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Android Improves Its Security
Android phones will soon reboot themselves after sitting idle for three days. iPhones have had this feature for a while; it's nice to see Google add it to their phones...
Troy Hunt Gets Phished
In case you need proof that anyone , even someone who does cybersecurity for a living, can fall for a phishing attack, Troy Hunt has a long, iterative story on his webpage about how he got phished. Worth reading. EDITED TO ADD 4/14: Commentary from Adam Shostack and Cory Doctorow...
AI Data Poisoning
Cloudflare has a new feature--available to free users as well--that uses AI to generate random pages to feed to AI web crawlers: Instead of simply blocking bots, Cloudflare's new system lures them into a "maze" of realistic-looking but irrelevant pages, wasting the crawler's computing resources...
North Korean Hackers Steal $1.5B in Cryptocurrency
It looks like a very sophisticated attack against the Dubai-based exchange Bybit: Bybit officials disclosed the theft of more than 400,000 ethereum and staked ethereum coins just hours after it occurred. The notification said the digital loot had been stored in a "Multisig Cold Wallet" when,...
Delivering Malware Through Abandoned Amazon S3 Buckets
Here's a supply-chain attack just waiting to happen. A group of researchers searched for, and then registered, abandoned Amazon S3 buckets for about $400. These buckets contained software libraries that are still used. Presumably the projects don't realize that they have been abandoned, and still...
AI Will Write Complex Laws
Artificial intelligence AI is writing law today. This has required no changes in legislative procedure or the rules of legislative bodies--all it takes is one legislator, or legislative assistant, to use generative AI in the process of drafting a bill. In fact, the use of AI by legislators is onl...
Biden Signs New Cybersecurity Order
President Biden has signed a new cybersecurity order. It has a bunch of provisions, most notably using the US governments procurement power to improve cybersecurity practices industry-wide. Some details: The core of the executive order is an array of mandates for protecting government networks...
Friday Squid Blogging: Opioid Alternatives from Squid Research
Is there nothing that squid research can't solve? "If you're working with an organism like squid that can edit genetic information way better than any other organism, then it makes sense that that might be useful for a therapeutic application like deadening pain," he said. … Researchers hope to...
Friday Squid Blogging: Anniversary Post
I made my first squid post nineteen years ago this week. Between then and now, I posted something about squid every week with maybe only a few exceptions. There is a lot out there about squid, even more if you count the other meanings of the word. Blog moderation policy...
ShredOS
ShredOS is a stripped-down operating system designed to destroy data. GitHub page here...
Salt Typhoon’s Reach Continues to Grow
The US government has identified a ninth telecom that was successfully hacked by Salt Typhoon...
Criminal Complaint against LockBit Ransomware Writer
The Justice Department has published the criminal complaint against Dmitry Khoroshev, for building and maintaining the LockBit ransomware...
Upcoming Speaking Events
This is a current list of where and when I am scheduled to speak: I'm speaking at a joint meeting of the Boston Chapter of the IEEE Computer Society and GBC/ACM, in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, at 7:00 PM ET on Thursday, January 9, 2025. The event will take place at the Massachusetts Institute of...
Detecting Pegasus Infections
This tool seems to do a pretty good job. The company's Mobile Threat Hunting feature uses a combination of malware signature-based detection, heuristics, and machine learning to look for anomalies in iOS and Android device activity or telltale signs of spyware infection. For paying iVerify...
Details about the iOS Inactivity Reboot Feature
I recently wrote about the new iOS feature that forces an iPhone to reboot after it's been inactive for a longish period of time. Here are the technical details, discovered through reverse engineering. The feature triggers after seventy-two hours of inactivity, even it is remains connected to Wi-...
NSO Group Spies on People on Behalf of Governments
The Israeli company NSO Group sells Pegasus spyware to countries around the world including countries like Saudi Arabia, UAE, India, Mexico, Morocco and Rwanda. We assumed that those countries use the spyware themselves. Now we've learned that that's not true: that NSO Group employees operate the...
Friday Squid Blogging: Transcriptome Analysis of the Indian Squid
Lots of details that are beyond me. Blog moderation policy...
Why Italy Sells So Much Spyware
Interesting analysis: Although much attention is given to sophisticated, zero-click spyware developed by companies like Israel’s NSO Group, the Italian spyware marketplace has been able to operate relatively under the radar by specializing in cheaper tools. According to an Italian Ministry of...
Friday Squid Blogging: Female Gonatus Onyx Squid Carrying Her Eggs
Fantastic video of a female Gonatus onyx squid swimming while carrying her egg sack. An earlier related post. Blog moderation policy...
Prompt Injection Defenses Against LLM Cyberattacks
Interesting research: "Hacking Back the AI-Hacker: Prompt Injection as a Defense Against LLM-driven Cyberattacks": Large language models LLMs are increasingly being harnessed to automate cyberattacks, making sophisticated exploits more accessible and scalable. In response, we propose a new defens...
Law Enforcement Deanonymizes Tor Users
The German police have successfully deanonymized at least four Tor users. It appears they watch known Tor relays and known suspects, and use timing analysis to figure out who is using what relay. Tor has written about this. Hacker News thread...
Friday Squid Blogging: Giant Squid Found on Spanish Beach
A giant squid has washed up on a beach in Northern Spain. Blog moderation policy...
AI and the SEC Whistleblower Program
Tax farming is the practice of licensing tax collection to private contractors. Used heavily in ancient Rome, it’s largely fallen out of practice because of the obvious conflict of interest between the state and the contractor. Because tax farmers are primarily interested in short-term revenue,...
Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Scarf
Cute squid scarf. Blog moderation policy...
