New Intel Chips Support SMS Kill Switch

HED: New Intel Chips Support SMS Kill Switch DEK: Anti Theft 3 Chips Can be disabled via 3G Networks New computer processors from Intel Corp, due out in 2011, can be disabled using an SMS “poison pill” message sent over any 3G cellular network, according to Intel documentation. The new anti-theft...

Audit: NASA Fails To Properly Wipe Data From Discarded Drives

A recent internal audit at NASA, the U.S. space agency, found significant weakness in the way the agency disposes of IT equipment, including evidence that used hard drives containing sensitive NASA data may have been sold to the public on the secondhand market. The audit focused on the Johnson an...

Alex Hutton on the VERIS Community App and Data Breaches

Dennis Fisher talks with Alex Hutton of Verizon Business about the company’s release of the VERIS Community Application and the need for better data in the security community on attacks and incidents. Podcast audio courtesy of sykboy65 Subscribe to the Digital Underground podcast on...

Brazilian Government IDs Used as Spear Phish Bait

Brazilians are the target of new and devilishly convincing e-mail-based scams that purport to be official customer communication from a large Brazilian bank and use stolen identity data to convince victims that the message is for real. According to a post on Kaspersky Lab’s Securelist blog,...

Overlooked Old Vulnerabilities Lead to Major Data Breaches, Says TrustWave

A recent report suggests that focusing too much on new security threats might make companies overlook older, more commonly exploited vulnerabilities. The report by TrustWave is based on data from over 1,900 penetration tests and more than 200 data breach investigations for clients like American...

Preventing Data Breaches: Lessons From Higher Education

Since 2008, higher education institutions have experienced a staggering 158 data breaches resulting in over 2.3 million reported records compromised. In 2009 alone there were 57 reported data breaches, and year to date through July of 2010, there have already been 32 breaches. Considering that mo...

Healthcare Breaches Outpace Financials in 2010

Healthcare data breaches have swollen in 2010: Identity Theft Resource Center reports show that compromised data stores from healthcare organizations far outstrip other verticals this year. Read the full article. Dark Reading...

Researcher Reveals Major SSL and Browser Flaws

LAS VEGAS–A security researcher has found a slew of fundamental problems with the way that modern browsers are designed and built, leading to serious questions about the security of these applications and the way that they handle SSL sessions. The research, done by Robert Hansen of SecTheory, sho...

Attacks Cost $3.8 Million on Average Per Year

Organizations are getting hit by at least one successful attack per week, and the annualized cost to their bottom lines from the attacks ranged from $1 million to $53 million per year, according to a newly published benchmark study of 45 U.S. organizations hit by data breaches. Read the full...

Verizon Partners With U.S. Secret Service on Data Breach Report

Verizon’s invaluable Data Breach Investigations Report will now include data from hundreds of computer crime cases investigated by the U.S. Secret Service, the company announced this week. The report, which is among the best at tracking data loss incidents, is based on a framework called VERIS .p...

Data Breaches Cost More in U.S.

A data breach in the United States could cost enterprises twice as much as the same breach costs companies in other countries with less stringent disclosure and notification laws, according to Ponemon Institute research. Read the full article. Dark Reading...

Security Programs Focusing Too Much on Compliance, Study Finds

Enterprises are spending huge amounts of money on compliance programs related to PCI-DSS, HIPAA and other regulations, but those funds may be misdirected in light of the priorities of most information security programs, a new study has found. A paper by Forrester Research, commissioned by Microso...

Automated Malware Tools At Heart of Data Extraction

Most attention goes to keeping hackers out. But once they’re inside, how do they extract data? Research of 200 data breaches in 24 countries examines the ways data is leaving. Read the full article. CSO...

Who Is On The Top 10 Data Breach List?

Remember when the stolen V.A. laptop made headlines in May 2006 as the biggest breach ever? Here’s the top 10 data breaches by number of records affected. Read the full article. Databreaches.net...

New Data Show Most Breaches Come From External Sources

New data compiled by Verizon in an addendum to its Data Breach Investigations Report shows that the vast majority of reported and investigated data breaches are the result of external incidents, not insider threats. “Incidents that result in data compromise and that prompt disclosure or outside...

79 Million Government, Military Records Breached

Although the combined number of reported data breaches in the government and the military has dropped in 2009 compared to last year, many more records were compromised in those breaches, according to recent figures compiled by the Identity Theft Resource Center. Read the full article. Government...

Data Breaches Increase ID Theft Chances 4X

Individual data compromised in a data breach is four times more likely to be used for identity theft finds Javelin Research in a multi-year study. Another key finding cited: Most consumers do not see the link between breaches and identity theft. “Despite 19.5 percent of breach victims suffering...

How to Defeat Full-Disk Encryption in One Minute

Full-disk encryption is often heralded as a panacea to the huge problems of data breaches and laptop thefts, and with good reason. Making the data on a laptop or other device unreadable makes the machine far less attractive or valuable to a thief. However, researchers are showing that this soluti...

Cyberthieves Find Workplace Networks Are Easy Pickings

In a feature article in USAToday, Byron Acohido writes about porous and difficult to defend workplace networks that provide a haven for professional cybercrimals. Acohido writes: “Overly complex IT systems are producing endless opportunities for cyberthieves, who need only to master simple hackin...

David Mortman and Alex Hutton on Exploit Code Use, Data Breaches and Reputation Damage

Dennis Fisher talks with David Mortman and Alex Hutton of the New School of Information Security blog about the Mortman/Hutton model, data breaches and the effect of breaches on the reputation and viability of an organization. Download Subscribe to the Digital Underground podcast on Podcast audio...