Splitting the NSA and US Cyber Command

Rumor is that the Trump administration will separate the NSA and US Cyber Command. I have long thought this was a good idea. Here's a good discussion of what it does and doesn't mean...

NSA Collects MS Windows Error Information

Back in 2013, Der Spiegel reported that the NSA intercepts and collects Windows bug reports: One example of the sheer creativity with which the TAO spies approach their work can be seen in a hacking method they use that exploits the error-proneness of Microsoft's Windows. Every user of the...

Zero-Day Vulnerabilities against Windows in the NSA Tools Released by the Shadow Brokers

In April, the Shadow Brokers -- presumably Russia -- released a batch of Windows exploits from what is presumably the NSA. Included in that release were eight different Windows vulnerabilities. Given a presumed theft date of the data as sometime between 2012 and 2013 -- based on timestamps of the...

ShadowBrokers Remain an Enigma

LAS VEGAS—Clarity and the ShadowBrokers are strange bedfellows. We’re closing in on the first anniversary of the mysterious group’s initial dump of NSA hacking tools and we’re still no closer to understanding who they are, where they got their stuff, and what their true motivations are. Instead a...

Windows SMB Zero Day to Be Disclosed During DEF CON

LAS VEGAS—A 20-year-old Windows SMB vulnerability is expected to be disclosed Saturday during a talk at DEF CON. Microsoft has said it will not patch the vulnerability, which allows an attacker to remotely crash a Windows server with relative ease using only 20 lines of Python code and a Raspberr...

Academia's Role in Security Skills Gap Examined

LAS VEGAS—For a long time, there’s been a chorus from employers about the lacked of skilled security professionals to fill available openings. And while it would not be an illogical leap to think universities are adequately preparing tomorrow’s security admins and CISOs, quite the opposite may be...

More on the NSA's Use of Traffic Shaping

"Traffic shaping" -- the practice of tricking data to flow through a particular route on the Internet so it can be more easily surveiled -- is an NSA technique that has gotten much less attention than it deserves. It's a powerful technique that allows an eavesdropper to get access to communicatio...

All this EternalPetya stuff makes me WannaCry

Another week goes by and yet again we have another ransomware outbreak initially dropped by a malicious software update and eventually spreading within internal networks using several methods - including EternalBlue - the leaked exploit from the ShadowBrokers group. Security researchers can’t see...

June 29, 2017 – Morning Cyber Coffee Headlines – “Massachusetts” Edition

Good morning! Sit with Carbon Black this morning over a cup of coffee or tea and browse a few industry headlines to get the day started. We’ve got just enough information below to get you through that first cup…enjoy! June 29, 2017 - Headlines Carbon Black in the News: How the U.S. can defend its...

New Petya Distribution Vectors Bubbling to Surface

Join Kaspersky Lab and Comae Technologies Thursday June 29, 2017 at 10 a.m. Eastern time for a webinar “The Inside Story of the Petya/ExPetr Ransomware.” Click here to attend. While Microsoft and others continue to shore up links between yesterday’s global ransomware outbreak and the update...

'Shadow Brokers' Threatens to Unmask A Hacker Who Worked With NSA

The Shadow Brokers, a notorious hacking group that leaked US cyberweapons — which were also abused by the recent ransomware disasters WannaCry and Petya or NotPetya — has now threatened to unmask the identity of a former hacker who worked for the NSA. Besides this, the Shadow Brokers group has al...

Complex Petya-Like Ransomware Outbreak Worse than WannaCry

Join Kaspersky Lab and Comae Technologies Thursday June 29, 2017 at 10 a.m. Eastern time for a webinar “The Inside Story of the Petya/ExPetr Ransomware.” Click here to attend. The attackers behind today’s global ransomware outbreak are spreading the malware using a modified version of the leaked...

Fighting Leakers at Apple

Apple is fighting its own battle against leakers, using people and tactics from the NSA. According to the hour-long presentation, Apple's Global Security team employs an undisclosed number of investigators around the world to prevent information from reaching competitors, counterfeiters, and the...

Windows NSA Information Assurance: Locklevel

Windows NSA Information Assurance LOCKLEVEL was a rapidly built prototype that demonstrates a method for scoring how well Windows systems have implemented some of the NSA Information Assurance top 10 mitigation strategies . This prototype is being shared to encourage industry adoption of these...

June 23, 2017 – Morning Cyber Coffee Headlines – “Grizzly Bear” Edition

Good morning! Sit with Carbon Black this morning over a cup of coffee or tea and browse a few industry headlines to get the day started. We’ve got just enough information below to get you through that first cup…enjoy! June 23, 2017 - Headlines Carbon Black in the News: Top 10 Endpoint Detection a...

Portable Virtual Private Network: goSecure

Portable Virtual Private Network goSecure is an easy to use and portable Virtual Private Network VPN solution. The system consists of a single server and one or many clients. strongSwan is used to establish a Suite B IPsec tunnel with pre-shared keys between the server and clients. The core crypt...

sharkPy - NSA Tool to Dissect, Analyze, and Interact with Network Packet Data using Wireshark and libpcap capabilities

A python module to dissect, analyze, and interact with network packet data as native Python objects using Wireshark and libpcap capabilities. sharkPy dissect modules extend and otherwise modify Wireshark's tshark. SharkPy packet injection and pcap file writing modules wrap useful libpcap...

NSA Insider Security Post-Snowden

According to a recently declassified report obtained under FOIA, the NSA's attempts to protect itself against insider attacks aren't going very well: The N.S.A. failed to consistently lock racks of servers storing highly classified data and to secure data center machine rooms, according to the...

NSA-Backed OpenC2.org Aims to Defend Systems at Machine Speed

NEW YORK–The dynamics of a cyberattack often include speed, automation and adaptive tradecraft. Mounting an effective defense, however, isn’t always fast enough. To help even the score, a group led by the National Security Agency called OpenC2.org is developing an open, standardized computer...

No, WannaCry Is Not Dead! Hits Honda & Traffic Light Camera System

It's been over a month since the WannaCry ransomware caused chaos worldwide and people have started counting its name as 'the things of past,' but… ...WannaCry is not DEAD! The self-spreading ransomware is still alive and is working absolutely fine. The latest victims of WannaCry are Honda Motor...