DefCon | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Your Mac computer running the Apple's latest High Sierra operating system can be hacked by tweaking just two lines of code, a researcher demonstrated at the Def Con security conference on Sunday. Patrick Wardle, an ex-NSA hacker and now Chief Research Officer of Digita Security, uncovered a critical zero-day vulnerability in the macOS operating system that could allow a malicious application installed in the targeted system to virtually "click" objects without any user interaction or consent. To know, how dangerous it can go, Wardle explains : "Via a single click, countless security mechanisms may be completely bypassed. Run untrusted app? Click...allowed. Authorize keychain access? Click...allowed. Load 3rd-party kernel extension? Click...allowed. Authorize outgoing network connection? click ...allowed." Wardle described his research into "synthetic" interactions with a user interface (UI) as "The Mouse is Mightier than the Sword," ...

An admin of Silk Road 2 , named Brian Farrell , who helped maintain the notorious dark web site by providing customer and technical support, approving and suspending vendors, and promoting staff members, has pleaded guilty and could face 8 years in prison. The 28-year-old man, who used the moniker " DoctorClu ," had been accused last year of being the right-hand to the creator of Silk Road 2.0, the copycat website inspired by the notorious online illegal drug marketplace. Silk Road 2.0 was shuttered in November 2014 after its creator Blake Benthall aka "Defcon" was arrested whose own criminal case is pending in federal court in New York. Silk Road has been described as "one of the most extensive, sophisticated, and widely-used illegal marketplaces on the internet today."  According to the Department of Justice, Silk Road 2.0 had generated "sales of at least approximately $8 Million in the United States currency per month" s...

Vulnerability Management (VM) has long been a cornerstone of organizational cybersecurity. Nearly as old as the discipline of cybersecurity itself, it aims to help organizations identify and address potential security issues before they become serious problems. Yet, in recent years, the limitations of this approach have become increasingly evident.  At its core, Vulnerability Management processes remain essential for identifying and addressing weaknesses. But as time marches on and attack avenues evolve, this approach is beginning to show its age. In a recent report, How to Grow Vulnerability Management into Exposure Management (Gartner, How to Grow Vulnerability Management Into Exposure Management, 8 November 2024, Mitchell Schneider Et Al.), we believe Gartner® addresses this point precisely and demonstrates how organizations can – and must – shift from a vulnerability-centric strategy to a broader Exposure Management (EM) framework. We feel it's more than a worthwhile read an...

Next time you find yourself hooked up behind the wheel, make sure that your car is actually in your control. Hackers are now able to break into hundreds of thousands of vehicles on the road. Car hacking is a hot topic today and until now it was performed only while researchers were hard-wired into a car's electrical system. However, the most recent hack performed by two computer hackers, who have spent years developing ways to crack the digital safeguards of Internet-connected vehicles, is rather more Disturbing. Researchers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek recently demonstrated their abilities to control a Jeep Cherokee remotely from miles away by exploiting the car's entertainment system that was connected to the mobile data network. The duo was able to move laterally into other electronic parts of the vehicle, like the air conditioning, transmission, and even the car's steering controls. 1.4 Million Car Models Vulnerable Not just Jeep Cherokee, but the rest of ...

Anonymity is something that seems next to impossible in this era of government surveillance. Even Tor and VPNs are no longer seem to be enough to protect user privacy. Once your IP address is discovered, your Game Over! However, a method have been devised that not only allow users to anonymously connect to public Wi-Fi network, but also let them connect from about 2.5 Miles away . Security researcher Benjamin Caudill has developed a device that adds an extra layer of anonymity to whistleblowers, journalists, dissidents and, of course, criminals. Dubbed ProxyHam , it's a " hardware proxy " that allows users to connect to a long-distance public Wi-Fi network over an unidentifiable low-frequency radio channels, making it more difficult for government agencies and spies to unearth the real identity and source of the Internet traffic. How Proxyham is made?  Proxyham is comprised of a WiFi-enabled Raspberry Pi computer , along with a three antennas setu...