Security Now - 16k MP3

This week we look at Microsoft's decision to finally disable Excel's legacy XLM by default, but not for everyone. We look at Google's warning sent to more than 14,000 of its Gmail users and at their move toward enforced two-step verification. We look at recent hacking and ransom payment legislation and at last week's massive breach at Twitch. We cover the emergency Apache web server update and the...

This week we, of course, look at the massive global outage that took down all Facebook services for 6 hours yesterday. But before we get there we look at this week's new pair of 0-day flaws which Google fixed in Chrome, we note the arrival of Windows 11 with a yawn and also caution about one known flaw that it's already known to have. We look at some potential for global action against ransomware,...

This week we examine a new pair of 0-days which have forced emergency updates to their respective products. We examine the growing annoyance of those who are reporting bugs to Apple, Epik's belated confirmation of their mega data breach, Windows 11's further progress toward its release, and its new and much more useful PC Health Check tool. We look at some additional fallout from this month's ever...

This week we examine a devastating and still ongoing DDoS attack against the latest in a series of VoIP service providers. We checkout the once again mixed blessing of last Tuesday's Microsoft patches, and we examine a welcome feature of Android 11 that's being back-ported through Android 6. We catch-up with Chrome's patching of two more new 0-day vulnerabilities and attacks, then we look at a "Pw...

This week we're going to note the apparent return of REvil--not nearly as dead and gone as many hoped. We're going to look at a new and quite worrisome 0-day exploitation of an old Windows IE MHTML component. Even though IE is gone, it's guts live on in Windows. We're going to share the not surprising but still interesting results of security impact surveys taken of IT and home workers, after whic...

This week we look at a way of protecting ourselves from Razor-mouse-like local elevation of privilege attacks. We reexamine the meaning of the phrase "Internet Anonymity" following the ProtonMail revelation. We revisit Apple's now delayed CSAM plans. We look at some new troubles for Bluetooth and at a popular and persistently unpatched residential security system which can be trivially disarmed by...

This week we'll start out by clarifying the terms credit freeze and credit lock. Then we have news of the T-Mobile breach from its perpetrator. We examine the evolving and infuriating question of where will Windows 11 run and we look at yet another newly revealed attack against Microsoft's Exchange server known as ProxyToken. I wanted to clarify a bit about Tailscale's source openness, and touch o...

This week we briefly look at Firefox's plan to block unsecured downloads. We examine the threat posed by T-Mobile's massive and deep data breach and what current and past customers of T-Mobile should do. We look at three additional so-called "Overlay Networks" in addition to Tailscale, and also at the consequences of another Orange Tsai Microsoft Exchange Server exploit chain discovery. We'll also...

This week we look at another very significant improvement in Firefox's privacy guarantees and the first steps for Facebook into native end-to-end encryption. We look at several well-predicted instances of abuse of Microsoft's PrintNightmare vulnerabilities, and at a clever cryptocurrency mining Botnet that optimizes the commandeered system for its own needs. We note ASUS' terrific move to help the...

This week we look at a pervasive failure built into the random number generators of a great many, if not nearly all, lightweight IoT devices. We look at some old, new and returned critical vulnerabilities in major VPN products. And we encounter 14 fatal flaws in a widely used embedded TCP/IP stack. We look at a number of terrific bits of feedback from our listeners. Then we carefully examine the o...

This week we look at FireFox's declining active user count, at the evolution of the Initial Network Access Broker world, at several different ransomware group renamings and revivals and we encounter a well-informed Active Directory security researcher who feels about Microsoft's July pretty much as we do. I want to turn our listeners onto a very interesting looking Hamachi'esque overlay for WireGu...

This week we will plow into another two new serious vulnerabilities brought to the industry by Microsoft named SeriousSAM and PetitPotam. But we first look at how Chrome managed to hugely speed up its Phishing website early warning system (making it even earlier). We cover the striking news of Kaseya having obtained a universal decryptor which is effective for every one of their victims, we look a...

