SECURITY TRENDS: CISSP tops list of security certifications

The Certified Information Security Professional (CISSP) certification issued by ISC2 remains the security certification in the greatest demand, according to a survey of 90,000 members of the Information Security Careers Network group on LinkedIn.

Other security certifications sought after by employers include...

The FBI is probing whether the Russian hackers that targeted the SolarWinds Orion platform used software created by JetBrains, Reuters reported. JetBrains' TeamCity is used to construct other software and has SolarWinds as a customer. JetBrains has previously reported critical bugs in its TeamCity software.

More:

• The New York Times reported that U.S. intelligence agencies and cybersecurity companies were also involved in the JetBrains probe.
• In a statement, JetBrains CEO Maxim Shafirov said that he is not aware of any investigation into its TeamCity product and that its product is secure if configured properly.
• JetBrains is based in the Czech Republic and has offices in Russia, the U.S., and the European Union.

REGULATORY REVIEW

Starting with today's issue, every Thursday I will summarize the most important regulatory actions related to security. In today's issue, I report on a number of federal agency announcements related to the SolarWinds Orion attack.

WhatsApp is asking users to accept a new privacy policy, effective Feb. 8, that allows the sharing of all their data with Facebook. The parent company is reportedly threatening to close down WhatsApp accounts if users don't accept the new policy.

More:

• WhatsApp already shares with Facebook user account registration information, transaction data, service-related information, data on how users interest, and IP address data.
• Facebook is facing a number of lawsuits filed by state attorneys general and the federal government calling for the company to be broken up due to anticompetitive behavior.
• In 2020, Facebook began reporting its privacy policies to an independent Privacy Committee as required by a Federal Trade Commission settlement over data privacy violations.

Linux malware developers are employing the publicly available Ezuri crypter and memory loader to hide their product from antivirus software, according to AT&T Alien Labs researchers. Ezuri, written in Golang, is both a crypter and a loader for Linux binaries. It encrypts the malware and then executes it directly within memory without generating files on disk.

More from AT&T:

• This technique is commonly used by Windows malware, but it has not been seen much in the Linux environment.
• The Ezuri loader decrypts the malware using an AES algorithm and executes it using memfd create.
• One of the malware developers using Ezuri is TeamTNT, a cybercrime group that targets Docker systems.

Effective Jan. 1, the new EU-U.K. Trade and Cooperation Agreement codifies the arrangements for the U.K. to leave the EU, including the application of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to the U.K. Among other things, the accord contains a six-month period during which data transfers from the EU to the U.K. can continue as if the U.K. were still part of the EU. In the meantime, the European Commission is tasked with reaching a GDPR adequacy decision regarding the U.K.

More:

• The U.K. agreed not to make changes to its data protection laws during this six-month period.
• The two sides also committed to not adopting any data localization requirements during this time.
• If an adequacy decision is not reached in time, data transfers from the EU to the U.K. will require additional safeguards.

QUICK HITS:

• Laird Superfood releases its first ever functional coffee with Vitamin D. Elevate your coffee today!*
• Google has paid more than $100K in bug bounties related to its Chrome 87 update.
• German publisher Funke Media Group suffered a ransomware attack that disrupted its newspapers and printing operations.
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