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Submission + - Google launches its own Titan Security Key (cyberscoop.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Google launched its own Titan Security Key on Wednesday, a small USB device which includes firmware developed by the omnipresent tech giant itself. This comes days after Google said its workforce has been phish-proof for more than a year thanks to security keys distributed to its 85,000 employees. The new key means new competiton for Yubikey manufacturer Yubico which confirmed it is not involved with Google's new key.

Submission + - Lawmakers call on Amazon and Google to reconsider ban on domain fronting (cyberscoop.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Amazon and Google face sharp questions from a bipartisan pair of U.S. senators over the tech giants’ decisions to ban domain fronting, a technique used to circumvent censorship and surveillance around the world. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., sent a letter on Tuesday to Google CEO Larry Page and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos over decisions by both companies in April to ban domain fronting. Amazon then warned the developers of encrypted messaging app Signal that the organization would be banned from Amazon’s cloud services if the service didn’t stop using Amazon’s cloud as cover. “We respectfully urge you to reconsider your decision to prohibit domain fronting given the harm it will do to global internet freedom and the risk it will impose upon human rights activists, journalists, and others who rely on the internet freedom tools,” the senators wrote.

Submission + - Cellebrite can now unlock iPhone 6 and 6+ (cyberscoop.com)

Submitted by Patrick O'Neill
Patrick O'Neill writes: A year after the battle between the FBI and Apple over unlocking an iPhone 5s, smartphone cracking company Cellebrite announced it can now unlock the iPhone 6 and 6+ for customers at rates ranging from $1,500 to $250,000. The company's newest products also extract and analyze data from a wide range of popular apps including all of the most popular secure messengers around.

Submission + - FBI: It Will Take 2 Years To Respond To FOIA Request About Its Sheep Video Game

Submitted by blottsie
blottsie writes: Earlier this year, the FBI released a free, online video game featuring sheep in its attempts to fight terrorism recruitment efforts. The game is called The Slippery Slope of Violent Extremism, and it is a real thing that exists. You can play it here. After journalists filed a FOIA request to find out more about the game, the FBI said it would take two years to respond—a staggeringly long wait that helps expose how the Bureau actively avoids responding to open-records requests.

Submission + - How The U.S. Will Likely Respond To Shadow Brokers Leak

Submitted by blottsie
blottsie writes: The NSA and FBI are both expected to investigate the leak of NSA-linked cyberweapons leaked this week by an entity calling itself the Shadow Brokers, experts with knowledge of the process tell the Daily Dot. However, multiple experts say any retaliation by the U.S. will likely remain secret to keep the tactical advantage.

Meanwhile, Motherboard reports that some former NSA staffers believe the leak is the work of a "rogue NSA insider."

Submission + - Cisco patches 'ExtraBacon' zero-day exploit leaked by NSA hackers (dailydot.com)

Submitted by Patrick O'Neill
Patrick O'Neill writes: After a group of hackers stole and published a set of NSA cyberweapons earlier this week, the multibillion dollar tech firm Cisco is now updating its software to counter two potent leaked exploits that attack and take over crucial security software used to protect corporate and government networks.

  “Cisco immediately conducted a thorough investigation of the files released, and has identified two vulnerabilities affecting Cisco ASA devices that require customer attention,” the company said in a statement. “On Aug. 17, 2016, we issued two Security Advisories, which deliver free software updates and workarounds where possible.”

Submission + - Hackers Claim To Be Selling NSA Cyberweapons In Online Auction

Submitted by blottsie
blottsie writes: A group of hackers identifying themselves as the Shadow Brokers claims to have hacked the NSA's Equation Group, a team of American hackers that have been described as both "omnipotent" and "the most advanced" threat cyberspace has ever seen.

On the Shadow Brokers' website, the group has shared a sample of data that some cybersecurity experts say lends credibility to the breach. The the hackers' asking price for what they claim is a cache of NSA-built cyberweapons.

Submission + - Baton Rouge police database hacked in retaliation for killing of Alton Sterling (dailydot.com)

Submitted by Patrick O'Neill
Patrick O'Neill writes: Just days after the fatal shooting of a black man by Baton Rouge police prompted international outrage and a Justice Department investigation, the Baton Rouge city government's servers have been hacked and 50,000 city police records leaked including names, addresses, emails, and phone numbers.

