Operation Aurora

The New Reality of Stealth Crimeware

Anyone who has been in information security recently knows that it has gotten easier for cybercriminals to build stealth crimeware. The malware we deal with on a regular basis grows ever more difficult to find, while high-end targeted attacks such as Stuxnet and other advanced persistent threats (APTs, the abbreviation I hate) are using ever Read more…

Tags: advanced persistent threats, APT, crimeware, Cybercrime, Data Protection, Endpoint Protection, identity protection, malware, Network Security, Operation Aurora, rootkit, Rootkits, security, Stuxnet

Lockheed Martin, EMC, Sony: Design Inner Security Layer assuming Outer Layer is already breached.

The recent security breach at Lockheed Martin confirmed that the attacks we saw with Operation Aurora, identified by McAfee, and Stuxnet are just the beginning of a new era of targeted attacks. Cybercriminals are now executing the perfect plan to get closer to their target without raising any red flags. In the case of Operation Read more…

Tags: Lockheed Martin, malware, Night Dragon, Operation Aurora, Stuxnet, targeted attacks, Whitelisting, Zero-Day

Google Disclosure Spotlights Phishing Scams

Google’s unusual disclosure on Wednesday that e-mail accounts of prominent Gmail users had been compromised puts the spotlight on a very common online scam: phishing scams. Phishing is a way of persuading Internet users to give up sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details. The scammers masquerade as a trustworthy entity in Read more…

Tags: Consumer, Cybercrime, Data Protection, Family Safety, Operation Aurora

Defense In Depth: Protecting From The Inside Out

Something Changed With Aurora Even before the China centered Operation Aurora attack (a.k.a. Google attacks) in which hackers broke into numerous high-profile organizations in the US to steal highly confidential information, I had been warning customers (and anyone in ear shot quite frankly) of the most effective strategies to protect against the deluge of advanced Read more…

Tags: data breach, database activity monitoring, database security, enterprise, intellectual property, Night Dragon, Operation Aurora, Sentrigo acquisition

Industry-Government Collaboration: Our Best Defense

I had the privilege of speaking before the House Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies at a hearing titled “Examining the Cyber Threat to Critical Infrastructure and the American Economy.” I was pleased to have the opportunity to provide McAfee’s perspective on the threats that face our nation’s infrastructure, as well as provide Read more…

Tags: critical infrastructure, Cybercrime, enterprise, Mid-Market, Night Dragon, Operation Aurora, Public Sector, Risk and Compliance

Global Energy Industry Hit In “Night Dragon” Attacks

In 2010 McAfee Labs processed an average of almost 55,000 pieces of new malware every day. That nearly mind-numbing amount makes it difficult for any particular attack to stand out. Today, however, I want to highlight one large scale attack that is a clear example of how cybercrime has evolved from something of a hobbyist Read more…

Tags: critical infrastructure, Cybercrime, enterprise, malware, Network Security, Night Dragon, Operation Aurora

Moving Forward, Looking Back

The New Year is already in full swing and as always, we at McAfee are working hard to anticipate and prepare our customers for potential threats. The year 2010 had many major cybersecurity incidents, including Operation Aurora and the Stuxnet virus, showing the sophisticated ways in which dangerous people seek to exploit information systems. These incidents Read more…

Tags: Cybercrime, Data Protection, Dave DeWalt, enterprise, government, Operation Aurora, Public Sector, Stuxnet, wikileaks

Cybercrime, Hacktivism, Cyberterrorism Hot Topics at McAfee’s Focus10

Yesterday I presented on Cybercrime, Hacktivism and Cyberterrorism with one of McAfee Labs’ most senior and well respected researchers, Francois Paget. This was a very different session in a number of ways. First, of all it was completely unrelated to product or technology–there really are no Anti-Hacktivism or Anti-Cyberterrorism plug-ins. OK, cybercrime takes many threat Read more…

Tags: critical infrastructure, Cybercrime, Data Protection, global threat intelligence, government, malware, Operation Aurora, Public Sector, Risk and Compliance, vulnerability

Malware Rises, Zeus Goes Mobile, Stuxnet Confuses in Recent Quarter

Looking at computer threats from quarter to quarter remains a busy experience for us at McAfee Labs. Through the first three quarters of the year we have analyzed and cataloged more threats than in all other years combined, and the growth in both volume and sophistication of malware and attacks shows no signs of slowing. Read more…

Tags: botnet, critical infrastructure, Cybercrime, data breach, Data Protection, Email & Web Security, encryption, Endpoint Protection, facebook, global threat intelligence, Hacktivism, malware, Mobile, Operation Aurora, phishing, privacy, seo abuse, social networking, social networks, spam, sql attacks, Stuxnet, twitter, vulnerability, Web 2.0, zeus

FOCUS 10: Predictive Detection to Cyberterrorism

McAfee just hosted its third FOCUS security conference in Las Vegas. I greatly enjoyed the 2008 and 2009 events, and I’ve just returned from the 2010 conference. Of course, I did not miss the keynotes sessions from our CEO Dave DeWalt and President Bill Clinton. Both were excellent: Our boss explained the “McAfee 3.0” strategy Read more…

Tags: critical infrastructure, Cybercrime, data breach, Data Protection, Dave DeWalt, global threat intelligence, government, malware, McAfee, McAfee Initiative to Fight Cybercrime, Operation Aurora, Public Sector, Web 2.0