Sorin Mustaca's personal Blog

About IT Security, Product Management, Security Software, Raspberry Pi

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The mysterious OpenSSL vulnerability has been patched

The mysterious OpenSSL vulnerability has been patched

No, it doesn’t have a name like Heartbleed or POODLE, it was “just” a denial-of-service. “Just” is by no means something to be ignored, but it is less dangerous with the previous vulnerabilities.

All users of OpenSSL 1.0.2 should upgrade immediately to version 1.0.2a. In the advisory published on their website the OpenSSL vulnerability is called “ClientHello sigalgs DoS (CVE-2015-0291)”. If a…

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OpenSSL: Patch for secret “high severity” vulnerability

OpenSSL: Patch for secret “high severity” vulnerability

After Heartbleed, Poodle and FREAK which turned the IT world upside down, numerous companies have asked to have a though review of the most used SSL implementation in the world: OpenSSL.

And indeed, in order to avoid being again in the news, the OpenSSL Foundation is set to release later this week several patches for OpenSSL, fixing undisclosed security vulnerabilities, including one that…

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“Ze Foreign Accent” spam is back

“Ze Foreign Accent” spam is back

Twelve years ago the IT security world was fighting against an unprecedented amount of spam emails. Spam is not and never was just a nuisance; it is a big problem because it slows down the good emails and takes up resources. Together with Virus Bulletin and some antispam researchers from various companies, a list called “The Spammer Compendium” was created.  This list contains methods used by…

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Cybercriminals go where the money is – SMEs

Cybercriminals go where the money is – SMEs

I wrote some time ago an article called “IT Security essentials for companies and small businesses”. I tried to pitch it to some companies that have to do with security and… nobody wanted it. Good for me. My good friends…

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The post Cybercriminals go where the money is – SMEs appeared first on Improve Your Security.

Want to get the book ?

Get it from here: Improv…

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FREAK: All Windows versions are affected too

FREAK: All Windows versions are affected too

UPDATE on the FREAK vulnerability in SSL: it affects not only Android and iOS but all Windows versions too.

  I wrote about the new SSL vulnerability called FREAK – Factoring RSA Export Keys – affects around 36% of all sites trusted by browsers and around 10% of the Alexa top one million domains, according to computer scientists at the University of Michigan.

Android, iOS and a lot of embedded…

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Security experts are FREAKing out again because of a new OpenSSL vulnerability

Security experts are FREAKing out again because of a new OpenSSL vulnerability

After Heartbleed, a new security vulnerability in SSL is making headlines and producing again headaches for security experts. As any good and mind blowing (for most people) vulnerability, it has a nice name – FREAK, a CVE number – CVE-2015-0204 and a dedicated website https://freakattack.com/ .

FREAK – Factoring RSA Export Keys – affects around 36% of all sites trusted by browsers and around 10%…

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Spam with a malicious taste

Spam with a malicious taste

This post appeared originally in: IT Security blog: http://itsecurity.co.uk/2015/03/spam-malicious-taste/

  I haven’t seen in a while a well done complex spam with malicious payload.

This one appears to be addressed to first name of the email recipient. As you can see in the subject, it is addressed to “SORIN” since my email address is sorin.mustaca@…

The spam contains a nice piece of social…

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Security Insider newsletter promotes “Improve your security” as headline

Security Insider newsletter promotes “Improve your security” as headline

  Kostenloses eBook „Improve your Security“ nimmt Internet-Nutzer an die Hand Wer sich im Internet bewegt, sollte sich mit IT-Sicherheit auseinandersetzen. Dies gilt umso mehr, als dass soziale Netzwerke und mobile Geräte aus dem Alltag nicht mehr wegzudenken sind. Mit…

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The post Security Insider newsletter promotes “Improve your security” as headlineappeared…

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Mentioned in (ISC)2 EMEA Newsletter My blog post "What is a security expert?" which I published in the (ISC)2 Blog was mentioned in the (ISC)2 

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Review of “Improve your Security” in Security Insider

Review of “Improve your Security” in Security Insider

„Improve your Security“ nimmt Internet-Nutzer an die Hand 26.02.15 | Autor / Redakteur: Ferdinand Kunz / Stephan Augsten Mit kleinen Schritten von vielen Anwendern soll das Internet als Ganzes sicherer werden, so der Wunsch von Sorin Mustaca.   Wer sich…

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The post Review of “Improve your Security” in Security Insider appeared first on Improve Your Security.

from…

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What is a security expert?

What is a security expert?

I've been called a "security expert" many times and I've heard many times other people around me called the same.

The reason I am writing this article is that I am frustrated by how some security experts are seing and implementing security in their every day jobs.

But, let's start with the beginning:

What does actually make someone a security expert? Or, when does someone become a security expert?

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Comments on Privacy for "Data Privacy Day 2015"

Comments on Privacy for “Data Privacy Day 2015″

My comments on Data Privacy Day 2015: Top Experts Comment on Privacy Issues (+Infographic) from http://www.cloudwards.net.

  Our society has become in a very short time digitally connected and the consumers didn’t have the time to understand the implications of data privacy on their lives. We can be sure that every provider of an online service is doing everything legally possible to obtain…

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Every minute invested in planning, saves you 10 in implementation

Every minute invested in planning, saves you 10 in implementation

I have no idea who came with this statistic, but I can confirm that it is true !

  The example below doesn’t want to explain how to search for strings nor how to use TDD, but to demonstrate that a bit of planning in advance can really speed things up!

  I was in need of a way to search in a pretty complex data structure for a complicated string (letters, numbers, symbols), but not by doing an…

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Blog comment spam. Is it worth the effort?

Blog comment spam. Is it worth the effort?

My first article published on Kevin Townsend‘s ITSecurity.co.uk blog: Blog comment spam. Is it worth the effort?

or go to this link: http://itsecurity.co.uk/2015/01/blog-comment-spam-worth-effort/

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Spam impersonating PayPal using attached form

Spam impersonating PayPal using attached form

        A classical phishing email… Nothing special (same bad English, as always).

Dear Valued Customer,

Unauthorized access has been detected in your account.

Unfortunately, due to this event, our security system has limited the access to your account. Account Limitations prevent you from completing certain actions with your account, such as withdrawing, sending, or receiving money. These…

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When security software gets bundled in the wrong way

When security software gets bundled in the wrong way

  After installing Adobe Shockwave Player from here I am presented with this offer.

I don’t want to use Norton, so I unselect the checkbox.

I actually read the text, well, most of it – the part which is visible, as you can see below.

By clicking on the only button visible, I agree with the Norton License and I receive the software from Symantec.

So, where the hack is the Cancel button?

I…

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BSI IT Security Report 2014 - attacks on industrial objectives

BSI IT Security Report 2014 – attacks on industrial objectives

BSI (Federal Office for Information Security) published “IT Security Report 2014” (in German), a document with 40 pages of information and reports on cyber security.

Probably the most interesting parts of the reports are those in Chapter 3.3 – Security Incidents in the industry.

3.3.1 reports about an APT (Advanced Persistent Threat) attack on a steel factory in Germany. The attack was, as usual,…

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