Independent – Page 400 – Computer Security Articles

Credit to Author: DealPost Team| Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2017 12:32:00 -0700

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ComputerWorld Independent

April 7, 2017 admin

WikiLeaks: CIA used bits of Carberp Trojan code for malware deployment

Credit to Author: Michael Kan| Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2017 12:29:00 -0700

When the source code to a suspected Russian-made malware leaked online in 2013, guess who used it? A new release from WikiLeaks claims the CIA borrowed some of the code to bolster its own hacking operations.

On Friday, WikiLeaks released 27 documents that allegedly detail how the CIA customized its malware for Windows systems.

The CIA borrowed a few elements from the Carberp financial malware when developing its own hacking tool known as Grasshopper, according to those documents.

Carberp gained infamy as a Trojan program that can steal online banking credentials and other financial information from its victims’ computers. The malware, which likely came from the criminal underground, was particularly problematic in Russia and other former Soviet states.

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ComputerWorld Independent

April 7, 2017 admin

IoT malware begins to show destructive behavior

Credit to Author: Lucian Constantin| Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2017 11:37:00 -0700

Hackers have started adding data-wiping routines to malware that’s designed to infect internet-of-things and other embedded devices. Two attacks observed recently displayed this behavior but likely for different purposes.

Researchers from Palo Alto Networks found a new malware program dubbed Amnesia that infects digital video recorders through a year-old vulnerability. Amnesia is a variation of an older IoT botnet client called Tsunami, but what makes it interesting is that it attempts to detect whether it’s running inside a virtualized environment.

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ComputerWorld Independent

April 7, 2017 admin

Samsung's squashing of Tizen smart-TV bugs is turning messy

Credit to Author: Agam Shah| Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2017 11:08:00 -0700

After 40 critical vulnerabilities on Samsung’s Tizen — used in smart TVs and smartwatches — were exposed this week by Israeli researcher Amihai Neiderman, the company is scrambling to patch them.

But Samsung still doesn’t know many of the bugs that need to be patched. It’s also unclear when Tizen devices will get security patches, or if older Tizen devices will even get OS updates to squash the bugs.

Beyond Samsung’s smart TVs, Tizen is also used in wearables like Gear S3 and handsets like Samsung’s Z-series phones, which have sold well in India. Samsung wants to put Tizen in a range of appliances and IoT devices. Tizen also has been forked to be used in Raspberry Pi.

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ComputerWorld Independent

April 7, 2017 admin

U.S. lawmakers demand to know how many residents are under surveillance

Credit to Author: Grant Gross| Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2017 10:33:00 -0700

Two powerful U.S. lawmakers are pushing President Donald Trump’s administration to tell them how many of the country’s residents are under surveillance by the National Security Agency.

In a letter sent Friday, Representatives Bob Goodlatte and John Conyers Jr. asked the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to provide an estimate of the number of U.S. residents whose communications are swept up in NSA surveillance of foreign targets. Goodlatte, a Republican, is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Conyers is the committee’s senior Democrat.

Committee members have been seeking an estimate of the surveillance numbers from the ODNI for a year now. Other lawmakers have been asking for the surveillance numbers since 2011, but ODNI has failed to provide them.

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ComputerWorld Independent

April 7, 2017 admin

What C-level leaders need to know about cybersecurity

Credit to Author: Matt Hamblen| Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2017 10:04:00 -0700

Despite the scale and potential harm from cyber-attacks, there’s wide recognition that corporate leaders, especially boards of directors, aren’t taking the necessary actions to defend their companies against such attacks. It’s not just a problem of finding the right cyber-defense tools and services, but also one of management awareness and security acumen at the highest level, namely corporate boards.

“Our country and its businesses and government agencies of all sizes are under attack from a variety of aggressive adversaries and we are generally unprepared to manage and fend off these threats,” said Gartner analyst Avivah Litan, a longtime cybersecurity consultant to many organizations.

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Independent Krebs

April 7, 2017 admin

Gamestop.com Investigating Possible Breach

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2017 16:57:11 +0000

Video game giant GameStop Corp. [NSYE: GME] says it is investigating reports that hackers may have siphoned credit card and customer data from its website — gamestop.com. The company acknowledged the investigation after being contacted by KrebsOnSecurity.