• Detecting “Deepfake” Videos by Checking for the Pulse

    With video editing software becoming increasingly sophisticated, it’s sometimes difficult to believe our own eyes. Did that actor really appear in that movie? Did that politician really say that offensive thing? Some so-called “deepfakes” are harmless fun, but others are made with a more sinister purpose. But how do we know when a video has been manipulated?

  • Improving Security, Usability of Zoom's End-to-End Encryption Protocol

    During the global coronavirus pandemic, many people have been working, teaching and learning from home and utilizing Zoom as a way to have face-to-face communication. Although this is a main resource for virtual human interaction, there are still concerns for back-end security issues and meeting hackings.

  • U.S. Puts Sanctions on Russian Research Institution Tied to Malware That Targets Industrial Systems

    The United States has placed sanctions on a Russian government research institute connected to the development of computer malware capable of targeting industrial safety systems and causing catastrophic damage.

  • Huge, Sophisticated Black Market for Trade in Online “Fingerprints”

    Security on the internet is a never-ending cat-and-mouse game. Security specialists constantly come up with new ways of protecting our treasured data, only for cyber criminals to devise new and crafty ways of undermining these defenses. A thriving black market for user profiles is used by criminals to circumvent authentication methods that secure our online secrets.

  • Predicting the Likelihood of Cyberattacks Between Nations

    Where in the world might the next cyberattack between nations take place? A new online database developed by a team computer scientists and international studies students predicts that there is an “extremely high likelihood” of a Russian cyberattack on Ukraine. The second most likely? The United States against Iran.

  • U.S. Says Russian Hackers Targeted State, Local Governments Ahead of Election

    Russian state-sponsored hackers have targeted dozens of U.S. state and local government networks in recent weeks and stolen data from at least two servers, the U.S. government says. In an advisory released on October 22, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) described a range of activity from Russian-backed hackers since at least September.

  • Finally: A Usable, Secure Password Policy Backed by Science

    After nearly a decade of studies, the passwords research group in Carnegie Mellon’s CyLab Security and Privacy Institute has developed a policy for creating passwords that maintains balance between security and usability—one backed by hard science.

  • Intelligence Agencies Accuse Iran, Russia of Trying to Use Voter Registration Data to Sow Chaos Ahead of US Election

    U.S. intelligence agencies are accusing Iran and Russia of trying to use voter registration data in “desperate attempts” to sow chaos and confusion ahead of the November 3 U.S. presidential election. In a hastily called news conference late Wednesday, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said that “We have confirmed that some voter registration information has been obtained by Iran, and separately, by Russia,” he said, adding both countries “have taken specific actions to influence public opinion relating to our elections.” 

  • Adversaries May Launch Efforts to Undermine Americans’ “Confidence in the Integrity of the Electoral Process”: CISA

    “We remain confident that no foreign cyber actor can change your vote, and we still believe that it would be incredibly difficult for them to change the outcome of an election at the national level. But that doesn’t mean various actors won’t try to introduce chaos in our elections and make sensational claims that overstate their capabilities. In fact, the days and weeks just before and after Election Day is the perfect time for our adversaries to launch efforts intended to undermine your confidence in the integrity of the electoral process”: Christopher Krebs, director of CISA.

  • Kathleen Hall Jamieson on the 2020 Election

    Professor Kathleen Hall Jamieson discusses what we learned from the election four years ago plus how journalists can responsibly share hacked content and what role the public at large can play. She says that in some ways, the country is better prepared today than during the 2016 election cycle, which was fraught with cybertrolls, hacked emails, and leaked content. In other ways, the United States hasn’t learned much from that experience.

  • Details of Russia’s Cyberattacks against Olympic, Paralympic Games Revealed

    The U.K. On Monday (19 October) exposed malicious cyberactivity from Russia’s GRU military intelligence service against organizations involved in the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games before they were postponed. The U.K. National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) said that the incident was intended to sabotage the running of the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, as the malware was designed to wipe data from and disable computers and networks.

  • Fooling Deepfake Detectors

    Because new security measures consistently catch many deepfake images and videos, people may be lulled into a false sense of security and believe we have the situation under control. Unfortunately, that might be further from the truth than we realize.

  • Protecting Device Software from Zero-Day Attacks with TrustMS

    An essential step to protecting mobile and embedded devices from cyberattacks is ensuring that software is not vulnerable to malicious attacks. More than 12,000 new common vulnerabilities were identified in 2019 alone. Verifying that devices are secure is a daunting challenge, as thousands of apps and driver updates are released each year and many will contain vulnerabilities that have not yet been discovered. Thanks to the newly-developed Trusted Mobile System (TrustMS), it is now possible to secure app software by preventing attackers from taking advantage of these vulnerabilities.

  • Beyond 9/11: U.S. Security Needs in the 21st Century

    The year 2020 has featured an array of safety and security concerns for ordinary Americans, including disease and natural disasters. How can the U.S. government best protect its citizens? That is the focus of a new scholarly book with practical aims, Beyond 9/11: Homeland Security for the Twenty-First Century, The volume features chapters written by 19 security experts, and closely examines the role of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which was created after the September 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S.

  • Finding the Origins of a Hacker

    Industrial control systems run utilities that provide the electricity to keep the lights on or that deliver the water that people expect to gush out when they turn on a tap. Today those systems can be attacked via malicious code that an adversary inserts into the normal operating instructions.