Russian Cybersecurity Group-IB CEO Arrested for Treason by FSB
The evening of September 28, 2021, the FSB rolled up to the offices of Group-IB in marked vehicles and a full-size passenger bus and raided the company’s Moscow offices. Russian media reports that a warrant for the arrest of the CEO, Ilya Sachkov, was executed. Sachkov, the CEO and founder ... Read More
Huawei CFO, US DoJ Reach Deferred Prosecution Agreement
Last week, the three-year saga of Huawei’s CFO, Meng Wanzhou, accused of trade secret theft, obstruction of justice and sanctions-busting reached its conclusion. Meng and the U.S. Attorney’s office reached a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA). Meng pleaded not guilty to the various fraud charges as part of the proceedings. The ... Read More
NIST: Atoms can Help Secure Supply Chain
Last week, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) revealed a prototype that used atoms to authenticate an item before it left a factory floor. The methodology is called “doping” and involves the insertion of ‘foreign’ atoms of a different element from those in the device. The implant causes ... Read More
Perceptions of Insider Risk 2021
The month of September is designated “National Insider Threat Awareness Month,” and based on the number of cybersecurity incidents that involve employees, perhaps every month should be insider threat awareness month. Insider Risk Summit This week at the Insider Risk Summit, industry experts shared their thoughts on how to mitigate ... Read More
Palantir Misconfiguration Allowed Unauthorized FBI Access
In the midst of the high-profile prosecution of Virgil Griffith, who is being tried in federal court for assisting North Korea in evading sanctions, the Department of Justice informed judge Kevin Castel of the Southern District of New York (SDNY) that the case evidence had been accessed by unauthorized FBI ... Read More
Cybercriminals Inducing Insiders to Plant Malware
Those who manage insider threat programs just got a healthy reminder from researchers at Abnormal Security who detailed how their deployed tools detected a new insider recruitment tactic—this time involving ransomware. Insider recruitment, be it sponsored by a nation-state, competitor or criminal enterprise, is not new. The means by which ... Read More
Discovered Tablet Confirms Russian Covert Action in Libya
When you lose your device, be it a laptop, tablet or phone, what have you lost? That is the question every CISO should be encouraging employees to ask as they provision and maintain devices that contain sensitive information. The Wagner Group no doubt wishes their mercenaries were asking that question, ... Read More
Should Disclosure of Ransom Payments be Mandatory?
As ransomware wreaks havoc across the globe and criminal entities continue to fill their coffers with ransom payments, legislators search for a way to stem the tide. The average ransom paid is $136,576, according to Coveware whose analysis also noted how 75% of ransomware attacks were against companies with less ... Read More
Facebook Vs. NYU and Transparency
On August 3, 2021, Facebook, showed off its full 800-pound gorilla physique by attempting to crush the work of two New York University (NYU) researchers, Laura Edelson and Damon McCoy and their tool Ad Observer. Facebook said the project was scraping data in an unauthorized manner and violated the social ... Read More
U.S., UK and Australia Issue Joint Cybersecurity Advisory
As vulnerabilities are discovered, advisories are issued, remedies and mitigations are shared and then the onus is on the end user and/or company to do what’s necessary to close the window into their infrastructure. That is what happens in a perfect world, where CISOs and CIOs have fully collaborative relationships ... Read More
