Security news

Security

Each year, landmines kill residents of war-torn countries. This innovative tool could save lives

As he grew up in Bogotá, Colombia, Mateo Dulce Rubio would hear a familiar news story every few days—someone had stepped on another landmine. The explosion had killed or injured them. Though the capital city was far from ...

Security

US seizes internet domains allegedly used by Russian hackers

The United States announced the seizure on Thursday of 41 internet domains allegedly used by Russian intelligence agents to try to gain access to the computers and email accounts of Pentagon, State Department and other US ...

Business

California enacts law to protect brain data

A new California law extends consumer privacy protection to brainwave data gathered by implants or wearable devices.

Security

Police are probing apparent cyber vandalism on Wi-Fi networks at UK train stations

U.K. transport officials and police said Thursday they are investigating a "cyber-security incident" after users of public Wi-Fi networks at the country's biggest railway stations reported being shown anti-Muslim messages.

Security

AI model beats CAPTCHA every time

A trio of AI researchers at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, has modified an AI-based, picture-processing model to solve Google's reCAPTCHAv2 human-testing system.

Security

Encrypted 'Ghost' app: What we know

Police revealed Tuesday they had infiltrated and taken down an encrypted chat app called Ghost used by criminals across the world.

Security

'Good complexity' can make hospital networks more cybersecure

In May, a major cyberattack disabled clinical operations for nearly a month at Ascension, a health care provider that includes 140 hospitals across the U.S. Investigators tracked the problem to malicious ransomware that had ...

Security

New tools use AI 'fingerprints' to detect altered photos, videos

As artificial intelligence networks become more skilled and easier to access, digitally manipulated "deepfake" photos and videos are increasingly difficult to detect. New research led by Binghamton University, State University ...

Security

ECB uncovers data breach in bank newsletter

Hackers had access for months to the contact information of hundreds of financial industry subscribers to a European Central Bank newsletter, the Frankfurt institution said Thursday.

Security

App allows inspectors to find gas pump skimmers faster

A team of computer scientists at UC San Diego and the University of Illinois has developed an app that allows state and federal inspectors to detect devices that steal consumer credit and debit card data at gas pumps. The ...

Security

UN probing 35 North Korean cyberattacks in 17 countries

U.N. experts say they are investigating at least 35 instances in 17 countries of North Koreans using cyberattacks to illegally raise money for weapons of mass destruction programs—and they are calling for sanctions against ...

Security

Smartphone apps may connect to vulnerable backend cloud servers

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered vulnerabilities in the backend systems that feed content and advertising to smartphone applications through a network of cloud-based servers that most users probably don't even know ...

Security

Phishing tricksters nab the warm fuzzies, smiles

Phishing is the most common form of cyberattack and still growing. Yet, in a survey of Internet users, it was found that 45 percent of those surveyed did not understand what phishing was or the risk associated with it.

Security

Tape, glasses allow researchers to bypass Face ID

In September 2018, a tech watcher was admirably candid: If you are a normal person, Apple FaceID is basically safe, she said. But then this tech watcher, Rachel Kraus, wrote in Mashable that "as I sized up the arguments for ...

Security

Security sleuths eye attack devices planted in packages

How is this for irony. Everyone talks about security exploits getting more sophisticated. Yet an up and coming threat to the digital world, aka the hair-pulling mischief universe, could not be more elementary: hiding, in ...

Expert: Many Wisconsin elections clerks use outdated systems

Hundreds of local clerks are using outdated computer systems and aren't installing security patches on their current systems, leaving Wisconsin's election system vulnerable to potentially devastating cyberattacks, state elections ...

Security

Microsoft patch eases jitters over SWAPGS vulnerability

Plain and simple, it began as worrying security news. Bitdefender researchers identified and demonstrated a new side-channel attack. The flaw could allow attackers to access sensitive data stored in the kernel, said Phil ...

Security

Wearable pet devices are putting human privacy at risk

The billion-dollar pet industry now has a growing market dedicated to wearable devices but new research from the University of Bristol has found these devices capture more data on the owners rather than their pets.

Security

Hackers get stuck in an evolving honeypot

Malware, malicious software, is on the rise, whether in the form of Trojans, worms, and viruses, bot-net systems, denial of service tools, and hacking programs. Antivirus, firewall, and intrusion detection systems are all ...

Security

Vital infrastructures in the Netherlands vulnerable to hackers

Don't treat vital infrastructures in the same way one would protect a shop network, for instance, but bind them to a secure circuit that hackers cannot breach. This is one of the central recommendations in a comprehensive ...