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What you'll do if Ransomware infects you? Should you pay or not to recover your files? Believe me, the FBI advises - Pay off the criminals to get your files back if you don't have a backup. But paying off a ransom to cyber criminals is definitely not a wise option because there is no guarantee that you'll get the decryption key in return. In the latest incident, the new variant of KillDisk ransomware has been found encrypting Linux machines, making them unbootable with data permanently lost. What is KillDisk? KillDisk is a destructive data wiping malware that has previously been used to sabotage companies by randomly deleting files from the computers. KillDisk is the same component associated with the Black Energy malware that was used to hit several Ukrainian power stations in 2015, cutting power for thousands of people. But according to ESET security researchers, the nasty KillDisk disk wiper malware is back with new variants that target Windows and Lin...

Update: A hacker yesterday claimed to have hacked the FBI's website running on Plone CMS, but it seems it wasn't hacked using any zero-day vulnerability in Plone. We contacted Plone security team and updated this story (see below) with official statements. A hacker, using Twitter handle CyberZeist , has claimed to have hacked the FBI's website (fbi.gov) and leaked personal account information of several FBI agents publically. CyberZeist had initially exposed the flaw on 22 December, giving the FBI time to patch the vulnerability in its website's code before making the data public. The hacker exploited a zero-day vulnerability in the Plone CMS , an Open Source Content Management software used by FBI to host its website, and leaked personal data of 155 FBI officials to Pastebin , including their names, passwords, and email accounts. CyberZeist tweeted multiple screenshots as proof of his claims, showing his unauthorized access to server and database files usi...

Ransomware has been around for a few years, but in last two years, it has become one of the fastest growing threats to businesses and users across the world, so will be in 2017. Ransomware is a piece of malware that encrypts files on your computer with strong encryption algorithms and then demands a ransom money in Bitcoin to decrypt the data so you can regain access to your encrypted files. We have seen some nastier ransomware infections over the past couple of years. The most interesting one was Popcorn Time that decrypts victims files for free if they pass the infection on to other people. Now, a new strain of ransomware takes the infection to a whole new level of craziness. Dubbed Koolova , the ransomware will restore your encrypted files for free, just like Popcorn Time. The only difference between both the infections is that you don't have to infect others to get free decryption key. Instead, all you have to do is educate yourself about ransomware by reading two...

Not every security vulnerability is high risk on its own - but in the hands of an advanced attacker, even small weaknesses can escalate into major breaches. These five real vulnerabilities, uncovered by Intruder's bug-hunting team, reveal how attackers turn overlooked flaws into serious security incidents. 1. Stealing AWS Credentials with a Redirect Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) is a common vulnerability that can have a significant impact, especially in cloud-hosted applications. If a web application fetches resources from user-supplied URLs, care should be taken to ensure attackers can't manipulate requests to access unintended resources. While assessing a home-moving app running in AWS, our team tested common SSRF bypass techniques. The attack chain was as follows: the app sent a webhook request to the attacker's web server, which responded with a 302 redirect to AWS's metadata service. The app followed the redirect and logged the response, which exposed sensitive metadat...

What a good start of the New Year for those holding Bitcoins! Web-based digital currency Bitcoin has passed $1,110 for the first time on the Bitstamp Price Index (BPI) since early November 2013. Bitcoin broke the barrier on 1 January and now is trading above $1,150 mark at the time of writing, marking a bright beginning to 2017 for the digital currency. At the time of writing, 1 Bitcoin = $1158.99. Bitcoin is a revolutionary virtual currency that has no central authority; instead, it relies on thousands of computers worldwide that validate transactions and add new Bitcoins to the system. The world's first and most famous cryptocurrency is developed around Blockchain, which is a complex cryptographic protocol and a global computer's network that oversees and verifies which Bitcoins have been spent by whom. The identity of the people spending Bitcoins is extremely difficult to trace because of its anonymous nature. Therefore, the currency is very popular among criminal...

