Independent – Page 386 – Computer Security Articles

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Fri, 12 May 2017 16:54:01 +0000

At least 16 hospitals in the United Kingdom are being forced to divert emergency patients today after computer systems there were infected with ransomware, a type of malicious software that encrypts a victim’s documents, images, music and other files unless the victim pays for a key to unlock them. It remains unclear exactly how this ransomware strain is being disseminated and why it appears to have spread so quickly, but there are indications the malware may be spreading to vulnerable systems through a security hole in Windows that was recently patched by Microsoft.

May 10, 2017 admin

Third party antivirus programs interfere with Windows Defender critical patch

Credit to Author: Michael Horowitz| Date: Wed, 10 May 2017 15:37:00 -0700

Like others running Windows, I have been dutifully updating Window Defender the last few days with a fix for a critical bug. The update procedure is simple. Open the Control Panel, click on Windows Defender, and then check for updates.

The only thing out of the ordinary, on Windows 7, is that the update check is hidden behind a downward pointing triangle just to the right of a white question mark (this is not true in Windows 8 or 10). The “about” panel is also here. If the Engine Version is less than 1.1.13704.0 then it needs to be updated immediately.

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Independent Securiteam

May 10, 2017 admin

SSD Advisory – Cisco DPC3928 Router Arbitrary File Disclosure

Credit to Author: SSD / Maor Schwartz| Date: Wed, 10 May 2017 07:43:17 +0000

Vulnerability Summary The following advisory describes an arbitrary file disclosure vulnerability found in Cisco DPC3928AD DOCSIS 3.0 2-PORT Voice Gateway. The Cisco DPC3928AD DOCSIS is a home wireless router that is currently "Out of support" but is provided by ISPs world wide. Credit An independent security researcher has reported this vulnerability to Beyond Security’s SecuriTeam … Continue reading SSD Advisory – Cisco DPC3928 Router Arbitrary File Disclosure

ComputerWorld Independent

May 10, 2017 admin

Schools in Alabama warn parents about Blue Whale ‘suicide game’ app

Credit to Author: Darlene Storm| Date: Wed, 10 May 2017 10:44:00 -0700

A “suicide game” presented in an app sounds like an urban legend or something from a horror flick, but unfortunately the “Blue Whale Challenge” is real. In fact, police and school districts have issued warnings about the app and even Instagram serves up a warning after searching for the #bluewhalechallenge.

Vulnerable young people are the targets for Blue Whale. Once the app is downloaded onto a phone, it reportedly hacks the phone and harvests the user’s information. In the Blue Whale Challenge, a group administrator – also referenced as a mentor or master – gives a young person a task to complete each day for 50 days. If a person balks at the daily task, then the personal information which was stolen is used as a form of blackmail as in do this or else your private information will be released or your family threatened. The task on the last day is to commit suicide. This is supposedly winning the game.

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ComputerWorld Independent

May 10, 2017 admin

Microsoft finally bans SHA-1 certs in IE and Edge

Credit to Author: Lucian Constantin| Date: Wed, 10 May 2017 09:08:00 -0700

The Tuesday updates for Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge force those browsers to flag SSL/TLS certificates signed with the aging SHA-1 hashing function as insecure. The move follows similar actions by Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox earlier this year.

Browser vendors and certificate authorities have been engaged in a coordinated effort to phase out the use of SHA-1 certificates on the web for the past few years, because the hashing function no longer provides sufficient security against spoofing.

SHA-1 (Secure Hash Algorithm 1) dates back to 1995 and has been known to be vulnerable to theoretical attacks since 2005. The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology has banned the use of SHA-1 by U.S. federal agencies since 2010, and digital certificate authorities have not been allowed to issue SHA-1-signed certificates since Jan. 1, 2016, although some exemptions have been made — for example, for outdated payment terminals.

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ComputerWorld Independent

May 10, 2017 admin

With security awareness, money talks

Credit to Author: Evan Schuman| Date: Wed, 10 May 2017 04:00:00 -0700

According to a recent report, academics have been analyzing brainwaves of computer users to improve how they are alerted to cybersecurity dangers. I’m sorry, but getting users to pay stricter attention to security isn’t brain surgery: It’s all about money and job security. Come to think of it, job security itself is all about money, which makes money the only carrot and the only stick that IT needs.

That report, courtesy of Bloomberg BNA, said, “Many computer users automatically swat away repetitive dialogue box warnings of impending doom, especially when they are engaged in another activity. Now, engineers are using data analytics based on user tracking to discover what might help users pay attention to warnings. Software engineers are exploring promising techniques, such as changing background colors in warning notifications and switching formats to distinguish substantial security warnings from mundane messages. Tapping people’s brains helps the engineers design more effective user interfaces.”

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