security – Page 153

Even the Dumbest Ransomware Is Almost Unremovable On Smart TVs

An anonymous reader writes: Apparently even the easiest-to-remove ransomware is painfully hard to uninstall from smart TVs, if they’re running on the Android TV platform, and many are. This didn’t happen in a real-world scenario (yet), and was only a PoC test by Symantec. The researcher managed to remove the ransomware only because he enabled the Android ADB tool beforehand, knowing he would infect the TV with the ransomware. “Without this option enabled, and if I was less experienced user, I’d probably still be locked out of my smart TV, making it a large and expensive paper weight, ” said the researcher. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Even the Dumbest Ransomware Is Almost Unremovable On Smart TVs

FBI Links a Single Hacker to the Theft of 1.2 Billion Stolen Log-Ins

The FBI has managed to link the theft of a frankly staggering 1.2 billion log-in credentials to a single hacker, after finding a Russian email address within reams of data obtained by security researchers. Read more…

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FBI Links a Single Hacker to the Theft of 1.2 Billion Stolen Log-Ins

Why "Secure Empty Trash" Is Gone in El Capitan (and What To Do Instead)

If you’ve been using OS X El Capitan for a while, you might have noticed that the old option to “Secure Empty Trash” is gone from the trash can’s right-click menu. There’s a pretty good reason why, but it’s still possible to do it you don’t mind digging into the command line. Read more…

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Why "Secure Empty Trash" Is Gone in El Capitan (and What To Do Instead)

600,000 Arris Cable Modems Have ‘Backdoors In Backdoors,’ Researcher Claims

An anonymous reader writes: A security researcher using Shodan to probe Arris cable modems for vulnerabilities has found that 600, 000 of the company’s modems not only have a backdoor, but that the backdoor itself has an extra backdoor. Brazilian vulnerability tester Bernardo Rodrigues posted that he found undocumented libraries in three models, initially leading to a backdoor that uses an admin password disclosed back in 2009. Brazilian researcher Bernardo Rodrigues notes that the secondary backdoor has a password derived in part from the final five digits from the modem’s serial number. However, the default ‘root’ password for the affected models remains ‘arris.’ Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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600,000 Arris Cable Modems Have ‘Backdoors In Backdoors,’ Researcher Claims

MetroPCS site flaw exposed the data of 10 million subscribers

It’s not just hacks that put your personal data out in the open — sometimes, it’s just poor coding. Security researchers Eric Taylor and Blake Welsh have shown Motherboard a MetroPCS website bug that, until it was fixed this month, made it easy to get sensitive info for over 10 million subscribers. All you needed was a phone number to get a person’s home address, phone serial number and more. And if you weren’t picky, you could have whipped up a script to harvest all of the data within two days. Source: Motherboard

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MetroPCS site flaw exposed the data of 10 million subscribers

Faulty Security Certificates Are Screwing Up Some Mac App Store Updates

If your Mac’s app updates are acting a little weird, you’re not alone. A security management slip-up means that some software updates might actually require a delete and reinstall to work properly. Read more…

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Faulty Security Certificates Are Screwing Up Some Mac App Store Updates

New Android exploit can hack any handset in one shot

Hackers have discovered a critical exploit in Chrome for Android reportedly capable of compromising virtually every version of Android running the latest Chrome. Quihoo 360 researcher Guang Gong demonstrated the vulnerability to the PSN2OWN panel at the PacSec conference in Tokyo yesterday. While the inner workings of the exploit are still largely under wraps, we do know that it leverages JavaScript v8 to gain full administrative access to the victim’s phone. Source: The Register

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New Android exploit can hack any handset in one shot

Proof-of-Concept Ransomware Affects Macs

sarahnaomi writes: Ransomware, the devilish family of malware that locks down a victim’s files until he or she coughs up a hefty bounty, may soon be coming to Mac. Last week, a Brazilian security researcher produced a proof-of-concept for what appears to be the first ransomware to target Mac operating systems (Mac OS X). On Monday, cybersecurity company Symantec verified the researcher’s findings. “Mabouia is the first case of file-based crypto ransomware for OS X, albeit a proof-of-concept, ” Symantec wrote in a blog post. “It’s simple code, I did it in two days, ” [said] the creator of the malware. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Proof-of-Concept Ransomware Affects Macs

Comcast Resets Nearly 200,000 Passwords After Customer List Goes On Sale

itwbennett writes: Over the weekend a Dark Web marketplace had 590, 000 Comcast email addresses and passwords for sale, offering the entire list for $1, 000, writes CSO’s Steve Ragan. Saturday evening Ragan contacted Comcast about the accounts being sold online and learned that Comcast had ‘already obtained a copy of the list’ and was checking it against their customer base. ‘Of the 590, 000 records being sold, only about 200, 000 of them were active, ‘ Comcast said. Still unknown is the source of the data being sold online, although signs point to it being recycled. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Comcast Resets Nearly 200,000 Passwords After Customer List Goes On Sale

Badly-Coded Ransomware Locks User Files and Throws Away Encryption Key

An anonymous reader writes: A new ransomware family was not tested by its developer and is encrypting user files and then throwing away the encryption key because of an error in its programming. The ransomware author wanted to cut down costs by using a static encryption key for all users, but the ransomware kept generating random keys which it did not store anywhere. The only way to recover files is if users had a previous backup. You can detect it by the ransom message which has the same ID:qDgx5Bs8H Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Ken May

Tag: security