The United States Department of Defense (DoD) has approved the Cisco Cyber Ops Associate Certification for the DoD 8570.01-M for the CSSP Analyst and CCSP Incident Responder categories. CBROPS 200-201 exam topics covered in this course: Network intrusion analysis. Security policies and procedures. Practice Exam Questions Included! Cyber Preparation CyberOps can assist your organisation to assess and improve your current cybersecurity resilience, through the use of mature security architectural, design, development, deployment, vulnerability testing and management techniques.
Hackers breached the Commerce Department, and reportedly have infiltrated the Treasury Department and other U.S. agencies, in incidents that government security officials said on Sunday that they were fighting to contain.
'We can confirm there has been a breach in one of our bureaus,' a Commerce Department spokesperson said. The spokesperson added that Commerce has asked the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency 'and the FBI to investigate, and we cannot comment further at this time.'
Reuters reported that foreign nation-backed hackers have been monitoring email traffic at the Treasury Department and Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and the attackers apparently used similar tools to breach other agencies. Killing floor 'london's finest character pack download torrent.
'The United States government is aware of these reports and we are taking all necessary steps to identify and remedy any possible issues related to this situation,' said John Ullyot, a spokesman for the White House's National Security Council.
NTIA has been breached and U.S. investigators suspected that other agencies have been, too, said a U.S. official familiar with the investigation. A common denominator in the malicious activity appears to be an interest in leveraging Microsoft 365, the person said. The FBI is on site responding to the NTIA breach, and U.S. Cyber Command is also assisting with the investigation, the official added.
'We have been working closely with our agency partners regarding recently discovered activity on government networks. CISA is providing technical assistance to affected entities as they work to identify and mitigate any potential compromises,' a CISA spokesperson said.
The Washington Post first reported that the Russian hacking group known as APT29, or Cozy Bear, was behind the campaign. The breaches were reportedly carried out on behalf of the Russian intelligence agency SVR. The same hacking group is suspected to be behind the breach at FireEye, announced last week.
The Treasury Department did not respond to requests for comment.
Sean Lyngaas contributed to this story.
The post Commerce Department breached as Treasury, others reportedly victimized by suspected Russian hackers appeared first on CyberScoop.
BlackBerry researchers on Friday revealed new details about a ransomware strain that emerged this summer that hackers are peddling as a ransomware service for hire.
It is unclear who exactly is behind the ransomware, called MountLocker. Within the last month, though, the scammers behind the ransomware have updated it several times in an effort to bypass detection, according to the researchers.
MountLocker, which security professionals initially uncovered in July, according to the U.K. National Health Service Digital, tends to encrypt targets' files like traditional ransomware strains. Affiliates now are using MountLocker to run extortion and blackmail schemes in an effort to compel larger payouts from victims, according to BlackBerry. In some cases, the ransom demands have been seven figures.
It's the latest ransomware strain to take part in the extortion tactic, which the FBI and security researchers have been warning about for months.
MountLocker affiliates have largely relied on commercially available tools, such as AdFind, to conduct network reconnaissance, and a hacking tool known as Cobalt Strike Beacon, to spread laterally in victim networks, according to BlackBerry.
Affiliates typically use remote desktop tools and stolen credentials to gain access to targets, researchers say. BlackBerry did not share specific details about the victims.
Prior reports suggested that the MountLocker hackers were behind a recent cyberattack against Sonoma Valley Hospital, though the hacking group has denied involvement, according to DataBreaches.net. Sonoma Valley Hospital attributed the attack to a suspected Russian 'threat actor' earlier this week.
Other reported victims include Swiss security firm Gunnebo, Germany-based ThyssenKrupp System Engineering, Germany-based biotechnology firm Miltenyi Biotec, U.S.-based manufacturer Memry and Taiwan-based Makalot, a garment manufacturer.
It is still early days for tracking MountLocker, says Allan Liska, an analyst at Recorded Future. 'While other ransomware actors boast dozens or hundreds of victims on their extortion site, MountLocker has yet to crack double digits,' Liska said.
MountLocker remains worth observing because it expands the playing field for hackers who are interested in leveraging ransomware against targets, according to Liska.
'The problem is more with the affiliates who participate in their [ransomware-as-a-service] program, they tend to be inexperienced, especially when compared to … other offerings,' Liska said. 'If the affiliates do manage to gain access the tools these teams use, such as AdFind and Cobalt Strike — tools used by most ransomware actors at this point — have become so easy to use that everything can be heavily scripted, giving even less experienced ransomware operators a chance at success.'
The BlackBerry researchers warned that the hackers have struck a range of targets, even if its public list of victims is much smaller. Dead effect 2 download free.
