Beta Systems Signs Xband Enterprises as first US-based partner for IAM Solutions

26/02/2019 - Corporate, IAM, Press release 

Berlin / McLean, VA, February 26, 2019 - Beta Systems IAM Software AG continues its expansion in North America. The new partner, Xband Enterprises, headquartered in Andover, Massachusetts, delivers high-speed internet hosting services and cloud-based solutions worldwide. For Beta Systems, this is a major step in introductions of the next-generation IAM solutions to the US market, focused on the needs of the business user.

“We are absolutely delighted to be the first U.S. based company enabled by Beta Systems as a Cloud Integration Partner. Xband Enterprises will expand its cyber portfolio to offer hardened Identity & Access Management solutions that will help protect our clients from the ever changing cyber threat landscape.  For 37 years Beta Systems has served clients with strategic solutions. This partnership enables us the foundation to help our customers achieve compliance requirements while adapting to the ever changing needs of the cloud. Beta Systems Identity and Access Management Garancy Suite coupled with our patented keystroke encryption is the strongest Identity and Access Management solution that prevents loss of credentials from Zero-day keyloggers”, said CEO of Xband Enterprises; Troy Cromwell. “We look forward to expanding our client base and offerings with Beta Systems.“

“The addition of Xband Enterprises to our distribution channel in the US is key to future success in the marketplace. With Xband’s forward-thinking services, their customers can now experience IAM as a key component of an overall cyber strategy”, said Walter Teichert, Director of International Sales. “We’re confident that Xband’s current and future customers will appreciate the business-driven approach to IAM in our Garancy suite.”

The Beta Systems IAM Software AG is the largest independent European provider of identity and access management solutions (IAM) for businesses. For more than 35 years, Beta Systems has supported its financial services, manufacturing, trading and IT services customers with software development and support "Made in Germany".

Tailored access control solutions for large international organizations are aligned with compliance regulations. Beta Systems IAM Software AG is a wholly owned subsidiary of Beta Systems Software AG.

Further information and details on Beta Systems IAM Software AG are available at https://www.betasystems-iam.com.

Further information and details about Xband Enterprise are available at https://www.xbandnetworks.com

https://www.betasystems.com/en/news/news/detail/article/beta-systems-signs-xband-enterprises-as-first-us-based-partner-for-iam-solutions.html

Avira Password Manager: Making order out of password chaos

Press release Monday, November 5, 2018

Tettnang, Germany, November 5, 2018 – Avira is proud to introduce the newly updated Avira Password Manager, dedicated to cleaning up the confusing mess of passwords and account login details: making passwords more secure, easier mobile autofill capabilities, instant alerts for stolen personal data, and still completely for your eyes only. 

Remembering secure passwords is a problem

Unless you are a savant, blessed with an incredible memory for random combinations of numbers, letters, and symbols—you are probably not exercising good password management. It simply is not possible for most people to remember a collection of truly secure passwords for their bank, social media, and other online accounts.

Bad password management is much more than a lost sticky note. Weak and stolen passwords are leveraged in 81% of all data theft. * Although people know that weak and recycled passwords leave them vulnerable to brute force attacks and “credential stuffing” attacks where hackers try out known username and password combinations, more than 60% of device users share the same password across multiple accounts and many choose easy-to-guess passwords.

Insecurity starts in the memory

Recent data collected by IBM Security shows that the younger you are, the more likely you are to use fewer and less secure passwords. For example, the younger Generation Z (age 18-24) is using an average of just 5 passwords, but only 39% are bothering to make a secure password with a mix of characters, symbols, and capitalization, and a huge 42% are reusing passwords between their various accounts. This “always online” generation should know better. Their elders (age 55+) have an average of 12 passwords in their day-to-day regime. Almost half are making the effort to create a complex password and only 31% say they reuse passwords between accounts.

