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Tag: RSA

  • Dell May Sell Its Boomi Cloud Business

    Dell May Sell Its Boomi Cloud Business

    On the heels of its announced spin-off of VMware, Dell Technologies may be looking to sell its Boomi cloud business as well.

    Michael Dell has been on a mission to streamline the company that bears his name, and Dell has been offloading the various businesses it has acquired over the years, including RSA and VMware. According to Bloomberg, Dell is now exploring a sale of Boomi.

    Boomi specializes in helping companies integrate the various cloud platforms they use. It’s believed a sale of the business could be worth as much as $3 billion. The business could be an asset to any number of other companies looking to expand their cloud offerings.

    According to Bloomberg’s sources, the talks are still in their early stages and may not come to fruition.

  • Java Ransomware Spotted In The Wild

    Java Ransomware Spotted In The Wild

    A Java-based ransomware that targets the software market and education sectors has been spotted in the wild by Blackberry.

    The BlackBerry Research and Intelligence Team, working with KPMG’s UK Cyber Response Services, recently discovered the ransomware, dubbed “Tycoon.” The ransomware is written in Java and has been in the wild since at least December 2019.

    According to the researchers, “it is deployed in the form of a Trojanized Java Runtime Environment (JRE) and leverages an obscure Java image format to fly under the radar.”

    Once a computer has been infiltrated, the software encrypts files using an AES-256 algorithm. To make matters worse, the ransomware overwrites deleted files in each encryption path, ensuring they cannot be recovered without the decryption key.

    There are two spots of good news, however. First, it does not appear that the ransomware is widespread, leading the researchers to believe “the malware may be highly targeted.”

    Even better, it appears the hackers used the same encryption key repeatedly. As a result, some have had success using a deception key purchased by one of the other victims.

    “Because of the use of asymmetric RSA algorithm to encrypt the securely generated AES keys, the file decryption requires obtaining the attacker’s private RSA key,” the researchers write. “Factoring a 1024-bit RSA key, although theoretically possible, has not been achieved yet and would require extraordinary computational power.

    “However, one of the victims seeking help on the BleepingComputer forum posted a private RSA key presumably coming from a decryptor the victim purchased from the attackers. This key has proven to be successful in decryption of some of the files affected by the earliest version of Tycoon ransomware that added the .redrum extension to the encrypted files.”

    Unfortunately, later versions of the malware use “.grinch” and “.thanos” as the file extensions, and the reused key does not work on those files.

  • Companies Pull Out Of RSA Conference 2020 Due To Coronavirus

    Companies Pull Out Of RSA Conference 2020 Due To Coronavirus

    RSA Conference 2020 is one of the biggest security conferences of the year, but it will have to go on without some major backers due to the coronavirus.

    According to organizers, Verizon, IBM and AT&T Cybersecurity have pulled out of the conference amid concerns over the virus. In total, that brings the count to 14 companies who have withdrawn, including six from China, seven from the U.S. and one from Canada.

    San Francisco Mayor London Breed has tried to reassure attendees, emphasizing that the “risk of becoming infected with COVID-19 in San Francisco is low, as the virus is not circulating within our community.”

    Overall, only an estimated 1.2 percent of expected attendees have canceled. In the meantime, organizers provided the following recommendations for those attending:

    “In addition to following CDC recommendations like frequent hand washing, RSA Conference reminds attendees that other preventive measures have been put in place to help reduce the risk of infection. The Moscone Center is following recommendations in the US EPA’s Emerging Pathogen Policy regarding the use of cleaning disinfectants effective against the coronavirus and CDC health screenings for qualified travelers arriving from international destinations at the San Francisco International Airport.“

  • Symphony Technology Group Buys RSA From Dell Technologies

    Symphony Technology Group Buys RSA From Dell Technologies

    Dell Technologies has agreed to sell RSA to Symphony Technology Group, in an effort to streamline its business portfolio and strategy.

    The Symphony Technology Group consortium, which includes the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board (Ontario Teachers’) and AlpInvest Partners (AlpInvest), agreed to an all-cash deal of $2.075 billion. The deal includes RSA Archer, RSA NetWitness Platform, RSA SecurID, RSA Fraud and Risk Intelligence and RSA Conference, and should be completed in the next six to nine months.

    RSA currently has 12,500 customers and provides “risk, security and fraud teams with the ability to holistically manage digital risk, including threat detection and response, identity and access management, integrated risk management and omnichannel fraud prevention.”

    Dell is looking at the deal as a way of focusing its business and better aligning its portfolio with its long-term strategy.

    “This is the right long-term strategy for Dell, RSA and our collective customers and partners,” said Jeff Clarke, Chief Operating Officer and Vice Chairman, Dell Technologies. “The transaction will further simplify our business and product portfolio. It also allows Dell Technologies to focus on our strategy to build automated and intelligent security into infrastructure, platforms and devices to keep data safe, protected and resilient.”

