• More than 1 million Google accounts breached by Gooligan malware campaign

    Check Point Research Team says that on Tuesday, hard work done by the company’s security research teams revealed a new and alarming malware campaign. The attack campaign, named Gooligan, breached the security of over one million Google accounts. The number continues to rise at an additional 13,000 breached devices each day. The company’s research exposes how the malware roots infected devices and steals authentication tokens that can be used to access data from Google Play, Gmail, Google Photos, Google Docs, G Suite, Google Drive, and more.

  • Russian gov. hackers may disrupt Germany’s 2017 elections: Germany’s intel chief

    The Russian government’s broad hacking campaign to undermine Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid and help Donald Trump become the U.S. next president may well be the template Russia is following in the run-up to next year’s German general election. Russia has actively – both overtly and covertly — supported right-wing, ethno-nationalist, populist, and proto-Fascist parties like Front National in France, Golden Dawn in Greece, Ataka in Bulgaria, and Jobbik in Hungary. These parties share not only anti-immigrant policies – but they are also fiercely anti-EU and want to distance their countries from NATO. One of the major themes in the public rallies – and political platform – of the German far-right, anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant Pegida movement is that the influence of President Vladimir Putin’s Russia in Germany would be a welcome alternative to the imperial designs of the United States and Brussels.

  • Restoring power to a grid facing a cyberattack

    Currently, utility companies in North America have procedures and capacity to handle localized power outages caused by events such as extreme weather and high usage on hot days. However, there are not any tools available to resolve the type of widespread outages that can be caused using malware. Researchers from SRI International are leading a collaborative team to develop cutting-edge technology that can be used by utilities and cyber first responders to restore power to an electric grid that has come under a cyberattack.

  • Check Point identified a new, image-based method for malware dissemination

    Check Point researchers identified a new attack vector, named ImageGate, which embeds malware in image and graphic files. Furthermore, the researchers have discovered the hackers’ method of executing the malicious code within these images through social media applications such as Facebook and LinkedIn.

  • Continuously scrambling code to limit chances of hacking success

    As long as humans are writing software, there will be coding mistakes for malicious hackers to exploit. A single bug can open the door to attackers deleting files, copying credit card numbers or carrying out political mischief. A new program called Shuffler tries to preempt such attacks by allowing programs to continuously scramble their code as they run, effectively closing the window of opportunity for an attack.

  • Malware covertly turns PCs into eavesdropping devices

    Researchers have demonstrated malware that can turn computers into perpetual eavesdropping devices, even without a microphone. Using SPEAKE(a)R, malware that can covertly transform headphones into a pair of microphones, the researchers show how commonly used technology can be exploited.

  • Protecting your laptop -- even when it is asleep

    In the age of WikiLeaks, Russian hacks and increased government surveillance, many computer users are feeling increasingly worried about how best to protect their personal information — even if they aren’t guarding state secrets. Luckily, there is a solution: Hypnoguard, powerful new software developed by Concordia researchers to safeguard data even when computer is in sleep mode.

  • Army issues “Hack the Army” challenge

    Army Secretary Eric Fanning announced plans to launch the federal government’s most ambitious “bug bounty” challenge, known as “Hack the Army.” Building off the Army’s previous “Hack the Pentagon” program earlier this year and similar initiatives advanced by private sector companies, the Army will offer cash rewards to hackers who find vulnerabilities in select, public-facing Army Web sites. unlike the Hack the Pentagon program, which offered hackers static Web sites that were not operationally significant as targets, Hack the Army will offer dynamic exchanges of personal identifiable information, sites considered critical to the Army’s recruiting mission.

  • Cybersecurity policy ideas for a new administration

    A new report, Cybersecurity Policy Ideas for a New Presidency, published by the UC Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity (CLTC), aims to help the Trump administration prepare to tackle the complex challenge of cybersecurity. “This brief brochure reviews ideas we hope the incoming Trump administration will consider as it develops a new cybersecurity agenda,” the authors write. “We lay out options and programs — some simple, some less so — that the president should consider at each step in his first term.”

  • Nation-state made “conscious effort to influence U.S. election” by leaking Clinton's e-mails: NSA chief

    Hillary Clinton’s e-mails were leaked to WikiLeaks in a “conscious effort” by a nation state to influence the U.S. election, the director of the National Security Agency (NSA) has said. Admiral Michael Rogers, who also commander of the US Cyber Command, told a Wall Street Journal conference: “There should be no doubt in anybody’s mind, this was not something that was done casually, this was not something that was done by chance, this was not a target that was selected purely arbitrarily. This was a conscious effort by a nation state to attempt to achieve a specific effect.”

  • DHS releases Strategic Principles for Securing the Internet of Things

    DHS the other day issued a set of Strategic Principles for Securing the Internet of Things (IoT), Version 1.0. These principles highlight approaches and suggested practices to fortify the security of the IoT. They aim to equip stakeholders to make responsible and risk-based security decisions as they design, manufacture, and use internet-connected devices and systems.

  • Germany launches broad cybersecurity strategy

    The German government on Wednesday adopted a new cybersecurity strategy to counter a rising number of threats targeting government institutions, critical infrastructure, businesses, and citizens. The new strategy was adopted in response to a dramatic increase in sophisticated cyberattacks originating in Russia and China. Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday, and Interior Minister Thomas de Maziere on Wednesday, warned that Russia would be using hacking and disinformation campaign in an effort to influence next year’s election in Germany.

  • Using hardware to fight computer viruses

    More than 317 million pieces of new malware — computer viruses, spyware, and other malicious programs — were created in 2014 alone, according to work done by Internet security teams at Symantec and Verizon. Malware is growing in complexity, with crimes such as digital extortion (a hacker steals files or locks a computer and demands a ransom for decryption keys) becoming large avenues of cyberattack. Fighting computer viruses is not just for software anymore, as researchers study how hardware can help protect computers too.

  • Germany worries about Russian cyberattacks influencing German election

    Chancellor Angela Merkel has said Russia could launch a cyberattack campaign in an effort to influence Germany’s general elections next year. “We are already, even now, having to deal with information out of Russia or with Internet attacks that are of Russian origin or with news which sows false information,” the German chancellor said. Hans-George Maassen, the director of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, issued a formal warning earlier this year, saying that that the German government, business, educational facilities, and critical infrastructure were under “permanent threat” from Russian cyberattacks.

  • Vanderbilt hosts student-teams hackathon this weekend

    More than 350 students from Vanderbilt University and Southern and Midwest schools such as Purdue, Georgia Tech, and the University of Illinois will work around the clock during VandyHacks, a hackathon, or invention marathon, beginning Friday evening 11 November and ending Sunday, 13 November.