A mainland China security firm, Qihoo 360 Technology Co., claims it has found a way to hack into systems that control Tesla’s Model S sedan, controlling features like the door locks, car horn and sunroof even while the vehicle was being operated, according to a report by Bloomberg News. The hack was in response to a contest associated with the SysCan security conference in Beijing. As reported by The Security Ledger, that contest offered a $10,000 reward to anyone who could hack the Model S. Bloomberg reporter Ma Jie cited this post on the company’s Sina Weibo account as proof of the compromise. Tranlated (via Google), the post reads: “Our safety performance Tesla recently conducted a series of tests and found that the certificate can be used to unlock the remote control of the vehicle, whistle, flash and so on. And can open the sunroof while driving the vehicle. Tesla owners […]
Tag: Government
Must Read: How Russian Hackers Stole the Nasdaq – Businessweek
If there’s one story you should read this week, its Michael Riley’s extensive report over at Businessweek on the 2010 compromise of systems belonging to the Nasdaq stock exchange, “How Russian Hackers Stole the Nasdaq.” The incident was extensively reported at the time, but not in great depth. Obviously, the parties involved weren’t talking. And Nasdaq’s public statements about the compromise woefully downplayed its severity, as Riley’s report makes clear. Among the interesting revelations: the Nasdaq may have fallen victim to a third-party compromise – similar to the hack of Target earlier this year. In the case of Nasdaq, investigators from the FBI, NSA and (eventually) CIA found discovered that the website run by the building management company responsible for Nasdaq’s headquarters at One Liberty Plaza had been “laced with a Russian-made exploit kit known as Blackhole, infecting tenants who visited the page to pay bills or do other maintenance.” What’s clear is […]
Hacker Takes on the World’s Spy Agencies | WIRED
Andy Greenberg over at Wired has a fine profile of former Google hacker and human rights champion Morgan Marquis-Boire (aka “Morgan Mayhem”), who is now working for the start-up publication First Look Media Marquis-Boire is an expert in malware analysis, with particular expertise in analyzing the software that oppressive regimes use to spy on journalists, human rights activists and political dissidents. At First Look, he will be devoting his talents to defending what Greenberg calls “an endangered species: American national security journalists.” First Look is a nascent, independent online media startup founded by eBay billionaire Pierre Omidyar. The site is best known as the (new) home of Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, and the launch pad for whatever secrets are still hidden in the trove of information Edward Snowden leaked to Greenwald. According to Greenberg, Marquis-Boire was hired away from Google and given the task of safeguarding those documents as well as the […]
Update: Cyber Spies Digging For Clues On Iraq?
The folks over at CrowdStrike have dug deep into a campaign of targeted cyber attacks targeting Washington D.C. think tanks and say they have evidence that whomever is behind the attacks has taken a sudden interest in U.S. policy towards Iraq. Editor’s Note: This story was updated to include comments from Adam Meyers, Vice President of Security Intelligence at CrowdStrike. – PFR July 8, 2014 14:30 Writing on Tuesday, CrowdStrike CTO Dmitri Alperovitch described a new campaign by a group they dubbed “DEEP PANDA” that was targeting think tanks specializing on U.S. foreign policy and national security. Alperovitch said CrowdStrike observed a pronounced shift in targets from think tank experts on Asia to experts on Iraq and the Middle East in recent weeks. The shift corresponded with the rapid escalation of violence in Iraq as the Islamic extremist group ISIS took control of large parts of the country. “This actor, who was engaged in […]
Industrial Control Vendors Identified In Dragonfly Attack
Two of the three vendors who were victims of a targeted malware attack dubbed ‘Dragonfly’ by the security firm Symantec have been identified by industrial control system security experts. Writing on Tuesday, Dale Peterson of the firm Digitalbond identified the vendors as MB Connect Line, a German maker of industrial routers and remote access appliances and eWon, a Belgian firm that makes virtual private network (VPN) software that is used to access industrial control devices like programmable logic controllers. Peterson has also identified the third vendor, identified by F-Secure as a Swiss company, but told The Security Ledger that he cannot share the name of that firm. The three firms, which serve customers in industry, including owners of critical infrastructure, were the subject of a warning from the Department of Homeland Security. DHS’s ICS CERT, the Industrial Control Systems Computer Emergency Response Team, said it was alerted to compromises of the vendors’ by researchers […]
