Month: December 2021

Friday Squid Blogging: Deep-Dwelling Squid

Posted on By infossl
academic papers, Security technology, squid, Uncategorized

We have discovered a squid — (Oegopsida, Magnapinnidae, Magnapinna sp.) — that lives at 6,000 meters deep. :They’re really weird,” says Vecchione. “They drift along with their arms spread out and these really long, skinny, spaghetti-like extensions dangling down underneath them.” Microscopic suckers on those filaments enable the squid to capture their prey. But the … Read More “Friday Squid Blogging: Deep-Dwelling Squid” »

Apple AirTags Are Being Used to Track People and Cars

Posted on By infossl
apple, cars, geolocation, privacy, Security technology, surveillance, tracking, Uncategorized

This development suprises no one who has been paying attention: Researchers now believe AirTags, which are equipped with Bluetooth technology, could be revealing a more widespread problem of tech-enabled tracking. They emit a digital signal that can be detected by devices running Apple’s mobile operating system. Those devices then report where an AirTag has last … Read More “Apple AirTags Are Being Used to Track People and Cars” »

Stolen Bitcoins Returned

Posted on By infossl
bitcoin, cryptocurrency, cybercrime, fbi, law enforcement, Security technology, theft, Uncategorized

The US has returned $154 million in bitcoins stolen by a Sony employee. However, on December 1, following an investigation in collaboration with Japanese law enforcement authorities, the FBI seized the 3879.16242937 BTC in Ishii’s wallet after obtaining the private key, which made it possible to transfer all the bitcoins to the FBI’s bitcoin wallet. … Read More “Stolen Bitcoins Returned” »

More on NSO Group and Cytrox: Two Cyberweapons Arms Manufacturers

Posted on By infossl
Citizen Lab, cyberweapons, exploits, Security technology, spyware, Uncategorized

Citizen Lab published another report on the spyware used against two Egyptian nationals. One was hacked by NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware. The other was hacked both by Pegasus and by the spyware from another cyberweapons arms manufacturer: Cytrox. We haven’t heard a lot about Cytrox and its Predator spyware. According to Citzen Lab: We conducted … Read More “More on NSO Group and Cytrox: Two Cyberweapons Arms Manufacturers” »

Friday Squid Blogging: UK Recognizes Squid as Sentient Beings

Posted on By infossl
Security technology, squid, Uncategorized

This seems big: The UK government has officially included decapod crustaceans–including crabs, lobsters, and crayfish–and cephalopod mollusks–including octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish–in its Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill. This means they are now recognized as “sentient beings” in the UK. As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the … Read More “Friday Squid Blogging: UK Recognizes Squid as Sentient Beings” »

More Log4j News

Posted on By infossl
data protection, patching, Security technology, Uncategorized, vulnerabilities, zero-day

Log4j is being exploited by all sorts of attackers, all over the Internet: At that point it was reported that there were over 100 attempts to exploit the vulnerability every minute. “Since we started to implement our protection we prevented over 1,272,000 attempts to allocate the vulnerability, over 46% of those attempts were made by … Read More “More Log4j News” »

NSO Group’s Pegasus Spyware Used Against US State Department Officials

Posted on By infossl
cyberespionage, hacking, israel, Security technology, spyware, Uncategorized

NSO Group’s descent into Internet pariah status continues. Its Pegasus spyware was used against nine US State Department employees. We don’t know which NSO Group customer trained the spyware on the US. But the company does: NSO Group said in a statement on Thursday that it did not have any indication their tools were used … Read More “NSO Group’s Pegasus Spyware Used Against US State Department Officials” »

Law Enforcement Access to Chat Data and Metadata

Posted on By infossl
cell phones, fbi, law enforcement, metadata, privacy, Security technology, Uncategorized

A January 2021 FBI document outlines what types of data and metadata can be lawfully obtained by the FBI from messaging apps. Rolling Stone broke the story and it’s been written about elsewhere. I don’t see a lot of surprises in the document. Lots of apps leak all sorts of metadata: iMessage and WhatsApp seem … Read More “Law Enforcement Access to Chat Data and Metadata” »