“I have 219 combinations of usernames and passwords for different web-sites I use every day. Being in the security industry I know how dangerous using the same combination or easy passwords can be, as the username is quite often the same email address”, said Travis Witteveen, Avira CEO. “An effective password manager, not just ensures I have a unique combination, but it also warns me if a site has been compromised and my credentials may be at risk. Since the new autofill functionality on iOS, it has never been easier to keep my login credentials with me, regardless of the device I’m using.”

Password management that goes beyond the password

“A password manager should do much more than simply remember passwords,” said Tim Gaiser, Director Identity Protection at Avira. “A good password manager does three primary things: keeps all passwords safe and accessible on all my devices, takes over the problem of creating and remembering unhackable passwords for all my accounts, and clarifies my online security with tips and alerts in case of potential data breaches.”

1. Keep that password secure (and all to yourself)

Avira Password Manager only needs you to set a single Master Password and it will take care of the rest: helping import existing passwords, creating new secure ones, and syncing this data between your devices.

You are the only person who knows the Master Password; even Avira has no access to it. With the two-factor authentication for your Avira account, passwords are secured even more. 

2. Improve yourself with Security Status

The new Security Status feature provides a complete picture of your online security. The Security Status flags your attempts to recycle passwords and grades passwords for their complexity and strength. You also get an automatic warning if your accounts have been hacked or passwords have been misused. Thanks to Avira’s deep knowledge of infected sites, you are alerted before you can enter your private data into a hacked or deceptive website. 

3. Make it easy to act securely

Avira Password Manager makes it easy to act securely by placing all password-protected accounts in a single solution—regardless if you are on your PC or smartphone. The autofill function saves user time and slashes the number of potential data entry errors whether you are on a smartphone or home computer. As a cloud-based solution, it works even if you are running a device based on Android, iOS, MacOS, or Windows operating systems. All changes made to the saved password data are automatically synced and accessible to other devices in the family network. User data can now be organized in tags. In addition to passwords, the app keeps other sensitive data secure, encrypted, and accessible—making it easier to log in to other websites and apps.

Step up into the Avira Password Manager

The basic Avira Password Manager is completely free.  Avira Password Manager Pro comes with a wider range of features such as Security Status. Users can register or log in to the web dashboard and download the mobile solution and browser extensions (needed to enable autofill in web browsers) at:  https://www.avira.com/en/avira-password-manager-pro

(*) Verizon 2017 Data Breach Investigations Report

(**) Avira online survey conducted in August 2018 within Germany with 718 respondents having an age range of 20-65.

https://www.avira.com/en/press-details/nid/1208/news/avira-password-manager-making-order-out-of-password-chaos

January 2019’s Most Wanted Malware: A Significant New Threat Speaks Up

Press release

Check Point’s researchers detect growth of ‘SpeakUp’ – a new Linux backdoor which is spreading the XMRig crypto-mining malware

SAN CARLOS, CA  —  Wed, 13 Feb 2019

Check Point® Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: CHKP), a leading provider of cyber-security solutions globally, has published its latest Global Threat Index for January 2019. The index reveals a new backdoor Trojan affecting Linux servers, which is distributing the XMRig crypto-miner. The new malware, dubbed SpeakUp, is capable of delivering any payload and executing it on compromised machines.

The new Trojan currently evades all security vendors’ anti-virus software. It has been propagated through a series of exploitations based on commands it receives from its control center, including the 8th most popular exploited vulnerability, “Command Injection over HTTP”. Check Point’s researchers view Speakup as a significant threat, as it can be used to download and spread any malware.

In January, the top 4 most prevalent malware variants were cryptominers. Coinhive remains the top malware, impacting 12% of organizations worldwide. XMRig was once again the second most prevalent malware with a global impact of 8%, followed by Cryptoloot miner with an impact of 6% of organizations globally. While there are four cryptominers in January’s index, half of all malware forms in the top ten can be used to download further malware to infected machines.

Maya Horowitz, Threat Intelligence Group Manager at Check Point commented:  “While January saw little change in the malware forms aimed at enterprises worldwide, we are beginning to see new ways to distribute malware. Threats like these are a stark warning of bigger threats to come. Backdoors like Speakup can evade detection and then distribute further, potentially more dangerous malware to compromised machines. Since Linux is used extensively in enterprise servers, we expect Speakup will be a threat that will grow in scale and severity throughout the year.”