'The site is currently listing five victims; we believe the actual number to be far greater,' the researchers write. 'The MountLocker Operators are clearly just warming up. After a slow start in July they are rapidly gaining ground, as the high-profile nature of extortion and data leaks drive ransom demands ever higher.'
The post MountLocker ransomware hackers upgrade covert approach appeared first on CyberScoop.
A new 867th Cyberspace Operations Group stood up at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, on Sept. 18 to streamline the Air Force's cyber offense and defense, as well as its intelligence collection in the digital realm.
Sixteenth Air Force, which oversees information warfare in the service, provides cyber expertise to U.S. Cyber Command and others across the Pentagon. The new group answers to the 67th Cyberspace Wing and sits alongside the 67th, 318th, and 567th Cyberspace Operations Groups. It will oversee the 315th, 341st, 833rd, and 836th Cyberspace Operations Squadrons.
'We now have the ability to focus on two distinct mission sets,' Col. Lauren Courchaine, commander of the parallel 67th Cyberspace Operations Group, told Air Force Magazine on Sept. 17. 'While they're still both focusing on offensive cyberspace operations, [group Commander Col. Travis Howell] … has the ability to truly focus on the cyber national mission force and the prosecution of malicious cyber actors.'
Each of the military services offer cyber mission force teams to CYBERCOM for a range of offensive and defensive work, from protecting the integrity of U.S. elections to defending against hackers or assisting partner countries facing an influx of disinformation.
Howell's cyber national mission teams in the 867th COG 'defend the nation by identifying adversary activity, blocking [attacks], and maneuvering to defeat them,' according to the Defense Department. The services began training their teams in 2013, and all 133 teams became fully operational in 2018.
Howell said the reorganization shows the Air Force cyber staff is learning how to plan better for operations. It's an evolution that moves beyond simply organizing, training, and equipping cyber forces, he said.
Cyber Ops Specialist
'As the force was maturing, the teams were maturing, as CYBERCOM was coming together and maturing as a staff and putting out their orders to go execute, there was a … maturity issue at the operational level,' Howell said. 'What this opportunity affords now is that you have unity of command and force presentation, not only through my group but as well as Lauren's.'
While Howell handles those units, Courchaine can focus on what combatant commands around the world need, like protecting air defense systems from electronic attack. That means her Airmen in the 67th COG can spend more time gathering information on what bad actors are doing on digital networks and the electromagnetic spectrum, assessing security, and attacking when needed.
BlackBerry researchers on Friday revealed new details about a ransomware strain that emerged this summer that hackers are peddling as a ransomware service for hire.
It is unclear who exactly is behind the ransomware, called MountLocker. Within the last month, though, the scammers behind the ransomware have updated it several times in an effort to bypass detection, according to the researchers.
MountLocker, which security professionals initially uncovered in July, according to the U.K. National Health Service Digital, tends to encrypt targets' files like traditional ransomware strains. Affiliates now are using MountLocker to run extortion and blackmail schemes in an effort to compel larger payouts from victims, according to BlackBerry. In some cases, the ransom demands have been seven figures.
It's the latest ransomware strain to take part in the extortion tactic, which the FBI and security researchers have been warning about for months.
MountLocker affiliates have largely relied on commercially available tools, such as AdFind, to conduct network reconnaissance, and a hacking tool known as Cobalt Strike Beacon, to spread laterally in victim networks, according to BlackBerry.
Affiliates typically use remote desktop tools and stolen credentials to gain access to targets, researchers say. BlackBerry did not share specific details about the victims.
Prior reports suggested that the MountLocker hackers were behind a recent cyberattack against Sonoma Valley Hospital, though the hacking group has denied involvement, according to DataBreaches.net. Sonoma Valley Hospital attributed the attack to a suspected Russian 'threat actor' earlier this week.
Other reported victims include Swiss security firm Gunnebo, Germany-based ThyssenKrupp System Engineering, Germany-based biotechnology firm Miltenyi Biotec, U.S.-based manufacturer Memry and Taiwan-based Makalot, a garment manufacturer.
It is still early days for tracking MountLocker, says Allan Liska, an analyst at Recorded Future. 'While other ransomware actors boast dozens or hundreds of victims on their extortion site, MountLocker has yet to crack double digits,' Liska said.
MountLocker remains worth observing because it expands the playing field for hackers who are interested in leveraging ransomware against targets, according to Liska.
'The problem is more with the affiliates who participate in their [ransomware-as-a-service] program, they tend to be inexperienced, especially when compared to … other offerings,' Liska said. 'If the affiliates do manage to gain access the tools these teams use, such as AdFind and Cobalt Strike — tools used by most ransomware actors at this point — have become so easy to use that everything can be heavily scripted, giving even less experienced ransomware operators a chance at success.'
The BlackBerry researchers warned that the hackers have struck a range of targets, even if its public list of victims is much smaller. Dead effect 2 download free.
