TRAC

March 20, 2014

SECURITY

Understanding Security Through Probability

3 min read

This post was also authored by Min-yi Shen and Martin Lee. Security is all about probability. There is a certain probability that something bad will happen to your networks or your systems over the next 24 hours. Hoping that nothing bad will happen is unlikely to change that probability. Investing in security solutions will probably […]

March 5, 2014

SECURITY

January 2014 Threat Metrics

2 min read

January 2014 started with a bang, with one in every 191 web requests resulting in a web malware encounter. The Cisco Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT) observed this same trend, witnessing a 200% increase in web malware encounters experienced by Cisco employees for the month. Overall, January 1, 25, and 26 were the highest […]

March 4, 2014

SECURITY

Big Data Ecosystem Challenges

4 min read

Information security is one of the largest business problems facing organisations. Log data generated from networks and computer systems can be aggregated, stored, and analysed to identify where misuse occurs. The enormous amount of data involved in these analyses is beyond the capability of traditional systems and requires a new, big data approach. Given the […]

February 25, 2014

SECURITY

Trust but Verify and Verify and Verify Again

4 min read

Two recent disclosures show that often the weaknesses in cryptography lie not in the algorithms themselves, but in the implementation of these algorithms in functional computer instructions. Mathematics is beautiful. Or at least mathematics triggers the same parts of our brain that respond to beauty in art and music [1]. Cryptography is a particularly beautiful […]

February 19, 2014

SECURITY

Cisco Hosting Amsterdam 2014 FIRST Technical Colloquium

1 min read

The registration is now open and there is still time left to respond to the call for papers for the upcoming FIRST Technical Colloquium April 7-8, 2014. Please contact us at amsterdam-tc@first.org for speaker engagements. The event already has an exciting preliminary program covering: Savvy Attribution in the DNS – Using DNS to Geo-locate Malicious […]

February 11, 2014

SECURITY

Dynamic Detection of Malicious DDNS

6 min read

  This post was co-authored by Andrew Tsonchev. Two weeks ago we briefly discussed the role of dynamic DNS (DDNS) in a Fiesta exploit pack campaign. Today we further analyze and explore the role of DDNS in the context of cyber attack proliferation and present the case for adding an operational play to the incident response and/or threat intelligence […]

January 31, 2014

SECURITY

Attack Attribution and the Internet of Things

2 min read

On January 16, 2014, Proofpoint discussed a spam attack conducted via “smart devices which have been compromised.” Among the devices cited by Proofpoint as participating in the “Thingbot” were routers, set-top boxes, game consoles, and purportedly, even one refrigerator. Of course, news about a refrigerator sending spam generates considerable media attention, as it should, since […]

January 23, 2014

SECURITY

Fiesta Exploit Pack is No Party for Drive-By Victims

5 min read

This post was also authored by Andrew Tsonchev and Steven Poulson. Update 2014-05-26: Thank you to Fox-IT for providing the Fiesta logo image. We updated the caption to accurately reflect image attribution. Cisco’s Cloud Web Security (CWS) service provides TRAC researchers with a constant fire hose of malicious insight and now that we are collaborating with Sourcefire’s Vulnerability Research […]

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 […]