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.

RECENT HEADLINES:

Cloud Computing:

Linode Hit by DDoS Attacks - Security Week

Cloud hosting company Linode has suffered a series of service interruptions due to distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks launched against its infrastructure over the past few days.

Critical Infrastructure:

First Known Hacker-Caused Power Outage Signals Troubling Escalation - Arstechnica

Highly destructive malware that infected at least three regional power authorities in Ukraine led to a power failure that left hundreds of thousands of homes without electricity last week, researchers said.

BlackEnergy Malware Used in Ukraine Power Grid Attacks - Security Week

A threat group has been using the Russia-linked BlackEnergy malware family in attacks aimed at news media and electrical power organizations in Ukraine.

Railway Systems Susceptible to Cyber-Attacks - Softpedia

Security researchers that make up the SCADA StrangeLove group have identified a large number of security weaknesses in multiple components used in modern railway systems.
Tags: Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP)

Cyberwarfare:

BBC, Trump Web Attacks “Just the Start,” says Hacktivist Group - Zdnet

The group that claimed responsibility for taking down the BBC's global website last week has said the attack was "just the start."

ISIL Aims to Launch Cyberattacks on U.S. - Politico

The Islamic State is seeking the ability to launch cyberattacks against U.S. government and civilian targets in a potentially dangerous expansion of the terror group's Internet campaign.

Data Security:

Here’s How to Remove Encryption Keys from Microsoft’s Servers - Softpedia

Microsoft has been secretly saving hard-drive encryption keys to its servers for all new Windows devices. Fortunately, for people who like their privacy, there's a way around this issue.

Legislation and Regulation:

House to Discuss Controversial Anti-Hacking Regs - The Hill

The House on Tuesday will discuss concerns over a set of proposed Obama administration regulations designed to keep hacking tools out of the hands of repressive regimes.

President Obama Signs Cybersecurity Act of 2015 to Encourage Cybersecurity Information Sharing - National Law Review

The Act creates a voluntary cybersecurity information sharing process designed to encourage public and private sector entities to share cyber threat information.

White House Wants to be More Involved in International Cybersecurity Standards - Fed Scoop

A new interagency report recommends different ways the U.S. government can engage the international standards community.

Lawmakers Notch Win in Fight for Global Cyber Laws - The Hill

The major cybersecurity bill that President Obama signed into law two weeks ago includes a clause requiring the State Department to publicly produce an international cyberspace policy within 90 days.

Mobile Security:

Google Patches Android for Yet Another RCE Flaw in Its Mediaserver Component - Softpedia

Google has just released the changelog of its most recent Android security bulletin, in which it fixed 12 bugs, five of which were labeled as of critical severity.

Android Malware Uses Firewall Rules to Block Security Apps - Security Week

Researchers at Symantec have discovered a new piece of Android malware that drops and runs a firewall binary called DroidWall on compromised devices to prevent security applications from connecting to their services.

Network Security:

Cisco Jabber Client Flawed, Exposes Users to MitM Attacks - Softpedia

Cisco's Jabber client for Windows is plagued by a serious security vulnerability that allows attackers to downgrade STARTTLS settings and force communications to take place via cleartext, exposing a user's private conversations and stealing their login credentials.

Malware Seen Turning Systems into Proxies Without Consent - Techxplore

A cybersecurity company has spotted malware which sets up anonymous proxies on infected personal computers. Lee Mathews in Geek.com said the strain turns infected machines into anonymous proxy hosts.

Public Sector:

ODNI Names Leadership Team of Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center - Executive Gov

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has appointed Tonya Ugoretz, Maurice Bland and Thomas Donahue to be on the leadership team of the newly-formed Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center.

CSIAC SUPPORTED COMMUNITIES:

Cyber Security of Critical Infrastructure - Department of Homeland Security

CSIAC serves on the EO 13636/PPD-21 Research & Development (R&D) Working Group (WG) run by DHS S&T. If you would like further information, contact Dr. Paul Losiewicz at plosiewicz@csiac.org

Cyber Community of Interest (COI) Group - CSIAC

The Cyber COI engages in multiple activities and forums for coordinating cyber S&T strategies, sharing innovative ideas and technical approaches, promoting technology transfer and upcoming business opportunities, and in jointly planning programs across the Department of Defense and other government agencies. Membership is based upon approval by the Cyber COI group administrator.

TECHNICAL RESOURCES, POLICY & GUIDANCE:

Opportunities Exist for DOD to Share Cybersecurity Resources with Small Businesses - GAO

DOD OSBP officials acknowledged that cybersecurity is an important and timely issue for small businesses -and therefore the office is considering incorporating cybersecurity into its existing outreach and education efforts. During the review, GAO identified 15 existing federal cybersecurity resources that DOD OSBP could disseminate to defense small businesses.

DHS S&T Collaboration Community - Ideascale

The National Conversation is intended to bring together everyone to play a role in shaping the future of homeland security technology. This means responders, operational users, citizens, academia, and industry.

The Department of Defense Cyber Strategy - Department of Defense

The purpose of this strategy is to guide the development of DoD's cyber forces and strengthen our cyber defense and cyber deterrence posture. It focuses on building cyber capabilities and organizations for DoD's three primary cyber missions.
Tags: Cybersecurity Strategy

Information Sharing Environment - ISE

The Information Sharing Environment (ISE) broadly refers to the people, projects, systems, and agencies that enable responsible information sharing for national security.

Standards & Reference Documents - CSIAC

View all Best Practices and Reference Documents on the CSIAC website.

The DoD Cybersecurity Policy Chart (Formerly the IA Policy Chart) - CSIAC

DoD Cyber Domain Resources - Department of Defense

DHS Cyber Security Strategy (“Blueprint for a Secure Cyber Future”, 2011) - Department of Homeland Defense

DIB CS/IA Voluntary Information Sharing Program - DoD DIBNet

DoD's DIB CS/IA program is a voluntary program to enhance and supplement DIB participants' capabilities to safeguard DoD information that resides on, or transits, DIB unclassified information systems.

US-CERT Bulletins - Department of Homeland Security

Bulletins provide weekly summaries of new vulnerabilities. Patch information is provided when available.

US-CERT Alerts - Department of Homeland Security

Alerts provide timely information about current security issues, vulnerabilities, and exploits.

National Vulnerability Database - NIST

NVD is the U.S. government repository of standards based vulnerability management data represented using the Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP). This data enables automation of vulnerability management, security measurement, and compliance. NVD includes databases of security checklists, security related software flaws, misconfigurations, product names, and impact metrics.

Trustworthy CyberSpace: Strategic Plan For The Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development Program - NITRD

Committee on National Security Systems (CNSS) - Committee on National Security Systems

The CS Digest provides links to third party Websites. The CSIAC is not responsible for the availability of, and content provided on, third party Websites. You should refer to the policies posted by other Websites regarding their privacy and other topics before you use them. The CSIAC is not responsible for third party content accessible through the CSIAC CS Digest, including opinions, advice, statements, advertisements and endorsements, and you bear all risks associated with the use of such content.