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Archive for the ‘Security breach’ Category
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
The Green Dam project to filter or censor web access on PC’s sold in China is blossoming into a controversy. From the Wolchok, Yao, Halderman analysis of the software that added to the buildup:
“According to press reports, China will soon require all PCs sold in the country to include Green Dam. This software monitors web sites visited and other activity on the computer and blocks adult content as well as politically sensitive material…We examined the Green Dam software and found that it contains serious security vulnerabilities due to programming errors…In the meantime, we recommend that users protect themselves by uninstalling Green Dam immediately.”
In light of the issues, the installation mandate seems to have been delayed indefinitely. We’ll add more info as it comes to light and wikileaks comes back up.
Posted in Exploit, Security breach | No Comments »
Thursday, January 22nd, 2009
Heartland Payment Systems disclosed little information in a press release regarding a security breach that they discovered last week. The company provides “credit/debit/prepaid card processing, payroll, check management and payments solutions to more than 250,000 business locations nationwide”.
The lack of information in the release is curious, because the news was released right on Jan. 20th, buried amongst the media focus on the new president, and the release contains little details on what may potentially be the largest known breach to date.
“Payments processor Heartland Payment Systems has learned it was the victim of a security breach within its processing system in 2008. Heartland believes the intrusion is contained.”
“We found evidence of an intrusion last week and immediately notified federal law enforcement officials as well as the card brands,” said Robert H.B. Baldwin, Jr., Heartland’s president and chief financial officer. “We understand that this incident may be the result of a widespread global cyber fraud operation, and we are cooperating closely with the United States Secret Service and Department of Justice.”
It’s interesting and eye-opening that the company did not have systems in place to identify the breach themselves. They were tipped off to it by Visa and MasterCard:
“After being alerted by Visa® and MasterCard® of suspicious activity surrounding processed card transactions, Heartland enlisted the help of several forensic auditors to conduct a thorough investigation into the matter. Last week, the investigation uncovered malicious software that compromised data that crossed Heartland’s network.”
“Heartland apologizes for any inconvenience this situation has caused. Heartland advises cardholders to examine their monthly statements closely and report any suspicious activity to their card issuers. Cardholders are not responsible for unauthorized fraudulent charges made by third parties.”
We will monitor for more information regarding the malware itself. However, further details will most likely not be released in the midst of an ongoing investigation.
Posted in Disclosure, Security breach, Undetected malware, cybercrime | No Comments »
Monday, December 8th, 2008
Sometimes you get a crystal ball prediction and gimmickry. Sometimes you get something with real insight. Dave Aitel’s real insight on DailyDave this morning focused on a NY Times article about the U.S. federal government’s National Security Presidential Directive 54/Homeland Security Presidential Directive 23 that Bush signed in January 2008:
“Faster, smashter. When I see 30 billion dollars, I can tell you what you’re going to get, as a taxpayer, for your money: Patch management, IDS, Anti-Virus, scanners of all shapes and sizes. Audits. Big rooms full of large screens correlating information that has absolutely no relevance to security. You can’t correlate what you can’t see. You can’t patch what you don’t know about.
Mr. Markoff is trying to tell us that the defenders are losing the battle. But if they are, it’s because they *chose* to. Hackers use 0day and always have. The defenders are off making millions selling things that don’t work against 0day.
I guess what I’m trying to say here is that at this point the attackers are just “reasonably competent”. When it comes to offensive information security, we ain’t seen nothing yet.”
NPR, the Washington Post, and the NYT have all been spending more time reporting on computer security. It was very interesting to hear a guest on Boston NPR’s hour long “On Point” this morning discussing characteristics of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ laptop and other PC based resources at the U.S. Department of Defense, as well as the legal arm-twisting used to silence individuals that have participated in security breach investigations. And therein lies the real problem. All the discussion in the world about network security is useless when talk about real issues is silenced, and the individuals that need to protect their organization’s data do not understand or cannot describe what they need to protect it from.
Posted in AntiMalware Solutions, Security breach, Strategy | No Comments »
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