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Tag: Google

New Search Engine Wants To Be A Google For Code

May 15, 2013 Paul Roberts

Researchers at The University of Cambridge in the UK have created a Google-like search engine that can peer inside applications, analyzing their underlying code. The search tool, named “Rendezvous,” has applications for a number of problems. It could be used to help reverse engineer potentially malicious files, copyright enforcement or to find evidence of plagiarism within applications, according to a blog post by Ross Anderson, a Professor of Security Engineering at the Laboratory. Rendezvous was unveiled in a seminar on Tuesday by Wei Ming Khoo, a doctoral student in the Security Group working at the University of Cambridge’s Computer Laboratory. The engine, which can be accessed here, allows users to submit an unknown binary, which is decompiled, parsed and compared against a library of code harvested from open source projects across the Internet. Code reuse has become a pressing security issue. The application security firm Veracode has named reused […]

Browser Plug-in Steals Facebook Logins, Pumps Spam For GM Cars

May 13, 2013 Paul Roberts

Microsoft is warning users of Google’s Chrome and The Mozilla Foundation’s Firefox web browsers that a malicious browser extension for those platforms attempts to steal Facebook account login information after it is installed. The attacks have mostly occurred in Brazil, Microsoft, and have been linked to spam campaigns promoting GM cars, like the Chevy Celta, an ultracompact car produced by General Motors do Brasil, according to a post on Microsoft’s Technet web site. Microsoft identified the malware bundled with the browser extensions as Febipos.A, a malicious Trojan. After being installed, the Trojan waits for the user to log in to Facebook before it springs to life. Febipos downloads commands from a remote website that instruct it to carry out a wide range of actions through the active Facebook account, including wall posts, sharing and “liking” pages, commenting on other users’ posts and inviting Facebook friends to a group chat. You […]

BadNews: Mobile Attackers Pivot To Malicious Ads

April 22, 2013 Paul Roberts

The identification over the weekend of a large-scale outbreak of mobile malware dubbed “BadNews” is bad news, indeed for millions of Android device users, who downloaded applications from the official Google Play application store that connected their devices to a malicious advertising network, dubbed “BadNews.” The discovery of the malware-infected apps, which were downloaded between two- and nine million times, suggests a new wrinkle in the mobile malware space, with attackers turning to honest-seeming mobile ad networks to push out malicious links and collect information on compromised devices. “This is one of the first times that we’ve seen a malicious distribution network clearly posing as an ad network,” wrote Lookout’s Marc Rogers on the company blog. He speculated that the new tactic may reflect improved security on the Google Play app store following the introduction of the Bouncer malware scanner. Lookout said that the company notified Google, which removed the […]

Meet The Software That Helped Catch The Boston Bombers

April 19, 2013 Paul Roberts

With one suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings dead and another on the run IN CUSTODY! the global, collective effort to identify those responsible for the crime has ended, and focus shifted to apprehending PROSECUTING Dzhokhor A. Tsarnaev, 19. He and his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, were the subject of a massive manhunt, culminating in a firefight in the suburb of Watertown, Massachusetts, that killed the older Tsarnaev brother and set of a massive, daylong manhunt that shut down the metropolitan Boston area.(*) So how did crowdsourcing fare in the effort to catch the two? You’d have to say: not too well. High-profile collaborative efforts to crowdsource public images of the Boston Marathon bombing site, like those organized by the group 4Chan, assembled intriguing collections of material and clocked impressive pageviews (3.4 million and counting). In the end, those efforts yielded some clues: the type of clothing worn by the suspects, […]

Update: DARPA Cyber Chief Peiter “Mudge” Zatko Heads To Google

April 14, 2013 Paul Roberts

Editor’s Note: Updated with comment from Google on Zatko’s role. – PFR Noted hacker and innovator Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, a project manager for cyber security research at DARPA for the past three years- will be setting up shop in the Googleplex, according to a post on his Twitter feed. Zatko, who earned fame as a founding member of the early 1990s Boston-area hacker confab The L0pht and later as a division scientist at government contractor BBN Technologies, announced his departure from DARPA following a three-year stint as a Program Manager in DARPA’s Information Innovation Office on Friday. “Given what we all pulled off within the USG, let’s see if it can be done even better from outside. Goodbye DARPA, hello Google!” he Tweeted. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Zatko’s hiring and Zatko declined to expound on his title and responsibilities within the search giant. However, he has acknowledged that […]