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 OWASP Belgium’s chapter meeting in Antwerp, Belgium, on May 17, 2022. I’m speaking at Future Summits in Antwerp, Belgium, on May 18, 2022. I’m speaking at IT-S N...

Using Pupil Reflection in Smartphone Camera Selfies

Researchers are using the reflection of the smartphone in the pupils of faces taken as selfies to infer information about how the phone is being used: For now, the research is focusing on six different ways a user can hold a device like a smartphone: with both hands, just the left, or just the...

Video Conferencing Apps Sometimes Ignore the Mute Button

New research: "Are You Really Muted?: A Privacy Analysis of Mute Buttons in Video Conferencing Apps": Abstract: In the post-pandemic era, video conferencing apps VCAs have converted previously private spaces -- bedrooms, living rooms, and kitchens -- into semi-public extensions of the office. And...

Undetectable Backdoors in Machine-Learning Models

New paper: "Planting Undetectable Backdoors in Machine Learning Models": Abstract: Given the computational cost and technical expertise required to train machine learning models, users may delegate the task of learning to a service provider. We show how a malicious learner can plant an undetectab...

Industrial Control System Malware Discovered

The Department of Energy, CISA, the FBI, and the NSA jointly issued an advisory describing a sophisticated piece of malware called Pipedream thats designed to attack a wide range of industrial control systems. This is clearly from a government, but no attribution is given. Theres also no indicati...

Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Migration and Climate Change

New research on the changing migration of the Doryteuthis opalescens as a result of climate change. News article: Stanford researchers have solved a mystery about why a species of squid native to California has been found thriving in the Gulf of Alaska about 1,800 miles north of its expected rang...

A Detailed Look at the Conti Ransomware Gang

Based on two years of leaked messages, 60,000 in all: The Conti ransomware gang runs like any number of businesses around the world. It has multiple departments, from HR and administrators to coders and researchers. It has policies on how its hackers should process their code, and shares best...

Leak of Russian Censorship Data

The transparency organization Distributed Denial of Secrets has released 800GB of data from Roskomnadzor, the Russian government censorship organization. Specifically, Distributed Denial of Secrets says the data comes from the Roskomnadzor of the Republic of Bashkortostan. The Republic of...

Secret CIA Data Collection Program

Two US senators claim that the CIA has been running an unregulated -- and almost certainly illegal -- mass surveillance program on Americans. The senators statement. Some declassified information from the CIA. No real details yet...

Linux-Targeted Malware Increased by 35%

Crowdstrike is reporting that malware targeting Linux has increased considerably in 2021: Malware targeting Linux systems increased by 35% in 2021 compared to 2020. XorDDoS, Mirai and Mozi malware families accounted for over 22% of Linux-targeted threats observed by CrowdStrike in 2021. Ten times...

Upcoming Speaking Engagements

This is a current list of where and when I am scheduled to speak: I’m giving an online-only talk on “Securing a World of Physically Capable Computers” as part of Teleport’s Security Visionaries 2022 series, on January 18, 2022. I’m speaking at IT-S Now 2022 in Vienna on June 2, 2022. I’m speaking...

On the Log4j Vulnerability

Its serious: The range of impacts is so broad because of the nature of the vulnerability itself. Developers use logging frameworks to keep track of what happens in a given application. To exploit Log4Shell, an attacker only needs to get the system to log a strategically crafted string of code. Fr...

Friday Squid Blogging: The Far Side Squid Comic

The Far Side is always good for a squid reference. Heres a recent one. 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...

Law Enforcement Access to Chat Data and Metadata

A January 2021 FBI document outlines what types of data and metadata can be lawfully obtained by the FBI from messaging apps. Rolling Stone broke the story and its been written about elsewhere. I dont see a lot of surprises in the document. Lots of apps leak all sorts of metadata: iMessage and...

Thieves Using AirTags to “Follow” Cars

From Ontario and not surprising: Since September 2021, officers have investigated five incidents where suspects have placed small tracking devices on high-end vehicles so they can later locate and steal them. Brand name "air tags" are placed in out-of-sight areas of the target vehicles when they...

