security

January 21, 2014

SP360: SERVICE PROVIDER

AutoGuard: Keeping your Car Safe from Hacks

2 min read

Like everything else in the forthcoming Internet of Everything era, cars, which today already rely heavily on digitized systems, are well on their way to connectivity with their surroundings. This is a welcome development. Already we have Bluetooth (radio to cellular) to help us speak hands-free while driving and GPS to keep from getting lost. […]

January 21, 2014

EDUCATION

Tackling the Cybersecurity Skills Gap

1 min read

The demand for skilled IT security professionals is growing everyday in both the private and public sector, and much of today’s security training is dangerously out of step with current threats. A recent Ponemon Cyber Attack study found that cyber crime was up 78% in 2013 vs. 2012, with resolution and recovery time more than […]

January 20, 2014

SECURITY

Cisco 2014 Annual Security Report: Cybercriminals Applying “Old” Techniques in New Ways

2 min read

We know that as time goes on, the cybercrime network’s operations will only more closely resemble those of any legitimate, sophisticated business network. And like all enterprising businesspeople, those who are part of the “cybercriminal hierarchy”—which is discussed in the Cisco 2014 Annual Security Report and illustrated below—look to increase their profits by continually innovating […]

January 10, 2014

SECURITY

When Network Clocks Attack

3 min read

In October 2013, Cisco TRAC discussed Network Time Protocol (NTP) as a possible vector for amplified distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. Litnet CERT has since revealed that their NTP servers were used in a denial of service (DoS) attack. Symantec also published information regarding an NTP amplification-based DDoS attack that occurred in December 2013. On December 7, 2013, a hackforums.net user posted an NTP amplification DDoS script to Pastebin. The NTP DDoS script is heavily obfuscated Perl, though the plain text at the top credits the "leaking" of the script to an individual who goes by the handle Starfall. Brian Krebs also mentioned someone going by the name Starfall as a paying user of booter.tw. They may be the same person.

January 9, 2014

SECURITY

Fake German Bill Spam Campaign Spreads Malware

2 min read

Update 2014-01-10: This malicious campaign has expanded to include emails that masquerade as bills from NTTCable and from VolksbankU Update 2014-01-21: We’ve updated the chart to include the Vodafon emails and latest URL activity English language has emerged as the language of choice for international commerce. Since people throughout the world are used to receiving English […]

January 8, 2014

SECURITY

SecCon and the Limits of the Human Mind

4 min read

One of the things I like best about Cisco’s focus on security is the internal SecCon conference we put on each year. It focuses on security threats, defenses, and innovation. Although I participate as a trainer, organizer, and reviewer, my favorite role this year was as an attendee. The conference theme, The State of the […]

January 7, 2014

SECURITY

OpenSSL Website Breached Via Hypervisor Management Interface Misconfiguration

2 min read

The website of the OpenSSL project, which provides a widely-used SSL/TLS implementation, was breached on 29th December and defaced (OpenSSL.org announcement). This defacement only affected the website of the project, however. The OpenSSL project has since checked the cryptographic hashes of the OpenSSL source code and confirmed that the source code has not been modified […]

December 17, 2013

SECURITY

A Thief Inside of Cisco? SecCon 2013 San Jose

3 min read

A thief on the loose you say, at Cisco Systems, in San Jose? Turns out he was invited. Apollo Robbins was one of the headliners for Cisco SecCon in San Jose during the first week of December. Mr. Robbins taught us an important lesson about security: seeing is not always believing. Apollo demonstrated the art […]

December 3, 2013

SP360: SERVICE PROVIDER

Securing Critical Internet Infrastructure: an RPKI case study in Ecuador

2 min read

Securing the Critical Internet Infrastructure is an ongoing challenge for operators that require collaboration across administrative boundaries. A lot of attention has been given in recent years to securing the Domain Name System through a technology called DNSSEC. However, in the last couple of years, the attention has shifted to the security of the Internet […]