January 2019’s Top 3 ‘Most Wanted’ Malware:

*The arrows relate to the change in rank compared to the previous month.

1. ↔ Coinhive – Crypto Miner designed to perform online mining of Monero cryptocurrency when a user visits a web page without the user’s knowledge or approval the profits with the user. The implanted JavaScript uses a great deal of the computational resources of end users’ machines to mine coins, and may crash the system.
2. ↔ XMRig– Open-source CPU mining software used for the mining process of the Monero cryptocurrency, and first seen in-the-wild on May 2017.
3. ↑ Cryptoloot – Crypto-Miner that uses the victim’s CPU or GPU power and existing resources for crypto mining – adding transactions to the blockchain and releasing new currency. It is a competitor to Coinhive, trying to pull the rug under it by asking a smaller percentage of revenue from websites.

Hiddad, the modular backdoor for Android which grants privileges to downloaded malware, has replaced Triada at first place in the top mobile malware list. Lotoor follows in second place, while Triada has fallen to third place.

January’s Top 3 ‘Most Wanted’ Mobile Malware:

1. Hiddad – Modular Backdoor for Android which grants super user privileges to downloaded malware, as helps it to get embedded into system processes.
2. Lotoor– Hack tool that exploits vulnerabilities on Android operating system in order to gain root privileges on compromised mobile devices.
3. Triada – Modular Backdoor for Android which grants super user privileges to downloaded malware, as helps it to get embedded into system processes. Triada has also been seen spoofing URLs loaded in the browser.

Check Point researchers also analyzed the most exploited cyber vulnerabilities. CVE-2017-7269 remained in first place with a global impact of 47%. Following closely behind, Web Server Exposed Git Repository Information Disclosure was in second place and OpenSSL TLS DTLS Heartbeat Information Disclosure followed in third, impacting 46% and 45% of organizations around the world respectively.

January’s Top 3 ‘Most Exploited’ vulnerabilities:

1. ↔ Microsoft IIS WebDAV ScStoragePathFromUrl Buffer Overflow (CVE-2017-7269) – By sending a crafted request over a network to Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 through Microsoft Internet Information Services 6.0, a remote attacker could execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service conditions on the target server. That is mainly due to a buffer overflow vulnerability resulted by improper validation of a long header in HTTP request.
2. ↑ Web Server Exposed Git Repository Information Disclosure– An information disclosure vulnerability has been reported in Git Repository. Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an unintentional disclosure of account information.
3. ↓ OpenSSL TLS DTLS Heartbeat Information Disclosure (CVE-2014-0160; CVE-2014-0346) – An information disclosure vulnerability exists in OpenSSL. The vulnerability is due to an error when handling TLS/DTLS heartbeat packets. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to disclose memory contents of a connected client or server.

Check Point’s Global Threat Impact Index and its ThreatCloud Map is powered by Check Point’s ThreatCloud intelligence, the largest collaborative network to fight cybercrime which delivers threat data and attack trends from a global network of threat sensors. The ThreatCloud database holds over 250 million addresses analyzed for bot discovery, more than 11 million malware signatures and over 5.5 million infected websites, and identifies millions of malware types daily.

* The complete list of the top 10 malware families in June can be found on the Check Point Blog:  http://blog.checkpoint.com/2019/02/13/january-2019s-most-wanted-malware-a-new-threat-speakup-linux-crypto-cryptomining/

Check Point’s Threat Prevention Resources are available at:  //www.checkpoint.com/threat-prevention-resources/index.html

https://www.checkpoint.com/press/2019/january-2019s-most-wanted-malware-a-significant-new-threat-speaks-up/

Singtel and Argus join forces to strengthen cyber security capabilities for Singapore’s transportation sector

Press release

• Argus cyber security solutions to be integrated with Singtel’s managed security services
• Research lab to be set up to develop and test cyber security solutions for autonomous vehicles

Singapore and Tel Aviv, Israel, January 28, 2019 – Singtel and Argus Cyber Security, a global leader in automotive cyber security, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaborate on several initiatives to strengthen the cyber security capabilities for Singapore’s transportation sector, facilitating the introduction of connected cars and new technologies such as autonomous vehicles. In addition, both parties will also work together on the research and development of next generation cyber security solutions for autonomous vehicles.

