New reporting from Wired reveals that the Department of Justice detected the SolarWinds attack six months before Mandient detected it in December 2020, but didn’t realize what they detected—and so ignored it. WIRED can now confirm that the operation was…
Tag: Schneier on Security
NIST Draft Document on Post-Quantum Cryptography Guidance
NIST has release a draft of Special Publication1800-38A: Migration to Post-Quantum Cryptography: Preparation for Considering the Implementation and Adoption of Quantum Safe Cryptography.” It’s only four pages long, and it doesn’t have a lot of detail—more “volumes” are coming, with…
Security Risks of AI
Stanford and Georgetown have a new report on the security risks of AI—particularly adversarial machine learning—based on a workshop they held on the topic. Jim Dempsey, one of the workshop organizers, wrote a blog post on the report: As a…
AI to Aid Democracy
There’s good reason to fear that AI systems like ChatGPT and GPT4 will harm democracy. Public debate may be overwhelmed by industrial quantities of autogenerated argument. People might fall down political rabbit holes, taken in by superficially convincing bullshit, or…
Cyberweapons Manufacturer QuaDream Shuts Down
Following a report on its activities, the Israeli spyware company QuaDream has shut down. This was QuadDream: Key Findings Based on an analysis of samples shared with us by Microsoft Threat Intelligence, we developed indicators that enabled us to identify…
UK Threatens End-to-End Encryption
In an open letter, seven secure messaging apps—including Signal and WhatsApp—point out that the UK’s Online Safety Bill could destroy end-to-end encryption: As currently drafted, the Bill could break end-to-end encryption,opening the door to routine, general and indiscriminate surveillance of…
Friday Squid Blogging: More on Squid Fishing
The squid you eat most likely comes from unregulated waters. As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered. Read my blog posting guidelines here. This article…
Hacking Pickleball
My latest book, A Hacker’s Mind, has a lot of sports stories. Sports are filled with hacks, as players look for every possible advantage that doesn’t explicitly break the rules. Here’s an example from pickleball, which nicely explains the dilemma…
Using the iPhone Recovery Key to Lock Owners Out of Their iPhones
This a good example of a security feature that can sometimes harm security: Apple introduced the optional recovery key in 2020 to protect users from online hackers. Users who turn on the recovery key, a unique 28-digit code, must provide…
New Zero-Click Exploits Against iOS
CitizenLab has identified three zero-click exploits against iOS 15 and 16. These were used by NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware in 2022, and deployed by Mexico against human rights defenders. These vulnerabilities have all been patched. One interesting bit is that…
EFF on the UN Cybercrime Treaty
EFF has a good explainer on the problems with the new UN Cybercrime Treaty, currently being negotiated in Vienna. The draft treaty has the potential to rewrite criminal laws around the world, possibly adding over 30 criminal offenses and new…
Using LLMs to Create Bioweapons
I’m not sure there are good ways to build guardrails to prevent this sort of thing: There is growing concern regarding the potential misuse of molecular machine learning models for harmful purposes. Specifically, the dual-use application of models for predicting…
Swatting as a Service
Motherboard is reporting on AI-generated voices being used for “swatting”: In fact, Motherboard has found, this synthesized call and another against Hempstead High School were just one small part of a months-long, nationwide campaign of dozens, and potentially hundreds, of…
Upcoming Speaking Engagements
This is a current list of where and when I am scheduled to speak: I’m speaking on “Cybersecurity Thinking to Reinvent Democracy” at RSA Conference 2023 in San Francisco, California, on Tuesday, April 25, 2023, at 9:40 AM PT. I’m…
Hacking Suicide
Here’s a religious hack: You want to commit suicide, but it’s a mortal sin: your soul goes straight to hell, forever. So what you do is murder someone. That will get you executed, but if you confess your sins to…
Gaining an Advantage in Roulette
You can beat the game without a computer: On a perfect [roulette] wheel, the ball would always fall in a random way. But over time, wheels develop flaws, which turn into patterns. A wheel that’s even marginally tilted could develop…
Bypassing a Theft Threat Model
Thieves cut through the wall of a coffee shop to get to an Apple store, bypassing the alarms in the process. I wrote about this kind of thing in 2000, in Secrets and Lies (page 318): My favorite example is…
