Anup Ghosh on Cybersecurity in 2012: Let’s break the security insanity cycle

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Editor's note: the post below by Anup Ghosh first appeared on the Invincea blog and is republished here with the author's permission. bg Prediction 2012: Hackers Will Find New Fertile Ground to Pharm Posted by Anup Ghosh on November 29, 2011 Invincea is on record that the year 2011 will go down as the year the fundamental underpinnings of Internet security fell. In fact, it is the bloodiest year on record for Internet security. Not only did we … [Read more...]

2011 in Cybersecurity

DangerouslyDevot

2011 was a watershed year for cybersecurity, but it was evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Political hacking, industrial skullduggery, drones gone wild, and mobile malware all made 2011 a year, to borrow CrucialPoint amigo Matt Devost's phrase (since I'm already borrowing his image for the post graphic, why not?), to live cyberdangerously. The Rise of the Political Hacker Anonymous was, in many ways, the biggest cybersecurity story of 2011. … [Read more...]

Exploit Theater : MS11-083 and Defense-in-Depth

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A very interesting (OK, it was pretty cool) vulnerability in the TCP stack of Windows Vista and above (including 32-bit and 64-bit versions and Windows Server 2008) was recently announced and patched. This vulnerability is of particular note not just because of the wide range of products that it affected, but because of how the vulnerability worked. Microsoft published this in its advisory on the vulnerability: "A remote code execution vulnerability … [Read more...]

What You Need to Know About Duqu

Duku

Everything that you need to know about Duqu: Duqu was reported to antivirus vendors around the 14th of October, 2011, but it has been in the wild since November of 2010. Since then there have been varients (updated copies with additional features or upgrades to code) released. It has been billed as the next Stuxnet, the son of Stuxnet, or a Stuxnet clone. In reality, Duqu is actually more like a payload of Stuxnet rather than the entire attack … [Read more...]

Dronegate: The First Casualty is our Cybersecurity Paradigm

Kirsty Wigglesworth/Associated Press

As of yet, there is no definitive narrative of the virus that hit the U.S. drone fleet at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada this September. Original reports stated that drone cockpits had been infected with a keylogger virus and, while there was no indication that classified information had been stolen or that missions had been compromised, the virus has proven tenacious, resisting efforts to disinfect machines and forcing the Air Force to wipe … [Read more...]

Cyberattack as Covert Action

SpyvsSpy

Most of what we see in day-to-day cybersecurity is not cyberwar, or the perennial threat of the 'digital Pearl Harbor.'  Crime, espionage, political vandalism, and military "long-range cyber-reconaissance"--rather than kinetic targeting that kills, damages, or disables--are more mundane, day-to-day concerns. National Defense University's Samuel Liles does make a persuasive case that much of cyberwar exists mainly on the "low-intensity warfare" aspect … [Read more...]

Enterprise Technology Developments in 2010 and 2011

Happy New Year!  Best wishes for your 2011. From a CTO perspective 2010 has been an incredibly busy year, and odds are the pace will only accelerate. We began 2010 with the nation still dealing with the Christmas Day 2009  terror attack, which was a reminder that conniving enemies still seek ways to attack and we must always do what we can to disrupt their plans. One of the things the civilized world can do to stop these attacks is make better use of … [Read more...]

Cyberwar? What Cyberwar?

Ladies and Gentlemen, put down the keyboards, stop reading the screen for a moment, and take a deep breath. I'll wait. Ok. Now that you've done that, you can relax with the knowledge that we are not currently -- nor have we ever been in -- a "cyberwar" with any foreign power or group. Yes, including China. So far there have not been any verified examples of cyberwar of any kind. At this point, you probably either think me crazy or correct, but … [Read more...]

Some Thoughts on the Iranian Cyber Army and what they mean to Cyber

Projections this week state that the Iranian Cyber Army has a botnet of over 400k machines.  They apparently plan to offer rental of these "assets" to interested parties. The ICA maintains that this is not "retribution" for the Stuxnet attacks on Irani Nuclear facilities, but rather a money making opportunity. One of the discussions/debates featured in the last meeting of the Cyber Conflict Studies Association (CCSA: www.cyberconflict.org ) was the … [Read more...]

Defending Against Stuxnet Type Threats

The following article by renowned security capability developer Dr. Anup Ghosh was was originally posted at the Invincea blog and is reposted here with the author's permission. ============= Question: what is the most significant cyber event of 2010? Answer: Stuxnet. While security analysts continue to marvel over Stuxnet’s capabilities, one disturbing aspect to Stuxnet is current defenses would not defend against the next Stuxnet type threat. … [Read more...]