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NewsVac: News from around the Web

• SSH Key-based Attacks 1 day, 4 hours ago
  
  US-CERT is aware of active attacks against linux-based computing infrastructures using compromised SSH keys. The attack appears to initially use stolen SSH keys to gain access to a system, and then uses local kernel exploits to gain root access. Once root access has been obtained, a rootkit known as "phalanx2" is installed.
• Deploying Enterprise Software Securely 1 day, 6 hours ago
  
  This laundry list of security requirements is a lot to think about for every application deployment, but vigilance in this area can drastically improve an organization’s security posture. The requirements can be put into a standardized template, and at the end of the process each requirement should have a mark for pass, fail, or perhaps not applicable. Anything marked as a failure should be noted and can be escalated or accepted as a risk.
• Internet Terrorist: Does Such A Thing Really Exist? 1 week, 1 day ago
  
  In this article, a former CISO discusses the notion of worrying about the potential risk of terrorism against his organization and how it seems to be the lowest priority given the choices at hand. Ironically, terrorism today seems to be an emerging concern in the commercial world and many are actively pursuing methods and technology to help combat the problem. As a result, he began to research this trend to determine its drivers and potential implications to information security as we know it today.
• Reputation Attacks: A Little Known Internet Threat 1 week, 2 days ago
  
  Reputation attacks target both individuals and companies, and their goal is to ruin the victim’s reputation. While attack techniques are varied, the consequences are often the same: a damaged reputation resulting in many cases in financial loss. Attackers can use several methods to ruin a company’s reputation. Until now, most common attacks have been based on distributed denial of service (DDoS). The objective of these attack is to flood corporate online services by means of millions of non legitimate requests from botnets.
• The DNS Bug: Why You Should Care 1 week, 2 days ago
  
  It's not every day that the New York Times writes articles about the Domain Name System, but then again this DNS bug is anything but normal.
• DefCon 16: Hackers and a Gag Order in Sin City 1 week, 3 days ago
  
  In many ways the virtues that have brought Linux from a Unix look alike pet project to a competitive operating system are the same as the ideals behind DefCon. The community stood on each other's shoulders and developed piece after piece of software to fill in the gaps that were found through use. Programmer's built on the ideas of others creating tighter and tighter code to support an increasingly complex framework. Originally that was the theme of this article when I had begun thinking about writing it. The things that I saw at DefCon were every bit of the ideals I went up there to find and more...
• LinuxCertified Announces its next Linux Device Driver Development Course 1 week, 5 days ago
  
  LinuxCertified Inc, a leading provider of Linux training and services, today announced its next Linux Device Driver Development Course class to be held in South Bay, CA from August 25th to August 27th.
• 10 Million Zombies Distribute Spam & Malware Daily 2 weeks ago
  
  According to a Panda Security and CommTouch report on the current state of spam, on average during the second quarter of this year, more than 10 million zombie computers were sending spam and emails with malware every day. Google Adwords has been at the center of one of the most notable attacks. In the second quarter of 2008, Turkey became the country with most zombie computers (11 percent of the global total), followed by Brazil (8.4 percent) and Russia (7.4 percent). The USA, which in the first quarter accounted for 5 percent of all zombies, is now in ninth place with just 4.3 percent of the total.
• Report Reveals Most Threatening Piracy Groups 2 weeks ago
  
  V.i. Labs issued a report revealing that piracy groups are fully exploiting security gaps in the common licensing mechanisms used in electronic design automation (EDA), computer-aided design (CAD), and product lifecycle management (PLM) software to produce counterfeit versions of these high-priced applications. In particular, the piracy groups TBE (the Bitter End), LZ0 (LineZero0), oDDity, and Zero Waiting Time (ZWT) pose significant threats. Because of the well-organized nature of these groups and their relationships with suppliers embedded in the software vendor operations, some of these piracy organizations are able to issue an average of 500 crack releases per year.
• Boston Subway Hackers Banned from Presenting Hack at DEFCON 2 weeks, 2 days ago
  
  Three American students were restricted by a court of law from presenting the results of a study made on the possibilities to perform some easy hacks on the fare payment system of the Boston subway. The three students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) wanted to prove, at this year's DEFCON hacker conference, that the security system of the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority could be easily broken into. Their study was first used for a school project that earned them all an...
• Hackers: Uncle Sam Wants You 2 weeks, 5 days ago
  
  UPDATED: At Black Hat, agencies including the FBI, US-CERT, and the military make the pitch for assisting in the U.S.'s fight against cybercrime and cyberwar.
• How to Prevent a Coffee Shop Wi-Fi Attack 2 weeks, 5 days ago
  
  Logging on using your mobile device allows hackers to steal your password unless you take basic precautions.
• Microsoft to seek credit for finding vulnerabilities 2 weeks, 6 days ago
  
  Microsoft is jumping into the responsible disclosure game. The company announced at the Black Hat security conference on Thursday that it is formalizing its program of informing third-party software vendors of security problems with products that run on top of Windows.
• How to squash seven lesser-known system attacks 3 weeks ago
  
  Too often, businesses and enterprises focus on the dangers that get the most press and forget that there are plenty of other ways they can be hurt. This article outlines some of the lesser-known attacks that a business can face and points out ways to defend against them.
• Black Hat says 'canceled' Apple talk never existed 3 weeks, 1 day ago
  
  On the eve of this year's Black Hat Briefings, officials disputed a researcher's claim that his talk had to be canceled. They say the talk never even existed.
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