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| from here and here (image source) |
This gentleman is demonstrating something far more elaborate than footguns, but it is essentially the same premise, and also the same premise as disabling your antivirus when installing new software.
If you want it to be easy malware authors to trick users into lowering their defenses, just normalize the practice of disabling the antivirus when installing software. Once it becomes normal the malware authors can ask users to do the same thing.
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| found on Izismile |
If you see a bright red plane in the sky with the word "SURVEILLANCE" on it, it would probably be a good time to stop doing shady shit.
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| from here and here |
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| from here and here |
The Internet of Things is going to be unmanageable if we keep building it out of general purpose computers. If we must have smart devices, we should use special purpose computers with fixed, first order functionality. Not only would updates not be necessary, they wouldn't be possible.
One of the main reasons we use general purpose computers is because their generality allows us to use the same computer for pretty much any application, so we can benefit from an economy of scale by mass producing lots of them knowing we'll find a use for them. I think it might be possible to get similar benefits from special purpose computers used to build a set of fundamental controls - there are only a relatively small number of ways we control the devices around us (ex. toggle switches, dials, etc) and since each of those fundamental control types would be common across a number of different devices, a smaller economy of scale could still be achieved with special purpose computers that drive such controls but with the benefit of lower maintenance than can be achieved with general purpose computers.
You'd never be able to build a toaster that sings to you that way, but why would you want to?
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| found on eBaum's World |
Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure the older generation knows how to drive stick.
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| from here and here |
That's not the problem they want to solve. It's cheaper and easier to change the company's appearance than it is to change the company's business model.
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| Product Page |
I can't help but think that this is not something an APT would actually wear (to paraphrase Ser Davos Seaworth, if you're a famous APT you're not doing it right), but just as there are shirts that say hacker on them that get worn by people who aren't hackers, so too with the advanced persistent threats.
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| from here and here (image source) |
This is the first time I've seen such a clean installation of a Master lock on a vehicle. It must be brand new. It's also the first time I've seen a hidden shackle lock used. Normally it's just an ordinary padlock (or in some cases just a sliding lock). Whoever opted for this really went all out.
Too bad the vehicle still has glass windows.
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| found on Reddit |
It seems like if the runner had followed social norms and kept that behaviour confined to private spaces, then that surveillance wouldn't have been added. But not only can you harm everyone's privacy by squandering your own, you can also help protect everyone's privacy by fighting for your own. Every encroachment on privacy that isn't challenged is a further erosion of everyone's privacy.
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| from here and here |
In a move that surprises exactly no one, Facebook has apparently decided that they don't have to follow the explicitly stated wishes of it's users. Their users are starting to sue them over it. That's right, it's not just complaining, it's lawsuits (if we're lucky they'll become class action lawsuits)
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| found on Reddit |
It may just be simple substitution, but clearly it's effective enough at hiding the meaning that a key needs to be provided to allow passengers to reverse it.
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| from here and here |
If you want to fly the Jolly Roger or evade your streaming service's geoblocking then a VPN is your friend. If you're just browsing normal websites (even from public WiFi) then the fact that virtually all websites are using encryption now makes VPNs redundant for most people.
And if you're not most people, if you have special security concerns, maybe you should consider something more than just a consumer grade VPN provider. TOR for example.
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| from here and here |
Thousands of unencrypted hard drives and tapes full of millions of customer records, and Morgan Stanley only has to pay $35M to make up for failing to wipe them before they got sold off to 3rd parties. That's maybe a couple dollars per affected customer. You'd think a financial institution of their calibre would be able to afford a couple more zeros.
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| found on Reddit |
Is it a fail or a win? I'm not sure. On the one hand it's not a professional security business so they might not know what they're doing. On the other hand the lack of professionalism might mean things are even more dangerous.
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| from here and here |
I for one am not got to lose any sleep over the possibility of Kiwi Farms getting breached and their emails and passwords leaked. It's challenging to imagine a more deserving group of people for that kind of outcome.
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| Product Page |
The hat is white, of course, because a blackhat would never advertise their presence like that. It would be bad OpSec. A hat like this only works if you're not the bad guy.
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| from here and here |
Getting hit by scareware in the middle of a pandemic when family tech support isn't available is particularly troublesome. Ask me how I know.
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| found on Izismile |
I think I'll hold it. I'd rather not piss away my last shred of privacy, thank you very much.
