This is a dangerous vulnerability: An assessment from security firm BitSight found six vulnerabilities in the Micodus MV720, a GPS tracker that sells for about $20 and is widely available. The researchers who performed the assessment believe the same critical vulnerabilities are present in other Micodus tracker models. The …
The Russian hacking group Turla released an Android app that seems to aid Ukrainian hackers in their attacks against Russian networks. It’s actually malware, and provides information back to the Russians: The hackers pretended to be a “community of free people around the world who are fighting russia …
Yet another basic human rights violation, courtesy of NSO Group: Citizen Lab has the details : Key Findings We discovered an extensive espionage campaign targeting Thai pro-democracy protesters, and activists calling for reforms to the monarchy. We forensically confirmed that at least 30 individuals were infected with NSO Group’s …
Some sites, including Facebook, add parameters to the web address for tracking purposes. These parameters have no functionality that is relevant to the user, but sites rely on them to track users across pages and properties. Mozilla introduced support for URL stripping in Firefox 102, which it launched in …
Short video. 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. [...]
Surely no one could have predicted this : The new proposal—championed by Mayor London Breed after November’s wild weekend of orchestrated burglaries and theft in the San Francisco Bay Area—would authorize the police department to use non-city-owned security cameras and camera networks to live monitor “significant events …
This is a current list of where and when I am scheduled to speak: I’m speaking as part of a Geneva Centre for Security Policy course on Cyber Security in the Context of International Security, online, on September 22, 2022. I’m speaking at IT-Security INSIDE 2022 in …
Researchers have a new way to de-anonymize browser users, by correlating their behavior on one account with their behavior on another: The findings, which NJIT researchers will present at the Usenix Security Symposium in Boston next month, show how an attacker who tricks someone into loading a malicious website …
This is an excellent essay outlining the post-Roe privacy threat model. (Summary: period tracking apps are largely a red herring.) Taken together, this means the primary digital threat for people who take abortion pills is the actual evidence of intention stored on your phone, in the form of texts …
Honda vehicles from 2021 to 2022 are vulnerable to this attack : On Thursday, a security researcher who goes by Kevin2600 published a technical report and videos on a vulnerability that he claims allows anyone armed with a simple hardware device to steal the code to unlock Honda vehicles. Kevin2600 …
There was a massive prison break in Abuja, Nigeria: Armed with bombs, Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPGs) and General Purpose Machine Guns (GPMG), the attackers, who arrived at about 10:05 p.m. local time, gained access through the back of the prison, using dynamites to destroy the heavily fortified …
Foreign Policy has a three-part (so far) podcast series on squid and global fishing. 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. EDITED TO ADD: I accidentally posted …
Apple has introduced lockdown mode for high-risk users who are concerned about nation-state attacks. It trades reduced functionality for increased security in a very interesting way. [...]
Report by Georgetown’s Center on Privacy and Technology published a comprehensive report on the surprising amount of mass surveillance conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Our two-year investigation, including hundreds of Freedom of Information Act requests and a comprehensive review of ICE’s contracting and procurement records …
Foreign Policy has a three-part (so far) podcast series on squid and global fishing. 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. [...]
NIST’s post-quantum computing cryptography standard process is entering its final phases. It announced the first four algorithms: For general encryption, used when we access secure websites, NIST has selected the CRYSTALS-Kyber algorithm. Among its advantages are comparatively small encryption keys that two parties can exchange easily, as well …
NASA is researching new techniques for multiplexing SQUIDs—that’s superconducting quantum interference devices—for X-ray observatories. 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. [...]
Andrew Appel has a long analysis of the Swiss online voting system. It’s a really good analysis of both the system and the official analyses. [...]
Wired is reporting on a new remote-access Trojan that is able to infect at least eighty different targets: So far, researchers from Lumen Technologies’ Black Lotus Labs say they’ve identified at least 80 targets infected by the stealthy malware, including routers made by Cisco, Netgear, Asus, and DrayTek …
Someone hacked the Ecuadorian embassy in Moscow and found a document related to Ecuador’s 2013 efforts to bring Edward Snowden there. If you remember, Snowden was traveling from Hong Kong to somewhere when the US revoked his passport, stranding him in Russia. In the document, Ecuador asks Russia …
Thought experiment story of someone of someone who lost everything in a house fire, and now can’t log into anything: But to get into my cloud, I need my password and 2FA. And even if I could convince the cloud provider to bypass that and let me in …
I did not attend WEIS this year, but Ross Anderson was there and liveblogged all the talks. [...]
Researchers thaw squid frozen into a cube and often make interesting discoveries. (Okay, this is a weird story.) 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. [...]
Earlier this month, I and others wrote a letter to Congress, basically saying that cryptocurrencies are an complete and total disaster, and urging them to regulate the space. Nothing in that letter is out of the ordinary, and is in line with what I wrote about blockchain in 2019 …
Nadiya Kostyuk and Susan Landau wrote an interesting paper: “ Dueling Over DUAL_EC_DRBG: The Consequences of Corrupting a Cryptographic Standardization Process “: Abstract: In recent decades, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which develops cryptographic standards for non-national security agencies of the U.S. government, has emerged …