Profile of Mathew J. Schwartz

Blog Posts: 1609
Mathew Schwartz is a freelance writer, editor, and photographer, as well the InformationWeek information security reporter.

Target Ignored Data Breach Alarms

3/14/2014
Target's security team reviewed -- and ignored -- urgent warnings from threat-detection tool about unknown malware spotted on the network.
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Samsung Galaxy Security Alert: Android Backdoor Discovered

3/13/2014
Samsung's flavor of Android has a backdoor that can be remotely exploited by attackers, Android developers warn.
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Bitcoin, Meet Darwin: Crypto Currency's Future

3/12/2014
First-movers rarely survive, but some experts see a real future for government-issued crypto currency.
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Experian ID Theft Exposed 200M Consumer Records

3/11/2014
ID theft ring sold access to database with 200 million consumers' private data to 1,300 criminals.
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Mt. Gox Chief Stole 100,000 Bitcoins, Hackers Claim

3/10/2014
Cryptocurrency aficionados' ire stoked by leaked accounts showing 100,000 bitcoins remain missing.
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Target CIO's Resignation: 7 Questions

3/6/2014
After the data breach, why didn't the buck stop with PCI assessors or CEO? Search for accountability reveals flawed system, much finger-pointing.
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Apple iOS Vulnerable To Hidden Profile Attacks

3/6/2014
Unpatched flaw in iOS enables malicious profile users to secretly control devices and intercept data.
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Bitcoin Heists Cause More Trouble

3/5/2014
Attackers continue to pummel bitcoin "banks," exchanges, and crypto-currency users themselves via malware that steals virtual wallets.
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Malware-Lobbing Hackers Seize 300,000 Routers

3/4/2014
Hackers launch scam and malware campaigns after compromising a variety of routers running firmware with known vulnerabilities.
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Mt. Gox Bitcoin Meltdown: What Went Wrong

3/3/2014
Transaction malleability attacks and cold-storage software bugs both cited after nearly $500 million worth of bitcoins vanish.
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Fresh Target Breach Cards Hitting Black Market

2/28/2014
A Bitcoin-powered marketplace is selling stolen card data in small batches, offering card validity guarantees, an RSA presentation reveals.
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IBM Software Vulnerabilities Spiked In 2013

2/27/2014
Most code flaws still involve non-Microsoft products, and overall patching speed has improved, study presented at RSA conference finds.
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Apple Patches Mavericks SSL Flaw: Update Now

2/26/2014
Security update patches "goto fail" flaw that enables attackers to intercept communications, but won't help the 23% of Macs running older OS X.
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Apple SSL Vulnerability: 6 Facts

2/25/2014
SSL vulnerability that's been patched in iOS -- but not yet for OS X -- lets attackers intercept email and FaceTime communications, plus push malicious software updates.
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Healthcare Devices: Security Researchers Sound Alarms

2/24/2014
Default usernames, weak passwords, and widespread Windows XP Embedded systems are cause for concern, SANS Institute researchers say.
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WebView Exploit Affects Most Android Phones

2/19/2014
Critical bug affects devices running Jelly Bean (4.2) and earlier Android OSs, including fully updated versions of Google Glass, says Metasploit.
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Bye, Bitcoin: Criminals Seek Other Crypto Currency

2/18/2014
Law enforcement crackdowns, hack attacks, and market volatility drive Russian fraudsters to mint their own virtual currency systems.
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Snowman Attack Campaign Targets IE10 Zero-Day Bug

2/14/2014
Military personnel appear to be the targets of watering-hole attacks from a hacked VFW website.
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Target Breach: Phishing Attack Implicated

2/13/2014
Report suggests malware-laced email attack on Target's HVAC subcontractor leaked access credentials for retailer's network.
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Bitcoin Exchanges Buckle Under DDoS Attacks

2/12/2014
Mutant transaction attacks trigger trading halts at major exchanges. Also, new bitcoin-seeking Trojan targets Mac users.
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DDoS Attack Hits 400 Gbit/s, Breaks Record

2/11/2014
A distributed denial-of-service NTP reflection attack was reportedly 33% bigger than last year's attack against Spamhaus.
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Florida Sting Nabs Alleged Bitcoin Money Launderers

2/10/2014
Florida undercover agents posed as fraudsters seeking to convert cash -- supposedly from stolen credit cards -- into the anonymous, cryptographic currency.
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Data Breach Notifications: Time For Tough Love

2/7/2014
Target and Neiman Marcus came clean quickly about their data breaches, but most business don't. It's time for standards -- and fines.
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Target Breach: HVAC Contractor Systems Investigated

2/6/2014
Hackers may have used access credentials stolen from refrigeration and HVAC system contractor Fazio Mechanical Services to gain remote access to Target's network.
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Hotel Company Investigates Data Breach, Card Fraud

