The Latest in Creepy Spyware

The Nest home alarm system shipped with a secret microphone, which -- according to the company -- was only an accidental secret: On Tuesday, a Google spokesperson told Business Insider the company had made an "error." "The on-device microphone was never intended to be a secret and should have bee...

The Evolution of Darknets

This is interesting: To prevent the problems of customer binding, and losing business when darknet markets go down, merchants have begun to leave the specialized and centralized platforms and instead ventured to use widely accessible technology to build their own communications and operational...

Friday Squid Blogging: Good Squid Fishing in the Exmouth Gulf

The conditions are ideal for squid fishing in the Exmouth Gulf in West Australia. 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...

SpiderOak's Warrant Canary Died

BoingBoing has the story. I have never quite trusted the idea of a warrant canary. But here it seems to have worked. Presumably, if SpiderOak wanted to replace the warrant canary with a transparency report, they would have written something explaining their decision. To have it simply disappear i...

Friday Squid Blogging: Peru and Chile Address Squid Overfishing

Peru and Chile have a new plan. 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...

Side-Channel Attack against CRYSTALS-Kyber

CRYSTALS-Kyber is one of the public-key algorithms currently recommended by NIST as part of its post-quantum cryptography standardization process. Researchers have just published a side-channel attack--using power consumption--against an implementation of the algorithm that was supposed to be...

Latest on the SVR’s SolarWinds Hack

The New York Times has an in-depth article on the latest information about the SolarWinds hack not a great name, since its much more far-reaching than that. Interviews with key players investigating what intelligence agencies believe to be an operation by Russia’s S.V.R. intelligence service...

Upcoming Speaking Engagements

This is a current list of where and when I am scheduled to speak: I'll be at RSA Conference 2020 in San Francisco. On Wednesday, February 26, at 2:50 PM, I'll be part of a panel on "How to Reduce Supply Chain Risk: Lessons from Efforts to Block Huawei." On Thursday, February 27, at 9:20 AM, I'm...

Cell Networks Hacked by (Probable) Nation-State Attackers

A sophisticated attacker has successfuly infiltrated cell providers to collect information on specific users: The hackers have systematically broken in to more than 10 cell networks around the world to date over the past seven years to obtain massive amounts of call records -- including times and...

Another Intel Chip Flaw

Remember the Spectre and Meltdown attacks from last year? They were a new class of attacks against complex CPUs, finding subliminal channels in optimization techniques that allow hackers to steal information. Since their discovery, researchers have found additional similar vulnerabilities. A whol...

Malicious MS Office Macro Creator

Evil Clippy is a tool for creating malicious Microsoft Office macros: At BlackHat Asia we released Evil Clippy, a tool which assists red teamers and security testers in creating malicious MS Office documents. Amongst others, Evil Clippy can hide VBA macros, stomp VBA code via p-code and confuse...

Digital Signatures in PDFs Are Broken

Researchers have demonstrated spoofing of digital signatures in PDF files. This would matter more if PDF digital signatures were widely used. Still, the researchers have worked with the various companies that make PDF readers to close the vulnerabilities. You should update your software. Details...

Attacking Soldiers on Social Media

A research group at NATO's Strategic Communications Center of Excellence catfished soldiers involved in an European military exercise -- we don't know what country they were from -- to demonstrate the power of the attack technique. Over four weeks, the researchers developed fake pages and closed...

China's APT10

Wired has an excellent article on China's APT10 hacking group. Specifically, on how they hacked managed service providers in order to get to their customers' networks. I am reminded of the NSA's "I Hunt Sysadmins" presentation, published by the Intercept. EDITED TO ADD 1/5: Another article on the...

Fraudulent Tactics on Amazon Marketplace

Fascinating article about the many ways Amazon Marketplace sellers sabotage each other and defraud customers. The opening example: framing a seller for false advertising by buying fake five-star reviews for their products. Defacement: Sellers armed with the accounts of Amazon distributors sometim...