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has announced a "prize competition" for creating a software or hardware-based solution with the ability to auto-patch vulnerable Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Today we are surrounded by a number of Internet-connected devices. Our homes are filled with tiny computers embedded in everything from security cameras, TVs and refrigerators to thermostat and door locks. While IoT is going to improve life for many, the number of security risks due to lack of stringent security measures and encryption mechanisms in the devices have increased exponentially, giving attackers a large number of entry points to affect you in some or the other way. Remember Mirai Botnet ? A botnet of just 100,000 hijacked IoT devices was used to flood the Dyn DNS service with unwanted requests and close down the Internet for Millions of Users a few months ago. At that time, Chinese firm Hangzhou Xiongmai Technology admitted its smart products – DVRs and ...

Nearly two years back, we warned users about publicly accessible MongoDB instances – almost 600 Terabytes (TB) – over the Internet which require no authentication, potentially leaving websites and servers at risk of hacking. These MongoDB instances weren't exposed due to any flaw in its software, but due to a misconfiguration (bad security practice) that let any remote attacker access MongoDB databases without using any special hacking tool. MongoDB later resolved the issue in the next version of its software by setting unrestricted remote access by default in the configuration, thousands of site administrators have not updated their servers yet. But trust me, they'll now regret this! A Hacker is now hijacking and wiping out unsecured MongoDB databases , but keeping a copy of those databases for asking administrators a ransom of 0.2 Bitcoins (nearly US$211) to return the lost data. So, admins without backups are left in a bind. In fact, the rising price of Bitcoin...

A security researcher recently reported a critical vulnerability in one of the most popular open source PHP libraries used to send emails that allowed a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code in the context of the web server and compromise a web application. Disclosed by Polish security researcher Dawid Golunski of Legal Hackers, the issue ( CVE-2016-10033 ) in PHPMailer used by more than 9 Million users worldwide was thought to be fixed with the release of version 5.2.18. However, Golunski managed to bypass the patched version of PHPMailer that was given a new CVE ( CVE-2016-10045 ), which once again put millions of websites and popular open source web apps, including WordPress, Drupal, 1CRM, SugarCRM, Yii, and Joomla, at risk of remote code execution attack. PHPMailer eventually fixed the issue with an update, version 5.2.20 . All versions of PHPMailer before this critical release are affected, so web administrators and developers are strongly recommended to update to t...

After the lack of supply of cash in India following its Prime Minister step to remove high-denomination banknotes from circulation in November 2016, the country is moving a step closer towards becoming a cashless economy with the launch of Unified Payment Interface ( UPI ). Unified Payment Interface ( UPI ) allows all bank account holders to pay money from their smartphones, both online and offline, without the need to enter credit card details, IFSC code, or net banking userID/passwords. All the users need to do is create a Virtual Payment Address (VPA) of their choice, which will act as their financial address, and link it to their bank account. Now in an effort to boost the adoption of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as a tool for digital transactions, Indian Government has recently launched a new app called, the Bharat Interface for Money ( BHIM ) app . This new digital payments app, which is believed to be a game-changer for cashless payments in India, is currently av...

The United States has expelled 35 Russian spies in response to Russia's alleged interference in last month's presidential election, further escalating tensions between the countries. The US state department has declared 35 diplomatic intelligence officials from the Russian embassy in Washington DC and the consulate in San Francisco "persona non grata," giving them and their families 72 hours to leave the country. President Barack Obama has also announced the closing of two Russian compounds, in New York and Maryland, used by the Russian officials for intelligence-gathering, from noon on Friday. "I have sanctioned nine entities and individuals: the GRU and the FSB, two Russian intelligence services; four individual officers of the GRU; and three companies that provided material support to the GRU's cyber operations," President Obama said in a statement . "In addition, the Secretary of the Treasury is designating two Russian individuals for ...

