A Closer Look at the Koobface Gang
The Koobface botnet is the tip of the iceberg for the
malicious operations of the online crime ring. Here are the top 10 things you
didn’t know about the Koobface gang. Read the full article. [ZDNet]
Government
Top Guns of U.S. Security To Speak at RSA
The Obama administration gets a chance to demonstrate its cybersecurity leadership as three top guns from the executive branch – Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt and FBI Director Robert Mueller – address the RSA conference in San Francisco next week. Read the full article. [GovInfoSecurity.com]
An Interview With Howard Schmidt
Howard Schmidt has been involved in just about every aspect of the security industry during his career. After stints in the Air Force and at Microsoft, he served as a cybersecurity adviser to George W. Bush. Now, after heading back to the private sector for several years, he’s been appointed to serve as President Obama’s security adviser.
More than 74,000 PCs at nearly 2,500 organizations around the globe
were compromised over the past year and a half in a botnet infestation
designed to steal login credentials to bank sites, social networks, and
e-mail systems, researchers have discovered. Read the full article. [cnet]
During the simulated cyber attack that took place yesterday in Washington and was recorded by the CNN,
one thing became clear: the US are still not ready to deflect or
mitigate such an attack to an extent that would not affect considerably
the everyday life of its citizens. Read the full article. [Help Net Security]
While many outside of the security industry
still perceive “hackers” as teenagers or isolated geeks who work alone, a recent research report encourages the general
public to see malware as a cooperative industry that supports
specialists, economies, and supply chains. Read the full article. [Dark Reading]
The City of Norfolk, Virginia is reeling from a massive computer meltdown in which an unidentified family of malicious code destroyed data on nearly 800 computers citywide. Read the full article. [KrebsonSecurity]
An Israel-resident British IT worker has reacted with horror to news
that a suspected member of an alleged hit squad used a passport with
his details to enter Dubai, before allegedly participating in the
assassination of a prominent Hamas official. He’s not alone. Read the full article. [The Register]
In the wake of the attacks against Google, Adobe and other major high-tech companies, there was a lot of public shock and outrage that this kind of attack happened. But it was really just a small part of what’s been going on for years. In a conversation with Dennis Fisher, Tom Kellermann of Core Security explains why the U.S. government and private companies are so unprepared for these attacks.
A former security
researcher turned criminal hacker has been sentenced to 13 years in
federal prison for hacking into financial institutions and stealing
credit card account numbers. Max
Ray Butler, who used the hacker pseudonym Iceman, was sentenced Friday
morning in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh on charges of wire fraud
and identity theft. Read the full article. [Computerworld]