Sophisticated Voice Phishing Scams

Brian Krebs is reporting on some new and sophisticated phishing scams over the telephone. I second his advice: "never give out any information about yourself in response to an unsolicited phone call." Always call them back, and not using the number offered to you by the caller. Always. EDITED TO...

I'm Doing a Reddit AMA

On Thursday, September 6, starting at 10:00 am CDT, I'll be doing a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" in association with the Ford Foundation. It's about my new book, but -- of course -- you can ask me anything. No promises that I will answer everything...

Eavesdropping on Computer Screens through the Webcam Mic

Yet another way of eavesdropping on someone's computer activity: using the webcam microphone to "listen" to the computer's screen...

California Passes New Privacy Law

The California legislature unanimously passed the strongest data privacy law in the nation. This is great news, but I have a lot of reservations. The Internet tech companies pressed to get this law passed out of self-defense. A ballot initiative was already going to be voted on in November, one...

Friday Squid Blogging: Steel Mesh Giant Squid Used as Artificial Reef

Researchers in the British Virgin Islands have sunk a giant squid made out of steel mesh to serve as an artificial reef. 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...

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly's Cell Phone was Tapped

Politico reports that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly's cell phone was compromised back in December. I know this is news because of who he is, but I hope every major government official of any country assumes that their commercial off-the-shelf cell phone is compromised. Even allies spy on...

Boston Red Sox Caught Using Technology to Steal Signs

The Boston Red Sox admitted to eavesdropping on the communications channel between catcher and pitcher. Stealing signs is believed to be particularly effective when there is a runner on second base who can both watch what hand signals the catcher is using to communicate with the pitcher and can...

Measuring Vulnerability Rediscovery

New paper: "Taking Stock: Estimating Vulnerability Rediscovery," by Trey Herr, Bruce Schneier, and Christopher Morris: Abstract: How often do multiple, independent, parties discover the same vulnerability? There are ample models of vulnerability discovery, but little academic work on this issue o...

Bypassing Apple’s AirTag Security

A Berlin-based company has developed an AirTag clone that bypasses Apples anti-stalker security systems. Source code for these AirTag clones is available online. So now we have several problems with the system. Apples anti-stalker security only works with iPhones. Apple wrote an Android app that...

Security Risks of Client-Side Scanning

Even before Apple made its announcement, law enforcement shifted their battle for backdoors to client-side scanning. The idea is that they wouldnt touch the cryptography, but instead eavesdrop on communications and systems before encryption or after decryption. Its not a cryptographic backdoor, b...

Friday Squid Blogging: Underwater Cameras for Observing Squid

Interesting research paper. 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...

Security in 2020: Revisited

Ten years ago, I wrote an essay: "Security in 2020." Well, it's finally 2020. I think I did pretty well. Here's what I said back then: There's really no such thing as security in the abstract. Security can only be defined in relation to something else. You're secure from something or against...

Friday Squid Blogging: Stuffed Squid with Vegetables and Pancetta

A Croatian recipe. 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...

Chinese Hackers Bypassing Two-Factor Authentication

Interesting story of how a Chinese state-sponsored hacking group is bypassing the RSA SecurID two-factor authentication system. How they did it remains unclear; although, the Fox-IT team has their theory. They said APT20 stole an RSA SecurID software token from a hacked system, which the Chinese...

NSA on the Future of National Cybersecurity

Glenn Gerstell, the General Counsel of the NSA, wrote a long and interesting op-ed for the New York Times where he outlined a long list of cyber risks facing the US. There are four key implications of this revolution that policymakers in the national security sector will need to address: The firs...

John Paul Stevens Was a Cryptographer

I didn't know that Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens "was also a cryptographer for the Navy during World War II." He was a proponent of individual privacy...

New DNS Hijacking Attacks

DNS hijacking isn't new, but this seems to be an attack of unprecedented scale: Researchers at Cisco's Talos security division on Wednesday revealed that a hacker group it's calling Sea Turtle carried out a broad campaign of espionage via DNS hijacking, hitting 40 different organizations. In the...