“This partnership is part of our broader vision to create an ecosystem to support the development of new technologies and solutions focusing on the transportation sector, both in Singapore and globally,” said Mr Bill Chang, Chief Executive Officer, Group Enterprise at Singtel. “With a secure ecosystem, automobile manufacturers and automotive equipment providers can safely collaborate and develop advanced solutions for commercial and industrial autonomous vehicles. By partnering with a global leader like Argus, we are committed to positioning Singapore at the forefront of connected and autonomous vehicle technologies for the next generation of smart and cyber secure vehicles.”

Under the MOU, both parties will launch a suite of solutions which includes Argus’ in-vehicle solutions and technologies, and Argus’ stand-alone cyber security backend platform. This platform collects, correlates and analyses data derived from vehicles, mobile apps, cellular networks, cloud platforms and other sources, and will be integrated with the managed security services portfolio of Trustwave, Singtel’s cyber security arm. The platform helps automakers and fleet managers to quickly protect vehicles that are already on the road without making any modifications to them. It will be delivered through Trustwave’s global network of 10 Advanced Security Operations Centers, further enhancing its capabilities as a leading global managed security services provider.  

“We are delighted to partner with Singtel, a global technology leader and a trusted cyber security partner of the world’s leading business organizations. This partnership is another important leap forward towards delivering multi-layered, security solutions and services that make mobility intelligent and secure – in Singapore and around the world”, says Mr Ofer Ben-Noon, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Argus Cyber Security. “We look forward to broadening our scope of partnership with Singtel to include co-creating next generation of cyber security solutions and services for the autonomous vehicle industry”.

As part of the collaboration, Singtel and Argus will conduct cyber security research and development at the Singtel Cyber Security Institute (CSI) to help defend autonomous vehicles against sophisticated, evolving cyber threats. The partners could also use CSI’s advanced cyber range platform to subject their solutions to rigorous testing and prototyping. This augments Singtel’s ongoing collaboration with the National University of Singapore to develop advanced cyber security solutions for next generation cyber threats.

The partnership comes in the wake of the recent launch of 5G Garage – Singapore’s first live 5G facility at Singapore Polytechnic. The facility, which is connected to Singtel’s latest pilot 5G network, allows students to incubate, develop and trial 5G solutions for enterprises. Among the students’ projects is an autonomous vehicle which is being trialled for use on campus. The initiative and Singtel’s involvement in the development of Singapore’s next generation Electronic Road Pricing system demonstrate the company’s drive towards shaping and securing Singapore’s future transportation landscape.

The announcement of the partnership is timely as the introduction of autonomous vehicles in Singapore is one of the initiatives which the government has set out as part of the Smart Nation plan.

https://argus-sec.com/singtel-and-argus-join-forces/

Alibaba Cloud Unveils New Products to Empower Data Intelligence for Enterprises and Internet Companies

Press release 25 febbraio 2019

Global cloud computing leader offers proven solutions used by Alibaba Group to empower businesses with actionable insights

Barcelona, February 25, 2019 – Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, today launched seven new solutions, and two new features for the international markets at the Mobile World Congress. The launches range from serverless computing, data analytics, global networking, high performance storage, and enterprise database that let customers easily and reliably derive actionable business insight to thrive in the age of intelligent business. These new services are part of the technology backbone underpinning Alibaba Group’s various business units including retail, fin-tech, logistics, media and entertainment, and digital branding and marketing. With these new capabilities, global customers can take advantage of the proven, scalable, and secure technologies and accelerate business growth.

