Media Coverage

According to a new report by Trend Micro, the North American cyber criminal underground isn't buried as deep as in other geographies.

“The reality is the sector as a whole is dealing with a cyber crime wave,” said Tom Kellermann, chief cyber security officer at Trend Micro, which sells security software.

The Chinese cybercrime underground has evolved to feature search engines to help darknet users find leaked data, and ATM and POS skimmers to capitalize on the growing consumer trend for non-cash payments, according to Trend Micro.

The Chinese cybercrime underground has evolved to feature search engines to help darknet users find leaked data, and ATM and POS skimmers to capitalize on the growing consumer trend for non-cash payments, according to Trend Micro.

However, this decline is not necessarily a positive indicator, according to Christopher Budd, threat communications manager with Trend Micro, the global cloud security company that issued the report, "Follow the Data: Dissecting Data Breaches and Debunking Myths."

However, this decline is not necessarily a positive indicator, according to Christopher Budd, threat communications manager with Trend Micro, the global cloud security company that issued the report, "Follow the Data: Dissecting Data Breaches and Debunking Myths."

"The security landscape is very fragmented and very discombobulated with regard to encryption," said Paul Ferguson, a threat research advisor at Trend Micro. "There doesn't seem to be a lot of coherency, to the point where end users are confused and don't know how to properly protect themselves."

Data stolen from the targets might also have been shared with others in Russia, if that is where the hacker is working, for his own protection, said Tom Kellermann, chief cybersecurity officer for Trend Micro Inc. "This is not over," Kellermann said. "The real question now is how many backdoors are still in these systems that have yet to be detected."

"This iteration of ransomware targeting Linux servers is an escalation," said Paul Ferguson, a senior threat research advisor at Trend Micro.

The media processing layer is prone to vulnerabilities and attacks, said Trend Micro’s Christopher Budd. The operating system takes the data from Web services and executes it as a lower-level process, and handling the shift correctly can be tricky. It is easy to introduce mistakes in this layer.

But Tom Kellermann, chief cybersecurity officer at the security firm Trend Micro, says the timing of the announcement makes sense, given the Angler and Nuclear zero-day malware exploit kits now in widespread use. "I was at the [Oct. 25-28] FS-ISAC Fall Summit, and I think the presentations woke up regulators," he says.

The security flaw was discovered in mid-October, when it was found being exploited by the Russia-linked Pawn Storm threat group in attacks aimed at Foreign Affairs Ministries. The vulnerability affects all Flash releases up to version 19.0.0.226 for Mac and Windows, and Flash Player 11.2.202.540 for Linux, and was discovered by researchers at Trend Micro.

Law enforcement traditionally has struggled to chase down cybercriminals who use ransomware, said Marco Balduzzi, a senior security engineer and researcher at Trend Micro, who researches the dark Web.

Trend Micro plans to integrate the company to create a network defense unit for enterprise clients.

The enterprise IT industry continues to get its ducks in line. On the heels of Dell buying EMC for $67 billion, Western Digital buying SanDisk for $19 billion and rumblings of more M&A to come, HP is moving out of owning assets in the network security business. Today the company announced that it will sell TippingPoint — a provider of next-generation intrusion systems and network security solutions — to security specialist Trend Micro

The FBI and Secret Service are investigating reports that the personal account of CIA Director John Brennan may have been hacked by a teenager. Tom Kellerman, former Commissioner on President Obama’s Cyber Security Commission and Dave Chronister, Founder of Parameter.

The CVE-2015-7645 vulnerability is actively exploited by the Pawn Storm group in attacks targeting several foreign affairs ministries from around the globe, security researchers from Trend Micro reported Tuesday.

Such hardening could be accomplished by attackers shifting their operations to using "no questions asked" bulletproof hosting services, says Tom Kellermann, chief cybersecurity officer at threat-intelligence firm Trend Micro. "I believe Evil Corp will be back in operation by month's end, [with] ... bulletproof hosting and the protection-racket state of Eastern Europe facilitating this," he says.

The newfound exploit was discovered by the security intelligence lab at Trend Micro. This site offers links to disable Flash in every web browser you have.

The email was descibed by researchers at Trend Micro as being as very well executed, saying it includes the PayPal logo, passable German, some basic clean design and some recipients were likely convinced into installing the app. Trend Micro reports that the malicious app is not currently on the Google Play Store and says that this is where the Android setting that disallows the installation of non-Market applications can really save users.

The Scottrade breach could increase the potential for brokerage fraud, says Tom Kellermann, chief cybersecurity officer at threat-intelligence firm Trend Micro. "Cybercriminals understand the financial sector more than we give them credit for," he says. "As we have realized this year, hackers are pursuing front-running and virtual-insider trading schemes."

According to Christopher Budd, a global threat communications manager at security firm Trend Micro, the inability to protect sensitive data despite encryption efforts suggests the hack could be bigger than initially thought.

The earlier Stagefright flaws prompted researchers to probe Android's multimedia processing libraries for additional vulnerabilities. Researchers from antivirus vendor Trend Micro have since found and reported multiple issues in these components.

Access to these accounts can go for exorbitant fees on the black market, said Tom Kellermann, chief cybersecurity officer at security research firm Trend Micro, which released a report last year on Pawn Storm, a likely Russia-based cyber espionage campaign snooping on government officials.

Trend Micro's Raimund Genes on Building Effective Defense Strategies