Shift to Malwareless E-mail Attacks

FireEye has an interesting report that they put together using email from July to December last year.  It shows a shift from malware infected email to other types not using malware.  The big 4 among those were whaling, credential harvesting, spear phishing and W-2 scams.  That last one is because these are businesses FireEye is protecting and the scams are at the corporate level.  We have had some of those around here.  Several people have reported trouble with their credentials of late and I wonder what use that credential is being put to.

Security Planner

I saw a security planner in the latest release by Citizen Lab and it is pretty good for people who are not security professionals.  For one thing, it is specific to certain types of operating systems;  for another, it is full of little tidbits that I found interesting and informative.  So, even if you are a security professional, point your friends to it.  It is pretty up-to-date right now and the way the Lab works, I imagine it will be updated pretty regularly.  They are a good group up there.  It is worth a look, and they are very responsive if you find something wrong.  Just drop them a note.

Mattis and Xi Talk About The Sea

The Secretary of Defense and the head of a large nation like China usually do not meet.  The protocol is for Defense Secretaries to meet with Defense Secretaries and leave politics to the diplomatic side of things.  The meeting was unusual in that respect and even more so when the lack of discussion was noted in the aftermath.  China does not want to negotiate on the South China Sea with the Defense Secretary anymore than he wanted to with the President.  There was a message there that was passed and we can only speculate what it was.  For sure, it said, “We are not backing down” and both of them probably had that same message.  Our Defense Secretary has a way of saying that is more believable than most.  Mattis is a Marine with a no-nonsense reputation.  He isn’t a diplomat because he doesn’t have to be one to convey that message.  It probably conveyed better coming from him.