DNSChanger Trojan Still Running on Half of Fortune 500s, US Govt

More than two months after authorities shut down a massive Internet traffic hijacking scheme, the malicious software that powered the criminal network is still running on computers at half of the Fortune 500 companies, and on PCs at nearly 50 percent of all federal government agencies, new research shows," reports Brian Krebs. more»

Public-Private Cooperation Policy for Cyber Security Suggested by Commissioner Kroes

At a speech during the Security and Defense Agenda meeting on 30 January Vice-President of the European Commission, Neelie Kroes, showed how the Commission envisions public-private cooperation on cyber security. more»

DDoS Attacks Increased by 2000% in Past 3 Years, Asia Generating Over Half of Recent Attacks

In the past three years, Akamai has seen 2,000% increase in the number of DDoS attack incidents investigated on behalf of its customers. The latest State of the Internet report released today by Akamai also identifies top countries from which this observed attack traffic originates, as well as the top ports targeted by these attacks. more»

NASA Website Blocked Due to DNSSEC Error

A misconfiguration in NASA's DNSSEC implementation on its website caused Comcast's network to block users from the site last week. NASA had incorrectly signed DNSSEC in its implementation of the new security protocol that last week, causing Comcast's newly DNSSEC-enabled service to automatically block access to the site. the day part of the Web went dark in protest of controversial anti-piracy legislation, leading some users and pundits to inaccurately speculate this was Comcast's way of protesting the government-based bills. more»

Comcast Announces Completion of DNSSEC Deployment

Comcast, a leading ISP in the U.S., has fully deployed Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) according to a company announcement today. Jason Livingood, Comcast's Vice President of Internet Systems writes: "As of today, over 17.8M residential customers of our Xfinity Internet service are using DNSSEC-validating DNS servers. In addition, all of the domain names owned by Comcast, numbering over 5,000, have been cryptographically signed. All of our servers, both the ones that customers use and the ones authoritative for our domain names, also fully support IPv6." more»

Japan Developing Distinctive Anti-Cyberattack Virus

The Japanese Defense Ministry is creating a computer virus capable of tracking, identifying and disabling sources of cyberattacks, according to reports. The development of the virtual cyberweapon was launched in 2008. Since then, the weapon has been tested in a closed network environment. "The most distinctive feature of the new virus is its ability to trace cyber-attack sources. It can identify not only the immediate source of attack, but also all "springboard" computers used to transmit the virus." more»

Botnets: Most Prevalent Threat on the Internet for the Enterprises

Based on the total number of transactions, Zscaler reports botnets as the biggest security risk on the Internet for the enterprises. "Once a host gets infected, the botnet usually spreads quickly within an enterprise. It also generates a significant amount of traffic to the command and control server, to download additional malware or perform other actions." more»

Typosquatted Domain Names Pose Plenty of Risk But Surprisingly Little Malware

A recent study took an in-depth look at the scale and the risk of domain name typosquatting -- the practice of registering mis-spellings of popular domain names in an attempt to profit from typing mistakes. "Applying every possible one-character typo to the domain names of Facebook, Google, Twitter, Microsoft, Apple and Sophos," Paul Ducklin, Sophos' Asia Pacific head of technology collected HTTP data and browser screenshots from 1502 web sites and 14,495 URLs. In this report, Ducklin analyses the data revealing unexpected results within the typosquatting ecosystem. more»

White House Issues Cloud Computing Policy Standards

U.S. Office of Management and Budget released a memo today establishing a program to reduce "duplicative efforts, inconsistencies and cost inefficiencies when assessing and authorizing cloud systems." The initiative called, Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), is aimed to develop a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services through standardized security requirements and controls. more»

White House Announces Agenda for Game-Changing Cybersecurity R&D

The United States White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has released a new report titled, Trustworthy Cyberspace: Strategic Plan for the Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development Program, specifying an agenda for "game-changing" cybersecurity R&D according to an official announcement today. The report is described as "a roadmap to ensuring long-term reliability and trustworthiness of the digital communications network that is increasingly at the heart of American economic growth and global competitiveness." more»

FBI Warns of Cyberattacks Against Banks - Aided by Variant of Zeus Trojan Called 'Gameover'

The FBI is warning that computer crooks have begun launching debilitating cyber attacks against banks and their customers as part of a smoke screen to prevent victims from noticing simultaneous high-dollar cyber heists. The bureau says the attacks coincide with corporate account takeovers perpetrated by thieves who are using a modified version of the ZeuS Trojan called 'Gameover.'" more»

UK Reveals New Cyber Security Strategy, Aims to Make UK Safest in the World

With the new strategy, the government is aiming to make the UK one of the safest places in the world to do business, as well as tackling cybercrime and cyber-espionage in general, according to Maude. The document, the release of which has been delayed twice, replaces a two-year-old strategy and allocates £650m in funding to set up a National Cyber Security Programme. more»

Mobile Malware Growing Exponentially, Limited Capability of Current Security Solutions Big Concern

Security analysis suggest troubling and escalating trends in the development of malware that exploits vulnerabilities on mobile devices. "From turning mobile devices into bots, to infiltration of mobile applications, driven by the use of personal devices in the workplace, cybercriminals are taking full advantage of this market," reports M86 Security Labs in its just released Threat Predictions Report. more»

Mega International DNS Malware Operation Dismantled, Reports FBI

FBI today announced six Estonian nationals have been arrested and charged with running a sophisticated Internet fraud ring that infected millions of computers worldwide with a virus and enabled the thieves to manipulate the multi-billion-dollar Internet advertising industry. Users of infected machines were unaware that their computers had been compromised -- or that the malicious software rendered their machines vulnerable to a host of other viruses. more»

Brazil Facing Massive DNS Poisoning Attacks

Fabio Assolini of Kaspersky Lab report: "In the past few days several Brazilian ISPs have fallen victim to a series of DNS cache poisoning attacks. These attacks see users being redirected to install malware before connecting to popular sites. Some incidents have also featured attacks on network devices, where routers or modems are compromised remotely. Brazil has some big ISPs. Official statistics suggest the country has 73 million computers connected to the Internet, and the major ISPs average 3 or 4 million customers each. If a cybercriminal can change the DNS cache in just one server, the number of potential victims is huge." more»