Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning , Encryption & Key Management , Governance

Make Technology Your Last Line of Defense, Says Tony Pepper of Egress(euroinfosec) • June 12, 2019     Tony Pepper, CEO, Egress

Carelessness and a lack of awareness are root causes of insider breaches. So says Tony Pepper, CEO of Egress, based on the findings of a study his company conducted of CISOs and employees to trace the cause of insider breaches resulting from both intentional and unintentional loss.

See Also: 10 Incredible Ways You Can Be Hacked Through Email & How To Stop The Bad Guys

"Quite frankly, the market has never really deeply understood what's causing these breaches of data security, and, more importantly, why are they actually going in the wrong direction - why are data security breaches going up, when it seems like investment in IT and IT security is going up as well?"

Other contributing factors to data breaches that arise via insiders, he says, include insufficient toolsets and a lack of awareness of security policies, occasionally compounded by employees - and not infrequently "the younger generation" - handling data as if they owned it.

In a video interview at the recent Infosecurity Europe conference, Pepper discusses:

Key findings from the Egress research, including a significant CISO/employee disconnect; The mandate for a more people-centric approach to security - and what it looks like; Targeting the insider threat by using machine-learning capabilities to better spot anomalies; Right-sizing encryption and ensuring technology provides a last line of defense.

Pepper co-founded Egress Software Technologies in 2007 and currently serves as CEO. Previously, he held executive management and integration roles at Reflex Magnetics, Pointsec Mobile Technologies and Check Point Software Technologies.

Cybercrime , Endpoint Security , Fraud Management & Cybercrime

Tech and Government Leaders Also Will Tackle Hot Security Topics(HealthInfoSec) • June 12, 2019    

Mitigating risks posed by hackers as well as insiders. Safeguarding medical devices and electronic health records. Securing cloud or on-premises data. Preventing, detecting and responding effectively to breaches. The list of data security challenges facing healthcare organizations continues to grow.

See Also: Webinar | The Future of Adaptive Authentication in Financial Services

More than 20 data security experts will offer insights on how to tackle those challenges at Information Security Media Group's Healthcare Security Summit in New York on June 25.

Our roster of speakers and panelists include CISOs and technology experts, as well as top officials from the FBI, the Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights, and the Food and Drug Administration.

They'll discuss the latest regulatory, breach, cyberthreat, technology and other trends as well as provide insights on potential strategies and best practices to help conquer some of the toughest security challenges.

Setting the Stage

To kick off the summit, keynoter Prashanth Mekala, supervisory special agent at the FBI, will spotlight emerging cybercrime trends hitting the healthcare sector, including ransomware attacks, business email compromises, nation-state attacks and intellectual property thefts.

Suzanne Schwartz, who heads the FDA's medical device cybersecurity efforts, and Nicholas Heesters, a health information privacy and security specialist at the Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights, will provide updates on the latest regulatory, compliance and enforcement efforts. They'll share their observations and ideas with panels of high-profile CISOs.

Top CISOs

Among the many CISOs who will participate in an array of sessions and panel discussions are Jennings Aske of New York-Presbyterian, Cris Ewell of UW Medicine, Chris Frenz of Interfaith Medical Center, Jigar Kadakia of Partners HealthCare, Thien La of Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, Michael McNeil of Philips and Mitch Parker of Indiana University Health System.

Our event will also feature experts from more than a dozen leading security technology firms and consultancies who will share practical strategies and solutions for dealing with ransomware, email compromises and other attacks; addressing vendor risk management issues, including those involving cloud services providers; safeguarding patient data and medical devices; improving ID and access management; and protecting privileged accounts.

The summit will also provide many opportunities for attendees to network with each other and with our expert presenters and technology sponsors.

So, please join me and my ISMG colleagues at our event in New York. We look forward to hearing about your important security lessons learned and latest dilemmas, as well. Also, watch for coverage of our event, including video interviews, that we'll be posting.

For more information, visit the Healthcare Security Summit site.

Anti-Phishing, DMARC , Business Continuity Management / Disaster Recovery , Business Email Compromise (BEC)

Presented by Lastline     60 minutes    

One of the most-heard complaints from security experts is that often they find their work repetitive ("The CFO's laptop has been compromised... again!"), which results in the desire of trying something "new", meaning "leave for another company." Another common complaint is that the work is very compartmentalized, and there are few occasions in which the various security specialists can enjoy working as a team.

One activity that can help build a team while improving the security skills of the people involved is participating in Capture the Flag (CTF) hacking competitions. In 2003 at the University of California at Santa Barbara, one of the world's largest attack-defense CTF competitions began and has grown year-after-year, pushing the limits of the players and providing opportunities for better learning. In addition, hacking competitions are a great opportunity for recruiting new talent: CTF participants are highly skilled, well-motivated, and hard-working, which are great traits for a future employee.

