The Cybersecurity (CS) Digest is a curated bi-weekly news summary for cybersecurity professionals. It is transmitted in an HTML-formatted email and provides links to articles and news summaries across a spectrum of cybersecurity topics.

CSIAC ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Reminder: Free CSIAC Webinar Thursday Mar 22 @ 12:00 pm EDT – Autonomic Cyber Security (ACS) - CSIAC

This webinar will provide an overview of cutting-edge research efforts being conducted at the University of Arizona’s National Science Foundation (NSF) Cloud and Autonomic Computing Center (CAC) along with one of their affiliate members, AVIRTEK Inc.

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Cyber Crime:

Olympic Destroyer Data-Wiping Malware Is More Complex Than Previously Thought - Bleeping Computer

The Olympic Destroyer malware that has caused damage to PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics computer networks is much more complex than previously thought. Discovered by Cisco Talos researchers, this malware has been deployed before the start of the Olympics and has caused downtime to internal WiFi and television systems, disrupting some operations during the games' opening ceremony.

RECENT HEADLINES:

Cyberwarfare:

German Government Intranet Under ‘Ongoing Attack’ - The Guardian

Germany's government is dealing with an ongoing security crisis after hackers managed to access its intranet and collect confidential information, a senior lawmaker said on Thursday.

Data Security:

Major Data Breach at Marine Forces Reserve Impacts Thousands - Marine Corps Times

The personal information of thousands of Marines, sailors and civilians, including bank account numbers, was compromised in a major data spillage emanating from U.S. Marine Corps Forces Reserve.

Equifax Says it’s Found 2.4 Million More Victims From 2017 Breach - The Hill

Equifax has identified 2.4 million victims of its massive 2017 data breach that were not previously counted in the number of people affected by the hack, the credit bureau announced Thursday.

GitHub Survived the Biggest DDoS Attack Ever Recorded - Wired

On Wednesday, at about 12:15 pm ET, 1.35 terabits per second of traffic hit the developer platform GitHub all at once. It was the most powerful distributed denial of service attack recorded to date—and it used an increasingly popular DDoS method, no botnet required.

FBI Warns of Spike in W-2 Phishing Campaigns - Threat Post

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is warning businesses about a spike in phishing campaigns requesting W-2 information from payroll personnel.

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Blockchain and Digital Currency:

How to Mitigate the Threat Cryptocurrency Mining Poses to Enterprise Security - The Hacker News

The growing popularity of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is generating curiosity - and concern - among security specialists. Crypto mining software has been found on user machines, often installed by botnets. Organizations need to understand the risks posed by this software and what actions, if any, should be taken.

RECENT HEADLINES:

Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence:

Berkeley Lab ‘Minimalist Machine Learning’ Algorithms Analyze Images From Very Little Data - Berkeley Lab

Mathematicians at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a new approach to machine learning aimed at experimental imaging data. Rather than relying on the tens or hundreds of thousands of images used by typical machine learning methods, this new approach "learns" much more quickly and requires far fewer images.

Mobile Security:

The Feds Can Now (Probably) Unlock Every iPhone Model In Existence — UPDATED - Forbes

In what appears to be a major breakthrough for law enforcement, and a possible privacy problem for Apple customers, a major U.S. government contractor claims to have found a way to unlock pretty much every iPhone on the market.

The FBI, CIA and NSA say American Citizens Shouldn’t use Huawei Phones - CNN Tech

U.S. intelligence agencies have issued a stern warning to Americans: Do not buy smartphones made by Chinese tech companies Huawei or ZTE.

Network Security:

‘First True’ Native IPv6 DDoS Attack Spotted in Wild - SC Magazine

The first documented native IPv6 DDoS attack has been spotted in the wild over the weekend. The DNS dictionary attack originated from around 1,900 different native IPv6 hosts, on more than 650 different networks and targeted authoritative DNS service Neustar's network.

Memcrashed – Major Amplification Attacks From UDP Port 11211 - Cloud Flare

Over last couple of days we've seen a big increase in an obscure amplification attack vector - using the memcached protocol, coming from UDP port 11211.

Private Sector:

Army Research Lab Awards $25 Million Contract for Internet of Battlefield Things - Fifth Domain

The U.S. Army Research Lab (ARL) has awarded a $25 million contract to a consortium of university researchers known as the Alliance for Internet of Battlefield Things Research on Evolving Intelligent Goal-drive Networks (IoBT REIGN) to develop new predictive battlefield analytics and services.

Public Sector:

Marine Corps Announces New Cyberspace Career Track - Fifth Domain

The Marine Corps has created a cyberspace career track that will focus on enhancing the service's ability to compete on the information battlefield, the Marine Corps announced March 1.
Tags: Career in Cyber

DISA Modernizes SIPRNet Delivery, Increases Mission Partner Savings - DISA

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) recently completed the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNet) Access Migration Project to improve and modernize the way mission partners connect to the SIPRNet and deliver cost reductions.

Quantum Computing:

Securing Tomorrow’s Information Through Post-Quantum Cryptography - NIST CSRC

In recent years, there has been a substantial amount of research on quantum computers - machines that exploit quantum mechanical phenomena to solve mathematical problems that are difficult or intractable for conventional computers. If large-scale quantum computers are ever built, they will compromise the security of many commonly used cryptographic algorithms.

Serious Quantum Computers are Finally Here. What are we Going to do With Them? - MIT Technology Review

Quantum computers promise to run calculations far beyond the reach of any conventional supercomputer. They might revolutionize the discovery of new materials by making it possible to simulate the behavior of matter down to the atomic level. Or they could upend cryptography and security by cracking otherwise invincible codes. There is even hope they will supercharge artificial intelligence by crunching through data more efficiently.

Software Security:

Kali Linux Now in Windows Store, but Defender Flags Its Packages as Threats! - Bleeping Computer

The penetration testing and security auditing platform called Kali Linux is now available in the Windows 10 Store as a Linux environment that can be used with the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). The problem is someone forgot one little thing. Some of Kali's more popular packages are detected as hacktools and exploits by Windows Defender.

Intel’s latest set of Spectre microcode fixes is coming to a Windows update - ArsTechnica

Windows users running the latest version of Windows 10 on recent Intel processors will soon be receiving Intel's microcode updates to address the Spectre variant 2 attack.

Microsoft Updates Guideline on Windows Driver Security - Bleeping Computer

Microsoft has released an updated guide on driver security. This new guide offers advice that developers could use to ensure Windows drivers are secured against basic attacks and preventable flaws.

CSIAC Supported Communities

CSIAC supports several communities of practice, such as the Cyber Community of Interest (COI) Group and research & development working groups.

Technical Resources, Policy and Guidance

This list of related sites provides additional sources to pursue the topic of Cybersecurity. The sites include Government organizations, including federal agencies, Department of Defense and military service agencies, commercial organizations, and academic institutions.

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