Security

A 4-Year-Old Android Bug Could Bring Malware to 99% of Devices

A team of security researchers claim to have identified a four-year-old Android bug that can allow malicious trojans to appear as verified apps, infecting devices with malware while users remain unaware of its presence. Usually, apps are verified using cryptographic signatures: modified updates are thus rejected if the key doesn’t match the one provided by…

New PRISM Insight: Real-Time Monitoring, 100,000 Surveillance Targets

The Washington Post has unearthed more slides describing the US government’s PRISM surveillance program—and they help confirm the extent of the operation. https://gizmodo.com/what-is-prism-511875267 The new slides seem to support what whistleblower Edward Snowden has already claimed: that PRISM lets the NSA perform real-time surveillance of email and instant messaging. The new slides don’t make clear…

The US Department of Defense is spending a cool $23 billion over 4 years to build up its cyber defenses -including a secure 4G wireless network. Neat.

According to a report by Juniper Networks, mobile malware has grown by 614 percent over the last year. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, 92 percent of it is on Android…

Google Reveals Data on Sites That Are Phishing and Installing Malware

Google’s latest Transparency Report is out, and in its latest incarnation, the document reveals data on its “Safe Browsing” initiative, which attempts to protect users from sites that are either phishing for data or installing malicious software. According to Google, it keeps 1 billion users safe and flags some 10,000 sites per day. Additionally, Google’s…

Facebook Graph Search Let Dev Scrape Thousands of Public Phone Numbers

It looks like all our Graph Search privacy concerns weren’t just the ravings of a paranoid, tinfoil-hat-wearing lunatic. Using Facebook’s new comprehensive search tool, a tricksy little dev was able to compile a database holding thousands of Facebook users’ personal phone numbers. https://gizmodo.com/how-to-lock-down-your-facebook-privacy-now-that-graph-s-5986399 While the number of usable, identifiable phone numbers reached the thousands, Brandon…

Of Course the NSA Can Keep Inadvertently Acquired Data on US Citizens

The Guardian has obtained a series of documents which reveal that, while the NSA is expected to “minimize” collection of data suspected to belong to US citizens, any “inadvertently acquired” domestic communications can still be kept and used without a warrant. US officials have been at pains to insist that the NSA is only supposed…

Metal Detectors Invented To Keep Employees From Stealing Metal

The metal detector we’re all used to walking through at courthouses and airports got its start as the usual machinery made to keep the worker under the boot of the employer. The Germans created metal detectors as a more time-efficient method of searching workers leaving the factory.

Walk-Through Metal Detectors Were Invented to Catch Thieving Employees

Today we walk through metal detectors to get into courthouses, airports, and even concert venues. But back in the 1920s the first walk-through metal detectors weren’t invented for finding weapons (or nail clippers), they were invented for searching would-be thieves. Primitive handheld metal detectors date back to the 19th century, but it wasn’t until the…

Yahoo has responded to claims that recycled email accounts could pose a security problem, claiming it’s “going to extraordinary lengths” to protect users. Obviously.

You Should Stop Using Your iOS-Generated Hotspot Password Right Now

The ability to turn your iPhone into a Wi-Fi hotspot is a fantastically useful little tool in and of itself. But Apple, being the generous overlord that it is, goes so far as to automatically generate a network key, keeping even the most absent-minded of Wi-Fi-beggared safe and sound. Or so we thought. According to…

These Stash Coins Are a Fantastic Way to Lose Your SD Card

The Man has his hand in your inbox, cops are intimidating citizens who film them beating other citizens, it’s only logical to want to keep the private contents of your SD card, well, private. The Covert Coin from CCS Spy Gear is a precision-machined piece of retired US currency that are nearly indistinguishable from the…

Apple Details What the NSA Took–And How Much of It

The impact of the NSA’s secret surveillance through PRISM and other means has sent reverberations through out the tech industry and the world at large. The latest ripple: Apple’s full accounting of its interactions with government spies in the past year or so. Here’s what went down. https://gizmodo.com/what-is-prism-511875267 In an open letter entitled Apple’s Commitment…

The NSA Can Afford To Store Data From Years Of Phone Calls

There’s been a lot of talk about the NSA and its data-gathering policies. The news sounds kind of scary. But you might be thinking that the NSA can’t have literally every foreign and domestic call made in the U.S.. That would be a crazy amount of data right? Well, yes it would be, and it…

By The Way, The NSA Doesn’t Need A Warrant To Listen To Your Calls (Updated)

Update: CNET has since updated its story to reflect that the government does, in fact, need a warrant to listen to your phone calls. In a “secret briefing” to Congress the NSA confirmed that their analysts can listen to phone calls without a warrant and totally at their individual discretion. So . . . not…

NSA Whistleblower Reveals Identity: “I Do Not Expect to See Home Again”

An NSA employee working through outside contractors is the man behind the NSA leak. A former technical assistant for the CIA and current Booz Allen Hamilton employee, 29-year-old Edward Snowden worked with The Guardian to release his identity today. Though he publicly disclosed numerous confidential documents, Snowden tells The Guardian: I have no intention of…

Report: AT&T and Sprint Are Working With the NSA, Too (Duh)

The Wall Street Journal reports unnamed sources, which claim that Verizon isn’t the only telecom turning over extensive phone records to the NSA. The agency’s logging includes “call data” from AT&T and Sprint as well as information from ISPs and credit card records. If you’ve been following this week’s disclosures about the NSA’s expansive spying…

Anonymous Just Leaked a Trove of NSA Documents

In the wake of last night’s revelation that everyone in the world has a creepy NSA-shaped stalker, defenders of online liberty and generally angry internet people Anonymous have leaked a treasure trove of NSA documents, including seriously important stuff like the US Department of Defense’s ‘Strategic Vision’ for controlling the internet. https://gizmodo.com/what-is-prism-511875267 The documents —…

How the NSA’s Logo Should Really Look

The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Hugh D’Andrade decided to give the NSA’s logo a makeover following recent events. How very, very accurate. [Hugh D’Andrade via Boing Boing] https://gizmodo.com/the-nsa-and-fbi-have-been-spying-on-our-internet-habits-511750202

How We Need to Legislate Drones

All but seven states have proposed or adopted legislation relating to the domestic use of drones, or unmanned aerial systems, in domestic airspace, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Now, at the invitation of the Aerospace States Association, EFF has rung in with the three crucial elements that all drone legislation must contain…