The Hacker News | #1 Trusted Cybersecurity News Site — Index Page

On Wednesday, Chief of National Security Agency (NSA) , General Keith Alexander defended US surveillance programs as part of a Noble Mission to protect the nation. He said that the collection of bulk phone records by U.S. Intelligence agencies are essential to preventing terrorist attacks. He referenced the criticism thrown at the intelligence services in late 2001 for not connecting the dots that led up to the Sept. 11 attacks. " We need our nation to understand why we need these tools, and what those tools mean for civil liberties and privacy and what they mean to defend this country, " General Keith Alexander said during a keynote speech at the Billington Cyber Security Summit in Washington. In recent months NSA has been targeted for severe criticism from privacy advocates, members of Congress and foreign allies of America, whose citizens may have been targets of this surveillance. Alexander pleaded for support of NSA programs during his speech at the conference

If you lose your device, Google lets you secure it instantly from afar through Android Device Manager, that let you locate and remotely wipe your phones and tablets. The latest update to Android Device Manager enables remote password locking, overrides the built-in Pattern, PIN code, Face unlock or password-based security, making sure your data doesn't fall into wrong hands. To get started, go to google.com/android/devicemanager on your computer and go through your list of devices that are connected to your Google account. I tried the process with my Samsung Galaxy S4, and it worked like a charm. Google's new feature is a very useful one for those who don't have a lock on their phone and want to make sure their data is protected. A lock request will immediately secure any device connected to Wi-Fi or a cellular network, even if it's actively being used. If a thief has turned off a phone or enabled Airplane Mode, the lock will take effect as soon as a data co

In today's digital world, where connectivity is rules all, endpoints serve as the gateway to a business's digital kingdom. And because of this, endpoints are one of hackers' favorite targets.  According to the IDC,  70% of successful breaches start at the endpoint . Unprotected endpoints provide vulnerable entry points to launch devastating cyberattacks. With IT teams needing to protect more endpoints—and more kinds of endpoints—than ever before, that perimeter has become more challenging to defend. You need to improve your endpoint security, but where do you start? That's where this guide comes in.  We've curated the top 10 must-know endpoint security tips that every IT and security professional should have in their arsenal. From identifying entry points to implementing EDR solutions, we'll dive into the insights you need to defend your endpoints with confidence.  1. Know Thy Endpoints: Identifying and Understanding Your Entry Points Understanding your network's

Last week Apple releases the iPhone 5S  with Touch ID , a fingerprint-scanning feature, promoted by the company as " Your fingerprint is one of the best passwords in the world ". Just after the launch of iOS7 , Hackers around the world come up with a series of security issues and privacy concerns. One of the most embarrassing hack released yesterday, when a group of German Hackers fooled the iPhone 's biometric fingerprint security by just using a high resolution photo of someone's fingerprint. Now, We all are aware about many secret surveillance projects of NSA like PRISM , where U.S. government is collecting data from these Internet companies including - Apple. Apple claimed that, iPhone will never upload fingerprints to their server, but can we believe them anymore ? It is already proven that, During Surveillance operations and for Backup purpose, Smartphone applications can upload anything from your device to their online servers without any

A new Mac OS Malware has been discovered called OSX/Leverage . A , which appears to be yet another targeted command-and-control Trojan horse, that creates a backdoor on an affected user's machine. The Trojan named ' Leverage ' because the Trojan horse is distributed as an application disguised as a picture of two people kissing, possibly a scene from the television show " Leverage ". The attack launched via a Java applet from a compromised website and which drops a Java archive with the backdoor to the visitor's computer and launches it without a user intercation. To perform the attack, Malware uses two recently disclosed Java vulnerabilies  known as CVE-2013-2465 and CVE-2013-2471. Once it's installed, the Trojan connects to the C&C server on port 7777. Security vendor Intego said that Malware linked to Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) , because after installation Malware attempt to download an image associated with the Syrian Electronic A

Attackers exploiting a zero-day vulnerability CVE-2013-3893 in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser and served them on compromised popular Japanese news websites. According to FireEye , at least three major Japanese media websites were compromised in watering hole attacks, dubbed Operation DeputyDog , appears to target manufacturers, government entities and media organizations in Japan. The compromised sites recorded more than 75,000 page views before the exploits were discovered. The zero-day vulnerability in IE 8 and 9 allows the stealthy installation of software in the users' computers which then can be remotely accessed by the hackers. The hackers typically use Trojans designed specifically for a pay-to-order attack to steal intellectual property. Researchers saw a payload executable file used against a Japanese target posing as an image file hosted on a Hong Kong server. The attack in Japan was discovered two days after Microsoft disclosed the flaw ," The ex

Android malware is continuing to cause problems for end users with huge amounts of fraud and Malware campaigns going on. A lot of fake apps are currently on Google Play Store fooling thousands of consumers. Grand Theft Auto 5 , which hit stores last Tuesday and is shaping up to be the most lucrative video game release ever. Now, Rockstar Game do plan to bring their Grand Theft Auto V iFruit app for Android devices, but before official released, it's fake malicious versions are out in Google Play Market. Rockstar have confirmed that they haven't released the Android version yet, only the iOS version is available right now and Android owners are warned not to download them, because some could contain malicious malware . There are at least two fake apps have surfaced on the Google Play Store that use the same icon as iFruit in an attempt to mimic the real thing. The deceptive part about these apps is that the developer publicly listed appears as "Rockstar Game," suggesting that th

