Martyn Williams
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FBI director admits mistake was made with San Bernardino iCloud reset
The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation has conceded it was a mistake to ask San Bernardino County to reset the password of an iCloud account that had been used by gunman Syed Farook. Changing the password to the account prevented the phone from making a backup to an iCloud account, which Apple could have accessed without bypassing the encryption and security settings on the phone. "As I understand it from the experts, there was a mistake made in that 24 hours after the attack where the county, at the FBI’s request, took steps that made it impossible later to cause the phone to backup again to the iCloud," James Comey told the House Committee on the Judiciary in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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This bird could be a drone’s worst enemy
When it comes to the problem of stopping errant drones, there's been a number of high-tech solutions -- from radio jamming to laser beams to nets launched by other drones -- but a group in The Netherlands is proposing a low-tech solution that's much more elegant.Guard From Above says it is training birds of prey to attack drones, taking advantage of their natural predatory instincts and precision in the sky.A video posted by the company on YouTube shows a bird attacking a DJI Phantom drone as it hovers, grabbing the drone with its feet and flying away with it.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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This bird could be a drone’s worst enemy
When it comes to the problem of stopping errant drones, there's been a number of high-tech solutions -- from radio jamming to laser beams to nets launched by other drones -- but a group in The Netherlands is proposing a low-tech solution that's much more elegant. Guard From Above says it is training birds of prey to attack drones, taking advantage of their natural predatory instincts and precision in the sky. A video posted by the company on YouTube shows a bird attacking a DJI Phantom drone as it hovers, grabbing the drone with its feet and flying away with it.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Inside Verizon’s Super Bowl Control Center
With banks of big-screens high along three walls and a huge TV on the fourth, it could be a great spot to watch The Super Bowl. But when the Denver Broncos take on the Carolina Panthers on Feb. 7, the people in this room won't be concerned with touchdowns, running yards and time outs. They'll be analyzing gigabits, latency and capacity to make sure Verizon's cellular network holds up for fans.This is Verizon's Super Bowl command room -- a temporary, purpose-built nerve center in the shadow of Levi's Stadium that pulls in data from permanent and temporary base stations near the site of Super Bowl 50 and the fan area in downtown San Francisco.Organizers predict up to a million people will visit the Bay Area for The Super Bowl, so Verizon has added 46 small cells and 10 macro cells to augment its network.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Automakers will collaborate to try to stop car hacks before they happen
Major automakers plan to work with the U.S. government to try to deter hacks of connected cars before they become a major issue. To date, there haven't been any major cyberattacks on cars, but a number of security researchers demonstrated potentially serious attacks in 2015, and that has the government worried. So the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is hoping it can get the auto industry to mirror proactive safety work that already takes place in the aviation industry. The agreement has been signed by all major automakers that operate in the U.S. "Real safety is finding and fixing defects before someone gets hurt, rather than just punishing after the damage is done," U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said Friday when he announced the initiative at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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White House hopes for ‘common ground’ in Silicon Valley meeting
The White House hopes a Friday summit between senior government officials and Silicon Valley tech leaders will find common ground on ways to work together to combat extremism and radicalization. Government officials will seek to convince tech executives that they need to heed President Barack Obama's call to action and step up to help the U.S. in its fight against militants. But some tech executives are still wary of assisting the government after former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden leaked information about U.S. spying back in 2013.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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White House hopes for ‘common ground’ in Silicon Valley meeting
The White House hopes a Friday summit between senior government officials and Silicon Valley tech leaders will find common ground on ways to work together to combat extremism and radicalization. Government officials will seek to convince tech executives that they need to heed President Barack Obama's call to action and step up to help the U.S. in its fight against militants. But some tech executives are still wary of assisting the government after former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden leaked information about U.S. spying back in 2013.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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This Japanese security drone will chase intruders
