On PoisonTap, Internet of Things Regulation, and Ransomware

Mike Mimoso and Chris Brook discuss the news of the week, including this week’s House hearing on the Internet of Things, Samy Kamkar’s PoisonTap tool, and Windows 10’s ransomware protections. Show notes: Regulation May Be Best Answer to IoT Insecurity PoisonTap Steals Cookies, Drops Backdoors on...

Raspberry Pi Zero Malicious USB Attack: PoisonTap

Raspberry Pi Zero Malicious USB Attack Exploits locked/password protected computers over USB, drops persistent WebSocket-based backdoor, exposes internal router, and siphons cookies using Raspberry Pi Zero & Node.js. PoisonTap produces a cascading effect by exploiting the existing trust in variou...

IBM Opens Attack Simulation Test Center

CAMBRIDGE, Ma. – IBM cut the ribbon on its new global security headquarters Wednesday that will also serve as command center for its just announced X-Force Incident Response and Intelligence Services. The centerpiece of the new 153,000-sqft facility is the company’s Cyber Range which IBM bills as...

Regulation May Be Best Answer to IoT Insecurity

One thing technologists overtly shun is the prospect of government regulation. But recent DDoS attacks carried out by botnets of connected things have spooked some people of influence in security to the point where intervention by lawmakers may be inevitable. Testifying before subcommittees of th...

Strategic Principles for Securing the IoT

DHS has released a set of Strategic Principles for Securing the Internet of Things IoT to help inform consumers, operators and manufacturers in their decision-making regarding networked and networkable devices. While the IoT can provide efficiency, convenience, and interactivity features that are...

5 Major Russian Banks Hit With Powerful DDoS Attacks

Distributed Denial of Service DDoS attacks have risen enormously in past few months and, mostly, they are coming from hacked and insecure internet-connected devices, most commonly known as Internet of Things IoT. Recent DDoS attack against DNS provider Dyn that brought down a large chunk of the...

Using CIS Controls To Stop Your Network From Falling in With the Wrong Crowd

Earlier this month Kyle Flaherty wrote a post on the Rapid7 Community Blog about how Rapid7 came out on top for coverage of the Center for Internet Security CIS Top 20 Security Controls. In light of recent DDoS events Id like to take a little time to discuss at a high level what the controls are,...

DDoS Attack Takes Down Central Heating System Amidst Winter In Finland

Just Imaging — What if, you enter into your home from a chilling weather outside, and the heating system fails to work because of a cyber attack, leaving you in the sense of panic? The same happened late last month when an attack knocks heating system offline in Finland. Last week, a Distributed...

DMCA Exemptions Lift Hacking Restriction

White hat hackers can breathe a little easier for the next two years because of a temporary removal of restrictions imposed on hacking of everything from cars, medical devices, to smart home appliances. Last week the U.S. Copyright Office temporarily removed certain restrictions imposed by the...

Someone is Using Mirai Botnet to Shut Down Internet for an Entire Country

Note — We have published an updated article on what really happened behind the alleged DDoS attack against Liberia using Mirai botnet. Someone is trying to take down the whole Internet of a country, and partially succeeded, by launching massive distributed denial-of-service DDoS attacks using a...

19-Year-Old Teenage Hacker Behind DDoS-for-Hire Service Pleads Guilty

Due to the worldwide promotion of Mirai botnet that knocked down half of the Internet last Friday, hackers and even script kiddies have started creating their own botnet networks by hacking millions of IoT devices and selling them as DDoS-for-hire service to overwhelm targets with data. A...

New IoT Botnet Malware Borrows From Mirai

Researchers have thrown back the covers on more malware infecting IoT devices for the purposes of building a botnet that carries out DDoS attacks. This sample has its roots in other IoT botnets such as Aidra, Bashlite and Mirai in that it attacks weak telnet credentials guarding devices and it’s...

New IoT Botnet Malware Discovered; Infecting More Devices Worldwide

The whole world is still dealing with the Mirai IoT Botnet that caused vast internet outage last Friday by launching massive distributed denial of service DDoS attacks against the DNS provider Dyn, and researchers have found another nasty IoT botnet. Security researchers at MalwareMustDie have...

Mirai Botnet Itself is Flawed; Hacking Back IoTs Could Mitigate DDoS Attacks

The infamous botnet that was used in the recent massive distributed denial of service DDoS attacks against the popular DNS provider Dyn, causing vast internet outage last Friday, itself is flawed. Yes, Mirai malware, which has already enslaved millions of Internet of Things IoT devices across 164...

Friday's Massive DDoS Attack Came from Just 100,000 Hacked IoT Devices

Guess how many devices participated in last Friday's massive DDoS attack against DNS provider Dyn that caused vast internet outage? Just 100,000 devices. I did not miss any zeros. Dyn disclosed on Wednesday that a botnet of an estimated 100,000 internet-connected devices was hijacked to flood its...

Lawmakers Asking What ISPs Can Do About DDoS Attacks

IoT botnets and DDoS attacks have prominent lawmakers asking government agencies some probing questions about what can be done. Sen. Mark Warner D-VA on Tuesday sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission—as well as the Federal Trade Commission and Homeland Security—querying among othe...

Dyn DDoS Work of Script Kiddies, Not Politically Motivated Hackers

New research on the source of Friday’s DDoS attack against DNS provider Dyn indicates that script kiddies are likely responsible, rather than a politically motivated actor. Researchers at Flashpoint dismissed numerous claims of responsibility that separately linked the attack to the Russian...

Chinese Manufacturer Recalls IOT Gear Following Dyn DDoS

Hangzhou Xiongmai said that it will recall millions of cameras sold in the U.S. in response to Friday’s DDoS attack against DNS provider Dyn that kept a number of web-based services such as Twitter, Github and others offline for much of the day. The Chinese manufacturer sells OEM white-label...

Chinese Electronics Firm to Recall its Smart Cameras recently used to Take Down Internet

You might be surprised to know that your security cameras, Internet-connected toasters and refrigerators may have inadvertently participated in the massive cyber attack that broke a large portion of the Internet on Friday. That's due to massive Distributed Denial of Service DDoS attacks against...

An Army of Million Hacked IoT Devices Almost Broke the Internet Today

A massive Distributed Denial of Service DDoS attack against Dyn, a major domain name system DNS provider, broke large portions of the Internet on Friday, causing a significant outage to a ton of websites and services, including Twitter, GitHub, PayPal, Amazon, Reddit, Netflix, and Spotify. But ho...