Better watch where those fingers fall on the keyboard next time you type out a URL. Security researchers have discovered a new trend they’re calling typosquatting, where browsers are attacked after they mis-type web addresses. Read more…
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New Typosquatting OS X Malware Attacks You When Mistyping COM as OM
An anonymous reader writes: A group of former Skype technologists, backed by the co-founder of the messaging platform, has introduced a new version of its own messaging service that promises end-to-end encryption for all conversations, including by video. Wire, a 50-person start-up mostly made up of engineers, is stepping into a global political debate over encryption that pits privacy against security advocates, epitomized by the standoff between the U.S. government and Apple. Wire, which is headquartered in Switzerland and Germany, two of the most privacy-friendly countries in the world, relays communications through its network of cloud computers where user communications are stored, in encrypted form, on their own devices. It delivers privacy protections that are always on, even when callers use multiple devices, such as a phone or desktop PC simultaneously. For voice and video calls, Wire uses the same DTLS and SRTP encryption standards found in the peer-to-peer WebRTC protocol. Rivals such as Facebook’s Messenger and WhatsApp or Telegram offer encryption on only parts of a message’s journey or for a specific set of services, the company said. “Everything is end-to-end encrypted: That means voice and video calls, texts, pictures, graphics — all the content you can send, ” Wire Executive Chairman Janus Friis told Reuters. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Skype Co-Founder Launches End-To-End Encrypted ‘Wire’ App
While ransomware has sadly been a reality on smartphones and Windows PCs for a while, you haven’t really had to worry about it on a Mac… until now, that is. Palo Alto Networks claims to have discovered the first known instance of OS X-oriented ransomware in the wild, “KeRanger.” If you install software infected with the code (in this case, a version of the BitTorrent client Transmission ), it’ll encrypt your files after three days and demand that you pay a digital currency ransom to regain control. In practice, you’re likely already safe from KeRanger. Transmission has released a new version of its app that should be safe, and Apple has revoked a security certificate from another developer that KeRanger used to slip past OS X’s native defenses. Even so, this is a not-so-friendly reminder that malware of all stripes can potentially infect any given platform — you can’t assume that your operating system’s inherent security features (or simply avoiding the most targeted platform) will keep you safe. Source: Reuters
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First known Mac ransomware reaches the wild
itwbennett writes: Cerber, a new file-encrypting ransom ware, has a couple of interesting features. First, according to cyber intelligence outfit SenseCy, it is available for sale ‘as a service’ on a private Russian-language forum, which makes it ‘available to low-level criminals who might not have the coding skills or resources to create their own ransom ware, ‘ writes Lucian Constantin. Second, one of the 3 files it drops on a victim’s desktop is a VBS (Visual Basic Scripting) file containing text-to-speech code that converts text into an audio message. ‘When the above script is executed, your computer will speak a message stating that your computer’s files were encrypted and will repeat itself numerous times, ‘ said Lawrence Abrams, administrator of the technical support forum BleepingComputer.com, in a blog post. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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New Ransomware-as-a-Service Speaks To Victims
When Nintendo announced it was granting Universal Studios the rights to some of its properties for theme park rides, it was anyone’s guess where they’d show up first. Now we know that they’ll debut in the gaming juggernaut’s back yard: Japan. Regional news outlet Sankei (Japanese) reports that the attraction is scheduled for completion by 2020, the year Tokyo is slated to host the Olympics. And lest you think this will be a simple statue of Princess Peach and a Mario Kart -themed go-kart track, the publication says this should be on par with the likes of Universal’s Harry Potter -themed zone but focused entirely on everyone’s favorite Italian plumber. Hell, it could even be called “Super Mario World.” Crazier things have happened! Need more evidence for how serious of a deal this is? Universal is putting up ¥40 billion ($351, 509, 200) — given Nintendo’s current financial woes , the company is probably happy someone else is footing the bill. For that amount, maybe we’ll see a full scale version of the entire Mushroom Kingdom in a few years. 4) Busy start of 2016 for Nintendo. See the picture below for details (from Sankei: https://t.co/NRejTXGL6Q ) // end pic.twitter.com/EMHunhgYFa — Dr. Serkan Toto (@serkantoto) March 5, 2016 Via: Dr. Serkan Toto (Twitter) Source: Sankei (Japanese)
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$350 million Nintendo land coming to Universal Japan’s park