FBI Advising People to Avoid Public Charging Stations
The FBI is warning people against using public phone-charging stations, worrying that the combination power-data port can be used to inject malware onto the devices: Avoid using free charging stations in airports, hotels, or shopping centers. Bad actors have figured…
Car Thieves Hacking the CAN Bus
Car thieves are injecting malicious software into a car’s network through wires in the headlights (or taillights) that fool the car into believing that the electronic key is nearby. News articles. This article has been indexed from Schneier on Security…
Research on AI in Adversarial Settings
New research: “Achilles Heels for AGI/ASI via Decision Theoretic Adversaries“: As progress in AI continues to advance, it is important to know how advanced systems will make choices and in what ways they may fail. Machines can already outsmart humans…
FBI (and Others) Shut Down Genesis Market
Genesis Market is shut down: Active since 2018, Genesis Market’s slogan was, “Our store sells bots with logs, cookies, and their real fingerprints.” Customers could search for infected systems with a variety of options, including by Internet address or by…
North Korea Hacking Cryptocurrency Sites with 3CX Exploit
News: Researchers at Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky today revealed that they identified a small number of cryptocurrency-focused firms as at least some of the victims of the 3CX software supply-chain attack that’s unfolded over the past week. Kaspersky declined to…
UK Runs Fake DDoS-for-Hire Sites
Brian Krebs is reporting that the UK’s National Crime Agency is setting up fake DDoS-for-hire sites as part of a sting operation: The NCA says all of its fake so-called “booter” or “stresser” sites - which have so far been…
Russian Cyberwarfare Documents Leaked
Now this is interesting: Thousands of pages of secret documents reveal how Vulkan’s engineers have worked for Russian military and intelligence agencies to support hacking operations, train operatives before attacks on national infrastructure, spread disinformation and control sections of the…
The Security Vulnerabilities of Message Interoperability
Jenny Blessing and Ross Anderson have evaluated the security of systems designed to allow the various Internet messaging platforms to interoperate with each other: The Digital Markets Act ruled that users on different platforms should be able to exchange messages…
Security Vulnerabilities in Snipping Tools
Both Google’s Pixel’s Markup Tool and the Windows Snipping Tool have vulnerabilities that allow people to partially recover content that was edited out of images. This article has been indexed from Schneier on Security Read the original article: Security Vulnerabilities…
Hacks at Pwn2Own Vancouver 2023
An impressive array of hacks were demonstrated at the first day of the Pwn2Own conference in Vancouver: On the first day of Pwn2Own Vancouver 2023, security researchers successfully demoed Tesla Model 3, Windows 11, and macOS zero-day exploits and exploit…
Friday Squid Blogging: Creating Batteries Out of Squid Cells
This is fascinating: “When a squid ends up chipping what’s called its ring tooth, which is the nail underneath its tentacle, it needs to regrow that tooth very rapidly, otherwise it can’t claw its prey,” he explains. This was intriguing…
Exploding USB Sticks
In case you don’t have enough to worry about, people are hiding explosives—actual ones—in USB sticks: In the port city of Guayaquil, journalist Lenin Artieda of the Ecuavisa private TV station received an envelope containing a pen drive which exploded…
Mass Ransomware Attack
A vulnerability in a popular data transfer tool has resulted in a mass ransomware attack: TechCrunch has learned of dozens of organizations that used the affected GoAnywhere file transfer software at the time of the ransomware attack, suggesting more victims…
ChatGPT Privacy Flaw
OpenAI has disabled ChatGPT’s privacy history, almost certainly because they had a security flaw where users were seeing each others’ histories. This article has been indexed from Schneier on Security Read the original article: ChatGPT Privacy Flaw
US Citizen Hacked by Spyware
The New York Times is reporting that a US citizen’s phone was hacked by the Predator spyware. A U.S. and Greek national who worked on Meta’s security and trust team while based in Greece was placed under a yearlong wiretap…
Friday Squid Blogging: New Species of Vampire Squid Lives 3,000 Feet below Sea Level
At least, it seems to be a new species. As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered. Read my blog posting guidelines here. This article has…
