Security News for the Week Ending January 15, 2021
US Bulk Energy Providers Must Report Attempted Breaches
The Solar Winds attack, from what little we know about it, was bad enough, but what if it was Russia’s trial run for taking down the power grid like they did in Ukraine or taking out the water supply or gas supply? NERC, the electric utility regulator, released CIP -008-6 which requires relevant bulk power providers to report attempted hacks in addition to successful ones.
All cybersecurity incidents, whether actual compromises or attempts to comprise, have to be reported to the DHS Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT), now known as National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC), as well as the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center (E-ISAC). Unfortunately, the feds have not clearly defined what an attempt is. Credit: CSO Online
Researchers Say Bitcoin Hacks in 2020 Netted $3.78 Billion
In fairness, that is at today’s Bitcoin value, but lets say it is only $2 billion. Does that make you feel better? The most lucrative target was individual Bitcoin wallets, but hackers went after exchanges and apps too. Credit: ZDNet
FAA Changes Rules on Mask Wearing on Airplanes
Up until today, if passengers would not follow flight crew’s instructions to wear masks and were unruly, threatened or intimidated flight crews, the FAA tried to counsel them or hit them with civil fines. Now they have changed the rules and anyone who does that will be charged with interfering with a flight crew, which caries the penalty of up to 20 years in prison and a $35,000 fine. Or both. Ouch. Credit: Vice
Apple Changes Rules That Exempted Themselves from Security Rules
In MacOS 11 Apple created a rule that exempted 53 of its own apps from having to go through the Mac’s firewall. After all, Apple does know best. Apple claimed the exemption was temporary. Why? Because Apple made some changes in MacOS and they didn’t have time to iron out all the bugs in their apps before they shipped the software. That’s comforting. Once 11.2 ships, Apple’s apps will no longer be exempted. Oh, by the way, they forgot to tell their users that they were exempting their buggy apps from the firewall. Because? Don’t know. Probably would not be good PR. Credit: ZDNet
Signal Messaging App Creaking Under The Load
Years ago Facebook bought the privacy oriented messaging app WhatsApp which has become very popular. Last month Facebook created new terms which require users to allow Facebook to mine your WhatsApp data which is sort of unpopular with people who signed up for a privacy oriented app. Under the covers, WhatsApp is really just Signal, Moxie Marlinspike’s privacy oriented messaging app with some lipstick on it. As a result of Facebook’s not understanding that users would be displeased with the change to their terms of service, apparently tens of millions of people are moving from WhatsApp to Signal. Combine that with the shutdown of Parler, and Signal, which is a non-profit, is having trouble managing the load. Last week Elon Musk told his 40+ million followers to use Signal. It is likely that they will get things sorted out but any time a company gets 25-50 million new customers all at once, while it is a good problem, it is a problem. Stay tuned. Credit: The Register
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