Slack bug paved the way for a hack that can steal user access
One bug in Slack, the popular work chat application, was enough for a security researcher to design a hack that could trick users into handing over access to their accounts. Bug bounty hunter Frans Rosen noticed he could steal Slack access tokens to user accounts due to a flaw in the way the application communicates…
Privacy groups claim FBI hacking operation went too far
Privacy advocates are claiming in court that an FBI hacking operation to take down a child pornography site was unconstitutional and violated international law. That’s because the operation involved the FBI hacking 8,700 computers in 120 countries, based on a single warrant, they said.
How AI is stopping criminal hacking in real time
Almost every day, there’s news about a massive data leak — a breach at Yahoo that reveals millions of user accounts, a compromise involving Gmail phishing scams. Security professionals are constantly moving the chess pieces around, but it can be a losing battle. Yet, there is one ally that has emerged in recent years. Artificial…
The Coolest Hacks Of 2016
In a year when ransomware became the new malware and cyber espionage became a powerful political propaganda tool for Russia, it’s easy to forget that not all hacking in 2016 was so ugly and destructive. Sure, cybercrime and cyber espionage this past year turned the corner into more manipulative and painful territory for victims. But…
Feds provide legal loophole to hacking IoT devices
It was an especially happy Thanksgiving for security researchers, thanks to what they have called long-overdue exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Those exemptions, which took effect Oct. 28, provide a two-year window allowing “good-faith” researchers to break into the software that controls most consumer and commercial Internet of Things (IoT) devices –…
Hacker shows how easy it is to take over a city’s public Wi-Fi network
In a perfect example of how public wireless networks can be dangerous for privacy and security, an Israeli hacker showed that he could have taken over the free Wi-Fi network of an entire city. On his way home from work one day, Amihai Neiderman, the head of research at Israeli cybersecurity firm Equus Technologies, spotted…
US election day faces specter of cyberattacks
Don’t be surprised if hackers make their presence felt on U.S. Election Day. Distributed denial-of-service attacks and high-profile leaks are among the tactics they might use if they try to influence Tuesday’s vote. Cybersecurity experts stress it would be incredibly difficult to hack the U.S. election. The system itself is distributed across the country over thousands…
U.S. Should Strike Back at Cyberattackers: Report
The US government and private sector should strike back against hackers to counter cyber-attacks aimed at stealing data and disrupting important computer networks, a policy report said Monday. A panel of experts assembled by the George Washington University Center for Cyber and Homeland Security said policies should be eased to allow “active defense” measures that…
Many Joomla Sites Hacked via Recently Patched Flaws
Less than 24 hours after Joomla released patches for a couple of critical account creation vulnerabilities, researchers noticed that malicious actors had already started exploiting the flaws in the wild. Joomla announced on October 25 the availability of version 3.6.4 to fix two serious vulnerabilities: CVE-2016-8870, which allows attackers to create user accounts even if…
Hacking 3D manufacturing systems demonstrated by researchers
Researchers from three universities combined their expertise to demonstrate the first complete sabotage attack on a 3D additive manufacturing (AM) system, illustrating how a cyber attack and malicious manipulation of blueprints can fatally damage production of a device or machine. In their paper titled “Dr0wned,” researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), the University…