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Mac OS X invulnerability to malware is a myth, says security firm

arstechnica.com

by Jacqui Cheng

October 1, 2012

Mac users can expect more OS X botnets, drive-by downloads, and mass malware from here on out.

That's according to security researchers from Kaspersky Lab, who said during a press conference on Thursday morning that anti-malware software is now a necessity for Mac users, and that "Mac OS X invulnerability is a myth." The firm acknowledged that malware for the Mac has existed for years but only recently started gaining more momentum thanks to a critical increase in Mac market share. In the case of Flashback (also known as Flashfake), the malware morphed from a socially engineered installation app to an attack that targeted an unpatched Java vulnerability. So far, it has been used to hijack search results-a technique often used in click fraud scams-but the attackers have the ability to employ the malware tactic of their choice on a machine at any time as long as it remains infected.

Sniffing open WiFi networks is not wiretapping, judge says

arstechnica.com

by Timothy B. Lee

September 7, 2012

Cheap and widely used interception gear means open WiFi traffic is public.

A federal judge in Illinois has ruled that intercepting traffic on unencrypted WiFi networks is not wiretapping. The decision runs counter to a 2011 decision that suggested Google may have violated the law when its Street View cars intercepted fragments of traffic from open WiFi networks around the country. The ruling is a preliminary step in a larger patent trolling case. A company called Innovatio IP Ventures has accused various "hotels, coffee shops, restaurants, supermarkets," and other businesses that offer WiFi service to the public of infringing 17 of its patents. Innovatio wanted to use packet sniffing gear to gather WiFi traffic for use as evidence in the case. It planned to immediately delete the contents of the packets, only keeping the headers. Still, the firm was concerned that doing so might violate federal privacy laws, so it sought a preliminary ruling on the question.

Why passwords have never been weaker-and crackers have never been stronger

arstechnica.com

by Dan Goodin

August 21, 2012

Thanks to real-world data, the keys to your digital kingdom are under assault.

In late 2010, Sean Brooks received three e-mails over a span of 30 hours warning that his accounts on LinkedIn, Battle.net, and other popular websites were at risk. He was tempted to dismiss them as hoaxes—until he noticed they included specifics that weren't typical of mass-produced phishing scams. The e-mails said that his login credentials for various Gawker websites had been exposed by hackers who rooted the sites' servers, then bragged about it online; if Brooks used the same e-mail and password for other accounts, they would be compromised too. The warnings Brooks and millions of other people received that December weren't fabrications. Within hours of anonymous hackers penetrating Gawker servers and exposing cryptographically protected passwords for 1.3 million of its users, botnets were cracking the passwords and using them to commandeer Twitter accounts and send spam. Over the next few days, the sites advising or requiring their users to change passwords expanded to include Twitter, Amazon, and Yahoo.

Crypto breakthrough shows Flame was designed by world-class scientists

arstechnica.com

by Dan Goodin

June 9, 2012

The spy malware achieved an attack unlike any cryptographers have seen before.

The Flame espionage malware that infected computers in Iran achieved mathematic breakthroughs that could only have been accomplished by world-class cryptographers, two of the world's foremost cryptography experts said. "We have confirmed that Flame uses a yet unknown MD5 chosen-prefix collision attack," Marc Stevens and B.M.M. de Weger wrote in an e-mail posted to a cryptography discussion group earlier this week. "The collision attack itself is very interesting from a scientific viewpoint, and there are already some practical implications."

Promotional Firefox community site hacked (again)

arstechnica.com

by Ryan Paul

October 4, 2005

Some of you may remember when the SpreadFirefox site got hacked by spammers in July. Well, it happened again. Although the unfortunate Drupal vulnerabilities have all been adequately patched, site maintainers overlooked significant, remotely exploitable v

SpreadFirefox members received e-mails this morning informing them of a potential intrusion. The e-mail assures us that the exploit was limited to the SpreadFirefox server, and never affected the Mozilla sites or software. Like last time, the administrators believe that no critical data was acquired, but they recommend that users change their passwords...

Get paid for hacking? It's not just for movies anymore!

Arstechnica

by Josh Meier

July 25, 2005

I remember the days when hackers kept security exploits to themselves in order to gain hacker points among their fellow hackers. These days they just sell them to companies like TippingPoint. .. or do they?

TippingPoint, part of 3Com, produces intrusion prevention systems for computer systems and, in order to get a leg up on the competition, they have started offering money in exchange for the disclosure of new security vulnerabilities. The idea is that they will be able to get a leg up on competing security products if they are able to patch a vulnerability before their competitors even know it exists. TippingPoint can then use the vulnerability information to update their own security software, while notifying the original software developer of the problem.

Spying, Lying and Torture

andrewnapolitano.com

August 8, 2014

In some respects, the recent admission by CIA Director John Brennan that his agents and his lawyers have been spying on the senators whose job it is to monitor the agency should come as no surprise.

The agency's job is to steal and keep secrets, and implicit in those tasks, Brennan would no doubt argue, is lying. Yet in another respect, this may very well be a smoking gun in the now substantial case against President Barack Obama that alleges that much of his official behavior has manifested lawlessness and incompetence. It is hard to believe that the president did not know about this but not hard to believe he would look the other way.

NSA Director: 'No One Has Willfully Or Knowingly Disobeyed The Law Or Tried To Invade Your Civil Liberties'

andrewnapolitano.com

August 9, 2013

The heads of the nation's three top intelligence agencies said Thursday they strive to protect Americans' privacy in an evolving era of cybersecurity threats, electronic surveillance and concerns about government data-monitoring.

Since former government contract systems analyst Edward Snowden leaked classified documents about the National Security Agency's data-gathering in May, lawmakers and average Americans have re-engaged in debate over the boundaries between preventing terrorism and preserving Americans' privacy rights. Speaking at a cybersecurity conference, CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director Robert Mueller and the NSA director, Gen. Keith Alexander, didn't directly address the agency's programs that sweep up swaths of data on phone and Internet use, including hundreds of millions of Americans' phone records. The officials spoke largely about malicious software attacks and other electronic intrusions.

Judge Napolitano: Gov't Can't Be Trusted, So We Need Independent Counsel to Investigate Current Scandals

andrewnapolitano.com

May 16, 2013

Attorney General Eric Holder has flatly rejected the idea of appointing special counsel to investigate the Benghazi situation.

Between Benghazi, the seizure of AP phone records, and the IRS scandal, can we really trust government officials to handle these situations on their own? Judge Napolitano said pointedly, "The common thread here is that the government can't be trusted, but the government thinks that we will trust them. The government will break whatever law it wants in order to meet its own political ends."

Ads Security: 2012 Retrospective

adwords.blogspot.com

by David W. Baker

January 17, 2013

While most people are working on productive New Year's resolutions, scammers and bad actors will begin 2013 with the same old goal: make money with the help of bad ads.

Advertising helps fund businesses online and enables them to provide services and content for free to their users. But, bad ads can ruin your web experience, putting you and legitimate businesses in harm's way. We have a vested interest in fighting bad ads and their sources with considerable firepower. Luckily, our ads quality team hasn't changed its New Year's resolutions either: stop bad ads and eliminate bad actors from our systems. In 2012, we continued to make progress towards this goal: we introduced new tools for stopping bad ads, provided greater transparency around the ads review process, and explained how advertisers can connect with us if we ever mistakenly disapprove good ads. Below is a more complete look at our efforts to combat bad ads in 2012.

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