Category: Security News

Phone Scanner That Detects Spyware

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A New Phone Scanner That Detects Spyware Has Already Found 7 Pegasus Infections

source: wired.com (contributed by FAN, Steve Page)  |  image: unsplash.com

 

The mobile device security firm iVerify has been offering a tool since May that makes spyware scanning accessible to anyone—and it’s already turning up victims.

IN RECENT YEARS, commercial spyware has been deployed by more actors against a wider range of victims, but the prevailing narrative has still been that the malware is used in targeted attacks against an extremely small number of people. At the same time, though, it has been difficult to check devices for infection, leading individuals to navigate an ad hoc array of academic institutions and NGOs that have been on the front lines of developing forensic techniques to detect mobile spyware. On Tuesday, the mobile device security firm iVerify is publishing findings from a spyware detection feature it launched in May. Of 2,500 device scans that the company’s customers elected to submit for inspection, seven revealed infections by the notorious NSO Group malware known as Pegasus. Continue reading “Phone Scanner That Detects Spyware” →

Rising Threat of China’s Volt Typhoon

Posted on by esimantiras

Rising Threat of China’s Volt Typhoon

image - china tech

source: axios.com (contributed by FAN, Bill Amshey)  |  Image: pexels.com

 

Notorious China-linked hackers known for burrowing deep into U.S. infrastructure are back, according to a report out today.

Why it matters: The resurgence shows that the Chinese government isn’t backing down from its quest to infiltrate American utilities in preparation for a potential destructive cyberattack.

Zoom in: The research team at SecurityScorecard, a cyber risk assessment company, says it has noticed Volt Typhoon moving traffic through a set of compromised routers in New Caledonia, an island nation off the coast of Australia, as recently as September.

  • Global law enforcement disrupted a significant portion of Volt Typhoon’s botnet in January, but the group quickly set up new servers.
  • However, actual movement across these servers hadn’t been seen until September, according to the report.
  • Routing through New Caledonia gives the hackers a “silent bridge” to hide traffic moving between the Asia-Pacific region and the Americas, the report says. Continue reading “Rising Threat of China’s Volt Typhoon” →

Say Goodbye to Passwords

Posted on by esimantiras

Say Goodbye to Passwords

source: fastcompany.com  |  image: pixabay.com

 

Passkey adoption is up, and problems are being fixed.

It’s been a couple of years since Apple, Google, and Microsoft started trying to kill the password, and its demise seems more likely than ever.

In 2022, all three companies embraced an alternative called passkeys, which sync securely between your devices and are protected by face recognition, a fingerprint, or a PIN. The thinking goes that if you don’t have to remember a password—or even create one in a password manager—you’re less likely to fall prey to phishing scams. And if websites don’t have to store their customers’ passwords anymore, security breaches won’t be as disastrous. Continue reading “Say Goodbye to Passwords” →

China’s Satellites Are Dodging US Eyes In Space

Posted on by esimantiras

China’s Satellites Are Dodging US Eyes In Space

source: defenseone.com  |  image: pixabay.com

 

The Pentagon doesn’t post location data for its secretive GSSAP satellites, but Chinese spacecraft are maneuvering to avoid their gaze.

The Pentagon has long been closed-mouthed about a family of U.S. spy satellites that since 2014 have kept an eye on foreign spacecraft in geosynchronous orbits. That hasn’t stopped Chinese satellites from dodging them.

U.S. officials declassified the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program a decade ago to show that they had eyes on high-Earth orbit, but they have rarely discussed the the six GSSAP satellites themselves, and they do not publish the standard location data meant to reduce collisions. Now, a new paper from the U.S. Air Force’s China Aerospace Studies Institute explores what the Chinese know about GSSAP—and what they’re doing about it. Continue reading “China’s Satellites Are Dodging US Eyes In Space” →

Cyberattackers Unleash Flood of Potentially Disruptive Election-Related Activity

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Cyberattackers Unleash Flood of Potentially Disruptive Election-Related Activity

source: darkreading.com  |  image: pexels.com

 

Cyber-threat actors have ramped up their targeting of the 2024 US electionswith a flood of malicious activity expected to peak over the next month, aimed at causing disruption to voters and the election process and requiring increased vigilance on the part of stakeholders.

