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CyberWire Daily
The CyberWire 1.7.16
you're listening to the cyberwire network powered by N2K this is the energy of electrification available type S high performance variant nearly 500 horsepower and 278 mile EPA range range choose from our complimentary charging packages so you can charge how you want the all-electric Acura ZDX this is the energy of innovation Acura precision crafted performance this your local accurate dealer to lease the all-electric ZDX for three hundred eighty nine dollars a month hey everybody Dave here I want to talk about our sponsor legal zoom you know I started my first business back in the early 90s and oh what I would have done to have been able to have the services of an organization like legal zoom back then just getting all of those business ducks in a row all of that technical stuff the legal stuff the the registrations of the business so the taxes all of those things that you need to go through when you're starting a business the hard stuff the stuff that sucks up your time when you just 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increasing WordPress and silent circle issue patches time Warner cable warns its customers that their accounts may have been compromised a bit more from emphasis off on ransomware as a service tool ransom 32 plus what do you do when your parents get a call from tech support I'm Dave Bittner in Baltimore with your cyberwire summary for Thursday January 7th 2016 the Ukrainian rolling blackout now generally regarded as the work of Russian security organs prompts electrical utilities worldwide to take stock of their cyber defenses this is especially true in the United States where such taking stock results in an evergreen discovery much of the information attackers would need to stage their attacks is freely available in open sources I site partners project grid strike provides an object lesson in the form of proof-of-concept collection showing how attackers could develop such intelligence and while squirrels doubtless have a much larger track record in power disruption as tenable points out in a passcode op-ed observers look for an increase in cyber attacks on infrastructure in 2016 a report surfaces attributed to US Coast Guard sources that a cyber attack on a US port was attempted and thwarted late in 2015 cyber rioting resumes in the subcontinent as indian activist to face Pakistani sites as a memorial tribute to a slain border control officer criminals are using compromise certificates to help spread malware infections trend micro warns that lets encrypt certificates are being used to facilitate distribution of the angler exploit kit zscaler reports some interesting findings on the information stealing trojan spy mail whose dot net executable is quote signed with a legitimate digisert issued certificate and quote if you've wondered about how criminals monetize identity theft here's one trending approach discussed by brian creebs the crooks use stolen identities and warranty fraud they poses you gentle customer tell a vendor that the gizmo you bought isn't working right then receive a replacement they proceed to fence time Warner cable is notifying some three hundred twenty thousand customers that their accounts may have been compromised look to your passwords wordpress issues an update that fixes some security holes silent circle patches an issue in its designed for privacy black phone in industry news speaker manufacturer harman international enters the market as it buys automotive cyber security company tower sec and investors continue to speculate about which companies may prove acquisition targets in two thousand sixteen this episode is brought to you by jc penny holiday season is here in a jc penny everybody gets more like for your loved one designer perfumes from Versace or Carolina Herrera or the exclusive messy fragrance for the foodie in your life a cast iron Dutch oven or cured coffee maker or for the kids all the toys they love from Disney Barbie Lego and more jc penny make it count shopping store or online and now a word from our 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security tips delivered via Microsoft teams slack or email learn more at no before dot com slash security coach that's no before dot com slash security coach and we thank no before for sponsoring our show the Yeti store has so many great gifts we had to hire a catal auctioneer to make the most of these next 30 seconds all right folks let's get started with the Yeti French Press and Joe Calvin this day's hot for hours in French Press 34 hands for you 64 for the cruise the Yeti French Press but mixed waterproof bags bags and waterproofs and merciful waterproof doubles waterproof bag bags for us most of the water sink into waterproof Yeti bag I smell something cooking oh new cast iron skillet's made to be passed down like mama's recipes take a state corn big harvest pot pot potatoes next over with three sizes yeti cast iron skillets gear gifts and product experts visit the Yeti store at cherry creek north today imagine this your primary identity provider goes down whether it's a cloud 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identity continuity can provide seamless enhanced capabilities to your existing identity fabric and receive a free set of AirPods pro john petrick is the editor of the cyberwire and he joins me once again john imagine my elderly folks sitting home in their condo and uh they're watching matlock on the tv and suddenly their landline phone rings and on the other end it's someone claiming to be from tech support and he's there to tell them that there's a serious problem with their computer but he can fix it uh he can fix it online if only he they will give him access to it um chances are that's not actually tech support right yeah it's not