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Equifax says breach cost it $87m

Data broker Equifax said that the data breach that spilled information on some 140 million individuals has cost the company $87 million so far, with more costs likely in the future. The disclosure, made as part of the company’s quarterly filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, is the first public disclosure of the direct costs of the incident, which saw the company’s stock price plunge by more than 30% and wiped out billions of dollars in value to shareholders. Equifax said that it recorded $87.5 million in expense related to the cybersecurity incident in the third quarter of 2017. But its worth digging into that number to sort out real from anticipated costs. Around $55.5m of the $87.5m in breach related costs stems from Product costs. Professional fees added up to another $17.1m for Equifax and consumer support costs totaled $14.9m, the company said. Equifax also said it […]

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Survey of Enterprises Finds High Anxiety over IoT

A survey by Forrester and the firm Forescout finds business leaders in a state of high anxiety over the Internet of Things, as more connected devices infiltrate the workplace. 

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Experts Propose Standard for IoT Firmware Updates

Bleeping Computer reported that a new proposal submitted to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) defines a secure framework for delivering firmware updates to Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Insecure software updates for embedded devices (aka ‘firmware’) have been a frequent source of security lapses on mobile and embedded devices like Internet connected webcams. Filed on October 30, the “IoT Firmware Update Architecture,” establishes security requirements for device makers to implement when designing firmware update mechanisms for connected devices. A familiar list of features The proposed rules include features that have long been recommended by security experts to permit safe handling of software updates. Among them the use of cryptographically signed updates and public key cryptography to provide end-to-end security and verify firmware images, as well as the ability to work with low-power and resource constrained IoT devices. Firmware has been the source of widespread security issues. For example, low-cost […]

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Report details mass digital surveillance, attacks on ASEAN linked to Vietnamese APT group

The security firm Volexity reported on Monday that it uncovered a massive campaign of digital surveillance and web-based attacks directed at ASEAN and other civil society groups in Vietnam, Cambodia and other countries, including ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Volexity researchers discovered malicious code lurking on main website for ASEAN and more than 80 other websites, many belonging to small media, human rights and civil society organizations, as well as individuals who had been critical of the Vietnamese government. The malicious code allowed the hacking group, dubbed OceanLotus, to track, profile and target visitors to the websites, Volexity said. The scope of the campaign was one of the largest the researchers have ever come across, rivaling the so-called “Waterbug” campaign of phishing and watering hole attacks that was described by the security firm Symantec in 2016. Links to Vietnam OceanLotus is believed to be an Advanced Persistent Threat (or […]

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Dark Markets do it better, surveying the Phishing underground and dissecting a Fancy Bear attack

In episode 69 of The Security Ledger podcast, we speak with Luca Allodi of The University of Eindhoven in The Netherlands about research on the functioning of dark markets. Also: DUO Security researched the trade in phishing toolkits – you’ll be surprised at what they learned. And we deconstruct a campaign against the citizen journalism website Bellingcat.com to understand how the Russian Group known as Fancy Bear works.

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