ITACS 5211: Introduction to Ethical Hacking

Wade Mackay

Mauchel Barthelemy

1- TalkTalk and Post Office customers hit by Mirai worm attack 2- Ransomware Crooks Demand $70,000 After Hacking San Francisco Transport System

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1- TalkTalk and Post Office customers hit by Mirai worm attack

It has been reported this week that 900,000 routers hit by huge Mirai worm cyber-attack. TalkTalk and Post Office customers were largely affected by this attack in United Kingdom. The good news is that TalkTalk has identified the source of the problem and rolled out a resolution to all customers. Also, a UK Post Office spokesperson confirmed that customers still experiencing problems should reboot their router as a solution. Luckily this was something that TalkTalk and the UK Post Office quickly addressed. Below is the article.

http://www.wired.co.uk/article/deutsche-telekom-cyber-attack-mirai

 

2- Ransomware Crooks Demand $70,000 After Hacking San Francisco Transport System

I know we already posted topics about ransomware on our class blogs, but I also found this article interesting as ransomware is becoming a more and more popular form of attack from hackers. This week, Forbes reported that hackers took control of the San Francisco transportation system and demanded 100 Bitcoin, worth roughly $70,000, to release Muni machines from their control. Ransomware should be one of the areas of focus for cyber security. Article is below.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2016/11/28/san-francisco-muni-hacked-ransomware/#153e3e2754dd

Android backdoor is secretly sending user data and texts to China, and no one knows why

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This week, I came across this interesting article talking about certain low-end Android phones secretly communicating users’ data and texts to China. In fact, this has been all over tech news all week, so I’m sure most of you are already aware of this. To me, this raises two important security questions that have nothing to do directly to either Android or those low-end phone manufacturers.

It’s pretty evident that Android has been around for a while now. So, first, why did it take home land security so long to uncover something of this magnitude against American consumers? Secondly, this article’s title mentions that “No one knows why,” but I’m wondering whether no one really didn’t know why this has been going on and for how long if this security flaw claim is founded.

Below is the Article.

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/android-backdoor-is-secretly-sending-user-data-and-texts-to-china-and-no-one-knows-why/

 

Facebook buys black market passwords to keep your account safe

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Account safety is about more than just building secure software because a data-saturated company of Facebook’s size and scope can build a perfectly secure software and yet users can still get hurt. This is the philosophy approach of Facebook’s chief security officer, Alex Stamos, as an alternative way to ensure Facebook users’ safety. To achieve so, the social media giant purchases passwords in the black market from hackers to keep your account safe.

For example, Alex explains that many users are still using “123456.” As a solution, Facebook users with these types of passwords are automatically alerted to make their accounts safer because they are more vulnerable to being compromised. This is something Facebook is keen to help its users avoid, says Alex. There are additional interesting details behind the reasoning and how Facebook is doing this. Feel free to access full article via the link below.

https://www.cnet.com/news/facebook-chief-security-officer-alex-stamos-web-summit-lisbon-hackers/

U.S. Govt. Hackers Ready to Hit Back If Russia Tries to Disrupt Election

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We are a few days away from the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. It should be no secret to no one that Cyber Security has been amid several controversial topics such as emails and alleged state-sponsored cyber-attacks to influence the results of this year’s presidential election. The Federal Government believes that Russia can be behind recent waves of DDoS attacks which caused internet disruptions in the Northeast region. Multiple major news outlets have now confirmed that the U.S. military has been preparing and is ready to retaliate against any possible cyber-attacks from Russia to disrupt the election next week.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/u-s-hackers-ready-hit-back-if-russia-disrupts-election-n677936

 

SECURITY October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month: How secure is your enterprise?

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October is national cyber security awareness month. According to the author of this article, Mark Kaelin, this is an opportunity for enterprises of all sizes to take time to educate their workforce on lurking cyber security threats. We hold a “Selfies for Security Challenge” at my company in celebration of cyber security awareness this month. This is a selfie contest in which employees take selfies to display how they are protecting the company and our clients. Please share how cyber security awareness month is being celebrated this year if this is something they also do at your company or anywhere else you may know.

 

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/october-is-national-cyber-security-awareness-month-how-secure-is-your-enterprise/

 

How to install Advanced Intrusion Detection Environment on CentOS

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We often cover topics about IDSs in class. It is a system(s) embedded within computer networks against malicious activities or policy violations. For example, an IDS infrastructure does so by analyzing incoming network traffic. However, this article titled “How to install Advanced Intrusion Detection Environment on CentOS” that I’m sharing with you provides a broader prospect about IDS, the Advanced Intrusion Detection Environment.

AIDE was developed to replace Tripwire licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). According to author of the article,  Jack Wallen, AIDE is recommended for better I.T. Security because it serves as a supplement layer of protection for CentOS environments. For those who might be interested in learning how to deploy AIDE on a network platform the correct way, here are some detailed instruction materials of how to install AIDE on CentOS.

Access the full article via the link below:

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-install-advanced-intrusion-detection-environment-on-centos/

Serious security: Three changes that could turn the tide on hackers

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Steve Ranger, a member of ZDNet’s global editorial board, writes “Serious security: Three changes that could turn the tide on hackers” in an effort to echo the urgency of initial steps that must be taken to combat the rapidly increase of hacking. One of the shocking things that I learn reading this article is that $75 billion was spent on tech security last year; however, that didn’t prevent many people and organizations to overlook cyber security. For example, Steve state that,” It’s become so bad that it’s already generated a mirthless cliché — that there are only two types of companies: the ones that have been hacked and the ones that don’t yet know they’ve been hacked.”

Especially nowadays, cyber security should not be considered as an afterthought by anyone and Steve offers three suggestions as starting points:

  • The general public or consumers should start taking I.T. security more seriously in order for companies to do the same.
  • Organizations should design security as a fundamental part of the services for clients rather than a nice-to-have addition.
  • It is definitely time for strong encryption to be the standard as opposed to an exception.

 You may read the full article via the link below.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/serious-security-three-changes-that-could-turn-the-tide-on-hackers/

U.S. formally accuses Russian hackers of political cyber attacks

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Cyber security has been at the center stage during the U.S. primaries and general elections this year. Without diving any further, several U.S. agencies were in the mix to investigate many high profile figures and defend the U.S. against foreign state sponsored attacks. One of the controversies that got a lot of people’s attention was that Russia allegedly trying to interfere to influence the U.S.’ presidential election outcome this year.

Several major media outlets published stories warning local states such as North Carolina, Florida, and so forth to cautiously ensure proper technology tools to prevent foreign hackers from manipulating their system to possibly change elections’ outcomes. In fact, things got escalated to a higher level as the U.S. formally accuses Russia of trying to infiltrate the Democratic Party organizations ahead of the Nov. 8 presidential election. Today, Reuters’ Mark Hosenball, Dustin Volz and Jonathan Landay write “U.S. formally accuses Russian hackers of political cyber attacks,” amidst everything else already going on regarding emails and hacking. It comes to a point where cyber security should finally be regarded through the lens of serious concerns and not taking lightly as previously.

 

You may read the full article via http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cyber-russia-idUSKCN12729B.