Microsoft researchers just released an open-source automation tool for security testing AI systems: “ Counterfit.” Details on their blog. [...]

This is a major story : a probably Russian cybercrime group called DarkSide shut down the Colonial Pipeline in a ransomware attack. The pipeline supplies much of the East Coast. This is the new and improved ransomware attack: the hackers stole nearly 100 gig of data, and are threatening to …

This is a newly unclassified NSA history of its reaction to academic cryptography in the 1970s: “ NSA Comes Out of the Closet: The Debate over Public Cryptography in the Inman Era,” Cryptographic Quarterly, Spring 1996, author still classified. [...]

This is a newly unclassified NSA history of its reaction to academic cryptography in the 1970s: “ New Comes Out of the Closet: The Debate over Public Cryptography in the Inman Era,” Cryptographic Quarterly, Spring 1996, author still classified. [...]

A town in Japan built a giant squid statue with its COVID relief grant. One local told the Chunichi Shimbun newspaper that while the statue may be effective in the long run, the money could have been used for “urgent support,” such as for medical staff and long-term care …

A new draft of an Australian educational curriculum proposes teaching children as young as five cybersecurity: The proposed curriculum aims to teach five-year-old children — an age at which Australian kids first attend school — not to share information such as date of birth or full names with strangers, and that …

Nice video of a talk by Chris Shore on the history of Colossus. [...]

There’s new research that demonstrates security vulnerabilities in all of the AMD and Intel chips with micro-op caches, including the ones that were specifically engineered to be resistant to the Spectre/Meltdown attacks of three years ago. Details : The new line of attacks exploits the micro-op cache: an …

This is an impressive hack: Security researchers Ralf-Philipp Weinmann of Kunnamon, Inc. and Benedikt Schmotzle of Comsecuris GmbH have found remote zero-click security vulnerabilities in an open-source software component (ConnMan) used in Tesla automobiles that allowed them to compromise parked cars and control their infotainment systems over WiFi. It …

The person behind the Bitcoin Fog was identified and arrested. Bitcoin Fog was an anonymization service: for a fee, it mixed a bunch of people’s bitcoins up so that it was hard to figure out where any individual coins came from. It ran for ten years. Identifying the …

Nice excerpt from Martin Wallin’s book Squid. 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. [...]

Apple just patched a MacOS vulnerability that bypassed malware checks. The flaw is akin to a front entrance that’s barred and bolted effectively, but with a cat door at the bottom that you can easily toss a bomb through. Apple mistakenly assumed that applications will always have certain …

In this entertaining story of French serial criminal Rédoine Faïd and his jailbreaking ways, there’s this bit about cell phone surveillance: After Faïd’s helicopter breakout, 3,000 police officers took part in the manhunt. According to the 2019 documentary La Traque de Rédoine Faïd, detective units scoured …

For a limited time, I am selling signed copies of Click Here to Kill Everybody in hardcover for just $6, plus shipping. I have 600 copies of the book available. When they’re gone, the sale is over and the price will revert to normal. Order here. Please be …

Moxie Marlinspike has an intriguing blog post about Cellebrite, a tool used by police and others to break into smartphones. Moxie got his hands on one of the devices, which seems to be a pair of Windows software packages and a whole lot of connecting cables. According to Moxie …

If you don’t have enough to worry about already, consider a world where AIs are hackers. Hacking is as old as humanity. We are creative problem solvers. We exploit loopholes, manipulate systems, and strive for more influence, power, and wealth. To date, hacking has exclusively been a human …

There’s a new squid-shaped bike rack in Ballard, WA. 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. [...]

Excellent New Yorker article on North Korea’s offensive cyber capabilities. [...]

Developers have discovered a backdoor in the Codecov bash uploader. It’s been there for four months. We don’t know who put it there. Codecov said the breach allowed the attackers to export information stored in its users’ continuous integration (CI) environments. This information was then sent to …

On April 15, the Biden administration both formally attributed the SolarWinds espionage campaign to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), and imposed a series of sanctions designed to punish the country for the attack and deter future attacks. I will leave it to those with experience in foreign relations …

The Washington Post has published a long story on the unlocking of the San Bernardino Terrorist’s iPhone 5C in 2016. We all thought it was an Israeli company called Cellebrite. It was actually an Australian company called Azimuth Security. Azimuth specialized in finding significant vulnerabilities. Dowd, a former …

Divers find three-foot “blobs” — egg sacs of the squid Illex coindetii — off the coast of Norway. 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. [...]

Security Boulevard recently listed the “Top-21 Cybersecurity Experts You Must Follow on Twitter in 2021.” I came in at #7. I thought that was pretty good, especially since I never tweet. My Twitter feed just mirrors my blog. (If you are one of the 134K people who read me …

Amongst the 100+ vulnerabilities patch in this month’s Patch Tuesday, there are four in Microsoft Exchange that were disclosed by the NSA. [...]

The office of the Director of National Intelligence released its “ Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community.” Cybersecurity is covered on pages 20-21. Nothing surprising: Cyber threats from nation states and their surrogates will remain acute. States’ increasing use of cyber operations as a tool of national …