Specifically, attackers have bolstered election-related threat activity since the beginning of the year with an increase in the sale of phishing kits targeting US voters and campaign donors; the registration of more than 1,000 domains aimed at exploiting election-related content for malicious purposes; and increased ransomware activity targeting government entities, according to research from FortiGuard Labs Threat Research released today.

Since the inception of Internet-related threats, cyber-threat actors have typically increased malicious activity ahead of elections, notes Derek Manky, chief security strategist and vice president of global threat intelligence at Fortinet. However, they aim to be especially disruptive during the current election cycle, requiring that all stakeholders be prepared to fend off malicious actors in the upcoming weeks to protect election outcomes. Continue reading “Cyberattackers Unleash Flood of Potentially Disruptive Election-Related Activity” →

Did Israel Intercept Any Iranian Missiles?

Posted on by esimantiras

Did Israel Intercept Any Iranian Missiles?

source: https://joecirincione.substack.com (contributed by FAN, Bill Amshey)  |  image: pexels.com

The available evidence indicates that most of Iran’s missiles got through.

Something has been bothering me. Almost every reporter and Israeli official says that Israel intercepted most of the 180 missiles Iran fired at three Israeli military bases October 1. If that were true, then you would expect to see dozens of large explosions in the air as the Israeli Arrow 2 or Arrow 3 interceptors found their targets and destroyed the incoming warheads.

But that is not what you see. Dozens of videos show scores of missiles streaking across the sky with many hitting the ground and exploding in fireballs. There are numerous reports of substantial ground damage, including large craters, damaged buildings and at least one intact ballistic missile that failed to explode.

It appears that the Iranian missiles were so inaccurate that most landed a kilometer or more from their intended targets, with some landing in the sea or in vacant land. The Washington Post reports, in one of the few attempts to independently assess the damage, that, “Video recorded from the southern town of Ar’arat an-Naqab on Tuesday showed at least 20 projectiles flying through the air above the Nevatim military air base. At least six missiles hit the facility, erupting into fireballs; plumes of smoke rose from the airfield. No aircraft was hit, the Israel Defense Forces told Israeli media.” Continue reading “Did Israel Intercept Any Iranian Missiles?” →

Chinese hacking “typhoons” threaten U.S. infrastructure

Posted on by esimantiras

Chinese Hacking “Typhoons” Threaten U.S. Infrastructure

source: axios.com (contributed by FAN, Bill Amshey)  |  image: pexels.com

 

The Chinese government is running another broad campaign to hack as many American organizations as possible — heightening the threat across critical infrastructure.

Why it matters: The new hacking campaign suggests China could hold more expansive power to turn off key U.S. infrastructure than previously thought.

Driving the news: FBI director Christopher Wray said at the Aspen Cyber Summit on Wednesday that the bureau and its partners hijacked thousands of devices last week that a Chinese hacking group had infected with malware.

  • Flax Typhoon, a new China-backed hacking team, infected home routers, firewalls, storage devices, and Internet of Things devices like cameras and video recorders.

Zoom in: As of June, Flax Typhoon’s botnet included more than 260,000 malware-infected devices across North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia and Australia, according to a U.S. government advisory.

  • Half of the hijacked devices were located in the U.S., Wray said in his remarks.
  • Security researchers at Black Lotus Labs said in a coinciding report that hackers have used the botnet to target U.S. and Taiwanese organizations in the military, government, higher education, telecommunications, defense and IT sectors.
  • The FBI also alleged that the Flax Typhoon hackers worked for Integrity Technology Group, a Chinese tech company that does contract work for Beijing’s intelligence agencies.
  • The FBI also said that Integrity Technology Group operated and controlled the botnet. Continue reading “Chinese hacking “typhoons” threaten U.S. infrastructure” →

Safeguarding Secrets From Quantum Spying

Posted on by esimantiras

Safeguarding Secrets From Quantum Spying

source: axios.com (contributed by FAN, Bill Amshey)  |  image: pexels.com

 

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has released its highly anticipated standards for protecting encrypted data from future quantum technologies.

