Information Security
Defence intelligence officials will take the unprecedented step of secretly briefing Australia’s political party leaders and administrators to warn them they are vulnerable to the Russian-style cyber-attacks and espionage that rocked the US election. For the first time, the Australian Signals Directorate has been asked by the government to advise political party bosses on how to [...]
CIO Curt Kwak Discusses Biggest Challenges for Year Ahead Because cyber threats are becoming increasingly sophisticated, bolstering employee and customer awareness and training about ransomware, phishing and other cyber risks must be a top priority in 2017, says Curt Kwak, CIO of Proliance Surgeons, which operates more than 100 care centers in the state of Washington. [...]
Incoming Chief of Staff for Trump Stops Short of Blaming Putin President-elect Donald Trump. Photo: Michael Vadon (Creative Commons) President-elect Donald Trump reportedly now accepts the U.S. intelligence community's assessment that Russia attempted to meddle in U.S. elections, and may take action in response once he takes power, an aide says. "I think he accepts the [...]
Blackouts Tied to Malware Attack Against Power Provider A power blackout that recently affected about 1.4 million Ukrainians has been tied to the espionage Trojan known as BlackEnergy. The attack appears to be the first time that malware has been used to facilitate a large-scale power disruption. Ukrainian news outlet TSN first reported on the Dec. [...]
Lessons Learned, Based on What's Known About Malware Involved Evidence that the December 2015 disruption of multiple Ukrainian electrical substations was conducted by a group allied to Russian government interests continues to mount. But regardless of who hacked one or more Ukrainian energy suppliers, security experts note that the spear-phishing emails and related malware infections apparently [...]
Disk-wiping malware known as KillDisk, which has previously been used in hack attacks tied to espionage operations, has been given an update. Now, the malware works on Linux as well as Windows systems and also includes the ability to encrypt files, demand a bitcoin ransom and leave Linux systems unbootable. Multiple security firms have been tracking [...]