Friday Squid Blogging: Giant Squid Art

Images of giant squid and octopi attacking. 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...

MacOS Zero-Day Used against Hong Kong Activists

Google researchers discovered a MacOS zero-day exploit being used against Hong Kong activists. It was a "watering hole" attack, which means the malware was hidden in a legitimate website. Users visiting that website would get infected. From an article: Googles researchers were able to trigger the...

Suing Infrastructure Companies for Copyright Violations

Its a matter of going after those with deep pockets. From Wired: Cloudflare was sued in November 2018 by Mon Cheri Bridals and Maggie Sottero Designs, two wedding dress manufacturers and sellers that alleged Cloudflare was guilty of contributory copyright infringement because it didnt terminate...

Friday Squid Blogging: Person in Squid Suit Takes Dog for a Walk

No, I dont understand it, either. 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...

Cellebrite Can Break Signal

Cellebrite announced that it can break Signal. Note that the company has heavily edited its blog post, but the original -- with lots of technical details -- was saved by the Wayback Machine. News article. Slashdot post. The whole story is puzzling. Cellebrites details will make it easier for the...

Hacking AI-Graded Tests

The company Edgenuity sells AI systems for grading tests. Turns out that they just search for keywords without doing any actual semantic analysis...

2017 Tesla Hack

Interesting story of a class break against the entire Tesla fleet...

Data and Goliath Book Placement

Notice the copy of Data and Goliath just behind the head of Maine Senator Angus King. This demonstrates the importance of a vibrant color and a large font...

Friday Squid Blogging: Strawberry Squid

Pretty. 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...

I'm Leaving IBM

Today is my last day at IBM. If you've been following along, IBM bought my startup Resilient Systems in Spring 2016. Since then, I have been with IBM, holding the nicely ambiguous title of "Special Advisor." As of the end of the month, I will be back on my own. I will continue to write and speak,...

Poor Security at the UK National Health Service

The Guardian is reporting that "every NHS trust assessed for cyber security vulnerabilities has failed to meet the standard required." This is the same NHS that was debilitated by WannaCry. EDITED TO ADD 2/13: More news. And don't think that US hospitals are much better...

Department of Homeland Security to Collect Social Media of Immigrants and Citizens

New rules give the DHS permission to collect "social media handles, aliases, associated identifiable information, and search results" as part of people's immigration file. The Federal Register has the details, which seems to also include US citizens that communicate with immigrants. This is part ...

Friday Squid Blogging: Injured Giant Squid Video

A paddleboarder had a run-in with an injured giant squid. Video. Here's the real story. 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...

Data vs. Analysis in Counterterrorism

This article argues that Britain's counterterrorism problem isn't lack of data, it's lack of analysis...

ICE is Using Stingray to Track Illegal Immigrants

According to court documents, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is using Stingray cell-site simulators to track illegal immigrants...

Research on Models Engaging in Genie-Like Behavior

New paper: "Self-Jailbreaking: Language Models Can Reason Themselves Out of Safety Alignment After Benign Reasoning Training." Abstract: We discover a novel and surprising phenomenon of unintentional misalignment in reasoning language models RLMs, which we call self-jailbreaking. Specifically,...

Vulnerabilities in Car Anti-Theft Device

This is disturbing: …a team of security researchers at UC San Diego, who found that a model of aftermarket car alarm known as the KARR Security System, installed in more than 2 million vehicles across the US by their estimate, can let any hacker within Bluetooth range send radio commands to...

A Video Screen That Is Also a Camera

Amazing: Researchers from ETH Zurich in Switzerland, however, managed to create a new type of pixel that can simultaneously do both. This hypercharged pixel, called a Fourier pixel, can generate and sense arbitrary light fields and tap into a pixel's full potential for carrying information by...

Upcoming Speaking Engagements

This is a current list of where and when I am scheduled to speak: I’m speaking virtually at the Policy-Relevant Privacy Research Workshop in Calgary, Canada, on Monday, July 20, 2026. I’m speaking at Boston Leadership Exchange in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, on Wednesday, July 22, 2026. I’m speaki...

