Monthly Archives: July 2018

Could electrically stimulating criminals’ brains prevent crime?

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A new study by a team of international researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Nanyang Technological University suggests that electrically stimulating the prefrontal cortex can reduce the desire to carry out violent antisocial acts by over 50 percent. The research, while undeniably compelling, raises a whole host of confronting ethical questions, not just over the feasibility of actually bringing this technology into our legal system, but whether we should?

The intriguing experiment took 81 healthy adults and split them into two groups. One group received transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS) on the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for 20 minutes, while the other placebo group received just 30 seconds of current and then nothing for the remaining 19 minutes.

Following the electrical stimulation all the participants were presented with two vignettes and asked to rate, from 0 to 10, how likely they would be to behave as the protagonist in the stories. One hypothetical scenario outlined a physical assault, while the other was about sexual assault. The results were fascinating, with participants receiving the tDCS reporting they would be between 47 and 70 percent less likely to carry out the violent acts compared to the blind placebo control.

“We chose our approach and behavioral tasks specifically based on our hypotheses about which brain areas might be relevant to generating aggressive intentions,” says Roy Hamilton, senior author on the study. “We were pleased to see at least some of our major predictions borne out.”

[…]

Transcranial direct-current stimulation is a little different to electroshock therapy or, more accurately, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Classical ECT involves significant electrical stimulation to the brain at thresholds intended to induce seizures. It is also not especially targeted, shooting electrical currents across the whole brain.

On the other hand, tDCS is much more subtle, delivering a continual low direct current to specific areas of the brain via electrodes on the head. The level of electrical current administered in tDCS sessions is often imperceptible to a subject and occasionally results in no more than a mild skin irritation.

[…]

Despite TMS being the more commonly used approach for neuromodulation in current clinical practice, perhaps tDCS is a more pragmatic and implementable form of the technology. Unlike TMS, tDCS is cheaper and easier to administer, it can often be simply engaged from home, and presents as a process that would be much more straightforward to integrate into widespread use.

Of course, the reality of what is being implied here is a lot more complicated than simply finding the most appropriate technology. Roy Hamilton quite rightly notes in relation to his new study that, “The ability to manipulate such complex and fundamental aspects of cognition and behavior from outside the body has tremendous social, ethical, and possibly someday legal implications.”

[…]

Of course, while the burgeoning field of neurolaw is grappling with what this research means for legal ideas of individual responsibility, this new study raises a whole host of complicated ethical and social questions. If a short, and non-invasive, series of targeted tDCS sessions could reduce recidivism, then should we consider using it in prisons?

“Much of the focus in understanding causes of crime has been on social causation,” says psychologist Adrian Raine, co-author on the new study. “That’s important, but research from brain imaging and genetics has also shown that half of the variance in violence can be chalked up to biological factors. We’re trying to find benign biological interventions that society will accept, and transcranial direct-current stimulation is minimal risk. This isn’t a frontal lobotomy. In fact, we’re saying the opposite, that the front part of the brain needs to be better connected to the rest of the brain.”

Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero penned a controversial essay in 2014 for the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience arguing that non-invasive neurostimulation should be experimentally applied to criminal psychopaths and repeat offenders despite any legal or ethical dilemmas. Canavero’s argues, “it is imperative to “switch” [a criminal’s] right/wrong circuitry to a socially non-disruptive mode.”

The quite dramatic proposal is to “remodel” a criminal’s “aberrant circuits” via either a series of intermittent brain stimulation treatments or, more startlingly, through some kind of implanted intercranial electrode system than can both, electrically modulate key areas of the brain, and remotely monitor behaviorally inappropriate neurological activity.

This isn’t the first time Canavero has suggested extraordinary medical experiments. You might remember his name from his ongoing work to be the first surgeon to perform a human head transplant.

[…]

“This is not the magic bullet that’s going to wipe away aggression and crime,” says Raine. “But could transcranial direct-current stimulation be offered as an intervention technique for first-time offenders to reduce their likelihood of recommitting a violent act?”

The key question of consent is one that many researchers aren’t really grappling with. Of course, there’s no chance convicted criminals would ever be forced to undergo this kind of procedure in a future where neuromodulation is integrated into our legal system. And behavioral alterations through electrical brain stimulation would never be forced upon people who don’t comply to social norms – right?

This is the infinitely compelling brave new world of neuroscience.

Source: Could electrically stimulating criminals’ brains prevent crime?

This Sand Printer Seems Perfect for Beach Wedding Proposals

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Wedding proposals are just one of the many minefields you have to navigate on social media platforms, and Ivan Miranda isn’t making things any easier. He’s designed and built an autonomous printer that can draw messages in sand, so now’s probably a good time to brace yourself for an endless barrage of “will you marry me?” beach proposals clogging up your feeds.

Miranda’s sand printer uses techniques borrowed from the classic dot-matrix printers that were a hallmark of home publishing in the ‘80s and ‘90s. An over-sized print heads travels back and forth between sets of large wheels that slowly roll the entire printer across the beach. As the print head moves, an etching tool lowers and raises to carve lines in the sand that eventually form longer messages.

