Finally, this attack provides yet another example of why the stockpiling of vulnerabilities by governments is such a problem. This is an emerging pattern in 2017. We have seen vulnerabilities stored by the CIA show up on WikiLeaks, and now this vulnerability stolen from the NSA has affected customers around the world. Repeatedly, exploits in the hands of governments have leaked into the public domain and caused widespread damage. An equivalent scenario with conventional weapons would be the U.S. military having some of its Tomahawk missiles stolen. And this most recent attack represents a completely unintended but disconcerting link between the two most serious forms of cybersecurity threats in the world today – nation-state action and organized criminal action.
Archive | IT security
NSA, what have you done?
The ransomware spread so quickly because it was delivered by a special digital code developed by the NSA to move from one unpatched computer to another, security experts said. They warned that the malware now could move from large networks to individual users.
Washington Post: Malware, described in leaked NSA documents, cripples computers worldwide »
Update:
• The Intercept: Leaked NSA malware is helping hijack computers around the world »
• PC World: Microsoft blames U.S. stockpiled vulnerability after WannaCry ransomware attack »
• The Duran: Worried about ‘WannaCry’? You should have listened to Julian Assange »
• Falkvinge: Current wave of ransomware not written by ordinary criminals, but by the NSA »
• Reuters: Global cyber attack fuels concern about U.S. vulnerability disclosures »
• Ars Technica: How I accidentally stopped a global Wanna Decryptor ransomware attack »
• Ars Technica: Wanna Decryptor ransomware worm may have North Korea’s fingerprints on it »
• Wired: The WannaCry Ransomware Has a Link to Suspected North Korean Hackers »
• Proton Mail: Important lessons from the first NSA-powered ransomware cyberattack »
When security cameras attack
Persirai is a new strain of Internet of Things malware that infects more than 1,250 models of security camera, all manufactured by an unnamed Chinese manufacturer that has sold at least 185,000 units worldwide.
BoingBoing: 185,000+ IoT security cameras are vulnerable to a new worm »
For how long did deep state authorities know about this – without warning rest of society?
A remote hijacking flaw that lurked in Intel chips for seven years was more severe than many people imagined, because it allowed hackers to remotely gain administrative control over huge fleets of computers without entering a password. This is according to technical analyses published Friday.
Ars Technica: The hijacking flaw that lurked in Intel chips is worse than anyone thought »
11 Ways to Secure Your Social Media Accounts
The VPN Guru: 11 Ways to Secure Your Social Media Accounts »
Is there an ongoing cyberwar, unknown to the public?
What happens when intelligence agencies go to war with each other and don’t tell the rest of us? I think there’s something going on between the US and Russia that the public is just seeing pieces of. We have no idea why, or where it will go next, and can only speculate.
Schneier on Security: Who is Publishing NSA and CIA Secrets, and Why? »
Now, your headphones might spy on you
Bose Corp spies on its wireless headphone customers by using an app that tracks the music, podcasts and other audio they listen to, and violates their privacy rights by selling the information without permission, a lawsuit charged.
IoT botnets – the next generation
Mirai, the botnet that threatened the Internet as we knew it last year with record-setting denial-of-service attacks, is facing an existential threat of its own: A competing botnet known as Hajime has infected at least 10,000 home routers, network-connected cameras, and other so-called Internet of Things devices.
Ars Technica: Vigilante botnet infects IoT devices before blackhats can hijack them »
The NSA SWIFT hack
By HAX on April 17, 2017 in Big Brother, Data Protection, EU, Europol, IT security, NSA, Privacy, Rule of law, surveillance, US
Reuters: Hacker documents show NSA tools for breaching global money transfer system »
Documents and computer files released by hackers provide a blueprint for how the U.S. National Security Agency likely used weaknesses in commercially available software to gain access to the global system for transferring money between banks, a review of the data showed.
On Friday, a group calling itself the Shadow Brokers released documents and files indicating NSA had accessed the SWIFT money-transfer system through service providers in the Middle East and Latin America. That release was the latest in a series of disclosures by the group in recent months.
Told you so.
Below, video from the hearings on NSA and mass surveillance in the European Parliament, 24 September 2013 – where Europol and many others try to steer clear of the SWIFT issue. (Some translation problems during a few minutes in the video, but it soon gets better.)
EU: The DRM problem
German Member of the European Parliament Julia Reda has published an open-letter signed by UK MEP Lucy Anderson, raising alarm at the fact that the W3C is on the brink of finalising a DRM standard for web video, which — thanks to crazy laws protecting DRM — will leave users at risk of unreported security vulnerabilities, and also prevent third parties from adapting browsers for the needs of disabled people, archivists, and the wider public.
Boingboing » MEP to Commission: World Wide Web Consortium’s DRM is a danger to Europeans »