Phishing for flight MH370, XP end of life renews opportunities for attackers, massively infected LINUX servers, limits on phone records access, and better best practices for Internet firewalls are among this week's top #infosec reads.
APT Attacks use 'news of doomed flight MH370'
The saying goes, "No honor among thieves," and it rings equally true of cybercriminals as well. FireEye researchers have tracked at least six spear phishing attacks deployed via email promising news about the missing plane between March 9-18. If you're just trying to keep up with the news, don't feel too bad, because an "Asia-Pacific government" and a "prominent US-based think tank" fell for it, too.
Hackers preparing zero-day assault on Windows XP
As the 13-year old operating system prepares to go end-of-life next week, Microsoft and security experts urge businesses and consumers alike to update to a operating system. Some enterprises have taken the initiative and upgraded to Windows 7 or Windows 8, but those others who don't leave themselves open to phishing attacks, ransomware, and computer worms that XP will be particularly vulnerable to once Microsoft ends its support of the OS.
Linux Security Spell is Broken
As anyone worth their salt in network security will tell you, and just has likely been telling you, no operating system is 100% immune to threats in cyberspace. News has broken of massively infected Linux servers as hackers check, "successfully compromise Linux," off their bucket list. ESET identified Operation Windigo, a Trojan that has breached 25,000 unix servers worldwide.
President Obama proposes limiting NSA access to phone calls
The new proposal dictates that US government agencies will require permission from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in order to review phone records that it believes may have connections to terrorism. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has likewise urged Obama and the US Congress to escalate the judicial review to limit surveillance worldwide, but the current iteration of the bill only regulates surveillance done on US citizens.
Firewall Best Practices - Egress Traffic Filtering
A slight amount of bias, true, but as the most visited post at The Security Skeptic since it was published in 2003, I can’t not recommend the revised version. Dave looks at today’s threat landscape and explains how you should adjust your Internet firewall filters accordingly.
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