Seven Jailed in Massive Phone Fraud Scam
Authorities in the U.K. have sentenced seven people to prison for their part in running a wide-ranging phone fraud scam that cost victims more than £1.3 million over the course of several years. The scheme that the gang ran is a common and highly successful one that involves making calls to potential victims and telling them that […]
Apple Exposes iOS’s Unencrypted Core
The beta of iOS 10, released earlier this week, contains some interesting security upgrades and changes, but perhaps the most surprising feature of the software is its unencrypted kernel. That change is a big one for Apple, and security researchers say it could have some interesting effects in the future. In past versions of iOS, […]
Senate Votes Against Expansion of FBI Surveillance–For Now
The Senate on Wednesday voted down an amendment that would allow the FBI to gain access to citizens’ email, web, and other electronic records through the issuance of a secret National Security Letter. The vote was seen as a victory for privacy advocates, but it may be a short-lived one. The Senate was just one […]
FTC Settles With Mobile Ad Firm InMobi Over Tracking
UPDATED–The FTC has reached a $4 million settlement with a mobile ad firm that the commission says was tracking mobile device users–including kids–without their consent. The case centers on an ad network run by InMobi, a company with offices around the world, which the FTC alleges was tracking users of thousands of mobile apps, even when […]
Crypto Ransomware Attacks Jump Nearly 500%
There appears to be no end in sight to the ransomware epidemic. New stats released by security researchers at Kaspersky Lab show that the number of users who came across crypto ransomware in the last year increased by more than 500 percent over the previous year. The variety and volume of ransomware being deployed by […]
Google Simplifies Two-Step Verification
Google is changing the way that users of its Gmail and other apps use its two-step verification process, making it easier for users to approve or deny new logins. Currently, users who have two-step verification enabled have to enter a shortcode from an app or use a hardware token in order to log in to […]
EFF, Google Oppose Expansion of Government Hacking Power
As Congress considers changes to a federal rule that would allow law enforcement to get so-called global warrants to remotely search users’ machines in many jurisdictions, civil liberties groups are urging congressional leaders to reject the modification, which the groups say are “dangerously broad”. The change under consideration is for Rule 41 of the Federal […]
Firefox Containers Allows For Separate Online Identities
Mozilla is testing a new feature in pre-release versions of its Firefox browser that enable users to employ multiple personas or identities in different contexts at the same time. The feature, known as Containers, is designed to help users separate their various personal, work, and other online activities. The new feature is currently in the Nightly […]
On the Wire Podcast: Wade Williamson
Threat intelligence and ransomware have become inescapable topics in the security community of late, and there’s at least as much noise as signal in most of the discussions about them. To cut through some of this nonsense, Dennis Fisher called Wade Williamson of Vectra Networks to discuss the ways in which enterprises are detecting and […]