Author Archives: Chris Bing

Apple thwarts Safari-based ransomware scheme with iOS 10.3 update

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Apple’s newly released update to its mobile operating system fixes a crucial software bug in the Safari web browser that previously allowed scammers to spam users with JavaScript pop-ups, according to mobile security company Lookout. An attacker could execute a ransomware-style attack in past versions of iOS by abusing the pop-up dialogs in Safari, thereby locking victims out from using their web browser until a payment is received. In this scenario, victims would be typically redirected to a malicious website, which is designed to appear like it belongs to a faux law enforcement agency, where a payment — in the form of iTunes gift cards — is demanded for a fake “fine.” iOS 10.3 protects against this attack by making Safari run “on a per-tab basis so that if one tab is misbehaving, the user can close it out and/or move to another one,” a blog post by Lookout researchers […]

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FBI warns InfraGard members of ‘malicious,’ copy cat website

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The FBI has warned members of its InfraGard program that a website is mimicking its genuine Infragard.org property, requesting login credentials for the bureau’s information sharing platform. “Please be aware www.InfraGard.com is not associated with the InfraGard Program. This site is maliciously collecting information that is entered. You are strongly advised not to visit this site or enter any personal/account information,” an alert sent Friday to InfraGard members reads. The FBI’s threat sharing website has been domain squatted pic.twitter.com/7bVSmPzNIW — Sean Cassidy (@sean_a_cassidy) March 25, 2017 When it was still up and running, the InfraGard.com website offered duplicate forms for new applicants to input sensitive information, including social security numbers. If a user tried logging into the fake site, it would redirect them to the real site’s error page. InfraGard.com was most recently taken down on March 24. The fake site (left) looks pretty close to the real site (right). Easily will fool […]

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Hackable IoT washing machine provides channel for breaching hospital IT

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A software bug in internet-connected washing machines — specifically a model used in hospitals and other healthcare facilities to disinfect medical equipment — would allow a hacker to break into the network supporting each appliance to install malware and potentially gain access to other systems, newly published research suggests. Jens Regel, an IT security consultant at consultancy Schneider & Wulf, found the vulnerability in the PG 8528 model developed by German manufacturer Miele. The PG 8528 is shipped with a default Ethernet interface, enabling it to communicate with other devices that are also linked to a local, on-premise network. Regel discovered that a vulnerable embedded web server linked to the Miele PG 8528 makes a “web server directory traversal” cyberattack possible. In such an incident, “an unauthenticated attacker may be able to exploit this issue to access sensitive information to aid in subsequent attacks,” he wrote in a blog post Friday. In […]

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Legal peril looms over companies hoping to acquire CIA intel from WikiLeaks

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A cloud of uncertainty hangs over a cohort of private companies that hope to receive software vulnerability information from WikiLeaks, according to top national security lawyers. “The law is unsettled as to whether tech companies can receive stolen, classified information from WikiLeaks for the purpose of patching security vulnerabilities that the CIA has allegedly been exploiting,” said Edward McAndrew, a former federal cybercrime prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Eastern District of Virginia. The transparency organization published thousands of internal, classified CIA documents two weeks ago in an effort to highlight apparent contradictions between how the U.S. government values digital espionage capabilities over the security and privacy of private technology companies. In a press conference live-streamed to Twitter on March 9, WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange claimed he would work with affected technology companies by privately providing them with executable code and other technical details that had been redacted from the […]

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WikiLeaks publishes MacBook, iPhone hacking toolkit supposedly used by CIA

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WikiLeaks published Thursday a new batch of supposed CIA documents that reveal how the spy agency has hacked into Apple computers and smartphones over the last decade. The 12 newly released folders provide insight into some of the CIA’s methods and techniques, which evidently require physical access to compromise a target device in many cases. Cybersecurity researchers tell CyberScoop that the documents, some of which are marked as recent as 2013, generally prove that the CIA boasts a “robust” Mac attack toolkit. The spy agency was “ahead of the curve versus public disclosure” for many of these capabilities, said Apple security researcher Pedro Vilaça. A WikiLeaks press releases reads, “these documents explain the techniques used by CIA to gain ‘persistence’ on Apple Mac devices, including Macs and iPhones and demonstrate their use of EFI/UEFI and firmware malware.” UEFI stands for Unified EFI Specification, which defines an interface between the operating […]

