Using Authentication to Fight Bank Fraud

Suparna Goswami • August 14, 2020

To effectively combat online fraud, banks need to greatly enhance their customer authentication efforts, says Anis Ahmed, former head of corporate investigations at Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank.

Anti-Money Laundering (AML)

'Zero Trust': A Strategy for Success

Latest

Cybercrime as-a-service

How Dharma Ransomware-as-a-Service Model Works

Prajeet Nair • August 14, 2020

A new study from Sophos describes how the Dharma ransomware-as-a-service model offers low-skilled hackers the ability to profit from attacks on unprotected small businesses.

Identity & Access Management

MassMutual Taps Into the Power of Data Science

Tom Field • August 14, 2020

Ariel Weintraub joined MassMutual last fall to focus on putting data science to work to help improve the insurance company's security operations and identity and access management programs. What are the early use cases and lessons learned?

Business Continuity Management / Disaster Recovery

Analysis: Did Barclays Go Too Far in Monitoring Employees?

Anna Delaney • August 14, 2020

The latest edition of the ISMG Security Report analyzes why Barclays is being investigated for allegedly spying on its employees. Also featured: How the pandemic is affecting CISOs; an FBI assessment of nation-state threats to U.S. election.

Governance & Risk Management

Is CREST Penetration-Testing Certification Being Gamed?

Mathew J. Schwartz • August 14, 2020

Who watches the penetration-testing testers? Questions are circulating over how some organizations train their employees for the CREST pen-testing certification after some leaked internal documents appeared to contain material from past tests.

Cybercrime as-a-service

RedCurl Cyber Espionage Gang Targets Corporate Secrets

Mathew J. Schwartz • August 13, 2020

Since 2018, an advanced persistent threat group dubbed RedCurl, which has served as a team of for-hire hackers specializing in corporate espionage, has hit at least 14 targets in Canada, Russia, the U.K. and beyond, says cybersecurity firm Group-IB.

Anti-Phishing, DMARC

SANS Institute Sees Its Breach as Teachable Moment

Chinmay Rautmare • August 13, 2020

The SANS Institute, which is known for its cybersecurity training courses, is now planning to turn its own data breach into a teachable moment for its membership.

Application Security

More Microsoft Zero-Day Flaws Being Exploited

Prajeet Nair • August 12, 2020

Two critical, zero-day vulnerabilities affecting Internet Explorer and multiple versions of the Windows operating system are being exploited in the wild, Microsoft and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency warn, urging prompt patching.

Business Continuity Management / Disaster Recovery

Avaddon Ransomware Joins Data-Leaking Club

Mathew J. Schwartz • August 12, 2020

Yet another ransomware-wielding gang has threatened to steal and leak the data of any victims who refuse to pay a ransom: The operators of Avaddon ransomware have created a dedicated data-leak site that already lists a construction firm victim, and the gang continues to recruit new affiliates.

Business Email Compromise (BEC)

Beware: AgentTesla Infostealer Now More Powerful

Akshaya Asokan • August 12, 2020

The operators behind the AgentTesla remote access Trojan have upgraded the infostealer with additional capabilities, including the ability to steal credentials from VPNs, web browsers, FTP files and email clients, Sentinel Labs reports. The low-cost malware is used in BEC scams and other campaigns.

Business Email Compromise (BEC)

BEC Scam Costs Trading Firm Virtu Financial $6.9 Million

Doug Olenick • August 11, 2020

High-speed trading firm Virtu Financial says it lost $6.9 million in a business email compromise scam in May. The company is now suing its insurer for failure to cover the loss.

3rd Party Risk Management

Snapdragon Chip Flaws Could Facilitate Mass Android Spying

Mathew J. Schwartz • August 11, 2020

Qualcomm is prepping patches for its Snapdragon Digital Signal Processor, used in an estimated 1 billion or more Android devices, after researchers at Check Point counted 400 flaws that attackers could exploit to take control of devices and steal all data they store.

Fraud Management & Cybercrime

Using DNS Data for Cybercrime Intelligence

Jeremy Kirk • August 11, 2020

The Domain Name System, which is at the heart of the internet, is a rich source of data that can help organizations defend themselves against cybercrime. DNS pioneer Paul Vixie says monitoring DNS traffic is crucial, and it's advisable to run your own recursive resolver.