What's New With the U.S. Department of Justice indicting Chinese military officials for industrial espionage, the advanced persistent threat, a method favored by state-sponsored attackers, is top of mind for IT security pros. To counter APTs, enterprises are turning to threat intelligence security services, fueling spending on these services. Market research firm IDC is forecasting that TISS spending will top $900 million this year and climb to $1.4 billion in 2018. IDC includes in the TISS market data feeds and publications, consulting security services, managed security services, as well as iterative intelligence that incorporates past experience and mistakes into new knowledge at a rapid pace. "Attack information can come from many different sources, and iterative intelligence organizes this chaotic process of information sharing in order to help organizations in making future decisions," says Christina Richmond, program director of security services at IDC. The market research firm expects professional and managed security services to experience strong growth in the threat intelligence market. Security firms are creating alliances with universities and accreditation programs to develop IT security pros, says IDC. In response to the U.S. legal action against China, the Chinese government is cutting ties with U.S. consulting firms, including McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group and Strategy& (formerly known as Booz & Co), the Financial Times reports, citing senior Chinese leaders. In addition, China has banned Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system because of security concerns. "Windows is far too embedded in the Chinese economy for it to be banned completely, but certainly we should expect to see sensitive offices and systems reduce if not eliminate their use of it," Bill Bishop, an independent consultant based in Beijing, tells the newspaper. For more:
- see the DoJ's Chinese indictment
- check out IDC's release
- read the FT report (sub. req.) Related Articles:
5 Chinese military hackers indicted for spying on US companies (UPDATED)
Spotlight: US panel calls for action against China for industrial cyberespionage
France, Germany in talks to set up NSA-free European Internet Read more about: IDC
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When it comes to enterprise security, Big Data is part of the problem-and it is part of the solution. Collecting vast amounts of data from disparate sources—including the cloud-exposes the enterprise to new threats and creates vast new stores of data you must protect. But you can apply Big Data techniques for finding insight in mountains of data to find security threats as well. Read this paper to learn 10 best practices to secure Big Data and to view four additional white papers that show how to make Big Data Security Analytics part of your security solution. |
Microsoft is warning Windows XP users not to employ a "simple registry tweak" offered by Betanews as a way for users to continue to get security updates. "The workaround makes use of updates for Windows Embedded Industry (formerly known as Windows Embedded POSReady). This is based on Windows XP Service Pack 3, and the security updates which are being released for it are essentially the same ones Microsoft would have pushed out for XP, if it was still doing so," explains Wayne Williams with Betanews. "You can't simply install the updates--that would be too easy--and you'll receive a version mismatch error if you try. But a simple registry tweak is enough to fix that," Williams adds. Microsoft warned in a statement quoted by ComputerWeekly: "The security updates that could be installed are intended for Windows Embedded and Windows Server 2003 customers and do not fully protect Windows XP customers. Windows XP customers also run a significant risk of functionality issues with their machines if they install these updates, as they are not tested against Windows XP." Andrew Avanessian, vice president of global professional services at Avecto, tells ComputerWeekly: "Microsoft will not be testing the patches on the full version of XP and so these updates could lead to downtime and have a negative effect on user experience. Another consideration is system bloat. XP machines will tend be to running on older hardware, which is most likely at the end of its life, and as number of the updates will not be needed it could result in increased disk footprint." For more:
- check out the Betanews article
- read the ComputerWeekly report Related Articles:
Hackers scour Windows 7 patches for clues to XP flaws
As Windows XP support deadline approaches, security concerns mount
Spotlight: Firms continue to resist upgrade from Windows XP Read more about: Microsoft
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Security firm AVAST and music streaming service Spotify both admitted to data breaches this week, reports Ars Technica. Czech security firm AVAST said that attackers were able to get access passwords, usernames and email addresses for around 400,000 customers who used its support forum, which is run on a third-party platform. "We realize that it is serious to have these usernames stolen and regret the concern and inconvenience it causes you. However, this is an isolated third-party system and your sensitive data remains secure," AVAST CEO Vince Steckler wrote in a blog on Monday. Spotify said on Tuesday that hackers had gained unauthorized access to its network and internal data. According to Spotify's investigation, only one customer's data was accessed. The information did not include password or financial information. 
