An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Sixteen months ago, researchers reported an unsettling escalation in hacks targeting power plants, gas refineries, and other types of critical infrastructure. Attackers who may have been working on behalf of a nation caused an operational outage at a critical-infrastructure site after deliberately targeting a system that prevented health- and life-threatening accidents. What was unprecedented in this attack -- and of considerable concern to some researchers and critical infrastructure operators -- was the use of an advanced piece of malware that targeted the unidentified site's safety processes. The malware was named Triton and Trisis, because it targeted the Triconex product line made by Schneider Electric. Its development was ultimately linked to a Russian government-backed research institute.

Now, researchers at FireEye -- the same security firm that discovered Triton and its ties to Russia -- say they have uncovered an additional intrusion that used the same malicious software framework against a different critical infrastructure site. As was the case in the first intrusion, the attackers focused most of their resources on the facility's OT, or operational technology, which are systems for monitoring and managing physical processes and devices. The discovery has unearthed a new set of never-before-seen custom tools that shows the attackers have been operational since as early as 2014. The existence of these tools, and the attackers' demonstrated interest in operational security, lead FireEye researchers to believe there may be other sites beyond the two already known where the Triton attackers were or still are present. "After establishing an initial foothold on the corporate network, the Triton actor focused most of their effort on gaining access to the OT network," FireEye researchers wrote in a report published Wednesday. "They did not exhibit activities commonly associated with espionage, such as using key loggers and screenshot grabbers, browsing files, and/or exfiltrating large amounts of information. Most of the attack tools they used were focused on network reconnaissance, lateral movement, and maintaining presence in the target environment."

Two out of three hotel websites inadvertently leak guests' booking details and personal data to third-party sites, including advertisers and analytics companies, according to research released by Symantec on Wednesday. From a report: The study, which looked at more than 1,500 hotel websites in 54 countries that ranged from two-star to five-star properties, comes several months after Marriott International disclosed one of the worst data breaches in history. Symantec said Marriott was not included in the study. Compromised personal information includes full names, email addresses, credit card details and passport numbers of guests that could be used by cybercriminals who are increasingly interested in the movements of influential business professionals and government employees, Symantec said.

An anonymous reader writes: Google wants to block some file downloads carried out via HTTP on websites that use HTTPS. The plan is to block EXE, DMG, CRX, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP, TAR, RAR, and 7Z file downloads when the download is initiated via HTTP but the website URL shows HTTPS.

Google said it's currently not thinking of blocking all downloads started from HTTP sites, since the browser already warns users about a site's poor security via the "Not Secure" indicator in the URL bar. The idea is to block insecure downloads on sites that appear to be secure (loaded via HTTPS) but where the downloads take place via plain ol' HTTP.

Google said today it will now enable Android users to use their smartphones as a Fast Identity Online (FIDO) security key (for two-step authentication) for their Google accounts, thereby addressing one of the biggest challenges that has slowed the adoption of this security measure: convenience. A report adds: You can thus use your Android phone to protect your personal Google account, and your G Suite, Cloud Identity, and Google Cloud Platform work accounts. (Android tablets aren't supported -- Google specifically limited the functionality since users are more likely to have phones with them.) This means Android phones can move from two-step verification (2SV) to two-factor authentication (2FA). 2SV is a method of confirming a user's identity using something they know (password) and a second thing they know (a code sent via text message). 2FA is a method of confirming a user's identity by using a combination of two different factors: something they know (password), something they have (security key), or something they are (fingerprint). The feature is coming only to Android devices versions 7 and up.

It's a browser feature few users will have heard of, but forthcoming versions of Chrome, Safari and Opera are in the process of removing the ability to disable a long-ignored tracking feature called hyperlink auditing pings. From a report: This is a long-established HTML feature that's set as an attribute -- the ping variable -- which turns a link into a URL that can be tracked by website owners or advertisers to monitor what users are clicking on. When a user follows a link set up to work like this, an HTTP POST ping is sent to a second URL which records this interaction without revealing to the user that this has happened. It's only one of several ways users can be tracked, of course, but it's long bothered privacy experts, which is why third-party adblockers often include it on their block list by default.

Until now, an even simpler way to block these pings has been through the browser itself, which in the case of Chrome, Safari and Opera is done by setting a flag (in Chrome you type chrome://flags and set hyperlink auditing to 'disabled'). Notice, however, that these browsers still allow hyperlink auditing by default, which means users would need to know about this setting to change that. It seems that very few do.

