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Over 70% of Wi-Fi networks from a sample size of 5,000 were hacked with "relative ease" in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, highlighting how unsecure Wi-Fi passwords can become a gateway for serious threats to individuals, small businesses, and enterprises alike. CyberArk security researcher Ido Hoorvitch, who used a Wi-Fi sniffing equipment costing about $50 to collect 5,000 network hashes for the study,  said  "the process of sniffing Wi-Fis and the subsequent cracking procedures was a very accessible undertaking in terms of equipment, costs and execution." The new Wi-Fi attack builds on  previous findings  by Jens "atom" Steube in 2018 that involves capturing what's called the PMKIDs associated with a client (aka SSID) in order to attempt a brute-force attack using password recovery tools like hashcat. PMKID is a  unique key identifier  used by the access point (AP) to keep track of the pre-shared key — i.e., pairwise master key aka PMK — being u

New vulnerabilities have been discovered in Fortress S03 Wi-Fi Home Security System that could be potentially abused by a malicious party to gain unauthorized access with an aim to alter system behavior, including disarming the devices without the victim's knowledge. The two unpatched issues, tracked under the identifiers CVE-2021-39276 (CVSS score: 5.3) and CVE-2021-39277 (CVSS score: 5.7), were discovered and reported by cybersecurity firm Rapid7 in May 2021 with a 60-day deadline to fix the weaknesses. The Fortress S03 Wi-Fi Home Security System is a do-it-yourself (DIY) alarm system that enables users to secure their homes and small businesses from burglars, fires, gas leaks, and water leaks by leveraging Wi-Fi and RFID technology for keyless entry. The company's security and surveillance systems are used by "thousands of clients and continued customers,"  according  to its website. Calling the vulnerabilities "trivially easy to exploit," Rapid7 re

The introduction of Open AI's ChatGPT was a defining moment for the software industry, touching off a GenAI race with its November 2022 release. SaaS vendors are now rushing to upgrade tools with enhanced productivity capabilities that are driven by generative AI. Among a wide range of uses, GenAI tools make it easier for developers to build software, assist sales teams in mundane email writing, help marketers produce unique content at low cost, and enable teams and creatives to brainstorm new ideas.  Recent significant GenAI product launches include Microsoft 365 Copilot, GitHub Copilot, and Salesforce Einstein GPT. Notably, these GenAI tools from leading SaaS providers are paid enhancements, a clear sign that no SaaS provider will want to miss out on cashing in on the GenAI transformation. Google will soon launch its SGE "Search Generative Experience" platform for premium AI-generated summaries rather than a list of websites.  At this pace, it's just a matter of a short time befo

A new set of critical vulnerabilities has been disclosed in the Realtek RTL8170C Wi-Fi module that an adversary could abuse to gain elevated privileges on a device and hijack wireless communications. "Successful exploitation would lead to complete control of the Wi-Fi module and potential root access on the OS (such as Linux or Android) of the embedded device that uses this module," researchers from Israeli IoT security firm Vdoo  said  in a write-up published yesterday. The Realtek  RTL8710C  Wi-Fi SoC underpins Ameba, an Arduino-compatible programmable platform equipped with peripheral interfaces for building a variety of IoT applications by devices spanning across agriculture, automotive, energy, healthcare, industrial, security, and smart home sectors. The flaws affect all embedded and IoT devices that use the component to connect to Wi-Fi networks and would require an attacker to be on the same Wi-Fi network as the devices that use the RTL8710C module or know the ne

Three design and multiple implementation flaws have been disclosed in IEEE 802.11 technical standard that undergirds Wi-Fi, potentially enabling an adversary to take control over a system and plunder confidential data. Called  FragAttacks  (short for FRgmentation and AGgregation Attacks), the weaknesses impact all Wi-Fi security protocols, from Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) all the way to Wi-Fi Protected Access 3 (WPA3), thus virtually putting almost every wireless-enabled device at risk of attack. "An adversary that is within radio range of a victim can abuse these vulnerabilities to steal user information or attack devices," Mathy Vanhoef, a security academic at New York University Abu Dhabi, said. "Experiments indicate that every Wi-Fi product is affected by at least one vulnerability and that most products are affected by several vulnerabilities." IEEE 802.11 provides the basis for all modern devices using the Wi-Fi family of network protocols, allowing lap

Taiwanese networking equipment manufacturer D-Link has agreed to implement a "comprehensive software security program" in order to settle a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lawsuit alleging that the company didn't take adequate steps to protect its consumers from hackers. Your wireless router is the first line of defense against potential threats on the Internet. However, sadly, most widely-used routers fail to offer necessary security features and have often found vulnerable to serious security flaws, eventually enabling remote attackers to unauthorizedly access networks and compromise the security of other devices connected to it. In recent years, the security of wireless networks has been more of a hot topic due to cyber attacks, as well as has gained headlines after the discovery of critical vulnerabilities—such as authentication bypass , remote code execution , hard-coded login credentials , and information disclosure—in routers manufactured by various brands.

