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It's not every time malware creators have to steal or buy a valid code-signing certificate to sign their malware – Sometimes the manufacturers unknowingly provide themselves . This is what exactly done by a Taiwan-based networking equipment manufacturer D-Link , which accidently published its Private code signing keys inside the company's open source firmware packages. Dutch news site Tweakers made aware of the issue by one of its readers with online moniker " bartvbl " who had bought a D-Link DCS-5020L security camera and downloaded the firmware from D-Link, which open sources its firmware under the GPL license. However, while inspecting the source code of the firmware, the reader found what seemed to be four different private keys used for code signing. Hackers Could Sign Malware After testing, the user managed to successfully create a Windows application , which he was able to sign with one of the four code signing keys belonging to D-Lin

Last fall the non-profit foundation EFF ( Electronic Frontier Foundation ) launched an initiative called Let's Encrypt that aimed at providing Free Digital Cryptographic Certificates (TLS) to any website that needs them. Today, Let's Encrypt – a free automated Open-source Certificate Authority (CA) – has signed its first certificate, hitting what it calls a major milestone to encrypt all of the Web. Let's Encrypt enables any Internet site to protect its users with free SSL/TLS (Secure Socket Layer/Transport Layer Security) certificates that encrypt all the data passed between a website and users. Not just free, but the initiative also makes HTTPS implementation easier for any website or online shopping site owner in order to ensure the security of their customers' data. "Forget about hours (or sometimes days) of muddling through complicated programming to set up encryption on a website, or yearly fees," EFF explains . "Let's Encr

It comes as no surprise that today's cyber threats are orders of magnitude more complex than those of the past. And the ever-evolving tactics that attackers use demand the adoption of better, more holistic and consolidated ways to meet this non-stop challenge. Security teams constantly look for ways to reduce risk while improving security posture, but many approaches offer piecemeal solutions – zeroing in on one particular element of the evolving threat landscape challenge – missing the forest for the trees.  In the last few years, Exposure Management has become known as a comprehensive way of reigning in the chaos, giving organizations a true fighting chance to reduce risk and improve posture. In this article I'll cover what Exposure Management is, how it stacks up against some alternative approaches and why building an Exposure Management program should be on  your 2024 to-do list. What is Exposure Management?  Exposure Management is the systematic identification, evaluation,

Last month, when hackers leaked nearly 100 gigabytes of sensitive data belonging to the popular online casual sex and marriage affair website ' Ashley Madison ', there was at least one thing in favor of 37 Million cheaters that their Passwords were encrypted . But, the never ending saga of Ashley Madison hack could now definitely hit the cheaters hard, because a group of crazy Password Cracking Group, which calls itself CynoSure Prime , has cracked more than 11 Million user passwords just in the past 10 days, not years. Yes, the hashed passwords that were previously thought to be cryptographically protected using Bcrypt, have now been cracked successfully. Bcrypt is a cryptographic algorithm that makes the hashing process so slow that it would literally take centuries to brute-force all of the Ashley Madison account passwords. How do they Crack Passwords? The Password cracking team identified a weakness after reviewing the leaked data, which included u

Sometimes, instead of black and white we tend to look out, how a grey would look? Yes, today we are going to discuss the 'entangling' or 'superpositioning' which is a power packed functionality of quantum computers. And simultaneously, how can they pose a threat when fully launched in the world. Superposition is a state in which a system can be in multiple stages i.e. it can be 'up' and 'down' at the same time. The Quantum systems can hit different modules of a problem simultaneously, split across possible versions of the universe. What are Quantum Computers? Quantum computers are going to be the next huge development in computing for processing data, with an ability to perform calculations thousands of times faster than today's modern supercomputers. Quantum computing is not well suited for tasks such as word processing and email, but it is ideal for tasks such as cryptography, modeling and indexing enormous databases. A quantum computer can compute in min

T he O nion R outer (Tor) is weeping Badly! Yes, Tor browser is in danger of being caught once again by the people commonly known as " Spies ," who's one and only intention is to intrude into others' network and gather information. A team of security researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed digital attacks that can be used to unmask Tor hidden services in the Deep Web with a high degree of accuracy. The Tor network is being used by journalists, hackers, citizens living under repressive regimes as well as criminals to surf the Internet anonymously. A plethora of nodes and relays in Tor network is used to mask its users and make tracking very difficult. Any user when connects to Tor, the connection gets encrypted and routed through a path called a "circuit ." The request first reaches an entry node, also known as a ' Guard ' that knows the actual IP address of the user, and then goes through every ho

