September 2014 – SWITCH Security-Blog

IT-Security-Links #63

Home Depot overtakes Target: While Target’s breach in December ‘only’ exposed 40 million customer debit and credit card accounts, Home Depot confirms that the recent breach impacted 56 million customers. A malware infected its point-of-sale-network between April and September.
What comes after CVE-2014-9999? The international database for Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures faces its ‘Y2K’ moment. Read more about the syntax change here.
pEp: pretty Easy privacy is a new crowdfunding project based in Switzerland with the aim to simplify encryption for existing communication tools.
IptabLes / IptabLex: Akamai has published a threat advisory (PDF) to warn of attacks where cybercriminals are infecting Linux servers with malware capable of launching powerful DDoS attacks.
Heartbleed: Traffic data collected by researchers on several large networks shows no exploit attempts in the months leading up to the public disclosure of the OpenSSL Heartbleed vulnerability.
US government ordered Yahoo to hand over user data or pay USD 250.000 fine per day!
Do you like Online Security Dashboards? techiehow.com compiled a list.

Swiss economy makes online security its priority

Switzerland is one of the safest countries in the world. To make also the Internet a secure place in Switzerland, the Swiss online economy has started the Swiss Internet Security Alliance (SISA). The goal of the alliance is to make Switzerland the “cleanest” Internet country in the world! The organization launched an online security check today which allows internet users to clean and protect their systems.

Offering more security
The founding of the Swiss Internet Security Alliance is a sign of its members’ commitment to making the Internet a secure place in Switzerland. The association brings together expert knowledge from representatives of various sectors and promotes information-sharing amongst competitors.

Overcoming challenges together
The Swiss Internet Security Alliance focuses on its main assets – the knowledge, experience and technical expertise of its members. Its members asut, Centralway, credit suisse, cyscon Schweiz, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Hostpoint, Migros Bank, PostFinance, Raiffeisen, Sunrise, Swisscard, Swisscom, SWITCH, UBS, upc cablecom and Viseca have longstanding experience in dealing with online security. The association is open to other interested parties. More information can be found in the press release:

https://www.switch.ch/about/news/2014/sisa.html

Comprehensive security check
Upon founding the association, the Swiss Internet Security Alliance is launching a security check. The Swiss Security Check provides protection on three levels.

Users with outdated or incorrectly configured software who are therefore subject to a security risk, will find this out within seconds.
If there is suspicion of malware, the malware cleaner helps with the diagnosis and resolution of the problems.
A cyber vaccine completes the protection and keeps electronic pests at bay.

The Swiss Security Check is free and can be accessed here:
http://www.swiss-isa.ch

Please follow @swiss_isa on Twitter!

The September 2014 issue of our SWITCH Security Report is available!

A new issue of our monthly SWITCH Security Report has just been released.

The topics covered in this report are:

Hacked, tweeted and exposed: Inside information on government Trojans used internationally published on Twitter
Page not found: Network blocking in Switzerland and neighbouring countries
Breaking bad – malvertising ransomware: ZeroLocker / CryptoLocker / CryptoWall / SynoLocker
Canvas or cookies – choosing between Scylla and Charybdis
The Clipboard: Interesting presentations, articles and videos

The Security Report is available in both english and german language.

»» Download the english report. »» Download the german report.

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