Week 4 update:

I never thought CYBR 515 (Security Architecture) class would be this challenging. Especially the technical type of questions is taking most of my time. Week 3, we had to use ASCII chart and convert characters into hex and then binary. The most challenging part was to use XOR function to multiple binary digits. After asking many questions to the professor, I was able to figure this out. Again challenging but fun! CYBR 650 is going well so far. There are a lot of reading assignments. I love two weeks assignment format even though each week has some assignment, but it gives students more time to work on the projects. Week 4 we are to update our week one threat model and add improvements based on the professor's comment. Hopefully, we will have a professional looking final "Threat Model Process" which can be used in any business.

Article 1:

I read a very surprising news on CNBC titled "Cybersecurity firm: More evidence N. Korea linked to Bangladesh heist". I thought North Korea would target countries like United States/South Korea. The cyber security company Kaspersky researcher has found additional evidence that the North Koreans were behind stealing the money ($81 Million) from the Bangladesh Central Bank's account. Usually, hackers make big target where they can get the most benefit; however, this time Bangladesh's bank was a target. I think they wanted to take the most advantage of the weakly secure banking system. So it was an easy target for them. I was little surprised to see Russian-based security company investigated the incident. The company is still working on finding additional information about the crime. This proves that if there are any monetary benefits, hackers can target anyone.  

This also shows the countries like the United States need to coordinate with the countries to gather information about the tactics they use to steal money or sensitive information. If this can be proven, North Koreas are taking money from the banks. It was kind of crazy to hear that a country who doesn’t have easy access to the computer and the Internet can do all this. Imagine what they could do if the public had easy access of the computer and Internet.

Source: http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/03/cyber-security-firm-more-evidence-n-korea-linked-to-bangladesh-heist.html

Article 2:

Next, I wanted to research more about the news. I googled "hacking news." The very first thing shows are about North Korea is attacking banking systems worldwide from CNN. The news CNN also mentioned about the Bangladesh's bank but added more to it by providing additional examples of hacking incidents. Like always CNN writes about the possibility of Russian government involvement with the cyber security firm Kaspersky, but the company strongly denies the allegation. Like in 2014, the US government blamed North Korea for the hacking of Sony pictures. How they found about where the attack came from sounds fascinating. According to Kaspersky, the Lazarus hackers carefully routed their signal through France, South Korea, and Taiwan to set up that attack server. But there was apparently one mistake spotted by Kaspersky: A connection that briefly came from North Korea, CNN writes.

In summary, this is an alarming finding to the world banking system that their banking system is vulnerable and they must do everything to protect their banking system; otherwise, they will lose the trust of the customers and eventually lose customers.

Article 3:

I read another news this week and it is titled as " US cyber-attack could have caused North Korea's
failed missile test, the expert suggests." This would be very interesting if it is true. I am sure government agencies are working to achieve this but not sure if the United States did. The article writer doesn’t really validate the authenticity of the claims but suggests that a rocket test came just before a crucial meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jingping. Recently, North Korea has tested multiple missiles, but one was failed. Now some experts suggest that the U.S. was behind of failing the test. It is a fascinating reading if you are interested. Here is the link to the article.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/north-korea-missile-test-fail-us-cyber-attack-barack-obama-kim-jong-un-intervention-a7669686.html