Information Security & Occasional Forays Into Adjacent Realms
Another nearly perfect example of why signals (radio frequency electromagnetic communications) are a vital component of multilevel security in the environment you either work in, or are exploited by...
In this fascinating project by Columbia University's Intrusion Detection Lab doctoral student Ang Cui, comes a reminder that embedded componentry can be leveraged to leak the blather contained in silicon; and, astoundingly, all it took was seven lines of code. Absolutely Phenomenal.
RAND Corporation, has published a not-entirely-surprising study targeting what appears to be the highly unsuccessful security postures of organizations under scrutiny. Entitled "The Defender's Dilemma: Charting a Course Toward Cybersecurity". Apparently, the notion of "Come And Take It" is not a particularly successful stratagem in modern electronic warfare...
Citation Libicki, Martin C., Lillian Ablon and Tim Webb. The Defender's Dilemma: Charting a Course Toward Cybersecurity. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2015. http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1024. Also available in print form.
Superb rebuttal co-authored by Robert M. Lee, CAPT USAF (see Captain Lee's personal rebuttal of the NORSE and AEI document here), Michael J. Assante Co-Founder and Chief Security Strategist, NexDefense, Inc., and Tim Conway, ICS and SCADA Technical Training Director at SANS targeting the report entitled "The Growing Cyberthreat from Iran: The Initial Report of Project Pistaschio Harvest" produced by Norse and the American Enterprise Institute. Read it and Weep.
"They exposed weaknesses in the armor, illustrating that "we as scientists and engineers think we have a great solution and ha-ha moments, thinking Soldiers will love this" new piece of gear. Then the Red Team would show up and show all the weaknesses, she said, so "we started solving those problems." From that point on, anything deployed to small forward operating outposts of 300 people or less gets a Red Team going over from "the construct of the operational perspective, technology perspective, and how we could integrate it in such a way not to create inherent vulnerabilities. It's been very effective." - via David Vergun writing at the United States Army
Going dark in 2014, the Equation Group's malware command and control servers have reportedly been migrated onto United States soil... This, after a nefariously successful run targeting thousands of victims in at least 40 countries. Focusing on vertical industry segments such as medical, telecom and aerospace sectors, including diplomatic missions, research institutions, military, governments, the Equation Groups' malware is apaprently fostering speculation as to connections between and betwixt US agencies.
"In an exhaustive report published Monday at the Kaspersky Security Analyst Summit here, researchers stopped short of saying Equation Group was the handiwork of the NSA—but they provided detailed evidence that strongly implicates the US spy agency." - via ArsTechnica's Dan Goodin
Image via the Shodan Blog [https://shodanio.wordpress.com/]
In which, a new analysis line-of-sight for the detection of attack, whether covert or otherwise. Absolutely fascinating ancillary evidentiary channel, utilizing power consumption differentiation between and betwixt infected and uncompromised systems. Outstanding.
Brian Krebs illustrates a proliferation of legal businesses with nefarious polar-opposites as the lead-in to the main topic of that day's posting: An online service that will thoroughly deplete a targeted competitor's advertising budgets. While interesting in-and-of-itself, the topical post contains a sub-plot of existential interest. Curious? Read On.
The fascinating content of Mr. Krebs well-researched and concise post is not the miscreant service he describes in superb detail, but the notion of business/anti-business constructs [a la Matter/Antimatter, if you will...].
With the application of scrutiny (whether cursory or in-depth), researchers can locate exact, crime-laden copies of nearly every legit business or activity existing in the under-belly of our beloved Interweb. This behavior exactly matches the physical world, as the nature of the two opposing antagonists will expand to fill any empty space, vis-à-vis the concept of horror vacui.