Security News
Security researchers at the NCC Group have developed a tool to carry out a Bluetooth Low Energy relay attack that bypasses all existing protections to authenticate on target devices. BLE technology is used in a wide spectrum of products, from electronics like laptops, mobile phones, smart locks, and building access control systems to cars like Tesla Model 3 and Model Y. Pushing out fixes for this security problem is complicated, and even if the response is immediate and coordinated, it would still take a long time for the updates to trickle to impacted products.
Cybellum had the pleasure of interviewing David Colombo, the cyber boy wonder of Germany, and founder of Colombo Technologies for our podcast, Left to Our Own Devices. So how did David Colombo, at the tender age of 19, hack into ultra-high tech Tesla cars?
Delta Electronics, a Taiwanese electronics company and a provider for Apple, Tesla, HP, and Dell, disclosed that it was the victim of a cyberattack discovered on Friday morning. While Delta's statement did not say who was behind the attack, an undisclosed information security company found a Conti ransomware sample deployed on the company's network, as CTWANT first reported.
A new variant of the Agent Tesla malware has been spotted in an ongoing phishing campaign that relies on Microsoft PowerPoint documents laced with malicious macro code. Agent Tesla is a.Net-based info-stealer that has been circulating the internet for many years but remains a threat in the hands of phishing actors.
Some Tesla owners worldwide are unable to unlock or communicate with their cars using the app due to an outage of the company's servers. Starting around 4 PM EST, Tesla owners have taken to social media reporting that the Tesla app is returning a "500 server error" when attempting to communicate with the car.
"Attached herewith is the revised circular," the malicious email reads. "Since 50 percent of the malicious emails targeted South Korea, we can speculate that threat actors were closely monitoring local news about the vaccination campaign in the country and anticipated shipment of 14 million doses of coronavirus vaccine," the spokesperson said.
A Russian man was sentenced Monday to what amounted to time already served and will be deported after pleading guilty to trying to pay a Tesla employee $500,000 to install computer malware at the company's Nevada electric battery plant in a bid to steal company secrets for ransom. Egor Igorevich Kriuchkov, appearing by videoconference from jail, apologized after U.S. District Judge Miranda Du in Reno acknowledged the attempted hack was not successful and the company network was not compromised.
Security researchers Ralf-Philipp Weinmann of Kunnamon, Inc. and Benedikt Schmotzle of Comsecuris GmbH have found remote zero-click security vulnerabilities in an open-source software component used in Tesla automobiles that allowed them to compromise parked cars and control their infotainment systems over WiFi. It would be possible for an attacker to unlock the doors and trunk, change seat positions, both steering and acceleration modes - in short, pretty much what a driver pressing various buttons on the console can do.
Two researchers have shown how a Tesla - and possibly other cars - can be hacked remotely without any user interaction. The analysis was initially carried out for the Pwn2Own 2020 hacking competition - the contest offered a car and other significant prizes for hacking a Tesla - but the findings were later reported to Tesla through its bug bounty program after Pwn2Own organizers decided to temporarily eliminate the automotive category due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The U.S. Department of Justice yesterday announced updates on two separate cases involving cyberattacks-a Swiss hacktivist and a Russian hacker who planned to plant malware in the Tesla company. A Swiss hacker who was involved in the intrusion of cloud-based surveillance firm Verkada and exposed camera footage from its customers was charged by the U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday with conspiracy, wire fraud, and identity theft.