Malware and Virus Protection

USB Drives Could Be Huge Factor In Data Loss, Theft

December 30, 2017 by Joseph Martin

Most people agree that the use of USB drives increases efficiency and boosts productivity, which goes a long way toward explaining their popularity, but these handy little drives can also be problematic.

According to a recently published survey by Apricorn, 87 percent of employees surveyed report that they have lost or had a USB drive stolen and failed to notify their employer. Worse, 80 percent of employees surveyed reported using non-encrypted USB drives that they’ve often acquired for free at trade shows or conferences.

The fact that these drives are unencrypted is bad enough, but there’s another, even more, frightening dimension to the problem. Such drives could be pre-loaded with malware, which could easily make it onto your company’s network the moment they’re connected to any office machine.

Apricorn had this to say about the results of the survey:

“With the ever-increasing amount of data breaches and compromises, companies need to carefully monitor what data is being created in their organizations, and what is leaving.

A government, healthcare, finance, and education industries have access to copious amounts of sensitive information and most of these industries are using USBs without advanced permission. Not only are these companies leaving themselves vulnerable, they are placing their customers’ and employees’ data at risk.”

Although the company notes that there is an awareness of the damage that lost or compromised data can cause, not much is being done about preventing that loss, at least where the use of USB drives is concerned. According to the survey, fully half of the respondents indicated that they didn’t need to seek permission to use a USB drive to copy or transport potentially sensitive information.

Does your company have a robust set of policies in place to control the use of USB drives? Are all the USBs used by your employees encrypted and secure? Do you have a policy in place regarding proper reporting procedures should a USB drive go missing? Important questions, all.

Joseph Martin

President & CEO
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Popular Android Keyboard App Collected Private Information, Has Been Breached

December 29, 2017 by Joseph Martin

How many apps do you have on your smartphone? Do you know how much data they’re collecting about you?

Most people have scores of apps installed (and often hundreds), even if they only use a few on a regular basis, and shockingly, most users have no idea just how much information those apps are collecting about them.

However much you imagine, the answer is probably “more.”

This point was driven home painfully, courtesy of a recent discovery by a team of researchers at the Kromtech Security Center. They found a completely insecure database online, a staggering 577GB in size, owned by an Israeli-based startup called AI.type, makers of a virtual keyboard app bearing the same name.

The information it contained is simply mind-boggling.

Not only does it contain personal information on 31 million of the app’s 40 million users, but the database contents reveal just how intrusive AI.type actually is. The data includes:

Each user’s full name, email address and phone number

What OS version the user is using (AI.type is only available to Android users)

Each user’s nation of residence, mobile network name and what languages each user has enabled

IP and GPS location data

All information included with each user’s social media profiles, including birthdays, photos, posts, etc.

Each user’s device name, the make, and model of their smartphone and screen resolution

As If that wasn’t enough, the research team also discovered that each user’s contact list had been scraped (including names, email addresses, and phone numbers), and that the company was tracking a whole range of internet behaviors, including Google search queries, number of messages sent per day, the average length of those messages and more.

Obviously, there’s no reason that a simple keyboard app needs this level of information on its users. The only possible explanation is that it’s being collected for resale. If you use the app, be aware that the company knows almost everything about you and everyone you’ve been in contact with on your phone, and now, so do a lot of other people who don’t have your best interests at heart.

Joseph Martin

Large Number Of HP Models May Have Keyloggers

December 28, 2017 by Joseph Martin

HP is in the news again. If you missed the initial story, earlier in the year, it was reported that an audio driver that came pre-installed on a number of HP laptops contained keylogging code that stored every keystroke made by the person using the machine to a human-readable file. Once discovered, HP issued a patch that removed the keylogging function and deleted the data file.

Now, an independent security researcher going by the name “ZwClose” has discovered more built-in keyloggers in 460 HP Notebook models and counting.

At issue is the SynTP.sys file, which is an integral part of the Synaptics Touchpad driver that ships with a great many HP Notebooks. Although the keylogger is disabled by default, a hacker could enable it using open source tools, simply by changing a registry value.

After HP was notified, the company released a security advisory, which included the following:

“A potential security vulnerability has been identified with certain versions of Synaptics touchpad drivers that impact all Synaptics OEM partners. A party would need administrative privileges in order to take advantage of the vulnerability. Neither Synaptics nor HP has access to customer data as a result of this issue.”

