Two researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have devised a method for turning vibration motors, like the ones found in smartphones, into makeshift microphones, capable of recording the sound around them.
Their method doesn't yield perfect results and also needs physical access to the device, but it puts in place the theoretical details needed to carry out and refine such attacks in the future.
In what seems like a surprising and drastic move, the Singapore government has decided that all computers used by public servants will have their Internet access blocked from May 2017 onwards.
According to The Straits Times, more than 100,000 computers will be cut off, in an effort to minimise security risks.
A spokesperson for the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) said: "The Singapore government regularly reviews our IT measures to make our network more secure."
A proposal raised late May at the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) suggests adding cookies to the DNS to help defend the critical system against denial-of-service exploits.
The domain name system (DNS) is an old and fundamental piece of the Internet architecture, providing translation between human-readable addresses like theregister.co.uk and IP addresses.
Technology has afforded consumers terrific conveniences, and with that, consumer patience has gradually dwindled. We now expect frictionless, real-time access to information, applications and networks. In light of the emphasis on convenience and the consumer experience, the traditional password is losing its foothold as the standard in authentication.
The SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) network has warned banks that it expects them to deliver an “operational baseline” of appropriate security measures.
The tough stance from SWIFT comes after a spate of cyber attacks on the network. The Bank of England last month to order British banks to carry out a security review of systems connected to SWIFT.
Popular Russian social network VKontakte has been hacked, and 100 million customers' account details are up for sale.
The hack of the site, which is sometimes referred to as "Russia's Facebook," was first reported by hack-tracking site LeakedSource.
The data taken includes email addresses, names, phone numbers, locations, and unencrypted passwords. It is now being sold online for one bitcoin — around $584, or £404. The sale is new, although the hack apparently happened some time ago — in 2012 or 2013, the hacker selling the data told ZDNet.
Mark Zuckerberg doesn't tweet much — in fact, he hasn't used that social network, in many ways a competitor to his Facebook, in four years. So when an unusual message appeared on his account Sunday, people took notice.
As it turns out, it wasn't Zuckerberg doing the tweeting — it was a notorious hacker group called OurMine, who briefly gained access to his Twitter and Pinterest profiles.
The Mitsubishi Outlander, a plug-in hybrid vehicle with an electric motor and petrol engine, can easily be hacked through a smartphone app intended to help owners pre-heat the cabin and manage its charging schedule.
The app connects to the car over its Wi-Fi network, and not via a mobile connection to the manufacturer's server, as is the case with other connected vehicles. This, and its relatively simple default password, makes it easy to hack, according to security researchers from Pen Test Partners.
Tens of thousands of websites running WordPress are thought to have been put at risk from a vulnerability that hackers have been actively exploiting to inject pornographic spam messages.
The problem lies in versions of a WordPress plugin called WP Mobile Detector\, which attempts to detect if visitors are browsing a website on a mobile device, and display an appropriate theme for the platform rather than one designed for desktop browsers.
It was a tough week for TeamViewer, a service that allows computer professionals and consumers to log into their computers from remote locations. For a little more than a month, a growing number of users have reported their accounts were accessed by criminals who used their highly privileged position to drain PayPal and bank accounts. Critics have speculated TeamViewer itself has fell victim to a breach that's making the mass hacks possible.
