I never imagined that there would be fake news about squid. (That website lets you write your own stories.) 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. Powered by WPeMatico
Attackers used a vulnerability in an Internet-connected fish tank to successfully penetrate a casino’s network. BoingBoing post. Powered by WPeMatico
Rumor is that the Trump administration will separate the NSA and US Cyber Command. I have long thought this was a good idea. Here’s a good discussion of what it does and doesn’t mean. Powered by WPeMatico
Last week, DefCon hosted a “Voter Hacker Village” event. Every single voting machine there was easily hackable. Here are detailed details. There should be a summary report soon; I’ll add it to this post when it’s published. Powered by WPeMatico
Researchers are developing technologies that can detect IMSI-catchers: those fake cell phone towers that can be used to surveil people in the area. This is good work, but it’s unclear to me whether these devices can detect all the newer IMSI-catchers that are being sold to governments worldwide. News article. Powered by WPeMatico
Back in 2013, Der Spiegel reported that the NSA intercepts and collects Windows bug reports: One example of the sheer creativity with which the TAO spies approach their work can be seen in a hacking method they use that exploits the error-proneness of Microsoft’s Windows. Every user of the operating system is familiar with the … Read More “NSA Collects MS Windows Error Information” »
Articles about serious vulnerabilities in IoT devices and embedded systems are now dime-a-dozen. This one concerns Internet-connected car washes: A group of security researchers have found vulnerabilities in internet-connected drive-through car washes that would let hackers remotely hijack the systems to physically attack vehicles and their occupants. The vulnerabilities would let an attacker open and … Read More “Vulnerabilities in Car Washes” »
Robots can crack safes faster than humans — and differently: So Seidle started looking for shortcuts. First he found that, like many safes, his SentrySafe had some tolerance for error. If the combination includes a 12, for instance, 11 or 13 would work, too. That simple convenience measure meant his bot could try every third … Read More “Robot Safecracking” »
New paper: “Taking Stock: Estimating Vulnerability Rediscovery,” by Trey Herr, Bruce Schneier, and Christopher Morris: Abstract: How often do multiple, independent, parties discover the same vulnerability? There are ample models of vulnerability discovery, but little academic work on this issue of rediscovery. The immature state of this research and subsequent debate is a problem for … Read More “Measuring Vulnerability Rediscovery” »
New research: In this study, the optic lobe of a giant squid (Architeuthis dux, male, mantle length 89 cm), which was caught by local fishermen off the northeastern coast of Taiwan, was scanned using high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging in order to examine its internal structure. It was evident that the volume ratio of the optic … Read More “Friday Squid Blogging: Giant Squids Have Small Brains” »