Independent – Page 399 – Computer Security Articles

Credit to Author: Ed Tittel| Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2017 06:44:00 -0700

When Microsoft released Build 15031 of the Windows 10 Insider Preview on February 8, 2017, it added a new OS feature for Bluetooth-equipped devices. It’s called Dynamic Lock, and lets you control access to your PCs based on how close they — and your Bluetooth-paired phones — are to them. That is, if the phone you’ve paired with your PC (it works for laptops, notebooks, tablets and desktops) is not found within radio range of your PC, Windows 10 turns off the screen and locks the PC after 30 seconds have elapsed. Thus, Dynamic Lock makes a dandy new security feature in Creators Update, one that most business users (or their IT departments) will find worth turning on and using.

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ComputerWorld Independent

April 10, 2017 admin

Email-based attacks exploit unpatched vulnerability in Microsoft Word

Credit to Author: Lucian Constantin| Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2017 08:08:00 -0700

Attackers have been exploiting an unpatched vulnerability in Microsoft Word for the past few months to compromise computers and infect them with malware.

The first report about the attacks came Friday from antivirus vendor McAfee after the company’s researchers analyzed some suspicious Word files spotted a day earlier. It turned out that the files were exploiting a vulnerability that affects “all Microsoft Office versions, including the latest Office 2016 running on Windows 10.”

The flaw is related to the Windows Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) feature in Microsoft Office that allows documents to embed references and links to other documents or objects, the McAfee researchers said in a blog post.

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ComputerWorld Independent

April 10, 2017 admin

Update: Spain arrests accused Russian spammer at U.S. request

Credit to Author: Grant Gross| Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2017 08:02:00 -0700

A Russian man long connected with sending spam emails has been arrested and is being held in Spain, with a law enforcement source contradicting news reports saying he was involved with a computer virus linked to President Donald Trump’s recent election victory.

The arrest of Piotr Levashov at the Barcelona airport on Friday was not tied to Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, said the source, who is close to the investigation. That contradicts news reports from Agence France-Presse (AFP) and other news outlets, which said Levashov’s wife, Maria Levachova, was told his arrest was connected to Trump’s election.

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ComputerWorld Independent

April 10, 2017 admin

36% off Litom Solar Outdoor Motion Sensor Security Lights, 2 Pack – Deal Alert

Credit to Author: DealPost Team| Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2017 12:32:00 -0700

This Amazon #1 best selling solar security light is super bright and easy to install wherever you need it. It features 3 modes: (1) Always on, (2) Dim until motion is detected, and (3) Off until motion is detected. It’s designed with a large sensor that will detect motion over a larger distance, and 20 LED lights that the company claims are larger and more powerful than the competition offers. Being weatherproof, this is a light you can mount anywhere you need it outdoors. The Liton outdoor motion sensing light averages 4.5 out of 5 stars from over 1,800 people (see reviews), and a 2-pack is currently being offered at $31.95, a 20% discount over its typical list price of $49.99. See it now on Amazon.

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ComputerWorld Independent

April 10, 2017 admin

The iCloud hackers' bitcoin ransom looks like a fake

Credit to Author: Michael Kan| Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2017 04:02:00 -0700

A group of hackers who claimed to hold millions of iCloud accounts for ransom said on Friday it had been paid. But one bitcoin expert said that’s bogus.

The Turkish Crime Family grabbed headlines last month by claiming it had the stolen login credentials for more than 700 million icloud.com, me.com and mac.com accounts. The group demanded increasing ransoms from Apple while threatening to wipe the data from devices connected to the affected accounts if it did not.

On Friday, the hackers tweeted that they had been paid $480,000 in bitcoin. As proof, the group posted a link showing a transaction on Blockchain.info, a popular bitcoin wallet.

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ComputerWorld Independent

April 10, 2017 admin

Angry Shadow Brokers release password for suspected NSA hacking tools

Credit to Author: John Ribeiro| Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2017 03:45:00 -0700

Annoyed with the U.S. missile strike last week on an airfield in Syria, among other things, hacker group Shadow Brokers resurfaced and released what it said was the password to files containing suspected National Security Agency tools it had earlier tried to sell.

“Is appearing you are abandoning ‘your base’, ‘the movement’, and the peoples who getting you elected,” the group wrote in broken English in a letter to President Donald Trump posted online on Saturday.

The hacker group, believed by some security experts to have Russian links, released in January an arsenal of tools that appeared designed to spy on Windows systems, after trying to to sell these and other supposedly Windows and Unix hacking tools for bitcoin.

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Independent Krebs

April 9, 2017 admin

Alleged Spam King Pyotr Levashov Arrested

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2017 04:17:09 +0000

Authorities in Spain have arrested a Russian computer programmer thought to be one of the world’s most notorious spam kingpins. Spanish police arrested Pyotr Levashov under an international warrant executed in the city of Barcelona, according to Reuters. Russian state-run television station RT (formerly Russia Today) reported that Levashov was arrested while vacationing in Spain with his family. According to numerous stories here at KrebsOnSecurity, Levashov was better known as “Severa,” the hacker moniker used by a pivotal figure in many popular Russian-language cybercrime forums. Severa was the moderator for the spam subsection of multiple online communities, and in this role served as the virtual linchpin connecting virus writers with huge spam networks that Severa allegedly created and sold himself.

Independent Securiteam

April 9, 2017 admin

SSD Advisory – Horde Groupware Webmail Multiple Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilities

Credit to Author: Maor Schwartz| Date: Sun, 09 Apr 2017 10:28:46 +0000

Vulnerabilities Summary The following advisory describes two (2) vulnerabilities found in Horde Groupware Webmail. Horde Groupware Webmail Edition is a free, enterprise ready, browser based communication suite. Users can read, send and organize email messages and manage and share calendars, contacts, tasks, notes, files, and bookmarks with the standards compliant components from the Horde Project. … Continue reading SSD Advisory – Horde Groupware Webmail Multiple Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilities