Cyber criminals change targets – small fish are easier to catch?
Security experts have their eyes turned on Europe as the number of cyber crime operations emanating from here is growing. In the first half of 2010 Europe has surpassed Asia and the Americas in producing web-based threats.
One reason for the rise of European based threats might partly be due to the fact that the Chinese Government has forced it’s local ISP’s to curve illegal activities there. This politics are apparently one of the reasons for the migration of cyber criminals to Eastern Europe. Read more
How to Stop Conficker/Stuxnet in four easy steps – Advisory by CoSoSys
As some of you may know, the Stuxnet worm (and Conficker) has been running amok on both private and corporate networks. The malware spreading via USB devices is always the source of new threats. The latest development of Stuxnet exploits zero day vulnerabilities to target supervisory control firms and data acquisition (Scada) and other industrial systems. Such systems are being used to control pipelines’ pressure or motor work rates on industrial factory floors. Typical environments can be oil pipelines and power-plants, factories etc.
Conficker/Stuxnet detects platforms with Scada systems installed on and uses Windows vulnerabilities to gain access and spread through the network. In the light of current events and the continuous spread of the worm through USB ports and USB portable devices, endpoint security and data loss prevention solution developer CoSoSys has created a four-step strategy against Stuxnet that’s extremely easy to implement: Read more
Stuxnet Worm: New threat targets Scada Systems and other industrial environments
These systems have a mainly industrial usage. They are being used to control pipelines’ pressure or motor work rates on industrial factory floors. Typical environments can be oil pipelines and power-plants, factories etc. Read more
UK cost cutting trend affects information security spending
Although C-level management recognizes the importance of information security, companies all around the UK plan to reduce their information security costs. This rumour is backed up by a survey released by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which states that budget increases for information security costs is a priority for less then one third (31%) of the UK-based companies. The international average is 52%.
The importance of strategic approach to information security has been increasingly understood by the majority of senior levels despite stringent budget and cost reductions. A statement by William Beer, director of PwC’s OneSecurity practice, shows that high profile incidents in this field, such as the one that led to a fine of £2.3m payed by Zurich Insurance have helped the earlier mentioned senior levels to acknowledge the importance of information security. Read more
Stidia B2B Service Suite Features Actively Managed Secure Hosting
In mid-August, Luxemburg-based Stidia has added Actively Managed Secure Hosting to its business to business web hosting and e-Commerce solutions suite. With this new addition, all Stidia corporate customers’ servers are actively monitored by human engineers to guarantee the best levels of website security, network redundancy, and bandwidth performance.
The new security service has been integrated with Stidia’s previous enterprise-class DNS hosting offering and all web hosting packages are now actively managed through this new offering. Read more
Obama Administration Issues Progress Report On Cybersecurity
US President Obama and cybersecurity czar Howard Schmidt have both issued statements on cybersecurity presenting very optimistic progress reports and supporting increased activity in the private sector.
Some of the points discussed in the progress reports included the recent organizational changes and new cybersecurity initiatives of the Obama administration presented as evidence that the White House is making advances on the cybersecurity front.
“President Obama appointed a Cybersecurity Coordinator to provide White House leadership on cybersecurity issues,” the progress report says. “The Cybersecurity Coordinator leads a new Cybersecurity Directorate within the National Security Staff (NSS), works closely with the economic team, and has created a close partnership with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office of Science and Technology Policy.”
As stated before while speding a year to decide who will be the czar everyone expected, cybersecurity is considered a “key management priority” by the white house.
“Enhancing cybersecurity is a central component of the Administration’s Performance Management Agenda,” the progress report says. “The Federal Chief Performance Officer has targeted key performance strategies for improving government operations, which include moving to real time monitoring and integrating cybersecurity into system design, rather than bolting it on as an afterthought.”
I am thrilled to see things are movig along just fine and the White House is also focusing on ecouraging cybersecurity projects in the private sector as well. Let’s hope they keep it up and others start following their lead.
For more details of the two statements, visit DarkReading.
Medical diagnoses of 130,000 people lost
New York-based Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center is the center of attention in security news after exposing sensitive patient information. The lost data was the result of a failed FedEx delivery – CDs with unencrypted data was sent to the Center but never made it to its destination.
