Dennis Fisher

About

Dennis Fisher is a journalist with more than 13 years of experience covering information security.

Sony Adds New Chapter to Data Breach Response Manual

In the course of the last five or six years, there has come to be a fairly well-established and familiar cycle for data breaches. Company X discovers an attack that compromised some customer data; it investigates and assesses the damage; it reports the breach to the relevant authorities and apologizes publicly while absorbing a beating from the press and angry customers; it moves on with its business. But Sony officials have added another link to that chain–the righteous defense–and in the process may have changed forever the way that companies handle data breaches.

Qakbot Virus Causes Possible Data Breach at Mass. Agencies

An untold number of computers at the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance and Department of Career Services were compromised in April, leading state officials to warn hundreds of thousands of people that their personal information may have been stolen as part of the attack. However, officials said they are unsure at this point whether any data was actual stolen, and if so, how much.

Obama Administration Lays Out New U.S. Cyberspace Strategy

The Obama administration has unveiled a sweeping strategy for the way that it plans to conduct the country’s business and political dealings online in the coming years, and much of the plan centers on improving the security and reliability of the Internet. The International Strategy for Cyberspace is a policy document and not a technical one, but the plan clearly implies that the U.S. intends to assert and defend its rights online.

New Version of Alureon Ups the Ante on Encryption

by Dennis Fisher
17

A new version of the venerable Alureon malware has appeared, and this one includes some odd behavior designed to prevent analysis and detection by antimalware systems. However, this isn’t the typical evasion algorithm, as it uses some unusual encryption and decryption routines to make life much more difficult for analysts and users whose machines have been infected.

Phishing, Social Networking Attacks on the Rise

by Dennis Fisher

The last year or so has seen a series of high-profile targeted attacks against corporate and government networks, including the Aurora attack on Google and others, the intrusion at RSA and the recent attack on the Sony PlayStation Network. But a new report from Microsoft shows that attackers increasingly are going after consumers with highly refined phishing attacks based on social networks.

The Consumerization of IT and Sophistication of Attacks

by Dennis Fisher
1

Like bank robbers, attackers tend to go where the money is and increasingly that means that they’re going after consumers. In this video, members of the Microsoft anti-malware team discuss the trend toward cybercrime rings employing sophisticated sales and marketing tactics to target consumers, as well as some of the exploit trends from recent months.

Cybersecurity for your growing business
Cybersecurity for your growing business

Topics

Show all

Authors

Threatpost

InfoSec Insider

Infosec Insider Post

Infosec Insider content is written by a trusted community of Threatpost cybersecurity subject matter experts. Each contribution has a goal of bringing a unique voice to important cybersecurity topics. Content strives to be of the highest quality, objective and non-commercial.

Sponsored

Sponsored Content

Sponsored Content is paid for by an advertiser. Sponsored content is written and edited by members of our sponsor community. This content creates an opportunity for a sponsor to provide insight and commentary from their point-of-view directly to the Threatpost audience. The Threatpost editorial team does not participate in the writing or editing of Sponsored Content.