Independent – Page 422 – Computer Security Articles

Credit to Author: Darlene Storm| Date: Wed, 08 Mar 2017 08:22:00 -0800

By releasing information about CIA hacking tools, WikiLeaks has given a new meaning to March Madness.

The CIA’s project Fine Dining is intriguing, since it outlines DLL hijacks for Sandisk Secure, Skype, Notepad++, Sophos, Kaspersky, McAfee, Chrome, Opera, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, and some games such as 2048, which the CIA writer “got a good lol out of.” Yet I was curious about what the CIA does to targeted machines running Windows since so many people use the OS.

Nearly everything dealing with the CIA hacking arsenal and Windows is labeled as “secret.” Nicholas Weaver, a computer scientist at the University of California at Berkeley, told NPR that the Vault 7 release is not all that big of a deal, not too surprising the agency hacks. Yet if “Year Zero” was obtained by a non-government hacker compromising the CIA’s system, then that would be a big deal.

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ComputerWorld Independent

March 8, 2017 admin

IDG Contributor Network: Why the Samsung TV spying hack is way overblown

Credit to Author: John Brandon| Date: Wed, 08 Mar 2017 07:25:00 -0800

Major media has some egg on their face over this one.

Drawn to the attention-grabbing idea of your Samsung TV being compromised by the CIA, and knowing a lot of people have a Samsung TV, the headlines went something like this.

WikiLeaks says CIA hacked Samsung smart TVs

Why your smart TV is the perfect way to spy on you

None of these reports bothered to explain any of the details.

As noted in Wired and in this Forbes report, the CIA cannot spy on you over wireless. To update a Samsung TV, they’d need to use a USB key to install a firmware update. Also, the televisions are older models from 2013. To record any conversations or video, the CIA would then have to copy files back onto the USB drive.

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ComputerWorld Independent

March 8, 2017 admin

If the CIA can sidestep encryption, what makes you think cyberthieves can’t?

Credit to Author: Evan Schuman| Date: Wed, 08 Mar 2017 06:48:00 -0800

Having just spent much of the day browsing through Wikileaks’ latest batch of documents from the intelligence community — in which government agents discussed ways to circumvent mobile encryption and to listen in on conversations near smart devices including smart TVs — it’s clear that government agents have long had the ability to grab mobile content before it’s encrypted.

Some of the tactics have names that are quite explicit about their function, such as a TV mode called “TV Fake-Off.” These docs provide a fascinating look into the government teams that are emulating cyberthieves, trying to improve on their techniques rather than thwart them.

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ComputerWorld Independent

March 8, 2017 admin

CIA repurposed Shamoon data wiper, other malware

Credit to Author: Lucian Constantin| Date: Wed, 08 Mar 2017 06:35:00 -0800

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency documents published by WikiLeaks Tuesday shows that one of the agency’s teams specializes in reusing bits of code and techniques from public malware samples.

According to the leaked documents the Umbrage team is part of the Remote Development Branch under the CIA’s Center for Cyber Intelligence. It maintains a library of techniques borrowed from in-the-wild malware that could be integrated into its own projects.

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ComputerWorld Independent

March 8, 2017 admin

Senator probes into CloudPets smart toy hack

Credit to Author: John Ribeiro| Date: Wed, 08 Mar 2017 04:40:00 -0800

A U.S. senator is seeking answers about a data breach involving smart toys made by Spiral Toys, writing a letter to the company’s CEO asking about the company’s security practices.

Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, wrote in a letter Tuesday to CEO Mark Meyers that the breach raises serious questions concerning how well the company protects the information it collects, particularly from children.

Nelson also said that the incident raises questions about the vendor’s compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which requires covered companies to have reasonable procedures to protect the confidentiality, security and integrity of personal information collected from children.

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ComputerWorld Independent

March 8, 2017 admin

CIA-made malware? Now antivirus vendors can find out

Credit to Author: Michael Kan| Date: Wed, 08 Mar 2017 04:29:00 -0800

Thanks to WikiLeaks, antivirus vendors will soon be able to figure out if you have been hacked by the CIA.

On Tuesday, WikiLeaks dumped a trove of 8,700 documents that allegedly detail the CIA’s secret hacking operations, including spying tools designed for mobile phones, PCs and smart TVs.

WikiLeaks has redacted the source code from the files to prevent the distribution of cyber weapons, it said. Nevertheless, the document dump — if real — still exposes some of the techniques that the CIA has allegedly been using.

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ComputerWorld Independent

March 8, 2017 admin

Senate resolution aims to roll back privacy rules for ISPs

Credit to Author: John Ribeiro| Date: Wed, 08 Mar 2017 03:57:00 -0800

A resolution introduced in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday aims to roll back privacy rules for broadband service providers that were approved by the Federal Communications Commission in October.

The rules include the requirement that internet service providers like Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon obtain “opt-in” consent from consumers to use and share sensitive personal information such as geolocation and web browsing history and also give customers the choice to opt out from the sharing of non-sensitive information such as email addresses or service tier information.

The rules have been opposed by ISPs that argue that they are being treated differently from other Internet entities like search engines and social networking companies.

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ComputerWorld Independent

March 8, 2017 admin

Apple says it has already patched ‘many’ (not all) leaked CIA exploits

Credit to Author: Jonny Evans| Date: Wed, 08 Mar 2017 03:51:00 -0800

Details concerning multiple iOS, Mac, and AirPort exploits allegedly used by the CIA were published by Wikileaks late last night.

The documents reveal an extensive quantity of exploits used against Apple devices, thought WikiLeaks has not published any of the technical details or computer code that was also leaked to prevent these hacks disseminating any further. (Though we don’t know who else got the data).

Post-privacy

The documents offer the deepest look yet into how intelligence services (including the CIA, GCHQ, and others) have worked together to undermine the security of products from multiple vendors, including Apple.

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