Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Tim Woods
Feedback on the PANELFIT factsheets for citizens
As part of the PANELFIT project, ECSA is working on a series of factsheets to inform the public about the ethical and legal issues around ICTs. We are also creating a citizens’ guide to ICTs, data and vulnerable people Before finalising these outputs, we would like to ask people to share their thoughts on the draft versions. Please complete this survey to give us your thoughts and feedback on these documents.
Security Boulevard
Without question, public cloud providers have made the deployment of applications and services simpler than ever. But while complexity has never been easier, security has never been more difficult. FireMon’s 2020 State of Hybrid Cloud Security Report found respondents aren’t making much headway against the rapid rise of public cloud adoption. Visibility remains a challenge and organizations still struggle for clarity around shared responsibility for public cloud security.
Security Boulevard
Keeping pace with the rapid growth of the hybrid cloud growth is difficult for security professionals when everything’s done manually. FireMon’sState ofHybrid Cloud SecuritySurvey found most respondentsstill don’t have the benefits of automation that can help security policy keep up with cloud-first strategies. Nearly two-thirds (65.4 percent) said they use manual processes in their hybrid environment. Of those, 35.4 percentdon’t have any automation.
Security Boulevard
Without question, public cloud providers have made the deployment of applications and services simpler than ever.To wit,I like to say; “Complexity has never been easier, which makes security increasingly difficult.” FireMon’s2020 State of Hybrid Cloud SecurityReportfound respondents aren’t making much headway against the rapid rise of public cloud adoption. Visibility remains a challengeand organizations still struggle for clarity aroundshared responsibility for public cloud security.
Security Boulevard
The increase in hybrid and multi-cloud environments has increased complexity for cloud security Technology has advanced at a rapid pace over the past 20 years, and companies have had to digitally innovate to keep up with competitors. As organizations increase their digital assets, they are also increasingly moving to public and hybrid cloud environments for storage and infrastructure needs.
Security Boulevard
As your business grows, so does the pressure on your security team to do more. Automation is essential, but it’s not a panacea for the breadth and scope of today’s threats. Feedback from FireMon customers shows they know automation can help them. They believe, and so do we, that anywhere from 50 to 60 percent of recurring, cyclic tasks could be automated. That’s where automation really pays dividends. But automation is only as reliable with robust security policy as a foundation.
Security Boulevard
It’s that time of year again. Enjoy this fun and informative list of tips to help you become more cyber-aware. DAY 1. When is a USB not a USB? A USB is not a USB when it has been weaponized and staged to deploy some type of malicious code. Did you know that the worst cyberattack in the U.S. Department of Defense’s history was launched when someone plugged in a USB stick found lying in a parking lot? It’s true.
Security Boulevard
Analytics & Intelligence Cybersecurity Industry Spotlight Security Boulevard (Original) As we look toward 2020 and plan for the ongoing IT security skills shortage, we continue to rationalize the use of automation. Will it help reduce complexities and improve compliance? Are there more risks than rewards? With Gartner predicting that 99% of all firewall breaches will be caused by misconfigurations not flaws throughout 2023, it can’t hurt to try?
Security Boulevard
Cybersecurity trends—a result of technological developments, cultural shifts and attackers’ innovations—build upon the past. Without the Internet of Things, we wouldn’t have edge computing; without privacy concerns, we wouldn’t have such strong legislation growth. We’ve identified five emerging trends in cybersecurity, where automation is an underlying theme, that will shape the lives of security professionals in 2020 and beyond.
No One is Pulling the Plug on Firewalls Anytime Soon
No One is Pulling the Plug on Firewalls Anytime Soon The firewall is dead. Long live the firewall! Research firms and tech pundits have predicted the demise of the firewall for years now, chiefly because it doesn't protect against modern day threats and is often so mismanaged it causes more problems than it solves. However, FireMon's 2019 State of the Firewall report shows most organizations see the firewall as being just as critical as ever or even more so.
Security Boulevard
You can’t manage what you can’t see, and when it comes to security controls, complexity is the enemy of visibility. FireMon’s 2019 State of the Firewall report uncovered a great deal of complexity related to firewall deployments at organizations of various sizes. Almost 33 percent of survey respondents reported they have between 10 and 99 firewalls, while 30.4 percent of them reporting they had a hundred or more firewalls on their network.