2/5/2014
White Lodging, which manages 168 hotels under Hilton, Marriott, and Sheraton brand names, is investigating a suspected credit and debit card breach.
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British Spies Hit Anonymous With DDoS Attacks

2/5/2014
British cyber agents attacked Anonymous chat rooms, leaked intelligence documents show.
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Google Sounds Chrome Browser Hijack Alarm

2/4/2014
Chrome users also face subtle attacks, including Chrome extensions that inject unwanted advertisements.
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Yahoo Mail Passwords: Act Now

1/31/2014
Yahoo suffers hack attack, eyes third-party database and reused credentials as likely culprits, may enforce two-factor authentication to help users recover accounts.
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Target Hackers Tapped Vendor Credentials

1/30/2014
Investigators suspect that BMC software, Microsoft configuration management tools, and SQL injection were used as hacking tools and techniques in Target's massive data breach.
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Angry Birds Site Toppled After Surveillance Report

1/29/2014
Syrian Electronic Army ally allegedly defaces Rovio's Angry Birds website over reports that company shared user data with US and UK surveillance agencies.
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Feds Arrest Bitcoin Celebrity In Money Laundering Case

1/28/2014
Bitcoin Foundation vice chair Charlie Shrem accused of changing $1 million into bitcoins for users of Silk Road marketplace.
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Michaels Stores Investigates Data Breach

1/27/2014
Arts-and-crafts retailer goes into damage-control mode after banks report fraud possibly tied to shoppers' credit cards.
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Target Breach: Why Smartcards Won’t Stop Hackers

1/24/2014
"Chip and PIN" smartcard adoption in the United States is long overdue. But the security improvement wouldn't have stopped Target’s BlackPOS malware attackers.
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China Blames Massive Internet Blackout On Hackers

1/23/2014
Evidence about the 45-minute outage points to botched censorship operation, not hackers, security experts say.
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Target Breach: 5 Unanswered Security Questions

1/22/2014
Investigators have yet to explain how Target was hacked, whether BlackPOS malware infected its payment servers, and whether the same gang also struck other retailers.
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Target, Neiman Marcus Malware Creators Identified

1/21/2014
Eastern European team developed memory-scraping Kaptoxa (BlackPOS) malware, sold it at least 40 times, says cyber-intelligence firm.
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Target Malware Origin Details Emerge

1/17/2014
Kaptoxa POS malware cited as culprit behind sophisticated, two-stage operation that moved 11 GB of stolen Target data via FTP to a hijacked server in Russia.
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Microsoft Delays Windows XP Antivirus Doomsday

1/16/2014
Security Essentials for XP gets 15-month extension, but some antivirus vendors promise updates through 2017 and beyond.
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Java 'Icefog' Malware Variant Infects US Businesses

1/15/2014
APT attack campaign uses tough-to-detect Java backdoor to compromise US oil company and two other organizations.
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Target Breach: 8 Facts On Memory-Scraping Malware

1/14/2014
Target confirmed that malware compromised its point-of-sale systems. How does such malware work, and how can businesses prevent infections?
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Neiman Marcus, Target Data Breaches: 8 Facts

1/13/2014
A cyberattack campaign, likely coordinated, breached data from Target, Neiman Marcus, and at least three other retailers.
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Target Breach Widens: 70 Million Warned

1/10/2014
Target discovers that personal information -- including names and contact information -- for 70 million customers was compromised in recent data breach.
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NSA Fallout: Why Foreign Firms Won’t Buy American Tech

1/10/2014
Mounting evidence points to billions of dollars in lost US business thanks to the NSA's collect-everything mindset.
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9 Security Experts Boycott RSA Conference

1/8/2014
Several leading security experts have pulled out of the RSA conference over unanswered questions concerning the NSA's $10 million payment to RSA.
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Beware PowerLocker Ransomware

1/7/2014
Chatter on underground forums traces development of Blowfish-based shakedown malware that encrypts infected PCs.
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Yahoo Ads Hack Spreads Malware

1/6/2014
Millions of users exposed to drive-by malware attacks that targeted Java bugs to install six types of malicious code.
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7 InfoSec Predictions For 2014: Good, Bad & Ugly

1/3/2014
First, the bad news: Windows XP doomsday, escalating ransomware, botnet-driven attacks, emerging SDN threats. The good news: Threat intelligence goes mainstream.
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9 Notorious Hackers Of 2013

12/27/2013
This year's hacking hall of shame includes members of Anonymous and the Blackhole cybercrime gang, plus state-sponsored groups.
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RSA Denies Trading Security For NSA Payout

