Security News for the Week Ending April 16, 2021
Not a Good Week for Social Media Privacy
After the January 6th attack on the US Capitol, we saw terabytes of conversations and videos and profiles from the alt-right Twitter clone Parler posted online. Last week we saw 500+ million Facebook profiles for sale on the dark web (Facebook says this isn’t a breach) and then we saw another 500 million Linkedin profiles for sale. This week it is Clubhouse, but since it is new, there are only a million+ users in the free database. These social media sites on one hand sue people for taking their data but on the other hand, say that actions like this are not a breach because they offer APIs that allow people to do it. What is the message? Anything associated with your social media world is not private and is fair game. Credit: Cyber News
Some Said Biden Would Cave to China – Not Yet Apparently
The US has just added seven new Chinese companies to the ENTITY LIST, the list of companies that US businesses cannot work with unless they get a get out of jail card from the Commerce Department. These seven companies are supercomputer makers and Chinese National Supercomputing Centers. Looks like the pressure is still on. Credit: ZDNet
Hackers and Blockchain
One way the fuzz have been able to take down botnets is to disable their command and control server(s). Most malware that uses a command and control center usually hard codes the C&C address or addresses or puts them in a DNS record. If law enforcement takes down those servers or reroutes their traffic to a black hole, the botnet is dead. Hackers are creative, so they came up with a workaround.
Put the information they need on the Blockchain. Or many blockchains. Since the Blockchain is both public and immutable, problem solved. If we change the rules regarding whether someone can change a Blockchain, the entire usefulness of the Blockchain and all of the industries that have been built up around it, including all of the value stored in Bitcoin, gets flushed down the toilet. The current worldwide value of all Bitcoin is about $160 billion. If the cops have to break all blockchains worldwide to catch a hacker, I suspect that there will be a lot of unhappy people. I don’t think any government is interested in risking $160 billion (and growing) of capital to take down a hacker. Not sure how to fix this. Dictatorial countries might be willing to destroy their capital market, but I don’t think western countries are willing.
If this happens you better dump any Bitcoin you have quickly. Credit: Bruce Schneier
Domain Name Service Security Neglected by US Energy Companies
Unfortunately, there is no surprise here.
The Biden administration says utilities in the United States are sort of clueless when it comes to cybersecurity. Data collected shows that nearly 80% of the top energy organizations are at risk of cyberattacks due to totally elementary cyber hygiene errors – either willful or through ignorance.
80% of the organizations do not use domain registry locks, which help stop domains from being hijacked. More than 66% use consumer grade registrars, likely because they are a little bit cheaper but also because they don’t understand that those registrars have weak security practices. I looked up my electric utility. They passed the first test and failed the second. Only 3% use DNSSec (mine does not). Only 17% use DNS hosting redundancy. While 73% have some sort of DMARC policy in place, many are set to NONE, meaning that the setting is useless. This is pretty much in line with the results found as part of a global test last year.
As I said, no surprise, but a lot of disappointment. Credit: Security Week
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