Over at Wired, Andy Greenberg has an excellent story about the creators of the 2016 Mirai botnet. [...]

New research demonstrates voice cloning, in multiple languages, using samples ranging from one to twelve seconds. Research paper. [...]

This is a current list of where and when I am scheduled to speak: I’m speaking at the International PolCampaigns Expo (IPE24) in Cape Town, South Africa, January 25-26, 2024. The list is maintained on this page. [...]

Interesting article, with photographs. As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered. Read my blog posting guidelines here. [...]

New law journal article : Smart Device Manufacturer Liability and Redress for Third-Party Cyberattack Victims Abstract: Smart devices are used to facilitate cyberattacks against both their users and third parties. While users are generally able to seek redress following a cyberattack via data protection legislation, there is no equivalent pathway …

Add pharmacies to the list of industries that are giving private data to the police without a warrant. [...]

In 2000, I wrote : “If McDonald’s offered three free Big Macs for a DNA sample, there would be lines around the block.” Burger King in Brazil is almost there, offering discounts in exchange for a facial scan. From a marketing video: “At the end of the year, it …

This is an old piece of malware—the Chameleon Android banking Trojan—that now disables biometric authentication in order to steal the PIN : The second notable new feature is the ability to interrupt biometric operations on the device, like fingerprint and face unlock, by using the Accessibility service to …

Last month, I convened the Second Interdisciplinary Workshop on Reimagining Democracy ( IWORD 2023 ) at the Harvard Kennedy School Ash Center. As with IWORD 2022, the goal was to bring together a diverse set of thinkers and practitioners to talk about how democracy might be reimagined for the twenty-first century …

They’re Ryukyuan pygmy squid ( Idiosepius kijimuna ) and Hannan’s pygmy squid ( Kodama jujutsu ). The second one represents an entire new genus. As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered. And, yes, this is …

We don’t have a useful quantum computer yet, but we do have quantum algorithms. Shor’s algorithm has the potential to factor large numbers faster than otherwise possible, which—if the run times are actually feasible—could break both the RSA and Diffie-Hellman public-key algorithms. Now, computer scientist …

Kaspersky researchers are detailing “an attack that over four years backdoored dozens if not thousands of iPhones, many of which belonged to employees of Moscow-based security firm Kaspersky.” It’s a zero-click exploit that makes use of four iPhone zero-days. The most intriguing new detail is the targeting of …

A helpful summary of which US retail stores are using facial recognition, thinking about using it, or currently not planning on using it. (This, of course, can all change without notice.) Three years ago, I wrote that campaigns to ban facial recognition are too narrow. The problem here is …

TikTok seems to be skewing things in the interests of the Chinese Communist Party. (This is a serious analysis, and the methodology looks sound.) Conclusion: Substantial Differences in Hashtag Ratios Raise Concerns about TikTok’s Impartiality Given the research above, we assess a strong possibility that content on TikTok …

They’re short unique strings : Sqids (pronounced “squids”) is an open-source library that lets you generate YouTube-looking IDs from numbers. These IDs are short, can be generated from a custom alphabet and are guaranteed to be collision-free. I haven’t dug into the details enough to know how they …

Wow : To test PIGEON’s performance, I gave it five personal photos from a trip I took across America years ago, none of which have been published online. Some photos were snapped in cities, but a few were taken in places nowhere near roads or other easily recognizable landmarks …

Artificial intelligence is poised to upend much of society, removing human limitations inherent in many systems. One such limitation is information and logistical bottlenecks in decision-making. Traditionally, people have been forced to reduce complex choices to a small handful of options that don’t do justice to their true …

Apple is rolling out a new “Stolen Device Protection” feature that seems well thought out: When Stolen Device Protection is turned on, Face ID or Touch ID authentication is required for additional actions, including viewing passwords or passkeys stored in iCloud Keychain, applying for a new Apple Card, turning …

Google Maps now stores location data locally on your device, meaning that Google no longer has that data to turn over to the police. [...]

It’s squid parts from college dissections, so it’s not a volume operation. As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered. Read my blog posting guidelines here. [...]

Ben Rothke chose A Hacker’s Mind as “the best information security book of 2023.” [...]

Interesting attack on a LLM: In Writer, users can enter a ChatGPT-like session to edit or create their documents. In this chat session, the LLM can retrieve information from sources on the web to assist users in creation of their documents. We show that attackers can prepare websites that …

The Solntsepek group has taken credit for the attack. They’re linked to the Russian military, so it’s unclear whether the attack was government directed or freelance. This is one of the most significant cyberattacks since Russia invaded in February 2022. [...]

Looks like fun. Details here. [...]

There’s a rumor flying around the Internet that OpenAI is training foundation models on your Dropbox documents. Here’s CNBC. Here’s Boing Boing. Some articles are more nuanced, but there’s still a lot of confusion. It seems not to be true. Dropbox isn’t sharing all …