This week we look at the continuing attacks on Chrome with yet another zero-day and at Mozilla's continuing work to give their users the most privacy possible. We reexamine that iOS WiFi SSID bug and a related bug which, it turns out, Apple apparently knew was a showstopper. Amazingly, two more new problems have surfaced with Microsoft printer technology. We have a review of last week's Patch Tues...

The past week has been dominated by the unimaginable mess that Microsoft has created with what have become multiple failed attempts to patch the two PrintNightmare flaws, and the continuing "Cleanup on Aisle 5" following what is widely regarded as the single most significant ransomware supply chain attack event ever. So today we first catch up on the still sadly relevant PrintNightmare from which...

The so-called Windows "PrintNightmare" remote code execution flaw, as bad as it is, was overshadowed by the Sodinokibi malware which the REvil ransomware gang managed to infiltrate into Kaseya, a popular provider of remote network management solutions for managed service providers. Since those MSP's all, in turn, have their own customers, the result was a multiplicative explosion in simultaneous r...

This week we look at the story behind an important Edge update and revisit Google's now-delayed FloC liftoff. We consider the cost of Ireland's recovery from the Conti ransomware attack, and ask who's responsible for the damage and data loss following the remote wiping of many Western Digital My Book NAS devices. We take a moment to observe the passing of an industry legend. Then, we look at the m...

This week, believe it or not, we have yet another 0-day stomped out in Chrome. We also have some additional intelligence about the evolution of the ransomware threat. I also want to closely look at a curious WiFi bug that was recently discovered in iOS and what it almost certainly means about the way we're still programming today. Under our miscellany topic I want to share the SHA256 hash of the d...

This week we're going to start by looking at a moment-by-moment reconstruction of a recent Chrome browser attack and patch battle. Then we're going to recap last week's industry wide June patch-fest followed by looking at TikTok's controversial but unsurprising privacy policy update. We need to also cover the wonderful spy-novel'ish ANOM sting operation which lowered the boom on as many as 800 cri...

This week I want to start off with a calm rant to summarize why today's computer security is so atrocious. I think it's worth a bit of a reality check on that. Then we're going to look at a new feature in Firefox and at Firefox's apparent jump in performance. We'll touch on three new ransomware victims, look at what's been learned about how Colonial Pipeline was breached, and at the curious news t...

This week we begin by examining the recent advances made by the just-released Chrome 91 and revisit Google's configurable long-term activity logging. On the ransomware front we look at yet another likely addition to the ransomware ecosystem: trusted 3rd-party file decryptors. We anticipate next week's activation of the Amazon Sidewalk ultra-wide area network, look at the questionable claims of ano...

This week we examine Firefox's just-released and welcome re-architecture under codename "Fission." We look at a new and recently active ransomware player named "Conti" and at a recently paid, high-profile mega ransom. We then ask the question, "When they say IoT, do they mean us?" We examine the implications of a new industry term, "mean time to inventory." We'll then lighten things up a bit with...

This week we follow-up on last week's "News from the Darkside" with a surprising amount of happenings including the dark web's rejection of further ransomware. We look at blockchain analytics which are used to follow the dark money, the mixed signals now coming from the Darkside group and a live list of more than 2000 ransomware attacks during the past two years from the dark web. We cover last we...

This week we look at a new (and old) thread to our global DNS infrastructure. We ask what the heck Google is planning with two-step verification, and we examine a huge new problem with the Internet's majority of email servers. We look at the reality of Tor exit node insecurity, touch on a new sci-fi novel by a well-known author, share a bit of closing-the-loop feedback, then take a look at this la...

This week we touch on several topics surrounding ransomware. We look at the REvil attack that affected Apple, and at this past weekend's attack that brought down Southern California's world renown Scripps Health system. We catch up on the multinational takedown of the Emotet botnet and the FBI's contribution of more than 4 million compromised eMail addresses to Troy Hunt's Have I Been Pwned. We al...

This week we begin by remembering Dan Kaminsky, who the world lost last Friday at the age of 42. We finally catch up with this month's Patch Tuesday, and look at a welcome maturation in Google's Project Zero vulnerability disclosure policy. We shine a light upon a new startup venture which, if successful, promises to dramatically improve the future of IoT security. We then look at some controversi...