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The Mystery of the Encrypted Gauss Payload
The Securelist blog houses Kaspersky’s threat intelligence reports, malware research, APT analysis and statistics
White House Deletes TSA Petition
At approximately 11:30 am EDT, the White House removed a petition about the TSA airport screening procedures from the White House
Kaspersky Lab Discovers 'Gauss'
Kaspersky Lab announces the discovery of ‘Gauss’, a new cyber-threat targeting users in the Middle East
Countering "Trusting Trust"
Way back in 1974, Paul Karger and Roger Schell discovered a devastating attack against computer systems. Ken Thompson described it in his classic 1984 speech, “Reflections on Trusting Trust.” Basically, an attacker changes a compiler binary to produce malicious versions of some programs, INCLUDING ITSELF. Once this is…
The weakest link by far is Apple
Apple tech support gave the hackers access to my iCloud account. Amazon tech support gave them the ability to see a piece of information — a partial credit card number — that Apple used to release information. In short, the very four digits that Amazon considers unimportant enough to display in the clear on the web…
Please turn on two-factor authentication
You should read Mat Honan’s heartbreaking tale of a hack attack and the ensuing discussion on Techmeme. Much of the story is about Amazon or Apple’s security practices, but I would stil…
Eugene Kaspersky: What Wired Is Not Telling You
This is a very unusual post. It’s not about cyber-crime, malware, our latest business achievements or my latest long journey around the globe. It’s about truth and facts, and the importance of not hiding certain facts while revealing others. For sure I was surprised to read such an article from a journalist who, up…
Lessons in website security anti-patterns by Tesco
Update, 14 Feb 2014: A year and a half on from writing this, Tesco has indeed suffered a serious security incident almost certainly as a result of some of the risks originally detailed here. Read more about it in The Tesco hack – here’s how it (probably) happened [https://www.
OAuth 3.0: the sane and simple way
I'm Tav, a 28-year old from London. I enjoy working on large-scale social, economic and technological systems.
Congress Must Act After US Government Admits To Warrantless Wiretapping
As Congress and the President rush to re-authorize the dangerous FISA Amendments Act (FAA)—the law shamefully passed after pressure to legalize certain portions of the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program—EFF has been sounding the alarm that Americans’ communications are still being...
How the Norwegians Reacted to Terrorism
An antidote to the American cycle of threat, fear, and overspending in response to terrorism is this, about Norway on the first anniversary of its terrorist massacre: And at the political level, the Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg pledged to do everything to ensure the country’s core values were not undermined. “The…
All you ever wanted to know about building a secure password reset (NSFW)
This content is now available in the Pluralsight course "Secure Account Management Fundamentals" [http://www.pluralsight.com/courses/secure-account-management-fundamentals] Recently I’ve had a couple of opportunities to think again about how a secure password reset function should operate, firstly whilst building this…
Living with HTTPS
( These are my notes from the first half of my talk at HOPE9 last weekend. I write notes like these not as a script, but so that I have at least some words ready in my head when I'm speaking. They are more conversational and less organised than a usual blog post, so please forgive me the rough edges. )
EFF Challenges National Security Letter Statute in Landmark Lawsuit
Since the first national security letter statute was passed in 1986, the FBI has issued hundreds of thousands of such letters seeking private telecommunications and financial records of Americans without any prior approval from courts. Indeed, for the period between 2003 and 2006 alone, almost 200,...
Here’s why we keep getting hacked – clear and present Billabong failures
It happened again last week. No, not Yahoo! Voices [https://www.troyhunt.com/2012/07/what-do-sony-and-yahoo-have-in-common.html], not the Phandroid Android forums [http://www.zdnet.com/android-forums-hacked-1-million-user-credentials-stolen-7000000817/] , not NVidia [http://www.zdnet.com/nvidia-confirms-
UK anti-encryption law
There was some surprise in the comments of yesterday's post over the fact that the United Kingdom has effectively outlawed encryption: the UK will...
Petition the U.S. Government to Force the TSA to Follow the Law
This is important: In July 2011, a federal appeals court ruled that the Transportation Security Administration had to conduct a notice-and-comment rulemaking on its policy of using “Advanced Imaging Technology” for primary screening at airports. TSA was supposed to publish the policy in the Federal Register, take…
Three NSA Whistleblowers Back EFF's Lawsuit Over Government Spying Program
San Francisco - Three whistleblowers – all former employees of the National Security Agency (NSA) – have come forward to give evidence in the Electronic Frontier Foundation's (EFF's) lawsuit against the government's illegal mass surveillance program, Jewel v. NSA. In a motion filed today, the three...
Drone hijacked by UT hackers with $1,000 spoofer
The Sophos Blog