Items tagged with security
Two 18-year-olds from Israel find themselves in hot water with the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for their alleged roles in running a lucrative attack service called vDOS. They're said to have earned over $600,000 in the past two years by helping customers coordinate over 150,000 Distributed...
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The USB port is one of the most influential and important inventions of the modern computing era, but like just about anything that's innovative and pervasive, there's usually potential to do harm as well. Need proof of that? Check out the USB Kill, a sly little USB stick that's capable of frying just about any...
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The last thing you want to do is broadcast your bank or other sensitive login credentials for any Nosy Nellie to see. That's why a properly secured website asking for your confidential information uses encryption. Starting soon, Google's Chrome browser will tattle on websites that fail to secure your passwords and...
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You might think that logging out of your PC before leaving it unattended for a short time is relatively safe, but you'd be wrong. A security engineer at R5 Industries demonstrated how incredibly easy it is to swipe the login credentials of a locked Mac or Windows PC using just a $50 USB device that's available to...
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In the world of pornography, Brazzers is about as de facto a name as it gets. Even if you don't indulge in what the adult entertainment offers, Brazzers is a recognizable name thanks to the fact that it's become its own meme. But it's hard to tell, just how big is Brazzers?
Well, as we now learn, it's big enough to...
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As unfortunate as it is, it's really hard nowadays to be shocked at the thought of someone getting infected with malware, or even a piece of ransomware (which can now even affect Linux). It is still possible to get shocked though, with Betabot proving it for us. This piece of malicious software doesn't just fetch user...
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Apple's been keeping itself busy patching up security holes in its software, both for mobile and on the desktop. Just last week, Apple rolled out an update for iOS—version 9.3.5—that patched up several critical security and privacy exploits, and now there's a pair of updates for OS X that addresses the same security...
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More details about a previously disclosed security breach at cloud storage provider Dropbox have come to light. The hack itself is old news—it occurred back in 2012—but what's new is how many users were affected by it. Hackers made off with details belonging to north of 68 million Dropbox users, prompting a mass...
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Here's a reminder to always check the URL of a website before entering in your login details, folks. That bit of safe computing advice applies to all online services, both big and small. Lest anyone doubt that, security researcher Aiden Woods recently notified Google of a potential security flaw in the way it handles...
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If you operate a Web server that runs on Linux, we're here to give you a bit of a prod in case you haven't updated it in a while. A piece of ransomware called FairWare is floating around, and as you'll soon see, its name is ironic as it's anything but "fair".
Reports are coming in of users who have been struck with...
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Data breaches happen all too frequently to companies both big and small. The latest victim is Opera Software, the Scandinavian outfit behind the Opera browser that's especially popular on mobile devices. Opera's security team said it detected signs of a attack on its sync system, and though the hack was quickly...
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Apple has filed a patent application with the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) that could flip the script on iPhone and iPad thieves looking for a fast payday. What they'll get instead is a visit from local law enforcement—the patent involves taking a snapshot and capturing the fingerprint of the thief...
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Russian hackers are thought to be targeting reporters and major news outlets, including The New York Times, which confirmed that its Moscow bureau was the target of an attempted cyberattack this month. The news agency hasn't found any evidence to suggest that the hackers were successful in their attempt, though an...
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We hear about hacks and attacks on web services all of the time, and often, there's a big reason behind it. The attackers either want to fetch information for their financial gain, or just to simply cause havoc. In this latest case involving Epic Games' forums, it appears to be the latter.
In a new blog post, Epic...
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We reported earlier this week on a large collection of exploits that have been put up for auction by a group that calls itself Shadow Brokers. The promise was that all of the files were sourced from a secret NSA group called Equation Group, and now, Edward Snowden has released documents to prove that's just the...
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We wrote a couple of days ago about a huge treasure trove of alleged NSA-derived exploits that were hitting the market. That gold mine was accessed by a group calling itself Shadow Brokers, and it's been said that their source was Equation Group, which is believed to be an extension of the NSA.
At that time, there...
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Today's a bad day security. First it was discovered that Microsoft accidentally leaked what amounts to a golden key for Secure Boot system, and now we find out there's a rather serious vulnerability in the TCP implementation in all Linux systems since version 3.6 of the Linux kernel was deployed four years ago. Is...
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Someone at Microsoft is having one of those Southwest moments where the airlines asks, "Want to get away?" That's because someone at the Redmond outfit leaked a security key that could allow attackers to bypass the protections in Windows devices that are put in place through Secure Boot. Worse yet, now that the...
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Go ahead and cue up Cartman's "No kitty, that's a bad kitty!" soundbite, only this time it's not in reference to stealing those delicious Cheesy Poofs. McAfee's mobile malware research division found a sample of ransomware for Android that it's calling "ElGato," and once infected, it can steal a user's SMS messages...
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MICROS, one of the largest point-of-sale payment systems in the world, has been hacked by a Russian organized cybercrime group with a history of hacking into banks and retailers. The full extent of the security breach is still being evaluated, but given the size and scope of MICROS, this could turn out to be another...
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Check Point, the company that's perhaps best known for its ZoneAlarm security software, found four vulnerabilities that put at risk most Android smartphones tablets. Collectively called QuadRooter, Check Point's mobile research team says the set of vulnerabilities affects Android devices that use Qualcomm chipsets, of...
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Some people take Grand Theft Auto V a little too seriously, either that or just live that sort of life for real. Houston police officers have just announced that they have arrested two men accused of stealing at least thirty Dodge and Jeep vehicles with a laptop computer and a simple software hack.
Michael Arce...
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