Two sudden leaps in the number of advertised “hidden services” on Tor have led to rampant speculation about the cause of them. (credit: The Tor Project ) In recent weeks, the number of “hidden services”—usually Web servers and other Internet services accessible by a “.onion” address on the Tor anonymizing network—has risen dramatically. After experiencing an earlier spike in February, the number of hidden services tracked by Tor spiked to 114,000 onion addresses on March 1. They then dropped just as quickly, falling to just below 70,000 hidden services seen by Tor on Thursday—still twice the number that Tor had held steady at for most of 2015. “We don’t know what’s causing this,” said Kate Krauss, the director of communications and public policy for the Tor Project. “But it’s not difficult for even one person—a researcher, for instance—to create a lot of new onion addresses—which is not the same as actual websites or services. In fact, we want the process of creating onion addresses to be as easy as possible to encourage the creation of more onion services. These spikes are typically temporary—and as you see from the chart, this one is already going away.” Still, there has never been this sort of wild gyration in their number in recent times—or at least as far back as the Tor Project has kept metric data. So what caused the sudden near-tripling of the size of Tor’s hidden Web and its rapid contraction? Based on a deeper look at Tor’s metrics and discussions with both Tor developers and security experts, the huge spike in the “size” of the hidden Web within Tor was likely caused by a perfect storm of coincidences: major Internet censorship events in at least two countries, the relatively rapid adoption of a new messaging tool, a malware explosion, and ongoing attempts to undermine the privacy of the network. Read 14 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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Whole lotta onions: Number of Tor hidden sites spikes—along with paranoia
On the eve of a Congressional hearing about the Department of Justice’s fight with Apple over a locked iPhone, a Brooklyn judge has ruled that the DOJ cannot force Apple to assist in unlocking an iPhone in a separate New York drug case . Read more…
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New York Judge Rules US Can’t Force Apple to Help Unlock an iPhone
John McAfee, American computer programmer and contributing editor of Business Insider, explains how the NSA’s back door has given every U.S. secret to its enemies. He begins by mentioning the importance of software, specifically meta- software, which contains a high level set of principles designed to help a nation survive in a cyberwar. Such software must not contain any back doors under any circumstances, otherwise it can and may very likely allow perceived enemies of the U.S. to have access to top-secret information. For example, the Chinese used the NSA’s back door to hack the Defense Department last year and steal 5.6 million fingerprints of critical personnel. “Whatever gains the NSA has made through the use of their back door, it cannot possibly counterbalance the harm done to our nation by everyone else’s use of that same back door.” McAfee believes the U.S. has failed to grasp the subtle implications of technology and, as a result, is 20 years behind the Chinese, and by association, the Russians as well. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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John McAfee: NSA’s Back Door Has Given Every US Secret To Enemies
Supercomputers are absurdly impressive in terms of raw power , but it comes at a price: size and energy consumption. A multi-university team of researchers might’ve sidestepped that, though, with protein-powered biocomputers . Lund University notes that where this should really be helpful is with cryptography and “mathematical optimization” because with each task it’s necessary to test multiple solution sets. Unlike a traditional computer, biocomputers don’t work in sequence, they operate in parallel — leading to much faster problem solving. The biocomputer in action, with proteins finding their way to the solution set at the bottom. Oh and about that energy efficiency? Lund’s Heiner Linke says that they require less than one percent of the power a traditional transistor does to do one calculation step. The CBC reports that the model biocomputer used in the experiment is only about the size of a book, rather than, say, IBM’s Watson (pictured above) that’s comprised of some 90 server modules. The ATP-powered biocomputer is admittedly limited for now (it’s only solved 2, 5, 9), but the scientists involved say that scalability is possible and we might not be far off from seeing the tech perform more complex tasks. “Our approach has the potential to be general and to be developed further to enable the efficient encoding and solving of a wide range of large-scale problems, ” the research paper says. Via: The CBC Source: PNAS , Lund University
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Scientists built a book-sized, protein-powered biocomputer
The 4K wildflife documentary Netflix promised us isn’t slated to debut until 2019, but you won’t have to wait that long to see vivid images of nature on TV. BBC’s gearing up for the release of Planet Earth II , its six-part follow-up to the original Planet Earth series shown in 2006, later this year. Just like the original series, the six, one-hour episodes will explore jungles (both real ones and concrete), deserts, grasslands “and the extraordinary ways animals survive within them.” This time, though, BBC captured the planet’s habitats on cam entirely in 4K. Planet Earth II’s executive producer Mike Gunton says “It will be a truly immersive experience, providing audiences with a unique perspective on the most extraordinary places and animals on our planet.” As icing on the cake, Sir David Attenborough (who provided the first series’ voice-over) is coming back to narrate how animals live in the wild. Source: BBC , Variety
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BBC captures nature in 4K for ‘Planet Earth II’