MIRcon Preview: What to Expect in the Technical Track

MIRcon 2013, Nov. 5-6, Washington, DC is right around the corner. Have you registered yet? Don't miss out! With targeted attacks continuing for the foreseeable future, you should be sure to take advantage of this opportunity to learn from leading industry cybersecurity experts. The two day...

Microsoft paid over $28,000 Rewards to Six Researchers for its first ever Bug Bounty Program

Microsoft today announced that they had paid more than $28,000 in rewards to Security Researchers for its first Bug Bounty program, that went on for a month during the preview release of Internet Explorer 11 IE11. The program was designed to run during Internet Explorer 11's browser beta test on...

Researchers Nab $28k in Microsoft Bug Bounty Program

As part of its first-ever bounty program, Microsoft has paid out $28,000 to a small group of researchers who identified and reported vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer 11. The IE 11 bounty program only ran for one month during the summer, but it attracted a number of submissions from well-known...

Experts Petition NSA Review Board to Include Technologist

A long list of influential security, privacy and technology experts, largely from academic circles, has petitioned the NSA review board to include a technologist among its ranks. The board, established on Aug. 12 by Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper upon the orders of the...

NSA using Browser Cookies to track Tor Users

Yesterday a new classified NSA document was leaked by Edward Snowden - titled 'Tor Stinks' in which ideas were being kicked around for identifying Tor users or degrading the user experience to dissuade people from using the Tor browser. The NSA had a very hard time while tracking down all Tor...

NSA Director Alexander Confirms Cell Location Pilot Program

In between pleas to end the government shutdown that has upwards of 70 percent of the intelligence community furloughed until further notice, NSA director Gen. Keith Alexander and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper spent a significant amount of time before a Senate Judiciary Committe...

NSA Crypto Questions Resemble a 'Hall of Mirrors'

There’s been no shortage of discussion and debate in recent week about the possibility that the NSA has intentionally weakened some cryptographic algorithms and cipher suites in order to give it an advantage in its intelligence-gathering operations. If you subscribe to the worst-case scenario lin...

Law Enforcement Requests Report: No Skype Data Turned Over

Microsoft’s report on compliance with law enforcement requests for data demonstrates a status quo for the software giant from the last reporting period. While the number of requests from law enforcement dropped worldwide in the first six months of 2013, Microsoft complied with 79 percent of...

Iranian Hackers infiltrated US Navy computers

The Wall Street Journal reported that Iranian hackers have successfully penetrated unclassified US Navy computers, the allegations were made by US officials that consider the attacks a serious intrusion within the Government network. "The U.S. Officials said the attacks were carried out by hacker...

NSA Director Alexander Asked About Cell Location Collection

Did we hear the next shoe to drop in the NSA surveillance saga? Yesterday before a hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, asked some pointed questions of NSA director Gen. Keith Alexander regarding whether the agency collects cell tower location data in addition t...

Alexander: 'FISA is the Key to Connecting the Dots'

WASHINGTON–Faced with trying to accomplish its mission in an environment that suddenly has become quite hostile and inquisitive about its methods, the National Security Agency is becoming more and more public about the challenges that lie ahead and how the agency plans to address them. One of the...

IE Zero Day Used in Targeted Attacks Against Japanese Firms

Attackers exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser have compromised several popular local Japanese media outlets and have infected systems belonging to government, high tech and manufacturing organizations in Japan. Researchers at FireEye said the attacks appea...

The Sky is Not Falling--It's Fallen

It’s no fun being a cynic, thinking that everything is bad and getting worse. It’s easy–especially in the security community–but it’s not fun. But, in light of the latest in the interminable string of revelations about the NSA’s efforts to eat away at the foundation of the security industry, the...

NSA Bought Exploit Service From VUPEN, Contract Shows

The U.S. government–particularly the National Security Agency–are often regarded as having advanced offensive cybersecurity capabilities. But that doesn’t mean that they’re above bringing in a little outside help when it’s needed. A newly public contract shows that the NSA last year bought a...

Belgium's largest Telcom 'Belgacom' hacked; NSA could be behind the Attack

Belgacom, the largest telecommunications company in Belgium today announced that their IT Systems were hacked and infected with an unknown Malware. In order to eliminate that virus effectively, they clean up the entire system. The company also highlights that they have no indication of any impact...

UK Cryptographers Call For Publication of Deliberately Weakened Protocols, Products

A group of cryptographers in the UK has published a letter that calls on authorities in that country and the United States to conduct an investigation to determine which security products, protocols and standards have been deliberately weakened by the countries’ intelligence services. The letter,...

Frequently Unanswered Questions on the NSA Leaks

The flood of documents regarding the NSA’s collection methods and capabilities that have been leaked this summer has produced thousands of news stories and several metric tons of speculation about what it all means. But for all of the postulating, analysis and reporting, there are still a lot of...

DNI Releases FISC Docs, But Legislators Say Much More Remains Hidden

The federal government has released hundreds of pages of documents, including orders and opinions from the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, related to the NSA’s surveillance programs, but legislators who have been involved in the process say that there still are significant...

Google, Facebook, Yahoo File NSL Transparency Motions

Google, Yahoo and Facebook filed amended requests today with the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court FISC reiterating their desire to publish numbers on requests for user data related to national security. Google, meanwhile, went a step further asking for an open, public hearing with the...

[Secunia CSI 7.0] Next generation Patch Management Tool

Cybercrime costs organizations millions of dollars and to protect business from the consequences of security breaches, vulnerability intelligence and patch management are basic necessities in the toolbox of any IT team, as emphasized by organizations like the SANS Institute and the National...