Submission + - FBI Director: Guccifer Admitted He Lied About Hacking Hillary Clinton's Email

Submitted by blottsie
blottsie writes: The Romanian hacker known as Guccifer, real name Marcel Lehel Lazar, admitted to the FBI that he lied to the public when he said he repeatedly hacking into Hillary Clinton's email server in 2013, FBI Director James Comey testified before members on Congress on Thursday.

Lazar told Fox News and NBC News in May 2016 about his alleged hacking. Despite offering no proof, the claim caused a huge stir, including making headline news on some of America's biggest publications, which offered little skepticism of his claims.

Submission + - Russian bill requires encryption backdoors in all messenger apps (dailydot.com)

Submitted by Patrick O'Neill
Patrick O'Neill writes: A new bill in the Russian Duma, the country's lower legislative house, proposes to make cryptographic backdoors mandatory in all messaging apps in the country so the Federal Security Service—the successor to the KGB—can obtain special access to all communications within the country. Russian Senator Elena Mizulina argued that the new bill ought to become law because, she said, teens are brainwashed in closed groups on the internet to murder police officers, a practice protected by encryption. Mizulina then went further.

Submission + - The great debate over how to save Ethereum (dailydot.com)

Submitted by Patrick O'Neill
Patrick O'Neill writes: As a $60 million hack beginning Friday morning continues to suck virtual currency out of DAO (Decentralised Autonomous Organisation), an organization with huge amounts of Ethereum, the currency's community is currently debating a course forward for a currency who is built on the idea that it is governed by software and not human beings. One option is to fork the code, another is to do absolutely nothing at all.

Submission + - Jacob Appelbaum Allegedly Intimidated Victims Into Silence and Anonymity

Submitted by blottsie
blottsie writes: In the wake of programmer Jacob Appelbaum’s abrupt departure from the Tor Project, rumors and accusations about both sexual misconduct and bullying have surfaced that extend back years.

Now, four witnesses—including a current senior Tor employee—are stepping forward into the public eye, adding valuable insight into how Appelbaum allegedly intimidated those around him to keep accusations of sexual misconduct secret and pressure those who are speaking out to remain anonymous.

Submission + - FBI Raids Dental Software Researcher Who Found Patient Records On Public Server

Submitted by blottsie
blottsie writes: Yet another security researcher is facing possible prosecution under the CFAA for accessing data on a publicly accessible server. The FBI on Tuesday raided Texas-based dental software security researcher Justin Shafer, who found the protected health records of 22,000 patients stored on an anonymous FTP.

“This is a troubling development. I hope the government doesn't think that accessing unsecured files on a public FTP server counts as an unauthorized access under the CFAA,” Orin Kerr, a George Washington University law professor and CFAA scholar told the Daily Dot. “If that turns out to be the government's theory—which we don't know yet, as we only have the warrant so far—it will be a significant overreach that raises the same issues as were briefed but not resolved in [Andrew 'weev' Auernheimer's] case. I'll be watching this closely.”

Submission + - The company that poached the FBI's entire Silk Road investigation team (dailydot.com)

Submitted by Patrick O'Neill
Patrick O'Neill writes: The FBI team that brought down Silk Road has a new home. After headline-grabbing investigations, arrests, and prosecutions on some of America's highest-profile cybercriminals, five of U.S. law enforcement’s most prized cybercrime aces have all left government service for greener pastures—a titan consulting firm called Berkeley Research Group (BRG).

BRG's newly hired gang of five includes former federal prosecutor Thomas Brown, as well as former FBI agents Christopher Tarbell, Thomas Kiernan, and Ilhwan Yum—names that punctuated many of the biggest cybercrime stories of the last decade including Silk Road, LulzSec, Liberty Reserve, as well as the hacks of Citibank, PNC Bank, Société Générale, and more.

Submission + - Top Security Experts Say Anti-Encryption Bill Authors Are 'Woefully Ignorant'

Submitted by blottsie
blottsie writes: In a Wall Street Journal editorial titled "Encryption Without Tears," Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) pushed back on widespread condemnation of their Compliance with Court Orders Act, which would require tech companies to provide authorities with user data in an "intelligible" format if served with a warrant.

But security experts Bruce Schneir, Matthew Green, and others say the lawmakers entirely misunderstand the issue. "On a weekly basis we see gigabytes of that information dumped to the Internet," Green told the Daily Dot. "This is the whole problem that encryption is intended to solve." He added: "You can't hold out the current flaws in the Internet as a justification for why the Internet shouldn't be made secure."

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Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards. -- Aldous Huxley

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