Since the release of the security advisory, HP has issued a driver update that removes the code for all affected models, so from a business and security standpoint, there’s nothing to be done here.

In an era where privacy on the internet is under increasingly intense assault, however, it’s worth noting that this is the second time an issue like this has been tied to HP equipment, and that’s concerning. Privacy matters, and if you’re concerned about it, then two such issues might be enough to make you start looking at some other vendor when it comes time to start replacing or upgrading your equipment.

Joseph Martin

Files Containing Nearly 1.5 Billion Passwords Leaked On The Internet

December 26, 2017 by Joseph Martin

Researchers from the security firm 4iQ have made a disturbing discovery on the dark web. A massive repository has been discovered that contains a staggering 1.4 billion usernames and passwords in plain text.

The repository is well organized, with each letter of the alphabet having its own directory to facilitate rapid search, and 4iQ has tested a subset of the data it contains and found an alarming percentage of the usernames and passwords to be viable.

It should be noted that this data isn’t from a new, previously unknown breach, but rather, an aggregation of data stolen from 252 previous breaches. The CTO of 4iQ, Julio Casal, had this to say about the discovery:

“None of the passwords are encrypted, and what’s scary is that we’ve tested a subset of these passwords and most of them have been verified to be true. The breach is almost two times larger than the previous largest credential exposure, the Exploit.in combo lists that exposed 797 million records. This new breach adds 385 million new credential pairs, 318 million unique users, and 147 million passwords pertaining to those previous dumps.”

The usernames and passwords come from a wide range of sources including Runescape, Minecraft, RedBox, Badoo, Zoosh, Last.FM, YouPorn, Netflix, MySpace, LinkedIn, Pastebin, Bitcoin and many others.

What’s even worse is that as large as this collection is, it’s really just the tip of the spear. A shocking percentage of users have the bad habit of using the same credentials across multiple web properties, so it’s a statistical certainty that many of the passwords contained in this file will allow hackers access to much more than just the web properties the passwords were stolen from.

If you’re not yet in the habit of changing your passwords on a regular basis, you should begin doing so immediately, and if you’re one of the hundreds of millions of people who use the same password on multiple sites, it’s well past time to break that habit.

Joseph Martin

New “MailSploit” Allows Email Spoofing

December 24, 2017 by Joseph Martin

Phishing attacks just got a whole lot easier.

A German security researcher named Sabri Haddouche has recently discovered a set of email vulnerabilities that have been collectively dubbed “Mailsploit.” At the root, these vulnerabilities stem from the way most email systems interpret addresses encoded with a 1992 standard called RFC-1342.

The standard is that all information in an email header must be an ASCII character. If a non-ASCII character is encountered, it gets converted. Unfortunately, a shockingly large number of email clients (33 and counting) make no effort to check the header afterward for malicious code.

Also, if the RFC-1342 decoded header encountered a null-byte, or two or more email addresses, the only address that would be read would be the one that preceded the null-byte, or the first valid email address encountered.

The email clients vulnerable to this type of attack include:

Apple Mail

Mail for Windows 10

Microsoft Outlook 2016

Mozilla Thunderbird

Yahoo! Mail

AOL Mail

And many others, but Haddouche notes that Gmail is unaffected by the exploit.

There are two ways a hacker can use Mailsploit. First and most obvious to the eye is the fact that it can be used to spoof an email address, making it appear to be from someone you know, which, of course, has the impact of making it much more likely that you’ll click on any links embedded in the body of the message.

Secondly, and potentially even more troubling, is the fact that the exploit can be used to inject malicious code directly onto the recipient’s machine, which can easily give the hacker sending the email full control of the target’s system.

Worst of all, though, is the fact that while Haddouche contacted all of the companies found to offer vulnerable email clients, only eight of them have released a patch to correct the issue. Twelve vendors opted to triage the bug, but gave no information on if or when the issue might be patched, and twelve others made no reply at all.

Mozilla and Opera (both vulnerable) flatly refused to address the problem, which they see as a server-side issue.

Your IT staff’s job just got a whole lot harder.

