There s plenty going on in security news.
Hacked, then pirated. In the wake of the hacking of Sony Pictures last week, some of Sony s new movies have been made available on file-sharing sites, including Annie, which was scheduled to be released in U.S. movie theaters Dec. 19. Fury, starring Brad Pitt and still in some theaters now, also has been making the rounds.
The computer systems at Sony Pictures was taken down last Monday after it was attacked by hackers calling themselves GOP, which stands for Guardians of Peace, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Sony also has reportedly hired Mandiant, a forensics unit of Silicon Valley online-security company FireEye, to help clean up the mess the attack made. Reuters says Mandiant also handled the aftermath of the big breach at Target last year.
Speaking of FireEye, it has published a new reportsaying a group it calls FIN4 has been spying on corporate emails to try to find information for use in gaming the stock market. The attacks involve phishing to capture usernames and passwords to email accounts of key people such as executives, scientists, researchers. The targets are mostly health care and pharmaceutical companies, whose shares can rise or fall sharply based on news about clinical trials, for example. Companies that are acquisition targets or are in M&A talks also have been targeted, according to FireEye. In all, the company says FIN4 has taken aim at more than 100 publicly traded companies and advisory firms.
Intel has bought Montreal company PasswordBox to boost its security offerings. PasswordBox is an ID manager that allows users to store up to 25 passwords for free. It can also store and encrypt credit-card information. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Photo: Wardaddy (Brad Pitt) gets his new orders from Lieutenant Parker (Xavier Samuel) in Fury. (Giles Keyte/Columbia Pictures)