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| from here and here |
Apparently Seesaw suffered a credential stuffing attack and the attacker(s) sent Goatse pics all over the place. Now you might be thinking "Wait a minute, credential stuffing is hardly their fault", but there are defenses against such things, so the fact that the attack worked suggests that Seesaw did not have adequate defenses against what is a fairly ordinary kind of attack, all things considered.
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| from here and here |
It's a fantastical story, and kind of hard to believe, but apparently there are those who think a chess grand master cheated using high-tech anal beads. The theory appears to be that, using the remote controlled vibrations of the beads, an accomplice would have sent messages to the wearer instructing them what move to make.
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| from here and here |
The idea that if Twitter already has one spy on the payroll there's no harm in getting more is just so bizarre. It's like they're applying the logic people use to rationalize littering to spies. That just leads to more and more litter (and spies), though, so definitely don't follow that logic.
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| found on 9Gag |
I bet this makes security people rethink their priorities. If I had known you could monetize infected machines this way, I'd be a millionaire right now.
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| from here and here (image source) |
It may be terrible taste, but it actually looks like pretty good execution. I can definitely see face rec systems falling for it. Now the question is, does that resemble his actual face or is he going to try and pull a fast one.
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| Product Page |
I'm a sucker for a puzzle and this design is supposed to be a puzzle. Hopefully it's more than just picking out the 4 obvious words amongst the symbols. It would be great if it was some kind of cryptogram.
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| from here and here |
I can't imagine Patreon's recent firing of their entire security team ending in anything less than some kind of compromise. There will be no continuity of security. Anyone hired on after this will either be struggling to figure out what those before them did without anyone to on-board them, or they're going to be starting over from scratch.
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| found on Izismile |
Maybe it's an ATM family reunion. They could be having an ATM BBQ real soon.
Or maybe... every ATM that ever there was is gathered there for certain because today's the day the ATMs have their piiiiicnic.
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| from here and here |
I'm probably an outlier in the fact that I never receive actual spam in my Gmail account, but I do get spam false positives just like everybody else. I wish they'd make it easier to check my spam folder since legit email ends up there so often.
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| from here and here |
The Queen is dead and that's just the kind of thing criminals love to latch on to in order to trick people into clicking on things. Don't fall for it. If you really want details, do a search and get them from reputable news sources that hopefully won't be serving any malware.
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| from here and here |
And the cringey reminders are the best case scenario. There are probably worse memories stored in your Facebook account, and almost no one ever bothers to get rid of that stuff.
Younger people seem to have the good sense not to use Facebook in the first place, though. They've probably seen what it's like when people with numerous years of history on Facebook get haunted by the most painful or embarrassing moments of their past.
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| found on Funny Junk |
Are limbo dancers likely? I suppose that depends on what part of the world this is from. I think we all recognize that someone peeking under the door or over the stall or through the crack in the door are at least somewhat realistic privacy threats. Maybe you've even made eye contact with someone that way before (I know I have).
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| from here and here |
I've seen this template so many times but finally we have an explanation for why the lights are still on.
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| from here (image source) |
Not only is it easy to tell what numbers are in the code, the order seems like it should be easy to guess as well. I feel confident that it's 1709 - it can be entered in a relatively fluid motion that saves time and effort. You might think that the door code should be changed on a more regular basis, but that would invite people to write it down and that that slip of paper could get lost or stolen and compromise the security. Instead the keypad should be better maintained and replaced when wear patterns start to give away the code.
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| found on Izismile |
Data anonymization never seems to stick in practice. Maybe they're just not good at it, maybe there are perverse incentives to keeping more data than they actually need, or maybe it's just not truly possible. Whatever the case may be, the track record for that sort of thing is terrible, so don't trust it.
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| from here and here (image source) |
Sometimes whether a thing is an attack or a defense depends entirely on perspective. The motorcyclist could be trying to prevent his motorcycle from getting stolen, but the car owner can't go anywhere now because the motorcycle is anchoring him in place. You could make a lot of arguments about the motorcyclist knowing better, but this site has seen cars chained up as if they were bicycles, so I don't doubt this could have been a sincere attempt to prevent theft (even if it is ridiculous).
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| found on Funny Junk |
This seems like a tree you would want to get rid of and yet at the same time can't.
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| from here and here |
As long as ad companies fail to crack down on malvertising, ad blocking remains a necessary security measure. Malware should not be the price of viewing web content.
