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Importance of Logs and Log Management for IT Security

Importance of Logs and Log Management for IT Security

Oct 02, 2013
IT Security is the name of the game and no matter how big or small the size of your organization, you will always invest enough on securing certain aspects of your IT network. In many organizations, it starts with monitoring your network for vulnerabilities that may enter the network to access potentially sensitive information in the form of security attacks . For example, you may have firewalls as your first line of defense, followed by vulnerability management, intrusion detection and prevention systems, managing your network configurations and so on.  These are crucial because: Your routers can be easily breached without proper configuration and restrictions.  If a firewall isn't configured correctly, a hacker can easily spot a port that is accidentally left open and can gain access to the network.  Rogue access points, botnet malware and social engineering can make your wireless a porthole into your LAN. Why Logs? The very purpose of IT security is to be
Russian Hacker put up an Android Firefox Zero-Day Exploit for Sale

Russian Hacker put up an Android Firefox Zero-Day Exploit for Sale

Sep 13, 2013
A Russian Exploit writer and underground Hacker who goes by the handle " fil9 " put up an Android Firefox Zero-Day Exploit for Sale in an open Exploit Market. Author claims a Zero Day vulnerability in Firefox for Android, which works on Firefox versions 23/24/26 (Nightly). The advertisement was spotted by Joshua, Malware Intelligence Analyst at Malwarebytes. Hacker Selling exploit with a starting price of $460 only. According to the proof of concept video uploaded by the Hacker, the exploit forces the mobile Firefox browser to download and execute a malicious app, on just visiting a malicious link only. What's worrisome is that many major websites are compromised frequently and a large number of visitors of those hacked sites can fall victim to this attack. " The biggest problem in this situation is that Firefox automatically executes certain known files once they're downloaded, and doesn't give users an option to disable this. Without some sort of
Making Sense of Operational Technology Attacks: The Past, Present, and Future

Making Sense of Operational Technology Attacks: The Past, Present, and Future

Mar 21, 2024Operational Technology / SCADA Security
When you read reports about cyber-attacks affecting operational technology (OT), it's easy to get caught up in the hype and assume every single one is sophisticated. But are OT environments all over the world really besieged by a constant barrage of complex cyber-attacks? Answering that would require breaking down the different types of OT cyber-attacks and then looking back on all the historical attacks to see how those types compare.  The Types of OT Cyber-Attacks Over the past few decades, there has been a growing awareness of the need for improved cybersecurity practices in IT's lesser-known counterpart, OT. In fact, the lines of what constitutes a cyber-attack on OT have never been well defined, and if anything, they have further blurred over time. Therefore, we'd like to begin this post with a discussion around the ways in which cyber-attacks can either target or just simply impact OT, and why it might be important for us to make the distinction going forward. Figure 1 The Pu
UK banks hit by Ramnit banking malware and social engineering attacks

UK banks hit by Ramnit banking malware and social engineering attacks

May 01, 2013
A dangerous variant of the Ramnit malware has been discovered targeting the UK's financial sector. Trusteer claims to have discovered an interesting trojan based attack technique that injects highly convincing and interactive real-time messages into the user Web stream that they encounter when logging into a UK online banking session. The Ramnit worm was discovered in 2010, but in 2011 researchers spotted a new strain that had incorporated source code from the notorious Zeus banking trojan. Cyber criminals are stepping up their use of social engineering techniques to bypass increasingly security-aware users of online banking and e-commerce sites.   The malware reportedly avoids detection by going into an idle sleep mode until its intended victim logs into their online bank account, at which point it activates and presents them with a fraudulent phishing message. Ramnit circumvented the OTP feature at the target bank using a 'Man in the Browser' attack to in
cyber security

Automated remediation solutions are crucial for security

websiteWing SecurityShadow IT / SaaS Security
Especially when it comes to securing employees' SaaS usage, don't settle for a longer to-do list. Auto-remediation is key to achieving SaaS security.
Social Engineering Skype Support team to hack any account instantly

Social Engineering Skype Support team to hack any account instantly

Apr 10, 2013
You can install the industry's strongest and most expensive firewall. You can educate employees about basic security procedures and the importance of choosing strong passwords. You can even lock-down the server room, but how do you protect a company from the threat of social engineering attacks? For any of you that are involved in security awareness efforts, you know what I am talking about. It could happen tomorrow, it could happen today or it might already have happened. In a recent disclosure  posted by renowned hacker and developer  DarkCoderSc (Jean-Pierre LESUEUR) explained that how one can easily Socially Engineer Microsoft Skype Support team to get access to any skype account. From a social engineering perspective, employees are the weak link in the chain of security measures in place. He simply used the weakness of Skype password recovery system itself. One simply need to request a new password to Skype support and asking to change the password. After  
Zendesk security breach, "We've been hacked"

Zendesk security breach, "We've been hacked"

