Reports

Inside the Equifax Hack, Facebook’s Problem with Authoritarianism & ASPertise harnesses Asperger’s Syndrome

In-brief: In this week’s podcast, Security Ledger Editor in Chief Paul Roberts talks with noted security researcher Robert “RSnake” Hansen about the data breach at Equifax and why the company’s response to it was so lacking. Also: Chris Sumner of the Online Privacy Foundation talks about why Facebook is a killer app for information operations and we talk to the president of ASPertise: a consulting firm by and of professionals with Aspergers and Autism spectrum disorders.

A Right to Repair the Internet of Things? Spear Phishing Detection and Nonstop Attacks on DVRs

In-brief: In the latest Security Ledger podcast we talk about pending right to repair laws and their impact on the Internet of Things. Also:  Facebook’s Internet Defense Prize went to a better method for spear phishing detection. We talk to a member of the winning team. And, Johannes Ullrich of The Internet Storm Center joins us to talk about a study he did to measure the frequency of attacks on a common IoT device: digital video recorders.

The Spectrum of Mobile Risk: Protecting Your Corporate Data

In-brief: organizations need to better understand mobile risks if they want to protect critical data, writes Aaron Cockerill of the firm Lookout. 

Report: GOP Border Wish List includes Drones, DNA & Voice Scans

Enlarge / A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer checks identifications as people cross into the United States from Mexico on September 23, 2016 in San Ysidro, California. (credit: John Moore / Getty Images News)
If a new Senate Republican border security bill is passed as currently drafted, it would dramatically increase the amount of surveillance technologies used against immigrants and, in some cases, American citizens traveling to and from the United States.
The bill, known as the “Building America’s Trust Act,” is authored by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.). It aims for a “long-term border security and interior enforcement strategy,” according to its summary. However, the senators have yet to formally introduce the text of the bill.
So Ars is going to do it for them: we received an advance copy of the bill’s text from an anonymous source, and we are publishing it here before it has been formally introduced in the Senate. Ars repeatedly contacted the offices of all six senators who are listed as co-sponsors for comment—none made anyone available.
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Update: Five Billion Tests Later: IoT and Industrial Control System Protocols Raise Alarms

In-brief: Close to five billion “fuzzing” tests conducted during 2016 reveal protocols used by industrial control systems, vehicles and Internet of Things devices to be weaker, on average, with many crashing hundreds of times and revealing vulnerabilities that could be used by malicious actors. (Editor’s note: added comment by Chris Clark. Aug 9 2017 – PFR)