Tag: vulnerabilities

Wireless Infusion Pump is Test Case for Securing Medical Devices

A National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) reference document is providing some of the clearest guidance from the U.S. government for securing connected medical devices, but may be setting too low a bar for securing wireless communications, according to a security expert. NIST, working with the University of Minnesota’s Technological Leadership Institute, released a draft Use Case document  (PDF) on December 18 to help health care providers “secure their medical devices on an enterprise networks.” However, in the area of communications security, the document suggests the use of WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy), a legacy wireless security technology that can easily be cracked. NIST released the draft security use case document and is seeking feedback from the public. The drug infusion pump case study is described as the “first of a series” of similar use cases that will focus on medical device security, NIST wrote. The draft document presents a technical description of the security challenges […]

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In Cyberwar, US Grid is a Prime Target | CSMonitor.com

The Christian Science Monitor is running a story I wrote this week on the security of the electric grid. In the piece, I take a look at whether the electric industry is soft-pedaling cyber risk. From the piece: “For all the huffing and puffing in Washington D.C. policy circles about the hack of Sony Pictures being an act of “cyber war,” for security experts who have been working within the power sector, however, the dire warnings are not news. They would not have been news last year, or the year before. In fact, (NSA Chief Mike) Rogers’ dim assessment of the US power sector’s readiness to face and withstand a cyberattack has been shared and articulated within the power industry for seven years. “Why is it that the US power grid in 2014 is not better prepared to keep nation-state hackers at bay, or to withstand a critical cyberattack? Some of the […]

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With Multi-Vector Attacks, Quality Threat Intelligence Matters

In the last year, the world’s attention has been riveted by a series of high-profile hacks of major corporations in retail, finance and the entertainment industry, among others. Each of these incidents is unique, involving different threat actors and motives. However, each of these attacks is also a sterling example of what we, at Cisco, term “multi-vector attack” that employs a range of technologies, deployed in numerous stages, to penetrate the defenses of the target organization. Here at Cisco, we have studied these attacks in-depth and have identified some commonalities among these multi-vector attack, and useful approaches to combat them. This blog post will discuss some of our findings. About Multi-Vector Attacks Any cyber attack, large or small is born from a weak link in the security chain. These weak links take many forms: poorly configured Web servers, gullible employees or vulnerable-but-common applications like Microsoft Office, Adobe Reader and Java are common examples. Multi-vector  attacks […]

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Please Apply Our 10 Year-Old Patch: The Dismal State of Embedded Device Security

On Friday, the firm Allegro Software of Boxborough, Massachusetts, released an odd-sounding statement encouraging all its customers to “maintain firmware for highest level of embedded device security.” Specifically, Allegro wanted to warn customers about the need to apply a software update to address two recently discovered vulnerabilities affecting its Rom Pager embedded web server: CVE-2014-9222 and CVE-2014-9223, collectively known as the “Misfortune Cookie” vulnerabilities. That patch in question was released almost ten years ago – in 2005. As reported widely last week, the vulnerabilities affecting the Rom Pager software can be found in some 12 million broadband routers by manufacturers including Linksys, D-Link, Huawei, TP-Link, ZTE and Edimax. In short: some of the most common sellers of broadband routers in the world. The security firm CheckPoint discovered the vulnerabilities and issued a report about them. (The report web site is here and a PDF format report is here.) According to CheckPoint, the Misfortune Cookie vulnerability has to […]

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Cyberattack Inflicts Massive Damage on German Steel Factory

  A report released this week from Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security said that a German steel manufacturing plant was severely damaged by a cyber-physical attack this year. The incident was mentioned in an annual report by the Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (or BSI), which provided a summary of cyber security issues and incidents affecting Germany. According to the report, a German steel manufacturing facility was the victim of a “targeted attack” that the report labeled an “APT” or “advanced persistent threat” style attack.  [Read more Security Ledger coverage of APT-style attacks.] The attackers used a sophisticated spear-phishing e-mail and social engineering to get access to the office network at the steelworks, the report claims. “From there, they worked successively to production networks.” The malicious code disrupted the function of control system components that led to a blast furnace not being able to be turned off in a regulated fashion. “The result (was) massive damage […]

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