  • FBI Director Talks Cyber Attacks

    Terrorism is obviously still the most dangerous threat facing the United States. Cyber attacks and cyber terrorism may one day become the most dangerous threat, however, according to the FBI.

    The director of the FBI, Robert Mueller, recently spoke at the RSA Cyber Security Conference in San Francisco about what his organization is doing to stop cyber crime.

    Mueller began by telling a story of how iCloud and the Find my iPhone app helped stop a theft in New York City. He used this as an example of how technology is “an investigative tool.” Technology can also be used as a means of attack, however, and the FBI takes this new threat very seriously.

    He went on to say that traditional crime has now moved to the Internet. On the same note, terrorists are now using the Internet to recruit and raise money.

    In response to this, he began to detail what the FBI is doing to fight back against the increasing number of cyber threats. The first, of course, being cyberterrorism.

    He says that terrorists are becoming more “cyber savvy” and using the Internet to grow their business. The worst part is that they aren’t even hiding, but conducting their online business out in the open.

    He points to the Twitter account of Al Shabaab, an Al Qaeda affiliate in Somalia, that uses its account to taunt its enemies and encourage terrorist activity.

    While there has not been a major cyberattack from a terrorist cell yet, he says to not underestimate them. He points to a terrorist recruiting video that says cyber warfare is the warfare of the future.

    He then goes on to say that state-sponsored hacks and economic espionage are major threats as well. The main threat being foreign hostile nations seeking to steal “our intellectual property and our trade secrets for military and competitive advantage.”

    The main threat seems to be from state-sponsored hacking as they have “the time, the money and the resources to burrow in, and to wait.”

    He also calls attention to what he calls “hackers for profit” who steal information to sell to the highest bidder. He says that while these hackers may have been isolated groups before, they are now joining forces to create criminal syndicates.

    All of this results in the loss of data. What does that mean? Mueller says that we are “losing money… losing ideas and losing innovation.”

    What is the FBI doing about it? Mueller says that they have set cyber squads in every one of their 56 field offices, with more than 1,000 specially trained agents. He says that the FBI’s dual role in “law enforcement and national security” allows them to be “uniquely positioned to collect the intelligence we need to take down criminal networks, prosecute those responsible, and protect our national security.”

    Globally, the FBI has teamed up with police departments around the world in 63 offices to help discover “emerging trends and key players.”

    He says that their efforts are paying off. He references an investigation called “Operation Ghost Click” that targeted “a ring of criminals who manipulated Internet “click” advertising.”

    While terrorism remains the organization’s top priority, he expects cyber threats to be the number one threat to the U.S. in the near future.

    To combat this new threat, he says that all of their special agents will be trained in “fundamental skills to operate in this cyber environment.”

    He says that they are also creating a virtual environment where agents from all over the world can coordinate on attacks wherever they may happen.

    To help them combat the new threat of cyberterrorism, they are pushing for a national data breach reporting law. This would require any organization targeted by a hack to immediately report the intrusion to the FBI.

    For those companies who may not want to share the news of a hack, he says not to worry:

    You may believe that notifying the authorities will harm your competitive position. You may fear that news of a breach will erode shareholder confidence. Or you may think that the information flows just one way—and that is to us.

    We do not want you to feel victimized a second time by an investigation. We will minimize the disruption to your business, and we will safeguard your privacy. Where necessary, we will seek protective orders to preserve trade secrets and business confidentiality. And we will share with you what we can, as quickly as we can, about the means and the methods of attack.

    To reiterate the severity of cyber attacks, he says that there will be only two types of companies in the future – “companies that have been hacked and those that will be” Even then, he says that further in the future it will become “companies that have been hacked and will be hacked again.”

    To protect data, he feels that companies need to limit the data that can be “gleamed from any compromise.” Companies must also “segregate mission-centric data from routine information.”

    The end of the speech really hits home the whole point that Mueller is trying to make:

    In the days of the Roman Empire, connectivity was on the rise—new roads, new ways of communicating, and a new postal system to handle the influx of written documents. Postal deliveries were the high point of the day. People coming from every direction would converge at the port to meet the delivery boats arriving from Egypt.

    As they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

    Today we have the so-called “BlackBerry Jam,” where several individuals—heads down, shoulders slumped, all furiously typing, talking, reading, or browsing at once—come to a head on a crowded corner. We are all guilty of this conduct.

    All those years ago, Seneca argued that the more connected society becomes, the greater the chance that the individual will become a slave to that connectivity. Today, one could argue that the more connected we become, the greater the risk to all of us.

    We cannot turn back the clock. We cannot undo the impact of technology. Nor would we want to.

    But we must continue to build our collective capabilities to fight the cyber threat…we must share information…we must work together to safeguard our property, our privacy, our ideas, and our innovation.

    We must use our connectivity to stop those who seek to do us harm.

    Do you agree with Mueller about the threat posed by cyber attacks? Is the FBI doing enough to deter them? Or can more be done than what is already planned? Let us know in the comments.