If you’ve heard it once you’ve probably heard it a thousand times: time to market is critical. Indeed, when it comes to software development, many business executives, marketers, product managers and sales weasels live and breathe by this mantra. Just get it out the door…
Preventing XSS Attacks
Cross Site Scripting (XSS) attacks are amongst the most common types of attacks against web applications. XSS vulnerabilities all fall under the same category, however, a more detailed look at the techniques employed during XSS attacks reveals a multitude of tactics that exploit a variety…
Getting employees on your side to improve Web security
We often hear about “disgruntled workers” wreaking havoc on computer systems and sensitive information. Interestingly we never hear about what I call “gruntled workers” and how they can — and do — contribute to enterprise security. Getting the attention of your employees and having them…
US Police Servers Breached in New Anonymous Attack
On the 31st of July 2011, the system administrator of Brooks-Jeffrey Marketing (BJM) was working on his newly upgraded servers. At exactly the same time a hacker was slowly sniffing his way through the same systems and picking up everything in his tracks. The hacker had rooted…
Anonymous hack US Department of Defence – Analysis of the Attack
On the 12th of July 2011, Booz Allen Hamilton the largest U.S. military defence contractor admitted that they had just suffered a very serious security breach, at the hands of hacktivist group AntiSec. Operation Anti-Security (AntiSec) is a hacking operation, carried out by two of the biggest…
Properly Scoping your Web Security Assessments
I’ve heard experts in time management say that one minute of planning can save you five minutes in execution. This applies to so many things we do in IT and information security but I can’t think of anything more important than security testing. Applying the…
Malicious Hackers Slurp over a million user accounts from Washington Post
The Washington Post website has been hit with a double security breach. Malicious hackers have made off with around 1.3 million user IDs and email address from the “Jobs” section of the site. The attackers were able to gain access on two separate occasions:…
How Much Web Security is Enough?
A good web application security environment is one that balances security with convenience. Nothing more and nothing less; just the security that’s needed to keep things reasonably in check. But just how much is enough? All too often I see websites and applications with too…
The Cure for Many Web Application Security Ills
One of the things I’ve learned throughout my career is that many solutions to the problems we face in IT, security and software development can be solved if we simply turn to business leaders to see how it’s done. In particular, I’m talking about a…