Nowadays, global enterprises and internet startups alike need to quickly derive insights from data and make intelligent business decisions in timely manner. They typically face challenges managing and analyzing data at massive scale and processing real-time streaming data. To solve these for the customers, Alibaba Cloud launched Realtime Compute that can easily process millions of events/sec and support real-time decision making, such as for fraud detection, social analytics, and QoS monitoring of Telco networks. To help customers manage and analyze large corps of data, Alibaba Cloud introduced the improved DataWorks and MaxCompute 2.0 that can handle processing 100PB/day. For customers who want to explore unstructured, heterogeneous data sets on-demand, Data Lake Analytics allows them to easily query petabytes of data in serverless fashion with standard SQL and only pay for the amount of data scanned.

“Businesses around the world are increasingly relying on data intelligence to drive innovation, digitalize operations, and delight customers,” said Henry Zhang, Senior Staff Product Manager of Alibaba Cloud International. “We work with customers from many industries along this digital transformation journey. We are keen to turn our proven in-house technology into broadly applicable services and pass the benefits on to customers globally so they can quickly build applications on top, such as for 5G, edge computing, and IOT, and shorten the time-to-market.”

In addition to new products for data analytics, Alibaba Cloud also introduced a number of powerful infrastructure enhancements to support intelligent businesses at a global scale. Customers can now deploy enterprise-grade database applications on ApsaraDB for MariaDB TX and take advantage of SQL Server Enterprise Always On to deploy enterprise level high availability and disaster recovery plans. Customers developing file based High Performance Computing workloads such as autonomous driving and scientific discovery can now use Cloud Parallel File System for first-class concurrency and bandwidth. Finally, Elastic Container Instance allows customers to easily run containers without the hassle of managing servers and clusters; and Global Connection Solution help businesses easily deploy a reliable, low latency global network to support their international business operations.

“We believe in a virtuous cycle of building world-class infrastructure, deploying intelligent applications on that architecture, and using real-time analytics to make data-driven decisions,” said Yeming Wang, General Manager, Alibaba Cloud EMEA. “In addition, we offer robust cross-border solutions for enterprises and ecosystem partners who are looking to expand globally and into the rapidly growing Asian markets. These proven and compliant solutions are already used by Alibaba Group and we hope our customers can leverage our expertise to create more differentiated value for their end-customers.”

These solutions and services have already generated positive results for customers in China and are now becoming available to more international customers.

About Alibaba Cloud
Established in 2009, Alibaba Cloud (www.alibabacloud.com), the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, is among the world’s top three IaaS providers, according to Gartner, and the largest provider of public cloud services in China, according to IDC. Alibaba Cloud provides a comprehensive suite of cloud computing services to businesses worldwide, including merchants doing business on Alibaba Group marketplaces, start-ups, corporations and government organizations. Alibaba Cloud is the official Cloud Services Partner of the International Olympic Committee.

https://www.alibabagroup.com/en/news/article?news=p190225

Updating F-35 Electronic Warfare Systems

Press release 28 Feb 2019

AN/ASQ-239 system updates improve warfighters’ ability to conduct critical missions in contested airspace

BAE Systems, a leader in electronic warfare (EW) technology, today announced a critical program milestone with the successful insertion of new technology into its EW systems for the global fleet of fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft. Upgrades to the AN/ASQ-239 system position it to meet future capability requirements and improve warfighters’ ability to conduct critical missions in contested airspace.

The improved EW system delivers the world-class functionality of the previous system in a smaller footprint, reducing volume and power requirements – creating space for Block IV modernization upgrades. The system update also resolves issues with manufacturing obsolescence that would have otherwise required costly redesign work.

The company’s capacity expansion strategy – including a $100 million investment in 80,000 square feet of state-of-the-art manufacturing space, process automation, and the growth of its highly skilled electronic warfare workforce by more than 23 percent – enabled BAE Systems to become the first F-35 supplier to insert updated technology into its systems at full production speeds – delivering 11 systems monthly and ramping production to match aircraft production. The Digital Channelized Receiver/Techniques Generator and Tuner Insertion Program (DTIP) technology was introduced into BAE Systems’ manufacturing process in 2018, with the first deliveries starting in July. The team is consistently providing 11 shipsets per month, enabling the company to continue on-time delivery to its customer.