It’s a slow process, especially for those of us who’ve become accustomed to speedy laser printers churning out multiple pages per minute. But the results are far more Instagram-friendly than trying to write an endearing message in the sand with a stick.

Source: This Sand Printer Seems Perfect for Beach Wedding Proposals

Europe is reading smartphones and using the data as a weapon to deport refugees

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Across the continent, migrants are being confronted by a booming mobile forensics industry that specialises in extracting a smartphone’s messages, location history, and even WhatsApp data. That information can potentially be turned against the phone owners themselves.

In 2017 both Germany and Denmark expanded laws that enabled immigration officials to extract data from asylum seekers’ phones. Similar legislation has been proposed in Belgium and Austria, while the UK and Norway have been searching asylum seekers’ devices for years.

Following right-wing gains across the EU, beleaguered governments are scrambling to bring immigration numbers down. Tackling fraudulent asylum applications seems like an easy way to do that. As European leaders met in Brussels last week to thrash out a new, tougher framework to manage migration —which nevertheless seems insufficient to placate Angela Merkel’s critics in Germany— immigration agencies across Europe are showing new enthusiasm for laws and software that enable phone data to be used in deportation cases.

Admittedly, some refugees do lie on their asylum applications. Omar – not his real name – certainly did. He travelled to Germany via Greece. Even for Syrians like him there were few legal alternatives into the EU. But his route meant he could face deportation under the EU’s Dublin regulation, which dictates that asylum seekers must claim refugee status in the first EU country they arrive in. For Omar, that would mean settling in Greece – hardly an attractive destination considering its high unemployment and stretched social services.

Last year, more than 7,000 people were deported from Germany according to the Dublin regulation. If Omar’s phone were searched, he could have become one of them, as his location history would have revealed his route through Europe, including his arrival in Greece.

But before his asylum interview, he met Lena – also not her real name. A refugee advocate and businesswoman, Lena had read about Germany’s new surveillance laws. She encouraged Omar to throw his phone away and tell immigration officials it had been stolen in the refugee camp where he was staying. “This camp was well-known for crime,” says Lena, “so the story seemed believable.” His application is still pending.

Omar is not the only asylum seeker to hide phone data from state officials. When sociology professor Marie Gillespie researched phone use among migrants travelling to Europe in 2016, she encountered widespread fear of mobile phone surveillance. “Mobile phones were facilitators and enablers of their journeys, but they also posed a threat,” she says. In response, she saw migrants who kept up to 13 different SIM cards, hiding them in different parts of their bodies as they travelled.

[…]

Denmark is taking this a step further, by asking migrants for their Facebook passwords. Refugee groups note how the platform is being used more and more to verify an asylum seeker’s identity.

[…]

The Danish immigration agency confirmed they do ask asylum applicants to see their Facebook profiles. While it is not standard procedure, it can be used if a caseworker feels they need more information. If the applicant refused their consent, they would tell them they are obliged under Danish law. Right now, they only use Facebook – not Instagram or other social platforms.

[…]

“In my view, it’s a violation of ethics on privacy to ask for a password to Facebook or open somebody’s mobile phone,” says Michala Clante Bendixen of Denmark’s Refugees Welcome movement. “For an asylum seeker, this is often the only piece of personal and private space he or she has left.”

Information sourced from phones and social media offers an alternative reality that can compete with an asylum seeker’s own testimony. “They’re holding the phone to be a stronger testament to their history than what the person is ready to disclose,” says Gus Hosein, executive director of Privacy International. “That’s unprecedented.”

Privacy campaigners note how digital information might not reflect a person’s character accurately. “Because there is so much data on a person’s phone, you can make quite sweeping judgements that might not necessarily be true,” says Christopher Weatherhead, technologist at Privacy International.

[…]

Privacy International has investigated the UK police’s ability to search phones, indicating that immigration officials could possess similar powers. “What surprised us was the level of detail of these phone searches. Police could access information even you don’t have access to, such as deleted messages,” Weatherhead says.

His team found that British police are aided by Israeli mobile forensic company Cellebrite. Using their software, officials can access search history, including deleted browsing history. It can also extract WhatsApp messages from some Android phones.

Source: Europe is using smartphone data as a weapon to deport refugees | WIRED UK

Google allows outside app developers to read people’s Gmails

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  • Google promised a year ago to provide more privacy to Gmail users, but The Wall Street Journal reports that hundreds of app makers have access to millions of inboxes belonging to Gmail users.
  • The outside app companies receive access to messages from Gmail users who signed up for things like price-comparison services or automated travel-itinerary planners, according to The Journal.
  • Some of these companies train software to scan the email, while others enable their workers to pore over private messages, the report says.
  • What isn’t clear from The Journal’s story is whether Google is doing anything differently than Microsoft or other rival email services.

