Tag: APT

Research Warns of Cyber-Physical Attacks Against Vessel Tracking System

Researchers at Trend Micro report that an analysis of a vessel tracking system that is mandated on most large sea vessels has found that it is vulnerable to a range of possible software- and radio-based attacks. The vulnerabilities could be exploited in ‘cyber-physical’ attacks against the Automated Identification System (AIS) that directed ships off course or confused officials by mis-reporting the actual location of vessels, the researchers found. Trend Micro researchers Marco Balduzzi and Kyle Wilhoit presented their research at the Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC) in New Orleans this month. AIS is a global system for tracking the movement of vessels. It is intended to supplement marine radar and relies on ship, land and satellite-based systems to exchange data on ships’ position, course and speed and is used for everything from collision avoidance to security, ship-to-ship communications and weather forecasting.  AIS is required to be deployed on all passenger vessels and on international-voyaging ships […]

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The Moral of Sony: Ignoring Cyber Risk Can Be Fatal

  Mark Anderson over at IEEE Spectrum has a nice article today on “How Not To Be Sony Pictures.” His argument: corporations can no longer afford to be cavalier about cyber security. Accordingly: they need to do much more than simply spot threats. “Any organization that thinks cybersecurity is as simple as installing and regularly updating their anti-virus software risks similar nightmare scenarios as what Sony Pictures now stares down.”  – Mark Anderson, IEEE Spectrum. Anderson notes this blog post, by Fengmin Gong, the chief strategy officer and co-founder of Cyphort Security. Gong argues that the sheer scale and complexity of connected devices requires a new attitude towards protecting critical data and assets. “The new approach today that people have shifts away from prevention — which everyone knows is not achievable — to a focus on attack sequence and consequence,” Gong writes. What does that mean? Gong and Anderson are […]

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Research Exposes Attacks on Military, Diplomats, Executives

Researchers from Blue Coat Systems said on Wednesday that they have identified an online attack framework that is being used in highly targeted attacks on executives in industries like oil, finance and engineering as well as military officers, diplomats and government officials. The attacks are designed to steal sensitive information and Blue Coat, in a report, said that the attackers went to extreme lengths to cover their tracks: routing all communications between the hackers and the compromised systems they controlled through a “convoluted network of router proxies and rented hosts” in countries like South Korea. The framework, dubbed “Inception” is global in scope, but appears to have started out targeting individuals in Russia. Attacks spread via phishing e-mail messages that contained malicious attachments, including key logging tools and remote access Trojan horse programs, BlueCoat said. The company has released a full report on the incident, which can be found here. (PDF) [Read more Security Ledger coverage […]

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Clues Point to Long-Duration Hack at Sony

With each passing day, evidence mounts that the attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment was a long-duration hacking event that gave malicious actors extensive access to the company’s network and data. The hack started out looking like a particularly nasty example of hacktivism – with thousands of SPE systems wiped of all data. Going on two weeks after revelations of the hack, however, the incident appears to be something much more dire: a massive breach of corporate security that gave malicious attackers access to gigabytes – and possibly terabytes- of sensitive data. With only a fraction of the allegedly stolen data trove released, the ripple effects of the incident are already washing up against other Sony divisions and firms with direct or indirect ties to the company. The latest developments in the saga include publication of some 40 gigabytes of internal files. As described by buzzfeed.com, the files include: “email exchanges with employees regarding specific […]

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Report: Sony Fits Pattern of other Destructive Hacks

At a time when companies are warned to be on the lookout for “low and slow” attackers who studiously avoid notice, the Sony breach will be remembered for its unusual ferocity. On Nov. 24, the assailants declared their presence by decorating employee desktops with a belligerent message before erasing the hard drives of computers and servers they compromised as a parting shot. Destructive hacks such as the one on Sony are atypical. But they are not unknown. In fact, the attack on Sony shares many similarities with at least two other recent, destructive cyberattacks: from the methods used to carry out the strike to the software used to compromise Sony’s computer systems. Those earlier hacks also suggest that attackers had access to Sony’s network long before they played their hand. Read more over at The Christian Science Monitor.

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