Upcoming Speaking Engagements
This is a current list of where and when I am scheduled to speak: I’m speaking on “How to Reclaim Power in the Digital World” at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Thursday, March 16, 2023, at 5:30 PM CET. I’ll…
How AI Could Write Our Laws
By Nathan E. Sanders & Bruce Schneier Nearly 90% of the multibillion-dollar federal lobbying apparatus in the United States serves corporate interests. In some cases, the objective of that money is obvious. Google pours millions into lobbying on bills related…
NetWire Remote Access Trojan Maker Arrested
From Brian Krebs: A Croatian national has been arrested for allegedly operating NetWire, a Remote Access Trojan (RAT) marketed on cybercrime forums since 2012 as a stealthy way to spy on infected systems and siphon passwords. The arrest coincided with…
Another Malware with Persistence
Here’s a piece of Chinese malware that infects SonicWall security appliances and survives firmware updates. On Thursday, security firm Mandiant published a report that said threat actors with a suspected nexus to China were engaged in a campaign to maintain…
BlackLotus Malware Hijacks Windows Secure Boot Process
Researchers have discovered malware that “can hijack a computer’s boot process even when Secure Boot and other advanced protections are enabled and running on fully updated versions of Windows.” Dubbed BlackLotus, the malware is what’s known as a UEFI bootkit.…
Prompt Injection Attacks on Large Language Models
This is a good survey on prompt injection attacks on large language models (like ChatGPT). Abstract: We are currently witnessing dramatic advances in the capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs). They are already being adopted in practice and integrated into…
New National Cybersecurity Strategy
Last week the Biden Administration released a new National Cybersecurity Strategy (summary >here. There is lots of good commentary out there. It’s basically a smart strategy, but the hard parts are always the implementation details. It’s one thing to say…
Friday Squid Blogging: We’re Almost at Flying Squid Drones
Researchers are prototyping multi-segment shapeshifter drones, which are “the precursors to flying squid-bots.” As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered. Read my blog posting guidelines…
Nick Weaver on Regulating Cryptocurrency
Nicholas Weaver wrote an excellent paper on the problems of cryptocurrencies and the need to regulate the space—with all existing regulations. His conclusion: Regulators, especially regulators in the United States, often fear accusations of stifling innovation. As such, the cryptocurrency…
Dumb Password Rules
Examples of dumb password rules. There are some pretty bad disasters out there. My worst experiences are with sites that have artificial complexity requirements that cause my personal password-generation systems to fail. Some of the systems on the list are…
Fooling a Voice Authentication System with an AI-Generated Voice
A reporter used an AI synthesis of his own voice to fool the voice authentication system for Lloyd’s Bank. This article has been indexed from Schneier on Security Read the original article: Fooling a Voice Authentication System with an AI-Generated…
Putting Undetectable Backdoors in Machine Learning Models
This is really interesting research from a few months ago: Abstract: Given the computational cost and technical expertise required to train machine learning models, users may delegate the task of learning to a service provider. Delegation of learning has clear…
Cyberwar Lessons from the War in Ukraine
The Aspen Institute has published a good analysis of the successes, failures, and absences of cyberattacks as part of the current war in Ukraine: “The Cyber Defense Assistance Imperative Lessons from Ukraine.” Its conclusion: Cyber defense assistance in Ukraine…
A Device to Turn Traffic Lights Green
Here’s a story about a hacker who reprogrammed a device called “Flipper Zero” to mimic Opticom transmitters—to turn traffic lights in his path green. As mentioned earlier, the Flipper Zero has a built-in sub-GHz radio that lets the device receive…
Fines as a Security System
Tile has an interesting security solution to make its tracking tags harder to use for stalking: The Anti-Theft Mode feature will make the devices invisible to Scan and Secure, the company’s in-app feature that lets you know if any nearby…
Defending against AI Lobbyists
When is it time to start worrying about artificial intelligence interfering in our democracy? Maybe when an AI writes a letter to The New York Times opposing the regulation of its own technology. That happened last month. And because the…
