Independent – Page 407 – Computer Security Articles

Credit to Author: Robert C. Covington| Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2017 06:23:00 -0700

With all of the focus in the business world recently related to hackers, we have tended to overlook a group of potential bad actors who have already penetrated our perimeter security, and have access to our facilities — our employees and contractors. While our security teams usually monitor firewall and intrusion prevention logs, the threat from insiders is, in many cases, completely ignored.

While some insiders are intent on stealing data or damaging systems for profit or some other motive, many more expose their employers to harm just by making mistakes. Whether intent exists or not, the damage is just as bad.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Independent Krebs

March 30, 2017 admin

Post-FCC Privacy Rules, Should You VPN?

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2017 21:33:48 +0000

Many readers are understandably concerned about recent moves by the U.S. Congress that would roll back privacy rules barring broadband Internet service providers (ISPs) from sharing or selling customer browsing history, among other personal data. Some are concerned enough by this development that they’re looking at obfuscating all of their online browsing by paying for a subscription to a virtual private networking (VPN) service. This piece is intended to serve as a guidepost for those contemplating such a move.

ComputerWorld Independent

March 30, 2017 admin

Review: Consider VPN services for hotspot protection

Credit to Author: Eric Geier| Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2017 13:41:00 -0700

Virtual private networks have many uses. Typically, businesses deploy VPNs so employees can securely access the corporate network from outside the office. However, we’ve seen a rise in third-party VPN services that use the same underlying technology, the encrypted tunnel, to simply provide a secure Internet connection.

Why would you ever need to do this?

When connected to a VPN service, the websites you access think you’re at the location where the VPN server is located. This can help anonymize your Internet traffic so it’s much harder for websites to track your personal browsing history.

This also allows you to access websites, services, and content that’s restricted where you are currently located, such as Netflix or Hulu when traveling overseas.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

ComputerWorld Independent

March 30, 2017 admin

Senator: Russia used 'thousands' of internet trolls during U.S. election

Credit to Author: Grant Gross| Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2017 13:13:00 -0700

The Russian government used “thousands” of internet trolls and bots to spread fake news, in addition to hacking into political campaigns leading up to the 2016 U.S. election, according to one lawmaker.

Disinformation spread on social media was designed to raise doubts about the U.S. election and the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, said Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat.

“This Russian propaganda on steroids was designed to poison the national conversation in America,” Warner said Thursday during a Senate hearing on Russian election hacking. The Russian government used “thousands of paid internet trolls” and bots to spread disinformation on social media.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

ComputerWorld Independent

March 30, 2017 admin

Google patches Chrome bug from fizzled Pwn2Own hack

Credit to Author: Gregg Keizer| Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2017 12:03:00 -0700

Google yesterday updated Chrome to patch several vulnerabilities, including a bug in the browser’s JavaScript engine that a Chinese team tried to exploit at a recent hacking contest.

The update to version 57.0.2987.133 contained fixes for five vulnerabilities, one marked “Critical” — the most serious rating in Google’s system — and the others tagged “High.”

Of the four vulnerabilities ranked High, one was attributed to “Team Sniper,” one of five groups from Chinese company Tencent Security that participated in this year’s edition of Pwn2Own, one of the world’s best-known hacking contests. Pwn2Own ran March 15-17 alongside the CanSecWest conference in Vancouver, British Columbia.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

ComputerWorld Independent

March 30, 2017 admin

Millions of websites affected by unpatched flaw in Microsoft IIS 6 web server

Credit to Author: Lucian Constantin| Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2017 08:11:00 -0700

A proof-of-concept exploit has been published for an unpatched vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Information Services 6.0, a version of the web server that’s no longer supported but still widely used.

The exploit allows attackers to execute malicious code on Windows servers running IIS 6.0 with the privileges of the user running the application. Extended support for this version of IIS ended in July 2015 along with support for its parent product, Windows Server 2003.

Even so, independent web server surveys suggest that IIS 6.0 still powers millions of public websites. In addition, many companies might still run web applications on Windows Server 2003 and IIS 6.0 inside their corporate networks, so this vulnerability could help attackers perform lateral movement if they access such networks through other means.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

ComputerWorld Independent

March 30, 2017 admin

Three privacy tools that block your Internet provider from tracking you

Credit to Author: Ian Paul| Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2017 08:04:00 -0700

It’s official: Congress has sold you out to Internet service providers, passing a bill that dismantles Internet privacy rules and allows ISPs to sell your web history and other personal information without your permission. Assuming President Trump signs the bill into law, it means anyone concerned about privacy will have to protect themselves against over zealous data collection from their ISP.

Some privacy-conscious folks are already doing that—but many aren’t. If you want to keep your ISP from looking over your shoulder for data to sell to advertisers, here are three relatively simple actions you can take to get started.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

ComputerWorld Independent

March 30, 2017 admin

Open-source developers targeted in sophisticated malware attack

Credit to Author: Lucian Constantin| Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2017 04:30:00 -0700

For the past few months, developers who publish their code on GitHub have been targeted in an attack campaign that uses a little-known but potent cyberespionage malware.

The attacks started in January and consisted of malicious emails specifically crafted to attract the attention of developers, such as requests for help with development projects and offers of payment for custom programming jobs.

The emails had .gz attachments that contained Word documents with malicious macro code attached. If allowed to execute, the macro code executed a PowerShell script that reached out to a remote server and downloaded a malware program known as Dimnie.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here