Category: Security
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A lesson in supply chain attacks
What happens when the websites we visit and the companies we depend on to provide us with information, are compromised? Supply chain attacks go to the root of information we depend on rather than attack us directly. A recent attack on the Asus infrastructure paints the exact scenario for supply chain attacks. Attackers compromised an…
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2018 the year of the hacked router
I’ve spoken in depth on consumer (and some enterprise) router security issues. In brief summary, these devices are pieces of scrap that are full of vulnerabilities and very seldom get updated to fix issues. It’s no coincidence that this year has seen an exponential growth in attacks on routers as well as botnets making use…
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(S)RUM
Veronica Schmitt, a senior digital forensic scientist at DFIRLABS, recently featured on Paul’s Security Weekly, showcasing the Microsoft SRUM system tool (System Resource Utilization Monitor). SRUM was first introduced in Windows 8, and was a new feature designed to track system resource utilization such as CPU cycles, network activity, power consumption, etc. Analysts can use…
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VPNFilter and other neat tricks
The Spectre and Meltdown attacks that came to light at the beginning of the year have been the main focus of this year’s security issues however there has been a lot more going on than that. On that note though, additional Spectre variations have been found (we’re up to v4 now); as well, the BSD…
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Loki god of …?
In the field of IT Security, one learns very quickly that there’s always another security risk around the corner. An old favourite, the Loki Botnet, is back for another bite of the pie shortly after the fun with WannaCry a week ago. ( Loki a god in Norse mythology, was sometimes good and sometimes bad.…
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Meltdown and Spectre – hardware gone wild!
We’ve had some big doozies over the last 2 years from a security point of view, but the latest CPU hardware-related bugs called Spectre and Meltdown, that started making headlines early last week, surely take the cake. One has to be careful though in classifying these as bugs, because those affected would say these were…
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A little bit of ransomware with that Sauerkraut?
This past weekend’s shenanigans with WannaCry have been painful for many people. But the simple fact is that solutions for this specific issue ( and many others ) have been available for a long time. The initial patch for the MS17-101 issue was released by Microsoft in March 2017. Didn’t update? Many AV vendors have…
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The NSA and Ransomware. Oh and a bit of HPE on the side.
If ever there was a perfect example of stupidity, the new highly virulent strain of WanaCrypt ransomware that is currently spreading like wildfire, is it. And that stupidity is care of the NSA; who in their infinite wisdom, wrote exploits based on 0-day vulnerabilities that should have been reported to the relevant vendors, but was…
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Symantec, Google and the SSL Monkey
Some education first PKI or Public Key Infrastructure is a technology that allows website visitors to trust SSL certificates presented by SSL encrypted websites. An example is when you visit your Internet Banking website – you can verify the authenticity of the site by checking the SSL Certificate of the site ( ie. clicking on…
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Password Managers
The current mainstream method of authenticating to applications and systems remains a difficult prospect for most people. Password re-use is not a good idea but remembering a separate password for each system is not feasible. Biometrics and 2-factor-authentication are great solutions but not available in all circumstances, and typically the 1st factor is still a…
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Your TV is being creepy
Of all the points of electronic insecurity one deals with every day, your TV is probably the last you’d expect. Not so, because Vizio has been caught spying on its customers – through approximately 11 million smart TVs in the US and since 2014. These TVs have automatically tracked consumers’ viewing habits and sent that data…
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Equality and security
Trending on Twitter right now: There are no US ambassadors because Donald Trump just fired them all True or False? I recently wrote a piece on “fake news and false information” in the context of online security. The feedback was interesting because most commenters did not ( immediately ) equate fake news/false information with their own…
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Fake news and false information
We live in the information age and information is arguably the most important form of currency now and we’re bombarded with it 24×365. A never ending stream of information, news and data fed through channels like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. And it’s this overload of information that can lead to bad decisions and behaviour.…
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Windows 10 updates and privacy settings
Windows 10 has put a heavy burden on network administrators due to its overhauled update system and numerous privacy settings. The results are a significant increase in network traffic, a slow down in machine operation and information leakage. Here follows a number of suggested settings to help minimise the impact of these changes and safeguard your…
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DNS Meltdown
There have been enough clues over the last few years that the global DNS system as used in its current form, is particularly frail and subject to simple attacks. Yet the main commercial protagonists piggy-backing onto this system, have remained almost spectacularly silent on the issue and there seems to be little impetus to change things. Similar…