Robot Police Officers

We've taken one small step towards robot police officers: a drone capable of disarming a suspect: In a June 22 video posted on the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office’s Instagram page, an officer wearing goggles can be seen operating a drone to retrieve a knife from an armed suspect hiding inside ...

Interesting Paper Exploring Prompt Injection

This is a fascinating explotation of how LLMs fall for prompt injection attacks. It turns out that they learn to recognize the style of text in different role/instruction blocks, and not just the tags. Their conclusion: Role tags were a formatting trick that became the security architecture and t...

Flock Cameras Are Being Used for Stalking

There are over a dozen cases around the country where police officers are using the Flock surveillance camera system to obsessively and illegally stalk people. Alternate link...

Friday Squid Blogging: Regulating Squid Fishing in the South Pacific

The South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization SPRFMO needs to regulate squid fishing in the South Pacific. As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven't covered. Blog moderation policy...

Medieval Encrypted Letter Decoded

Sent by a Spanish diplomat. Apparently people have been working on it since it was rediscovered in 1860...

Is “Satoshi Nakamoto” Really Adam Back?

The New York Times has a long article where the author lays out an impressive array of circumstantial evidence that the inventor of Bitcoin is the cypherpunk Adam Back. I don't know. The article is convincing, but it's written to be convincing. I can't remember if I ever met Adam. I was a member ...

Human Trust of AI Agents

Interesting research: "Humans expect rationality and cooperation from LLM opponents in strategic games." Abstract: As Large Language Models LLMs integrate into our social and economic interactions, we need to deepen our understanding of how humans respond to LLMs opponents in strategic settings. ...

On Anthropic’s Mythos Preview and Project Glasswing

The cybersecurity industry is obsessing over Anthropic's new model, Claude Mythos Preview, and its effects on cybersecurity. Anthropic said that it is not releasing it to the general public because of its cyberattack capabilities, and has launched Project Glasswing to run the model against a whol...

AI Chatbots and Trust

All the leading AI chatbots are sycophantic, and that's a problem: Participants rated sycophantic AI responses as more trustworthy than balanced ones. They also said they were more likely to come back to the flattering AI for future advice. And critically ­ they couldn't tell the difference betwe...

Sen. Wyden Warns of Another Section 702 Abuse

Sen. Ron Wyden is warning us of an abuse of Section 702: Wyden took to the Senate floor to deliver a lengthy speech, ostensibly about the since approved with support of many Democrats nomination of Joshua Rudd to lead the NSA. Wyden was protesting that nomination, but in the context of Rudd being...

Microsoft Xbox One Hacked

It's an impressive feat, over a decade after the box was released: Since reset glitching wasn't possible, Gaasedelen thought some voltage glitching could do the trick. So, instead of tinkering with the system rest pins the hacker targeted the momentary collapse of the CPU voltage rail. This was...

Friday Squid Blogging: Jumbo Flying Squid in the South Pacific

The population needs better conservation. As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven't covered. Blog moderation policy...

Proton Mail Shared User Information with the Police

404 Media has a story about Proton Mail giving subscriber data to the Swiss government, who passed the information to the FBI. It's metadata--payment information related to a particular account--but still important knowledge. This sort of thing happens, even to privacy-centric companies like Prot...

Academia and the “AI Brain Drain”

In 2025, Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta collectively spent US$380 billion on building artificial-intelligence tools. That number is expected to surge still higher this year, to $650 billion, to fund the building of physical infrastructure, such as data centers see go.nature.com/3lzf79q...

iPhones and iPads Approved for NATO Classified Data

Apple announcement: …iPhone and iPad are the first and only consumer devices in compliance with the information assurance requirements of NATO nations. This enables iPhone and iPad to be used with classified information up to the NATO restricted level without requiring special software or...

New Attack Against Wi-Fi

It's called AirSnitch: Unlike previous Wi-Fi attacks, AirSnitch exploits core features in Layers 1 and 2 and the failure to bind and synchronize a client across these and higher layers, other nodes, and other network names such as SSIDs Service Set Identifiers. This cross-layer identity...