Technology Archives

Technology

What Hollywood Can Teach Us: Passwords Matter More Than Ever

September 3, 2014 Paul Roberts

Andrey Belenko had what you might call a ‘brush with infamy’ earlier this week after a presentation he took part in on the security of Apple’s iCloud became a set piece in the news media scramble to identify the source of a huge trove of leaked celebrity photos – many depicting Hollywood A-List stars in various states of undress. “It’s not the kind of attention you want to receive,” said Belenko, a security researcher with the firm ViaForensics. “It’s all really creepy stuff.” Belenko’s link to the celebrity hacking scandal was a matter of happenstance. He was scheduled to give a presentation at a small, St. Petersburg multi-media conference, Chaos Constructions, over the weekend. Belenko was presenting research he had conducted a year earlier on the security of Apple’s KeyChain technology and iCloud – a talk he had given twice before in the last year. Prior to his talk, Belenko […]

Securing Networks in the Internet of Things Era | Help Net

August 22, 2014 Paul Roberts

Cricket Liu, the CIO of Infoblox has an interesting editorial over at Help Net Security today that looks at the challenge of securing the Internet of Things. Among other things, he reveals the results of a commissioned survey of 400 network professionals in the UK and US that revealed that 78 percent already have precursor IoT devices on their networks – including badge readers, networked cash registers, vending machines and so on. Seventy three percent of those surveyed acknowledged using connected surveillance gear like CCTV on their networks. That shouldn’t be surprising. What is surprising is that a strong majority of respondents – 63 percent – also saw those devices and IoT in general as a threat to network security. So: IoT adoption is gaining speed, and worries about IoT security are gaining traction. The survey suggests that few IT organisations have deployed IoT-specific infrastructure, such as dedicated networks for IoT devices or management […]

Tesla Looks to Build Out Internal Hacking Team| Car and Driver Blog

August 22, 2014 Paul Roberts

Car and Driver has an interesting news item today on Tesla’s continuing efforts to build an internal team of software hackers to shore up the security of its connected cars. C&D reports that Tesla is looking to hire up to 30 full-time employees from the hacking community, and used the recent DEFCON hacking conference in Las Vegas to recruit talented software hackers, reverse engineers and the assorted polymaths who attend. Tesla gave out tokens that could be exchanged for a tour of the Tesla factory at the show. “Our security team is focused on advancing technology to secure connected cars, setting new standards for security, and creating new capabilities for connected cars that don’t currently exist in the automotive industry,” Tesla spokeswoman Liz Jarvis-Shean told C&D. California-based Tesla has already been making the rounds of security conferences. It also made headlines for hiring Kristin Paget, a well-respected hardware hacker […]

Update: Facebook awards $50K Internet Defense Prize for Work on Securing Web Apps

August 21, 2014 Paul Roberts

Saying that research dollars for cyber security are disproportionately devoted to work on “offensive” techniques (like hacking), social media giant Facebook has awarded two researchers a $50,000 prize for their work on cyber defense. The company announced on Wednesday that Johannes Dahse and Thorsten Holz, both of Ruhr-Universität Bochum in Germany for their work on a method for making software less prone to being hacked. The two developed a method for detecting so-called “second-order” vulnerabilities in Web applications using automated static code analysis. Their paper (PDF here) was presented at the 23rd USENIX Security Symposium in San Diego. In a blog post announcing the prize, John Flyn, a security engineering manager at Facebook, said the Internet Defense Prize recognizes “superior quality research that combines a working prototype with significant contributions to the security of the Internet—particularly in the areas of protection and defense.” Dahse and Holz’s work was chosen by a panel […]

Time for an Administrator of Things (AoT)? – Security Intelligence Blog

August 20, 2014 Paul Roberts

Trend Micro’s Security Intelligence Blog has an interesting post today that looks at the changing demands of networked environments populated by smart “stuff.” Their conclusion: homes and businesses might find increasing need for someone to manage smart devices. “Managing a household full of smart devices calls for the skills of both a multi-user IT administrator and a handyman. Let’s call this role the Administrator of Things (AoT).” As in the early days of business networks, this role is currently ill-defined, Trend notes, with “ordinary users” taking on AoT tasks despite “scant evidence that they are ready for it.” Trend’s Geoff Grindrod doesn’t take a strong position on what the implications of all this complexity. (“This is something that should be looked into,” the report says.) However, he does anticipate friction. “How well people can actually perform (the job of AoT) has a huge impact on their daily lives, which includes the security of their household,” […]