12/23/2013
EMC security subsidiary accused of accepting $10 million from the NSA to purposefully use encryption for which the intelligence agency enjoyed backdoor access.
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Target Breach: 10 Facts

12/21/2013
Experts advise consumers not to panic as suspicion falls on point-of-sale terminals used to scan credit cards.
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FBI Traces Harvard Bomb Hoax To Undergrad

12/20/2013
The FBI says a Harvard undergrad's decision to access Tor over the university's wireless network helped unmask an alleged sender of bomb threats.
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7 Reasons Why Bitcoin Attacks Will Continue

12/19/2013
Cryptographic currency's rising value makes it an appealing target for cybercrime gangs and crimeware toolkit developers.
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Target Confirms Hackers Stole 40 Million Credit Cards

12/19/2013
Hackers' 19-day heist scoops up all ingredients required to make counterfeit cards.
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Bitcoin Hit By Gameover Malware, Chinese Crackdown

12/18/2013
China gets tough with exchanges trading Bitcoins, while new malware variant targets Bitcoin customers.
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'ChewBacca' Malware Taps Tor Network

12/18/2013
Malicious Trojan sporting a Star Wars theme uses Tor anonymizing network to disguise its command-and-control communications.
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Android AV Improves But Still Can't Nuke Malware

12/17/2013
Google doesn't let Android antivirus app makers automatically quarantine and zap malware. Until then it's up to users to stay on their toes to prevent infection.
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Is Mob-Busting RICO Overkill For Combating Cybercrime?

12/17/2013
The milestone conviction of 22-year-old David Camez for his participation in a Russian-run "carder" forum raises legitimate questions about the role of RICO in taking down cybercrime.
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Advanced Power Botnet: Firefox Users, Beware

12/16/2013
Malicious Firefox plugin scans websites for exploitable SQL injection vulnerabilities.
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NSA's Malware Heroics Questioned By Security Experts

12/16/2013
NSA says it thwarted a nation state's BIOS-bricking malware plot, but info security and privacy experts say the agency is trying to snow the American public.
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Energy Department Breach Years In Making, Investigators Say

12/13/2013
July data breach that affected up to 150,000 employees traces back to a string of managerial and technical failures, investigators conclude.
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Why Fed Cybersecurity Reboot Plan Fails To Convince

12/13/2013
Does a presidential commission's hodgepodge analysis and suggestions for improving federal cybersecurity tells us anything we didn't already know?
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Zeus Banking Malware Gets 64-Bit Facelift

12/12/2013
Crimeware toolkit developers follow the money, build new features into the notorious banking malware.
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Cybercrime Milestone: Guilty Verdict In RICO Case

12/12/2013
Prosecutors use law designed to take down mobsters to fight online crime.
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Microsoft Patches Windows, Office, IE, SharePoint

12/11/2013
Microsoft fixes include patch for in-the-wild Office 365 token-grabbing attack that enabled silent eavesdropping.
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NSA Tracks Targets With Google Cookies

12/11/2013
Leaked NSA documents indicate it uses Google's advertising cookies to track targets for offensive hacking.
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6 Tips To Secure Webcams, Stop Keyloggers

12/10/2013
If the FBI can activate webcams silently and record keystrokes, so can attackers. Here's how to defend yourself.
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Microsoft Fails To Nuke ZeroAccess Botnet

12/10/2013
Attacks may be down, but 62% of the malicious infrastructure, along with the P2P communications channel, is alive and well.
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DARPA Crowdsources Bug-Spotting Games

12/9/2013
DARPA debuts five different puzzle games to test whether players can spot mathematical flaws in open-source code used by the Defense Department.
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China Slams Bitcoins: What's Next?

12/7/2013
Chinese central bank prohibits the country's financial institutions from touching bitcoins, but plans regulation. Cue further trouble for the crypto-currency?
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JPMorgan Chase Catches Heat On July Breach

12/6/2013
The July breach may have exposed cardholders' personal information -- so why did the bank wait more than 2 months to notify state officials and affected customers?
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Juniper Mobile VPN Client Taps iOS Security Changes

12/6/2013
Apple iOS 7 and Android via Samsung add per-app VPNs, which businesses can apply to better secure employees' mobile devices.
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NSA Fallout: Microsoft Rethinks Customer Data Controls

12/5/2013
Fallout over NSA surveillance drives Microsoft to promise widespread security and privacy improvements. But do they go far enough?
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2 Million Stolen Passwords Recovered

12/5/2013
The stash includes purloined Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Yahoo access credentials. Researchers promise to help people who were affected.
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Bitcoin Password Grab Disguised As DDoS Attack

12/4/2013
Attacks against bitcoin users continue, as online forum Bitcointalk.org warns users their passwords might have been stolen in distributed denial of service hack.
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Hardware Hacker Demos Zombie Drone Hijacker

12/4/2013
The SkyJack drone automatically seeks out and hijacks other nearby Parrot drones. Will this mean trouble for Amazon's planned drone delivery fleet?
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Do Antivirus Companies Whitelist NSA Malware?

