Week 06: Sniffers

https://www.washingtonpost.com/postlive/the-ethics-of-hacking-101/2014/10/07/39529518-4014-11e4-b0ea-8141703bbf6f_story.html?utm_term=.b385f15c8209

Professors are teaching students how to hack into pipelines, powerplants, and break into networks. Some Universities, such as Carnegie Mellon are even creating hacking teams. Teachers in the technology and hacking practice of what is loosely called “cyberoffense.” In a world in which businesses, the military and governments rely on computer systems that are potentially vulnerable, having the ability to break into those systems provides a strategic advantage. Ethics is a big issue in this field. Professors want to build an ethics component into their curriculum. Yet the academic community is not taking ethics seriously enough, and professors are not accepting responsibility for the potentially dangerous skills they are teaching. Some are only teaching students if the guarantee the student only takes a government job and would qualify to get clearance. This is the skill set learned will help society and our nation.

Most hacking skills are outside the realm of academia and students need to find ways to keep up in the world of cyberoffense.  Students find vulnerabilities and agrees that it is dangerous to share vulnerabilities or exploits with anyone but the software vendor or the U.S. government. If sold in the free market it may get in the wrong hands.

The CEO and Chairman of Equifax Richard Smith retired suddenly Tuesday after the company’s CEO and Chairman of Equifax, credit-reporting service’s data breach that affected more than 143 million people.

The cmopnay’s board anounced that the retirement is effective and the 57-year old is an ex CEO and Chairman. Richard Smith became the Chairman and the CEO in the year of 2005 after a 22 rears career at General Electric in senior roles. However, He was schedule to appear at the hearing of the Senate Banking Committee next month, according to CNBC.

The breach has launched multiple investigations, including with the Department of Justice in Atlanta and the Federal Trade Commission. The company reported that its Chief Information Officer and Chief Security Officer retired earlier this month.

Hackers gained access to some files in the company’s system last May and were able to define some weak points in the website software according to the company’s consultants. So many unauthorized activities were found since then.

https://www.securitymagazine.com/articles/88340-equifax-ceo-abruptly-retires-following-data-breach

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41652970

Adobe patches Flash bug used for planting spying tools

This article talks about the following: Adobe Flash, one of the widely used, for viewing content recently got compromised and hackers found way of bypassing it by placing malicious flash files within word documents, which were sent to customers email id’s. The malware identified as FinSpy automatically runs upon opening such documents and self-installs. The function of the malware is to spy on remote computers for sensitive information. However, this vulnerability in security was discovered by one person from Kaspersky Labs recently.

It will be interesting to see how things unfold in the future. What security configurations are available for users to prevent Flash Files from being run automatically? How soon can companies like Microsoft give users access to enabling of patches for their computers? Is there a way to eliminate spyware already installed on remote computer? These are questions that will pave the way for further research and development

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/16/wifi-security-flaw-found-that-lets-hackers-eavesdrop-on-your-devices.html

Major Wi-Fi security flaw could allow hackers to listen in on any of your devices

This article talks about the following: Wireless systems have been the talk of most security professionals in the world. The recent loophole in the WPA2 security protocol has put most wireless networks under deliberate threat as cyber criminals would have access to all the devices that are connected over the wireless mediums. Hackers have found ways to alter the wireless system’s connection process through KRACK (Key Reinstallation Attack).

It will be interesting to see how things unfold in the future. How can wireless users across the world update their firewalls and router configurations in the shortest time possible? What steps will companies like Google, Microsoft, and Apple take before its OS is compromised with these threats? What would be the cost involved on both the customers and company’s end to mitigate this risk?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/11/technology/personaltech/cybercriminals-spies.html

Making the Lives of Cybercriminals and Spies Harder Online

This article talks about the following: Nicole Perlroth, one of the cybersecurity reporter for The Times throws insights into how cyber theft can be minimised by taking the most critical communications offline so that there is no scope left for online fraud. With the help of a 2-factor authentication with the help of secure browsers, it is always safe to use message encryption apps such as Wickr, Telegram, etc. Though it’s common to see many people giving access about their whereabouts including location and timestamps to 3^rd party APPs, its best to block such requests gaining access to your system’s personal information.

It will be interesting to see how things unfold in the future. How will Artificial Intelligence systems such as Bots and Messaging systems prevent cyber theft of critical communication? With companies moving from finger print sensors to facial recognition systems, how secure will it be and how hard will it be for criminals to clone such systems for personal use?

I thought this was a pretty interesting article. It speaks on the fact that there are many flaws in the current voting system and that they are fairly easily hack-able.  It talks about how at DefCon ( a hacking conference) Users were able to to hack into the machines in no time. According to the article though this is only the beginning of the problem.

 

Source: https://phys.org/news/2017-10-hacking-election-flaws.html

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3231669/backup-recovery/5-worst-cybersecurity-habits-with-catastrophic-consequences.html

My article discusses the 5 worst cybersecurity habits. The 5 it identifies are: having a lax attitude, not protecting their email, clicking hyperlinks in emails, poor password practices, and not backup up data. These are all things I ‘ve seen discussed in a corporate setting but the article focuses on personal cybersecurity. Do you do any of these bad practices? It recommends using 2 factor authentication for emails, which I personally don’t do but I think I don’t have the other bad habits.

FormBook Malware Targets US Defense Contractors, Aerospace and Manufacturing Sectors

This article from Threatpost.com details Formbook, a malware that can be spread in PDFs, DOCS and XLS files. The malware has been on sale since July for the low price of $29/week. It is primarily a data stealing tool, and can be used as for keylogging, stealing info from HTTP sessions and saving clipboard contents.  FireEye has a report on it here.  The report states that the malware isnt unique in the way it operates, howevber,  “its relative ease of use, affordable pricing structure, and open availability make FormBook an attractive option for cyber criminals.”

The FireEye report includes a list of Formbook targets, wherein 33% of attacks were targeting Aerospace and Defense contractors:

 

I thought this was an interesting story and report due to the apparent “script kiddie” nature of Formbook. It would be interesting to hear from industry veterans about their experiences with increased accessibility of malware like Formbook, how serious these threats are, and where the world is headed as more people are able to find and use these tools.

 

 

Security researcher, Will Strafach had found that the Uber app has been selectively allowed to use its screen recording API on Apple Watch in order to improve its performance. The screen recording API that has been implemented into Uber’s app, allows it to “record user’s screen information even when the app is closed, giving Uber access to all the personal information passing through an iPhone screen.” If Uber’s permissions were to be compromised, the data would be vulnerable to hackers. After it has been disclosed, Uber has announced that it would remove the “entitlement code” in its iPhone app codebase.

https://thehackernews.com/2017/10/uber-screen-record-iphone.html