Security

October was Cybersecurity Awareness Month in the US. We certainly were aware. In September, IoT cameras were hacked and used to create the largest denial of service attacks to date, well over 600Gbps. On October 21, the same devices were used in a modified attack against Dyn authoritative DNS services resulting in disruption of around […]

As of the writing, some of the largest distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks ever are actively disrupting major service and content providers. Many of the attacks are being reported as leveraging Internet of Things devices such as IP cameras. It’s interesting that these dramatic attacks are happening during Cybersecurity Awareness month. How to Affect Change In […]

Security engineering is one of few technical endeavors in which you deal with an adversary. There are a few other domains such as electronic warfare or fire prevention. Working against an adversary in this way is like playing a twisted game of chess. As the game begins, the security engineer is aware of most of […]

I recently attended a panel discussion that considered technology evolution over the next thirty years. Of course, predicting such long term evolution and revolution is daunting. However, it’s interesting that all three panelists chose first to look to the mid 1980s to provide guidance to forecast the mid 2040s. As a forward-looking security engineer, looking […]

As the blockchain technology star begins to eclipse Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies that rely upon it, there has been an increase in research and development into using blockchain for “smart contracts.” Smart contracts are computer programs that facilitate, verify, execute, and enforce a contract. While smart contracts have existed to a limited extent for […]

Blockchain is the fundamental technology underlying digital currencies and new transaction processing solutions. Some technologists are generalizing the concept now and using the term distributed ledger technology, or DLT. Blockchain technology uses cipher-chaining to cryptographically link blocks of transactions. The most famous implementation of this approach is Bitcoin. Over the last couple years new trends […]

During the season of Lent in my upbringing meant I was going to be giving something up. This year, instead of giving something up, I have decided to help those around me clean up their security and suggest you help a friend in turn.  Statistics show that you probably know someone who could use a […]

Over the past year there has been a significant increase in the number and frequency of cyber-attacks on major retailers, social media sites, and financial institutions.  From identity theft and credit card fraud to denial of service, these cyber criminals are starting to disrupt our lives in small but troubling ways.  What happens when those […]