Security Boulevard
If you’ve ever attended a regatta, it’s impossible not to notice how synchronized the boat crew is — everyone knows their exact responsibilities that will produce the greatest strengths in the total racing effort. But when it comes to security in many organizations, there’s much less unity and little automation of security controls. FireMon’s 2019 State of the Firewall report shows there’s much fragmentation when it comes to managing security.
“Misconfiguration” – New Code Word for Human Error, Sets Stage for Increased Automation - Security Boulevard
Digging into the results of our sixth annual 2019 State of the Firewall Report, it came as no surprise that a lack of automation remains a key challenge for security teams. But more significantly, it’s leading to firewall misconfigurations due to human error—the kind that raise the risk of a data breach. It’s a widespread problem too.
Security Boulevard
With data breaches on the rise and affecting every corner of every industry, from credit cards to medical testing companies, it poses the question about why these breaches keep occurring and what enterprises can do to prevent their most frequent causes – firewall misconfigurations. Did you know that misconfigurations are also code for human errors? Virtually all data breaches have been caused by human errors introduced during manual network change processes.
Australia’s Declining Softwood Chip Exports: A ‘Canary in the Mine’ Moment
The latest softwood chip export data from Australia demonstrates that the resource is under significant pressure, and there are some other takeaways from the sector as well. If there is a grade of paper or paperboard in which Australia has real global muscle, it is virgin Kraftliner, manufactured from the residues derived from the individual forests that comprise Australia’s softwood plantation estate.
8 Principles of The Innovator’s Solution
The Innovator’s Dilemma gets more of the headlines, but the follow-up book by Clayton Christensen, The Innovator’s Solution, is a far more useful piece of work. The Innovator’s Solution starts out by describing the ‘dilemma’, and in one chapter removes the need to even read the original work. It then proceeds to offer an array of approaches to handling disruptive innovation in large organizations. In the following post, we’ll look at eight of the valuable principles Christensen highlights.
Intent-Based Security: The Next Step for DevOps
A new model is emerging that will give developers the power to implement security themselves based on intent For decades, application development organizations have cared about two things: speed and quality. These goals have led to new development processes, with DevOps being today’s state-of-the-art methodology for rapid, high-quality development. In recent times, though, an interloper has crashed that party: security.
Fairgrounds responds to reader’s complaint
Dear Editor, I would like to respond to Mrs. Robertsen’s letter to the editor posted today on The Standard Newspaper’s Facebook page. I am sorry, Mrs. Robertsen, you were misinformed. The Winter Wonderland ball was not moved from your Fairgrounds because of double booking. The south hall of the expo center was completely empty along with the kitchen that they needed for the event. It is true that there was a auction in the center hall, but it was over long before the Winter Wonderland was to start.
Security Boulevard
It is a common trend now to see most of the organizations opting for the cloud. Growing business demands, competition and the growth of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) have helped propel this trend. While everything looks smart in the cloud, what about security? Does that look smart, too? Now that organizations use different kinds of cloud environments, […]… Read More The post Cloud Security: A Cloud Provider-User Partnership appeared first on The State of Security.
Security Boulevard
Just as you wouldn’t give your house keys to someone you just met, organizations don’t want to do business with those they don’t trust. As digital transformation becomes the norm, it provides opportunities for growth and exposes vulnerabilities with the potential to breach the trust that businesses work so hard to build with their customers.
Security Boulevard
Michael Roling’s last day in Missouri Government will be September 28, 2018. He is leaving for another private sector position as the “lead technical project manager at a company that has several SaaS offerings.” Coverage of his announcement has been widespread with related articles in Government Technology Magazine and StateScoop and other publications.
Security Boulevard
It is now free in every U.S. state to freeze and unfreeze your credit file and that of your dependents, a process that blocks identity thieves and others from looking at private details in your consumer credit history.
Security Boulevard
Almost every week for over a decade, I’d tap some words out on a keyboard and push the story out for folks to read. And much to my glee, you did engage, share, comment and seemed to genuinely enjoy what I had to say. I wrote about technology topics like information security, IoT, mobile, access, high availability, application delivery and many others tied to my job at F5.
Security Boulevard
For many start-ups, DevOps has proven to be a magical formula for increasing business velocity. Speed and agility is the name of the game — especially for Software as a Service (SaaS) companies. Related: How DevOps enabled the hacking of Uber DevOps is a process designed to foster intensive collaboration between software developers and the IT operations team, two disciplines that traditionally have functioned as isolated silos with the technology department.
Security Boulevard
A self-propagating malware mashup has been found lurking online. Called Xbash, the all-in-one malware is thought to be made by crime syndicate Iron Group and boasts of botnet, ransomware, diskwiper, cryptojacker, and worm features.
