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So you think you are secure? Read on.Obama orders 60-day cybersecurity review 2.10.09 — President Barack Obama on Monday ordered an immediate 60-day review of federal cyber security efforts. Read more... Data theft hits $1 trillion in 2008 2.10.09 — Numbers tallied by McAfee pegged total economic losses due to data theft and security breaches thanks to organized crime, malicious hackers, and inside jobs at a full one trillion dollars. Read more... New Zealand Man Finds US Military Files on MP3 Player 1.26.09 — A New Zealand man has found confidential US military files on an MP3 player he bought in an Oklahoma thrift shop. Read more... Rogue Contractor Admits Australian Government Hack Attacks 1.26.09 — An Australian has admitted causing AUS$1m in damage after hacking into the computer systems of the Northern Territory Government and deleting records of thousands of civil servants. Read more... Heartland Payment Systems Hit By Data Security Breach 1.20.09 — The systems penetrated by a malicious keylogger could result in a data breach that rivals the parent company of TJ Maxx in 2007. Read more... Mysterious Credit Card Charge May Have Hit Millions of Users 1.11.09 — Several Internet complaint boards are filled with comments from credit card customers from coast to coast who have noticed a mysterious charge for about 25 cents on their statements. Read more... FBI Ranks Cyber Attacks Third Most Dangerous Behind Nuclear War and WMDs 1.7.09 — The FBI announced it considers cyber attacks to be the third greatest threat to the security of the United States. The only two preceding it are nuclear war and weapons of mass destruction (WMD). A new term "Cybergeddon" has been coined, relating to the potential loss of intellectual property, intelligence infrastructure and related industries dealing primarily in data exchange or storage. The target today is not a person or place, but rather a person's data or a place's significance. Read more... Identity Theft Resource Center Reports 47% Increase in Breaches in 2008 1.5.09 — Reports of data breaches increased dramatically in 2008. The Identity Theft Resource Center's 2008 breach report reached 656 reported breaches at the end of 2008, reflecting an increase of 47% over last year's total of 446. Read more... Britney Spears Becomes Victim of Cyber-Hack 1.5.09 — Britney Spears became the victim of an internet hacker yesterday (5 January), resulting in an intruder sending a vulgar message to her fans. Read more... As attacks escalate, MS readies emergency IE patch 12.16.08 — Microsoft is planning to ship an emergency Internet Explorer update (December 17) to counter an escalating wave of malware attacks targeting a zero-day browser vulnerability. Read more... Threats to Cybersecurity 12.16.08 — The recession breeds more cyber threats as companies pare back security budgets and more turn to hacking for income, according to a tech research firm in Boston. Read more... Internet Attacks Are a Real and Growing Problem 12.15.08 — A new report says cyberwar isn't science fiction. In the 1960s, the Pentagon looked for a secure way to keep its lines of communication going in the event of all-out war. The interlinked packet networks of computers became the Internet. Fast-forward to today, and that system of open protocols brings the enormous benefits of the Web to civilian life. But the Web has also become an open field for cyber warriors seeking to harm the U.S. Read more... Modern society faces growing cyber-terror threat 12.15.08 — A hacker using malicious software can cause chaos in far-removed countries or places and at little cost. But the repercussions can be enormous. In August, Russian troops moved into Georgia. Observers dispute who fired first, but there was a little noticed dimension of the conflict that will have major repercussions for the future. Computer hackers attacked Georgian government Web sites in the weeks preceding the outbreak of armed conflict. The Russia-Georgia conflict represents the first significant cyber attacks accompanying armed conflict. Welcome to the 21st century. Read more... 2009 Predictions — Bank on More Attacks 12.15.08 — It's that most wonderful time of the year, when security researchers begin making their (typically dire) predictions for the calendar that lies immediately ahead of us. Read more... "Made in China" is a Security Risk 12.15.08 — The recent publication of a Chinese scam where thousands of Credit Card swiping machines supplied from China to UK to be used at Merchant locations were found to have been tampered and inserted with a malicious chip to siphon off credit card data to China. Read more... Hackers Exploiting (unpatched) IE 7 Flaw to Launch Drive-by Attacks 12.9.08 — Malicious hackers are exploiting a zero-day flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser to launch a new wave of drive-by downloads... Read more... Panel Presses to Bolster Security in Cyberspace 12.9.08 — License