'The site is currently listing five victims; we believe the actual number to be far greater,' the researchers write. 'The MountLocker Operators are clearly just warming up. After a slow start in July they are rapidly gaining ground, as the high-profile nature of extortion and data leaks drive ransom demands ever higher.'
The post MountLocker ransomware hackers upgrade covert approach appeared first on CyberScoop.
A new 867th Cyberspace Operations Group stood up at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, on Sept. 18 to streamline the Air Force's cyber offense and defense, as well as its intelligence collection in the digital realm.
Sixteenth Air Force, which oversees information warfare in the service, provides cyber expertise to U.S. Cyber Command and others across the Pentagon. The new group answers to the 67th Cyberspace Wing and sits alongside the 67th, 318th, and 567th Cyberspace Operations Groups. It will oversee the 315th, 341st, 833rd, and 836th Cyberspace Operations Squadrons.
'We now have the ability to focus on two distinct mission sets,' Col. Lauren Courchaine, commander of the parallel 67th Cyberspace Operations Group, told Air Force Magazine on Sept. 17. 'While they're still both focusing on offensive cyberspace operations, [group Commander Col. Travis Howell] … has the ability to truly focus on the cyber national mission force and the prosecution of malicious cyber actors.'
Each of the military services offer cyber mission force teams to CYBERCOM for a range of offensive and defensive work, from protecting the integrity of U.S. elections to defending against hackers or assisting partner countries facing an influx of disinformation.
Howell's cyber national mission teams in the 867th COG 'defend the nation by identifying adversary activity, blocking [attacks], and maneuvering to defeat them,' according to the Defense Department. The services began training their teams in 2013, and all 133 teams became fully operational in 2018.
Howell said the reorganization shows the Air Force cyber staff is learning how to plan better for operations. It's an evolution that moves beyond simply organizing, training, and equipping cyber forces, he said.
Cyber Ops Specialist
'As the force was maturing, the teams were maturing, as CYBERCOM was coming together and maturing as a staff and putting out their orders to go execute, there was a … maturity issue at the operational level,' Howell said. 'What this opportunity affords now is that you have unity of command and force presentation, not only through my group but as well as Lauren's.'
While Howell handles those units, Courchaine can focus on what combatant commands around the world need, like protecting air defense systems from electronic attack. That means her Airmen in the 67th COG can spend more time gathering information on what bad actors are doing on digital networks and the electromagnetic spectrum, assessing security, and attacking when needed.
'Under one chain of command, I have intelligence Airmen sitting next to cyberspace Airmen sitting next to developers and acquisition professionals,' she said. 'There is a constant … loop of innovation and refinement of not only capabilities, but thoughts and operations.'
Cyber Ops
That was happening before the Sept. 18 realignment, but Courchaine argues missions weren't as effective as they could be because cyber-focused intel personnel were pulled between two different commanders in the 67th Cyberspace Wing and 70th Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Wing.
Howell, who until recently served as CYBERCOM's current operations division chief, said the information warfare field needs to think differently than it did 10 years ago in the early stage of the cyber mission forces.
The 867th COG and CYBERCOM both want Airmen to have an evolving skill set that matches the rapidly changing digital era, possibly with career fields and training that look different from what currently exists. The cyber enterprise wants to move past the traditional means of intelligence collection—tracking things like online communication and surveilling networks—and do more with publicly available information like social media posts and GPS tracking.
'We're not there yet as a service to look at the capacity of those Airmen and those career fields and do that realignment, but I think that is where we need to start asking some hard questions about, can we get there as a service?' Howell said.
Airmen are still fairly new to thinking about how digital information can translate into military action in the physical world. In an era where adversaries can track military personnel's habits through apps like the workout mapper Strava or the brewery logger Untappd, the Air Force wants to improve its training and software so it can do the same.
As demand for their skills continues to grow, the 67th Cyberspace Wing and its organizations are trying to do better for the Joint Force while combating burnout. It's tough to recruit new cyber operators when people can get more money and job flexibility in the private sector, so the force is making do with the manpower and resources it has amid an election season and global pandemic.
The 67th COG has seen fewer than five coronavirus cases so far, Courchaine said, and they're trying to keep it that way.
'We're working 24/7/365 and I have crews that, in some respects, are the experts not only in the Air Force, but in the Department of Defense, so I have to make sure that I can maintain that capacity,' Courchaine said. 'We've done things like make sure that we have cots and sleeping bags and [meals ready to eat] in the event that there is a large outbreak of COVID and that I have to deploy my Airmen in place so that I can maintain mission readiness.'
'We've really had to put our arms around their families as well and find ways that we can still maintain the resiliency of the family unit so that our members can wake up every day and go do a very, very important mission,' she added.
