Tag Archives: Policy

Ransomware crooks threaten to ID informants if cops don’t pay up

Getty Images reader comments 15 with 12 posters participating Share this story Ransomware operators have delivered a stunning ultimatum to Washington, DC’s Metropolitan Police Department: pay them $50 million or they’ll leak the identities of confidential informants to street gangs. Babuk, as the group calls itself, said on Monday that it had obtained 250GB of… Read More »

FCC lets SpaceX cut satellite altitude to improve Starlink speed and latency

Enlarge / A SpaceX Starlink user terminal/satellite dish. reader comments 196 with 99 posters participating Share this story SpaceX today was granted permission to use a lower orbit for Starlink satellites, as regulators agreed with SpaceX that the change will improve broadband speed and latency while making it easier to minimize orbital debris. In granting… Read More »

Pentagon explains odd transfer of 175 million IP addresses to obscure company

reader comments 85 with 56 posters participating Share this story The US Department of Defense puzzled Internet experts by apparently transferring control of tens of millions of dormant IP addresses to an obscure Florida company just before President Donald Trump left the White House, but the Pentagon has finally offered a partial explanation for why… Read More »

Apple’s AirDrop leaks users’ PII, and there’s not much they can do about it

reader comments 16 with 13 posters participating, including story author Share this story AirDrop, the feature that allows Mac and iPhone users to wirelessly transfer files between devices, is leaking user emails and phone numbers, and there’s not much anyone can do to stop it other than to turn it off, researchers said. AirDrop uses… Read More »

In epic hack, Signal developer turns the tables on forensics firm Cellebrite

reader comments 38 with 31 posters participating Share this story For years, Israeli digital forensics firm Cellebrite has helped governments and police around the world break into confiscated mobile phones, mostly by exploiting vulnerabilities that went overlooked by device manufacturers. Now, Moxie Marlinspike—the brainchild behind the Signal messaging app—has turned the tables. On Wednesday, Marlinspike… Read More »

Hackers are exploiting a Pulse Secure 0-day to breach orgs around the world

reader comments 51 with 41 posters participating Share this story Hackers backed by nation-states are exploiting critical vulnerabilities in the Pulse Secure VPN to bypass two-factor authentication protections and gain stealthy access to networks belonging to a raft of organizations in the US Defense industry and elsewhere, researchers said. At least one of the security… Read More »

Venmo’s new crypto service lets you buy and sell bitcoin, ether, and litecoin

Enlarge / Promotional image of Crypto on Venmo. reader comments 16 with 14 posters participating Share this story The PayPal-owned Venmo service will let users buy, sell, and hold bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies within the Venmo app, the company announced today. “Customers will have the ability to buy and sell cryptocurrency using funds from their balance… Read More »

US government strikes back at Kremlin for SolarWinds hack campaign

Matt Anderson Photography/Getty Images reader comments 29 with 23 posters participating Share this story US officials on Thursday formally blamed Russia for backing one of the worst espionage hacks in recent US history and imposed sanctions designed to mete out punishments for that and other recent actions. In a joint advisory, the National Security Agency,… Read More »

US adds Chinese supercomputing companies to export blacklist

Enlarge / A staff member works beside China’s ‘Sunway TaihuLight’ supercomputer at the National Supercomputer Center on August 29, 2020 in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province of China. China News Service | Getty Images reader comments 117 with 49 posters participating Share this story The US has placed Chinese groups accused of building supercomputers to help the… Read More »