Security Boulevard
Anyone out there dealing with the DoD implementation of the NIST 800-37 RMF? Just in case, it’s the “Guide for Applying the Risk Management Framework to Federal Information Systems” developed by the Joint Task Force Transformation Initiative Working Group. I have been knee deep in it now since it got rolled out and wanted to share some of the insights I have had as I worked with systems to get them authorized under the RMF. No matter what, don’t stress the RMF.
Security Boulevard
Located between Cleveland and Akron, Richfield-based DIS Computers has been providing IT and security services for small businesses and enterprises in northeast Ohio for more than 27 years. With 90% of its business dedicated to managed services, Founder and President Robert Najjar says the company’s success is largely due to the team’s passion for customer service. “Our customer retention rate is 99.9%,” says Robert.
Security Boulevard
If you’re in your 40s or 50s, you probably remember a TV series called The Twilight Zone. (Millennials, think Netflix’s Black Mirror.) Every show was its own stand-alone story that took viewers into an alternate reality where things got weird in a hurry followed by twists and turns culminating in a surprise ending. These types of winding plots aren’t unheard of in the real world. I headhunt in executive-level security positions.
Security Boulevard
The concept of "packing" or "crypting" a malicious program is widely popular among threat actors looking to bypass or defeat analysis by static and dynamic analysis tools. Evasion of classification and detection is an arms race in which new techniques are traded and used in the wild.
Security Boulevard
In the bustling industry of cybercrime, ransomware has always been a popular weapon of choice…until this year. In 2018, illicit cryptomining (AKA cryptojacking) took the title, surging 459%. Cryptojacking is the crime of using somebody else’s computer processing power to mine cryptocurrency. Victims may not even notice, as there are no outward signs that the mining is occurring, save possible slowing down or overheating of the system.
Security Boulevard
This year at Microsoft Ignite, we will be making some exciting announcementsfrom new capabilities for identity management and information protection to powerful artificial intelligence (AI) innovations that can help you stay ahead of an often overwhelming surge in threats and security alerts. Join us as we share best practices for current products, reveal highlights of our new offerings, and give you a glimpse of our future product vision. Start by attending Satya Nadellas keynote.
Security Boulevard
“Malware Data Science: Attack Detection and Attribution” (MDS) is a book every information security professional should consider reading due to the rapid growth and variation of malware and the increasing reliance upon data science to defend information systems. Known malware executables have expanded from 1 million in 2008 to more than 700 million in 2018.
Security Boulevard
Trojan installers delivering adware and unwanted applications (PUPs) have been the most prevalent security nuisance on the macOS platform in recent years. To date, these have engaged in little more than low-level scraping of user data and browsing habits, but their potential to be far more threatening is only awaiting the right monetary incentive.
Security Boulevard
As netizens [citizens of the web – ], you probably know about computer viruses and hacking incidents. The new technology and market development have contributed to new forms of cyber-attacks and cryptojacking is one of them. These are often more difficult to detect and handle. Cryptojacking may occur when a website is infected with a JavaScript code that automatically uploads in the browser, or a malicious link is sent via e-mail.
SSD Advisory – ASUSTOR NAS Devices Authentication Bypass - Security Boulevard
Vulnerabilities Summary An ASUSTOR NAS or network attached storage is “a computer appliance built from the ground up for storing and serving files. It attaches directly to a network, allowing those on the network to access and share files from a central location”. In the following advisory we will discuss a vulnerability found inside ASUSTOR NAS which lets anonymous attackers bypass authentication requirement of the product.
Security Boulevard
Previously in Part 1 of The Avast Guide to Android Apps, we covered all the common malware and how to deal with it. In part 2 of our ongoing series, we take a closer look at the murky world of Android viruses, how they can infect your smartphone, and what you can do to amp up its immunity against them. Let’s dive in. For the longest time, the mobile virus was considered somewhat of a myth.
Security Boulevard
In recent years, there have been many studies related to compromised cloud hosting services. It has been reported that these services are increasingly being abused by hackers and malware authors for their malicious online activities. The services enable bad actors to open an inexpensive hosting account, allowing them to hide malicious content in the cloud-based domains of well-known brands, mixing the bad content among the good to prevent the malware from being blacklisted.