Windows 10 users don't have to wait much longer for the support of latest WPA3 Wi-Fi security standard , a new blog post from Microsoft apparently revealed. The third version of Wi-Fi Protected Access, in-short WPA3, is the next generation of the wireless security protocol that has been designed to make it harder for attackers to hack WiFi password . WPA3 was officially launched earlier this year, but the new WiFi security standard won't arrive overnight. Most device manufacturers could take months to get their new routers and networking devices certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance to support WPA3. Meanwhile, technology providers have already started working on software and firmware updates to support the new WPA3 standard, including Microsoft. WPA3-Personal (SAE) Support in Windows 10 Though Microsoft hasn't yet officially announced WPA3 support for its Windows 10 operating system, new APIs introduced in the newly released Windows 10 SDK Preview build 18272 , as ma

Do you know what is the latest version of Wi-Fi? It's okay if you don't know. It is — Wi-Fi is 802.11ac. I am sure many of us can't answer this question immediately because the Wi-Fi technology doesn't have a traditional format of version numbers… at least until yesterday. The Wi-Fi Alliance—the group that manages the implementation of Wi-Fi—has today announced that the next version of WiFi standard, which is 802.11ax, will use a simpler naming scheme and will be called WiFi 6. Wi-Fi 6, based on the IEEE 802.11ax standard, will offer higher data rates, increased capacity, good performance—even in dense environments (such as stadiums or public venues) and improved power efficiency, making it perfect choice for smart home and IoT uses). Of course, the updated version names of all previous Wi-Fi standards will now be: 802.11b → Wi-Fi 1 802.11a → Wi-Fi 2 802.11g → Wi-Fi 3 802.11n → Wi-Fi 4, 802.11ac (current) → Wi-Fi 5 This new straightforward approach

The Wi-Fi Alliance today officially launched WPA3 —the next-generation Wi-Fi security standard that promises to eliminate all the known security vulnerabilities and wireless attacks that are up today including the dangerous KRACK attacks . WPA, or Wi-Fi Protected Access, is a standard designed to authenticate wireless devices using the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) protocol and is intended to prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your wireless data. However, in late last year, security researchers uncovered a severe flaw in the current WPA2 protocol, dubbed KRACK (Key Reinstallation Attack), that made it possible for attackers to intercept, decrypt and even manipulate WiFi network traffic. Although most device manufacturers patched their devices against KRACK attacks, the WiFi Alliance, without much delay, rushed to finalize and launch WPA3 in order to address WPA2's technical shortcomings from the ground. What is WPA3? What New Security Features WPA3 Offers? WP

Image Source: Libelium Here's a new danger to your smartphone security: Your mobile device can be hijacked and tracked without your knowledge. Remember Stingrays ? The controversial cell phone spying tool, also known as " IMSI catchers ," has long been used by law enforcement to track and monitor mobile users by mimicking a cellphone tower and tricking their devices to connect to them. Sometimes it even intercepts calls and Internet traffic, sends fake texts, and installs spyware on a victim's phone. Setting up such Stingrays-type surveillance devices , of course, is expensive and needs a lot of efforts, but researchers have now found a new, cheapest way to do the same thing with a simple Wi-Fi hotspot. Yes, Wi-Fi network can capture IMSI numbers from nearby smartphones, allowing almost anyone to track and monitor people wirelessly. IMSI or international mobile subscriber identity is a unique 15-digit number used for authentication of a person when movi

Can you rely on a single loudspeaker in your living room for great sound throughout your home? Nah! In the same way, you can not expect a single WiFi router to provide stable range throughout your home. To solve this issue, Google will soon power your home's wireless internet network with its own-brand new WiFi router called Google WiFi , according to a new report. Google is set to launch a lot of new gadgets at its hardware event on October 4 including the new Pixel smartphones, Google Home, the refreshed 4K-capable Chromecast rumored to be called Chromecast Ultra and the new Google WiFi router. But the Google WiFi router might be the biggest surprise of the bunch. Google WiFi is said to be designed in such a way that it can be deployed in groups to create a mesh network so that multiple units can be linked together, similar to Eero's incredible router, according to a report from Android Police. With Google WiFi, you simply need to plug one device into your