What I'm Reading 2/7/2020

CNN- Democrats whine while Republicans govern -

For 10 years (the last two of former President George W. Bush's term and all eight of former President Barack Obama's administration), conservatives waited for a chance to again govern the country in full. The pent-up demand to rebalance the federal judiciary, cut taxes, reign in government regulation and generally steer the country back to the right cannot be underestimated and remains a powerful driver of GOP unity in the Trump era.

I know a lot of my imaginary readers are outraged right now, but this is from CNN not Fox.  That's why I found it amazing.

CNN - This Britney Spears pop-up lets fans relive her most iconic moments -

The Zone: Britney Spears is an interactive pop-up museum and retail experience in Los Angeles. The pop-up features the music videos and outfits of the pop icon's most successful years of her career.

The Zone, which runs till April 26, honors Spears in 10 rooms inside a 30,000-square-foot space, each designed to mimic a different Spears video or musical era.

Yahoo - California lawmaker introduces bill making voting mandatory -

On Tuesday, Assemblyman Marc Levine (D) introduced Assembly Bill 2070, making voting mandatory. "Democracy is not a spectator sport — it requires the active participation of all its citizens," Levine said in a statement. "California is a national leader on expanding voting rights to its citizens. Those rights come with a responsibility by registered voters to cast their ballot and make sure that their voice is heard by their government."

Yahoo -  Exclusive: FBI document reveals local and state police are collecting intelligence to expand terrorism watch list -

Despite a federal judge’s ruling last September that the U.S. government’s terror watch list violates constitutional rights, an FBI report obtained by Yahoo News shows local and state law enforcement agencies are being used to gather intelligence on individuals to collect information about those already in the database. 

Reuters - U.S. appeals court will not reconsider net neutrality repeal ruling -

In orders issued Thursday, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia declined without comment to rehear the decision, as did the three-judge panel that issued the ruling in October.

I know I am alone in this but I feel there is far more danger from companies like Google, Amazon, and Facebook monopolizing control over content that there is from Comcast offering paid fast lanes.

TrustedSec - Why We Are Launching the TrustedSec Sysmon Community Guide -

There is currently no detailed documentation of Sysmon and only a handful of examples are included on the download page. It has been a community effort to examine new releases of the tool and share applications of new features, as well as understand the rules and filters as functionality changes. At TrustedSec, we see the value of Sysmon, recognizing the flexibility and benefits it can provide to our customers as part of a series of recommendations for improving security. Because of this, we have created a general guide to Sysmon to help the community with leveraging this tool

Infosec Institute - Access Control Implementation in ICS -

Both NIST and CIS address ways to implement access controls in ICS environments. They have similar implementation ideas and requirements. Takeaways from both include:

• Implement multi-factor authentication

• Enforce use of a 14+ character password or password with capitals, special characters and numbers

• Remove all default admin accounts

• Force admin users to only use admin accounts when necessary and use standard user accounts when performing non administrative functions (if applicable)

• Automate alerts for when new accounts are created

• Use shared accounts and passwords only when necessary

• Create a process for changing shared account passwords and deleting accounts immediately upon termination of any workforce member 

• Remove applications leveraging clear text authentication or basic security authentication Where not possible, use unique credential sets and monitor their usage

• Enforce complex passwords

• Automatically lock accounts after periods of inactivity

• Use a SIEM or other automated tool to monitor and analyze audit logs

• Compartmentalize sensitive data and implement ACLs

Endgadget - Attorney general thinks US should buy controlling stake in Nokia, Ericsson -

"There are only two companies that can compete with Huawei right now: Nokia and Ericsson," Barr said in a speech (as reported by AFP) on China as an economic threat. "Putting our large market and financial muscle behind one or both of these firms would make it a far more formidable competitor and eliminate concerns over its staying power."

More specifically, Barr said that there were already a few proposals being discussed that involve the US to aligning itself with Nokia and/or Ericsson through either American ownership of a controlling stake or through a "consortium or private American and allied companies."

Cyberscoop - Feds are lining up more indictments related to Chinese cyber-activity, officials say -

“Chinese theft by hacking has been prominent,” Attorney General William Barr said in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. “Those actions by China are continuing, and you should expect more indictments and prosecutions in the future.”

Threatpost - U.S. Finance Sector Hit with Targeted Backdoor Campaign -

The financial services sector in the U.S. found itself under a barrage of cyberattacks last month, all bent on delivering a powerful backdoor called Minebridge. The attack chain employed a known method called “VBS Stomping” to avoid detection.

According to researchers at FireEye, the campaigns, aimed at enabling further malware infections and espionage efforts, were initiated via phishing emails with attached documents containing malicious macros. The emails were coming from fake domains that were geared to add legitimacy to the messages, resulting in a convincing theme running throughout the proceedings.