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Hacking Team, the infamous Italy-based spyware company that had more than 400 GB of its confidential information stolen earlier this year, has resumed its operations and started pitching new hacking tools to help US law enforcement gets around their encryption issues . Yes, Hacking Team is back with a new set of Encryption Cracking Tools for government agencies as well as other customers to break encrypted communications. The announcement came in an email pitch sent to existing and potential new customers on October 19 when Hacking Team CEO David Vincenzetti confirmed that Hacking Team is now "finalizing [its] brand new and totally unprecedented cyber investigation solutions." The e-mail is not made public, but Motherboard has been able to obtain a copy of it that states: "Most [government agencies] in the United States and abroad will become 'blind,' they will 'go dark,' they will simply be unable to fight vicious phenomena such as te

Have you been infected with the insidious CoinVault or Bitcryptor ransomware? If so, there is some potentially good news for you. You may now recover your encrypted files for FREE! – Thanks to the efforts of Dutch police and antivirus maker Kaspersky Lab. Security researchers from Kaspersky Lab and the Dutch Public Prosecution Service have obtained and published the last set of encryption keys from command-and-control (C&C) servers used by two related ransomware threats – CoinVault and Bitcryptor . Security researchers first observed CoinVault ransomware attacks in May 2014. Since then, CoinVault has made more than 1,500 victims in more than 108 countries. In April 2015, the Dutch police obtained ' Decryption keys ' database from a seized command and control server of CoinVault. Ransomware Decryption Tool Those decryption keys were then used by Kaspersky Lab to set up a Ransomware Decryptor Service , which included a set of around 750 decryp

Imagine a world where the software that powers your favorite apps, secures your online transactions, and keeps your digital life could be outsmarted and taken over by a cleverly disguised piece of code. This isn't a plot from the latest cyber-thriller; it's actually been a reality for years now. How this will change – in a positive or negative direction – as artificial intelligence (AI) takes on a larger role in software development is one of the big uncertainties related to this brave new world. In an era where AI promises to revolutionize how we live and work, the conversation about its security implications cannot be sidelined. As we increasingly rely on AI for tasks ranging from mundane to mission-critical, the question is no longer just, "Can AI  boost cybersecurity ?" (sure!), but also "Can AI  be hacked? " (yes!), "Can one use AI  to hack? " (of course!), and "Will AI  produce secure software ?" (well…). This thought leadership article is about the latter. Cydrill  (a

The Creators of the notorious CryptoWall ransomware virus have managed to raise more than $325 million (£212 million) in this past year alone. Ransomware has emerged as one of the biggest cyber threats to web users in recent times. Typically, hackers primarily gain access to a user's computer system using a ransomware malware, which encrypts all files with a strong cryptographic algorithm, and demand a ransom money to be paid in Bitcoin, typically between $200 and $10,000. In June 2014, researchers first discovered the CryptoWall ransomware attack, and currently, the latest CryptoWall version 3.0 (CW3) is the most sophisticated and complex family of this malware backed by a very robust back-end infrastructure. Must Read:   FBI Suggests Ransomware Victims — 'Just Pay the Ransom Money' According to the latest report  ( pdf ) published by Cyber Threat Alliance (CTA) , an industry group formed last year to study emerging threats, researchers have disco

British Police have arrested a second teenage boy in relation to the major hack on the servers of UK-based telco 'TalkTalk' last week. On Monday, a 15-year-old boy (first arrest) from County Antrim, Northern Ireland, was arrested in connection with the TalkTalk Data Breach. On Thursday, The Metropolitan Police Cyber Crime Unit (MPCCU) arrested this second unnamed 16-year-old boy from Feltham in west London on suspicion of Computer Misuse Act offences. Latest TalkTalk Data breach put the Bank details and Personally Identifiable Information (PII) of millions of customers at risk, including: Nearly 21,000 Bank Accounts Almost 28,000 obscured Credit and Debit card details Less than 15,000 customer dates of birth Names, Email Addresses, and Phone Numbers of 1.2 Million Customers TalkTalk has confessed that " Not all of the data was encrypted "... yeah, its' too bad. However, " Investigations so far show that the information that may have bee

Microsoft wholeheartedly wants you to upgrade your PCs to Windows 10, so much so that the company plans to automatically download its new operating system to Windows 7/8 computers next year. Just two weeks ago, Microsoft accidentally pushed Windows 10 installation to Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 users through the Windows Update process, but next year the company will do it on purpose. MISSION '1 BILLION': It doesn't come as a surprise, as Microsoft mentioned many times that it wants to get Windows 10 into as many hands as possible to reach its goal of 1 Billion installations. Starting next year, Microsoft is planning to re-categorize Windows 10 as a " Recommended Update " in its Windows Update service. Also Read:  Here's How to Stop Windows 7 or 8 from Downloading Windows 10 Automatically . This means that the Windows 10 upgrade process will start downloading and initiating automatically on thousands of devices. Before: