It was another eventful week in security, with another big revelation in the story of a hack of box retailer Target Inc. That update – which accompanied Target’s fourth quarter earnings guidance – nearly doubled the number of known victims of that attack. It also revealed that credit card data was not the only information stolen by hackers, who also made off with customer names, mailing addresses and emails. In this latest installment of Security Ledger’s Security Week in Review, we spoke with Jody Brazil, the President of the security firm FireMon about the week’s events. Jody is a seasoned security professional who works day-in-day-out with companies that are trying to manage their risk. He said that even large companies like Target can fall victim to sophisticated attacks, but the IT security may be too quick to give up on traditional defensive technologies. Jody and I had an interesting chat about […]
Reports
Cars Become Gadget-ized, Govt. Warns On Privacy Risk
Your car is a lot more than just a car these days. Forget about the in-car entertainment system with the USB port and the iPhone jack. If you drive a late-model vehicle, it has been tricked out with hundreds of wireless sensors to monitor everything from tire pressure to braking and acceleration. These sensors communicate over a VAN – or Vehicle Area Network – that’s not all that different from the LAN that connects the computers, servers, printers and other peripheral devices in your office. Beyond that, automakers are taking their cue from mobile device makers- and for good reason. Apple booked $10 billion in sales through its AppStore in 2013 alone. That’s not too shabby, when you consider that much of that revenue came in $.99 increments! But, as Jessica Naziri (@jessicanaziri) noted in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times, cars are the new gadgets. After all, the Detroit Auto Show is still […]
IoT Hackers Await Their Killer App
The next year will see the continued blurring of lines between the worlds of IT security and what we’ve come to think of as the ‘rest of our lives.’ But those who expect to see a large shift in malicious activity to the Internet of Things in 2014 will be disappointed. That, according to a report from the security firm Trend Micro, which argues that Internet of Things malware and attacks are still a ways off – as cyber criminals await a “killer app” that will boost adoption and provide a common platform to attack. The prediction is part of “Blurring Boundaries,” a 2014 outlook report from Trend that argues IoT threats are mostly future-tech. “While we certainly think that attacks on IoT devices and the underlying architecture will be a major area of attack in the future, that future will not be until 2015 and beyond” writes Robert McArdle, […]
Famed Hacker Barnaby Jack Died Of Accidental Overdose
Barnaby Jack, the world-renowned hacker who was found dead in his San Francisco apartment in July died of an accidental overdose of cocaine, heroin and prescription drugs, according to a report released by the San Francisco Medical Examiner’s office. The news was first reported by the website theverge.com. Jack, a 36-year-old New Zealand resident was found unresponsive in bed, surrounded by bottles of pills, empty bottles of beer and champagne and evidence of “illicit drug use,” the Medical Examiner’s report states. Jack had traces of cocaine, heroin, Xanax, and Benadryl in his system at the time of death. Jack was one of the most gifted security researchers of his generation. The head of embedded device security at the firm IOActive, Jack electrified audiences with his demonstrations of vulnerabilities in devices such as ATMs and implantable insulin pumps. In a now-famous “Jackpotting” demonstration, he demonstrated a remotely exploitable hole affecting bank automated teller machines […]
Are We Even Trying To Defend The Internet of Things?
Josh Corman has been a frequent mention on this blog. Josh, who is the Director of Security Intelligence at Akamai Technologies, joined me on the first episodes of Talking Code, speaking about application security and The Internet of Things. He talked candidly about the role that platform security played in his thinking about buying a new car. Well, a few months have passed and now Josh has the new car. But now that he has it, he’s thinking more than ever about the security problem as it pertains to the Internet of Things. In this video, from a TEDx event in Naperville, Illinois (right outside Chicago), Josh talks about his evolving theory of security on the Internet of Things. The IoT, he says, is a “tidal wave” of change that will transform our lives – connecting every aspect of life via software. But this growing amalgam of Internet connected stuff […]