Security researchers have developed a more practical and feasible attack technique against the RC4 cryptographic algorithm that is still widely used to encrypt communications on the Internet. Despite being very old, RC4 (Rivest Cipher 4) is still the most widely used cryptographic cipher implemented in many popular protocols, including: SSL (Secure Socket Layer) TLS (Transport Layer Security) WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) Microsoft's RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) BitTorrent and many more However, weaknesses in the algorithm have been found over the years, indicating that the RC4 needs to be wiped from the Internet. But, yet about 50% of all TLS traffic is currently protected using the RC4 encryption algorithm. Now, the situation got even worse, when two Belgian security researchers demonstrated a more practical attack against RC4, allowing an attacker to subsequently expose encrypted information in a much shorter amount of time t

If you rely on messaging apps to remain in contact with your family members and friends, then you may have to switch back to old-fashioned text messaging service in matter of weeks due to a new law currently going through Parliament. WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger to Ban in UK The popular messaging applications, including WhatsApp, Snapchat, iMessage and Facebook Messenger, could all potentially be banned in the UK under the controversial ' Snoopers Charter '. The Investigatory Powers Bill -- the so-called Snoopers Charter -- mentioned in the 2015 Queen's Speech , would allow UK government to eradicate instant messaging apps that refuse to switch off end-to-end encryption from their services. Earlier this year in light of the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris, Prime Minister David Cameron hinted at the crackdown when he claimed that he would ban encrypted messaging apps like Snapchat, WhatsApp and Messenger unless they didn't comply with new surve

The Awareness to encrypt your private data, chat conversations as well as communication is booming like never before that soon the world will mark some day as the International Encryption Day . This may or may not be possible in future, but Toshiba is all set to create a next level of encryption technology that the firm claims is absolutely unbreakable and " completely secure from tapping ". The best way to ensure the complete security of the communication is to make use of a one-time key to decode encrypted data. However, the problem remains to transfer this key from one place to another safely when even mail carriers may be spying on you. Uncrackable Encryption Technology: The Quantum Cryptography System To get rid of this issue, Toshiba is creating a 'foolproof' Q uantum Cryptography System that uses photons sent over a custom-made fiber optic cable that is not connected to the Internet. Thus, anyone trying to intercept the user's d

Let's Encrypt , a project aimed to provide free-of-charge and easier-to-implement way to obtain and use a digital cryptographic certificates (SSL/TLS) to secure HTTPS website, is looking forward to issue its first digital certificates next month. With Let's Encrypt , any webmaster interested in implementing HTTPS for their services can get the certificates for free, which is a great move for encouraging people to encrypt their users' connections to their websites. Let's Encrypt is a combined effort of digital-era rights advocate Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Mozilla Foundation , Cisco Systems , Internet content distributor Akamai Technologies , certificate provider IdenTrust and researchers from the University of Michigan . Generally, the process of implementation of an SSL certificate, including the need to obtain and install a certificate, is complicated for most web developers as it sounds. In most cases, the cost related issues force web adm

The USB flash drives or memory sticks are an excellent way to store and carry data and applications for access on any system you come across. With storage spaces already reaching 256 gigabytes, nowadays USB drives are often larger than past's hard drives. Thanks to increased storage capacity and low prices, you can easily store all your personal data on a tiny, easy-to-carry, USB memory stick. The USB drive is a device that is used by almost everyone today. However, there's a downside… I think you'll agree with me when I say: USB sticks are easily lost or stolen. Aren't they? However, in today's post I am going to show you how to use your USB drives without fear of being misplaced. If you are not aware, the leading cause of data breaches for the past few years has been the loss or theft of laptops and USB storage devices. However, USB flash memory sticks are generally treated with far less care than laptops, and criminals seeking for corporate devices could cost your c

Gaana.com -- One of India's most popular music streaming service with more than 10 Million registered users and 7.5 Million monthly visitors -- has reportedly been hacked, exposing the site's user information database. A Pakistani hacker, who claimed responsibility for the hack, claims that details of over 10 Million users of Gaana service including their username, email addresses, MD5-encrypted password, date of births, and other personal information has been stolen and made available in a searchable database. At the time of writing, Gaana website is currently down for maintenance without any official statement provided yet. As of now, the site displays, "Site is down due to server maintenance. We will be back shortly. Kindly bear with us till then." Details of 10 Million Users Available in a Searchable Database: The hacker, nicknamed Mak Man , posted the link to a searchable database of Gaana user details on his Facebook page, with images of t

