Botnets are mostly linked with spam e-mail campaigns, denial of service attacks and data theft. But global networks of compromised hosts can be used for a variety of ends – not all of them malicious. That was the idea behind “Internet Census 2012,” a stealth project by an unnamed and unknown researcher/hacker to map the entire IPV4 Internet address space using a massive network of compromised devices. The results, published in the form of a research paper, underscore the problem of unsecured embedded devices, including set top boxes, home routers and critical infrastructure, with the hacker able to locate and compromise these systems, creating a botnet of more than 420,000 nodes. According to a copy of the report, the project grew out of an experiment to locate unprotected devices online using nmap, the open source scanning tool. By compromising each vulnerable host and then enlisting it to scan for other […]
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“Boothole” Bootloader Flaw Breaks Security on Most Linux, Windows Devices
A newly discovered vulnerability dubbed ‘Boothole’ compromises the foundation of device security for “virtually all Linux distributions” and some Microsoft’s Windows devices that employ “Secure Boot” feature, according to a new report.
U.S. official: Don’t bring laptops or mobile devices to the World Cup in Russia
If you’re going to the FIFA World Cup 2018 in Russia and you’re thinking of taking your laptop or mobile device to the matches, just don’t do it, warned the top U.S. counterintelligence official.
A Year After Mirai: Insecure Devices are still a Huge Problem
In-brief: A year after Mirai, as many as 100,000 devices, globally, may be running some version of the Mirai malware, while countless others are vulnerable to being enlisted in a Mirai-like attack. Worse: these systems may not be patched for “years,” according to the SANS Internet Storm Center.
Security Camera Flaw could lurk in Thousands of Devices
In-brief: a vulnerability dubbed “Devil’s Ivy” affects hundreds of cameras by the firm Axios and – likely – thousands of other devices made by some of the world’s top technology brands. It’s another example of widespread software supply chain security risks.
