Random Spaf Items

About this Blog Things that Spaf thinks are interesting. This includes the CERIAS Weblogs, his personal blog ramblings, and other items found on the WWW and elsewhere. Material here is mostly related to issues of cyber security, cybercrime and privacy; public policy towards computing; and some of the more bizarre items of behavior that get documented in the news. Also, some news about me, about USACM and about CERIAS. Occasionally, some silly items may find their way here, too. About the Author Share this Tumblr Blog   Share |

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Russia FINALLY arrests leaders of REvil hacking group

Russia's FSB intelligence service said on Friday that it had targeted 14 members of the group with coordinated arrests at the request of authorities in the United States.

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Overly Complex IT Infrastructures Pose Security Risk

Cybersecurity budgets are set to increase in 2022, but companies worry that complex IT networks and data infrastructure are wasting money, new PwC survey finds.

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EXCLUSIVE Wide-ranging SolarWinds probe sparks fear in Corporate America

A U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into the SolarWinds Russian hacking operation has dozens of corporate executives fearful information unearthed in the expanding probe will expose them to liability, according to six people familiar with the inquiry.

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91% of IT teams have felt 'forced' to trade security for business operations | ZDNet

When it comes to remote work, security is often the last thing on the priority list.

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French Spyware Executives Are Indicted for Aiding Torture

The managers are accused of selling tech to Libya and Egypt that was used to identify activists, read private messages, and kidnap, torture, or kill them.

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A Well-Meaning Feature Leaves Millions of Dell PCs Vulnerable

Flaws in a firmware security tool affect as many as 30 million desktops, laptops, and tablets.

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Hijacked and Paying the Price - Why Ransomware Gangs Should be Designated as Terrorists

Ransomware gangs have been causing extensive damage. It's time that the government takes them more seriously.

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The FBI’s New Malware Eradication Service Is on Thin Legal Ice

The ends did not justify the means when the FBI recently gained court-authorized entry into private sector computers in order to remove malicious code installed by foreign hackers without asking permission or alerting the entities affected, argues Joel Schwarz, director at MBL Technologies and the former privacy officer for the National Counterterrorism Center. He contends the action was executed on a questionable legal basis.

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Exploiting vulnerabilities in Cellebrite UFED and Physical Analyzer from an app's perspective

Cellebrite makes software to automate physically extracting and indexing data from mobile devices. They exist within the grey – where enterprise branding joins together with the larcenous to be called “digital intelligence.” Their customer list has included authoritarian regimes in Belarus, Russi...

Subtle snark that is lovely to behold

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Brace yourselves. Facebook has a new mega-leak on its hands

Facebook Email Search v1.0 can process 5 million email addresses per day, researcher says.

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Update on campaign targeting security researchers

An update on a hacking campaign targeting security researchers.

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Buffer overruns, license violations, and bad code: FreeBSD 13’s close call

40,000 lines of flawed code almost made it into FreeBSD's kernel—we examine how.

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Overclassification and Its Impact on Cyber Conflict and Democracy - Modern War Institute

Editor’s note: This article is the second in a series, “Full-Spectrum: Capabilities and Authorities in Cyber and the Information Environment.” The series endeavors to present expert commentary on diverse issues surrounding US competition with peer and near-peer competitors in the cyber and information spaces. Read the first article in the series here. Special thanks to […]

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Updated Executive’s Guide To Quantum Safe Security: Take these steps to make your enterprise quantum proof

This is an update to our Executive's Guide to Quantum Safe Security, based on a new round of research that has included interviews of OODA Network experts, technology providers and senior executives in enterprises. Quantum Computers will bring new power to adversaries. But when? And what can you do now to mitigate that threat? This report provides insights that can drive your action today.

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How Should the U.S. Respond to the SolarWinds and Microsoft Exchange Hacks?

If the SolarWinds/Holiday Bear campaign was a minimally-invasive arthroscopic incision into vulnerable networks, the Microsoft Exchange hack was a full-limb amputation: untargeted, reckless and extremely dangerous.

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Silver Sparrow macOS malware with M1 compatibility

Silver Sparrow includes a binary compiled to run on Apple’s new M1 chips but lacks one very important feature: a payload

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