Content by Mathew J. Schwartz

Report: OPM Breach Found During Demo

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  June 12, 2015

A massive breach at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management wasn't discovered by government sleuths - or the Einstein DHS intrusion detection system - but rather during a product demo, a new report says.

Inside the Inception APT Campaign

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  June 12, 2015

Christophe Birkeland, CTO of malware analysis for Blue Coat Systems, was part of the team that discovered the Russia-targeting Inception campaign, and says the hunt for new APT attacks remains ongoing.

White House, Apple Advance HTTPS

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  June 11, 2015

Encrypted browsing - using HTTPS - helps secure online communications, and Apple says developers must now employ the protocol by default. Likewise, the White House says that by 2017, all federal websites must adopt HTTPS-only policies.

Duqu 2.0 Espionage Malware Discovered

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  June 10, 2015

Kaspersky Lab has discovered a new, advanced persistent threat - inside its own networks. Dubbed Duqu 2.0, the malware has ties to Stuxnet, and was used to target Iranian nuclear negotiations, researchers say.

Breach Responders Get Proactive

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  June 10, 2015

Organizations are getting increasingly prioritizing incident response capabilities by putting investigation firms on retainer, or creating their own internal teams, says Patrick Morley, president and CEO of Bit9 + Carbon Black.

Duqu Teardown: Espionage Malware

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  June 10, 2015

For Symantec, the investigation into the Duqu 2 began May 29, when Kaspersky Lab shared samples of the espionage malware - which is based on Flame and Stuxnet - and asked the security researchers to help verify its findings.

Syrians Claim U.S. Army Website Hack

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  June 9, 2015

The Syrian Electronic Army claims credit for defacing the U.S. Army's public-facing website with propaganda. Following the June 8 hack, the Army took the website offline, pending related fixes.

OPM Breach: The Unanswered Questions

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  June 8, 2015

Many questions remain unanswered about the data breach at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management that may have exposed personal information for 4 million current and former government workers. Here's a closer look at seven of them.

Visualizing Security Metrics

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  June 8, 2015

"Show me your dashboard." That's a request security expert Gavin Millard regularly makes to CISOs to demonstrate how today's too-complex dashboards highlight the challenge of gathering and distilling essential security metrics.

Infosec Europe: Visual Journal

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  June 5, 2015

This year's Infosecurity Europe conference in London - celebrating its 20th anniversary - decamped from Earl's Court to the glass-topped, 19th-century Olympia Conference Center, and featured more than 300 exhibitors and 200 speakers.

How Banking Security Will Evolve

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  June 5, 2015

Financial services firms are increasingly applying contextual security tools to help identify fraud more quickly. But a shift to continuous authentication will provide even better security, says Vasco's Jan Valcke.

How Do We Catch Cybercrime Kingpins?

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  June 4, 2015

Law enforcement officials estimate that fewer than 200 people in the world build the core infrastructure and tools relied on by cybercriminals who would otherwise lack such capabilities. What's the best way to stop them?

Busting the Beebone Botnet

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  June 4, 2015

Intel Security cybercrime expert Raj Samani says that after the April disruption of the Beebone botnet by law enforcement agencies, researchers have found more infected nodes than normal, largely in Iran.

Behavioral Learning Secures Networks

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  June 3, 2015

To help organizations discover what they don't know is happening on their networks, Darktrace uses machine learning to create advanced baselines of normal behavior, then sounding alarms when it sees deviations.

Cybercrime: Niche Services Evolve

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  June 3, 2015

Cybercrime continues to evolve, offering an ever-increasing array of niche capabilities, ranging from attack techniques and infrastructure to related research and sales services, warns Trend Micro's Bharat Mistry.