EU Offering Bug Bounties on Critical Open-Source Software

The EU is offering "bug bounties on Free Software projects that the EU institutions rely on." Slashdot thread...

Glitter Bomb against Package Thieves

Stealing packages from unattended porches is a rapidly rising crime, as more of us order more things by mail. One person hid a glitter bomb and a video recorder in a package, posting the results when thieves opened the box. At least, that's what might have happened. At least some of the video was...

Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Protein Used in Variable Thermal Conductivity Material

This is really neat. 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...

Suing South Carolina Because Its Election Machines Are Insecure

A group called Protect Democracy is suing South Carolina because its insecure voting machines are effectively denying people the right to vote. Note: I am an advisor to Protect Democracy on its work related to election cybersecurity, and submitted a declaration in litigation it filed, challenging...

Another Spectre-Like CPU Vulnerability

Google and Microsoft researchers have disclosed another Spectre-like CPU side-channel vulnerability, called "Speculative Store Bypass." Like the others, the fix will slow the CPU down. The German tech site Heise reports that more are coming. I'm not surprised. Writing about Spectre and Meltdown i...

Adding Backdoors at the Chip Level

Interesting research into undetectably adding backdoors into computer chips during manufacture: "Stealthy dopant-level hardware Trojans: extended version," also available here: Abstract: In recent years, hardware Trojans have drawn the attention of governments and industry as well as the scientif...

NSO Group Hacked

NSO Group, the Israeli cyberweapons arms manufacturer behind the Pegasus spyware -- used by authoritarian regimes around the world to spy on dissidents, journalists, human rights workers, and others -- was hacked. Or, at least, an enormous trove of documents was leaked to journalists. Theres a lo...

Friday Squid Blogging: Squid-Related Game

Its called "Squid Fishering." 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...

Detecting Deepfake Picture Editing

"Markpainting" is a clever technique to watermark photos in such a way that makes it easier to detect ML-based manipulation: An image owner can modify their image in subtle ways which are not themselves very visible, but will sabotage any attempt to inpaint it by adding visible information...

The Story of the 2011 RSA Hack

Really good long article about the Chinese hacking of RSA, Inc. They were able to get copies of the seed values to the SecurID authentication token, a harbinger of supply-chain attacks to come...

Insider Attack on Home Surveillance Systems

No one who reads this blog regularly will be surprised: A former employee of prominent home security company ADT has admitted that he hacked into the surveillance feeds of dozens of customer homes, doing so primarily to spy on naked women or to leer at unsuspecting couples while they had sex. …...

Friday Squid Blogging: Ram’s Horn Squid Video

This is the first video footage of a rams horn squid Spirula spirula . 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...

Friday Squid Blogging: Giant Squid Washes Up on South African Beach

Fourteen feet long and 450 pounds. It was dead before it washed up. 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...

Friday Squid Blogging: Cocaine Smuggled in Squid

Makes sense; there's room inside a squid's body cavity: Latin American drug lords have sent bumper shipments of cocaine to Europe in recent weeks, including one in a cargo of squid, even though the coronavirus epidemic has stifled legitimate transatlantic trade, senior anti-narcotics officials sa...

The EARN-IT Act

Prepare for another attack on encryption in the U.S. The EARN-IT Act purports to be about protecting children from predation, but it's really about forcing the tech companies to break their encryption schemes: The EARN IT Act would create a "National Commission on Online Child Sexual Exploitation...

Security Vulnerabilities in Android Firmware

Researchers have discovered and revealed 146 vulnerabilities in various incarnations of Android smartphone firmware. The vulnerabilities were found by scanning the phones of 29 different Android makers, and each is unique to a particular phone or maker. They were found using automatic tools, and ...

Upcoming Speaking Engagements

This is a current list of where and when I am scheduled to speak: I'm speaking on "Securing a World of Physically Capable Computers" at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India on December 12, 2019. The list is maintained on this page...

