In just the last two years, the price of home automation technology has come way down, while variety has exploded. Smart home technology goes way beyond niche products like the Nest IP-enabled thermostat or (save us) the “HAPIfork.” A growing list of vendors are selling infrastructure to support a whole network of intelligent “stuff”, enabling remote management of home security and surveillance systems, IP-enabled door locks, IP enabled lights, smart home appliances, HVAC (heat and cooling) and more. Pretty cool. And, also, pretty scary. What if that IP-enabled door lock or garage door opener could be hacked by someone outside your home and made to open on its own? Breaking and entering just got a lot easier. Or, what if a HVAC system could be hijacked and remotely disabled or forced to operate in ways that would damage the system or even cause a fire or electrical short in the […]
Privacy
Six Hours, $4500: The Short Life and Quick Death Of A Facebook Bug
A security researcher based in Indonesia disclosed yet another Facebook bug this weekend – one that would allow an attacker to obtain the primary e-mail address associated with any Facebook account. Hours after informing the social network about the bug, however, it was closed and the researcher, Roy Castillo, was $4,500 richer. Castillo, a white hat vulnerability researcher based in The Philippines, disclosed the bug in Facebook’s Developer Application Roles Page in a post on his blog on Saturday. When exploited, it allowed an attacker to discover the primary Facebook email address of any account – even those with the email privacy setting on “Only Me,” Castillo wrote. Attackers would need a Facebook Developer account and some basic programming knowledge to take advantage of the vulnerability, in which Facebook mistakenly disclosed the e-mail address associated with a unique Facebook user ID. After discovering the buy on June 25th, Castillo […]
Security Lapse Has Tumblr Asking IPhone, IPad Users To Update -Now!
Tumblr, the blogging and content sharing web site issued an urgent warning to those using its mobile application for Apple iPhones and iPads to update their Tumblr application – ASAP – after it was apparently found to be transmitting user names and passwords in the clear. In a blog post on Tuesday, Derek Gottfrid, the Vice President of Product at the New York City-based firm, said that the company had issued an update to the iOS version of Tumblr’s mobile application to fix an issue that allowed Tumblr passwords to be sniffed in transit on certain versions of the iOS Tumblr application for iPhone and iPad. Gottfrid did not explain the reason for the sudden update. However, a report by the UK publication The Register claims that the rush update came after Tumblr was made aware that the iOS versions of its application was not using SSL (Secure Socket Layer) […]
Android Founder: Install Base Fragmentation No Big Deal
Android owners who were hoping that Google might be on the cusp of cleaning up its balkanized install base won’t be cheered by the latest word from on high: Android co-founder and Google Ventures Partner Rich Miner thinks it’s no big deal. Speaking on Tuesday at an event in Boston, Miner said that fragmentation of the install base was inevitable, given the number and variety of Android devices that are being adopted, according to a report by Xconomy.com.The statement comes as Google is dealing with the fallout from a newly disclosed vulnerability affecting almost all Android platforms that could allow attackers to fool Android into installing and running compromised applications. Miner was speaking at a Mobile Summit forum hosted by the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council. He made his statements while being interviewed by renowned technology journalist and columnist Scott Kirsner (@ScottKirsner) of the Boston Globe on the (evergreen) topic “What’s […]
Security Must-Do’s For Facebook Graph Search
Facebook finally pulled the covers off its much-anticipated (or dreaded) Graph Search feature on Monday, after about six months in beta. The new search feature greatly expands the kinds of information Facebook users can access on other users of the social network, making it easy, for example, to cross reference data stored in Facebook profiles. For example, users can easily call up a list of their “friends who live in Boston” and like the show “Arrested Development.” Fun! But, as has been noted, Graph Search is also a social engineer’s dream, because it lays bare lots of information – data – that Facebook users shared, casually, and without a thought of how it might be used in combination with other data they shared. For example, researchers have shown that they can use knowledge of a Facebook user’s “Likes” to “automatically and accurately predict a range of highly sensitive personal attributes including: […]