How Political Campaigns Use Personal Data

Really interesting report from Tactical Tech. Data-driven technologies are an inevitable feature of modern political campaigning. Some argue that they are a welcome addition to politics as normal and a necessary and modern approach to democratic processes; others say that they are corrosive and...

NSA-Inspired Vulnerability Found in Huawei Laptops

This is an interesting story of a serious vulnerability in a Huawei driver that Microsoft found. The vulnerability is similar in style to the NSA's DOUBLEPULSAR that was leaked by the Shadow Brokers -- believed to be the Russian government -- and it's obvious that this attack copied that techniqu...

Cybersecurity Insurance Not Paying for NotPetya Losses

This will complicate things: To complicate matters, having cyber insurance might not cover everyone's losses. Zurich American Insurance Company refused to pay out a $100 million claim from Mondelez, saying that since the U.S. and other governments labeled the NotPetya attack as an action by the...

On Disguise

The former CIA Chief of Disguise has a fascinating video about her work...

West Virginia Using Internet Voting

This is crazy and dangerous. West Virginia is allowing people to vote via a smart-phone app. Even crazier, the app uses blockchain -- presumably because they have no idea what the security issues with voting actually are...

Subverting Backdoored Encryption

This is a really interesting research result. This paper proves that two parties can create a secure communications channel using a communications system with a backdoor. It's a theoretical result, so it doesn't talk about how easy that channel is to create. And the assumptions on the adversary a...

Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Season May Start Earlier Next Year

Squid fisherman in Argentina have asked regulators to start the squid season earlier in 2018. 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: Squid Dog Toy

Its sold out, but the pictures are cute. 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: Diplomoceras Maximum

Diplomoceras maximum is an ancient squid-like creature. It lived about 68 million years ago, looked kind of like a giant paperclip, and may have had a lifespan of 200 years. 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...

Friday Squid Blogging: Peru Defends Its Waters against Chinese Squid Fishing Boats

Squid geopolitics. 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...

Attacking Driverless Cars with Projected Images

Interesting research -- "Phantom Attacks Against Advanced Driving Assistance Systems": Abstract: The absence of deployed vehicular communication systems, which prevents the advanced driving assistance systems ADASs and autopilots of semi/fully autonomous cars to validate their virtual perception...

Revisiting Software Vulnerabilities in the Boeing 787

I previously blogged about a Black Hat talk that disclosed security vulnerabilities in the Boeing 787 software. Ben Rothke concludes that the vulnerabilities are real, but not practical...

AT&T Employees Took Bribes to Unlock Smartphones

This wasn't a small operation: A Pakistani man bribed AT call-center employees to install malware and unauthorized hardware as part of a scheme to fraudulently unlock cell phones, according to the US Department of Justice. Muhammad Fahd, 34, was extradited from Hong Kong to the US on Friday and i...

Upcoming Speaking Engagements

This is a current list of where and when I am scheduled to speak: I'm giving a book talk on Click Here to Kill Everybody at the Ford Foundation in New York City, on September 5, 2018. The Aspen Institute's Cybersecurity & Technology Program is holding a book launch for Click Here to Kill Everybod...

Identifying Programmers by their Coding Style

Fascinating research de-anonymizing code -- from either source code or compiled code: Rachel Greenstadt, an associate professor of computer science at Drexel University, and Aylin Caliskan, Greenstadt's former PhD student and now an assistant professor at George Washington University, have found...

xkcd on Voting Computers

Funny and true...

Security Vulnerabilities in Smart Contracts

Interesting research: "Finding The Greedy, Prodigal, and Suicidal Contracts at Scale": Abstract: Smart contracts -- stateful executable objects hosted on blockchains like Ethereum -- carry billions of dollars worth of coins and cannot be updated once deployed. We present a new systematic...

Friday Squid Blogging: "How the Squid Lost Its Shell"

Interesting essay by Danna Staaf, the author of Squid Empire. I mentioned the book two weeks ago. 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...