Joseph Martin

Some Websites Can Force Your Computer To Mine Cryptocurrency

December 23, 2017 by Joseph Martin

Researchers at Malwarebytes have discovered a new exploit that allows malicious website owners to use your PC to mine various forms of cryptocurrency, even if you exit the browser window the malicious site was displayed on.

The exploit relies on a smart pop-under trick. A code on the website determines your monitor’s resolution and places a ghost browser session sitting behind the clock on the MS Windows task bar, where it continues to mine cryptocurrency, utilizing a portion of your CPU’s power and resources.

The impact on your system’s performance is nominal, so only the most observant users will notice anything amiss.

According to Malwarebytes researcher Jerome Segura, “This type of pop-under is designed to bypass adblockers and is a lot harder to identify because of how cleverly it hides itself. Closing the browser using the “X” is no longer sufficient. The more technical users will want to run Task Manager to ensure there is no remnant running browser processes and terminate them. Alternatively, the taskbar will show the browser’s icon with slight highlighting, indicating that it is still running.”

It’s worth noting that there are a couple of other ways you can determine whether some portion of your system’s resources are being coopted in this manner. Restarting your system will certainly do the trick, and if you have your taskbar set to transparent, you’ll be able to see the pop-under quite clearly. Also, resizing or relocating the task bar will reveal the hidden browser window.

This is but the latest chapter in the ongoing battle between hackers and unscrupulous website owners and the makers of adblocking and other types of security software. In time, ad blocking software will be modified to catch this type of exploit, and in response, the owners of malicious websites will change their approach and find a new way to get around various detection schemes. As ever, while software can certainly help, vigilance remains the best defense.

Joseph Martin

Some Computer Manufacturers Are Disabling Intel Chip Firmware

December 22, 2017 by Joseph Martin

Intel is catching some flak for releasing CPU technology that’s filled with security flaws. At issue is Intel’s Management Engine (ME), which is designed for Enterprise use and is of no real value on equipment designed for personal or home use.

Although many popular PC and laptop manufacturers, including Acer, Panasonic, Lenovo, Fujitsu, HP, and others are selling equipment with Intel ME enabled, so far, three hardware vendors have opted to disable the firmware.

These three vendors are Dell, System76 and a company called Purism. Of particular interest is the fact that Purism opted to disable the Management Engine almost a full month before Intel released any information about the security flaws in their technology. Apparently, someone else found a way to disable Intel ME, and the company decided to use it as a means of improving the privacy protections of its customers.

According to a recent blog post published by Purism:

“Disabling the Management Engine is no easy task, and it has taken security researchers years to find a way to properly and verifiably disable it. The Librem 13 and Librem 15 products can be purchased today and will arrive with the Management Engine disabled by default.”

The equipment manufacturers who are selling their wares with the Intel Management Engine enabled have all promised to patch the security flaws in a future update, but as of right now, none of those manufacturers have provided an ETA for when that might be.

In the meantime, if you’re looking to upgrade your equipment and you don’t want to expose yourself or your organization to unnecessary risk, buying from any of the three vendors mentioned above, Dell, System76 or Purism, is a smart choice. It gives your network security team one less thing to worry about, and that’s always a good thing.

Joseph Martin

Ransomware Attackers Are Increasing Their Attacks On Businesses

December 21, 2017 by Joseph Martin

The ransomware ecosystem is maturing. Strains are divided into “families” and the number of new families that have been discovered in 2017 is half what it was in 2016. Even so, the total number of attacks targeting businesses have risen by 26 percent over last year’s totals, according to the latest statistics released by Kaspersky Lab.

Rather than inventing wholly new software strains, hackers around the world seem content to modify existing strains, with the number of modifications growing from 54,000 to an astonishing 96,000 this year.

The modifications are having impacts that extend far beyond simply allowing them to slip past a company’s defenses. Last year, 29 percent of companies impacted by a ransomware attack claimed that the incident took a week or longer to recover from. This year, that percentage rose to 34 percent.

According to one of Kaspersky’s senior malware analysts, Fedor Sinitsyn, “The headline attacks of 2017 are an extreme example of growing criminal interest in a corporate target. We spotted this trend in 2016, it has accelerated throughout 2017 and shows no signs of slowing down.

Business victims are remarkably vulnerable, can be charged a higher ransom than individuals and are often willing to pay up in order to keep the business operational. New business-focused infection vectors, such as through remote desktop systems, are not surprisingly on the rise.”

