Predicting Drive Failures | TechSNAP 136
Posted on: November 14, 2013

Preventing data at rest from rotting, Microsoft puts out the warning signal on RC4, and the International Space Station gets infected by malware.
Plus a fantastic batch of your questions, our answers, and much much more!
Thanks to:
Direct Download:HD Video | Mobile Video | MP3 Audio | Ogg Audio | YouTube | HD Torrent | Mobile Torrent RSS Feeds:HD Video Feed | Mobile Video Feed | MP3 Audio Feed | Ogg Audio Feed | iTunes Feeds | Torrent Feed |
Show Notes:
6 in 10 malware analysts in US have investigated or addressed a data breach that was never disclosed by their company
- “The independent blind survey of 200 security professionals dealing with malware analysis within U.S. enterprises was conducted by Opinion Matters on behalf of ThreatTrack Security in October 2013”
- “These results indicate that known data breaches may be significantly underreported and are putting customers and partners at risk”
- “according the survey, companies with more than 500 employees are even more likely to have had an unreported breach”
- A device used by a member of senior management is most likely to be infected by:
- Clicking on a malicious link in a phishing email (56%)
- Allowing a family member to use a company-owned device (45%)
- Visiting a pornographic website (40%)
- Installing a malicious mobile app (33%)
- “When asked to identify the most difficult aspects of defending their companies\’ networks from advanced malware, 67% said the complexity of malware is a chief factor; 67% said the volume of malware attacks; and 58% cited the ineffectiveness of anti-malware solutions.”
Microsoft tells developers to drop RC4 from their applications
- They also recommend against using SHA-1, and will stop recognizing the validity of SHA-1 based certificates after 2016
- “Since 2005 there have been known collision attacks (where multiple inputs can produce the same output), meaning that SHA-1 no longer meets the security standards for a producing a cryptographically secure message digest”
- Additional Coverage
- Jacob Appelbaum: RC4 is broken in real time by the #NSA – stop using it.
International Space Station infected by malware
- The Malware came aboard on a USB stick carried by a Russian Astronaut
- “Kaspersky revealed that Russian astronauts carried a removable device into space which infected systems on the space station. He did not elaborate on the impact of the infection on operations of the International Space Station (ISS).”
- “Kaspersky said he had been told that from time to time there were \”virus epidemics\” on the station.”
- Until recently, the dozens of laptops on the ISS all ran Windows XP
- Kaspersky also revealed that an unnamed Russian nuclear facility, which is also cut off from the public internet, was infected with the infamous Stuxnet malware.
- “Russian security expert Eugene Kaspersky has also told journalists that the infamous Stuxnet had infected an unnamed Russian nuclear plant and that in terms of cyber-espionage \”all the data is stolen globally… at least twice.\””
- Additional Coverage
Feedback:
Round Up:
- While the FAA will allow passengers to use Kindles during flight, European regulators will allow 3g and 4g broadband
- Backblaze Blog » How long do disk drives last?
- Skype investigating adding ‘typing suprression’
- Cisco threatening the open switch design coming from Facebook, Intel and Broadcom
- GCHQ created fake LinkedIn to comprimise specific users’ information
- Amazon offering virtualized workspaces started at $35 per month
- Netflix and Youtube now make up 50.2% of US traffic during peak time
- XSplit does password reset after apparent compromise