Symantec buys Blue Coat; Facebook Messenger vulnerability; DDoS record broken

Cybersecurity company Symantec will acquire web security vendor Blue Coat for approximately US$4.651 billion (about AU$6.31 billion) in cash, under a deal announced earlier this week.

The transaction has already been approved by the boards of directors of both companies, and is expected to close in Q3 this year.

The current chief executive officer of Blue Coat, Greg Clark, will be appointed as Symantec’s CEO and join its board of directors upon closing of the deal.

Symantec’s chairman, Dan Schulman, talked up the incoming CEO’s credentials, saying: “In addition to a proven track record of delivering scale and profitable growth, Greg brings significant leadership experience, deep security expertise and a history of successfully integrating companies into a single portfolio; he is the right person to lead Symantec as we advance our position as the leader in cybersecurity.”

Thomas Seifert, Symantec’s CFO, said that the merger is expected to provide US$150 million in annual net cost synergies.

Seifert also said that Symantec will continue its practice of paying a quarterly dividend to its shareholders.

Once the deal is complete, Schulman will remain as Symantec’s chairman, while Seifert will continue on as CFO. The combined company will have its headquarters in Mountain View, California.

Facebook Messenger vulnerability

Security vendor Check Point has published details of a Facebook Messenger vulnerability that allowed attackers to modify content — including messages and links to photos and files — that had already been sent to other users.

In an official blog post, the Check Point Research Team said that Facebook has already closed the vulnerability.

The post explained that the vulnerability existed in both the online and mobile versions of the Facebook Messenger application.

According to Check Point, the vulnerability allowed a malicious user to change a conversation thread in the Facebook Online Chat & Messenger App. By exploiting the vulnerability, an attacker could modify or remove content that had already been sent, such as messages and links to photos and files.

Check Point said it fully disclosed the vulnerability to the Facebook Security team earlier this month.

“Facebook immediately responded, and after a joint effort, the vulnerability was patched,” the blog post said.

The vulnerability provided several vectors to attackers, Check Point said. For one, an attacker could have manipulated their message history with a victim as part of a fraud campaign. “A malicious actor [could have changed] the history of a conversation to claim he had reached a falsified agreement with the victim, or simply change its terms.”

The vulnerability could also have been used as a way to distribute malware, the Check Point post said.

A more detailed breakdown of the vulnerability is available at the Check Point blog.

DDoS record

The first quarter of 2016 saw a record number of DDoS attacks exceeding 100 gigabits per second (Gbps) take place, according to a report from content delivery network services provider Akamai.

The report, titled ‘Q1 2016 State of the Internet — Security Report’, indicated that in Q1 Akamai mitigated more than 4500 DDoS attacks.

“We have continued to witness significant growth in the number and frequency of DDoS and web application attacks launched against online assets, and Q1 2016 was no exception,” said Stuart Scholly, senior vice president and general manager, Security Business Unit, Akamai.

He noted that nearly 60% of the DDoS attacks that Akamai mitigated in Q1 used at least two attack vectors at once, “making defence more difficult”.

“Perhaps more concerning, this multivector attacks functionality was not only used by the most clever of attackers, it has become a standard capability in the DDoS-for-hire marketplace and accessible to even the least skilled actors,” Scholly said.

The report noted that Q1 set a record for the number of DDoS attacks exceeding 100 Gbps. 19 such attacks took place in Q1, according to Akamai — the previous record was 17, set in Q3 2014.

Image courtesy of Martin McKeay under CC