The U.K. is joining the U.S. in its ban restricting passengers from bringing some electronic devices onto flights from the Middle East.Phones, laptops, and tablets that are larger than 16 cm (6.3 inches) in length and wider than 9.3 cm will no longer be allowed in the cabin on select flights coming from several Middle Eastern countries, the U.K.'s department of transportation said on Tuesday. The U.K. said it was in "close contact" with the U.S. since the country announced its own ban on Monday. However, the U.K. made no mention of any specific risk, only that it faces "evolving" terrorism threats. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The U.K. is joining the U.S. in its ban restricting passengers from bringing some electronic devices onto flights from the Middle East.Phones, laptops, and tablets that are larger than 16 cm (6.3 inches) in length and wider than 9.3 cm will no longer be allowed in the cabin on select flights coming from several Middle Eastern countries, the U.K.'s department of transportation said on Tuesday. The U.K. said it was in "close contact" with the U.S. since the country announced its own ban on Monday. However, the U.K. made no mention of any specific risk, only that it faces "evolving" terrorism threats. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Future U.S. elections may very well face more Russian attempts to interfere with the outcome, the FBI and the National Security Agency warned on Monday.“They’ll be back,” said FBI director James Comey. “They’ll be back in 2020. They may be back in 2018.”Comey made the comment during a congressional hearing on Russia’s suspected efforts to meddle with last year’s presidential election. Allegedly, cyberspies from the country hacked several high-profile Democratic groups and people, in an effort to tilt the outcome in President Donald Trump’s favor.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Future U.S. elections may very well face more Russian attempts to interfere with the outcome, the FBI and the National Security Agency warned on Monday.“They’ll be back,” said FBI director James Comey. “They’ll be back in 2020. They may be back in 2018.”Comey made the comment during a congressional hearing on Russia’s suspected efforts to meddle with last year’s presidential election. Allegedly, cyberspies from the country hacked several high-profile Democratic groups and people, in an effort to tilt the outcome in President Donald Trump’s favor.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Local police in Minnesota are trying to solve a bank fraud scheme by demanding Google give up data on people who looked up key search terms that may be related to crime.The warrant, issued to police in the city of Edina last month, is raising eyebrows among privacy advocates. It's a rare instance of U.S. law enforcement using mass data collection to solve a petty crime, said Nate Cardozo, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.Edina police applied for the warrant to investigate a fraud case dealing with $28,500 that was wired out of a victim's bank account back in January.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
When governments turn to private hackers to carry out state-sponsored attacks, as the FBI alleges Russia did in the 2014 breach of Yahoo, they're taking a big risk.
On the one hand, it gives them a bit of plausible deniability while reaping the potential spoils of each attack, but if the hackers aren't kept on a tight leash things can turn bad.
Karim Baratov, the 22-year-old Canadian hacker who the FBI alleges Russia's state security agency hired to carry out the Yahoo breach, didn't care much for a low profile.
His Facebook and Instagram posts boasted of the million-dollar house he bought in a Toronto suburb and there were numerous pictures of him with expensive sports cars -- the latest an Aston Martin DB9 with the license plate "MR KARIM."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
When governments turn to private hackers to carry out state-sponsored attacks, as the FBI alleges Russia did in the 2014 breach of Yahoo, they're taking a big risk.
On the one hand, it gives them a bit of plausible deniability while reaping the potential spoils of each attack, but if the hackers aren't kept on a tight leash things can turn bad.
Karim Baratov, the 22-year-old Canadian hacker who the FBI alleges Russia's state security agency hired to carry out the Yahoo breach, didn't care much for a low profile.
His Facebook and Instagram posts boasted of the million-dollar house he bought in a Toronto suburb and there were numerous pictures of him with expensive sports cars -- the latest an Aston Martin DB9 with the license plate "MR KARIM."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apparently, big bucks can be made selling stolen printer ink cartridges online.A dozen suspects are accused of pulling in more than US$12 million by selling the stolen cartridges and retail electronics on Amazon and eBay, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said on Wednesday.Sixty-four-year-old Richard Rimbaugh allegedly led the operation for more than 20 years by recruiting people to steal the goods from retail stores across 28 states.Rimbaugh and his "theft crews" allegedly went out each week to steal new merchandise, which also included computer software, Schneiderman said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apparently, big bucks can be made selling stolen printer ink cartridges online.A dozen suspects are accused of pulling in more than US$12 million by selling the stolen cartridges and retail electronics on Amazon and eBay, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said on Wednesday.Sixty-four-year-old Richard Rimbaugh allegedly led the operation for more than 20 years by recruiting people to steal the goods from retail stores across 28 states.Rimbaugh and his "theft crews" allegedly went out each week to steal new merchandise, which also included computer software, Schneiderman said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In a rare move, the U.S. has indicted two Russian government agents for their suspected involvement in a massive Yahoo data breach. But what now?
Security experts say Wednesday’s indictment might amount to nothing more than naming and shaming Russia. That’s because no one expects the Kremlin to play along with the U.S. indictment.