Security Boulevard
Citing “extraordinary cooperation” with the government, a court in Alaska on Tuesday sentenced three men to probation, community service and fines for their admitted roles in authoring and using “Mirai,” a potent malware strain used in countless attacks designed to knock Web sites offline — including an enormously powerful attack in 2016 that sidelined this Web site for nearly four days.
Security Boulevard
POS compromise remains alarmingly prevalent among hotel businesses, restaurants and retailers today. Although security breaches involving point-of-sale terminals received a great deal of mainstream media attention back in 2013 and 2014, attackers continue to target hotels and restaurants with malware-based attacks on POS systems in 2018, still seeking to extract valuable credit card data. Recent industry reports show that these attacks are successful far too often.
The Internet of Things (IoT) and Digitally Stored PII: Avoidable or Inevitable? - Security Boulevard
The Internet of Things (IoT) is rapidly showing up in all facets of daily life and collecting personally identifiable information (PII) in massive quantities. From smart home thermostats to one-click purchasing, IoT devices collect PII to personalize experiences for consumers. In an increasingly digital and connected world, unprecedented immersion into environments of convenience, knowledge, and accessibility has become the norm.
Security Boulevard
The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) (http://ATIS.org) and TCG (https://trustedcomputinggroup.org) have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to advance information and communications technology (ICT) cybersecurity. Under the new agreement, the two organizations will work together to create new cybersecurity specifications, guidance and best practices, with initial collaboration around network equipment security, mobile device security and related applications.
Security Boulevard
Despite having sailed through the core components of this year’s Talk Like A Pirate Day R post time has been an enemy of late so this will be a short post that others can build off of, especially since there’s lots more ground to cover from the data. Since this is TLAPD, I’ll pilfer some of the explanation from GitHub itself: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) “provides a safe harbor for service providers that host user-generated content.
Security Boulevard
FireEye has been tracking a campaign this year targeting web payment portals that involves on-premise installations of Click2Gov. Click2Gov is a web-based, interactive self-service bill-pay software solution developed by Superion. It includes various modules that allow users to pay bills associated with various local government services such as utilities, building permits, and business licenses.
Week 37 Cyberattack Digest 2018 – Fetal Diagnostic Institute of the Pacific, kayo.moe, University of Edinburgh and others - Security Boulevard
We hope you like our tradition to post our weekly cyber attack digest and today, we have something new for you. An enormous database containing email addresses, passwords in clear text, and financial data has been found on the anonymous file hosting service kayo.moe. The total number of exposed records amounted to 41,826,763. A representative of the service directed the set to Troy Hunt, Australian security researcher and creator of the Have I Been Pwned data breach index site.
Security Boulevard
With individuals, businesses and critical infrastructure increasingly becoming the target of cyber-attacks, cybersecurity today is a multifaceted challenge.
Security Boulevard
New vulnerabilities found in NUUO surveillance software can put cybercriminals in the director’s chair. When exploited through a stack buffer overflow, the Peekaboo vulnerability grants hackers full control over the surveillance video. Assuming control remotely, a hacker can tamper with the recording, tamper with the feed itself, and generally execute any code he or she wants in the software.
Security Boulevard
We are surrounded by technology. Our devices are always on and always connected, and therefore, so are we. We scroll through our smartphone notifications in the morning, listen to podcasts on our commute, spend an entire workday in front a computer screen, ending, finally, with the end-of-day ritual of watching the latest offering from our favorite streaming services. This may sound like an ancient ritual, which highlights how rapidly we get used to new technology and take it for granted.
Security Boulevard
As a small enterprise owner, it’s easy to fall into the trap of assuming that cybercriminals won’t target you. After all, why would anyone waste their time going after your business when there are much juicier fish in the sea? Well, the truth is that criminals love to prey on small and medium-sized enterprises.
Security Boulevard
With all the advertisements, flashing lights and screens grabbing at us, attention spans are shorter than ever. This is just one of the reasons that everyone is shying away from phone calls, and that messaging has blossomed. When a phone call is made from one party to the next, the receiving party has to make a commitment to answer that call, and focus on that one call until it’s over. Ugh. But – if you miss the call, you also miss the information and an opportunity to ask questions.
Security Boulevard
Ten second security tech go. Question base assumptions. Data is everywhere and devices are everywhere. Most security models that we know or have in place are just not really adequate anymore. We sometimes insist on doing something just because it was done in the past and it seems like the norm but the norm is changing and infrastructure is evolving in record speeds. Imagine or reimagine what your network would look like if there were no boundaries. Don’t separate between and on tram.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Tim
Contact Tim, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack