Collaborate Disseminate
Good samaritans and skinflints beware!
Plugging in that USB stick you found lying around on the street outside your office could lead to a security breach.
Read more in my article on the Tripwire State of Security blog.
Continue reading Does dropping malicious USB sticks really work? Yes, worryingly well…
The Verge writes:
Hackers have compromised the Bitcoin exchange Bitfinex, the company announced today, withdrawing roughly $61 million from various consumer accounts. The causes of the breach are still unclear, but the attackers appear to have bypassed Bitfinex’s mandated limits on withdrawals.
“The theft is being reported to — and we are co-operating with — law enforcement,” the statement reads. “We ask for the community’s patience as we unravel the causes and consequences of this breach.”
You really shouldn’t be surprised. Online criminals are modern-day Willie Suttons. They go where the money is.
If you had a Bitcoin wallet with Bitfinex I imagine you would be quite worried right now.
In fact, if you had a Bitcoin wallet anywhere else you probably shouldn’t be feeling too smug. Security Week reports that the value of Bitcoin has dropped by more than 20% since the incident.
Continue reading $61 million stolen from accounts at Bitcoin exchange Bitfinex
Joseph Cox at Motherboard writes:
A notorious cybercriminal is advertising 200 million of alleged Yahoo user credentials on the dark web, and the company has said it is “aware” of the hacker’s claims, but has not confirmed nor denied the legitimacy of the data.
On Monday, the hacker known as Peace, who has previously sold dumps of Myspace and LinkedIn, listed supposed credentials of Yahoo users on The Real Deal marketplace. Peace told Motherboard that he has been trading the data privately for some time, but only now decided to sell it openly.
When a hacker advertises a huge horde of login details for sale there are often more questions than answers:
Not all of these questions are necessarily easy to answer with absolute certainty.
But what is clear is that your Yahoo account will be a lot safer if you have enabled two-step verification and have learnt to never reuse passwords.
If you’re not being sensible about your online security, take appropriate steps now to harden your Yahoo account. Because even if this current scare ends up not impacting your account, there is always the danger that you could become a victim in the future.
Continue reading 200 million Yahoo passwords being sold on the dark web?
Nate Anderson at Wired paints a terrifying portrait of the sick world of webcam hackers, while also pointing out that such perverted snooping is within easy reach of even the technically unskilled:
Calling most of these guys “hackers” does a real disse… Continue reading Meet the men who spy on women through their webcams
What car hacking researchers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek have discovered is worrying enough. But it sends a shudder down the spine to even contemplate how much worse things could be.
Read more in my article on the We Live Security blog.
Continue reading Car hacking at speed – where vulnerabilities turn from critical to fatal
What car hacking researchers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek have discovered is worrying enough. But it sends a shudder down the spine to even contemplate how much worse things could be.
The post Car hacking at speed – where vulnerabilities turn from critical to fatal appeared first on We Live Security.
Continue reading Car hacking at speed – where vulnerabilities turn from critical to fatal
If a scammer gets hold of your lost iPhone, it’s the perfect time for them to try to phish your password from you.
Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog.
Continue reading Lost your iPhone? Be on guard for a perfectly-timed Apple ID phishing attack
A legitimate reason to poll your battery’s status is to stop intensive operations from executing if you’re running low on juice.
But it’s also open to exploitation by those who want to track your online activity, writes Lukasz Olejnik:
The information … Continue reading Advertisers could be tracking you via your battery status
Barclays wants to abolish passwords for phone banking with voice recognition. But is that really the answer?
Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog.
Continue reading You can change a bank password any time you like. You can’t change your voice
GhostMail, a site that offered “military encrypted and self-destructing email accounts”, has announced that it is closing down:
GhostMail in its current form will be closed down as per 1. of September 2016.
Since we started our project, the world has changed for the worse and we do not want to take the risk of supplying our extremely secure service to the wrong people – it’s simply not worth the risk.
In general, we believe strongly in the right to privacy, but we have taken a strategic decision to only supply our platform and services to the enterprise segment.
We hope you understand this decision and we refer to other free services available, as an alternative to our platform i.e. Protonmail.
PRO users will be refunded and contacted directly.
If we take GhostMail’s statement at face value, one assumes that GhostMail is concerned that criminals and terrorists might abuse its services to hide their communications. As GhostMail has no way of perusing its customers’ encrypted conversations it wouldn’t know who would be up to no good, and who wouldn’t.
So, bad news for regular folks who were using GhostMail for their secure, private webmail (switching to alternatives like Switzerland-based Protonmail sounds like a natural next step) but potentially the company might be able to offer a more focused offering for enterprise customers.
If you are a GhostMail user make sure to download any messages from its servers that you wish to keep before 1st September.
Continue reading Secure email service GhostMail shutting down, in fear of being abused