If your Point Of Sale Uses Oracle, Update Now

February 13, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Oracle is currently the third-largest provider of POS (Point of Sale) software on the market today, which means that there’s a fairly good chance you’re using an Oracle POS system. If you are, there’s trouble ahead. A recently discovered security flaw could put your system at risk.

Oracle has already identified and patched the security flaw, but there’s a problem. Since POS systems are deemed “mission critical” by most businesses, System Administrators rarely schedule maintenance for them on fears that an unstable patch or update could cause undue downtime for the company. Because of that, it will likely be a month or more before the new update finds its way to all 300,000 of the at-risk systems.

As security flaws go, this one is fairly nasty, too, as it allows a hacker to collect configuration files from any vulnerable Micros POS system. This data can then be used to grant the hacker full, unrestricted access to the POS system, as well as the database and server it feeds information to.

Most hackers attacking a POS would be content with simply collecting credit card details for resale on the Dark Web However, with this exploit, any sort of malware could be installed to use against the company later.

Even worse, a hacker need not be in close proximity to the device in question. A carefully crafted HTTP request could trigger the security flaw and open the door. Of course, if a hacker is in close proximity to the system, then there are many easier ways to infect it. One only needs to distract the sales clerk long enough to attach a simple Raspberry Pi board equipped to run the exploit code and the damage is done.

The bottom line is, if you use an Oracle POS, make installing the latest security patch a priority. You’ll be vulnerable until you do.

Joseph Martin

President & CEO
I hope you enjoyed this article. My mission is to take your stress away from dealing with IT problems. Call (252) 565-1235 or send me a message at our contact us page if you have a question, comment or want help.

700,000 Potentially Malicious Apps Removed From Google Last Year

February 9, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Google recently released their Play Store stats for 2017. The results are both encouraging and disheartening. Overall, Google caught and removed more than 700,000 malicious apps from the Play Store, minimizing their impact on the company’s massive Android user base.

That’s unquestionably good news, but it comes with a bit of a dark side. That figure represents a staggering 70 percent increase in the number of apps removed compared with 2016 figures. The hackers are not only relentless in their efforts, but they’re picking up the pace dramatically.

Last year, Google made a significant change, putting Play Store security under the umbrella of the Google Play Project. This system is driven by “smart” detection software that automatically scans and provides alerts for any software that exhibits questionable behavior and gets better on its own thanks to Machine Learning protocols.

So far, that approach seems to be working pretty well. It’s not without its flaws, of course. Google found itself in the news a few times last year when some malicious apps managed to slip through their impressive detection mechanisms, and got downloaded by several thousand users. Even so, it’s clear that the company is committed to the process and takes the security of its users very seriously. Given today’s digital landscape, that’s important. That means something.

As for Google’s plans for 2018:

More of the same. Continued, incremental improvements in the Google Play Project, continued support for the Zero-Day initiative, and keeping a watchful eye on all things security-related. The company is by no means perfect, but it’s nice to know that we’ve got such a large company out there, fighting back.

Of course, it still falls to each individual user to be careful what apps you install on your various devices. No matter what Google does in the coming year, due diligence is still your last, best defense.

Joseph Martin

Performance Issues Plague PC’s Updated With Spectre Patch

February 6, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Recently a critical flaw was found inside every Intel chip made during the last decade. The flaw makes two different exploits possible. These exploits have been dubbed “Meltdown” and “Spectre.”

The flaws are incredibly severe, and make it possible for a hacker to gain complete, unfettered access to the targeted PC or laptop. Although no instances of the exploit have yet been found in the wild, now that both are commonly known, it’s only a matter of time before that happens.

Based on that, and given the severity of the flaw, Intel scrambled to release an update, but here’s the catch: The update would hurt system performance, lowering it by as much as 23%.

In the end, it didn’t matter. To ignore the problem was simply not an option, so the company scrambled to get a fix ready and has since released it. Unfortunately, the fix has proved to be even more problematic than was originally estimated. In addition to degrading machine performance, it also interferes with a variety of maintenance activities and leads to an inordinate number of system reboots.

Initially, Intel advised its customers to proceed with the download in order to protect their systems, even in light of the performance degradation. However, as the number of complaints have grown, the company reversed course and has now advised against downloading its latest update, asking users to wait for a revision to be published.

