SFO Websites Hacked: Airport Discloses Data Breach
The San Francisco International Airport (SFO) disclosed this week two of its websites had been hacked and lead to the disclosure of some users' login credentials at both sites. The attacks occurred in March and compromised were SFOConnect[dot]com and SFOConstruction[dot]com, both relatively low-traffic websites. "The attackers inserted malicious computer code on these websites to steal some users' login credentials," according to a message posted to both site's homepages. READ MORE...
Dutch Police Arrest Man Over DDoS Attack on Government Website
Dutch police on Friday arrested a 19-year-old man from Breda suspected of launching a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on a government website. As a result of the attack, Overheid[dot]nl and one of its subdomains, Mijn.Overheid[dot]nl (MijnOverheid), were knocked offline for several hours on March 19. Functioning as a sort of digital letterbox, MijnOverheid allows citizens to receive mail from the government, including information on their tax returns or child benefits. READ MORE...
Businesses brace for second 'Fujiwhara effect' of 2020 as Patch Tuesday looms
Software giants will release fixes for hundreds of bugs in unison for the second time this year, at a time when IT teams are already under pressure from mass adoption of remote working and surging cyber crime. The forthcoming Patch Tuesday, on 14 April, will see as many as 500 vulnerabilities released by the likes of Microsoft and Oracle, causing a phenomenon dubbed the 'Fujiwhara effect'. Such a security event is ordinarily rare, with the last one before 2020 occurring in 2014. READ MORE...
New Wiper Malware impersonates security researchers as prank
A malware distributor has decided to play a nasty prank by locking victim's computers before they can start Windows and then blaming the infection on two well-known and respected security researchers. Over the past 24 hours, after downloading and installing software from what appears to be free software and crack sites, people suddenly find that they are locked out of their computer before Windows starts. READ MORE...
Critical VMware Bug Opens Up Corporate Treasure to Hackers
A critical information-disclosure bug in VMware's Directory Service (vmdir) could lay bare the contents of entire corporate virtual infrastructures, if exploited by cyberattackers. The vmdir is part of VMware's vCenter Server product, which provides centralized management of virtualized hosts and virtual machines (VMs) from a single console. According to the product description, "a single administrator can manage hundreds of workloads." READ MORE...
Krebs on Security: New IRS Site Could Make it Easy for Thieves to Intercept Some Stimulus Payments
The U.S. federal government is now in the process of sending Economic Impact Payments by direct deposit to millions of Americans. Most who are eligible for payments can expect to have funds direct-deposited into the same bank accounts listed on previous years' tax filings sometime next week. Today, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) stood up a site to collect bank account information from the many Americans who don't usually file a tax return. READ MORE...
When All Behavior Is Abnormal, How Do We Detect Anomalies?
We log into work in the morning, usually between 0900 and 0915. We log into mail, the collaboration system, then the business applications. The place we log in from, the time we start work, and the sequence of logins form a unique pattern. And unique patterns can be useful as authentication factors. Right now there's a possible problem, though: How do you establish "normal" behaviors in an utterly abnormal time? READ MORE...
Lockdowns flatten the "economic curve," too
The lockdown measures being taken in response to the coronavirus pandemic are causing economic turmoil. But in reality, the best economic medicine may be the dreaded lockdown. A working paper by economists at the Federal Reserve and MIT digs into data from the 1918 flu pandemic and finds that cities that reacted quickly and aggressively to the pandemic also had stronger economic growth after the crisis was over. READ MORE...
- ...in 1861, after a 33-hour bombardment by Confederate cannon, Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor surrenders.
- ...in 1870, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is founded in New York City.
- ...in 1984, Pete Rose becomes the first player in National League history to get 4,000 career hits.
- ...in 1997, Tiger Woods becomes the youngest golfer to win golf's Masters Tournament, at the age of 21.
