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For Cyber Security Awareness Month: Change Your Passwords, Or Ditch Them?

October 1, 2014 Paul Roberts

October has arrived. And while that means colorful foliage and Halloween for many of us, it is also a special time in the information security industry: cyber security awareness month – or NCSAM. Security Ledger will be supporting NCSAM this month with banner ads and other content that highlight NCSAM events. Cyber Security Awareness Month – in its 11th year- is a public-private effort to raise public awareness about online security and safety. It’s best known for the “Stop. Think. Connect.” meme, but also is an occasion for elected officials and private sector firms to highlight cyber security issues. In a Presidential Proclamation released on Tuesday, President Obama called cyber threats “one of the gravest national security dangers the United States faces.” “They jeopardize our country’s critical infrastructure, endanger our individual liberties, and threaten every American’s way of life. When our Nation’s intellectual property is stolen, it harms our economy, […]

Infographic: Possible Attacks on The Internet of Things

September 24, 2014 Paul Roberts

The folks over at Trend Micro have put together a nice infographic that reminds us that all those smart devices connected to the Internet communicate through some well worn channels, namely: standard communications protocols like Wi-Fi, Ethernet and Bluetooth that connect devices to each other and the global Internet, as well as HTTP that are used to transmit data to and from cloud based resources like management interfaces. Of course those standard protocols also leave IoT devices vulnerable to a wide range of commodity attacks: from brute force password cracking on web based management consoles to Man in the Middle attacks that can sniff out authentication credentials and hijack sessions. Trend’s infographic does a good job of depicting the various layers in the IoT stack and some of the likely attack vectors for each layer. It also gives advice on how to protect yourself (use encryption, patch software vulnerabilities, disable unused ports). Nothing ground breaking […]

You’re Invited: A Conversation on Password Security and Targeted Attacks

September 23, 2014 Paul Roberts

A note to Security Ledger readers that I’ll be facilitating a really interesting conversation this afternoon on password (in)security and how weak user authentication can undermine even the best laid security plans. The SANS Webinar, Security for the People: End User Authentication Security on the Internet” kicks off at 3:00 PM Eastern today (12:00 PM Pacific). You can register to join us using this link. My guest is DUO Security researcher Mark Stanislav, a frequent Security Ledger contributor and one of the smartest guys out there when it comes to passwords, authentication and securing the Internet of Things. There’s plenty to talk about: weak authentication schemes are the root cause of any number of prominent breaches – from the recent attacks the Apple iCloud accounts of A-list celebrities, to the breach at retailer Target (reportedly the result of a phishing attack on an HVAC contractor that Target used.) Mark and I […]

With $42m Invested, vArmour uncloaks with Software Defined Security

September 17, 2014 Paul Roberts

In the old days, startups would pull together funding from a small group of early “angel” investors and rush to get a product – any product- to market as soon as possible. The idea was to prove viability in the hopes of attracting larger investments that would let you actually develop the product you really want to sell. But that doesn’t work well for companies that want to solve really hard problem. Such projects, justifiably, need a longer runway that isn’t suited to vaporware or rapid product iteration. vArmour Networks, a Mountain View-based startup that emerged from “stealth” mode yesterday, is a good example of that latter kind of start-up. The company has already raised $42 million in three rounds, dating back to January, 2013. It is offering technology to tackle a vexing product: how to secure the information flowing within and between the growing ranks of virtual data centers. With […]

Cisco Updates ASA Security Appliance To Tackle Zero Day Malware

September 17, 2014 Paul Roberts

We’re used to writing about all the things that are changing in the security field: the onslaught of mobile devices and connected ‘stuff,’ the advent of ‘advanced’ and ‘persistent’ adversaries, the destruction of the network perimeter. But all this talk about change can obscure the fact that so much has not changed. Companies still maintain perimeters, after all, and they rely on nuts-and-bolts technologies to defend them. But these days, those products need to do more – especially in the area of ‘advanced threats’ that are likely to slip past traditional antivirus and IDS products. Enter Cisco Systems, which on Tuesday announced a new version of its ‘next generation firewall‘: the Cisco ASA (Adaptive Security Appliance) with FirePOWER Services. The appliance is the first to make full use of technology from Cisco’s acquisition of Sourcefire last year. Specifically, the latest ASA integrates Sourcefire’s Advanced Malware Protection (or AMP) technology, which gives the […]