At this point, the company has not given an ETA on when the revised firmware update will be ready, but until it is, you’re placed in an awkward position. Waiting for the update means exposing your company to risk, should a hacker target one of the machines on your network with the exploit. Proceeding with the current firmware update means you’ll suffer performance issues, leaving you stuck between a rock and a hard place, at least for the short term.

Joseph Martin

Blizzard Games Vulnerability Could Leave Gamers Open To Hacking

February 4, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Do you play Blizzard online computer games such as World of Warcraft, Diablo III, Hearthstone, Starcraft II, or Overwatch? If so, there’s a potential problem you need to be aware of.

Tavis Ormandy, a researcher on Google’s Project Zero team, recently discovered that the Blizzard Update Agent is vulnerable to hacking, via a technique known as “DNS Rebinding.”

The update agent is designed to accept commands to install, uninstall, change settings, update and perform other maintenance related options. This means it has a lot of power and access to the system you’re playing the game on.

Unfortunately, because the update agent in use (JSON-RPC, port 1120) doesn’t include a validation step to check the identity of the server issuing commands, it’s possible for a hacker to insert himself into the middle of the process. This includes possibly injecting malicious commands and using the updater to hijack your machine.

Ormandy developed a proof of concept of the attack, and contacted Blizzard when he made the discovery. The company was receptive for a time, but then suddenly and inexplicably ceased all communication. Ormandy had this to say regarding the matter:

“Blizzard was replying to emails but stopped communicating on December 22nd . Blizzard is no longer replying to any enquiries, and it looks like in version 5996, the Agent now has been silently patched with a bizarre solution. Their solution appears to be to query the client command line, get the 32-bit FNV-1a string hash of the exename and then check if it’s in a blacklist. I proposed they whitelist Hostnames, but apparently that solution was too elegant and simple. I’m not pleased that Blizzard pushed this patch without notifying me or consulting me on this.”

Since Ormandy went public with his findings, Blizzard has been in contact again, stating that a more robust fix is in the works, one that will adopt the strategy of whitelisting hostnames. Meanwhile, Ormandy is continuing to test the exploit on other online games with a user base of over 100 million to see if others are also vulnerable. If you’re an online gamer, be aware that you could be leaving the door unlocked for hackers.

Joseph Martin

2 Million Credit Cards Stolen From Popular Sandwich Shop

February 3, 2018 by Joseph Martin

By now, we’ve seen enough large-scale Point of Sale (POS) credit card thefts that patterns are beginning to emerge. Some companies follow the general arc of the narrative better than others and deserve credit for doing so, but in the end, the story is about the same.

That’s certainly the case with Jason’s Deli. Recently, they discovered RAM-scraping malware on a number of their POS terminals. This has happened at a total of 164 of their locations, scattered across 14 states.

During the seven-month period before the malware was discovered, the company estimates that the credit card payment information of some two million customers was stolen. The data included credit and debit card numbers, expiration dates, the cardholder’s service and verification codes, and the cardholder’s name.

As is the case with most of these incidents, the company immediately contacted law enforcement and hired a third-party firm to assist with the forensic investigation, which is still ongoing.

Jason’s Deli’s handling of the aftermath of the incident has been well above average. However, the bottom line is that unless companies start paying increasing attention to data security, issues like these are going to continue to occur.

As a general rule, hackers prefer to go after the low-hanging fruit. There’s simply more money in attacking soft targets than hard ones. Your company doesn’t need bullet proof security in order to be safe from most hackers, it’s just got to be better than average. Although obviously, the better and more robust your digital security is, the safer you will be.

Unfortunately, this painfully obvious lesson seems to be falling on too many deaf ears. Until and unless that changes, we’ll continue reading about incidents like these. It’s costing business billions every year. Make sure your company isn’t next on the hackers’ hit list.

Joseph Martin

Mac Computers Battling New Malware For Hijacking DNS

February 2, 2018 by Joseph Martin

It’s official, the first macOS malware of 2018 is here. Discovered by an independent security researcher and dubbed “OSX/MaMi,” the code is functionally similar to DNSChanger malware.

The researcher posted his findings on the Malwarebytes forum and none other than Patrick Wardle (an ex-NSA hacker) analyzed it, having this to say:

“OSX/MaMi isn’t particularly advanced – but does alter infected systems in rather nasty and persistent ways. By installing a new root certificate and hijacking the DNS servers, the attackers can perform a variety of nefarious actions such as man-in-the-middle’ing traffic (perhaps to steal credentials, or inject ads) or to insert cryptocurrency mining scripts into web pages.”

