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From today, every phone call you make, every text message you send and every email you write will compulsorily be tracked by the government agencies under a new metadata retention scheme. Yes, you heard right. If you are a citizen of Australia with a mobile phone and an Internet connection, your digital activity will be recorded. As the government's new data retention law comes into effect, the Australian telecommunications companies will now keep large amounts of your telecommunications metadata for two years. The law has allegedly been implemented to protect the country against organized terrorist and criminals, like every government agencies including the United States' intelligence agency NSA and British intelligence agency GCHQ claim. But… This new scheme vastly expands the retention of personal data, which has triggered a debate among Australians as it is a major invasion of privacy . WHAT IS BEING COLLECTED? Until today, data retention by ...

We know that Hackers hack for a variety of reasons: ...some hack to test their skills, …some hack to gain recognition, ...some hack to make money, ...some hack to support their Nation-State strategy, ...and, some hack alone, and some hack in Groups. And Chinese Hackers are the ones who are infamous for their dedication towards Hacking. Chinese hacking groups are better known for attacking and stealing information, organized cyber crimes, theft of intellectual property and state-sponsored cyber espionage attacks. But it seems that several Chinese hacker groups have now shifted their motive of hacking towards ' making money '. How much Money Hackers Actually Make? It is a known fact that hacking makes money, but how much? Answer: At least $4,500,000/year   from one malware campaign. How? We often observe mobile and desktop applications bundled with Ad-displaying programs, called Adware, to generate revenue. Just last week we repo...

Remember Killer USB ?? In March, a Russian security researcher devised a weird USB stick that is capable of destroying sensitive components of a computer when plugged-in. Now, the same researcher, nicknamed Dark Purple , has launched a new version of his computer-frying USB Killer pendrive – USB Killer version 2.0 . USB Killer 2.0 is much more powerful than the previous version and is able to "kill" more than just a PC it is plugged in. USB Killer 2.0 is More Powerful to Damage any Computer The first version of USB Killer was consist of a DC/DC converter, a few caps and an FET. When plugged into a system, the converter in the USB Killer would charge the caps up to -110V , apply that voltage to signal lines of the USB interface, and repeat the entire process until everything possible in the computer is broken down. However, the second version of USB Killer dump -220V directly onto the signal lines of the USB interface, which is powerful enough to...

Are you intrigued with the idea of disassembling things and making them work your ways? Then you'll find this coverage to be one of its kind! Google OnHub Router runs ChromiumOS ( Chrome OS ), the same Linux-based operating system that powers Google Chromebook laptops and desktops. Yeah, It's True. A Group of researchers has revealed that Google OnHub Router is actually a modified Chromebook in Cylindrical form and without screen. OnHub is a modern dual-band wireless router, designed by Google and TP-Link, operates networks on both the 2.4GHz & 5GHz frequency bands simultaneously and offers the speed of up to 1900 Mbps. Unlike traditional Broadband Routers, Google OnHub is designed to support " The Internet of Things " as well as other Smart devices, including Smartphones, Connected TVs and Computers. A Team of Modders at Exploitee.rs , also famous as GTVHacker , have successfully managed to root Google OnHub device, in the same way, they ...

Yes, Dell is going to acquire data storage company EMC in a deal worth $67 BILLLLLLION – the largest tech deal of all time. It's record-breaking... Computing giant Dell on Monday finally confirmed that the company is indeed going to purchase the company for creating what it calls " the world's largest privately-controlled, integrated technology company. " Most of you might not have heard of EMC corporation, but it is a tech titan that operates many of the services you use nowadays. EMC offers data center storage and data processing for big technology companies, and now it is been acquired by Dell. " The combination of Dell and EMC creates an enterprise solutions powerhouse bringing our customers industry leading innovation across their entire technology environment, " Michael Dell, CEO and chairman of Dell, said in a statement . The acquisition will benefit Dell to create a new company that will sell a broad range of both consumer as well as ...

Here we are with our weekly roundup, showcasing last week's top cyber security threats and challenges. Just in case you missed any of them (ICYMI), THN Weekly Round-Up helps you provide all important stories of last week in one shot. We advise you to read the full story (just click ' Read More ' because there's some valuable advice in it as well). Here's the list: 1. Facebook to Launch Its Own Satellite to Beam Free Internet Facebook has revealed its plans to launch a  $500 Million Satellite  by next year in an effort to provide free or cheap Internet access in the developing countries. The social network giant has teamed up with the French satellite provider  Eutelsat  Communications to  beam free Internet  access to several parts of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. For detailed information on Facebook's Satellite Project –  Read more … 2. Angler Exploit Kit Campaign Generating $30 Million Took Down Researchers...

Apple has removed several apps from its official iOS App Store that have the ability to compromise encrypted connections between the servers and the end-users. Apple has officially said: We have removed a "few" apps from the iOS App Store that could install root certificates and allow monitoring your data. It's like- they have analyzed and admitted that they lacked in the auditing of the App Store hosted Apps. The company is also advising its users to uninstall the malicious apps from their iPhones, iPads and iPods in order to prevent themselves from monitoring, though it has yet to name the offending apps. App Store Apps Spy on Encrypted Traffic The challenge that stood before Apple was, they discovered that "few" of the Apps in the iOS App Store were capable of spying on the users by compromising SSL/TLS security solutions of their online communication. Root certificates are the fundamental part of how encrypted connections like HTT...

