Google Chrome: Best security tips for safer browsing

There's a lot to like about Google Chrome's built-in security features.

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The browser offers unique sandboxing functions and privilege restrictions, and even updates itself in the background to help better protect you from hackers and malware.

But like all browsers, Chrome is imperfect, and there are steps you can take to protect it from attack.

Read the full article to see how to get the most from Chrome's built-in security features, and work around its security shortcomings.

Wells Fargo bank site attack disrupts service

Wells Fargo's online banking site was experiencing problems Tuesday, with a denial-of-service attack.

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This attack likely the reason behind the slowdowns for some customers trying to access the site.

This isn't the first time the bank site has been under a denial-of-service attack, where hackers inundate a website with traffic to delay or disrupt it.

Think your CU is safe? Think again.

Risk management becoming focus of bank boards

The majority of the boards of directors for large banks are spending significantly more time on risk management, according to a new survey.

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The survey, which was conducted in January using risk officers and directors at banks with more than $5 billion in assets, said 91 percent of those surveyed reported an increase in time devoted to risk management issues within board meetings over the last three years.

Seventy-two percent of risk officers and 63 percent of directors report that this time has doubled or tripled.

What is your board's position on risk management?

Hackers Set Time Bomb to Damage Targeted Banks and Broadcasters

The AhnLab Security Emergency Response Center (ASEC) and US headquarters of South Korea-based AhnLab confirmed a large series of cyber attacks that targeted banks and broadcasters in South Korea.

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AhnLab said that attackers used stolen user IDs and passwords to launch some of the attacks.

The credentials were used to gain access to individual patch management systems located on the affected networks.

Does your CU have control over your patch management system?

Mobile location data 'present anonymity risk'

Scientists say it is remarkably easy to identify a mobile phone user from just a few pieces of location information.

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But a study in Scientific Reports warns that human mobility patterns are so predictable it is possible to identify a user from only four data points.

Recent work has increasingly shown that humans' patterns of movement, however random and unpredictable they seem to be, are actually very limited in scope and can in fact act as a kind of fingerprint for who is doing the moving.

Does your CU let its employees use location features on their smartphones?

Internet Explorer 8 Exploit Found in Watering Hole Campaign Targeting Chinese Dissidents

On March 16th, FireEye discovered a premeditated waterhole campaign that hosts exploits and malware on websites frequented by a specific target group.

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The attack exploits a fresh vulnerability (CVE-2013-1288, MS13-021) in Internet Explorer 8—just four days after Microsoft released a patch.

Why did attackers use a fresh vulnerability? Cost could be a factor. Zero-days tend to be expensive to either research or purchase on black markets.

Has your CU applied this patch?

Free Android malware analysis tool

Bluebox Labs announced Dexter, a free tool to help researchers and enterprise security teams analyze applications for malware and vulnerabilities.

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The increasing popularity of the Android platform has resulted in an explosion of applications, but with shortened development cycles, many are released without proper security analysis.

This often leads to undetected malware making it to market along with the app.

Does your CU worry about mobile malware?

Increased spy access to Americans' banking data raises privacy concerns

Spy agencies like the CIA and NSA would have access to a database used to fight domestic financial crime under a proposal being drafted by the Obama Administration.

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The database, among other things, catalogs bank deposits of $10,000 or more made by American citizens and anyone else doing business with a U.S. bank.

Opening up the federal database, known as the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), to more government eyes would be a mistake, said J . Bradley Jansen, director of the Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights (CFPHR) in Washington, D.C.

What is your CU's position on this topic?

3G and 4G USB modems are a security threat, researcher says

The vast majority of 3G and 4G USB modems handed out by mobile operators to their customers are manufactured by a handful of companies and run insecure software, according to two security researchers from Russia.

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Researchers showed how to attack the 3G and 4G USB modems at Black Hat Europe.

The researchers tested the software preloaded on the modems and found multiple ways to attack it or to use it in attacks.

How many USB modems does your CU use?

House Oversight Committee floats FISMA update

The leadership of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee introduced a bill on March 14 to update federal information security regulations.

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The updated regulations are likely to include continuous monitoring of cybersecurity threats and regular threat assessments.

This update to FISMA will incorporate the last decade of technological innovation, while also addressing FISMA shortcomings realized over the past years.

Does your CU have to follow these rules?

The Dingo and the Baby

FireEye has been tracking an APT campaign for a while and we have noticed that this attack is currently active and targeting companies.

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In this case, the campaign uses the name of the company it targets in the CnC domain name.

What does this have to do with dingoes and babies? The title comes from a string that we saw in all of the malware, called LetsGo/Merong, and its variants.

Do you know where the dingo is?

Big Data Raises Authenticity Concerns

Big data is literally everywhere. It’s in the cloud and under the cloud, at rest and on the move, and growing at a mind-boggling rate.

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IBM, a leader in big data analytics, has estimated that organizations create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data each day — and that 90 percent of the data in the world has been created in the last two years alone.

Thanks to cloud computing, petabytes of unstructured data are created daily online and much of this information has an intrinsic business value if it can be captured and analyzed.

Does your CU have big data security issues?

RSA 2013 The Age Of Security Commercialism

Walking on the RSA 2013 show floor, it was a chaotic, noisy, and energetic place, pulsing with excitement.

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The week heading to the conference was interesting to say the least; with Java 0-days wreaking havoc on the Internet and the Mandiant report taking every major newspaper headline, RSA could not have had a better set-up.

After the dust (and the smoke) settled, the Forrester security team came away with a number of unique impressions and takeaways.

Read the full article to learn more.

SharePoint 2013 Challenges and Questions for CIOs

SharePoint 2013 arrives with a new user interface and new collaboration, search, storage and task management features.

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But gaps remain in areas like social and mobile, and upgrading and governing SharePoint is still rife with challenges.

Good Technology's GoodShare is part of a comprehensive mobile collaboration solution which brings SharePoint & NAS to the financial industry.

Does your CU want SharePoint on mobile?

Security tracker displays cyber attacks in real time

Around 200,000 new varieties of viruses, trojans and worms are developed each day worldwide.

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That makes preventive cyber security even more important and having transparency when it comes to current risk potential is decisive.

To help, Telekom has launched its online portal, www.sicherheitstacho.eu.

Would your CU benefit from this information?

DDoS Attacks on Banks Resume

Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters has launched a new wave of distributed-denial-of-service attacks against U.S. banks and credit unions, and experts say institutions can expect more incidents in the coming days.

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Hacktivists confirmed the attacks in a Feb. 26 post on the open forum Pastebin, claiming strikes against Bank of America, PNC Financial Services Group, Capital One, Zions Bank, Fifth Third, Union Bank, Comerica Bank, RBS Citizens Financial Group Inc. [dba Citizens Bank], People's United Bank, University Federal Credit Union, Patelco Credit Union and others.

Was your CU a target?

DDoS Becoming an Expensive Fact of Life

The ceasefire is over. Last week, on Feb. 25, the Cyber Fighters of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam renewed their Distributed Denial of Service attacks against U.S. financial institutions.

Image source: Flickr

That included again taking down the websites of two credit unions: the $1.5 billion University FCU in Austin, Texas, and Patelco, the $3.8 billion Pleasanton, Calif., institution.

What is new is that the conversation about how to respond to the industrial-grade DDoS unleashed by the Cyber Fighters is beginning to shift.

Is your CU ready to handle a DDoS?