Weekly InfoSec New Brief June 22-28

Adobe Issues Emergency Patch for Flash

Last Tuesday Adobe issued an emergency patch for its Flash product. The patch fixes a critical vulnerability which Adobe stated was already being exploited in the wild on a limited basis in targeted attacks. This is not the first emergency patch for Flash this year, in addition to the several critical patches that have been released in their normal monthly patch cycle. Flash continues to be one of the most common sources of vulnerabilities on desktops, and one of the most frequently-exploited applications out there. Every organization should be watching closely to ensure they are patching Flash rapidly, as well as perhaps considering measures to block or limit its use.
http://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/06/emergency-patch-for-adobe-flash-zero-day/
https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/flash-player/apsb15-14.html


 OPM Breach Investigation Stymied by Lack of Log Data

When a breach occurs (or is suspected) one of the first thing an investigating team will ask is, "How much log data can you give me?" In the case of OPM and some of its contractors, the answer appears to have been, "Not much." A lack of log data was cited as a key reason for failing to identify the initial point of compromise in the KeyPoint and USIS intrusions last year (key OPM contractors), and a similar dearth of log data appears to be hindering the current investigation of the breach at OPM itself. How much log data are you storing from your systems? With storage becoming ever cheaper and cheaper, what is stopping you from making that answer a bigger one?
http://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2015/06/hacked-opm-and-background-check-contractors-lacked-logs-dhs-says/116251/?oref=ng-channelriver


Florida-based Tech Support Provider Breached; Customers Targeted

Advanced Tech Support (ATS), a Florida help desk outsourcing call center, appears to have suffered a breach. Subsequently, some of their customers have received fraudulent calls from people claiming to represent ATS, seeking to gain remote access to their systems. The callers used data gleaned from ATS' systems to gain the confidence of the victims. The incident appears to have been at least partly an inside job. This incident should serve as another reminder of the risk that can be created through insecure third-party contractors.
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2940416/data-breach/florida-telemarketer-under-ftc-watch-suffers-data-breach.html


NIST Guidance on Federal Information in Nonfederal Systems Finalized

The final version of Special Publication 800-171 was released last week. This publication provides guidance on security requirements for contractor owned-and-operated network that my contain sensitive government data. While in some cases this may been seen as adding new requirements, it will be widely welcomed for providing clarification in in area that has seen much conflicting guidance.
http://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/SpecialPublications/NIST.SP.800-171.pdf

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