Vulnerability in French Government Tchap Chat App

A researcher found a vulnerability in the French government WhatsApp replacement app: Tchap. The vulnerability allows anyone to surreptitiously join any conversation. Of course the developers will fix this vulnerability. But it is amusing to point out that this is exactly the backdoor that GCHQ i...

Friday Squid Blogging: Calamari Squid Catching Prey

The calamari squid grabs prey three feet away with its fast tentacles. 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...

New NSA/Cyber Command Head Confirmed by Senate

It's Lt. Gen. Paul Nakasone. I know nothing about him...

Two NSA Algorithms Rejected by the ISO

The ISO has rejected two symmetric encryption algorithms: SIMON and SPECK. These algorithms were both designed by the NSA and made public in 2013. They are optimized for small and low-cost processors like IoT devices. The risk of using NSA-designed ciphers, of course, is that they include...

Breaking the Anonymity in the Cryptocurrency Monero

Researchers have exploited a flaw in the cryptocurrency Monero to break the anonymity of transactions. Research paper. BoingBoing post...

Friday Squid Blogging: Giant Squid Stealing Food from Each Other

An interesting hunting strategy: Off of northern Spain, giant squid often feed on schools of fish called blue whiting. The schools swim 400 meters or less below the surface, while the squid prefer to hang out around a mile deep. The squid must ascend to hunt, probably seizing fish from below with...

Facebook Will Verify the Physical Location of Ad Buyers with Paper Postcards

It's not a great solution, but it's something: The process of using postcards containing a specific code will be required for advertising that mentions a specific candidate running for a federal office, Katie Harbath, Facebook's global director of policy programs, said. The requirement will not...

After Section 702 Reauthorization

For over a decade, civil libertarians have been fighting government mass surveillance of innocent Americans over the Internet. We've just lost an important battle. On January 18, President Trump signed the renewal of Section 702, domestic mass surveillance became effectively a permanent part of U...

HP Shared ArcSight Source Code with Russians

Reuters is reporting that HP Enterprise gave the Russians a copy of the ArcSight source code. The article highlights that ArcSight is used by the Pentagon to protect classified networks, but the security risks are much broader. Any weaknesses the Russians discover could be used against any ArcSig...

Remote Malware Attacks on ATMs

This report discusses the new trend of remote malware attacks against ATMs...

Details of the REvil Ransomware Attack

ArsTechnica has a good story on the REvil ransomware attack of last weekend, with technical details: This weekends attack was carried out with almost surgical precision. According to Cybereason, the REvil affiliates first gained access to targeted environments and then used the zero-day in the...

TikTok Can Now Collect Biometric Data

This is probably worth paying attention to: A change to TikToks U.S. privacy policy on Wednesday introduced a new section that says the social video app "may collect biometric identifiers and biometric information" from its users content. This includes things like "faceprints and voiceprints," th...

Friday Squid Blogging: Squids in Space

NASA is sending baby bobtail squid into space. 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...

Book Sale: Beyond Fear

I have 80 copies of my 2000 book Beyond Fear available at the very cheap price of $5 plus shipping. Note that there is a 20% chance that your book will have a "BT Counterpane" sticker on the front cover. Order your signed copy here...

Friday Squid Blogging: Blobs of Squid Eggs Found Near Norway

Divers find three-foot "blobs" -- egg sacs of the squid Illex coindetii -- off the coast of Norway. 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...

Backdoor Added — But Found — in PHP

Unknown hackers attempted to add a backdoor to the PHP source code. It was two malicious commits, with the subject "fix typo" and the names of known PHP developers and maintainers. They were discovered and removed before being pushed out to any users. But since 79% of the Internets websites use...

Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Potato Masher

A squid potato masher for only $11.50. 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...

Threat Model Humor

At a hospital...

Malicious Barcode Scanner App

Interesting story about a barcode scanner app that has been pushing malware on to Android phones. The app is called Barcode Scanner. Its been around since 2017 and is owned by the Ukrainian company Lavabird Ldt. But a December 2020 update included some new features: However, a rash of malicious...