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Senators draft bill to turn government’s vulnerabilities equities process into law

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There’s a bill in the works that would codify the U.S. government’s vulnerabilities equities process into law, CyberScoop has learned. The legislation intends to add clarity, transparency and a level of consistency to the VEP, a secretive framework which guides when and if a federal agency will notify a technology firm of an unknown, exploitable software flaw discovered by the U.S. government. The bill is being sponsored by Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis. Spokespeople for both senators confirmed the existence of the bill, but would not provide additional details. The VEP has come under fire in recent years due, at least in part, to the exposure of classified material concerning government hacking operations. Exasperating this situation is the fact that the private sector remains largely in the dark with regard to the VEP’s disclosure criteria and the identify of individuals who sit on its multi-agency review […]

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Government hoarding of software vulnerabilities needs more transparency, tech firms say

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Several major technology companies are calling for increased transparency from the U.S. government after WikiLeaks published CIA documents showing that the spy agency knew of vulnerabilities in software products but did not disclose them. “We need to look at this like what is the probability that something will be found by other adversaries. There are many elements that need to go into that decision, and being transparent on what the criteria is” will help the government be more open while protecting classified material, said Intel Security’s Chief Technology Officer Steve Grobman during a hearing Wednesday by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. “I think the key thing is transparency,” Grobman said, referring to the vulnerabilities equities process, or VEP. The VEP is a secretive framework that essentially guides when and if a federal agency will notify an organization of a known software flaw that was discovered by the U.S. government. Because […]

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Where’s Assange? Tech firms are still waiting to receive CIA documents from Wikileaks

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A cohort of technology firms that were named in leaked CIA documents published by WikiLeaks more than two weeks ago are still waiting to receive important information from the transparency organization concerning software vulnerabilities that were targeted by the spy agency. WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange said earlier this month that the controversial organization would work with affected technology companies by privately providing them with executable code and other technical details that had been purposely redacted from the document dump. The idea is that affected companies will access some of this hidden material from WikiLeaks to effectively “develop fixes.” More than 15 different technology companies are mentioned in the CIA document dump. Spokespeople for G DATA, Comodo, BitDefender, TrendMicro, Avira and Avast all said that WikiLeaks had yet to contact their companies. Avira, Comodo and BitDefender’s products are discussed in the leaked CIA documents under a section labelled “AV defeated,” which contains information […]

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Google will provide free cybersecurity tools for election organizers in Europe

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As the threat of cyberattacks looms over Europe in the months preceding several crucial elections, Alphabet subsidiary companies Jigsaw and Google announced Tuesday the launch of a security tool package to help election organizers and civic groups ward off hackers and other forms of digital interference. The announcement comes one day after FBI Director James Comey told lawmakers that he fully expects Russian intelligence services to continue interfering in the U.S. electoral process because of their apparent success in 2016. Known as “Protect Your Election,” the Google-Jigsaw cybersecurity software package is designed for use by a nontechnical audience and it will be provided for free to groups in France, South Korea, Germany and counties with subsequent elections, according to Jigsaw, the corporation’s tech incubator. Among other capabilities, the toolset provides technology to help stop distributed denial of service, or DDoS, attacks, spot phishing emails and better protect passwords. DDoS-style attacks work by […]

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FBI Director: U.S. should expect Russian interference in 2018, 2020 elections

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FBI Director James Comey expects that Russian intelligence services will launch similar influence operations against the 2018 congressional and 2020 presidential elections after finding success in 2016. “They’ll be back,” said Comey, who spoke Monday before the House Intelligence Committee. “They’ll be back in 2020. They may be back in 2018. One of the lessons they may draw from this is that they were successful because they introduced chaos and division and discord and sewed doubt about the nature of this amazing country of ours and our democratic process.” Russian attempts to “undermine the credibility” of American democracy, as Comey described it, differed last year from past cases of Kremlin interference. NSA Director Adm. Michael Rogers, who also testified Monday alongside Comey, said that the biggest difference evident in 2016 was the leaking of documents online and the resulting spread through media channels. “A big difference to me in the past […]

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