Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - NSA linked to hard drive firmware hacking across 12 major manufacturers (thestack.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Russian security researchers have published a report [http://www.kaspersky.com/about/news/virus/2015/equation-group-the-crown-creator-of-cyber-espionage] detailing the insertion of data-stealing software into the firmware of hard drives from over a dozen major manufacturers. The report, from Kaspersky Labs, connects the organisation behind it — which it has dubbed 'The equation Group' — with the National Security Agency, due to common variants in the hard drive malware and Stuxnet, the NSA-driven cyberattack initiative which was used to attack a uranium refinement facility in Iran. The 'Fanny worm' propagated by the firmware hack is used to breach air-gapped networks via infected USB sticks, relaying retrieved information back to command-and-control centers. Reuters claims to have had the allegations confirmed by two ex-NSA employees.

Comment WTF, Slashdot (Score -1) 141

AP Headline: "Cuban youth build secret computer network despite Wi-Fi ban "

Slashdot: "Young Cubans Set Up Mini-Internet".

"Mini-Internet" huh, Slashdot. My how far this site has degraded, when the mass media's headline are more accurate and less pandering.

Comment Re:Not seeing the issue here (Score 2, Informative) 209

> And then the public defender you're assigned because you can't afford a decent lawyer

Hold on just a second. There are many fine public defenders who happen to be far better than just "decent". They will not, however, be able to dedicate much time to your case. THAT is the issue with many PD's. Not that they suck or are not "decent" but that they are over worked.

Comment Re:Sandbox before browsing (Score 4, Informative) 83

> I'm running a browser in a VM... What malware?

Your faith in the security of VM sandboxes is misplaced.

It is trivial to write a program which can detect if it is in a VM. And then, attack the hypervisor and escape the protected environment. As virtualization has become more common, such malware has gone from academic exercises to real-world exploits.

http://www.symantec.com/avcent...

My favorite line:

Finally, the most interesting attack that malicious code can perform against a virtual machine emulator is to escape from its protected environment.

With virtualization becoming more and more common

Slashdot Top Deals

Happiness is twin floppies.

Working...