def con hacking conference | 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," ...

Image Credit: @tjhorner Today, election hacking is not just about hacking voting machines, rather it now also includes hacking and leaking dirty secrets of the targeted political parties—and there won't be a perfect example than the last year's US presidential election . But, in countries like America, even hacking electronic voting machines is possible—that too, in a matter of minutes. Several hackers reportedly managed to hack into multiple United States voting machines in a relatively short period—in some cases within minutes, and in other within a few hours—at Def Con cybersecurity conference held in Las Vegas this week. Citing the concern of people with the integrity and security of American elections , for the first time, Def Con hosted a " Voting Machine Village " event, where tech-savvy attendees tried to hack some systems and help catch vulnerabilities. Voting Machine Village provided 30 different pieces of voting equipment used in American election...

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...

Internet of Things (IoT) is the latest buzz in the world of technology, but they are much easier to hack than you think. Until now we have heard many scary stories of hacking IoT devices , but how realistic is the threat? Just think of a scenario where you enter in your house, and it's sweltering, but when you head on to check the temperature of your thermostat, you find out that it has been locked to 99 degrees. And guess what? Your room thermostat is demanding $300 in Bitcoins to regain its control. Congratulations, Your Thermostat has been Hacked! This is not just a hypothetical scenario; this is exactly what Ken Munro and Andrew Tierney of UK-based security firm Pen Test Partners have demonstrated at the DEFCON 24 security conference in Las Vegas last Saturday. Two white hat hackers recently showed off the first proof-of-concept (PoC) ransomware that infects a smart thermostat. Ransomware is an infamous piece of malware that has been known for locking up comput...

Forget about security! It turns out that the Chip-and-PIN cards are just as easy to clone as magnetic stripe cards. It took researchers just a simple chip and pin hack to withdraw up to $50,000 in cash from an ATM in America in under 15 minutes. We have been told that EMV ( Europay, MasterCard and Visa ) chip-equipped cards provides an extra layer of security which makes these cards more secure and harder to clone than the old magnetic stripe cards. But, it turns out to be just a myth. A team of security engineers from Rapid7 at Black Hat USA 2016 conference in Las Vegas demonstrated how a small and simple modifications to equipment would be enough for attackers to bypass the Chip-and-PIN protections and enable unauthorized transactions. The demonstration was part of their presentation titled, "Hacking Next-Gen ATMs: From Capture to Washout," [ PDF ]. The team of researchers was able to show the audience an ATM spitting out hundreds of dollars in cash. Here...

Why we can't detect all security loopholes and patch them before hackers exploit them? Because... we know that humans are too slow at finding and fixing security bugs, which is why vulnerabilities like Heartbleed , POODLE and GHOST remained undetected for decades and rendered almost half of the Internet vulnerable to theft by the time patches were rolled out. Now to solve this hurdle, DARPA has come up with an idea: To build a smart Artificial Intelligence System that will automatically detect and even patch security flaws in a system. Isn't it a revolutionary idea for Internet Security? The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected seven teams of finalists who will face off in a historic battle, as each tries to defend themselves and find out flaws without any human control. The DARPA Cyber Grand Challenge will be held at the annual DEF CON hacking conference in Las Vegas next month. Must Read : Artificial Intelligence System that can detec...