eavesdropping, malware, Security technology, spyware
Surprising no one who has been following this sort of thing, headphones can be used as microphones. Powered by WPeMatico
Category: malware
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academicpapers, aes, authentication, cryptography, encryption, internetofthings, malware, Security technology, sidechannelattacks
This is exactly the sort of Internet-of-Things attack that has me worried: “IoT Goes Nuclear: Creating a ZigBee Chain Reaction” by Eyal Ronen, Colin OFlynn, Adi Shamir and Achi-Or Weingarten. Abstract: Within the next few years, billions of IoT devices will densely populate our cities. In this paper we describe a new type of threat … Read More “Self-Propagating Smart Light Bulb Worm” »
academicpapers, intel, malware, mitigation, Security technology, sidechannelattacks
Researchers discover a clever attack that bypasses the address space layout randomization (ALSR) on Intel’s CPUs. Here’s the paper. It discusses several possible mitigation techniques. Powered by WPeMatico
malware, Security technology
A new malware tries to detect if it’s running in a virtual machine or sandboxed test environment by looking for signs of normal use and not executing if they’re not there. From a news article: A typical test environment consists of a fresh Windows computer image loaded into a VM environment. The OS image usually … Read More “Malware Tries to Detect Test Environment” »
hardware, malware, Security technology, usb
It costs less than $60. For just a few bucks, you can pick up a USB stick that destroys almost anything that it’s plugged into. Laptops, PCs, televisions, photo booths — you name it. Once a proof-of-concept, the pocket-sized USB stick now fits in any security tester’s repertoire of tools and hacks, says the Hong … Read More “USB Kill Stick” »
cyberweapons, eavesdropping, leaks, malware, maninthemiddleattacks, Security technology, spyware
We have leak from yet another cyberweapons arms manufacturer: the Italian company RCS Labs. Vice Motherboard reports on a surveillance video demo: The video shows an RCS Lab employee performing a live demo of the company’s spyware to an unidentified man, including a tutorial on how to use the spyware’s control software to perform a … Read More “Leaked Product Demo from RCS Labs” »
advancedpersistentthreats, airgaps, cyberespionage, dns, malware, Security technology
Both Kaspersky and Symantec have uncovered another piece of malware that seems to be a government design: The malware — known alternatively as “ProjectSauron” by researchers from Kaspersky Lab and “Remsec” by their counterparts from Symantec — has been active since at least 2011 and has been discovered on 30 or so targets. Its ability … Read More “Yet Another Government-Sponsored Malware” »
eff, kazakhstan, malware, Security technology
EFF has the story of malware from the Kazakhstan government against “journalists and political activists critical of Kazakhstan’s authoritarian government, along with their family members, lawyers, and associates.” Powered by WPeMatico
cyberespionage, hacking, iran, malware, phishing, Security technology
Citizen Lab has a new report on an Iranian government hacking program that targets dissidents. From a Washington Post op-ed by Ron Deibert: Al-Ameer is a net savvy activist, and so when she received a legitimate looking email containing a PowerPoint attachment addressed to her and purporting to detail “Assad Crimes,” she could easily have … Read More “How the Iranian Government Hacks Dissidents” »
academicpapers, malware, phones, Security technology, securityengineering, tracking
Andrew “bunnie” Huang and Edward Snowden have designed a smartphone case that detects unauthorized transmissions by the phone. Paper. Three news articles. Looks like a clever design. Of course, it has to be outside the device; otherwise, it could be compromised along with the device. Note that this is still in the research design stage; … Read More “Detecting When a Smartphone Has Been Compromised” »