop programs for Excel to perform some tasks. I’ll use…

ComputerWorld Independent

March 8, 2017 admin

Security holes in Confide messaging app exposed user details

Credit to Author: Michael Kan| Date: Wed, 08 Mar 2017 12:51:00 -0800

Confide, a messaging app reportedly used by U.S. White House staff, apparently had several security holes that made it easier to hack.

Security consultancy IOActive found the vulnerabilities in Confide, which promotes itself as an app that offers “military-grade” end-to-end encryption.

But despite its marketing, the app contained glaring problems with securing user account information, IOActive said in a Wednesday post.

The consultancy noticed it could access records for 7,000 Confide users by exploiting vulnerabilities in the app’s account management system. Part of the problem resided with Confide’s API, which could be used to reveal data on user’s phone numbers and email addresses.

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ComputerWorld Independent

March 8, 2017 admin

Leaked docs suggest NSA and CIA behind Equation cyberespionage group

Credit to Author: Lucian Constantin| Date: Wed, 08 Mar 2017 12:40:00 -0800

Purported CIA documents leaked Tuesday appear to confirm that the U.S. National Security Agency and one of the CIA’s own divisions were responsible for the malware tools and operations attributed to a group that security researchers have dubbed the Equation.

The Equation’s cyberespionage activities were documented in February 2015 by researchers from antivirus vendor Kaspersky Lab. It is widely considered to be the most advanced cyberespionage group in the world, based on the sophistication of its tools and the length of its operations, some possibly dating as far back as 1996.

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Independent Krebs

March 8, 2017 admin

WikiLeaks Dumps Docs on CIA’s Hacking Tools

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Wed, 08 Mar 2017 18:39:11 +0000

WikiLeaks on Tuesday dropped one of its most explosive word bombs ever: A secret trove of documents apparently stolen from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) detailing methods of hacking everything from smart phones and TVs to compromising Internet routers and computers. KrebsOnSecurity is still digesting much of this fascinating data cache, but here are some first impressions based on what I’ve seen so far.

MalwareBytes Security

March 8, 2017 admin