What I'm Reading 3/17/2020 - It's All Coronavirus Economics and Ransomware Today Folks

Books -

Network Forensics Tracking Hackers Through Cyberspace

The Ten-Day MBA 4th Ed.: A Step-By-Step Guide To Mastering The Skills Taught In America's Top Business Schools

Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century

Blogs / News -

Al Jazeera - US says 'foreign' cyberattack aimed at sowing coronavirus fears -

 The Trump administration is alleging that a foreign disinformation campaign is under way aimed at spreading fear in the country amid the coronavirus pandemic, United States officials told The Associated Press news agency on Monday.

The United States Department of Health and Human Services suffered a cyberattack on Sunday night on the computer systems related to its coronavirus response, and administration officials believe it was part of a deliberate effort by a foreign entity to sow fear among US residents.

 Reuters - U.S. trade body opens patent probe after complaint by Ireland's Neodron -

The U.S. International Trade Commission said on Monday it would open an investigation into possible patent violations involving touch-controlled mobile phones, computers and computer parts by Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc and a slew of other companies following a complaint filed by Neodron Ltd of Ireland. 

CBC - Canada to bar entry to most travellers who are not citizens or permanent residents -

Canada is barring entry to all travellers who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced today — one of a set of extraordinary new measures being introduced to stop the spread of COVID-19.

There will be exceptions for air crew, diplomats, immediate family members of citizens and, "at this time," U.S. citizens, Trudeau said.

 New York Times - Some Ask a Taboo Question: Is America Overreacting to Coronavirus? -

As an America desperate to stem the coronavirus outbreak put in place sweeping restrictions last week on every facet of public life, the University of Wyoming economist Linda Thunstrom asked what felt like a taboo question: “Are we overreacting?’’

It helped that Dr. Thunstrom was in her kitchen, drinking coffee with her husband, Jason Shogren, a fellow economist who studies how much Americans are willing to pay to reduce risk of threats like terrorism, food-borne illness and climate change.

ZDNet - Most ransomware attacks take place during the night or over the weekend -

The vast majority of ransomware attacks targeting the enterprise sector occur outside normal working hours, during the night or over the weekend.

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The reason why attackers are choosing to trigger the ransomware encryption process during the night or weekend is because most companies don't have IT staff working those shifts, and if they do, they are most likely short-handed.

NYTimes - America’s Economy Begins to Shut Down as Pandemic Measures Take Hold -

On Wall Street, brokers and analysts were acting as if an economic collapse were inevitable, despite the Federal Reserve’s emergency moves on Sunday night to stoke economic growth through an aggressive bond-buying program. The S&P 500 fell nearly 12 percent on Monday and global oil prices slid below $30 a barrel, the lowest level in more than four years.

Class Central - 190 universities just launched 600 free online courses. Here’s the full list. -

Of interest to anyone reading this blog would be the Computer Science section.  Particularly the selections from the University of Colorado (Cloud Computing Security and DDoS Prevention courses), Cyber-Physical Networks from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, and all the Palo Alto Networks Courses.

The Atlantic - What If Andrew Yang Was Right? -

As the U.S. is scrambling to deal with the forced shuttering of restaurants, bars, theaters, and other businesses, even some fiscally conservative Republicans agree that giving money directly to people might be the best response. Today, Senator Mitt Romney proposed sending every U.S. adult a $1,000 check to help with short-term obligations—rent, groceries, whatever it may be. The idea sounded familiar to followers of the 2020 Democratic primary race, specifically those who have watched the businessman Andrew Yang—who ran an outsider campaign based on what he sees as the need for universal basic income, or UBI.

Sydney Morning Herald - 'As bad as the Great Depression': top economist's warning on coronavirus impact -

"The US economy is already in a recession - there is almost no doubt about that in my mind.

"Aggregate demand is falling off a cliff; we need to bring out an aggregate demand bazooka. We need to get cash into people's hands."

The Great Depression, which lasted from 1929 until the beginning of World War II, saw the unemployment rate hit 25 per cent in countries such as the US.

Wolfers said the US government should deliver cash payments to unemployed and under-employed workers as well as loans to small businesses to help keep them afloat until the outbreak is under control.

 Infosec Institute - Web server protection: Logs and web server security -

Web server logs are obviously only one tool that security professionals can use to attempt to mitigate the risk of attacks and respond when one does occur. While the practice of reviewing logs has evolved as more and more tools have become available to the security professional, ultimately they can only reveal part of the total picture that describes how and a cyberattack occurred, what may have been affected by it and who carried it out.

However, armed with results from manual and automated log reviews, security professionals can trace back IP addresses, identify which security holes were exploited and the types of information probed and possibly stolen so more advanced incident response activities can continue.

Security Boulevard - Why Traditional Security Is Failing Us -

While it may seem counterintuitive, growing reliance on technology is making companies more vulnerable. Both intruders from outside the network, as well as inside threats, are evolving with our defenses as connected devices proliferate and migration of sensitive data assets to the cloud present a lucrative target. With each technological advancement for business, assaults on our computing resources become more sophisticated as we broaden the attack surface.

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We need to stop playing catch up after the fact, and get ahead of the game and focus on what the bad actors actually want: the data. By understanding how our data flows, creating and enforcing policies that help to govern that flow while protecting the data in a place when it is not flowing should mean that threats to data can be reduced to nearly zero and digital trust can be restored.

Dark Reading - Many Ransomware Attacks Can be Stopped Before They Begin -

By spending time in a victim environment, malicious actors are often able to identify important assets, like backups and network segments storing valuable data and key systems that can be used to disseminate their ransomware widely. "This more effective targeting and deployment gives the threat actors more leverage against a victim, allowing them to demand higher ransoms and net higher profits," Vanderlee says. Post-compromise reconnaissance also provides attackers with additional opportunities for follow-on activity, like data theft for sale or extortion.

At the same time, though, the dwell time between initial compromise and ransomware deployment gives organizations a chance to neutralize the attack before it even has a chance to unfold,

This article is referencing the same Fireeye report that was talked about above.