Security

Apple Finally Fixed the Bug That Let Fake Chargers Hack Your iPhone

The bug that allowed fake chargers to hack your iPhone has finally been fixed by Apple. Good! But you won’t get the software fix until iOS 7. Apple was alerted of the security hole earlier this year and the hack was demonstrated at the Black Hat hacking convention on Wednesday. https://gizmodo.com/your-iphone-can-be-hacked-with-a-modified-charger-510988017 Apple told Reuters that…

Manning Found Not Guilty Of Aiding The Enemy

Wikileaks source Bradly Manning has been found guilty of five counts of espionage, but he managed to avoid the most serious charge, that of aiding the enemy. Combined, the charges could add up to 154 years imprisonment — a sentence that will be determined tomorrow. The 25-year old former intelligence analyst was working in Iraq…

Gas Pump Skimmers Are Now Just as Good as Those on ATMs

If you worry about ATM skimmers and drive a car, it’s time to freak the hell out: gas pump skimmers have matured, and they’re now just as good as those on ATMs. https://gizmodo.com/you-cant-even-see-the-latest-atm-card-skimmers-5928513 Krebs on Security reports a new series of scams operated out of Oklahoma, that saw thieves take home $400,000 before they were…

Idiot Tries to Wear Handgun-Shaped Heels Through Airport Security

Considering we live in an era where the possession of too much hand sanitizer is enough to strike fear in the heart of airport security, you’d think passengers would exercise a little caution when it comes to carry on items—you know, like leaving the gun-shaped paraphernalia at home. You’d be wrong. This past week, one…

How Did We Get to Where We Are Now with Online Privacy?

Real life privacy is an easy thing to understand. Don’t peek into my windows! Don’t put up surveillance cameras on every corner! Don’t tap my phone calls! But what about online privacy? What should the government (ahem, NSA) be able to know about us? How much data should companies give them? And just how the…

This $200 Brute Force Bot Will Bust Your Phone’s Pin in Hours

Your Android phone is not safe. This 3D-printed robot systematically tries all of the possible lock screen PINs for your phone until it gets in. With your standard four-digit number, your phone is compromised in under a day. If only you’d had an iPhone! The Robotic Reconfigurable Button Basherwill be presented by researchers at the…

This obsessive robot can crack your phone’s PIN in less than 24 hours

Admittedly, this isn’t the most elegant security threat we’ve ever seen, but it works. Meet R2B2, a 3D printed robot that punches PIN combination after PIN combination until it gets it right. This shouldn’t really come as a surprise when you figure that it takes about 10,000 combinations to crack any 4-digit password. The only…

Canary: This Might Be Your Home Security System of The Future

Things that were once dumb are now smart. At least that’s the trend for home appliances as of late. Canary, the self-proclaimed world’s first smart home security system, is launching today on Indiegogo and it might actually work. Crammed into the cylindrical tube is a menagerie of sensors and doohickeys that when combined form the…

The World’s Biggest Data Breaches, Visualized

It sometimes feels like there’s a big data breach in the news every week—but some are far worse than others. This data visulization shows the world’s biggest data breaches to date, and how they compare over time. Put together by the team at Information is Beautiful, the interactive viz reveals some interesting trends. First, it…

Apple’s Developer Center Hacked by Security Researcher, Data Unharmed

Apple revealed late yesterday that its Developer Center had been forced out of action by “an intruder”—but a researcher has provided evidence to confirm that the downtime was a result of his identification of a security vulnerability. Apple claimed in a statement that an intruder had attempted to steal personal information about registered developers from…

A hack has exposed the e-mail addresses and login details for every registered user of the Ubuntu Forums—that’s almost 2 million accounts. Time to change your password.

Millions Of Cell Phones Could Be Vulnerable To This SIM Card Hack

With the NSA leaks going full force it probably won’t sound like news at all that a German cryptographer claims to have hacked a SIM card. But that’s never been done before (as far as we know . . .) so it’s kind of a big deal, and shows that millions of phones are potentially…

Why Doesn’t Skype Protect You Against Eavesdropping?

Skype has long claimed to be “end-to-end encrypted“, an architectural category that suggests conversations over the service would be difficult or impossible to eavesdrop upon, even given control of users’ Internet connections. But Skype’s 2005 independent security review admits a caveat to this protection: “defeat of the security mechanisms at the Skype Central Server” could…

The Technology You Need to Protect Against Mass Surveillance

In the past several weeks, EFF has received many requests for advice about privacy tools that provide technological shields against mass surveillance. We’ve been interested for many years in software tools that help people protect their own privacy; we’ve defended your right to develop and use cryptographic software, we’ve supported the development of the Tor…

Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and others are forming an alliance to demand more transparency from the NSA. According to AllThingsD, they’ll ask President Obama to let them do three things in their transparency reports and ask the government to provide their own transparency reports too. The three things this tech alliance wants to add…

Even If You’re Wise To Phishing, Spear Phishing Could Still Fool You

At this point we pretty much all know what phishing emails look like and we’re resigned to the fact that we didn’t win the Micronesian lottery. We also know that we can’t buy a machine to instantly enlarge our sexual organs no matter how much personal information we provide. It was tough but we all…

Microsoft responded to the report of how Microsoft gave the NSA access to emails, video calls and more by saying that it didn’t give direct access (there’s that phrase again) to SkyDrive, Outlook.com, Skype or any Microsoft product. [Microsoft]

Microsoft Admit to Hacks Based on Findings in Googler’s Report

Nobody likes to shoulder blame—and it appears that’s particularly true of Microsoft. Ballmer and co have admitted that a series of targeted attacks have been carried out, clearly based on findings published in a Google researcher’s recent report. Microsoft says that hackers have launched “targeted attacks” by exploiting a bug in Windows that was first…

Google has apparently plugged the massive, 4-year-old security hole in Android that allowed malware to make its way on to your phone. Now you just need to wait for your phone manufacturer to pass it on to you.

The IRS Just Accidentally Published Thousands of SSNs Online

You’d think the IRS would be the one organization it might be safe to trust with your precious Social Security Number. Think again. Thanks to a cock-up, the agency just put tens of thousands of the numbers out on the Internet for anyone and everyone to see. Fantastic. It seems that when the IRS went…