In addition to that, hooks were found in the software that would eventually allow it to:

Upload and download files

Execute commands

Generate simulated mouse events

Take screenshots

And more, although at present, these features are not yet active, which points to the malware as being a piece of code still very much in development.

At present, there are no anti-malware or antivirus programs capable of detecting this new strain. That, of course, will change in short order. However, for the time being, the best way to verify whether or not your machine is infected is to go through “System Preferences” and into the terminal app to check your DNS settings.

Two values you don’t want to see there are: 82.163.143.135 or 82.163.142.137.

If you’d rather not check manually, Patrick Wardle has created a free, open-source firewall for macOS called “Lulu,” which you can download from GitHub. This program was designed to block suspicious traffic and will prevent OSX/MaMi from stealing anything from your system.

As threats go, this one is relatively minor, but it’s still early in the year, and whomever is behind this piece of code will no doubt be making improvements on it. Stay tuned.

Used with permission from Article Aggregator

Joseph Martin

Use Of Bots Has Increased Fake Account Creations

February 1, 2018 by Joseph Martin

The ThreatMetrix Cybercrime Report 2017 is out, and is a troubling read for anyone who has anything to do with data security. As a fraud prevention company protecting nearly a billion and a half users around the world, they’re uniquely positioned to know, and their insights on the threat landscape is invaluable.

Their main finding is that hackers, scammers and fraudsters are moving away from using stolen debit and credit cards, given that these things have such a short shelf life. On the face of it, that sounds like it might be a good thing, until you understand what they’re doing instead.

They’re making use of stolen identity data to create bogus accounts, then applying for lines of credit on their own. Even worse, they’re taking full advantage of automation to speed the process along. According to the report, the volume of global fraud attacks is up a mind blowing 100 percent in just two years, with 700 million incidents reported in 2017 alone.

Bots are coming to play an increasingly important role in the activity of the fraudsters, too. Once a new, fraudulent account has been created, it’s handed off to a bot to test it and make sure it’s valid, which increases its value on the Dark Web.

How big of a problem are bots on the web these days?

According to the report, ThreatMetrix blocked 1.5 billion bot attacks last year, with some retailers reporting that more than 90% of their daily traffic is comprised of bots.

At the root, what’s driving this behavior are the increasingly common, large-scale data breaches that put up to hundreds of millions of data records into the hands of fraudsters. Until and unless the flow of data can be stopped, we can expect this type of activity to continue to increase.

No matter how you slice it, 2018 is going to be a very interesting and very busy year.

Joseph Martin

Intel Chips Face Another Possible Vulnerability

January 31, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Intel’s year isn’t getting off to a very good start. Just after the discovery of a pair of critical vulnerabilities that have been in their chipsets for more than a decade comes the discovery of yet another serious flaw that could impact millions of laptops around the world.

A Finnish data security firm called “F-Secure” just reported an issue with Intel’s Active Management Technology (AMT) that could allow a hacker to completely bypass the machine’s normal login procedure and take control of the target device in under a minute.

AMT is an admin-level feature that allows organizations to control and manage large numbers of PCs and workstations quickly and efficiently via remote. To take advantage of the flaw, a hacker would need physical access to the machine, which is its one saving grace. However, if they have that, they can take complete control even if a BIOS password has been set.

While other research teams have discovered AMT vulnerabilities in the past, this one deserves special attention for three reasons:

Once in control, the hacker could gain remote access to whatever network the machine is attached to at some later point.

It affects almost all intel laptops, and odds are that if you’re a business owner, there are a number of laptops with Intel chipsets connected to your network

It’s an incredibly easy flaw to exploit, requiring no code whatsoever.

F-Security Research Harry Sintonen had this to say about it:

“The attack is almost deceptively simple to enact, but it has incredible destructive potential. In practice, it can give a local attacker complete control over an individual’s work laptop, despite even the most extensive security measures.”

It should be noted that this flaw is in no way related to the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities that have been reported on earlier, giving Intel a trio of nasty problems to deal with right at the start of the new year.

Joseph Martin

Inappropriate Ads Found In Some Game Apps for Kids

January 30, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Normally, Google’s robust series of checks and audits are pretty good at catching malicious code and preventing it from making its way to the Play Store. Sometimes, however, something slips through anyway despite the company’s best efforts. This latest one is particularly bad.

