Helping researchers with IoT firmware vulnerability discovery

John Toterhi, a security researcher with IoT security company Finite State, believes that many of the security problems plaguing IoT devices are solvable problems through transparency. “Manufacturers who make their firmware public and follow GPL practices are doing themselves a huge favor: by making firmware public, manufacturers are enabling a world-wide network of the best…

Hackers are finding creative ways to target connected medical devices

Hackers are leveraging error messages from connected medical devices — including radiology, X-ray and other imaging systems — to gain valuable insights, according to Zingbox. These insights are then used to refine the attacks, increasing the chance of successful hack. “Hackers are finding new and creative ways to target connected medical devices. We have to…

New insider attack steals passwords by reading thermal energy from keyboards

After entering a password, your regular computer keyboard might appear to look the same as always, but a new approach harvesting thermal energy can illuminate the recently pressed keys, revealing that keyboard-based password entry is even less secure than previously thought. Computer Science Ph.D. students Tyler Kaczmarek and Ercan Ozturk from UC Irvine’s Donald Bren…

Protecting consumers from mobile and IoT threats

A new report by Allot Communications revealed a dynamic and automated threat landscape in which consumers lack the security expertise to effectively protect themselves. Mobile and Internet of Things continue to be primary attack vectors, contributing to a spike in cryptojacking, adware, and DDoS attacks. The Telco Security Trends Report is based on anonymous data…

Intel offers to pay for Spectre-like side channel vulnerabilities

Intel is expanding the bug bounty program it started last March, and is raising considerably the awards it plans to give out for helpful vulnerability information. Where information about critical vulnerabilities in Intel software, firmware and hardware could have previously been rewarded with up to $7,500, $10,000 and $30,000, respectively, now the bounties in those same categories…

The future of smartphone security: Hardware isolation

Mobile spyware has become increasingly more ubiquitous in corporate networks and devices. In a 2017 study, Check Point has found that out of the 850 organizations that they queried, 100% had experienced a mobile malware attack at least once in the past. To date, most cybersecurity companies have focused either on software-only or built-in hardware…

Internet of Things security issues bleed into 2018

In 2017 Internet of Things (IoT) devices rose to prominence as attackers have continued to target and use them to support various cyberattacks. IoT devices are almost the perfect target for cyberthieves. They sit on internal networks, have their own IP address, and allow communication with other internet connected devices and systems. Their ubiquity and large numbers…

Would you let Amazon unlock your door?

Amazon recently announced the launch of the Amazon Key, allowing the Amazon delivery person to open your door in order to place your package inside, where presumably it will be safe from theft, the weather, roaming wolf packs, bears, and general mishap. Not all the commentary about this service (and associated camera, lock, etc.) have been…

Seagate launches SkyHawk AI, the first HDD for AI-enabled surveillance

Seagate announced its SkyHawk AI hard disk drive, the first drive created specifically for artificial intelligence enabled video surveillance solutions. SkyHawk AI provides bandwidth and processing power to manage always-on, data-intensive workloads, while simultaneously analyzing and recording footage from multiple HD cameras.