Report: FBI Doing Poor Job Securing 411 Million Facial Recognition Photos

Privacy experts are arguing this week the FBI, which maintains a vast – and apparently even larger than expected – treasure trove of facial recognition photos, isn’t doing enough to safeguard the databases, many which contain images of innocent citizens. According to a report released by the...

FBI: Email Scams Take $3.1 Billion Toll on Businesses

Business-related inbox scams are reaching epidemic levels with the total cost to business reaching a whopping $3.1 billion. The dire warning comes from the FBI that says skyrocketing losses represent a 1,300 percent increase since January 2015. Identified by the FBI as business e-mail compromise...

FBI Wants Biometric Database Exempt From Privacy Rules

Civil liberties and privacy groups are petitioning the U.S. government for more time to fight the FBI’s request to exempt itself from lawsuits related to its warehouse of an estimated 100 million biometric records if it’s found in violation of the federal Privacy Act of 1974. At issue is the...

Yahoo Discloses Contents of Three National Security Letters

Yahoo today disclosed the contents of three National Security Letters it has received since 2013, the first time a company has made such a disclosure since the passage of the USA FREEDOM Act. Under the law, the FBI is now required to periodically review whether non-disclosure around National...

Judge Tosses Evidence Gathered by FBI's Tor Exploit

The FBI’s refusal to share details about a network investigative technique it used to gather evidence against a Vancouver teacher charged with possession of child pornography has forced a federal judge’s hand to exclude the evidence from trial. The NIT used by the FBI to hack the Playpen website ...

Apple hires Encryption Expert to Beef Up Security on its Devices

The FBI and other law enforcement agencies have waged legal war on encryption and privacy technologies. You may have heard many news stories about the legal battle between Apple and the FBI over unlocking an iPhone that belonged to the San Bernardino shooter. However, that was just one battle in ...

Wireless Keyloggers Hidden in USB Wall Chargers, FBI Warns

A private industry notification sent by the FBI in late April to its business partners warns of the risks associated with KeySweeper, a tool released in January 2015 by noted hardware hacker and researcher Samy Kamkar. Sixteen months ago, Kamkar released the source code and instructions on how to...

Beware of Fake USB Chargers that Wirelessly Record Everything You Type, FBI warns

Last year, a white hat hacker developed a cheap Arduino-based device that looked and functioned just like a generic USB mobile charger, but covertly logged, decrypted and reported back all keystrokes from Microsoft wireless keyboards. Dubbed KeySweeper, the device included a web-based tool for li...

Core Tor Developer who accuses FBI of Harassment moves to Germany

One of TOR's primary software developers, Isis Agora Lovecruft, has fled to Germany, following the threat of a federal subpoena. Lovecruft is a well-known cryptographer and lead software developer for Tor project from many years. She has worked for a variety of other security and encryption...

Threat Outbreak Alert RuleID22851: Email Messages Distributing Malicious Software on May 15, 2016

Medium Alert ID: 46193 First Published: 2016 May 16 14:22 GMT Version: 1 Summary Cisco Security has detected significant activity related to spam email messages distributing malicious software. Email messages that are related to this threat RuleID22851 may contain the following files: Name | Size...

On Zero Days, SAP Vulnerabilities, and FBI vs. Tor

Mike Mimoso and Chris Brook discuss the news of the week, including zero day vulnerabilities–both in Adobe Flash and Windows, a nasty vulnerability in SAP business applications, Mozilla asking FBI to disclose a Tor exploit, and more. Download: ThreatpostNewsWrapMay132016.mp3 Music by Chris Gonsal...

Mozilla asks Court to disclose Firefox Exploit used by FBI to hack Tor users

Mozilla has filed a brief with a U.S. District Court asking the FBI to disclose the potential vulnerabilities in its Firefox browser that the agency exploited to unmask TOR users in a criminal investigation. Last year, the FBI used a zero-day flaw to hack TOR browser and de-anonymize users visiti...

Motion Filed Asking FBI To Disclose Tor Browser Zero Day

Mozilla on Wednesday filed a motion with the U.S. District Court in Tacoma, Wa., asking the government to disclose a vulnerability it exploited in the Tor Browser and Firefox. The FBI used the zero-day to hack a child pornography site and de-anonymize users visiting the site using the Tor Browser...

Twitter Denies Intelligence Community Fire Hose Access Via Dataminr

A Twitter business partner, whose service sifts through Twitter’s so-called fire hose of tweets as well as data from other sources to ascertain patterns in breaking news events, has been told to no longer provide its services to the U.S. intelligence community. The Wall Street Journal on Sunday...

FBI Issues Ransomware Warning

The FBI has issued a warning to businesses about the relentless wave of ransomware. The bulletin includes preventative tips, and an affirmation of the bureau’s stance that companies affected by cryptoransomware attacks in particular should not succumb to temptation and pay their attackers off. Th...

Privacy Watchdogs Vow to Fight 'Dystopian' Rule 41

The Supreme Court is moving to expand the FBI’s hacking authority with Criminal Rule 41, an amendment to federal criminal procedures that makes it easier for the FBI to access computers remotely when their locations are unknown. Privacy watchdogs are blasting the proposed change saying it would...

Car Hackers Could Face Life In Prison. That's Insane!

Yes, you heard it right. You can now end up your whole life behind bars if you intentionally hack into a vehicle's electronic system or exploit its internal flaws. Car Hacking is a hot topic. Today, many automobiles companies are offering cars that run mostly on the drive-by-wire system, which...

Ransomware Virus Shuts Down Electric and Water Utility

Ransomware has become an albatross around the neck, targeting businesses, hospitals, and personal computers worldwide and extorting Millions of Dollars. Typical Ransomware targets victim's computer encrypts files on it, and then demands a ransom -- typically about $500 in Bitcoin -- in exchange...

FBI Releases Article on Ransomware

The Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI has released an article addressing the proliferation of ransomware campaigns. Ransomware is a type of malicious software that infects a computer and restricts users' access to it until a ransom is paid to unlock it. Individuals and organizations are...

U.S. Supreme Court allows the FBI to Hack any Computer in the World

In Brief The US Supreme Court has approved amendments to Rule 41, which now gives judges the authority to issue search warrants, not only for computers located in their jurisdiction but also outside their jurisdiction. Under the original Rule 41, let’s say, a New York judge can only authorize the...