Yes, NETGEAR Routers have once again become a victim of DNS Monitoring, potentially affecting 11,000 Devices. This week, we reported about a Vigilante Hacker , who protected users by installing malware on their Wi-Fi routers, forcing them to use a secure password. Now within few days, a security researcher has discovered a serious vulnerability in Netgear routers that has been publicly exploited by hackers. The critical flaw could allow hackers to bypass authentication mechanism and change the Domain Name System (DNS) settings of victims' routers to the malicious IP address. [ Exploit Code ] A security researcher, named Joe Giron, gave the details of his experience to BBC, saying that he noticed some anonymous activities in his machine and on investigating he learned that: The admin settings on his personal router have been modified on 28 September. Specifically, Domain Name System (DNS) settings on his router were changed to a suspicious IP address. ...

For the very first time in history, China has arrested hackers within its borders at the request of the United States government. The helping hands of China made me remind of recent Hollywood movie, The Martian , in which China's CNSA helped the United States' NASA to rescue astronaut Mark Watney who was mistakenly presumed dead and left behind on the planet Mars. Although China did not rescue anyone, rather it did arrest, but the point is – China helped the United States. Just two weeks before Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the U.S., the Chinese government took unprecedented step by complying with a United States request and arresting a handful of hackers within its borders, anonymous U.S. officials told the Washington Post. The arrested hackers were suspected of stealing commercial secrets from U.S. firms and then selling or passing on those secrets to Chinese state-run companies. The hackers were part of a wanted list drawn up by the U.S....

After the revelations that Whistleblower Edward Snowden made about the United States National Security Agency (NSA), the U.S. citizens are in need of more transparent digital security. The Citizens of the United States have appealed to the Obama Administration through a campaign for rejecting any policy, mandate or law that stands against their security in the cyberspace and adopt strong encryption for them. The Washington Post reported that the Obama Administration has agreed partially on the encrypted communications issue. "The administration has decided not to seek a legislative remedy now, but it makes sense to continue the conversations with industry," James B. Comey , FBI Director, said at a Senate hearing Thursday of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. This decision is considered as the Status Quo. It is like a win-win situation to decrease the tension because of the Petition and regard the law enforcement agencies as well a...

Sanmay Ved – the man who actually managed to buy Google.com got a huge reward from Google, but he donated all money to charity. Last week, an ex-Google employee and now-Amazon employee managed to buy the world's most-visited domain Google.com via Google's own Domains service for only $12 . However, Ved owned Google.com for one whole minute before the Mountain View company realized it was a mistake and cancelled the transaction. After acknowledging the mistake, Google rewarded Ved with some unknown amount of cash, but when Ved generously suggested donating his prize money to charity instead, Google just doubled the reward. Google Rewarded Ved with More than $10,000 Ved believed that his real reward was just being the person who bought Google.com for a whole minute. "I do not care about the money," Ved told in an interview with Business Insider. "It was never about the money. I also want to set an example that [there are] people who [wi...

Most of the times, we have reported about WordPress vulnerabilities involving vulnerable plugins, but this time security researchers have discovered Brute Force Amplification attacks on the most popular CMS (content management system) platform. Researchers from security firm Sucuri have found a way to perform Brute Force amplification attacks against WordPress' built-in XML-RPC feature to crack down administrator credentials. XML-RPC is one of the simplest protocols for securely exchanging data between computers across the Internet. It uses the system.multicall method that allows an application to execute multiple commands within one HTTP request. A number of CMS including WordPress and Drupal support XML-RPC. But… The same method has been abused to amplify their Brute Force attacks many times over by attempting hundreds of passwords within just one HTTP request, without been detected. Amplified Brute-Force Attacks This means instead of trying tho...

Samsung has been surrounded by a lot of controversies since the past few years, but that has not influenced its productivity. But this report has raised a few eyebrows... Samsung's mobile payment system company, LoopPay , was hacked back in March this year, just a month after Samsung bought it to help make Samsung Pay a reality. Samsung acquired LoopPay for more than $250 Million in February this year, and a group of Chinese Hackers were able to access LoopPay computer systems in March. The most worrisome part is – the hack was discovered 5 months later in August . Hackers were After Technology; Not Money or Sensitive Data The hackers, believed to be from a group called ' Codoso Group ' or ' Sunshock Group ,' were after the company's Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) Technology . The group injected LoopPay's computer network with a hidden sophisticated attack in March, but the investigation kicked off when LoopPay learned of...

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) , which is widely used by many businesses and organisations to provide secure access to their workers, are being abused to pilfer corporate user credentials. Researchers from security firm Volexity discovered a new attack campaign that targets a widely used VPN product by Cisco Systems to install backdoors that collect employees' usernames and passwords used to login to corporate networks. The product in question is Cisco Systems' Web-based VPN – Clientless SSL VPN . Once an employee is authenticated, Clientless SSL VPNs allows him/her to access internal web resources, browse internal file shares, and launch plug-ins, which let them access internal web resources through telnet, SSH, or similar network protocols. The backdoor contains malicious JavaScript code that attackers used to inject into the login pages. Once injected, the backdoor is hard to detect because the malicious JavaScript is hosted on an external compromised...

SHA-1 – one of the Internet's widely adopted cryptographic hash function – is Just about to Die. Yes, the cost and time required to break the SHA1 algorithm have fallen much faster than previously expected. According to a team of researchers, SHA-1 is so weak that it may be broken and compromised by hackers in the next three months. The SHA-1 algorithm was designed in 1995 by the National Security Agency (NSA) as a part of the Digital Signature Algorithm. Like other hash functions, SHA-1 converts any input message to a long string of numbers and letters that serve as a cryptographic fingerprint for that message. Like fingerprints, the resulting hashes are useful as long as they are unique. If two different message inputs generate the same hash (also known as a collision ), it can open doors for real-world hackers to break into the security of banking transactions, software downloads, or any website communication. Collision Attacks on SHA-1 Researchers ...