Upcoming Speaking Engagements
This is a current list of where and when I am scheduled to speak: I’m speaking at Mobile World Congress 2023 in Barcelona, Spain, on March 1, 2023 at 1:00 PM CET. I’m speaking on “How to Reclaim Power in…
ChatGPT Is Ingesting Corporate Secrets
Interesting: According to internal Slack messages that were leaked to Insider, an Amazon lawyer told workers that they had “already seen instances” of text generated by ChatGPT that “closely” resembled internal company data. This issue seems to have come to…
A Hacker’s Mind Is Now Published
Tuesday was the official publication date of A Hacker’s Mind: How the Powerful Bend Society’s Rules, and How to Bend them Back. It broke into the 2000s on the Amazon best-seller list. Reviews in the New York Times, Cory Doctorow’s…
Camera the Size of a Grain of Salt
Cameras are getting smaller and smaller, changing the scale and scope of surveillance. This article has been indexed from Schneier on Security Read the original article: Camera the Size of a Grain of Salt
Malware Delivered through Google Search
Criminals using Google search ads to deliver malware isn’t new, but Ars Technica declared that the problem has become much worse recently. The surge is coming from numerous malware families, including AuroraStealer, IcedID, Meta Stealer, RedLine Stealer, Vidar, Formbook, and…
Upcoming Speaking Engagements
This is a current list of where and when I am scheduled to speak: I’m speaking at Mobile World Congress 2023 in Barcelona, Spain, on March 1, 2023 at 1:00 PM CET. I’m speaking on “How to Reclaim Power in…
Mary Queen of Scots Letters Decrypted
This is a neat piece of historical research. The team of computer scientist George Lasry, pianist Norbert Biermann and astrophysicist Satoshi Tomokiyo—all keen cryptographers—initially thought the batch of encoded documents related to Italy, because that was how they were filed…
On Pig Butchering Scams
“Pig butchering” is the colorful name given to online cons that trick the victim into giving money to the scammer, thinking it is an investment opportunity. It’s a rapidly growing area of fraud, and getting more sophisticated. This article has…
Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Is a Blockchain Thingy
I had no idea—until I read this incredibly jargon-filled article: Squid is a cross-chain liquidity and messaging router that swaps across multiple chains and their native DEXs via axlUSDC. So there. As usual, you can also use this squid post…
A Hacker’s Mind Is Now Published
Tuesday was the official publication date of A Hacker’s Mind: How the Powerful Bend Society’s Rules, and How to Bend them Back. It broke into the 2000s on the Amazon best-seller list. Reviews in the New York Times, Cory Doctorow’s…
Malware Delivered through Google Search
Criminals using Google search ads to deliver malware isn’t new, but Ars Technica declared that the problem has become much worse recently. The surge is coming from numerous malware families, including AuroraStealer, IcedID, Meta Stealer, RedLine Stealer, Vidar, Formbook, and…
Mary Queen of Scots Letters Decrypted
This is a neat piece of historical research. The team of computer scientist George Lasry, pianist Norbert Biermann and astrophysicist Satoshi Tomokiyo—all keen cryptographers—initially thought the batch of encoded documents related to Italy, because that was how they were filed…
Malware Delivered through Google Search
Criminals using Google search ads to deliver malware isn’t new, but Ars Technica declared that the problem has become much worse recently. The surge is coming from numerous malware families, including AuroraStealer, IcedID, Meta Stealer, RedLine Stealer, Vidar, Formbook, and…
Friday Squid Blogging: Studying the Colossal Squid
A survey of giant squid science. As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered. Read my blog posting guidelines here. This article has been indexed from…
A Hacker’s Mind News
A Hacker’s Mind will be published on Tuesday. I have done a written interview and a podcast interview about the book. It’s been chosen as a “February 2023 Must-Read Book” by the Next Big Idea Club. And an “Editor’s Pick”—whatever…
Manipulating Weights in Face-Recognition AI Systems
Interesting research: “Facial Misrecognition Systems: Simple Weight Manipulations Force DNNs to Err Only on Specific Persons“: Abstract: In this paper we describe how to plant novel types of backdoors in any facial recognition model based on the popular architecture of…
AIs as Computer Hackers
Hacker “Capture the Flag” has been a mainstay at hacker gatherings since the mid-1990s. It’s like the outdoor game, but played on computer networks. Teams of hackers defend their own computers while attacking other teams’. It’s a controlled setting for…