Why it matters: China and other foreign foes are likely already collecting encrypted U.S. secrets with the hopes of breaking into them once quantum computing technology catches up.

What’s happening: NIST this week formally approved three post-quantum cryptography standards, marking an important first step in protecting government and critical services from encryption-breaking quantum.

  • IBM researchers developed two of the three standards in collaboration with industry and academic partners.
  • The third standard was developed by a researcher who has since joined IBM.
  • Apple, Meta, Google and some other companies are already implementing these standards.

What’s next: These standards will serve as a blueprint for governments and private-sector organizations around the world.

Go deeper.

China and Russia, two sides of a vise

Posted on by esimantiras

 

 

China and Russia, two sides of a vise

   

source: axios.com (contributed by FAN, Bill Amshey)  |  images: pixabay.com & pexels.com

 

The complementary scheming of Russia and China dominated discussions among some of the world’s highest-ranking military and political officials at the Aspen Security Forum.

Why it matters: To hear the national security brain trust tell it in Colorado, Western primacy is in a vise, with Moscow and Beijing together applying the pressure.

Here are a few examples, laid bare at last week’s conference, where the U.S. and its allies are being challenged:

  • In space, China aims to “displace the United States as the global leader” and exploit it “in a way that is to our detriment,” said Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, the Defense Intelligence Agency director.
  • When China blew up a satellite in 2007, “they put us on notice,” and “we have only seen their development of counter-space weapons just rapidly, breathtakingly, increase,” said U.S. Space Command boss Gen. Stephen Whiting.
  • Online, Russia peddles disinformation that influences elections. China absconds with sensitive information that springboards its weapons development and broader economy.
  • “If Xi Jinping were sitting on this stage, he would say, ‘Thank you very much for allowing us to cherry-pick, to pick your pocket, of leading technologies and IP,'” said Jon Huntsman Jr., a former U.S. ambassador to China and Russia.
  • On the ground and at sea, Russia and China use their troops to muddle borders. Those nearby document the belligerence, but denunciations have done little to stop them.
  • “If we allow it to become the norm, that a larger state can change its smaller neighbors’ borders with force, then which border remains secure?” said Jonatan Vseviov, the secretary general of Estonia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Continue reading “China and Russia, two sides of a vise” →

Listening is so last year — Meta’s new tech wants to feel your voice

Posted on by esimantiras

Listening is so last year — Meta’s new tech wants to feel your voice

source: media.hubspot.com (contributed by Artemus founder, Bob Wallace)  |  image: pixabay.com

 

Great news for the vocal fry community: Your vocal cord vibrations could soon be put to good use protecting your data.

Seriously. Meta filed a patent application for user authentication using a “combination of vocalization and skin vibration,” per Patent Drop.

That title is a mouthful, so let’s break it down:
  • Meta wants to replace the need for passwords or fingerprint scanning with voice authentication for accessing systems like its AR headset or smart glasses.
  • But AI has made impersonating someone’s voice really easy, with convincing voice cloning and deep fakes already swirling.
  • So Meta is taking voice authentication one step further by scanning the “vibration of tissue” during speech in addition to one’s voice.
  • When a user says a wake word, a “vibration measurement assembly” picks up the vibrations of their skin and the acoustic waves of their voice to authenticate them.

The combined dataset would create a unique audio fingerprint and, when built into headsets and glasses, would let users access their systems with a single word.

And while no one likes their password getting hacked, the stakes are getting a hell of a lot higher, with new tech poised to start harvesting data directly from our brains.

Sounds interesting

This patent is just the latest of Meta’s voice authentication tech. A separate “user identification with voice prints” patent application would see voice prints integrated into the two-factor authentication process for the company’s social media apps.

And Meta is far from the only company thinking about voice biometrics — the market is projected to hit 11.1B by 2032.

It will only become more important as AI companies crank out new voice generation tools, like OpenAI’s Voice Engine, which can clone someone’s voice using only a 15-second clip of them speaking, or ElevenLabs’ Reader App, which can clone celebrity voices.