“Old Ironsides & The War of 1812” – 200 Years Ago Today August 20, 2012
Posted by Chris Mark in Uncategorized.Tags: barbary, HMS Guerriere, old ironshides, USS constitution, war of 1812
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Many Americans would likely be surprised to learn that the US has a ship built in 1797 that is still in active service. The USS Constitution, known as “Old Ironsides”, was launched in 1797 and fought in numerous battles and wars including the First Barbary Wars and the War of 1812. Here is a previous post I wrote about the Barbary Wars.
August 19th, 2012 marks the 200th anniversary of one the battle that gave the ship her nickname. In 1812 the Constitution waged a fierce battle with the HMS Guerriere in which the Constitution was victorious and the the HMS Guerriere, too badly damaged to bring into port, was burned at sea.
“Wanna Bet?..Yup…Straight8 I wanna CombatBet!”…Now You Are Asking What the Hell? August 15, 2012
Posted by Chris Mark in Uncategorized.Tags: challenge coin, combatbet, free fall, jason swarr, Marine, MFF, Recon, security, straight8
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So I just had an opportunity to catch up with an old Marine buddy named Jason. Jason owns Straight8 Photography. He is a retired
Recon Marine and was an instructor with me at the Basic Reconnaissance Course in late 1990’s. As I am talking, he mentions that his wife owns CombatBet. I couldn’t believe it! CombatBet is the “new” challenge coin. For those unfamiliar, ‘challenge coins” have been around for years and are coins carried by people in units that identify their membership etc. (too much history to explain). Long and short, it sucks to carry 10 coins to hand out. They are also expensive and not super customizable. I have been handed a half dozen of these over the last couple of years and didn’t know who was behind them! If you are looking for either a great photo or some kick ass poker chips, you have to take a spin by Straight8 Photography or CombatBet.com…BTW…if the pic looks familiar it is Jason with his daughter and was in the scrolling credits of Act of Valor…courtesy of Straight8…
“Gauss What!?” – Another CyberWeapon Discovered August 14, 2012
Posted by Chris Mark in cyberespionage, Risk & Risk Management, terrorism.Tags: cyber espionage, cybersecurity, data breach, Flame, Gauss, information security, Kaspersky, mark consulting group, Stuxnet
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According to Kaspersky labs, yet another cyberweapon was discovered last week. On August 9, 2012 Kaspersky labs released a press release stating that they had identified another cyber-weapon dubbed Gauss. According to the press release:
“…‘Gauss’, a new cyber-threat targeting users in the Middle East. Gauss is a complex, nation-state sponsored cyber-espionage toolkit designed to steal sensitive data, with a specific focus on browser passwords, online banking account credentials, cookies, and specific configurations of infected machines. The online banking Trojan functionality found in Gauss is a unique characteristic that was not found in any previously known cyber-weapons.” (more…)
“Bow-Chicka-Bow-Wow!” – Privacy Failure of Photobucket Can Make You a Porn Star! August 13, 2012
Posted by Chris Mark in cybersecurity, Data Breach.Tags: cybercrime, cybersecurity, data breach, fuscking, mark consulting group, Photobucket, privacy, security
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For those who like to use the popular photo sharing site Photobucket to share (ahem)..”private” pictures may want to take action immediately. According to an article on CNN, a privacy flaw in the way Photobucket allows users to share photos resulted in hackers gaining access to numerous R rated and even explicit photos of users. Photobucket allows users to share photos using direct links. This means that even if the user does not intend to share a photo, if a person can deduce the URL then the unencrypted file can be directly accessed. This is a hack known as “Fuscking” and it has been used to access numerous files. (more…)
“August 2012 TransactionWorld Magazine” – Chris & Heather Mark’s Articles August 13, 2012
Posted by Chris Mark in cybersecurity, Data Breach, Industry News.Tags: compliance, cybersecurity, data breach, data security, mark consulting group, mastercard, PCI DSS, security, visa
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Chris and Heather Mark both have articles in the August 2012 issue of TransactionWorld Magazine. Chris’ is titled: “The Impact of the Fortress Mentality & Today’s Compliance Strategies” while Heather’s is titled: “After the Compromise; Security Incident Response and Mitigating the Damage”
One note. I apparently forgot to update my bio with the Editor in Chief so the article erroneously references me as the Executive Vice President of Data Security and Compliance for a payment processor. You can visit Mark Consulting Group at the following: www.MarkConsultingGroup.com
Global Security, Privacy, & Risk Management 