plates may be coming to cyberspace. A government and technology industry panel on cyber-security is recommending that the federal government end its reliance on passwords and enforce what the industry describes as "strong authentication." Read more... Thieves Winning Online War, Maybe Even in Your Computer 12.6.08 — Internet security is broken, and nobody seems to know quite how to fix it. Criminals Take Control of CheckFree Web Site 12.3.08 — Online criminals took control of the Domain Name System (DNS) record for payment processor CheckFree and briefly redirected the site's visitors to a their own server. Read more... Carnegie Mellon CyLab Survey Unveils Major Gap in the Way U.S. Boards and CEOs Manage Cyber Risks 12.2.08 — A recent Carnegie Mellon University CyLab survey of corporate board directors reveals a gap in board and senior executive oversight in managing cyber risks. Based upon data from 703 individuals (primarily independent directors) serving on U.S.-listed public company boards, only 36 percent of the respondents indicated that their board had any direct involvement with oversight of information security. Read more... Chinese Hack White House Network 11.6.08 — Chinese hackers have penetrated the White House computer network on multiple occasions, and obtained e-mails between government officials, a senior US official told the Financial Times. Read more... International Cyber Threats In October 2008, Shawn Henry, assistant director of the FBI cyber division, indicated that a "couple dozen" countries are interested in breaching U.S. networks. He further stated that the attacks are "Increasingly sophisticated" and "the amount of information that has been stolen is significant." Read more... Cyber Threats on the Rise, FBI Official Says 10.15.08 — Malicious cyber activity has grown more prevalent and sophisticated during the past year and threats come from organized crime groups, terrorist organizations and foreign governments, according to a senior FBI official. Read more... National Cybersecurity Initiative R&D Effort Launched 10.14.08 — The government officially has begun to formulate a national research and development agenda for "game-changing ideas" as part of the multiyear, multibillion-dollar, government wide effort to secure cyberspace through the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI). Read more... Ministry of Defence, United Kingdom 10.10.08 — 1.7 million records containing personal details on 100,000 Armed Forces personnel are missing from United Kingdom Ministry of Defence. The BBC reports that the hard drive was in the possession of the MoD's main IT contractor. Information included on the hard drive includes 1.5 million records, including the details of 600,000 potential recruits. Additional information may include personal information including bank and driving license details, passport numbers, addresses, dates of birth and telephone numbers. Read more... World Bank 10.10.08 — Up to 40 World Bank servers have been hacked and exposed for up to a year according to a report by Fox News. They report at least six major penetrations with two using the same IP address emanating from China. An unnamed World Bank executive stated "they had access to everything. They had the keys to every room at the bank. And we can't say whether they still do or don't until we fully and openly address what's happening here." Read more... University of North Dakota 10.7.08 — The credit card information and Social Security Numbers of 84,554 people are at risk due to a stolen lap top from the University of North Dakota. The data concerned alumni, donors and others according to a report in the Bismarck Tribune on October 8, 2008. Read more... Deutsche Telekom 10.6.08 — Deutsche Telekom announced that it has lost a disk containing 17 million customer records two years prior. The company made the case public following a report in German magazine Der Spiegel that the information was being sold on the Internet. Data included customers' name, date of birth, address and mobile phone number. Some customer e-mail addresses were also included. Read more... Citibank, 7-Eleven, Cardtronics, Fiserv 7.2.08 — Back-end systems supporting Citibank's ATMs in 7-Eleven stores across the United States have been hacked, resulting in millions of dollars being stolen. It is not clear how many ATMs were involved. The breach occurred through a server at a third-party processor, Cardtronics. Read more... IT COULDN'T HAPPEN HERE....COULD IT? Former contract programmer returns to former client bank and claims to be conducting a security audit during which he observed workers log onto secure servers and stole their log-in information which he used to steal $10.2 million. From ISO27001 & ISO27002 News, Issue 4. Read more... More information about the largest incidents of data records being compromised can be seen at the DataLossDB from the Open Security Foundation. The database tracks data losses from January 2000 through the present. |