Tag Archive for: deal

‘The Cold War was over, I think it’s restarted’ — Putin’s cyberwar judo tactics, and how to deal with fear of hacks

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Russian President Vladimir Putin was stripped of his judo title recently, but experts say he employs the same principles of that martial art in his cyberwarfare strategy: Use an opponent’s strength against them.

Putin, a big fan of judo, lost his status as “honorary president and ambassador” for the International Judo Federation and his “honorary 9th dan black belt” from World Taekwondo, bestowed upon him in 2013, following his invasion of Ukraine. Experts are concerned, however, that he will use the approach he honed in those disciplines through Russia’s enormous cyberwarfare complex.

Russia has long been considered one of the largest practitioners of state-sponsored cyberattacks, regularly receiving mention in cybersecurity-company watch lists. The country has regularly used that capacity in an asymmetrical manner to disrupt adversaries where open hostilities would not be prudent. Against the West, that means targeting a growing reliance upon interconnected networks and open-source software to power government and financial organizations.

Also read: The prospect of more Russian cyberattacks seems increasingly likely. What can you do to protect yourself? Quite a lot, it turns out.

That said, Putin’s greatest weapon in cyberwarfare is using an opponent’s reliance upon intertwined networks and information against them. When Russia hacked into Ukraine’s power grid back in December 2015 and managed to turn the lights on and off for about a quarter-million customers, the most harmful result wasn’t so much the loss of electricity, but the fear it could instill by showing they could simply do it, Sandra Joyce, head of global intelligence at Mandiant Inc.
MNDT,
+16.05%,
told MarketWatch in an interview.

“There is definitely the risk of Russian cyber-aggressors utilizing their current accesses from which to launch an attack,” Joyce told MarketWatch. “It’s the risk of that happening that has increased in the event that Russia decides to retaliate against our sanctions and other measures that we’ve been taking.”

We have nothing to fear but fear itself

Joyce said Russian hackers can already be inside compromised networks like…

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Expedite deal, France warns Iran as Khamenei orders nuclear progress

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ANKARA: Iran has escalated its longstanding cyber campaign against Turkey through state-sponsored hackers, who have targeted high-profile governmental and private websites in the country since November 2021.

Experts believe that the upgraded cyber assault is a reaction against Turkey’s attempts to normalize ties with countries such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Israel.

MuddyWater, a hacker group linked to Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, is allegedly behind these cyber attacks, which involve infection vectors such as malicious PDF attachments and Microsoft Office documents embedded in phishing emails.

These malicious documents were titled in the Turkish language so they would present as legitimate texts coming from the Turkish health and interior ministries.

The malware attack was first observed by CISCO Talos Intelligence Group, one of the world’s biggest commercial threat-focused intelligence teams.

The emails to the target’s enterprise contained a link to a compromised website and used the name of the target institution as a parameter in the URL.

As part of a tactic known as web bug, the links are used to track when the messages are opened by the endpoint.

When the initial access to the victim is gained, the hacker group collects sensitive information from its network. 

MuddyWater is known for its attacks against government networks across the US, Europe, the Middle East and South Asia for the last two years, with the aim of conducting cyber-espionage for state interests, deploying ransomware and destructive malware and stealing intellectual property that has high economic value. 

“Iran has become an increasingly capable and sophisticated cyber actor since 2007,” Rich Outzen, a retired colonel in the US Army and senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, told Arab News. 

“Up to that time, there were cyber attacks and cyber crime emanating from Iran, but little evidence of state direction,” said Outzen. 

“Starting with the suppression of the Green Movement and Iran’s own experience as a target of cyber attacks on its sanctioned nuclear program, the emergence of an ‘Iranian Cyber Army’ under the guidance of the Islamic…

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How to Deal With Unpatched Vulnerabilities

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by WatchGuard Technologies • Feb 3, 2022

Author: Carlos Arnal Cardenal, product marketing manager, WatchGuard Technologies

During the last few years, it seems as though not a day goes by without a headline shouting that some organization has experienced a data breach, putting the business, customers, and partners at risk. For managed security providers (MSPs) to keep their clients out of the news, it’s essential they understand the most common causes of data breaches and what they can do to prevent and protect from threats like unpatched vulnerabilities exploitation.

It’s worth bearing in mind that, according to the 2021 X-Force Threat Intelligence Index, scanning for and exploiting vulnerabilities was the top infection vector of 2020. The 2017 WannaCry ransomware attack was probably the clearest example of what can go wrong when patches aren’t applied; in this case a patch for the vulnerability exploited by the ransomware had existed for several months.

All these facts have shown that patch management’s importance has risen considerably. 

It has become a critical security layer as a complex and growing risk for companies. MSPs must be more proactive in keeping their customers’ environments up to date with all the latest third-party security patches and software updates to protect them.

IT administrators and staff often do not have enough time or resources to take care of patch and update management. Therefore, MSPs need to understand the importance of preventing vulnerability exploitation, but to achieve this, they have to address three major challenges:

Identify, prioritize and remediate

  • Vulnerability identification: Only a small number of attacks occur as a result of vulnerabilities that are unknown to all parties (zero day attacks). In most cases, cybercriminals exploit known flaws. For this reason, MSPs must ensure that their clients are quickly made aware of when they appear, as the time between a vulnerability being discovered and when attacks are executed has been significantly reduced. 
  • Prioritizing mitigation: While it may seem straightforward, most organizations struggle to identify which patch updates to install first. In fact, according to Ponemon,…

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Deal Alert: Microsoft 365 Family 12-month subscription with AVG Internet Security 2021 available for $69.99

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Microsoft 365

Newegg is now offering a couple of great deals on 12-month Microsoft 365 Family subscription. Microsoft 365 Family 12-month subscription with AVG Internet Security 2021 is now available for $69.98 (was $134.98). Find the deal here at Newegg. You can also get Microsoft 365 Family 12-month subscription with HR Block 2021 Deluxe is available for $79.98 (was 144.98). Find the deal here at Newegg.

Microsoft 365 subscription highlights:

  • Microsoft 365 can be shared with your family, up to 6 people
  • Microsoft 365 includes premium Office apps, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook
  • Microsoft 365 includes 1 TB OneDrive cloud storage per person to back up files and photos
  • Microsoft 365 can be used on multiple PCs/Macs, tablets, and phones (including Windows, iOS, and Android)
  • Microsoft 365 is an annual, auto-renewing subscription

Find the deal here at Newegg.

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