It feels like barely a week goes by without another breaking news account of a terrorist attack involving vehicle ramming, a form of attack in which a perpetrator deliberately aims a motor vehicle at a target with the intent to inflict fatal injuries or significant property damage by striking with concussive force. From 2014 through… Read more »
Few people would argue that cybersecurity is in a parlous state. In the last few weeks, we’ve seen a connected car wash and fish tank hacked respectively and a smart gun unlocked and fired thanks to a magnet at the latest DefCon. In response to the problem, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators has put… Read more »
Ten years ago you didn’t have to worry about someone hacking your refrigerator. Today, your personal home assistant is quite literally listening to your every move. Experts believe that in just a few years, there will be over 20 billion devices connected to the internet with the possibility of being compromised by an attacker due… Read more »
There’s no question that the Internet of Things is the new security battleground. Internet-connected webcams, HVAC systems, cars, TVs, watches, printers and more are giving people more use out of their devices. But these devices also open doors to hackers who want to steal corporate data, lasso thousands of devices into botnets that can launch DDoS attacks,… Read more »
Last month, public reports from ESET and Dragos outlined a new, highly capable Industrial Controls Systems (ICS) attack platform — the one reportedly used in 2016 against critical utilities infrastructure in Ukraine. CRASHOVERRIDE (alternately named Industroyer), the malware framework used on a cyberattack on the Ukraine electric grid in 2016, hit an electric transmission station near Kiev,… Read more »
Last Friday here in Europe, we saw over 50,000 companies and over 100 countries hit by the WannaCry ransomware attack. In Germany, digital display boards at Deutsche Bahn train stations were inoperable. In Spain, internal computers were down at telecommunications provider Telefonica. In the UK, the National Health Service (NHS) was hit, with staff unable to access patient records, some phones down… Read more »
A new malicious software program targeting Linux-based Internet of Things (IoT) devices, called BrickerBot, has been spotted by cybersecurity vendor Radware. BrickerBot is similar to Mirai, the destructive malware program that enlists corrupt IoT devices into botnets for denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. Like Mirai, BrickerBot attacks unsecure devices that have not changed the default username and… Read more »
Chinese search giant Baidu has disclosed that a “gang” of hackers tried to steal autonomous trade secrets from the company’s internal servers earlier this month. The company is conducting an internal investigation to figure out more about the attackers, but so far has kept tight lipped on details. “It’s very difficult to know who employs… Read more »
Robots are still an uncommon sight in the home, but most tech analysts project a huge increase in the amount of droids deployed to do tasks in the next ten years. It might not be that long before helper robots, picture C3P0 from Star Wars or a Mr. Handy from Fallout, are handling everything from… Read more »
Brian Russell is a security expert with Leidos, chair of the Internet of Things Working Group and Cloud Security Alliance. He spoke to ReadWrite about his book “Practical Internet of Things Security” and issues facing the IoT security community. See also: 5 IoT cybersecurity predictions for the coming year How do we shift our minds… Read more »