Attend this webinar to learn:

What hacking competitions are and how they can be used as a recruitment tool Their usefulness in training and retaining employees How to create or participate in hacking competition easily and gradually

Cybercrime , Fraud Management & Cybercrime , Incident & Breach Response

The Story of the Stolen Minidiscs Is Nuanced(jeremy_kirk) • June 12, 2019    Thom Yorke of Radiohead performing in Villa Manin, Italy, on Sept. 26, 2012. (Photo: Daniele Dalledonne via Flickr/CC)

Hacking and extortion attempts against organizations have unfortunately become all too commonplace. On Tuesday, an unlikely victim went public: the British band Radiohead. But was the band really a hacking and extortion victim?

See Also: 10 Incredible Ways You Can Be Hacked Through Email & How To Stop The Bad Guys

Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood announced on Twitter on Tuesday the theft of 18 minidiscs worth of material from his bandmate, Thom Yorke. On the discs is 18 hours of Radiohead demos made in the late 1990s as the group was working on the album "OK Computer."

Greenwood writes that the band "got hacked last week," with the perpetrator reportedly demanding $150,000 in exchange for the material. Unfortunately, Greenwood doesn't provide details about the hack or more information about the alleged ransom attempt.

In response, Radiohead decided to release the material, called MINIDISCS [HACKED], with a humorous undersell. "It's not v [very] interesting," deadpanned Yorke on the Bandcamp release page. "There's a lot of it."

The trove, which Greenwood describes as never intended for public consumption, is for sale for 18 days for £18 (US$29). During that period, fans can also stream the material for free. The proceeds will go to Extinction Rebellion, a British group that raises awareness about environmental damage.

But was Radiohead really hacked and extorted? As a Radiohead fan, this story was too good not to dig further. I'm not confident that I'm that much closer to the truth. That said, there does appear to be a more plausible scenario for how the files leaked, and the band may not have actually been ransomed.

The Leaker: 'Zimbra'

First stop: Twitter. I reached out to John in New Jersey, who tweets under the handle @goodbyetheband. He tweeted this directly to the band:

John, who didn't want his last name used, is part of WASTE, which is a Discord chat group for Radiohead fans. John shared with me the inside story of how he believes the files appeared. It started with someone going by the nickname "Zimbra."

Zimbra is a known bootlegger who shares mostly hip-hop, John says. Zimbra began reaching out to Radiohead fans on a website called leakth.is, John told me.

Zimbra posted around June 3 that he'd come across 18 hours of unreleased Radiohead music. He offered to sell the live tracks for $50 each and other track between $500 and $800 each, John says.

Zimbra's now deleted post on leakth.is around June 3 offering unheard Radiohead material

Zimbra's post attracted a lot of attention, and the situation eventually migrated to Reddit. Radiohead fans were excited, but wary, John says. On one hand, the allure of so much unheard material was strong. But at the same time, fans were concerned about trading in pirated material and wanted to alert the band.

The Reddit post is where the $150,000 figure surfaced. As opposed to what Greenwood tweeted, it doesn't appear to be the price of the ransom but rather an imprecise calculation of what Zimbra wanted for the files from Radiohead fans.

John says Zimbra subsequently seemed spooked by all of the attention and was "very agitated that info about the potential sale had come out."

Zimbra "seemed very concerned about having too much pressure on him from the band's management team, and simply gave the files away - which of course just increased the amount of attention in the end," John says.

The files were posted on leakth.is, John says, which were then downloaded and traded by fans. The files, John says, were "badly transcoded MP3s."

Zimbra has since disappeared and deleted his or her posts, John says.

An Inside Job?

So how did Zimbra get the files? It's unknown, but John has a theory.

"We're pretty sure Zimbra is not that actual thief based on his reputation in the hip-hop community, and that he actually did get the files through a trade," John says.

A photo of the front of minidisc #3. (Source: Radiohead)

There's an idea of how the files may have originally been leaked. Two years ago this month, Radiohead released an anniversary box set of OK Computer-era songs called OKNOTOK. The original "OK Computer" tracks were remastered, and it included b-sides and a bevy of other unreleased material.

Leading up to that release, Thom York's cache of minidiscs may have been pulled out of the archives and copied, John says.

"So it's unlikely the band got 'hacked' either - it just seems like the files got out years ago, and didn't make it out until this very unprofessional leaker named Zimbra let the cat out of the bag," John says.

I flicked Greenwood a question on Twitter asking if perhaps a studio insider pinched the files leading up to the OKNOTOK release. I'll admit I found it fun to tweet one of my guitar heroes and call it work.

Sadly, there's been no response from Greenwood yet, but I'll update this story if he does reply. In the meantime, I'm going to dig into the 11-minute version of "Paranoid Android" on mindisc #5.