Three critical zero-day vulnerabilities have been discovered in PHP 7 that could allow an attacker to take complete control over 80 percent of websites which run on the latest version of the popular web programming language. The critical vulnerabilities reside in the unserialized mechanism in PHP 7 – the same mechanism that was found to be vulnerable in PHP 5 as well, allowing hackers to compromise Drupal, Joomla, Magento, vBulletin and PornHub websites and other web servers in the past years by sending maliciously crafted data in client cookies. Security researchers at Check Point's exploit research team spent several months examining the unserialized mechanism in PHP 7 and discovered "three fresh and previously unknown vulnerabilities" in the mechanism. While researchers discovered flaws in the same mechanism, the vulnerabilities in PHP 7 are different from what was found in PHP 5. Tracked as CVE-2016-7479, CVE-2016-7480, and CVE-2016-7478, the zero-day flaw...

Another day, another creepy malware for Android users! Security Researchers have uncovered a new Android malware targeting your devices, but this time instead of attacking the device directly, the malware takes control over the WiFi router to which your device is connected to and then hijacks the web traffic passing through it. Dubbed " Switcher ," the new Android malware, discovered by researchers at Kaspersky Lab, hacks the wireless routers and changes their DNS settings to redirect traffic to malicious websites. Over a week ago, Proofpoint researchers discovered similar attack targeting PCs, but instead of infecting the target's machines, the Stegano exploit kit takes control over the local WiFi routers the infected device is connected to. Switcher Malware carries out Brute-Force attack against Routers Hackers are currently distributing the Switcher trojan by disguising itself as an Android app for the Chinese search engine Baidu (com.baidu.com), and as ...

Hey, Alexa! Who did this murder? Arkansas police are seeking help from e-commerce giant Amazon for data that may have been recorded on its Echo device belonging to a suspect in a murder case, bringing the conflict into the realm of the Internet of Things. Amazon Echo is a voice-activated smart home speaker capable of controlling several smart devices by integrating it with a variety of home automation hubs. It can do tasks like play music, make to-do lists, set alarms, and also provide real-time information such as weather and traffic. As first reported by The Information, authorities in Bentonville have issued a warrant for Amazon to hand over audio or records from an Echo device belonging to James Andrew Bates in the hope that they'll aid in uncovering additional details about the murder of Victor Collins. Just like Apple refused the FBI to help them unlock iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino terrorists, Amazon also declined to give police any of the info...

After the success of Pokémon Go , Nintendo's " Super Mario Run " has become the hottest game to hit the market with enormous popularity and massive social impact. The game has taken the world by storm since its launch for iOS devices over a week ago. Can you believe  —  it was downloaded more than 40 million times worldwide in its first four days of release. But if you have downloaded a Super Mario Run APK for your Android device, Beware! That's definitely a malware. Since Super Mario Run has currently been released only for iOS devices and is not on Google Play, it caused a lot of disappointment among Android users. So, eventually, many Android device owners who love Mario games and can not wait to play Super Mario Run ended up downloading APKs outside of the Google Play Store. But those tons of phony copycat unofficial Super Mario apps on many third-party Android app stores turn out to be malware or viruses that attempt to look like the legitimate Super...

A critical vulnerability has been discovered in PHPMailer , which is one of the most popular open source PHP libraries to send emails used by more than 9 Million users worldwide. Millions of PHP websites and popular open source web applications, including WordPress, Drupal, 1CRM, SugarCRM, Yii, and Joomla comes with PHPMailer library for sending emails using a variety of methods, including SMTP to their users. Discovered by Polish security researcher Dawid Golunski of Legal Hackers , the critical vulnerability ( CVE-2016-10033 ) allows an attacker to remotely execute arbitrary code in the context of the web server and compromise the target web application. "To exploit the vulnerability an attacker could target common website components such as contact/feedback forms, registration forms, password email resets and others that send out emails with the help of a vulnerable version of the PHPMailer class," Golunski writes in the advisory published today. Golunski respo...

A bittersweet Christmas and New Year for users and fans of the most popular custom Android ROM, Cyanogen OS. Cyanogen that tried and failed to kill Google's Android operating system is now shutting down the custom services that it provides to phones that run its Cyanogen OS as we know it and the "nightly builds" of said OS on December 31st. Cyanogen came with an ambition to build better versions of the Android operating system than those created by Google itself, but following some technical and potential legal issues, the startup has decided to quit. The planned shutdown of Cyanogen was officially announced late Friday through a very brief blog post made by the company, saying "as part of the ongoing consolidation of Cyanogen," it's shutting down all services and nightly builds on December 31. "The open source project and source code will remain available for anyone who wants to build CyanogenMod personally," the blog reads. What ...