Researchers from Check Point have identified a new strain of malware called “AdultSwine” lurking in more than sixty gaming apps on the Play Store. Each of these apps has been downloaded between 3 million and 7 million times, which gives us approximately 150 million infected devices.

As the name suggests, the malware primarily displays ads from the web that are of an adult nature, and often overtly pornographic. It also attempts to trick unsuspecting users into installing additional malware that masquerades as “security apps.”

An analysis of the code reveals it to be highly flexible, allowing the authors to easily begin collecting all kinds of information about the owner of any infected device. This makes identity theft a real possibility if the hackers were inclined to do so.

The most disturbing element of all this is that the malware seems heavily focused on apps and games designed for children. So if you’re a parent, it pays to check the apps that are installed on your child’s phone. What seems at first glance to be a harmless game could actually be displaying pornographic advertising while they’re playing.

The Check Point researchers had this to say about the discovery:

“Although for now this malicious app seems to be a nasty nuisance, and most certainly damaging on both an emotional and financial level, it nevertheless also has a potentially much wider range of malicious activities that it can pursue, all relying on the same common concept. Indeed, these plots continue to be effective even today, especially when they originate in apps downloaded from trusted sources such as Google Play.”

Just to be safe, double check the apps on your child’s phone!

Joseph Martin

Must Know Info For Backup, Security and Disaster Recovery

January 29, 2018 by Joseph Martin

The Importance of a Proactive, NOT Reactive Approach

With the major role information technology plays in the way business is conducted in today’s world, it’s crucial that every business owner, both large and small, be able to see the big picture of protecting client and company data from disaster. Data backup disaster comes in many forms, from hackers to employee sabotage, to viruses and natural disaster, it’s critical to your business operation that you understand the scenarios and solutions to protect your business and keep things running smoothly.

Susceptible to Sabotage

Data backup is crucial when it comes to the human impact of business security. A smart and informed business owner knows the importance of protecting your company and your clients from being hindered by hackers, viruses and even employee sabotage. This comes in the form of physical backup drives, such as personal computers, USB drives and in house servers as your primary backup solutions. While these are an acceptable “extra” backup, they should never be considered as your primary backup solution. Hackers and viruses can corrupt and compromise in-house servers, personal computers and hard drives, leaving you completely helpless to not only protect your data, but also quickly recover form a loss to ensure business continues as usual. There is also the threat of a disgruntled or disorganized employee stealing, losing or sabotaging these physical storage devices. The answer to this threat is an offsite data storage device, such as high security IT servers and cloud solutions. These off-site storage options not only provide superior security and protection, but they also allow for quick access to your data, documents, programs, software and applications to allow you to continue to operate in the event of a data attack.

Fires, Storms and Burglary..Oh My…

The other threat to your in-house data backup solutions is the threat of natural disasters and burglary. While your USB drives, office computers and portable hard drives can be stole or destroyed in the event of burglary, fire or severe storms, off-site servers and cloud solutions allow you to continue work from home computers and other temporary locations while your home office recovers. These threats are often overlooked by business owners as the common mistake of, “this won’t happen to us” thought process leaves them in a reactive state, when a proactive approach could have avoided the entire disaster. Off-site servers and cloud solutions are the security blanket every smart business owner keeps in hand so that when disaster strikes, they won’t be left devastated.

Who Holds the Keys to the Castle

Designate specific roles in the company for individuals to monitor your data, documents, applications and software to ensure that all critical materials are continually backed up and saved for the event of a recovery. These specific roles also limit the number of individuals with access to the data to allow for you to control the threat of data tampering and sabotage. These individuals will also have a clear outline of where the data is stored and be able to organize a speedy recovery for all your employees to allow them to recover their necessary materials to ensure business is up and running as quickly as possible.

Joseph Martin

If your Point Of Sale Uses Oracle, Update Now

700,000 Potentially Malicious Apps Removed From Google Last Year

Performance Issues Plague PC’s Updated With Spectre Patch

Blizzard Games Vulnerability Could Leave Gamers Open To Hacking

2 Million Credit Cards Stolen From Popular Sandwich Shop

Mac Computers Battling New Malware For Hijacking DNS

Use Of Bots Has Increased Fake Account Creations

Intel Chips Face Another Possible Vulnerability

Inappropriate Ads Found In Some Game Apps for Kids

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