Malware

Podcast Episode 117: Insurance Industry Confronts Silent Cyber Risk, Converged Threats

In this episode of the podcast (#117), we go deep on one of the hottest sectors around: cyber insurance. In the first segment, we talk with Thomas Harvey of the firm RMS about the problem of “silent cyber” risk to insurers and how better modeling of cyber incidents is helping to address that threat. In part II, we invite Chip Block of the firm Evolver back into the studio to talk about the challenge that “converged” cyber physical systems pose to insurance carriers as they try to wrap their arms around their exposure to cyber risk. Editor’s note: as an experiment this week, we’re posting each interview as a separate download, to see if that makes it easier for listeners to jump to the content they’re most interested in. Use the comments section or Twitter (@securityledger) to let us know what you think or whether you prefer the single download! 

NotPetya Horror Story Highlights Need for Holistic Security

The NotPetya malware’s ability to cripple even sophisticated, global firms is a cautionary tale about the need for businesses to understand their risk and take a holistic view of security says Fadi Albatal, Chief Strategy Officer at Hitachi Systems Security.*

Episode 114: Complexity at Root of Facebook Breach and LoJax is a RAT You Can’t Kill

In this week’s podcast: Facebook revealed that a breach affected 50 million accounts and as many as 90 million users. Is complexity at the root of the social media giant’s troubles? We speak with Gary McGraw of the firm Synopsys about it. Also: BIOS-based malware has been demonstrated at security conferences for years.  Last week, the security firm ESET warned that it identified a sample in the wild. Even worse: the Russian Hacking Group Fancy Bear was believed to be responsible. We’ll talk to firmware security expert Giovanni Vigna of the firm Lastline about the truth and hype around LoJax and other firmware based attacks.

North Korea’s Lazarus Tied to Cryptojacking Campaign Targeting MacOS

North Korean state-sponsored hacking group Lazarus is believed to be behind a recent crypto jacking attack on several banks with an unexpected twist–the use of a Trojan that tricked a company employee into downloading malware, according to Kaspersky Lab.

Cisco Links Remote Access Tool Remcos to Cybercriminal Underground

Questions are being raised about whether remote-access and testing tools from a mysterious company called Breaking Security are made and sold by cyber criminals, after the tools have been widely adopted as a turnkey solution for setting up and running botnets, according to Cisco Talos.