With their own dedicated processor and operating system, LTE/3G modems built into new business laptops and tablets could be a valuable target for hackers by providing a stealthy way to maintain persistent access to an infected device.
Travel industry software maker Sabre is the latest company said to have been hit by the same hackers who recently attacked U.S. health insurer Anthem and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), while American Airlines has been investigating its own systems for evidence of a similar breach.
An attack using the SMB file sharing protocol that has been believed to work only within local area networks for over a decade can also be executed over the Internet, two researchers showed at the Black Hat security conference.
The hacking group that targeted unclassified email systems at the U.S. Department of State and the White House is believed to have also compromised a network used by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a body of senior U.S. military leaders.
File synchronization services, used to accommodate roaming employees inside organizations, can also be a weak point that attackers could exploit to remain undetected inside compromised networks.
After the Office of Personnel Management breach, medical data was labeled as the "<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/05/cybersecurity-usa-targets-idUSL3N0YR30R20150605">holy grail</a>" for cybercriminals intent on espionage. "Medical information can be worth 10 times as much as a credit card number," reported Reuters. And now to steal such information, hospital networks are getting pwned by malware-infected medical devices.
Follow me, if you will, on a journey back in time to just one year ago. As 2013 turned into 2014, the information security industry was buzzing about the latest spate of breaches. Target had ushered in a new era of retail security breaches, with 40 million card numbers lost to the hackers. Little did we know at the time that this was just the beginning, and small potatoes in comparison to what was to come. One year ago, Neiman Marcus and Michaels had joined Target, and <a href="http://www.computerworld.com/article/2487265/security0/security-manager-s-journal--cyberattacks-just-got-personal.html">I wrote in response to the growing number of breach disclosures</a> that "in fact, I have to wonder which retailers have <em>not</em> suffered breaches. The word on the street is that at least a half-dozen other retailers were compromised in the past few months, without publicity." Sadly, this turned out to be true. I hate being right all the time.
In today's threatscape, antivirus software provides little piece of mind. In fact, antimalware scanners on the whole are horrifically inaccurate, especially with exploits less than 24 hours old. After all, malicious hackers and malware can change their tactics at will. Swap a few bytes around, and a previously recognized malware program becomes unrecognizable.
Police in Austin, Texas, set up sting operations with cars they have under surveillance, watching for thieves to break into them. Marcus J. Carey's Web service, HoneyDocs -- born in the same city -- uses the same concept, only with computer files.
It's a common belief in the information security world that the Chinese government is behind many of the advanced persistent threats that target companies around the world in an effort to steal their IP and trade secrets. Now one security firm has come forward with years of evidence to link a prolific APT group to a unit inside the Chinese government.