The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's building in Washington (Source: Wikipedia/CC)

DHS: Conflict With Iran Could Spur 'Wiper' Attacks

Jeremy Kirk • June 24, 2019

Iran is increasing its malicious cyber activity against the U.S, which could manifest in attacks that render computers unusable, a top U.S. cybersecurity official says. The warning comes after the U.S. reportedly targeted Iranian computer systems in response to the downing of a surveillance drone.

3rd Party Risk Management

GAO: After Equifax Breach, KBA No Longer Effective

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Cybercrime

Alleged AlphaBay Moderator Faces Racketeering Charges

Scott Ferguson • June 24, 2019

An alleged moderator of the AlphaBay underground marketplace has been indicted for facilitating sales on the darknet site before law enforcement shut it down.

Endpoint Security

Medical Device Cybersecurity: The Top Challenges

Marianne Kolbasuk McGee • June 24, 2019

Access and identity management continues to be a top medical device cybersecurity challenge, says security expert Mark Sexton of the consultancy Clearwater, who offers a variety a risk mitigation tips.

Cybercrime

Hacked With Words: Email Attack Sophistication Surges

Mathew J. Schwartz • June 21, 2019

The early days of email attacks - so much noise in the form of malware, spam and links - have given way to attacks that often rely on little more than words, and email gateways often struggle to arrest social engineering ploys, says Michael Flouton of Barracuda Networks.

Fraud Management & Cybercrime

Life Beyond Blocking: Adopting Behavior-Based Cybersecurity

Mathew J. Schwartz • June 21, 2019

Many cybersecurity tools are designed to block or allow specific activities based on prescribed rules, but with insider breaches continuing, enterprise protection also requires real-time reaction to actual user behavior, says Carl Leonard of Forcepoint.

Privileged Access Management

Privileged Attack Vectors: Key Defenses

Mathew J. Schwartz • June 21, 2019

Attackers crave insider-level access to IT infrastructure and regularly target insiders - and especially administrators- to steal their credentials, says BeyondTrust's Karl Lankford, who advises organizations to ensure they manage, monitor and audit all privileged access.

Identity & Access Management

Mitigating Insider Threats With IAM

Nick Holland • June 21, 2019

Provisioning and deprovisioning employee credentials is a critical component of mitigating insider threats, says Andrew Clarke of One Identity, who discusses the importance of identity and access management.

Governance

The Role of DNS in Cybersecurity

Nick Holland • June 21, 2019

DNS is cybersecurity's best-kept secret for eliminating threats, says Stuart Reed of Nominet, who explains the value of analyzing traffic.

Training & Security Leadership

Filling the Cybersecurity Skills Gap

Nick Holland • June 21, 2019

Gamification can play an important role in addressing the cybersecurity skills shortage, says Giovanni Vigna of Lastline.

Governance

Migrating to the Cloud: Top Security Lessons

Marianne Kolbasuk McGee • June 21, 2019

When migrating systems, data and applications to the cloud, a critical security step is to involve compliance auditors in the process as early as possible, says Thien La, CISO at Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield. He'll be a featured speaker at ISMG's Healthcare Security Summit on June 25 in New York.

Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning

Facebook's Cryptocurrency Plan Scrutinized

Nick Holland • June 21, 2019

The latest edition of the ISMG Security Report analyzes the security and privacy implications of Facebook's new digital currency - Libra. Also featured: Discussions on the rise of machine learning and IT and OT collaboration on cybersecurity.

Business Continuity Management / Disaster Recovery

Florida City Paying $600,000 to End Ransomware Attack

Scott Ferguson • June 20, 2019

The city of Riviera Beach, Florida, has agreed to pay hackers about $600,000 in bitcoin to end a ransomware attack that crippled the city's IT infrastructure for nearly a month. In another recent incident, Baltimore refused to pay a ransom after an attack and faces $18 million in recovery costs so far.

Cybercrime

Oregon Agency's Breach Tally Nearly Doubles

Marianne Kolbasuk McGee • June 20, 2019

The number of individuals affected by a phishing-related breach disclosed in March by the Oregon Department of Human Services has nearly doubled, according to a new notification statement, which offers more details.