"Based on our findings, we are not aware of any increased risk to users as a result of this incident," wrote Spotify CTO Oskar Stal. The company is still asking users to re-enter their usernames and passwords to log in. In addition, Spotify is asking its Android app users to upgrade over the next few days, but not its iOS and Windows app users. Apparently, the breach involved an Android app, but the blog and emails do not say if there is any connection between the upgrade and the breach. "We have taken steps to strengthen our security systems in general and help protect you and your data--and we will continue to do so. We will be taking further actions in the coming days to increase security for our users," Stal concluded. For more:
- read the Ars Technica article
- check out the AVAST and Spotify blogs Related Articles:
E-commerce, not POS, make up majority of breached systems
Third-party vendor behind possible Lowe's data breach
'Massive' breach hits eBay passwords Read more about: Network Access
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As the focus of endpoint breaches will shift from PCs and laptops to tablets and smartphones, three-quarters of mobile security breaches will be the result of a misconfigured mobile app by 2017, predicts Gartner. The market research firm predicts that the "Mobile security breaches are--and will continue to be--the result of misconfiguration and misuse on an app level, rather than the outcome of deeply technical attacks on mobile devices," says Dionisio Zumerle, principal research analyst at Gartner. "A classic example of misconfiguration is the misuse of personal cloud services through apps residing on smartphones and tablets. When used to convey enterprise data, these apps lead to data leaks that the organization remains unaware of for the majority of devices," the Gartner analyst notes. In addition, jailbroken devices can open up those devices to malware, which can then steal data from the device and even find its way onto corporate networks. Those devices are also vulnerable to brute force attacks on passcodes. "The most obvious platform compromises of this nature are 'jailbreaking' on iOS or 'rooting' on Android devices. They escalate the user's privileges on the device, effectively turning a user into an administrator," says Zumerle. Gartner recommends that enterprises deploy a mobile device management system supplemented by app shielding and containizeration. In addition, firms should use a network access control product to prevent suspicious devices from connecting to the corporate network. For more:
- see Gartner's release Related Articles:
Mobile device security market forecast to triple by 2018
Spotlight: NIST offers free mobile app vetting tool
Spotlight: New Android bug could 'brick' devices Read more about: Mobile Security Breaches, malware
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On average, 28 distributed denial of service attacks occur every hour, according to a new report by NSFOCUS Information Technology, a DDoS detection and mitigation firm. While still a favorite attack method for hacktivists, DDoS attacks are increasingly being used as "smokescreens" to carry out advanced persistent threat attacks and cybercrime, according to the report (based on a review by NSFOCUS of 244,703 DDoS incidents in 2013). The NSFOCUS report summarizes the findings: "The majority of DDoS attacks were short in duration, small in total attack size, and frequently repeating against the same target." In fact, 91 percent of DDoS attacks last year lasted less than 30 minutes and most were 50 MBPS or less. Close to two-thirds of targets of DDoS attacks were attacked more than once, and one victim was attacked 319 separate times within a six-month period. The longest single DDoS attack last year lasted 1,666 hours, or 69 days and 10 hours. The report finds that attackers are leveraging network time protocol to amplify the power of DDoS attacks, which could far exceed the bandwidth levels so far. "The NSFOCUS Threat Response Center identified over 400,000 NTP servers around the world that can be used in NTP amplification attacks. Among these NTP amplifiers, more than 1,000 can magnify the traffic by more than 700 times," the report notes. For more:
- check out the NSFOCUS report (reg. req.) Related Articles:
IT downtime from attack or infrastructure failure can cost firms more than $1M per hour
Spotlight: Average enterprise sustains 4.5 large DDoS attacks every year
DDoS attacks fuel rise in cloud-based DDoS mitigation services Read more about: DDoS Attacks
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