CYBERSECURITY  NEWS  

          
HACKERS CAUSE WORLD'S FIRST POWER OUTAGE WITH MALWARE 

According to a Ukrainian news service, hackers used highly destructive malware and infected, at least, three regional power authorities in Ukraine, causing blackouts across the Ivano-Frankivsk region on 23rd December. The cyber attack disrupted local energy provider, causing the power outage that left half of the homes without electricity just before Christmas. The outage was the result of nasty malware that disconnected electrical substations. Experts widely describe the incident as the first known power outage caused by a cyber attack! Hackers remotely switched breakers to cut power, after installing malware to prevent technicians from detecting the attack. 
  • What kind of malware was used for this attack? 
  • How did hackers cause Blackouts?
SOCIAL NETWORK USERS PLAY FAST AND LOOSE WITH DATA PRIVACY 

Social network users are playing a dangerous game by not being cyber-savvy and essentially giving strangers easy access to their personal details and private information! With social media profiles containing a raft of insight - from birthdays through to addresses and holiday plans - it wouldn't take much digging for a cybercriminal to find and exploit valuable information, or steal identity for their own gain. This is even easier if you have unwittingly made them your friend. According to a survey, lack of basic awareness among social media users is putting their data at risk. Nearly one-third of respondents shared posts, check-ins and other personal information publicly, and nine per cent did not even realize they were sharing this information widely, believing only their friends could see it. 
  • What are the basic steps that social media users can take to protect themselves? 
  •  How much to share on social media? 
  • Could this be a concern to businesses also?
FIGURING OUT WHAT HAPPENED AFTER A DATA BREACH 

Once a security incident or confirmed breach unfolds, no one really cares about how great your security program is  (or was); they only care about the breach that just occurred. This is why it is very important to focus on fast and effective incident response. You need to treat data breaches as you would any other important business project. It's not going to be resolved immediately. Rather, it will have an ongoing life cycle. You cannot change the breach that occurred, but you can change the factors that led to it and the problems that are currently in the way of you reaching to a successful resolution. Take a look at the bigger picture of what's going
on and what  it's going to take  to resolve the challenge by asking the following questions: 
  • Do you have a plan for when the event occurs? 
  • Is it to figure things out as you go or is it to plan things out in advance? 
  • What are the other unanswered key questions to approach the data breach problem? 

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'DARK DDoS' - A GROWING CYBER SECURITY THREAT FOR 2016 

There is a new frontier for DDoS attacks and a growing threat for any internet-connected business that is housing sensitive data, such as credit card details or other personally identifiable information. Attackers are switching between various DDoS attack methods until successful to confuse IT teams, cause network disturbances and steal sensitive data. These attacks are far more sophisticated, deceptive and frequent. They are no longer designed simply to deny service, but to deny security, by acting as a camouflage to mask more sinister activities - usually data theft and network infiltration. These attacks are almost unrecognizable from the simple volumetric attacks and have the power to wreak 
significant damage. They are called 'Dark DDoS' attacks because it acts as a smokescreen to distract IT teams from the real breach that's taking place. 
  • How are the hackers using Dark DDoS? 
  • How can security practitioners stay one step ahead? 
  • How can organizations protect themselves against these attacks?
 
TELEPHONE PHISHING SCAM IMPACTS 21K BLUE SHIELD OF CALIFORNIA SUBSCRIBERS

The latest healthcare security breach occurred at the call center of a business associate of the Blue Shield of California. An employee of a business associate who fell for a telephone phishing scam was asked for login details and provided these over the telephone. It is unclear how the caller convinced the individual to disclose this information. The incident affected individuals and Blue Shield Family Plan (IFP) members who took out health insurance coverage between October 2013 and December 2015. Almost 21,000 individuals have been affected by the security breach. What are some of the important steps to protect from Phishers? 
  • Do not click on unknown links - Email Phishing 
  • Don't get fooled by telephone version of phishing - "Vishing" 
  • Do not respond to "Smishing" messages - phishing through text messages 
  • Conduct staff training to ensure employees are aware of these techniques
 
24By7Security, Inc.  is a full service Cybersecurity strategy, implementation, operations and training firm .
Our leadership consists of Cybersecurity experts with hands-on experience who have been Chief Information Officer (CIO), Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), active 
duty top secret cleared professionals and are now available to consult with you. We provide Cybersecurity related services in the areas of Strategy, Internal Audit Support, Assessments, Remediation and Training. Our belief is that CyberSecurity needs to be our number ONE priority across all functions (IT, Finance and accounting, operations, HR, sales & marketing) of the enterprise avoiding unnecessary risk to our businesses, and preventing the next generation of threats that could bring serious consequences to our companies.
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