Yahoo is offering to pay $117.5 million to settle its massive data breaches that compromised personal information, including email addresses and passwords. "The proposed settlement was announced on Tuesday, but still needs to be approved by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh," reports CNN. From the report: Earlier this year, a different version of the class-action settlement was rejected by Koh, who wanted to see more benefit to consumers and a specific settlement amount. Yahoo was hit by multiple data breaches from 2013 to 2016. The 2013 breach affected every single customer account that existed at the time, which totaled 3 billion. Yahoo previously said names, email addresses and passwords were compromised but not financial information.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Mirai, the "botnet" malware that was responsible for a string of massive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks in 2016 -- including one against the website of security reporter Brian Krebs -- has gotten a number of recent updates. Now, developers using the widely distributed "open" source code of the original have added a raft of new devices to their potential bot armies by compiling the code for four more microprocessors commonly used in embedded systems.

Researchers at Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 security research unit have published details of new samples of the Mirai botnet discovered in late February. The new versions of the botnet malware targeted Altera Nios II, OpenRISC, Tensilica Xtensa, and Xilinx MicroBlaze processors. These processors are used on a wide range of embedded systems, including routers, networked sensors, base band radios for cellular communications and digital signal processors. The new variants also include a modified encryption algorithm for botnet communications and a new version of the original Mirai TCP SYN denial-of-service attack. Based on the signature of the new attack option, Unit 42 researchers were able to trace activity of the variants back as far as November 2018.

Apple is now offering data migration services for free when customers purchase a new Mac or need to have a Mac replaced for repair reasons. Prior to this month, data migration was priced at $99. From a report: Beginning April 2, there will be no cost for Data Migrations with the purchase of a new Mac or Data Transfers with a repair. Data migration was included as a feature in Apple's One to One program, which was shut down in 2015. One to One allowed customers to pay $99 when purchasing a new Mac to get a year's worth of instruction and help. When Apple ended One to One, data migration was still available as a one-time $99 service.

Verizon is sending out an update for millions of its routers after security researchers discovered vulnerabilities that could allow potential attackers to take over the devices. From a report: Researchers from Tenable, a security company, detailed three vulnerabilities with Verizon's Fios Quantum Gateway router on Tuesday. The company said it disclosed these security flaws to Verizon last December, and that the company issued a fix on March 13. Verizon said that a small percentage of its customers did not get the update automatically, and will still need a patch to protect against this security flaw. "We were recently made aware of three vulnerabilities related to login and password information on the Broadband Home Router Fios-G1100," a Verizon spokesman said in a statement.

"As soon as we were made aware of these vulnerabilities, we took immediate action to remediate them and are issuing patches." The company said that several customers with a particular type of router did not get the update, but said that people affected will not need to take any action. If your router's firmware is running version 02.02.00.13, you're up to date and safe from the vulnerabilities.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: Generally a system crash is a private affair, but the BT Tower, one of London's tallest landmarks, spent much of the weekend displaying a Windows error message in a very public fashion. The building, originally known as the Post Office Tower, is famed for both its revolving top floor and, more recently, for the banks of LEDs at its summit that act as a very prominent billboard. Sadly for BT over the weekend it was showing what looks very like a Windows 7 error screen. "Choose operating system to start or press TAB to select a tool: (Use arrow keys to highlight your choice and then press ENTER)."

The surveillance tool dubbed "Exodus" has been ported to the Apple iOS ecosystem. According to Threatpost, the spyware "can exfiltrate contacts, take audio recordings and photos, track location data and more on mobile devices." From the report: Earlier this month, word came that Google had booted a raft of Exodus-laden apps. According to Lookout Security, it turns out that iOS versions had become available outside the App Store, through phishing sites that imitate Italian and Turkmenistani mobile carriers. These are notable in that they abused the Apple Developer Enterprise program. According to Lookout and other research from Security Without Borders, the spyware appears to have been under development for at least five years. It's a three-stage affair, starting with a lightweight dropper that then fetches a large second-stage payload that contains multiple binaries with most of the spy goods housed within them. Finally, a third stage typically uses the Dirty COW exploit (CVE20165195) to obtain root privileges on a targeted device. In delving into the technical details, Lookout saw evidence of a fairly sophisticated operation, suggesting that it may have been initially marketed as a legitimate package for the government or law-enforcement sectors.

In order to spread the iOS app outside of the official App Store, the cybercriminals abused Apple's enterprise provisioning system, which allowed them to sign the apps using legitimate Apple certificates. Lookout's analysis found that the iOS variant is a bit cruder than its Android counterpart, and it lacks the ability to exploit device vulnerabilities. However, the apps were still able to use documented APIs to exfiltrate contacts, photos, videos and user-recorded audio recordings, device information and location data; and, it offered a way to perform remote audio recording, though this required push notifications and user interaction. The good news is that Apple has revoked the affected certificates for this particular crop of apps.