Security guards in Japan have a new tool to deter intruders: a drone that will chase down and follow people without human intervention.Made by Secom, Japan's biggest security company, the drone goes on sale Friday to organizations that need to protect large parcels of land. It will launch whenever suspicious cars or people are detected on the property by other security equipment.The drone will snap pictures and send them to a Secom monitoring center where it can determine the threat. Today, the company sends security guards to investigate potential intrusions, so a drone could reduce its response time considerably.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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NASA’s not so keen to talk about quantum computer security
The D-Wave 2X quantum computer at NASA's Advanced Supercomputing facility in Silicon Valley is an impressive machine. Engineers from NASA and Google are using it to research a whole new area of computing -- one that's years from commercialization but could revolutionize the way computers solve complex problems.The machine is also being used by researchers at universities, and it's hooked up to the Internet, like other NASA supercomputers made available to academics.Engineers who showed the machine to the media on Tuesday were keen to talk about its capabilities, but less so about the security measures in place to stop hackers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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NASA, Google reveal quantum computing leap
The black box sitting at the heart of NASA's Advanced Supercomputing facility in Silicon Valley isn't much to look at. The size of a garden shed, it's smaller than a conventional supercomputer, but inside something quite impressive is happening.The box is a D-Wave 2X quantum computer, one of the most advanced examples yet of a new type of computer based on quantum mechanics, which can theoretically be used to solve complex problems in seconds rather than years.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 13 awesome and scary things in near Earth space Quantum computers rely on fundamentally different principles to today's computers, in which each bit represents either a zero or a one. In quantum computing, each bit can be both a zero and a one simultaneously. So while three conventional bits can represent any of eight values (2^3), three qubits, as they're called, can represent all eight values at once. That means calculations can theoretically be performed at much higher speeds.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Hilton says malware targeted its credit card system
Hilton Worldwide says it has identified and removed malware that targeted card payment systems at some of its hotels over a 17 week period from late 2014 to mid 2015. The malware collected cardholder names, payment card numbers, security codes and expiration dates, the company said in a statement. The hotel chain is advising its customers to check their payment card statements for any unauthorized activity. "As a precautionary measure, customers may wish to review and monitor their payment card statements if they used a payment card at a Hilton Worldwide hotel over a seventeen-week period, from Nov. 18 to Dec. 5, 2014 or April 21 to July 27, 2015," the company said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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How a telecom investment in North Korea went horribly wrong
An Egyptian company that launched North Korea's first 3G cellular network and attracted as many as 3 million subscribers has revealed that it lost control of the operator despite owning a majority stake.The plight of Orascom Telecom and Media Technology in North Korea takes place against a backdrop of rapid telecom modernization and a public eager to adopt a new technology. It's ultimately a lesson in the perils of getting into bed with a government that's not known for respecting international law.When Orascom announced plans to launch the 3G service in 2008 it met with skepticism. The North Korean government severely limits its citizens' ability to communicate and has jailed or killed anyone who speaks out against the regime. The regime has regularly threatened war against its foes and was under sanctions at the time for a 2006 nuclear test.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Don’t fall for drone registration scams, warns FAA
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration hasn't revealed its plans for drone registration yet, but that hasn't stopped at least one company from trying to make a buck from confusion about the rules.In early November, the FAA and Department of Transportation said they intend to set up a registry that will likely cover many small consumer drones, but it's yet to happen. A task force established to propose registration rules is due to deliver its findings on Friday, but even then the FAA will have to come up with formal rules and propose them.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 6 simple tricks for protecting your passwords "Owners should wait until additional details about the forthcoming drone registration system are announced later this month before paying anyone to do the work for them," the FAA said on Monday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Cox to pay $595,000 for Lizard Squad data breach
Cox Communications has agreed to pay US$595,000 and submit to seven years of computer security compliance monitoring by the Federal Communications Commission to settle an investigation into whether the cable TV and Internet operator failed to safeguard the personal information of its customers.The investigation relates to a hack of Cox in 2014 by "EvilJordie," a member of the "Lizard Squad" hacker collective, and is the FCC's first privacy and data security enforcement action against a cable operator.The FCC's investigation found that by posing as a Cox IT staffer, the hacker convinced a Cox customer service representative and contractor to enter their account IDs and passwords into a fake website, the FCC said Thursday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Revealed: The top 10 apps that companies hate