After HeartBleed , POODLE and FREAK  encryption flaws, a new encryption attack has been emerged over the Internet that allows attackers to read and modify the sensitive data passing through encrypted connections, potentially affecting hundreds of thousands of HTTPS-protected sites, mail servers, and other widely used Internet services. A team of security researchers has discovered a new attack, dubbed Logjam , that allows a man-in-the-middle (MitM) to downgrade encrypted connections between a user and a Web or email server to use extremely weaker 512-bit keys which can be easily decrypted. Johns Hopkins crypto researcher Matthew Green along with security experts from the University of Michigan and the French research institute Inria has discovered LogJam a few months ago and published a technical report that details the flaw. Logjam — Cousin of FREAK Logjam encryption flaw sounds just like FREAK vulnerability disclosed at the beginning of March.  The FREA

A simple but shockingly dangerous vulnerability has been uncovered in the NetUSB component, putting Millions of modern routers and other embedded devices across the globe at risk of being compromised by hackers. The security vulnerability, assigned CVE-2015-3036 , is a remotely exploitable kernel stack buffer overflow flaw resides in Taiwan-based KCodes NetUSB . NetUSB is a Linux kernel module that allows for users to flash drives, plug printers and other USB-connected devices into their routers so that they can be accessed over the local network. NetUSB component is integrated into modern routers sold by some major manufacturers including D-Link, Netgear, TP-Link, ZyXEL and TrendNet. The security flaw, reported by Stefan Viehbock of Austria-based SEC Consult Vulnerability Lab, can be triggered when a client sends the computer name to the server deployed on the networking device (TCP port 20005) in order to establish a connection. However, if a connecting comp

Last week, I have to communicate with my friend overseas in China. We both were aware that our email communications were being monitored. So, we both were forced to install and use a fully-fledged encrypted email system. Although it appeared to be very secure, it was quite cumbersome to handle. If you are ever faced with the same situation, I am here to introduce you a very simple and easy-to-use approach to encrypt your files and send them to the person you want to communicate with. Here's the Kicker: You don't even need to install any software or sign up to any website in order to use the file encryption service. So, what do I have today in my box? " Otr.to " — an open-source peer-to-peer browser-based messaging application that offers secure communication by making use of "Off-the-Record" (OTR) Messaging, a cryptographic protocol for encrypting instant messaging applications. We first introduced you Otr.to two months ago. At that time,

After facing much criticism for violation of Net Neutrality, Facebook has opened up its new Internet.org platform to developers for creating their apps and services in India and other countries. Facebook's Internet.org aims at offering free Internet access to " the next 5 billion " impoverished people around the world who currently don't have it. This current move now would potentially allow any website to be accessed for free via the Internet.org service, but only in the case, if the website ditches the encrypted communications (HTTPS), JavaScript, and other important things. Internet for All: Facebook offers free mobile Internet access to people in India , Zambia , Colombia, Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana, Philippines and Indonesia . However, in order to access the free Internet, users must have special Android apps, Internet.org's website, the Opera Mini web browser or Facebook's Android app. Until now, the Internet.org scheme had been

Encryption is one of the major steps to be taken by every big technology giant in order to protect its users over the Internet, and, among those, Google has set an admirable example by gradually moving all of its online services to use strong HTTPS encryption. So far, Google encrypted email by switching its Gmail service to HTTPS, Google encrypted data communicating between its servers, Google gives priority to encrypted websites in its search results, as well as Google search also uses HTTPS . Now: To help protect privacy and security of its users, the search engine giant is moving its advertising platforms to HTTPS , as well. Google has already moved its YouTube advertisements to HTTPS as of the end of last year, but Google has a widely spread ad network that serves ads to Hundreds of Millions of users across the Globe every day. However, the content of those ads are mainly controlled by the advertisers, and we cannot predict their intention. To better comba

Mozilla has rolled out the latest Version 37 of its Firefox browser for Windows desktop, Mac, Linux and Android operating systems. The new release also adds patches for 13 different security advisories along with some new security improvements as well as user-experience features. The biggest security feature added to Firefox 37 among others is the "Opportunistic Encryption" (OE) for servers and websites that support " HTTP/2 AltSvc. " Opportunistic Encryption (OE) allows Firefox browser to encrypt the traffic over plaintext HTTP connection without any need to authenticate it. This will help you to create, not complete, but some confidentiality from attackers to eavesdrop on your connection. So Opportunistic encryption can be implemented with very minimal changes to an existing IPsec implementation. The move by Mozilla is really a bonus for HTTP users with no encryption measure at all, but still it is not as good as authenticated encryption