tech support at all and let me just say that I really hope you're a more dutiful son with your parents and I suspect you are and then you help them out with things like that I supply endless lifetime unlimited tech support from my parents so thank you very much okay the general phenomenon you're describing is it's that's an instance of what people call social engineering okay so social engineering tell me more what exactly is that yet social engineering needn't be a scam directive at the elderly and in fact usually it's not it's a way that people often gain access to criminals uh opponents the opposition often gains access to a business enterprise or a government agency so social engineering is the art of obtaining information illegitimately by deceiving or manipulating people who who have legitimate access to that information so someone on the other end of the phone someone on the end of the other end of the computer they're convincing you to do something that you shouldn't do and they are quite good at being convincing yes yeah it's a con and social engineers are con artists they are the modern the modern version of the traditional con man and it's worth noting that as from your example this needn't happen in cyberspace you know the social engineer can call you on the phone on the landline the social engineer can show up at your place of business pretending to be a delivery man or someone who would like to use the restroom or something like that but the idea is to establish some sort of relationship of trust he wants to get you to have confidence in him or in her hence the name con you know con artist does that they exploit your confidence and they are convincing you to do something that is really not in your best interest to do so to come back to the case of your poor parents and i am going to talk to them to check that in fact you're helping them out with this kind of thing what this scammer on the other end is going after is some credential that he wants access to their machine he wants their passwords why would he do that he might want to steal their identity he might want to rope their machine into a botnet he might want to do any number of things with them so that's what you say to them that you know i've analyzed your computer it's out of warranty but for the low low price of ninety nine dollars i'll fix it right now yeah any kind of scam you could imagine they could run like that but what they're after in this case in what we're interested in is getting access to a device to assist them to a network and they do that by convincing someone to give up their credentials there's a very familiar family of scams like this it's called the microsoft tech support scam because typically they say we're from microsoft tech support and we have detected a problem with your computer we need access to it please give us your credentials and i will be able to take care of that for you and a jiffy now of course this isn't microsoft microsoft is not going to call you up and do that microsoft knows what it's doing and it knows that that would be a very bad practice if they ran tech support that way so it's not microsoft some guy sitting in a boiler room somewhere calling people up at random hoping to get their stuff uh they'll call people with uh who own max and tell them uh you know you're microsoft computer as well right if you don't own a microsoft machine that's a dead giveaway that there's something wrong here well and i suppose part of what makes it difficult is that you can't just install an antivirus uh bit of software and protect yourself because that's not what they're that's not how they're getting into your system they're they're using you so you know what's the advice to what's the advice to uh to my elderly parents what's the advice to to our listeners to uh to have your guard up against these kinds of attacks it's the same advice you give someone to be wary of anyone who approaches you with any con is don't trust the random voice on the other end of the telephone don't assume that the person calling you is in fact the person that they say they are it's unlikely in the extreme that microsoft tech support is going to call you it's as unlikely that microsoft tech support would call you like that as it is that the widow of a Nigerian prince would have been moved in her heart to ask you for assistance and transferring funds yeah to be fair i mean she was very convincing and and i needed the money i really need to talk to your parents thanks john we'll talk you're welcome we'll talk again soon the it world used to be simpler you only had to secure and manage environments that you controlled then came new technologies and new ways to work now employees apps and networks are everywhere this means poor visibility security gaps and added risk that's why cloud flare created the first ever connectivity cloud visit cloud flare dot com to protect your business everywhere you do business fifteen bucks for you and you and you everybody gets fifteen bucks just out by take five oil change now through the end of February get a mobile one oil change and you'll earn a fifteen dollar prepaid master card and you and you and you see terms and conditions and that's the cyberwire we are proudly produced in maryland by our talented team of editors and producers i'm dave vittner thanks for listening and now a word from our sponsor nord pass nord pass is an advanced password manager from the team behind nord vpn designed to help keep your business safe from data leaks and cyber threats it gives your it professionals control over who has access to your company's data and makes it easy for everyone else on your team to use strong passwords right now you can go to www dot nord pass dot com slash cyberwire for thirty five percent off the nord pass business yearly plan don't miss out on that (gentle music)