“I can’t imagine the Russian government is going to hand over the two FSB officers,” said Jeremiah Grossman, chief of security strategy at SentinelOne.
"Even in the most successful investigations, state hackers are still immune from prosecution or retaliation," said Kenneth Geers, a research scientist at security firm Comodo.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In a rare move, the U.S. has indicted two Russian government agents for their suspected involvement in a massive Yahoo data breach. But what now?
Security experts say Wednesday’s indictment might amount to nothing more than naming and shaming Russia. That’s because no one expects the Kremlin to play along with the U.S. indictment.
“I can’t imagine the Russian government is going to hand over the two FSB officers,” said Jeremiah Grossman, chief of security strategy at SentinelOne.
"Even in the most successful investigations, state hackers are still immune from prosecution or retaliation," said Kenneth Geers, a research scientist at security firm Comodo.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Efforts to stop Mirai, a malware found infecting thousands of IoT devices, have become a game of whack-a-mole, with differing opinions over whether hackers or the security community are making any headway.The malicious code became publicly available in late September. Since then, it’s been blamed for enslaving IoT devices such as DVRs and internet cameras to launch massive distributed denial-of-service attacks, one of which disrupted internet access across the U.S. in October.The good news: Last month, police arrested one suspected hacker who may have been behind several Mirai-related DDoS attacks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Efforts to stop Mirai, a malware found infecting thousands of IoT devices, have become a game of whack-a-mole, with differing opinions over whether hackers or the security community are making any headway.The malicious code became publicly available in late September. Since then, it’s been blamed for enslaving IoT devices such as DVRs and internet cameras to launch massive distributed denial-of-service attacks, one of which disrupted internet access across the U.S. in October.The good news: Last month, police arrested one suspected hacker who may have been behind several Mirai-related DDoS attacks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Has the CIA ever spied on you? That’s a key question swirling around the WikiLeaks document dump that allegedly details the U.S. agency's secret hacking tools.
The documents themselves don't reveal much about who the CIA might have snooped on. But the agency certainly has the power to spy on foreigners outside the U.S., said Paul Pillar, a former deputy counterterrorism chief with the CIA.
That's its job after all: to collect foreign intelligence. But even so, the CIA is pretty selective with its targets. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Has the CIA ever spied on you? That’s a key question swirling around the WikiLeaks document dump that allegedly details the U.S. agency's secret hacking tools.
The documents themselves don't reveal much about who the CIA might have snooped on. But the agency certainly has the power to spy on foreigners outside the U.S., said Paul Pillar, a former deputy counterterrorism chief with the CIA.
That's its job after all: to collect foreign intelligence. But even so, the CIA is pretty selective with its targets. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
WikiLeaks plans to share details about what it says are CIA hacking tools with the tech companies so that software fixes can be developed.But will software companies want it?The information WikiLeaks plans to share comes from 8,700-plus documents it says were stolen from an internal CIA server. If the data is classified -- and it almost certainly is -- possessing it would be a crime.That was underlined on Thursday by White House press secretary Sean Spicer, who advised tech vendors to consider the legal consequences of receiving documents from WikiLeaks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
WikiLeaks plans to share details about what it says are CIA hacking tools with the tech companies so that software fixes can be developed.But will software companies want it?The information WikiLeaks plans to share comes from 8,700-plus documents it says were stolen from an internal CIA server. If the data is classified -- and it almost certainly is -- possessing it would be a crime.That was underlined on Thursday by White House press secretary Sean Spicer, who advised tech vendors to consider the legal consequences of receiving documents from WikiLeaks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
WikiLeaks has attracted plenty of haters over its controversial disclosures. But the site may be in a unique position to help tech vendors better secure their products.That’s because WikiLeaks has published secret hacking tools allegedly taken from the CIA, which appear to target smartphones, smart TVs and PCs.Companies including Apple and Cisco have been looking through the stolen documents to address any vulnerabilities the CIA may have exploited. However, WikiLeaks might be able to speed up and expand the whole process.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
WikiLeaks has attracted plenty of haters over its controversial disclosures. But the site may be in a unique position to help tech vendors better secure their products.That’s because WikiLeaks has published secret hacking tools allegedly taken from the CIA, which appear to target smartphones, smart TVs and PCs.Companies including Apple and Cisco have been looking through the stolen documents to address any vulnerabilities the CIA may have exploited. However, WikiLeaks might be able to speed up and expand the whole process.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Confide, a messaging app reportedly used by U.S. White House staff, apparently had several security holes that made it easier to hack.Security consultancy IOActive found the vulnerabilities in Confide, which promotes itself as an app that offers “military-grade” end-to-end encryption.But despite its marketing, the app contained glaring problems with securing user account information, IOActive said in a Wednesday post.The consultancy noticed it could access records for 7,000 Confide users by exploiting vulnerabilities in the app’s account management system. Part of the problem resided with Confide’s API, which could be used to reveal data on user’s phone numbers and email addresses.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Michael Kan