Steve Ragan
Senior Staff Writer
Prior to joining the journalism world in 2005, Steve Ragan spent 15 years as a freelance IT contractor focused on infrastructure management and security. He's a father of two and rounded geek with a strong technical background.
Hacking an election is about influence and disruption, not voting machines
Every time there's an election, the topic of hacking one comes to the surface. During a presidential election, that conversation gets louder. Yet, even the elections held every two years see some sort of vote hacking coverage. But can...
Five arrested for impersonating the IRS, listen to a recorded scam in progress
Five people have been arrested in Miami who are said to be responsible for scamming 1,500 people out of more than $2 million by impersonating IRS agents. Their scams centered on contacting individual taxpayers out of the blue and...
Comcast's Xfinity Home Security vulnerable, fail open flaw leaves homes exposed
Researchers at Rapid7 have disclosed vulnerabilities in Comcast's Xfinity Home Security offerings. The flaws cause the system to falsely report that a home's windows and doors are closed and secured, even if they've been opened.
Microsoft updates trust list after private key for Xbox Live leaks
On Tuesday, Microsoft updated their Certificate Trust List (CTL) after the private key for xboxlive.com was leaked to the Web. The company didn't explain how the leak happened, but the exposed certificates were immediately revoked and...
Three indicted in JPMorgan hacking case
On Tuesday, Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara's office unsealed an indictment against three individuals charged with hacking several financial institutions, financial news publishers, and other companies.
Comcast resets nearly 200,000 passwords after customer list goes on sale
Over the weekend, a reader directed Salted Hash to a post on a Dark Web marketplace selling a number of questionable, if not outright illegal goods. The post in question offered a list of 590,000 Comcast email addresses and...
The FBI isn't wrong; sometimes you will have to pay the ransom
Last week, during the 2015 Cyber Security Summit in Boston, Special Agent Joseph Bonavolonta said that the FBI's advice for some Ransomware attacks is to pay the ransom. Unfortunately, that might be the best option in some cases.
Dow Jones & Co. discloses breach, incident likely related to Scottrade
On Friday, in a letter to customers, the CEO of Dow Jones & Co. disclosed a data breach affecting 3,500 people. Based on public details, the incident seems similar to a breach reported by Scottrade last week that impacted 4.6 million...
Organizations should focus data sharing post-incident, not attribution
There have been several notable security incidents in the news this year, from healthcare and retail breaches, to financial; even security firms themselves have been targeted. In each instance, attribution seems to take the lead...
Newest RIG exploit kit driven by malicious advertising
Earlier this year, a disgruntled reseller leaked the source code for version 2.0 of the RIG exploit kit. Since then, the RIG's author has released a new version, which was recently discovered by researchers from Trustwave. The latest...
FBI alert discloses malware tied to the OPM and Anthem attacks
The breach at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is still the leading security incident in the news. Just last week the public learned that the breach might impact up to 32 million people and earlier this month, the FBI released...