Bloomberg has another story about hardware surveillance implants in equipment made in China. This implant is different from the one Bloomberg reported on last week. That story has been denied by pretty much everyone else, but Bloomberg is sticking by its story and its sources. (I linked to other commentary and analysis here.) Again, I … Read More “Another Bloomberg Story about Supply-Chain Hardware Attacks from China” »
Category: hacking
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If someone has physical access to your locked — but still running — computer, they can probably break the hard drive’s encryption. This is a “cold boot” attack, and one we thought solved. We have not: To carry out the attack, the F-Secure researchers first sought a way to defeat the the industry-standard cold boot … Read More “New Variants of Cold-Boot Attack” »
Some of us — myself included — have proposed lawful government hacking as an alternative to backdoors. A new report from the Center of Internet and Society looks at the security risks of allowing government hacking. They include: Disincentive for vulnerability disclosure Cultivation of a market for surveillance tools Attackers co-opt hacking tools over which … Read More “Security Risks of Government Hacking” »
This is really interesting research: “BlackIoT: IoT Botnet of High Wattage Devices Can Disrupt the Power Grid“: Abstract: We demonstrate that an Internet of Things (IoT) botnet of high wattage devices — such as air conditioners and heaters — gives a unique ability to adversaries to launch large-scale coordinated attacks on the power grid. In … Read More “Using Hacked IoT Devices to Disrupt the Power Grid” »
It’s amazing that this is even possible: “SonarSnoop: Active Acoustic Side-Channel Attacks“: Abstract: We report the first active acoustic side-channel attack. Speakers are used to emit human inaudible acoustic signals and the echo is recorded via microphones, turning the acoustic system of a smart phone into a sonar system. The echo signal can be used … Read More “Using a Smartphone’s Microphone and Speakers to Eavesdrop on Passwords” »
Suprising no one, the security of police bodycams is terrible. Mitchell even realized that because he can remotely access device storage on models like the Fire Cam OnCall, an attacker could potentially plant malware on some of the cameras. Then, when the camera connects to a PC for syncing, it could deliver all sorts of … Read More “Hacking Police Bodycams” »
Long and interesting story — now two decades old — of massive fraud perpetrated against the McDonald’s Monopoly sweepstakes. The central fraudster was the person in charge of securing the winning tickets. Powered by WPeMatico
Interesting commentary: The military is an impossible place for hackers thanks to antiquated career management, forced time away from technical positions, lack of mission, non-technical mid- and senior-level leadership, and staggering pay gaps, among other issues. It is possible the military needs a cyber corps in the future, but by accelerating promotions, offering graduate school … Read More “How the US Military Can Better Keep Hackers” »
The Diqee 360 robotic vacuum cleaner can be turned into a surveillance device. The attack requires physical access to the device, so in the scheme of things it’s not a big deal. But why in the world is the vacuum equipped with a microphone? Powered by WPeMatico
This is weird: Police in Detroit are looking for two suspects who allegedly managed to hack a gas pump and steal over 600 gallons of gasoline, valued at about $1,800. The theft took place in the middle of the day and went on for about 90 minutes, with the gas station attendant unable to thwart … Read More “Gas Pump Hack” »