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Application DeliveryHacksSSL

Network Security Does Not Matter When You Invite the Hacker Inside

March 9, 2017 — by Frank Yue — 0

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We build security solutions to protect our networks from the rest of the internet, but do we do anything to protect the network from our own employees and users?  The first line of protection for your networks is not the firewall or other perimeter security device, it is the education and protection of the people that use the network.  People are concerned about having their apartments or homes broken into so they put locks on the doors, install alarm systems, or put surveillance equipment like security cameras around the property.  They are vigilant about making sure that an unauthorized intruder cannot enter the home easily without detection and alarms being raised.

DDoSHacksSecurity

Is Heat Your Thermostat’s First Priority?

December 1, 2016 — by Pascal Geenens — 0

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Mirai has been popping on and off the news and is becoming a commodity resource for large scale DDoS attacks. Although most of the security community have been debating and warning about the IoT threat, there is only evidence for a very specific class of devices being involved in the Mirai attacks. As we came to know the source code and security researchers started to investigate the victimized devices, it was clear that a common class of devices stood out in the list compiled by Krebs: IP cameras, DVRs and a handful of routers. What made them better candidates than your smart toaster or your cloud connected thermostat? The fact that routers are in the list should not be surprising, those devices are per definition connected to the internet and are clearly #1 on the pwning list, which was proven again recently when 900,000 routers from DT where taken offline for service as a result of what is supposed to be an adapted version of Mirai using a remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability through the TR-069 CPE WAN management protocol.

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Social Engineering

November 17, 2016 — by Daniel Smith — 0

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Social Engineering is a process of psychological manipulation, more commonly known in our world as human hacking. The sad reality behind Social Engineering is it is very easy to do. In fact, it’s so easy that even a teenager can do it and destroy your company, all on a Friday night. The goal is to have the targeted victim divulge confidential information or give you unauthorized access because you have played off their natural human emotion of wanting to help. Being nice is a human trait and everyone wants to be kind and helpful. If you give someone the opportunity to save the day or to feel helpful, they will most likely divulge the information required. Most of the time the attacker’s motives are to either gather information for a future attack, to commit fraud or to gain system access for malicious activity.

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Headaches for the Holidays

November 4, 2016 — by Radware — 0

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We’re fast approaching the biggest holiday shopping season for retailers. Just how big? According to the National Retail Federation’s annual consumer spending survey, consumers plan to spend an average of $935.58 each this holiday season in 2016. What’s more, 41% of consumers plan to start their shopping this month. Every year, consumers entrust their financial and personal information (everything from credit card data to home addresses) to retailers both big and small. But are these stores doing enough to keep their customers’ data safe?

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Profile of a Hacker

October 27, 2016 — by Daniel Smith — 0

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As the hacktivist community continues to grow and evolve, so do the tools and services at a hacker’s disposal. The digital divide between skilled and amateur hackers continues to grow. This separation in skill is forcing those with limited knowledge to rely solely on others who are offering paid attack services available in marketplaces on both the Clearnet and Darknet.  While most hacktivists still look to enlist a digital army, some are discovering that it’s easier and more time efficient to pay for an attack service like DDoS-as-a-Service. Cyber criminals that are financially motivated market their attack services to these would-be hacktivists looking to take down a target with no knowledge or skill.

DDoSHacksSecurity

The deplorable state of IoT security

October 20, 2016 — by Pascal Geenens — 2

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Following the public release of the Mirai (You can read more about it here) bot code, security analysts fear for a flood of online attacks from hackers. Mirai exposes worm-like behavior that spreads to unprotected devices, recruiting them to form massive botnets, leveraging factory default credentials and telnet to brute and compromise unsuspecting user’s devices.

Soon after the original attacks, Flashpoint released a report identifying the primary manufacturer of the devices utilizing the default credentials ‘root’ and ‘xc3511’. In itself, factory default credentials should not pose an enormous threat, however combined with services like Telnet or SSH enabled by default and the root password being immutable, the device could be considered a Trojan with a secret backdoor, a secret that now has become public knowledge.

DDoSHacksSecurity

Are you ready for the new age of attacks?

October 13, 2016 — by Ben Desjardins — 0

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The unprecedented attacks launched recently against Brian Krebs’ blog (Krebs on Security) and the hosting provider OVH highlight the immense damage from IoT-driven botnets, and really signal a new age of attacks.

For years, security evangelists have been talking about the potential for IoT-driven attacks, a message that has often been met with a combination of eye rolls and skepticism. That’s likely no longer the case after these latest attacks. It’s a shift I experienced first-hand at the SecureWorld event in Denver where I participated in a panel on the current threat landscape. Suddenly, the IoT threat has more attention in such a setting, whereas in the past it held more merit in the future threats panels and discussions. This week’s panel elicited a palpable degree of anxiety from the audience about what these attacks mean for security professionals.

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BusyBox Botnet Mirai – the warning we’ve all been waiting for?

October 11, 2016 — by Pascal Geenens — 3

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On Tuesday, September 20th around 8:00PM, KrebsOnSecurity.com was the target of a record-breaking 620Gbps volumetric DDoS attack designed to take the site offline. A few days later, the same type of botnet was used in a 1Tbps attack targeting the French webhoster OVH. What’s interesting about these attacks was that compared to previous record-holding attacks, which were less than half the traffic volume, they were not using amplification or reflection. In the case of KrebsOnSecurity, the biggest chunk of the attack traffic came in the form of GRE, which is very unusual. In the OVH attack, more than 140,000 unique IPs were reported in what seemed to be a SYN and ACK flood attack.

DDoSHacksSecurity

Is Your Child Hacking Their School?

October 7, 2016 — by Radware — 0

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You might be surprised at who is behind the most recent cases of cyber-attacks on schools. Would you guess that in many cases, it’s the students themselves? Whether because they want to change their grades or attendance, because they feel it’s fun or they want to test the limits of how much they can get away with, it’s becoming a larger problem across the globe. Part of the issue is the ease in which kids can now access the Darknet, and the increasingly low costs to hire someone to hack the system for them.

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