Auto-Identification Smart Glasses
Two students have created a demo of a smart-glasses app that performs automatic facial recognition and then information lookups. Kind of obvious--something similar was done in 2011--but the sort of creepy demo that gets attention. News article...
Friday Squid Blogging: Map of All Colossal Squid Sightings
Interesting map, from this paper. Blog moderation policy...
Weird Zimbra Vulnerability
Hackers can execute commands on a remote computer by sending malformed emails to a Zimbra mail server. It's critical, but difficult to exploit reliably. In an email sent Wednesday afternoon, Proofpoint researcher Greg Lesnewich seemed to largely concur that the attacks weren't likely to lead to...
California AI Safety Bill Vetoed
Governor Newsom has vetoed the state's AI safety bill. I have mixed feelings about the bill. There's a lot to like about it, and I want governments to regulate in this space. But, for now, it's all EU. Related, the Council of Europe treaty on AI is ready for signature. It'll be legally binding wh...
NIST Recommends Some Common-Sense Password Rules
NIST's second draft of its "SP 800-63-4"--its digital identify guidelines--finally contains some really good rules about passwords: The following requirements apply to passwords: 1. lVerifiers and CSPs SHALL require passwords to be a minimum of eight characters in length and SHOULD require...
An Analysis of the EU’s Cyber Resilience Act
A good--long, complex--analysis of the EU's new Cyber Resilience Act...
New Windows Malware Locks Computer in Kiosk Mode
Clever: A malware campaign uses the unusual method of locking users in their browser's kiosk mode to annoy them into entering their Google credentials, which are then stolen by information-stealing malware. Specifically, the malware "locks" the user's browser on Google's login page with no obviou...
Hacking the “Bike Angels” System for Moving Bikeshares
I always like a good hack. And this story delivers. Basically, the New York City bikeshare program has a system to reward people who move bicycles from full stations to empty ones. By deliberately moving bikes to create artificial problems, and exploiting exactly how the system calculates rewards...
Australia Threatens to Force Companies to Break Encryption
In 2018, Australia passed the Assistance and Access Act, which--among other things--gave the government the power to force companies to break their own encryption. The Assistance and Access Act includes key components that outline investigatory powers between government and industry. These...
Friday Squid Blogging: Live Video of Promachoteuthis Squid
The first live video of the Promachoteuthis squid, filmed at a newly discovered seamount off the coast of Chile. Blog moderation policy...
The Present and Future of TV Surveillance
Ars Technica has a good article on whats happening in the world of television surveillance. More than even I realized...
NIST Releases First Post-Quantum Encryption Algorithms
From the Federal Register: After three rounds of evaluation and analysis, NIST selected four algorithms it will standardize as a result of the PQC Standardization Process. The public-key encapsulation mechanism selected was CRYSTALS-KYBER, along with three digital signature schemes:...
Upcoming Speaking Engagements
This is a current list of where and when I am scheduled to speak: Im speaking at eCrime 2024 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The event runs from September 24 through 26, 2024, and my keynote is on the 24th. The list is maintained on this page...
People-Search Site Removal Services Largely Ineffective
Consumer Reports has a new study of people-search site removal services, concluding that they dont really work: As a whole, people-search removal services are largely ineffective. Private information about each participant on the people-search sites decreased after using the people-search removal...
Providing Security Updates to Automobile Software
Auto manufacturers are just starting to realize the problems of supporting the software in older models: Today’s phones are able to receive updates six to eight years after their purchase date. Samsung and Google provide Android OS updates and security updates for seven years. Apple halts servici...
New Research in Detecting AI-Generated Videos
The latest in what will be a continuing arms race between creating and detecting videos: The new tool the research project is unleashing on deepfakes, called "MISLnet", evolved from years of data derived from detecting fake images and video with tools that spot changes made to digital video or...
Friday Squid Blogging: Sunscreen from Squid Pigments
Theyre better for the environment. Blog moderation policy...
Robot Dog Internet Jammer
Supposedly the DHS has these: The robot, called "NEO," is a modified version of the "Quadruped Unmanned Ground Vehicle" Q-UGV sold to law enforcement by a company called Ghost Robotics. Benjamine Huffman, the director of DHSs Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers FLETC, told police at the 2024...
Snake Mimics a Spider
This is a fantastic video. Its an Iranian spider-tailed horned viper Pseudocerastes urarachnoides. Its tail looks like a spider, which the snake uses to fool passing birds looking for a meal...
Friday Squid Blogging: Peru Trying to Protect its Squid Fisheries
Peru is trying to protect its territorial waters from Chinese squid-fishing boats. Blog moderation policy...
Upcoming Speaking Engagements
This is a current list of where and when I am scheduled to speak: Im speaking--along with John Bruce, the CEO and Co-founder of Inrupt--at the 18th Annual CDOIQ Symposium in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. The symposium runs from July 16 through 18, 2024, and my session is on Tuesday, July 16 at...
New Blog Moderation Policy
There has been a lot of toxicity in the comments section of this blog. Recently, were having to delete more and more comments. Not just spam and off-topic comments, but also sniping and personal attacks. Its gotten so bad that I need to do something. My options are limited because Im just one...
WhatsApp in India
Meta has threatened to pull WhatsApp out of India if the courts try to force it to break its end-to-end encryption...
Microsoft and Security Incentives
Former senior White House cyber policy director A. J. Grotto talks about the economic incentives for companies to improve their security--in particular, Microsoft: Grotto told us Microsoft had to be "dragged kicking and screaming" to provide logging capabilities to the government by default, and...
Molly White Reviews Blockchain Book
Molly White--of "Web3 is Going Just Great" fame--reviews Chris Dixons blockchain solutions book: Read Write Own: In fact, throughout the entire book, Dixon fails to identify a single blockchain project that has successfully provided a non-speculative service at any kind of scale. The closest he...