New malware variant suggests cybercriminals are targeting SAP systems
Security researchers at last week’s RSA Europe Conference in Amsterdam revealed the discovery of a new variant of a widespread Trojan program that has been modified to search for SAP systems. This form of reconnaissance is regarded by security experts as the preliminary phase of a planned attack against SAP systems orchestrated by cybercriminals. The […]
Organisations are not effectively addressing IT security and compliance risks according to accounting professionals
The results of the 2013 Top Technology Initiatives Survey revealed that securing IT environments against cyber attack and managing IT risks and compliance are rated as two of the three greatest challenges in technology by accounting professionals in North America. The survey was performed jointly by the AICPA and CPA, the largest accounting organisations in […]
Lloyds 2013 Risk Index: Cyber Risk Rated as the Third Most Significant Risk by Board Executives
The recent wave of sophisticated and targeted data breaches has led global business leaders to recognize cyber risk as one of the most significant threats faced by corporations today. According to the Lloyds 2013 Risk Index released this week, “Cyber security now sits squarely towards the top of the agenda for boards around the world”. […]
Exploring the SAP DIAG Protocol
One of the most memorable events at last year’s BruCON in Belgium was Martin Gallo’s expose of the SAP DIAG protocol. The session can be viewed in its entirety below. DIAG (Dynamic Information and Action Gateway) is a proprietary protocol supporting client-server communication and links the presentation (SAP GUI) and application (NetWeaver) layer in SAP […]
Securing Your SAP Systems: How to Counter Every Current and Emerging Threat
One of the highlights of the Sapphire conference earlier this month was the insightful session on SAP security delivered by Gordon Muehl, Senior Vice President of Product Security at SAP. A recording of the session can be viewed below. The session highlighted the threat presented to Internet-enabled SAP systems by external agents and stressed the […]
Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) 2013: ‘This isn’t a threat you can afford to ignore’
The breadth and depth of the 2013 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) is unprecedented. Released this Monday, the reports brings together the investigations performed by nineteen law enforcement agencies, research institutions and private security firms that combat data breaches including the European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), U.S Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security. […]
Countering the Threat of Corporate Espionage
According to the results of a survey released by HBGary during the recent 2013 RSA Conference in San Francisco, more than 70 percent of American investors are interested in reviewing the cybersecurity practices of public companies and nearly 80 percent would not invest in companies with a history of cyberattacks. The survey of 405 U.S. […]
International Corporate Espionage: Annual Cost of Intellectual Property Theft Estimated at $250 Billion for U.S Economy
According to NSA Director General Keith Alexander, cyber-espionage has led to “the greatest transfer of wealth in history.†This is supported by not only a recent report by Symantec, which places the cost of intellectual property theft in the United States at $250 billion a year, but a prominent report on cyber-espionage released by Mandiant […]
Lessons from the Top Ten Data Breaches of 2012: Defense-in-Depth for SAP Systems
According to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (PRC), there were 680 reported data breaches in 2012 covering all forms of commercial, governmental, educational, medical and non-profit organizations. The breaches are estimated to have compromised over 27M data records. The most significant breach occurred at VeriSign. Although the extent of the breach has never been disclosed […]
The Final Frontier: The Challenges in Developing Secure Custom ABAP Programs
In November, SAP released an unusually high number of Security Notes to patch various forms of injection vulnerabilities in it’s software. The trend continued in December with the release of several patches for code injection flaws in the Computer Center Management System (BC-CCM), Project System (PS-IS), Transport Organizer (BC-CTS-ORG) and work processes in Application Servers […]