There has been plenty of (digital) ink spilled in recent days about widespread processor flaws known as “Meltdown” and “Spectre.” We round up five articles that will help you understand these security vulnerabilities, how they were discovered and their likely impact.
Patching
Harvard Publishes Guide for Securing Political Campaigns
A new guide from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government is offering guidance to political campaigns that wish to keep hackers at bay.
Hacker Eye on the Consultant Guy: Deloitte and the Art of spotting Vulnerable Firms from the Outside
In the latest Security Ledger podcast, we analyze the breach of Deloitte by talking to two people who spend a lot of time judging the security of firms by how they look to the outside world. Dan Tentler of the firm Phobos Group tells us what he found out about Deloitte doing some fast and dirty open source research. Also: we talk to Stephen Boyer of the firm BitSight about a new study that firm did of the gap between the security readiness of financial services firms and the third-party software supply chain they rely on.
After Equifax: What Makes a Good CSO? Also: App Sec is a Mess. We Talk about Why.
What makes a good CSO? In the wake of the Equifax breach, we talk about the controversy over that company’s CSO’s music degree. Also: we talk with Signal Sciences about why companies keep getting hacked via application vulnerabilities like the Apache Struts hole that felled Equifax.
Beset by Lawsuits, Scams, Investigations, Equifax names Source of Breach
In-brief: Beset by a plunging share price, class action lawsuits in dozens of states, pending Congressional hearings and a FTC investigation, Equifax on Wednesday finally settled speculation and named a six month old hole in a common software platform, Apache Struts, as the cause of a massive hack.
