Paul Roberts

Firms Need ‘Tough Love’ In Struggle Against APTs

Black Hat is upon us and, with it, a lot of chatter about the dangers posed by so-called “APT,” or advanced persistent threats. Rather than get trapped in the hype bubble, Threatpost editor Paul Roberts took the opportunity to check back in with a recognized expert on detecting and combating APT-style attacks: Amit Yoran, the former CEO of NetWitness Corp. and now a Senior Vice President at RSA, The Security Division of EMC. Yoran says that the darkest days may yet be ahead in the fight against APT style attacks, with mounting attacks and a critical shortage of security talent. To cope, both private sector firms and the government need to stop fighting the last war and pivot to the kinds of practices and monitoring that can spot sophisticated attackers. 

Black Hat: Phishing E-Mail Scare A False Alarm

The annual Black Hat Briefings hacker conference got off to a rocky start Sunday after thousands of registered attendees received a fishy smelling “account password reset” e-mail that contained a suspicious URL. But a message from conference organizers hours later said the errant e-mail was no phishing attack, but merely an “abuse of functionality” by a bored Black Hat volunteer.

Black Hat: Phishing E-Mail Scare A False Alarm

The annual Black Hat Briefings hacker conference got off to a rocky start Sunday after thousands of registered delegates to the Black Hat Briefings hacker conference in Las Vegas received a fishy smelling “account password reset” e-mail that contained a suspicious URL. But a message from conference organizers hours later said the errant e-mail was no phishing attack, but merely an “abuse of functionality” by a bored Black Hat volunteer.


A scheduled talk at the Black Hat Briefings security conference in Las Vegas later this month may have dealt a fatal blow to the once ballyhooed Windows Sidebar and Windows Gadgets. Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft, on Tuesday, issued a software “fix” that disables gadgets and the Windows sidebar on Vista and Windows 7 entirely.