Dennis Fisher

Data breaches have become so common at this point that the mere fact that a government agency such as the South Carolina Department of Revenue loses several million Social Security numbers and credit card numbers isn’t really that noteworthy. It’s another day in the life of the Internet. But what is remarkable is that there are organizations out there that are not deploying encryption technologies to protect personally identifiable information because it’s complicated. Really?

Windows 8 isn’t yet a week old, but the scammers and phishing crews already are taking their swings at it, setting up new campaigns based on the shiny new operating system. Security researchers have identified a new scareware campaign playing off of the Windows 8 launch, as well as a phishing email trying the same tack.

The attacker who penetrated the Dutch CA DigiNotar last year had complete control of all eight of the company’s certificate-issuing servers during the operation and he may also have issued some rogue certificates that have not yet been identified. The final report from a security company commissioned to investigate the DigiNotar attack shows that the compromise of the now-bankrupt certificate authority was much deeper than previously thought.

The EFF is warning users of Ubuntu’s latest release that the open-source operating system sends their search queries to third parties, including Amazon, by default, and that some of their search results may be viewable by other users on the same network. The privacy leaks are present in Ubuntu 12.10 and the group says that Canonical, which runs the Ubuntu project, should disable the inclusion of online search results by default and make it clearer to users what is being done with their search queries and IP addresses. 

The FBI says it is now making a push to not just stop cybercrime but to identify the attackers behind the phishing, credit card fraud and other campaigns that cost consumers and enterprises billions of dollars each year. The bureau is the lead agency charged with addressing cybercrime in the U.S. and has a large division dedicated to the problem, but it mostly has been concerned with stopping ongoing attacks rather than tracking down the criminals themselves. That appears to be changing.

ANAHEIM, CALIF.–The sharing of information on threats and attacks between government agencies and companies in the private sector has been tried numerous times and in many different ways over the last decade, with varying degrees of success. The need for information flowing in both directions likely is more pressing than ever right now, with high-level attacks targeting critical infrastructure systems and utilities every day, but much of that data in the government realm remains classified and few enterprises are eager to reveal details, either. As the attacks continue, officials say there may be a need for a new mechanism to get the information flowing.

ANAHEIM, CALIF.–The theft of intellectual property through attacks on U.S. networks, both government-owned and private, has become one of the major concerns for officials at the top level of the federal government, not just among security staffs, but at the upper echelons of the White House and intelligence agencies, as well, the former top cybersecurity adviser to President Obama said.