Beware of fake ‘Obamacare’ sites that want to steal your info
President Barack Obama’s health care reform law kicks in Oct. 1, and cybercriminals, along with health care providers, are standing by, only too eager for you to share your personal information.
There’s already a lot of confusion out there about the Affordable Care Act, and as some of us start to finally pay attention and get ready to sign up for coverage, scammers and phishers are at the ready for those people who opt to sign up for coverage by doing it online at the Health Insurance Exchange. (You can learn more about the plan here.)
What makes it a potential gold mine for cyberthieves is that the Health Insurance Exchange “isn’t made up of a single authoritative site where people can go and register for coverage,” writes Christopher Budd, threat communications manager for Trend Micro security, in a blog post.
In addition to the federal site, he says, “people can apply for coverage at sites run by individual states. Then, within each state, there can also be legitimate third-party sites that provide assistance and even broker coverage.”
Read the rest here.
Adobe says customer info, source code hacked
BOSTON — Adobe Systems said on Thursday it was the victim of sophisticated cyberattacks on its networks by hackers who accessed data belonging to millions of customers along with the source code to some of its popular software titles.
Chief Security Officer Brad Arkin said in a statement that the company believes the attackers accessed Adobe customer IDs and encrypted passwords and removed data relating to 2.9 million Adobe customers. That information includes customer names, encrypted payment card numbers, expiration dates and information relating to orders, he said.
He said they also accessed the source code for several Adobe software titles including Acrobat, ColdFusion and ColdFusion Builder.
KrebsOnSecurity, a cybersecurity news site, reported earlier on Thursday that a week ago it found what appeared to be a massive trove of Adobe’s source code on the server of hackers believed to be responsible for breaches at three major U.S. data providers.
It said it discovered the code while conducting an investigation into breaches at Dun & Bradstreet, Altegrity’s Kroll Background America and Reed Elsevier’s LexisNexis. Those attacks were disclosed on Sept. 25.
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.
Another iPhone Security Issue
BOSTON — A German security company has uncovered a bug in the new iPhone’s software that it said enables hackers to overcome a safeguard allowing users to remotely wipe stolen or lost phones.
Berlin’s Security Research Labs, known as SRL, said on Thursday that the vulnerability could potentially give criminals time to break into the Apple Inc phones, gain complete control of data, access email accounts and then potentially take over the user’s bank accounts.
The research firm also said it has figured out an easier way to crack the iPhone fingerprint scanner than has been demonstrated thus far.
SRL, which this summer disclosed a major security flaw in SIM card technology that affected mobile systems around the globe, said it has shared its research with Apple’s security team.
Apple declined to comment. The company sometimes refrains from discussing potential security bugs while it reviews research.
If SRL’s findings are verified, this would mark at least the fifth security bug in the iPhone and its iOS operating system uncovered since July. Apple has already fixed some of those flaws, including one disclosed at a summer hacking conference that make the devices vulnerable to snooping.
The company has remained silent since concerns have been raised about the security of its “Touch ID” fingerprint scanner on its top-of-the-line iPhone 5S, which went on sale last month.
A German hacker known as Starbug was able to crack Touch ID within two days of its release. Several experts in mobile security and biometrics say they have independently verified his work.
Apple’s “Find My iPhone” feature aims to thwart thieves and hackers. It lets users log into Apple’s iCloud and wipe a device, giving victims a chance to disable the phone before criminals can gain access. It also prevents criminals from registering those devices to another account.
Ben Schlabs, an SRL project manager in biometric security, told Reuters he has identified a new method for preventing those features from being initiated.
He was able to put an iPhone 5S on “airplane mode,” cutting off iCloud’s ability to communicate with the device to initiate the features. That bought him time to create a “fake finger” to fool Touch ID.
He said he created a fingerprint mold using the same basic approach as Starbug, who took a photo of an iPhone user’s fingerprint with a high resolution camera, printed it out on a plastic sheet, then etched the mold.
Schlabs used a previous-generation iPhone 4S to take the photo. Once he gained access to the iPhone 5S with the fake finger, he looked up the user’s email address. He then went to Apple’s website on an ordinary computer and instructed it to send credentials for resetting its password to the account of the phone’s owner.
At that point, he turned off airplane mode for several seconds: just enough time to retrieve email, but not enough for the “Find My iPhone” feature to disable the device or initiate a wipe.
Once he reset the password, Schlabs said he was able to completely “own” the iPhone: he could take over accounts from outside email providers, and reset passwords by getting email providers to send SMS messages to the hijacked phone.
“Once you have access to the email, you can engage in total online identity theft. You can get bank credentials or anything else,” Schlabs said.
Biometrics or passwords?
Chris Morales, a hacking expert and research director with NSS Labs of Austin, Texas, said the growing research on Touch ID underscores what members of the security community have long known: biometrics are not as secure as passwords.
He said a facial recognition feature in Google Android operating system has been defeated using photos.
“As bad as passwords are, it’s more secure to know something than to be something,” Morales said. “Biometrics only extends security for people who are extremely lazy.”
IPhone users can take steps to mitigate the potential for attacks using the newly identified approach, Schlabs said. For instance, users can adjust the phone’s settings to prevent airplane mode from being activated when devices are locked.
Customers in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States can opt for two-factor authentication, which requires the user to enter a four-digit code that is sent to their iPhone or other device.
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.
Hack3rCon^4 – Eye of the Storm?
The site:
When:
October 19-20, 2013
Where?
Charleston Civic Center in Charleston, WV
Personal and Cyber Security enthusiasts will come together in Charleston, WV on Oct 19-20 for Hack3rCon^4.
304Geeks want to welcome you to another year of mayhem in the hills. Hack3rCon^4 will present a mix of cyber and personal security topics and techniques.
We are proud to announce that the following speakers are confirmed for Hack3rCon^4!
Speakers:
Martin Bos
Adrian Crenshaw
Branden Miller
Eric Milam
Jon Schipp
Sean Palka
Brian Martin
Branden Miller
Justin Rogosky
Nathan Magniez
John Degruyter
Tom Moore
The Schedule – http://hack3rcon4.sched.org/grid
Information Security Strategy: Stop Punishing End Users
An interesting article by Joseph Granneman:
For many years, companies have focused their security efforts on implementing rules to lock down the end user. I learned the hard way that this strategy doesn’t necessarily lead to better security.
In the past, I believed as many of you do, that implementing a security program meant taking control of as many factors in the environment as possible. In 2009, when I read a paper by Microsoft Research’s Cormac Herley that criticized this tactic, I was shocked and outraged. He argued that information security programs often focus too much on policies and procedures that don’t actually reduce risk and ultimately increase costs. At the time, I was a CSO like many others — scraping for resources in both staffing and budgets. The last thing I needed was resistance to the policies and procedures I tried to put in place.
Read the rest here.
The ultimate keylogger: FBI’s Magic Lantern
An interesting infographic by MobiStealth.com:
While keyloggers maybe popularly associated with hackers and identity thieves in the digital realm, they have one more master that we often overlook i.e. the FBI. The Magic Lantern was a special program which used tricks only known to black hat hackers. It infiltrates a target’s system and steals all kinds of data. This infographic looks at how the Magic Lantern progressed over time, and precisely what the rootkit can help steal from a target’s system.
For more information check here.
By: Mobistealth Keyboard Recorder