Apple has marketed TouchID both as a convenience and as a security feature. " Your fingerprint is one of the best passwords in the world ," says an Apple promotional video. A European hacker group has announced a simple, replicable method for spoofing Apple's TouchID fingerprint authentication system. The Apple TouchID it the technology developed by Apple to replace passcode on its mobile and help protect users' devices, it is based on a sensor placed under the home button and it is designed to substitute the four-digit passcode to unlock the handset and authorize iTunes Store purchases. But is it really so? Hackers members of the Chaos Computer Club claim to have defeated Apple TouchID fingerprint sensor for the iPhone 5S, just after the start of its sale to the public. " Fingerprints should not be used to secure anything. You leave them everywhere, and it is far too easy to make fake fingers out of lifted prints, " a hacker named Starbug was quoted as sa

Have you ever been wanting to take a picture of something you're looking at under your microscope but you just can't? Well, but now the Microphone Lens turns your iPhone or Android camera phone into a portable handheld microscope. By attaching a lightweight, inexpensive device to the back of a smart phone, researchers at the University of California (UCLA) can convert the phone into a sensitive fluorescence microscope. Microphone Lens allows the phone's camera to take pictures of single nanoparticles and viruses, possibly providing a portable diagnostic tool for health care workers in developing countries. In an experiment, A Nokia 808 PureView smartphone has been used to do fluorescent imaging on individual nanoparticles and viruses. By clipping on a 3D-printed attachment that included a laser bought on eBay Their work is funded by Nokia university research funding, the Army Research Office, the National Science Foundation, and other sources.

Just two days back Apple has yet fixed a security flaw in iOS 7 that allows anyone to bypass the lock screen to access users' personal data and the next one has already appeared. The new vulnerability was discovered by Karam Daoud, a 27 year old from the West Bank city of Ramallah in Palestine, that allows anyone to make calls from a locked iPhone , including international calls and calls to premium numbers. In a video, Daoud showed that calls can be made to any number from a locked iPhone running iOS 7 by using a vulnerability in the device's emergency calling function. The person needs to dial a number and then rapidly tap the call button until an empty screen with an Apple logo appears and makes the call to the particular number. The Forbes writer tested the flaw on two iPhone 5 devices on separate networks and it worked both times. This is the second malfunction found in the lock screen since iOS 7 was seeded to all iPhone owners this past Wednesday.

A team of researchers from the U.S. and Europe has developed a Hardware Trojan , which is an undetectable to many techniques, raising the question on need of proper hardware qualification.  They  released a paper on stealthy Dopant-Level Hardware Trojans, showing how integrated circuits used in computers, military equipment and other critical systems can be maliciously compromised during the manufacturing process. " In this paper we propose an extremely stealthy approach for implementing hardware Trojans below the gate level, and we evaluate their impact on the security of the target device. Instead of adding additional circuitry to the target design, we insert our hardware Trojans by changing the dopant polarity of existing transistors. " states the paper abstract. The Scientists devised two such backdoors they said adversaries could feasibly build into processors to surreptitiously bypass cryptographic protections provided by the computer running the chips

Like most iOS lock screen vulnerabilities, the passcode lock screen on iOS 7 also suffers from a bug that allows anyone with direct access to the iPhone or iPad. Although Apple claims to have fixed 80 security vulnerabilities with iOS 7, including the ability to bypass the lock screen in iOS 6.1.3, the same person who found the previous vulnerability has found yet another in iOS 7. Discovered by ' Jose Rodriquez ', an iPhone user reported a security flaw in iOS that lets anyone bypass the lockscreen passcode and access sensitive information stored in photos, Twitter, email and more. The flaw resides on users who lock their devices with a traditional PIN code or password. The security flaw is demonstrated in the video below and it works as follows: Swipe up from the bottom of the Lock screen to open Control Center and Launch the Clock app. Open the Alarm Clock section of the Clock app and Hold down the power button. Quickly tap Cancel the immediately doubl

At the Linuxcon conference in New Orleans today, Linus Torvalds and the other top Linux developers, talked to the Linux faithful about Linux, Microsoft, and other issues. During a question-and-answer ‪session ‬at ‪the LinuxCon,  Linux Torvalds admitted to questions from the audience th at the  U .S. Government   approached him to put a backdoor into his open-source operating system. Torvalds responded "no" while shaking his head "yes," as the audience broke into spontaneous laughter. Then someone asked if Linus would be interested in becoming Microsoft's CEO, which was answered with a big smile and because he is fully satisfied with the development of Linux and his life. He noted that when he started Linux 22 years ago, the hardware was very different than it is today. He expects that 20 years from now the hardware will change even more. " Linux usage keeps changing. Linux today is very different from even ten years ago ," Torvalds ad