A Samsung Galaxy S10 user has managed to fool the in-display fingerprint reader on his smartphone using a 3D print of his fingerprint. The Verge reports: In a post on Imgur, user darkshark outlined his project: he took a picture of his fingerprint on a wineglass, processed it in Photoshop, and made a model using 3ds Max that allowed him to extrude the lines in the picture into a 3D version. After a 13-minute print (and three attempts with some tweaks), he was able to print out a version of his fingerprint that fooled the phone's sensor.

The Galaxy S10's fingerprint sensor doesn't rely on a capacitive fingerprint scanner that's been used in other versions of the phone, using instead an ultrasonic sensor that's apparently more difficult to spoof. darkshark points out that it didn't take much to spoof his own fingerprint. A concern, he notes, is that payment and banking apps are increasingly using the authentication from a fingerprint sensor to unlock, and all he needed to get into his phone was a photograph, some software, and access to a 3D printer. "I can do this entire process in less than 3 minutes and remotely start the 3d print so that it's done by the time I get to it," he writes.

The Federal Bureau of Investigations does a poor job at notifying victims of a cyber-attack, a US government report released last week said. A story adds: FBI notifications arrive either too late or contain insufficient information for victims to take action, a report from the Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General (DOJ-OIG) has concluded. The report analyzed Cyber Guardian, an FBI application for storing information about tips and ongoing investigations. The system also allows agents to enter details about suspected victims, which Cyber Guardian can later notify via automated messages. But the DOJ-OIG report said FBI agents are not using the system as it is intended. For example, interviews with 31 agents revealed that 29 entered victim information in a lead category called "Action," rather than the standard "Victim Notification."

If you stream Netflix on your iPhone or iPad, the app will no longer support Apple AirPlay. A report adds: This means that you won't be able to cast shows on Netflix from your iOS device to your Apple TV. Netflix's note says AirPlay is "no longer supported" due to "technical limitations." "With AirPlay support rolling out to third-party devices, there isn't a way for us to distinguish between devices (what is an Apple TV vs. what isn't) or certify these experiences. Therefore, we have decided to discontinue Netflix AirPlay support to ensure our standard of quality for viewing is being met," a Netflix spokesperson said in an email.

An anonymous reader quotes ZDNet: Chinese companies have leaked a whopping 590 million resumes in the first three months of the year, ZDNet has learned from multiple security researchers. Most of the resume leaks have occurred because of poorly secured MongoDB databases and ElasticSearch servers that have been left exposed online without a password, or have ended up online following unexpected firewall errors.

Over the past few months, and especially over the last few weeks, ZDNet has received several tips about exposed servers that --when investigated-- belonged to Chinese HR-focused companies. From tiny firms exposing a handful of CVs to professional executive head-hunting firms, they've all leaked their customers' details, in one form or another... Counting all, we have 590.497 million resumes that have leaked from Chinese companies over the past three months, a worrying sign that Chinese HR companies are not taking the security of their servers seriously. The article points out that the resumes include personal information including phone numbers, home addresses, family and marital status, and in some cases, even ID numbers.

"A test of UK university defences against cyber-attacks found that in every case hackers were able to obtain 'high-value' data within two hours," writes the BBC.

Bruce66423 shares their report: The tests were carried out by "ethical hackers" working for Jisc, the agency providing internet services to the UK's universities and research centres. They were able to access personal data, finance systems and research networks....

The simulated attacks, so-called "penetration testing", were carried out on more than 50 universities in the UK, with some being attacked multiple times. A report into their effectiveness, published by Jisc (formerly the Joint Information Systems Committee) and the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi), showed a 100% success rate in getting through the cyber-defences. Within two hours, and in some cases one hour, they were able to reach student and staff personal information, override financial systems and access research databases.

The tests were carried out by Jisc's in-house team of ethical hackers, with one of the most effective approaches being so-called "spear phishing"...where an email might appear to be from someone you know or a trusted source but is really a way of concealing an attack, such as downloading "malware".

A new online tool "analyzes publicly disclosed data breaches and gives concrete advice to victims," reported CNET last week. Now the site's creator, data breach expert jimvandyke, is asking Slashdot's readers for feedback: At BreachClarity.com, just enter the name of any data breach you were in (such as 'Anthem', 'Equifax', 'Yahoo', etc.), and click the bright green 'search' button. Every publicly-reported breach since January 2017 (and noteworthy older ones) are in the database, and eventually every publicly-reported breach will be in the database, thanks to my non-profit partner the IDTheftCenter.org (ITRC). Breach Clarity is now available for free in basic form to consumers, as a very simple UI sitting in front of a comprehensive algorithm of my own design.

