In-brief: the Department of Homeland Security is warning about destructive attacks by BrickerBot, a new piece of malicious software that attacks Linux devices and renders them useless, wiping out critical configuration information and data from the devices.
In-brief: In a damning report, the FDA said that St. Jude Medical* knew about serious security flaws in its implantable medical devices as early as 2014, but failed to address them with software updates or other mitigations, or by replacing those devices. (Editor’s note: updated to include a statement from Abbott and comment from Dr. Kevin Fu. – PFR April 14, 2017)
In-brief: The weekend hack of civil defense sirens in Dallas, Texas is similar to two incidents in Illinois in 2012. The underlying problem? Woeful security for emergency alerting and other civil defense systems in the U.S., according to security experts.
In-brief: new botnets, dubbed “Brickerbot” were first spotted in recent weeks conducting what Radware termed “permanent denial of service” attacks: compromising and then destroying data on vulnerable connected endpoints.
In-brief: a remotely exploitable flaw in a common hardware component used in phones by Apple, Samsung and others underscores the risk posed by software embedded in system on chip components that are found in almost every connected device, experts warn.
