What I'm Reading 5/12/2020 - North Korea Being Scamps Again

CISA - North Korean Malicious Cyber Activity -

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Department of Defense (DoD) have identified three malware variants—COPPERHEDGE, TAINTEDSCRIBE, and PEBBLEDASH—used by the North Korean government.

 Related - Cyberscoop - FBI, DHS to go public with suspected North Korean hacking tools -

The documents, which sources say contains 26 malware samples, appear to be the latest piece of a broader U.S. government effort to hold North Korea accountable for malicious hacking activities, and disrupt illicit fundraising efforts out of Pyongyang.

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A spokesperson for U.S. Cyber Command, the branch of the Pentagon responsible for offensive U.S. cyber-operations against foreign hackers, acknowledged that publicly identifying hacking efforts isn’t only about data protection. Some have taken the Department of Defense’s efforts to share old information as a way of signaling to foreign governments that their malicious activity online isn’t always anonymous.

“U.S. Cyber Command persistently releases malware attributed by DHS and FBI to enable defenses across our nation,” a spokesperson said. “Publicly disclosing malicious cyber activity imposes costs on countries who actively and illegally work against U.S. interests and our partners.”

Helpnet Security - (ISC)2 Professional Development Institute: Timely and continuing education opportunities -

We tailor these courses for those learners with a basic to intermediate knowledge of security concepts, so they can be informative and challenging to almost any learner. And the topics are also designed to be universal so that they apply to what anyone around the world is facing.

In addition to helping learners stay updated on the latest trends, PDI also offers an opportunity for members and associates of (ISC)² to obtain continuing professional education – or CPE – credits to keep their certifications in good standing at no additional cost. More than 100 CPEs can be earned by completing all the courses in the PDI portfolio. 

 Security Affairs - STAMINA, a new approach to malware detection by Microsoft, Intel -

The approach relies on a new technique that converts malware samples into grayscale images, then the process of detection is based on the image scanning for textural and structural patterns associated with malware samples.

“The approach was motivated by visual inspection of application binaries
plotted as grey-scale images: there are textural and structural similarities among malware from the same family and dissimilarities between malware and benign software as well as across different malware families.” continues the report.

Washington Post - Facebook is quietly helping to set up a new pro-tech advocacy group to battle Washington -

Facebook is working behind the scenes to help launch a new political advocacy group that would combat U.S. lawmakers and regulators trying to rein in the tech industry, escalating Silicon Valley’s war with Washington at a moment when government officials are threatening to break up large companies.

The organization is called American Edge, and it aims through a barrage of advertising and other political spending to convince policymakers that Silicon Valley is essential to the U.S. economy and the future of free speech, according to three people familiar with the matter as well as documents reviewed by The Washington Post. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the group because it hasn’t officially been announced.