The goal of Breach Clarity is to help people by demystifying how any new data breach creates identity-holder risk of identity theft, identity fraud, and other harms. My goal in creating Breach Clarity is to move past the myths and victim-blaming (for instance, my research finds that very few people are actually 'apathetic' or 'lazy' when it comes to security, and it's simply not true that 'everyone's data is all already out there' for any cyber-criminal who wants to commit fraud in another person's name).

Breach Clarity uses dynamic research, technology, and design-thinking to protect people in the face of an onslaught of ongoing data breaches (The ITRC recorded 1,244 publicly reported US ones last year, leading to over $10B in annual identity crimes as reported by my former company Javelin Strategy & Research!)... If you like what you see, please use it and spread the word.
The original submission says the site's creator is currently "a one-person pre-funded operation, aiming to create an advanced and more full-featured version of Breach Clarity that will be licensed for financial institutions and employers." But if this is beta testing, there's some great technical support. "If you're confused by what you see, you can actually call the phone number in the upper right of BreachClarity and talk to a real person for free. You'll reach my partner, the ITRC, who gets grant funding from law enforcement and foundations."

CNET notes that "You can already find out if you've lost login credentials and other sensitive information by visiting Have I Been Pwned or Firefox Monitor. Breach Clarity takes things a step further by helping you decide what to do afterward."

Twelve years after it was first notified of the issue, Mozilla has finally shipped a fix this week that will prevent abusive websites -- usually tech support scam sites -- from flooding users with non-stop "authentication required" login popups and prevent users from leaving or closing their browsers. From a report: The fix has been shipped in Firefox v68, the current Nightly release, and will hit the browser's stable branch sometimes in early July. According to Firefox engineer Johann Hofmann, starting with Firefox 68, web pages won't be allowed to show more than two login prompts. Starting with the third request, Firefox will intervene to suppress the authentication popup.

Mozilla previously shipped a fix for this issue, but it was incomplete, as it blocked authentication prompts that originated from subresources, such as iframes. This latest patch completes the fix by blocking all types of authentication required prompts -- including those generated by the site's main domain.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: For the past three months, a cybercrime group has been hacking into home routers -- mostly D-Link models -- to change DNS server settings and hijack traffic meant for legitimate sites and redirect it to malicious clones. The attackers operate by using well-known exploits in router firmware to hack into vulnerable devices and make silent changes to the router's DNS configuration, changes that most users won't ever notice. Targeted routers include the following models (the number to the side of each model lists the number of internet-exposed routers, as seen by the BinaryEdge search engine): D-Link DSL-2640B - 14,327; D-Link DSL-2740R - 379; D-Link DSL-2780B - 0; D-Link DSL-526B - 7; ARG-W4 ADSL routers - 0; DSLink 260E routers - 7; Secutech routers - 17; and TOTOLINK routers - 2,265.

Troy Mursch, founder and security researcher at internet monitoring firm Bad Packets, said he detected three distinct waves during which hackers have launched attacks to poison routers' DNS settings --late December 2018, early February 2019, and late March 2019. Attacks are still ongoing, he said today in a report about these attacks. A normal attack would look like this:

1. User's computer or smartphone receives wrong DNS server settings from the hacked router.
2. User tries to access legitimate site.
3. User's device makes a DNS request to the malicious DNS server.
4. Rogue server returns an incorrect IP address for the legitimate site.
5. User lands on a clone of the legitimate site, where he might be required to log in and share his password with the attackers. Update: 04/05 16:45 GMT by M : The story adds, "According to Stefan Tanase, security researcher at Ixia, these campaigns have hijacked traffic meant for Netflix, Google,PayPal, and some Brazilian banks, and have redirected users to clone sites, hosted over HTTP, on the networks of known bulletproof hosting providers."

The Internet Archive has come to the rescue once again. The nonprofit digital library this week unveiled the MySpace Music Dragon Hoard, a collection of 490,000 MP3 files from 2008 to 2010 on the long-abandoned social media site. From a report: While the recovered tracks make up less than one percent of the music lost by some 14 million artists, it is still a sizable cache weighing in at 1.3TB. The lost songs were given to the Internet Archive by an "anonymous academic group" that had downloaded the music over a three year period to study. When the group learned of the data loss last month, it offered all it had to be preserved.