Companies are wary about what employees are doing on their smartphones. Be it data loss or time-wasting, a growing number of employers are actively stopping staff from using certain apps on company-controlled devices.After surveying the roughly 6,000 companies that uses its mobile security management software, MobileIron determined the top 10 consumer apps that are most often blocked or blacklisted at companies: Dropbox Angry Birds Facebook Microsoft OneDrive Google Drive Box Whatsapp Twitter Skype SugarSync It's perhaps no surprise that half of the positions in the top 10 are for file-sharing apps. Corporate IT managers are wary about giving users the ability to download and share internal files on apps that aren't under corporate control.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Biometric data becomes the encryption key in Fujitsu system
Fujitsu says it has developed software that uses biometric data directly as the basis for encryption and decryption of data, simplifying and strengthening security systems that rely on biometrics such as fingerprints, retina scans and palm vein scans.Current security systems that rely on encryption require the management of encryption keys, which are stored on secure smartcards or directly on PCs. Biometric scans can be used as a way of authenticating the user and providing access to those encryption keys in order to decrypt data.Fujitsu's system uses elements extracted from the biometric scan itself as a part of a procedure to encrypt the data, making the biometric scan an integral part of the encryption system and removing the need for encryption keys.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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18 million hit by Identity theft last year
Almost 18 million people were victims of identity theft in the United States last year, with the majority of crimes targeting credit cards and bank accounts, the Department of Justice said Sunday.The figure represents 7 percent of the U.S. population aged 16 or older and is a rise of 1 million people from 2012, the last year for which the DOJ's Bureau of Justice Statistics published a similar report.The latest report counts instances where a person experienced misuse of a financial or other account -- not simply a breach of their personal information.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 6 simple tricks for protecting your passwords Just over two in every five cases involved a credit card account and just under two in five involved a bank account.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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US, China appear close on cyber economic espionage deal
China and the U.S. appear close to a ground-breaking agreement on cyber espionage that could be signed later this week when President Xi and President Obama meet in Washington.On the eve of the state visit, both countries have expressed a desire to stop cyber espionage for economic gain and agreed it's illegal.But the two countries are still in disagreement over whether China's government plays any part in trans-national cyber hacking for economic purposes.On Monday, U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice said "cyber-enabled economic espionage must stop."During a speech in Washington, D.C., she said the issue was more than an irritation and "puts enormous strain on our bilateral relationship and it is a critical factor in determining the future trajectory of U.S.-China ties."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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China ‘must stop’ cyberespionage, warns US National Security Advisor Rice
China's government must halt economic espionage in cyberspace, U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice warned on Monday, days before Chinese President Xi Jinping is due in Washington, D.C., on an official visit.The issue has become a major thorn in the side of U.S.-China relations in the last year, especially in the wake of the breach of personal information of tens of millions of U.S. government workers at the Office of Personnel Management. The U.S. hasn't publicly accused China of that hack but has done so privately. China denies any involvement."This isn’t a mild irritation," Rice said in a speech at George Washington University. "It’s an economic and national security concern to the United States. It puts enormous strain on our bilateral relationship and it is a critical factor in determining the future trajectory of U.S.-China ties."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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White House won’t say if it’s hoping for a cybersecurity deal with China
With the visit of Chinese premier Xi Jinping just a week away, the White House won't say whether one of its goals is to reach an agreement with China over cybersecurity.Hacking has been one of the issues at the forefront of U.S.-China relations over the last couple of years, particularly after the U.S. accused China of hacking into sensitive federal government systems, something that China denies."We've been pretty blunt in describing the concerns that we have with China's behavior in cyberspace," White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters on board Air Force One on Monday, according to a pool report.But Earnest wouldn't comment on any measures that might be taken ahead of the visit.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here