In addition to the total number of such attacks increasing, we’ve seen several large-scale attacks this year, and there’s no reason to believe that we won’t see more of that in the months and years ahead.

This represents a fundamental shift in strategy as compared to years past and is a clear indication that hacking groups around the world are increasingly coordinating their efforts and learning from one another. That’s bad news for IT security professionals everywhere.

Joseph Martin

Bug in macOS Could Allow Hackers Root Access

December 13, 2017 by Joseph Martin

Do you own a Mac? Is it running Apple’s latest macOS, the “High Sierra?” If so, be extra careful with who you allow access to your machine.

A security flaw recently discovered by a developer named Lemi Orhan Ergin can easily allow anyone unfettered access to everything on your machine, and by extension, give them an easy “in” to whatever network it’s connected to. All they need is physical access.

Exploiting this vulnerability is a lesson in simplicity. All a hacker has to do is enter “root” in the username field, leave the password field blank, and press Enter.

Done.

They now have total access.

Needless to say, this is a large and rather glaring security issue and one which Apple will be remedying in the near future via a patch. Until they do, however, be aware that the physical security of your Mac is of paramount importance. Leaving your workstation unsecured and unattended, even for a few minutes, is all it would take to lose control over all the files on your machine and give a hacker access to the even more sensitive data lurking elsewhere on your company’s network.

Unfortunately, as bad as this security flaw is, it’s not the only recent stumble by Apple. Just last month, the company had to issue an emergency patch to fix a flaw that affected encrypted volumes, where the password hint section was displaying the actual password in plain text.

To try this exploit out for yourself to verify how easy it is to use, simply do the following:

Open your machine’s System Preferences and select “Users and Groups”

Click on the lock icon, which will allow you to make changes. You’ll get a username and password box at this point

Type in “root” in the username field

Move the cursor into the password field and hit enter

That’s all there is to it.

Until Apple issues their patch, the best thing you can do is leave your machine on and lock your workstation when you step away. At least that way, the hacker would have to know your current password in order to gain access.

Of course, they could simply power the machine off and reboot, but that would take a bit more time, during which they could be discovered.

It’s far from perfect, but for the time being, it’s the best protection you have.

Joseph Martin

A Million Imgur Users Affected By Breach

December 12, 2017 by Joseph Martin

Do you use the image hosting service, Imgur? If you do, there’s a slight chance that you’ll be prompted to change your password the next time you log on. That’s because the company’s servers were breached in 2014, and the hackers made off with 1.7 million usernames and passwords, which represents just a tiny fraction of the company’s 150 million users.

Although the breach happened a few years ago, the company only found out about it on Thanksgiving Day of this year. Their response was immediate and decisive. The company called people in over the holiday and notified their impacted users just 25 hours and 10 minutes after discovering the details of the incident.

Contrast that to Uber’s handling of their most recent hack. They kept their impacted users in the dark for more than a year, and worse, paid the hackers $100,000 to keep the incident quiet. It’s easy to see why security professionals around the world have lauded Imgur for their handling of the hack.

Three key things to note in relation to the breach:

Not much information was stolen during the hack because Imgur doesn’t ask its users for much in the way of personal information in the first place. However, if you use your Imgur password on other systems, you could be at additional risk.

At the time of the breach, Imgur was using SHA-256 encryption, which is fairly robust and impractical for most hackers to crack due to the amount of computational power required.

In 2015, the company switched to an even more secure algorithm, Bcrypt, so if the company is breached again in the future, it’ll be even harder for the hackers to glean anything useful from any data stolen.

All that to say, if you’re looking for a benchmark to compare yourself to if you’re ever hacked, Imgur’s example would be an excellent one to follow.

Joseph Martin

USB Drives Could Be Huge Factor In Data Loss, Theft

Popular Android Keyboard App Collected Private Information, Has Been Breached

Large Number Of HP Models May Have Keyloggers

Files Containing Nearly 1.5 Billion Passwords Leaked On The Internet

New “MailSploit” Allows Email Spoofing

Some Websites Can Force Your Computer To Mine Cryptocurrency

Some Computer Manufacturers Are Disabling Intel Chip Firmware

Ransomware Attackers Are Increasing Their Attacks On Businesses

Bug in macOS Could Allow Hackers Root Access

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