“We’ve delivered almost 400 EW systems to date, and now we’ve updated the architecture and are manufacturing it at a high rate of production. This technology insertion gives the EW system room to grow, and will help the F-35 maintain its dominance of the electromagnetic spectrum,” said Deborah Norton, VP of F-35 Solutions at BAE Systems. “The successful insertion of DTIP was the result of the outstanding focus, dedication, and teamwork of our engineering and production teams working in close coordination with our customer.”

The advanced F-35 EW system is a proven digital electronic warfare/countermeasures suite that provides pilots with real-time battlespace situational awareness and rapid-response capabilities. The ASQ-239 system provides fully integrated radar warning, targeting support, and self-protection capabilities to engage, counter, jam, or evade threats to improve survivability and mission effectiveness. The system builds on BAE Systems 60-plus years of EW experience and legacy of providing 13,500 tactical systems for more than 80 different platforms, including F-22, F-16, F-15, B-1, B-2, and classified platforms. For more information, visit: www.baesystems.com/f-35ew.

Ref. No. /2019

Avast Threat Labs Debuts apklab.io - an Intelligence-driven Threat Hunting Platform for the Security Analyst Community

Press release : 26 Feb 2019

apklab.io Provides Deep Intelligence on Android Malware from Over 145 Million Devices to Aid in the Detection, Discovery, and Eradication of Threats

Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, February 26, 2019 – Avast (LSE:AVST), a leading global cybersecurity provider, today announced the launch of apklab.io, a mobile threat intelligence platform (MTIP) designed to provide real-time intelligence for Android™ security researchers.

Apklab.io is the first platform of its kind to collect and make available intelligence from Avast’s global network of over 145 million mobile users to help researchers fight the growing threat of mobile malware. Apklab.io uses machine learning techniques originally developed to help Avast Threat Labs better hunt and track mobile threats and is now available to external threat researchers to improve the detection, discovery, and eradication of mobile malware.

“Fighting mobile malware in today's highly connected world is a tough challenge that cannot be solved by a single company alone,” said Nikolaos Chrysaidos, Head, Mobile Threat Intelligence & Security for Avast Threat Labs. “The industry needs a coordinated approach, where security vendors and the broader security community unite in their mission to beat cybercrime, so the cost and benefit ratio stays in our favor, and that's why we're making ApkLab.io widely available."

The insight from apklab.io has already lead to the discovery and delisting of more than 130 malicious applications from the Google Play Store. For example, in the case of the BankBot Trojan, the malware family tracking feature in apklab.io enabled Avast to identify and detect every sample of the virus that was being uploaded to Google Play within a matter of hours of them appearing.

Avast has developed reliable and real-time classifiers that examine every strain of malware, categorizing like with like, and creating a more complete picture of each particular malware family. The platform is designed to deliver coherent analysis of both static and dynamic flow, meaning it can study the behavior of every malware strain while it’s dormant as well as active. The platform currently analyses 20,000 samples every day.

In the last year, the Avast Threat Labs has tracked a 375 percent growth in Adware as a malware category; it now makes up more than 52 percent of all mobile threats today. Aggressive adware is malware that pushes or spams user devices with a large number of advertisements. The Avast Threat Labs saw an increase of 78 percent year over year growth in the category of mobile banking threats that try to trick the user into giving up their bank account details by pretending to be a legitimate banking application.

Qualified researchers, analysts, and incident response professionals are all eligible to apply for access to the apklab.io platform - all applications to join the platform are individually reviewed to maintain the integrity of the platform. The data feeding the platform comes from the devices that Avast protects as well as third parties and partners. These sources generate file samples which feed the apklab.io platform, whose first task is to assess if they are suspect or not.

https://press.avast.com/avast-threat-labs-debuts-apklab.io-an-intelligence-driven-threat-hunting-platform-for-the-security-analyst-community