Security News

New Research: "Privacy Threats in Intimate Relationships"
2020-06-05 11:13

I just published a new paper with Karen Levy of Cornell: "Privacy Threats in Intimate Relationships." Abstract: This article provides an overview of intimate threats: a class of privacy threats that can arise within our families, romantic partnerships, close friendships, and caregiving relationships.

US Says China Trying to Steal COVID-19 Vaccine Research
2020-05-13 16:06

US authorities warned healthcare and scientific researchers Wednesday that Chinese-backed hackers were attempting to steal research and intellectual property related to treatments and vaccines for COVID-19. "We are leading the world in COVID-19 treatment and vaccine research. It is immoral to target China with rumors and slanders in the absence of any evidence," Zhao said.

Danger zone! Brit research supercomputer ARCHER's login nodes exploited in cyber-attack, admins reset passwords and SSH keys
2020-05-13 15:45

One of Britain's most powerful academic supercomputers has fallen victim to a "Security exploitation" of its login nodes, forcing the rewriting of all user passwords and SSH keys. Sysadmins warned ARCHER users that their SSH keys may have been compromised as a result of the apparent attack, advising them to "Change passwords and SSH keys on any other systems which you share your ARCHER credentials with".

Danger zone! Brit research supercomputer ARCHER hit with SSH-nixing cyber attack
2020-05-13 15:45

One of Britain's most powerful academic supercomputers has fallen victim to a "Security exploitation" of its login nodes, forcing the rewriting of all user passwords and SSH keys. Sysadmins warned ARCHER users that their SSH keys may have been compromised as a result of the apparent attack, advising them to "Change passwords and SSH keys on any other systems which you share your ARCHER credentials with".

US Says Chinese Hacking Vaccine Research: Reports
2020-05-11 15:16

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation and cybersecurity experts believe Chinese hackers are trying to steal research on developing a vaccine against coronavirus, two newspapers reported Monday. The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are planning to release a warning about the Chinese hacking as governments and private firms race to develop a vaccine for COVID-19, the Wall Street Journal and New York Times reported.

Surprise surprise! Hostile states are hacking coronavirus vaccine research, warn UK and USA intelligence
2020-05-05 19:01

Foreign state hackers are trying to brute-force their way into pharmaceutical and medical research agencies hunting for a COVID-19 vaccine, British and American infosec agencies are warning. The National Cyber Security Centre and America's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency cautioned of a "Password spraying" campaign targeting healthcare and medical research organisations.

UK COVID-19 contact-tracing app data may be kept for 'research' after crisis ends, MPs told
2020-05-04 16:16

Gould also told Parliament's Human Rights Committee that data harvested from Britons through NHSX's COVID-19 contact tracing app would be "Pseudonymised" - and appeared to leave the door open for that data to be sold on for "Research". Key to those is a big green button that the user presses to send 28 days' worth of contact data to the NHS. Written by tech arm NHSX, Britain's contact-tracing app breaks with international convention by opting for a centralised model of data collection: all the contact-tracing data is kept under one roof in one central government database.

Research shows malware is easy to buy, own, and deploy
2020-04-28 15:36

A new study from research organization CyberNews.com found that malware is becoming increasingly easy to buy and deploy, even for those without technical backgrounds. CyberNews researchers looked at 10 so-called DarkNet marketplaces and found that buying malware is easy and fast, with cheap or even free programs allowing people to own malware.

Cisco Research Shows High Success Rate in Bypassing Fingerprint Authentication
2020-04-08 13:38

Cisco has conducted a research project on bypassing fingerprint authentication systems and it achieved a success rate of roughly 80 percent, but the company's experts were unsuccessful against Windows devices. In the case of mobile phones, the researchers bypassed fingerprint authentication on a majority of devices.

Candid Wüest joins Acronis as Vice President of Cyber Protection Research
2020-03-30 22:30

Acronis, a global leader in cyber protection, announced the appointment of Candid Wüest as Vice President of Cyber Protection Research at Acronis. Wüest will lead accelerated research into the latest trends in the threat landscape and new protection methods designed to continuously enhance the world's most innovative cyber protection solutions.