Hacking

A simple off-the-shelf laser pointer could be combined with a very basic computer to disrupt the multithousand-dollar laser ranging, or Lidar, systems installed in most self-driving cars, a security researcher warned last week. A setup that costs about $60 could trick the Lidar system, which autonom...

SPOTLIGHT ON SECURITY

An Insider Betrayed Ashley Madison – Go Figure

When the giant data breach at infidelity website Ashley Madison made headlines last month, the CEO of the site's owner was quick to claim the caper was an inside job. He had the attacker's profile and work credentials, Avid Life Media's CEO Noel Biderman told ace cybersecurity blogger Brian Krebs. T...

Qualcomm on Monday announced Snapdragon Smart Protect, a hardware-software product that could make the world a safer place for Android smartphone users. Snapdragon Smart Protect, which will become available with Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon 820 processor, will provide real-time, on-device machine ...

The Ashley Madison hacker gang will be tough to apprehend, based on our informal survey of security experts. The hackers this week dumped nearly 10 gigabytes of stolen personal data onto the Web -- details gleaned from accounts established on the site, which is dedicated to matching up people who wa...

SPOTLIGHT ON SECURITY

Study: Chinese Hackers Are Savvy, Surgical

A clandestine group of sophisticated Chinese hackers have infected scores of sites on the Web and stolen documents from industrial and government organizations with surgical precision, according to a Dell SecureWorks study released last week. Dubbed "Threat Group 3390," the cybergang has used infect...

Infamous security researcher Sammy Kamkar last week demonstrated a gadget that can intercept wireless signals to unlock cars and garage doors. Kamkar showed off the device, which cost him just $32 to make, at the DefCon conference in Las Vegas. Dubbed "RollJam," the wallet-sized gadget works like th...

SPOTLIGHT ON SECURITY

Cyberwarrior Demand Outpaces Supply

Demand for cybersecurity professionals continues to far outpace supply, according to a Burning Glass Technologies report released last week. Cybersecurity hiring remains concentrated in government agencies and among defense contractors, the third annual cybersecurity job market report notes, but hir...

Security researchers Runa Sandvik and Michael Auger have hacked a TrackingPoint smart rifle that was designed to deliver sharpshooter results, even for novices. They demonstrated their feat for Wired and will present their findings at the week-long Black Hat 2015 security conference in Las Vegas, wh...

White-hat hackers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek remotely took over a Jeep Cherokee, ran its controls, then cut the transmission as it sped at 70 mph along Interstate 64 in an experiment conducted with Wired. They turned on the air conditioning, switched radio channels, turned on the windshield wi...

SPOTLIGHT ON SECURITY

OPM Director’s Resignation Draws Mixed Reactions

The resignation of U.S. Office of Personnel Management Director Katherine Archuleta is drawing mixed reactions from the cybersecurity community. Archuleta's departure on July 10, in the wake of a massive data breach resulting in the theft of the personal information of more than 22 million people, i...

About 40 million swingers and sexual sophisticates have been whimpering in fear since hearing Sunday's news that hackers broke into the servers of Avid Life Media, the parent company of online cheating site Ashley Madison. The hackers reportedly stole large caches of personal data. "The Impact Team,...

An old fable keeps running through my mind about the scam artist who convinced an emperor that he had created clothing only smart people could see. Everyone says they see the clothing because they don't want to look stupid. Granted, I'm thinking that walking around in clothing stupid people can't se...

SPOTLIGHT ON SECURITY

Swipes, Taps and Cursor Movements Can Foil Cyberthieves

Swipes, taps, cursor movements and other ways of interacting with electronic devices can be used to protect online merchants from Net fraudsters. Many people are familiar with biometric authenticators like irises, fingerprints and voices, but it turns out that how we behave with our machines can be ...

A highly sophisticated group of hackers who use cutting-edge techniques to shield their attacks from detection has been bedeviling corporations around the world for several years. The group, which Symantec dubbed "Morpho" and Kaspersky Lab calls "Wild Neutron," has hit multibillion-dollar corporatio...

SPOTLIGHT ON SECURITY

Will LastPass Breach Poison Trust in Password Managers?

A data breach is no picnic for any organization, but for a company that makes its potato salad by protecting other people's passwords, it's the mother of all nightmares. Yet, that has happened to LastPass twice. In 2011, the service found anomalies in its network traffic that forced it to reset all ...

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