Friday Squid Blogging: Squid-Inspired Hydrogel
Scientists have created a hydrogel “using squid mantle and creative chemistry.” As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered. Read my blog posting guidelines here. This…
Kevin Mitnick Hacked California Law in 1983
Early in his career, Kevin Mitnick successfully hacked California law. He told me the story when he heard about my new book, which he partially recounts his 2012 book, Ghost in the Wires. The setup is that he just discovered…
A Guide to Phishing Attacks
This is a good list of modern phishing techniques. This article has been indexed from Schneier on Security Read the original article: A Guide to Phishing Attacks
On Alec Baldwin’s Shooting
We recently learned that Alec Baldwin is being charged with involuntary manslaughter for his accidental shooting on a movie set. I don’t know the details of the case, nor the intricacies of the law, but I have a question about…
US Cyber Command Operations During the 2022 Midterm Elections
The head of both US Cyber Command and the NSA, Gen. Paul Nakasone, broadly discussed that first organization’s offensive cyber operations during the runup to the 2022 midterm elections. He didn’t name names, of course: We did conduct operations persistently…
Publisher’s Weekly Review of A Hacker’s Mind
Publisher’s Weekly reviewed A Hacker’s Mind—and it’s a starred review! “Hacking is something that the rich and powerful do, something that reinforces existing power structures,” contends security technologist Schneier (Click Here to Kill Everybody) in this excellent survey of exploitation.…
Booklist Review of A Hacker’s Mind
Booklist reviews A Hacker’s Mind: Author and public-interest security technologist Schneier (Data and Goliath, 2015) defines a “hack” as an activity allowed by a system “that subverts the rules or norms of the system […] at the expense of someone…
Friday Squid Blogging: Another Giant Squid Captured on Video
Here’s a new video of a giant squid, filmed in the Sea of Japan. I believe it’s injured. It’s so close to the surface, and not really moving very much. “We didn’t see the kinds of agile movements that many…
Real-World Steganography
From an article about Zheng Xiaoqing, an American convicted of spying for China: According to a Department of Justice (DOJ) indictment, the US citizen hid confidential files stolen from his employers in the binary code of a digital photograph of…
Security Analysis of Threema
A group of Swiss researchers have published an impressive security analysis of Threema. We provide an extensive cryptographic analysis of Threema, a Swiss-based encrypted messaging application with more than 10 million users and 7000 corporate customers. We present seven different…
AI and Political Lobbying
Launched just weeks ago, ChatGPT is already threatening to upend how we draft everyday communications like emails, college essays and myriad other forms of writing. Created by the company OpenAI, ChatGPT is a chatbot that can automatically respond to written…
The FBI Identified a Tor User
No details, though: According to the complaint against him, Al-Azhari allegedly visited a dark web site that hosts “unofficial propaganda and photographs related to ISIS” multiple times on May 14, 2019. In virtue of being a dark web site—that is,…
Hacked Cellebrite and MSAB Software Released
Cellebrite is an cyberweapons arms manufacturer that sells smartphone forensic software to governments around the world. MSAB is a Swedish company that does the same thing. Someone has released software and documentation from both companies. This article has been indexed…
Schneier on Security Audiobook Sale
I’m not sure why, but Audiobooks.com is offering the audiobook version of Schneier on Security at 50% off until January 17. EDITED TO ADD: The audiobook of We Have Root is 50% off until January 27 if you use this…
Booklist Review of A Hacker’s Mind
Booklist reviews A Hacker’s Mind: Author and public-interest security technologist Schneier (Data and Goliath, 2015) defines a “hack” as an activity allowed by a system “that subverts the rules or norms of the system […] at the expense of someone…
Upcoming Speaking Engagements
This is a current list of where and when I am scheduled to speak: I’m speaking at Capricon, a four-day science fiction convention in Chicago. My talk is on “The Coming AI Hackers” and will be held Friday, February 3…
Friday Squid Blogging: How to Buy Fresh or Frozen Squid
Good advice on buying squid. I like to buy whole fresh squid and clean it myself. As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered. Read my…
Threats of Machine-Generated Text
