In news that's certain to make cyber criminals depressed, but security practitioners joyous, ThreatSTOP and Bandura have developed an integration that builds on the proactive, block-threats-early mantra shared by the two security companies.

In the past week we saw a massive surge in hits on customer logs coming from the IP 45.146.165[.]11. Our security research team checked it out, and found that it has been the launch pad for abnormally large amounts of traffic trying to reach customer machines. On one customer network alone they got over 2 million hits.

Most malware is often delivered from otherwise legitimate sites. Sometimes this occurs via compromising existing websites, but more often than not, it is by using existing advertising networks as a means to ultimately deliver malware. Quite simply, the attacker buys impressions via existing channels and uses a variety of malvertising tricks to either directly compromise the web browser, or at the least trick the user to installing the malware. This specialized form of malware delivery requires a specialized collection methodology to detect such attacks.

Georgia Tech recently notified almost 1.3 million people about a potential breach of sensitive data, and in some cases, including a social security number. Over a four month period, there was a vulnerable server that allowed people to enumerate records on a back-end database, allowing the exfiltration of sensitive information. While universities are seen as more open environments, they do have sensitive information they have to protect.

As people start thinking about completing the upcoming United States census online, security concerns have emerged. While there are unique threats to the Census because of the impact it has on budgeting and government, these concerns tell us a great deal about the security concerns of doing business online.

Imagine This: You have a precious and valuable treasure. You keep this treasure in your bedroom. Criminals come from all over the land, every night and day, laying siege to your home to steal this treasure. You have no gated community, no security patrol, no walls around your home, no doors or windows - and every fight with a criminal happens right there in your bedroom with your treasure just feet away. You know that one misstep, one lucky punch, and you lose your most precious treasure. It’s game over.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on Capitol Hill in Washington on Dec. 19, 2017. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post)

One of ThreatSTOP's goals has been to help reduce spam on the Internet. Besides being a source of constant annoyance in email, spam, malspam, phishing and spear-phishing all pose large security risks. In recent years, spammers have also discovered a new prime target for spam: website commenting systems. 

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