Global cyber community can do more to stop state-sponsored malware, EFF researcher says

When it comes to defending against foreign cyber powers, many U.S. national security experts tend to hype up countries with powerful hacking capabilities, such as China, Iran, Russia, and North Korea. Regarding state-sponsored malware campaigns, though, the security community needs to dig deeper, says Cooper Quintin, a security researcher and programmer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “We’ve found lots of countries now are starting to get hacking programs. It’s a lot of countries you wouldn’t expect,” Quintin said Friday during CyberTalks, a virtual event produced by Scoop News Group. “We’ve seen state-sponsored malware coming out of Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Morocco, Ethiopia, and all sorts of countries that haven’t previously been well known for their hacking capabilities.” The countries themselves haven’t necessarily developed hacking capabilities, though they appear to be outsourcing cyber-operations to third parties, or shopping around for commercial hacking tools in an effort to mask government involvement, according to Quintin. The government of Kazakhstan, for […]

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Anti-stalkerware group still working to protect domestic abuse victims

When it comes to stamping out the kind of surveillance software that domestic abusers use to spy on their romantic partners, there’s still a long way to go. Security firms, victim advocacy groups and anti-domestic abuse organizations combined forces roughly a year ago to bring an end to stalkerware, the kind of technology that people use to monitor their domestic partners’ devices. The group, known as the Coalition Against Stalkerware, has made progress in the past 12 months or so, though there’s still a long road ahead, said Eva Galperin, the director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, one of the founding members of the coalition. The surveillance can be incredibly intrusive — stalkerware can monitor targets’ geolocation, texts, phone calls, cameras, and more — and especially during a pandemic, can be used to box in abuse victims and isolate them from external help and resources. Targets of stalkerware often aren’t aware […]

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NSA Data Collection Ruling, Browsing History Identification, Ambulance Chasing

In episode 137 for September 7th 2020: A federal appeals court finds the NSA’s bulk collection of phone data was unlawful, new research shows that browsing histories are unique enough to reliably identify users, and my personal story about a car accide… Continue reading NSA Data Collection Ruling, Browsing History Identification, Ambulance Chasing

EFF’s 30th Anniversary Livestream

It’s the EFF’s 30th birthday, and the organization is having a celebratory livestream today from 3:00 to 10:00 pm PDT. There are a lot of interesting discussions and things. I am having a fireside chat at 4:10 pm PDT to talk about the Crypto Wars and more. Stop by. And thank you for supporting EFF. EDITED TO ADD: This event… Continue reading EFF’s 30th Anniversary Livestream

End-to-end encryption will be offered to all Zoom users

Zoom Video Communications has decided to extend the benefits of end-to-end encryption (E2EE) not only to paying Zoom customers, but to those who create free accounts, as well. The decision was reached after much public outcry by privacy-minded users an… Continue reading End-to-end encryption will be offered to all Zoom users

COVID-19 Mass Surveillance, New Coronavirus Cyber-Attacks, Encryption Backdoors

In episode 113 for March 23rd 2020: Israel passes an emergency law to use mobile data to track people infected with COVID-19, the latest coronavirus cyber-attacks to be aware of, and how governments world-wide could be putting backdoors into secure mes… Continue reading COVID-19 Mass Surveillance, New Coronavirus Cyber-Attacks, Encryption Backdoors

Emergency Surveillance During COVID-19 Crisis

Israel is using emergency surveillance powers to track people who may have COVID-19, joining China and Iran in using mass surveillance in this way. I believe pressure will increase to leverage existing corporate surveillance infrastructure for these purposes in the US and other countries. With that in mind, the EFF has some good thinking on how to balance public safety… Continue reading Emergency Surveillance During COVID-19 Crisis

NIST shared dataset of tattoos that’s been used to identify prisoners

The EFF got in touch with the institutions that have the dataset. Some deleted it, while one refused and others didn’t bother to respond. Continue reading NIST shared dataset of tattoos that’s been used to identify prisoners