You can’t have privacy without security
California clearly agrees and may test the applicability of Larry Page's advice with new legislation signed by California Governor Brown in September, 2018.
Internet of Things legislation takes effect 1/1/2020
With the ink barely dry on the infamous California Consumer Privacy Act (the CCPA)—a first-of-its-kind data privacy bill in the United States—Brown signed a new Internet of Things cybersecurity bill into law, SB 327. Perhaps not so coincidentally, both laws will take effect on January 1, 2020, marking a substantial compliance deadline for technology companies big and small.
SB 327 will require that a manufacturer of a “connected device” equip the device with a defined minimum amount of security. “Connected device” is defined quite broadly and as written encompasses “any device, or other physical ... Read More
In-house phishing tests identify at-risk users
As compliance mandates and consumer privacy laws get tougher, businesses are taking matters into their own hands, launching internal phishing attacks to identify at-risk users.
Phishing remains a profitable tactic for cybercriminal organizations. The ability to gain access to internal systems, compromise credentials, or convince a user to wire money is well within the cybercriminals reach, accomplishing these attack results and more on a daily basis.
Organizations like UNC Health Care in Chapel Hill, NC receive over 91 million suspicious emails a every quarter, with a little more than 8 million still getting past security scanners. Even with 30,000 employees, that still represents an average of about 4 phishing emails a day per user.
University of North Carolina sends 3,000 phishing tests a ... Read More
Sextortion is the newest cyber crime
Sextortion scam emails are circulating. They claim that a popular adult site has been hacked, allowing an attacker to record videos of you through your webcam, according to Lawrence Abrams at BleepingComputer.
The attacker claims that these videos will be sent to all of the victim’s contacts unless the victim pays the equivalent of $969 to the attacker’s Bitcoin address. The emails also include a victim’s old password obtained from a past data breach in an attempt to frighten the victim.
Victims
Additionally, some of the emails contain links, supposedly leading to sample videos of the victim as proof of the attacker’s claims. These links have been known to install malware, such as ransomware, in past campaigns.
BleepingComputer observes that the Bitcoin address in ... Read More
Use and in your AI prompt chain to refine the responses
You can use and in your AI prompts to refine the responses your favorite AI engine gives you. I am using Perplexity.AI, which lets you follow-up prompts. You may prompt Perplexity “tell me the 10 largest cities in the United States,” get the response and follow-up with “and tell me each city’s population from the 2020 census.”
CIA Triad in Cybersecurity
Let’s step into the world of cybersecurity. I am showing how to tweak Perplexity AI’s response to “Tell me about the CIA Triad in cybersecurity.” Perplexity. AI replies with:
The CIA Triad is a fundamental model in cybersecurity, representing three core principles: Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability. These principles guide the development and implementation of security policies and ... Read More
Kroger's AI-Driven Dynamic Pricing Overview
Kroger is implementing AI-driven dynamic pricing. You walk into a Kroger grocery store, go to an aisle with a product you buy often, cameras detect your face and raise prices. Scary? Yes. True? Yes. I am sharing quotes from https://www.perplexity.ai/page/kroeger-s-new-dynamic-ai-prici-yYXqe_z4SkOZq62JYBnVUQ.
“The system, which allows for real-time price adjustments based on factors such as demand and customer data, has been presented by Kroger as a way to enhance the customer experience…” Kroger argues, or wants us to believe, detecting when we are about to buy something we buy often and then adjusting the price according, is good for us. I call BS on that. This article further reports: “Moreover, the Enhanced Display for Grocery Environment (EDGE) system allows Kroger to build detailed customer ... Read More
Phish attack meeting requests
A widespread phishing campaign is targeting executives across a number of industries. The messages ask to reschedule a board meeting in an effort to steal logins and passwords.
Spotted by researchers at security firm GreatHorn, the phishing messages spoof the name and email address of the CEO of the company being targeted and uses a subject line including the company name and a note about the meeting to gain the attention of potential victims. Users are more likely to fall for attacks they believe to come from their boss.
The contents of the phishing email is simple: it says a board meeting has been rescheduled and asks users to take part in a poll to choose a new date.
Office 365
If users click the link, they're taken to a ... Read More
Late last month, Daniel R. Coats, Director of National Intelligence reported on Threats to US national security gave the 40,000 foot view of cyber threats. I'm quoting them here.
Summary of Cyber Threats
China and Russia are more aligned than at any point since the mid-1950s, and the relationship is likely to strengthen in the coming year as some of their interests and threat perceptions converge, particularly regarding perceived US unilateralism and interventionism and Western promotion of democratic values and human rights.
As China and Russia seek to expand their global influence, they are eroding once well-established security norms and increasing the risk of regional conflicts, particularly in the Middle East and East Asia.
At the same time, some US allies and partners are seeking greater ... Read More
Oath fined $4.95 Million for violating Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”)
In December, 2018, the New York State Attorney General announced a $4.95 million settlement with Oath Inc., the result of an investigation into Oath's violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”).
The NYAG found that Oath’s ad exchanges transferred persistent identifiers and geolocation from website users to DSP bidders in its automated auction process. While that may be fine for websites directed to grown-up audiences, COPPA includes persistent identifiers and geolocation in its definition of “personal information.” And under the law, companies must obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting or using children’s personal information.
But instead of seeking verifiable parental consent, Oath treated all websites (and therefore all user information) the same, despite knowledge that some ... Read More
Phishing attack uses DocuSign
Here is a brilliant new social engineering phishing scam that you may have already seen. It will sail through all your spam / malware filters and email protection devices, because it's entirely legit by using the Docusign infrastructure. Prime example of an info grabbing phishing attack that does not use a malicious payload.
Easy money?
Clicking on the yellow "Review Document" button gets you to—again an entirely legit—Docusign page, which requires you to fill out the form as per the normal process. I broke it up in two parts. The top half is more or less normal for a loan application. But wait, the second half really takes the cake.
Looking for financial information
Continuing to fill out the form allows the bad guy to completely steal the ... Read More
Gift cards new vector in CEO fraud
January 29 saw the arrival of yet another interesting variant of the gift card phishing campaigns that have become more common this year (see below). Today's email demonstrates that bad guys are actively adapting and evolving their pitch into CEO fraud.
There are couple interesting things going in this new gift card phish:
The bad guys work to establish a credible pretext ("incentives" for staff) -- something they've been getting better at recently.
They explicitly request confidentiality -- another tactic we've been seeing more of recently.
They're getting really greedy -- $4000 total in gift cards, the largest request we've yet seen (most requests in these gift card phishing schemes range from $500-$2000).
But there's something else very significant going on here, ... Read More