Bad news for gamers! It's once again the time when most of you will get new PlayStations and XBoxes that continue to be among the most popular gifts for Christmas, but possibilities are you'll not be able to log into the online gaming console, just like what happens on every Christmas holidays. On 2014 Christmas holidays, the notorious hacker group Lizard Squad knocked the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live offline for many gamers by launching massive DDoS attacks against the gaming networks. This time a new hacking group, who managed to take down Tumblr this week for almost two hours, has warned gamers of launching another large-scale distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack against XBox Live and PlayStation networks. Calling itself R.I.U. Star Patrol , the hacking group, posted a video on YouTube , announcing that they're planning to take down Sony's PSN and Microsoft's Xbox Live on Christmas Day by launching coordinated DDoS attacks. "We do it because w...

You might have also seen a viral video of the assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey that quickly spread through the Internet worldwide. Russian Ambassador Andrei Karlov was shot dead by an off-duty police officer in Ankara on December 19 when the ambassador was giving a speech at an art gallery. The shooter managed to pretend himself as his official bodyguard and later shot to death by Turkish special forces. After this shocking incident, Apple has been asked to help unlock an iPhone 4S recovered from the shooter, which could again spark up battle similar to the one between Apple and the FBI earlier this year. Turkish and Russian authorities have asked Apple to help them bypass the PIN code on an iPhone 4S, which, the authorities believe, could assist them to investigate killer's links to various terrorist organizations. Apple is expected to refuse the request, but according to MacReports and other local media, the Russian government is reportedly sending...

Here's the Raspberry Pi's Christmas treat for tech community! The Raspberry Pi Foundation has released an experimental version of its lightweight Linux-based Debian operating system called PIXEL OS that can run on most standard desktop computers ships with Windows and Mac OS X without the need of a Raspberry Pi. Initially launched in September this year, the PIXEL operating system, stands for "Pi Improved Xwindows Environment, Lightweight," was originally designed to work with Raspberry Pi to turn it into a fully-functional PC. However, Raspberry Pi has now released a version of PIXEL that comes preloaded with a variety of popular tools and can be installed directly on PCs and Mac computers, so you do not have to buy a Raspberry Pi to use PIXEL anymore. "There is a massive installed base of PC and Mac hardware out there, which can run x86 Debian just fine. Could we do something for the owners of those machines?" Raspberry Pi founder Eben Upton s...

Quantum Computers – Boon or Bane? Quantum computers can perform operations much more quickly and efficiently even with the use of less energy than conventional computers, but that's bad news for encryption — a process which scrambles data according to a massively complex mathematical code. In theory, quantum computers can break almost all the existing encryption algorithms used on the Internet today due to their immense computing power. Quantum computers are not just in theories; they're becoming a reality. With countries like China that holds the top two position in the world's most powerful supercomputers (Sunway TaihuLight and Tianhe-2), followed by the United States' Titan, the day is not far when Quantum computers will work on an industrial scale. Although it's hard to move quantum computing to an industrial scale, it has become a matter of concern for the United States' National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) over the fact that...

Google announced a Developers Preview of " Android Things " — an Android-based operating system platform for smart devices and Internet of Things (IoT) products. The Android-based Internet of Things OS is designed to make it easier for developers to build a smart appliance since they will be able to work with Android APIs and Google Services they're already familiar with. As the Developers page of Android Things says: " If you can build an app, you can build a device ." The Android-based Internet of Things operating system is supposed to run on products like security cameras, connected speakers, and routers. Android Things is a rebranded version Google Brillo , an Android-based IoT OS that Google announced in 2015, with added tools like Android Studio, the Android Software Development Kit (SDK), Google Play Services, and Google Cloud Platform. Unlike Brillo, development on Android Things can be achieved with " the same developer tools as stan...