Tag: Mobile Threats

Report: Hell is Unpatched Systems

One of the ‘subplots’ of the Internet of Things revolution concerns embedded devices. Specifically: the tendency of embedded devices to be either loosely managed or – in some cases – unmanageable.   The future holds the promise of more, not fewer of these. That’s the gist of a piece I wrote for InfoWorld, and that you can read here. In short: we’re already seeing the beginning of a shift on the threat landscape. While attacks against traditional endpoints (like Windows desktops, laptops and servers) are still the norm, there are more stories each day about cyber criminal groups and malicious actors who are compromising non-standard endpoints like home wifi routers.  In March, for example, the security consultancy Team Cymru identified a botnet consisting of some 300,000 compromised home routers and other in-home devices. The virus called “TheMoon” was also identified spreading between vulnerable home routers and other embedded devices. The […]

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iPhone and iPad Hijacking: What You Need To Know

The past 24 hours has seen a spate of stories warning about a spate of ‘ransomware’ attacks on iPhones and iPads – especially in the the UK and Australia. According to the reports, compromised devices are locked and owners are instructed to email a ransom (variously: $100, $50, €100) to one “Oleg Pliss” to have their devices unlocked. These attacks aren’t really news. In fact, the Oleg Pliss scam appears to have been circulating for close to six months. However, it’s worthwhile reviewing what we do (and don’t) know about these latest attacks on mobile devices. Accordingly, Security Ledger has put together a short FAQ that tells you what you need to know about the latest mobile scam, and to dispel some of the rumors floating around in the Internet ether. What’s Going On? According to news reports and complaints on Apple Support forums, owners of iPhones and iPads are having their devices locked. […]

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Traffic Monitoring Tech Vulnerable To Hacking

Connected cars aren’t the only transportation innovation that’s coming down the pike (pun intended). As we’ve noted before: smart roads and smart infrastructure promise even more transformative changes than – say – having Siri read  your text messages to you through your stereo system. The applications of smart road and connected infrastructure are almost limitless. But at this early stage (mostly proof of concept), much of the light and heat around smart roads is around applications of remote sensors at the roadside, or embedded in the road surface to identify problems like icy roads, the presence of liquids, traffic density, vehicle and pedestrian detection and more. For a nice overview of some sensor applications, check out this video from Liebelium. But that doesn’t mean that attacks against smart infrastructure are problems for the future. The security researcher Cesar Cerrudo points out in a blog post over at IOActive.com that many […]

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Cisco: Internet of Things Tips Scales In Favor Of Bad Guys?

A week from this Wednesday, the Security Ledger is hosting The Security of Things Forum: a day-long event in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that will explore the challenges of securing a global network of hundreds of billions of Internet connected devices. [Register here for The Security of Things Forum – Security and Internet of Things: May 7, Cambridge, MA] One of the big issues that we’ll be tackling is how the Internet of Things (or IoT) changes the security paradigm for enterprises and other large, IT-dependent organizations. Needless to say: the corporate network environment of 2020 won’t bear much resemblance to the network of 2000. But what kinds of tools and technologies will be needed to secure that environment and identify threats to the data stored on it? What security tools and strategies will go the way of the typewriter? What areas will require more investment? So far, the focus of discussions about IoT […]

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Heartbleed Prompts Fiscal Lifeline For Open Source

One of the most powerful (and substantive) realizations to come out of the news about the ‘Heartbleed’ OpenSSL vulnerability was that open source projects need help and attention from the tech community that relies on their fruits. I’ve written about this before – noting Apple’s reluctance to put some of its considerable cash hoard towards supporting open source projects it relies on (like the Apache Software Foundation), as have others. [Read Security Ledger’s coverage of the Heartbleed vulnerability here.]   Now that idea appears to have taken root. On Thursday, the Linux Foundation announced the creation of the Core Infrastructure Initiative, a multi-million dollar project to fund open source projects that are in the critical path for core computing functions. The CII group has some substantial backing. Google, Cisco, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, IBM, Intel, Samsung, Fujitsu and VMWare all signed on to the CII Steering Committee. (Surprising (or not): Apple was not one of the firms supporting […]

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