Security News for the Week Ending December 25, 2020

First of all, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

OCC, FRB and FDIC Propose New Rule – Tell Us If You Have a Security Incident

The federal banking regulators are proposing a new rule that banks and tech companies that service banks need to report to their regulator within 36 hours if the have a security incident (like ransomware) that impacts their operations. I suspect that banks have been hiding these in the large stack of forms they file daily, hoping their regulator doesn’t catch what is going on. In *MY* opinion – long past due. It covers everyone who is part of the Federal Reserve System or the FDIC, among others. Credit: FDIC

FBI Says Iran Behind pro-Trump ‘enemy of the people’ Doxing Site

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) say that Iranian actors are “almost certainly” behind the creation of the website (currently down), basing the assertion on “highly credible information.”

The agencies add that in mid-December 2020 the website contained death threats aimed at U.S. election officials. Among them are governors, state secretaries, former CISA Director Christopher Krebs, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and people working for Dominion, the company providing the voting systems. Credit: Bleeping Computer

Facebook and Google Get a Little Too Friendly on Ads

While Google and Facebook supposedly compete in the ad business, with the two of them controlling over half the market, there was a bit of preferential treatment. In 2018 they announced a deal where Facebook’s advertisers could buy ads within Google’s ad network. What they did not announce was a secret deal where Facebook would get preferential treatment if they backed down on getting their advertisers to switch to a Google competitor. These days it is hard to keep secrets that big secret. Credit: Cybernews

Microsoft and McAfee Join Ransomware Task Force

19 tech companies, security firms and non-profits have joined together to fight ransomware. The task force will commission expert papers on the topic, engage stakeholders across industries, identify gaps in current solutions, and then work on a common roadmap to have issues addressed among all members. The result will be a standardized framework for dealing with ransomware attacks across verticals, based on industry consensus. They start playing together next month. Stay tuned to see what they produce. Credit: ZDNet

Homeland Security Releases Guide Warning About Chinese Equipment and Services

The Chinese government, along with Russia, has shown that it has a virtually insatiable appetite for stealing our stuff, whether that is personal information or trade secrets. This DHS document talks about the risks of partnering with Chinese firms and/or allowing your data to be stored in China or Chinese controlled data centers. It talks about how China has constructed it’s laws so that the government can get access to anything that it wants and what you can do to reduce the risk a little bit. A copy of the report can be downloaded here.

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