Air Gaps and Smart Grid

As more information about the attack on Saudi Aramco has emerged, such as in the article in Dark Reading last week, it increasingly appears to be an aggressive and significant attack, with one attacker claiming to have compromised 30,000 of the company’s clients and servers. As described in the Saudi Aramco press release, however, the [...]

Geeks With Guns: Obama’s New Defense Plan Invests In Cyber Capabilities

“In silent bars, in silent rooms, in silent cars, you hide where you can. And me, I know just where you are, you see, I’m a bomber man”  -  From Bombers by Gary Numan This week President Obama released his plans for a “leaner” military.  There has been a lot of debate about whether or not this [...]

J. Lo and the Advanced Persistent Threat

So Ok, you think you know security. Riddle me this one… What does Jennifer Lopez and computer hackers who’ve attacked America’s defense establishment have in common? If you answered both are featured in this September’s issue of Vanity Fair magazine, you’d be right, and a true member of the all knowing security club.

Fraudsters Point Their Guns at the Infrastructure

Warlike tactics are employed by each of the factions; security companies and financial institutions – the main defensive arm of the faction – build barricades to stop attackers. The fraudsters, on the other hand, try to outflank them by finding ways to circumvent these defenses, whether those are based on technology or on social engineering. Another tactic that is often used in real-life wars is the targeting of the enemy’s infrastructure.

James Bond and the Quantum Worm (aka stuxnet)

Only a select few have had a look at the script of the next James Bond feature film. It seems like Quantum, the secret criminal organization that in previous installments was busy short-selling the stock market by staging terrorist attacks and taking over water supplies to control the economy of South America, has a new [...]

When Worlds Collide Part II – More on Stuxnet

After submitting the first blog on Stuxnet, I’ve been inundated with people who “get it.” One person in particular (Joe Weiss), highlighted for me a point to emphasize to really drive home to some folks who “need to get it.”

Worlds Collide*: From Plane Crashes to Stuxnet

Our IT infrastructures are as real as any road, ship or city in the world today. They have the ability to directly influence and interact with the real world in as real and impactful a way as any object in the physical world. Let’s try saying that another way to be really clear: the world of information is as real and interchangeable and impactful to us as the world of guns, germs and steel…