• Researchers use advanced algorithms to identify six botnets

    Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) cyber security researchers have discovered and traced approximately six “botnets” by analyzing data collected from past cyberattacks. Botnets are networks of malicious, remotely updatable code that covertly lurk on infected computers.

  • Navigations systems are vulnerable to hackers

    When it comes to route planning, drivers have almost blind faith in GPS. The technology plays an important role in identifying location and time in other areas, too. If hackers attack the system, they can cause great damage. Information security researches look to develop defensive measures.

  • Using unpredictability to defend computers from cyberattacks

    We want our computers to perform the way we expect. But what if the key to defeating malware is introducing a bit of chaos? Researchers think a bit of unpredictability could help outsmart malware. This is the logic behind Chameleon, the operating system they are developing. In Chameleon, which is still in the conceptual phase, unknown programs that could be malware run in a special “unpredictable” environment, where the OS intentionally introduces some unpredictability to the way they operate.

  • Intel unveils new security-on-a-chip system

    Intel on Tuesday unveiled a new password security-on-a-chip system called Intel Authenticate. The new security system aims to thwart hackers who use fake e-mails to trick employees into revealing sensitive information like user names and passwords. Intel said that putting the authentication process on a chip makes the PC itself part of the security system.

  • U Wyoming could become cybersecurity hub

    Wyoming Governor Matt Mead has requested state funding to develop a program at the University of Wyoming to become a center of excellence in cyber defense. According to the Wyoming Cybersecurity Education Initiative, proposed curriculum in the College of Engineering and Applied Science’s Department of Computer Science would educate students to defend against such attacks and “provide meaningful and sustainable impact to Wyoming’s technology sector through cybersecurity and information assurance higher-education programs.”

  • ISIS should be kicked off the open Web: Google official

    Jared Cohen, director at Google Ideas and an advisor to the heads of parent company Alphabet Google, said ISIS should be kicked off the open Web. He noted that the Islamist group is always going to be in a position to use some aspects of the Internet, such as anonymized browsing through Tor and the uncatalogued dark Web, but it should be chased away from the open Web.

  • Young women’s warning to other women: Don’t be fooled by ISIS

    A young woman who converted to Islam after being drawn to ISIS on social media has publicly warned other girls about how the jihadist group uses social media to reach vulnerable individuals such as herself. Her mother called the national hotline and the French police was able to intervene before the two women left for Syria. The young woman has since joined other youngest girls in France’s deradicalization program.

  • Mining social media improves disaster response efforts

    Leveraging publicly available social media posts could help disaster response agencies quickly identify impacted areas in need of assistance, according to a team of researchers. By analyzing the September 2013 Colorado floods, researchers showed that a combination of remote sensing, Twitter and Flickr data could be used to identify flooded areas.

  • SplashData releases annual “Worst Passwords” list -- “123456” maintains top spot

    SplashData has announced its annual list of the twenty-five most common passwords found on the Internet — thus making them the “Worst Passwords” that will expose anybody to being hacked or having their identities stolen. The 2014 list of worst passwords demonstrates the importance of keeping names, simple numeric patterns, sports, and swear words out of your passwords. In this year’s report – the company’s fourth annual report — compiled from more than 3.3 million leaked passwords during the year, “123456”and “password” continue to hold the top two spots that they have held each year since the first list in 2011. Other passwords in the top 10 include “qwerty,” “dragon,” and “football.”

  • Cyberattack on Ukraine grid: here’s how it worked and perhaps why it was done

    On 23 December 2015, two days before Christmas, the power grid in the Ivano-Frankivsk region of Ukraine went down for a reported six hours, leaving about half the homes in the region with a population of 1.4 million without power. Because of its success, the incident has sent shock waves through cybersecurity circles. Could this happen in the West? In short, yes. This incident underscores the need for diligence and the increased effort in cybersecurity that we are seeing in the government and private sectors. The continuously increasing dependence on the power grid is driving the need for cybersecurity to be part of the design of all new systems.

  • Cloud security reaches silicon

    In the last ten years, computer security researchers have shown that malicious hackers don’t need to see your data in order to steal your data. From the pattern in which your computer accesses its memory banks, adversaries can infer a shocking amount about what’s stored there. The risk of such attacks is particularly acute in the cloud, where you have no control over whose applications are sharing server space with yours. An antagonist could load up multiple cloud servers with small programs that do nothing but spy on other people’s data. System for defending against memory-access attacks is being implemented in chips.

  • Optical illusions which fool computer vision raise security concerns

    Computers are learning to recognize objects with near-human ability. But researchers have found that computers, like humans, can be fooled by optical illusions, which raises security concerns and opens new avenues for research in computer vision

  • Family of ISIS victim sues Twitter for enabling terrorism

    The family of Lloyd “Carl” Fields Jr., who was killed last year in an attack in Amman, the capital of Jordan in an ISIS shooting, is suing Twitter, claiming the network has not done enough about the spread of the group’s deadly reach. The complaint claims that the shooting might never have happened had Twitter not existed.

  • Teenage hacker breaks into personal e-mail of James Clapper, director of national intelligence

    A teenage hacker who, in October, broke into the personal e-mail account of John Brennan, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, has now broken into the personal accounts of James Clapper, director of national intelligence. The high school student he managed to fool Verizon into giving him access to Brennan’s account.

  • U.S. assisting Ukraine investigate 23 December cyberattack on power grid

    The United States is helping Ukraine investigate last month’s cyberattack last month which disrupted the country’s power grid and left some 80,000 customers without power. Experts say that the 23 December attack against western Ukraine’s Prykarpattyaoblenergo utility was the first known power outage caused by a cyberattack.