Brexit Deal Mandates Old Insecure Crypto Algorithms

In what is surely an unthinking cut-and-paste issue, page 921 of the Brexit deal mandates the use of SHA-1 and 1024-bit RSA: The open standard s/MIME as extension to de facto e-mail standard SMTP will be deployed to encrypt messages containing DNA profile information. The protocol s/MIME V3 allow...

Friday Squid Blogging: Vegan "Squid" Made from Chickpeas

It's beyond Beyond Meat. A Singapore company wants to make vegan "squid" -- and shrimp and crab -- from chickpeas. 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...

Humble Bundle's 2020 Cybersecurity Books

For years, Humble Bundle has been selling great books at a "pay what you can afford" model. This month, they're featuring as many as nineteen cybersecurity books for as little as $1, including four of mine. These are digital copies, all DRM-free. Part of the money goes to support the EFF or Let's...

Election Machine Insecurity Story

Interesting story of a flawed computer voting machine and a paper ballot available for recount. All ended well, but only because of that paper backup. Vote totals in a Northampton County judge's race showed one candidate, Abe Kassis, a Democrat, had just 164 votes out of 55,000 ballots across mor...

Cameras that Automatically Detect Mobile Phone Use

New South Wales is implementing a camera system that automatically detects when a driver is using a mobile phone...

Details of the Olympic Destroyer APT

Interesting details on Olympic Destroyer, the nation-state cyberattack against the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea. Wired's Andy Greenberg presents evidence that the perpetrator was Russia, and not North Korea or China...

Factoring 2048-bit Numbers Using 20 Million Qubits

This theoretical paper shows how to factor 2048-bit RSA moduli with a 20-million qubit quantum computer in eight hours. It's interesting work, but I don't want overstate the risk. We know from Shor's Algorithm that both factoring and discrete logs are easy to solve on a large, working quantum...

New Research into Russian Malware

There's some interesting new research about Russian APT malware: The Russian government has fostered competition among the three agencies, which operate independently from one another, and compete for funds. This, in turn, has resulted in each group developing and hoarding its tools, rather than...

Friday Squid Blogging: Toraiz SQUID Digital Sequencer

Pioneer DJ has a new sequencer: the Toraiz SQUID: Sequencer Inspirational Device. The 16-track sequencer is designed around jamming and performance with a host of features to create "happy accidents" and trigger random sequences, modulations and chords. There are 16 RGB pads for playing in your...

Mail Fishing

Not email, paper mail: Thieves, often at night, use string to lower glue-covered rodent traps or bottles coated with an adhesive down the chute of a sidewalk mailbox. This bait attaches to the envelopes inside, and the fish in this case -- mail containing gift cards, money orders or checks, which...

On Surveillance in the Workplace

Data & Society just published a report entitled "Workplace Monitoring & Surveillance": This explainer highlights four broad trends in employee monitoring and surveillance technologies: Prediction and flagging tools that aim to predict characteristics or behaviors of employees or that are designed...

FBI Takes Down a Massive Advertising Fraud Ring

The FBI announced that it dismantled a large Internet advertising fraud network, and arrested eight people: A 13-count indictment was unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn charging Aleksandr Zhukov, Boris Timokhin, Mikhail Andreev, Denis Avdeev, Dmitry Novikov, Sergey Ovsyannikov, Aleksandr...

How Surveillance Inhibits Freedom of Expression

In my book Data and Goliath, I write about the value of privacy. I talk about how it is essential for political liberty and justice, and for commercial fairness and equality. I talk about how it increases personal freedom and individual autonomy, and how the lack of it makes us all less secure. B...

Friday Squid Blogging: Giant Squid Washes up on Wellington Beach

Another giant squid washed up on a beach, this time in Wellington, New Zealand. Is this a global trend? 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...