Info Risk Today Podcast

Cash-out scams are old news. But the size and sophistication of the latest $45 million global fraud scheme that struck banks add up to a troubling trend, says former federal prosecutor Kim Peretti.

How could global fraudsters steal $45 million from banking institutions without being detected or stopped? It's a process breakdown, not a technology failure, says fraud expert Avivah Litan of Gartner.

Cloud computing providers must step up and develop approaches to prevent their employees from stealing or harming customer data they host, say two experts from Carnegie Mellon University's CERT Insider Threat Center.

Mark Weatherford, who recently stepped down as DHS deputy undersecretary for cybersecurity, says that although planned OpUSA DDoS attacks may initially be a nuisance, they represent a genuine long-term threat to the government.

In assessing the risk of a distributed-denial-of service attack, organizations must think beyond shoring up systems' perimeters and concentrate on analyzing cyberthreat intelligence, Booz Allen Hamilton's Sedar Labarre says.

Today's spear-phishing campaigns are localized, small and can slip through typical spam filters. As a result, detection practices have to evolve, says researcher Gary Warner of the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

NIST's Ron Ross, a big NASCAR fan, likens new security controls guidance to the tools race-car builders use to prevent drivers from breaking their necks when crashing into a brick wall at 200 miles an hour.

Security firm Mandiant recently released a widely publicized report detailing cyber-espionage activity originating in China. Mandiant Director Charles Carmakal discusses the latest nation-state threats.

The massive distributed-denial-of-service attack in Europe that targeted Spamhaus could easily have been prevented if information service providers followed a 13-year-old industry best practice, ENISA's Thomas Haeberlen says.

When Richard Nealon first sat for his CISSP exam, he was struck by how U.S.-centric the questions were. Since then, he has strived to promote greater awareness of global information security concerns.

NIST's Donna Dodson is leading a federal government effort to take hundreds of suggestions from the private sector to create an IT security best practices framework that critical infrastructure operators could voluntarily adopt.

Although there have not yet been any confirmed reports of financial fraud associated with a major data breach at the Utah Department of Health last year, the potential for costly fraud is huge, contends Al Pascual of Javelin Strategy and Research.

In light of evolving fraud threats, financial institutions increasingly are turning to two-factor authentication solutions. Alex Doll, CEO of OneID, offers advice to help institutions make the right choices. In an interview about the myths and realities of two-factor authentication, Doll discusses: The current threat landscape; How organizations are successfully deploying two-factor solutions; How to keep customer experience top-of-mind in a two-factor rollout.

It isn't just the quantity of cyber-attacks that's staggering; it's the quality. The average hacker now has access to nation-state-level attack capabilities, says James Lyne of Sophos. How can organizations defend?

It isn't a staffing shortage that we face, but rather a skills crisis, says Allan Boardman, international vice president of ISACA. How can organizations build the security skills they need to mitigate evolving risks?

Organizations face new cyber-risks from their third-party service providers. But standard contracts fail to cover these risks. Trend Micro's Tom Kellermann discusses the risk management essentials.

As data protection regulations continue to be refined, organizations throughout Europe are more sensitive to privacy restrictions in individual countries, says Dwayne Melancon, CTO of Tripwire.

Distributed-denial-of-service attacks are increasing against European banking institutions. But UK consultant Mark Child says if banks are worried about DDoS, then they have bigger security problems.

Should IT security practitioners be deemed professionals like those in medicine and law? That's not an easy question to answer, says Ronald Sanders, former human capital officer at the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Distributed-denial-of-service attacks jumped significantly in 2012. And it's not just banking institutions that are victims, Verizon finds in its just-released Data Breach Investigations Report.