The lost data included medical and psychological diagnoses and procedures for over 130 000 patients, as stated in an official notification. An investigation trying to locate the missing CDs was launched back in April, but it failed to recover the data: names, addresses, social security numbers medical record numbers, dates of birth and more, enough for any half-decent identity thief to have a blast.
According to the Register, Licoln is at least note alone in this mess:
Lincoln’s notification to the US Department of Health website came the same day officials at the University of Maine said sensitive details for 4,585 individuals who sought services at the school’s counseling center have been stolen by hackers who compromised two servers. The exposed data included names, clinical information and social security numbers for people who used the service over an eight-year span ending last week.
Other medical facilities to fess up to losing patient data in the past 24 hours, according to the Department of Health website, include Silicon Valley Eyecare Optometry and Contact Lenses, with 40,000 people affected, Kentucky’s Our Lady of Peace Hospital, with 24,600 affected, and the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, which affected 60,000.
Mix, match and send credit details to whoever
That’s what HM Revenue & Customs seems to be doing these days. They have taken the credit details of over 50,000 individuals claiming tax credits and mistakenly sent them out in the post. The result was that each one of the claimants has received their annual tax credit award notice, along with the private details of someone else.
Yearly earnings, parts of bank accounts, insurance numbers and names have all been sent out randomly to claimants. Yet the HMRC claims they will apologize and no IT theft could have resulted from this!
“Unfortunately an error has occurred in one of the tax credits print runs, causing some customer information to be wrongly formatted,” said a spokeswoman.
“Investigations are under way to identify the cause of the problem and we will be contacting affected customers in writing this week, apologising and providing a corrected award notice.”
Let’s hope that all claimants are moral, law abiding citizens and that the information is indeed to little to be used in any wrongful way! Yet the apology is still in order and a thorough analysis should follow the initial one that stated there were no ID theft risks!
UK: Information Commissioner’s Office reports that the NHS has disclosed 305 security losses, as the amount of breaches tops 1,000
Over more than 1000 data losses for the NHS. This is a new record.
Of which alone 307 were as a result of stolen data or hardware and 233 due to lost data or hardware.
The Information Commissioner’s Office has warned organisations that they need to minimise the risk of mistakes, as the amount of losses reported tops 1,000.
The ICO claimed that staff need simple procedures on how to handle personal information with appropriate training to ensure the importance of securing it is fully understood. It also said that it is essential that the protection of people’s personal information is part of organisations’ culture and DNA.
An ICO report revealed that 254 breaches were as a result of information being disclosed in error, 307 were as a result of stolen data or hardware and 233 due to lost data or hardware.
A further 83 were due to a technical or procedural failure and 59 were lost in transit. A breakdown of companies revealed 305 incidents were recorded by the NHS, 288 in the private sector and 132 by local government. Only 81 incidents were the result of central government.
David Smith, deputy commissioner at the ICO, said: “We all know that mistakes can happen but, the fact is that human error is behind a high proportion of security breaches that have been reported to us. Extra vigilance is required so that people’s personal information does not end up in the wrong hands.
“Organisations should have clear security and disclosure procedures that staff can understand, properly implement these and ensure that they are being followed by staff. Staff must be adequately trained not just in the value of personal information, but in how to protect it.
“We are keen to work with organisations to prevent breaches happening in the first place and to help ensure that things are put right when they do go wrong.”
Source and full article: SC Magazine
Edmonton travel agency investigated for credit card fraud
An Edmonton travel agency is currently investigated for credit card fraud after complaints of foul play totalling over 50,000 US dollars have been reported by former customers. According to the ongoing police investigation of the Canadian travel company, a former employee has been charged in the case, but other charges might still be pending, involving other prople related to the agency.
While the information is still foggy, it is clear that there have been about 11 reports from ex-customers who have used the agency’s services and then noticed unauthorized usage of their credit cards. The initial complaint came from a customer who had found out that almost 20,000 USD had been charged to his card. Subsequent complaints raised the total abount to 50,000 USD.
It is unclear how many credit card accounts had been stolen, as the agency personnel had access to all this data. The police investigation might be able to reveal who’s to blame and how many people were affected by this data theft.