12/4/2013
Microsoft, Symantec, and McAfee fail to respond to a transparency plea from leading privacy and security experts.
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IT Jobs Outlook: Salary, Training Spending Rise

12/3/2013
Increased spending on salaries, training, and budgets puts IT in a "sweet spot for employment and investment," says latest Society for Information Management data.
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Windows XP Zero-Day Vulnerability Popular

12/2/2013
Attackers use malicious PDF documents to exploit bug in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 and take full control of vulnerable systems.
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Happy Hour 'Virus' Promises Respite From Work

12/2/2013
Need a little extra time off? Ad campaign offers fake virus attack on your computer's screen.
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Android Security: 8 Signs Hackers Own Your Smartphone

11/29/2013
Security experts share tips on how to tell if attackers are in control of your Android smartphone.
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NSA Surveillance Fallout Costs IT Industry Billions

11/27/2013
Analysts predict US tech companies may lose $180 billion by 2016 due to international concerns about intelligence agencies' spying.
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Bitcoin Thefts Surge, DDoS Hackers Take Millions

11/27/2013
Cryptographic currency's massive rise in value leads to a corresponding increase in online heists by criminals seeking easy paydays.
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Microsoft Office 365 Encrypted Email On Tap

11/26/2013
Microsoft Office 365 Message Encryption feature will encrypt all messages by default, though recipients will need an Office 365 or Microsoft Account ID to read the mail.
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Dataium Settles Browser History Sniffing Charges

11/26/2013
The car buyer tracking firm was accused of using JavaScript to illegally identify websites visited by 181,000 named consumers, and selling harvested information.
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NSA Surveillance Infected 50,000 PCs With Malware

11/25/2013
Leaked document details agency's "implants," satellite intercepts, joint CIA eavesdropping operations, and embassy-based monitoring programs abroad.
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LG Admits Smart TVs Spied On Users

11/22/2013
LG admits it collected information on consumers' viewing habits, promises firmware update to honor opt-out requests.
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Google Settles With State AGs On Privacy

11/22/2013
Google agrees to pay $17 million to 37 states to settle claims it circumvented cookie-blocking controls in Apple's Safari browser.
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'i2Ninja' Trojan Taps Anonymized Darknet

11/21/2013
New malware being sold via underground Russian cybercrime markets uses decentralized, anonymizing P2P system.
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Close HealthCare.gov For Security Reasons, Experts Say

11/20/2013
Testifying before the House technology committee, four security experts advise would-be HealthCare.gov users to steer clear of the site, pending security improvements.
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Cupid Concedes January Hack, 42 Million Passwords Stolen

11/20/2013
Separately, Github forces some users to reset weak passwords following a rapid attack launched via 40,000 IP addresses.
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Mobile App Security: 5 Frequent Woes Persist

11/20/2013
HP Fortify study finds five frequent problems that make mobile apps vulnerable, recommends simple-to-implement information security fixes.
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iPhone Photo Leads To Cybercrime Arrest

11/19/2013
The FBI uses an iPhone photo to nab six members of a cybercrime ring accused of stealing $45 million via ATMs.
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vBulletin.com Hacked, Customer Data Stolen

11/18/2013
"Inj3ct0r Team" hackers claim they employed vBulletin zero-day bug to take down both vBulletin.com and MacRumors, offer to sell related exploit.
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FBI Blames Federal Hacks On Anonymous Campaign

11/18/2013
A British suspect is accused of attacking numerous government agencies, including the U.S. Army and NASA.
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Facebook Forces Some Users To Reset Passwords

11/17/2013
Facebook is asking users whose passwords might have been exposed on other sites to change their passwords to access the social network.
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Kelihos Botnet Thrives, Despite Takedowns

11/17/2013
Fast flux infrastructure and Windows XP infections continue to keep the botnet alive.
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4 Lessons From MongoHQ Data Breach

11/15/2013
Security experts urge companies to implement two-factor authentication, VPNs, and graduated permission levels to better protect customer data from hackers.
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Microsoft May Encrypt All Server-To-Server Communications

11/15/2013
Microsoft admits it doesn't encrypt all server-to-server communications, opening the way for the NSA and others to access the data flow.
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Obamacare Website Suffers Few Hack Attacks

11/15/2013
Affordable Care Act site has faced a relatively low volume of attacks, compared with other federal websites.
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LinkedIn Lesson: Detail Security First, Feature Fest Second

11/15/2013
Memo to businesses with an information security trust deficit: Prove how you're going to keep our data secure.
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