With the release of ChatGPT, I’ve read many random articles about this or that threat from the technology. This paper is a good survey of the field: what the threats are, how we might detect machine-generated text, directions for future…
Breaking RSA with a Quantum Computer
A group of Chinese researchers have just published a paper claiming that they can—although they have not yet done so—break 2048-bit RSA. This is something to take seriously. It might not be correct, but it’s not obviously wrong. We have…
Experian Privacy Vulnerability
Brian Krebs is reporting on a vulnerability in Experian’s website: Identity thieves have been exploiting a glaring security weakness in the website of Experian, one of the big three consumer credit reporting bureaus. Normally, Experian requires that those seeking a…
ChatGPT-Written Malware
I don’t know how much of a thing this will end up being, but we are seeing ChatGPT-written malware in the wild. …within a few weeks of ChatGPT going live, participants in cybercrime forums—some with little or no coding experience—were…
Identifying People Using Cell Phone Location Data
The two people who shut down four Washington power stations in December were arrested. This is the interesting part: Investigators identified Greenwood and Crahan almost immediately after the attacks took place by using cell phone data that allegedly showed both…
Breaking RSA with a Quantum Computer
A group of Chinese researchers have just published a paper claiming that they can—although they have not yet done so—break 2048-bit RSA. This is something to take seriously. It might not be correct, but it’s not obviously wrong. We have…
Schneier on Security Audiobook Sale
I’m not sure why, but Audiobooks.com is offering the audiobook version of Schneier on Security at 50% off until January 17. This article has been indexed from Schneier on Security Read the original article: Schneier on Security Audiobook Sale
Remote Vulnerabilities in Automobiles
This group has found a ton of remote vulnerabilities in all sorts of automobiles. It’s enough to make you want to buy a car that is not Internet-connected. Unfortunately, that seems to be impossible. This article has been indexed from…
Decarbonizing Cryptocurrencies through Taxation
Maintaining bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies causes about 0.3 percent of global CO2 emissions. That may not sound like a lot, but it’s more than the emissions of Switzerland, Croatia, and Norway combined. As many cryptocurrencies crash and the FTX bankruptcy…
Breaking RSA with a Quantum Computer
A group of Chinese researchers have just published a paper claiming that they can—although they have not yet done so—break 2048-bit RSA. This is something to take seriously. It might not be correct, but it’s not obviously wrong. We have…
Friday Squid Blogging: Grounded Fishing Boat Carrying 16,000 Pounds of Squid
Rough seas are hampering efforts to salvage the boat: The Speranza Marie, carrying 16,000 pounds of squid and some 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel, hit the shoreline near Chinese Harbor at about 2 a.m. on Dec. 15. Six crew members…
Recovering Smartphone Voice from the Accelerometer
Yet another smartphone side-channel attack: “EarSpy: Spying Caller Speech and Identity through Tiny Vibrations of Smartphone Ear Speakers“: Abstract: Eavesdropping from the user’s smartphone is a well-known threat to the user’s safety and privacy. Existing studies show that loudspeaker reverberation…
QR Code Scam
An enterprising individual made fake parking tickets with a QR code for easy payment. This article has been indexed from Schneier on Security Read the original article: QR Code Scam
Arresting IT Administrators
This is one way of ensuring that IT keeps up with patches: Albanian prosecutors on Wednesday asked for the house arrest of five public employees they blame for not protecting the country from a cyberattack by alleged Iranian hackers. Prosecutors…
LastPass Breach
Last August, LastPass reported a security breach, saying that no customer information—or passwords—were compromised. Turns out the full story is worse: While no customer data was accessed during the August 2022 incident, some source code and technical information were stolen…
Friday Squid Blogging: Injured Giant Squid and Paddleboarder
Here’s a video—I don’t know where it’s from—of an injured juvenile male giant squid grabbing on to a paddleboard. As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t…
Hacking the JFK Airport Taxi Dispatch System
Two men have been convicted of hacking the taxi dispatch system at the JFK airport. This enabled them to reorder the taxis on the list; they charged taxi drivers $10 to cut the line. This article has been indexed from…