Georgia Weidman is a penetration tester, security researcher, and trainer. She's also one of the speakers at the upcoming HITBSecConf2012 - Amsterdam conference, where she will be presenting an inner look at the security mechanisms behind the permission model of Google's Android, looking for new and interesting ways of exploiting applications in order to gain elevated privileges.
As part of Google's ongoing commitment to encouraging women to excel in computing and technology, we are pleased to announce the extension of the Google EMEA Travel and Conference Grant to any female hackers planning on attending HITBSecConf2012 - Amsterdam in May.
Kaspersky Lab researchers have found a criminal gang playing cat and mouse with Google by releasing several variations of its malware laden Chrome extensions, hosting them on the official Google Web store.
The malware pretends to be a Flash Player installer but instead downloads a trojan which writes messages a victim's Facebook profile and automatically likes certain pages. The researchers say that variations of the attacks have been found, however, it has so far largely been confined to Brazil and other Portuguese speaking nations.
While Regina Dugan has taken on a senior executive role at Google, twin probes into possible irregularities in the awarding of contracts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars during her tenure at the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will continue.
At a Google-run competition in Vancouver last month, the search giant’s famously secure Chrome Web browser fell to hackers twice. Both of the new methods used a rigged website to bypass Chrome’s security protections and completely hijack a target computer. But while those two hacks defeated the company’s defenses, it was only a third one that actually managed to get under Google’s skin.
Mozilla is currently testing a new feature that would see encrypted Google searches enabled by default for all Firefox users.
"We are currently testing the change to use SSL for built-in Google searches in our Firefox nightly channel," said Johnathan Nightingale, senior director of Firefox engineering, in an email. "If no issues are uncovered, it will move through our Aurora and Beta release channels before eventually shipping to all our Firefox users. This will include migrating the changes to our non-English version of Firefox, as well."
Apple has lost its battle to force Motorola to turn over data about Google's development of its Android mobile-phone operating system and planned acquisition of the mobile-phone manufacturer.
U.S. Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner, who in June will preside over back-to-back patent trials pitting Apple against Motorola, denied the production request in a single-paragraph order: “The motion is vague and overbroad and Motorola’s objections are persuasive,” Posner wrote. The mobile-phone maker’s opposition to Apple’s March 16 demand was filed under seal.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center originally filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the NSA which was denied and is today having it's appeal heard. The center is trying to obtain information about a deal the NSA cut with Google following an attack on Gmail by Chinese hackers in 2010.
In its Freedom of Information Act request, the information center is requesting:
The US Department of Justice and US Federal Trade Commission should “think long and hard” before bringing antitrust cases against tech companies such as Google or Apple says Ronald Cass, former Vice Chairman of the US international Trade Commission.
His comments follow recent news reports that the DOJ is investigating Apple and five e-book publishers over pricing issues and the FTC is investigating Google over complaints that the search giant is using its dominance in the search space to unfairly drive consumers to use its other products.
Having difficulty gaining access to a pimp's Android phone they seized, the FBI has turned to Google for help. The FBI, which didn't have the right to search the phone without a warrant, obtained one in February. However, after sending it off to the FBI Regional Computer Forensics lab in California, technicians there “attempted to gain access to the contents of the memory of the cellular phone in question, but were unable to do so” says the FBI. Apparently they were defeated by Android's “pattern lock” screen.