Feb 22, 2013
Customer service software provider Zendesk announced a security breach, that affected three major Zendesk clients i.e Tumblr, Pinterest and Twitter and allowed hackers into their systems. The hacks come just days after Apple , Twitter and Facebook revealed that their employees computers fell victim to unauthorized access. The company believes the hacker downloaded the email addresses of Tumblr, Twitter, and Pinterest customers who attempted to get support from the companies.  Stolen information might be exploited via social-engineering attacks. " Our ongoing investigation indicates that the hacker had access to the support information that three of our customers store on our system. We believe that the hacker downloaded email addresses of users who contacted those three customers for support, as well as support email subject lines. We notified our affected customers immediately and are working with them to assist in their response. " Zendesk discov
Android Malware that can DDoS Attacks from your smartphone

Android Malware that can DDoS Attacks from your smartphone

Dec 28, 2012
The Russian anti-virus vendor Doctor Web has found a new malicious program for Android which allows hacker groups to carry out mobile denial of service attacks. While it's not entirely clear how the Trojan is spread, researchers suspect that the attackers use social engineering tactics since the malware appears to disguise itself as a Google Play clone. This malware works in the background without your knowledge. Once it is activated it searches for its command and control center and sends out information regarding your device there. One piece of information that will be sent is your phone number. The criminals will be using this number to send text messages to your phone to control the malware. Dubbed TheAndroid.DDoS.1.origin, creates an application icon, similar to that of Google Play. If the user decides to use the fake icon to access Google Play, the application will be launched. When it receives a DDoS attack command, the malware starts to send data packets to the sp
Cyber Criminals phishing with smart subdomains to earn millions

Cyber Criminals phishing with smart subdomains to earn millions

Dec 06, 2012
Like many other security issues that now affect computer users, there is a growing threat known as phishing". Phishing attacks are perpetrated by criminals who send deceptive emails in order to lure someone into visiting a fraudulent web site or downloading malicious software, expressly for stealing sensitive information such as credit card numbers, account information, passwords, etc. Cyber criminals continue to evolve and refine their attack tactics to evade detection and use techniques that work. Spear phishing emails are on the rise because they work. We have notice many times that Spear Phishing Attacks are really Successful in order to compromise Enterprise Networks and Stealing Data. From last one month I was getting mails from an unknown spoofed email id regrading a paypal warning with subject " Your account has been limited until we hear from you ! " Guess what, even I am not using that email for my Paypal account, from here I just judge that it's
Airline, Myspace, Banks, Government websites vulnerable to Hackers

Airline, Myspace, Banks, Government websites vulnerable to Hackers

Nov 04, 2012
Cross Site Scripting (XSS) is currently the most common vulnerability in the world. This is vulnerability of some host which allows anyone to inject code/scripts into the page. The injected scripts could be html tags, javascript script, vbscript scripts. A Hacker with virtual name ' Human mind cracker ' expose similar v ulnerabilities in some big and Important sites, like  Israel airline, Myspace, MTV website, Sweden government, Bangladesh bank, Nasa subdomain, Brown University, Afghanistan government website and Rome government website. In a pastebin note , hacker disclose the vulnerabilities and exact working links. These Cross Site Scripting existence is because of the lack of filtering engines to user inputs at websites, forms and web servers. Most of the time readers thinks that XSS is a very minor bug and having very less impact. But if implemented in a better way, that can harm all the visitors who will visit infected site. One of the biggest risk h
Hacker leaks source code of NASA website belongs to US Government computer

Hacker leaks source code of NASA website belongs to US Government computer

Oct 26, 2012
A Hacker going by name - " LegitHacker97 " claiming that he successfully access a NASA subdomain website , that actually belongs to a US Government computer, as mentioned on homepage. ***** WARNING ***** This is a US Government computer Hacker also dump a  82.51 MB (compressed or 337 MB uncompressed) Archive five days ago on internet, includes the complete source code of the website (in ASP). After watching the pastebin note , we tried to contact the hacker for collecting more information about the hack. Hacker describe The Hacker News via mail that," This was hacked by a major LFI vulnerability which allowed me to upload my own shell (backdoor to the site) and I took advantage of it by downloading all off the website ! ". He add ," But now vulnerability is fixed ". I download the dump from the link posetd by hacker in pastebin note and tried to match the files with NASA website and subdomains, and found that these file actually belo
Advance Phishing Attacks using HTML5 Fullscreen API

Advance Phishing Attacks using HTML5 Fullscreen API

Oct 12, 2012
Do your ever use YouTube Instant Search engine (a really fast way to search YouTube) ? That was developed by a 21 years old developer name - Feross Aboukhadijeh in 2012. Chad Hurley, CEO and co-founder of YouTube, was so impressed that he immediately offered him a job at YouTube. He a web developer, designer, computer security researcher. Recently he has developed an attack concept that exploits the fullscreen application programming interface in HTML5 in order to carry out advance phishing attacks. The HTML5 "Fullscreen API" allow web developers to display web contents in full-screen mode, that is, filling-up the display screen completely. Fullscreen API is perhaps known for its spoofing potential, leading to major browser vendors canvassing for the implementation of an overlay to notify users when full-screen is activated. Feross demonstrated how the Fullscreen API can aid phishing attack portals appear rather innocuous to the end users, by utilizing the A
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