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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 ...