Employees working for hundreds of software developers are reading the private messages of Gmail users, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

A year ago, Google promised to stop scanning the inboxes of Gmail users, but the company has not done much to protect Gmail inboxes obtained by outside software developers, according to the newspaper. Gmail users who signed up for “email-based services” like “shopping price comparisons,” and “automated travel-itinerary planners” are most at risk of having their private messages read, The Journal reported.

Hundreds of app developers electronically “scan” inboxes of the people who signed up for some of these programs, and in some cases, employees do the reading, the paper reported. Google declined to comment.

The revelation comes at a bad time for Google and Gmail, the world’s largest email service, with 1.4 billion users. Top tech companies are under pressure in the United States and Europe to do more to protect user privacy and be more transparent about any parties with access to people’s data. The increased scrutiny follows the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which a data firm was accused of misusing the personal information of more than 80 million Facebook users in an attempt to sway elections.

It’s not news that Google and many top email providers enable outside developers to access users’ inboxes. In most cases, the people who signed up for the price-comparison deals or other programs agreed to provide access to their inboxes as part of the opt-in process.

gmail opti-in
Gmail’s opt-in alert spells out generally what a user is agreeing to.
Google

In Google’s case, outside developers must pass a vetting process, and as part of that, Google ensures they have an acceptable privacy agreement, The Journal reported, citing a Google representative.

What is unclear is how closely these outside developers adhere to their agreements and whether Google does anything to ensure they do, as well as whether Gmail users are fully aware that individual employees may be reading their emails, as opposed to an automated system, the report says.

Mikael Berner, the CEO of Edison Software, a Gmail developer that offers a mobile app for organizing email, told The Journal that its employees had read emails from hundreds of Gmail users as part of an effort to build a new feature. An executive at another company said employees’ reading of emails had become “common practice.”

Companies that spoke to The Journal confirmed that the practice was specified in their user agreements and said they had implemented strict rules for employees regarding the handling of email.

It’s interesting to note that, judging from The Journal’s story, very little indicates that Google is doing anything different from Microsoft or other top email providers. According to the newspaper, nothing in Microsoft or Yahoo’s policy agreements explicitly allows people to read others’ emails.

Source: Google reportedly allows outside app developers to read people’s Gmails – INSIDER

Which also shows: no one ever reads the end user agreements. I’m pretty sure no-one got the bit where it said: you are also allowing us to read all your emails when they signed up

Dear Samsung mobe owners: It may leak your private pics to randoms

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Samsung’s Messages app bundled with the South Korean giant’s latest smartphones and tablets may silently send people’s private photos to random contacts, it is claimed.

An unlucky bunch of Sammy phone fans – including owners of Galaxy S9, S9+ and Note 8 gadgets – have complained on Reddit and the official support forums that the application texted their snaps without permission.

One person said the app sent their photo albums to their girlfriend at 2.30am without them knowing – there was no trace of the transfer on the phone, although it showed up in their T-Mobile US account. The pictures, like the recipients, are seemingly picked at random from handheld’s contacts, and the messages do not appear in the application’s sent box. The seemingly misbehaving app is the default messaging tool on Samsung’s Android devices.

“Last night around 2:30am, my phone sent [my girlfriend] my entire photo gallery over text but there was no record of it on my messages app,” complained one confused Galaxy S9+ owner. “However, there was record of it [in my] T-Mobile logs.”

Another S9+ punter chipped in: “Oddly enough, my wife’s phone did that last night, and mine did it the night before. I think it has something to do with the Samsung SMS app being updated from the Galaxy Store. When her phone texted me her gallery, it didn’t show up on her end – and vice versa.”

Source: Dear Samsung mobe owners: It may leak your private pics to randoms • The Register

Newer Diameter Telephony Protocol (4G / LTE) Just As Vulnerable As SS7

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Security researchers say the Diameter protocol used with today’s 4G (LTE) telephony and data transfer standard is vulnerable to the same types of vulnerabilities as the older SS7 standard used with older telephony standards such as 3G, 2G, and earlier.

Both Diameter and SS7 (Signaling System No. 7) have the same role in a telephony network. Their purpose is to serve as an authentication and authorization system inside a network and between different telephony networks (providers).

SS7 was developed in the 1970s and has been proven insecure for almost two decades [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. Because of this, starting with the rollout of 4G (LTE) networks, SS7 was replaced with the Diameter protocol, an improved inter and intra-network signaling protocol that’s also slated to be used with the upcoming 5G standard.

The difference between these two is that while SS7 did not use any type of encryption for its authentication procedures, leading to the easy forgery of authentication and authorization messages, Diameter supports TLS/DTLS (for TCP or SCTP, respectively) or IPsec.

4G operators often misconfigure Diameter

But according to research published last month by Positive Technologies detailing Diameter’s use among mobile networks across the globe, the protocol’s features are rarely used.

In practice telecom operators almost never use encryption inside the network, and only occasionally on its boundaries. Moreover, encryption is based on the peer-to-peer principle, not end-to-end. In other words, network security is built on trust between operators and IPX providers.

The incorrect use of Diameter leads to the presence of several vulnerabilities in 4G networks that resemble the ones found in older networks that use SS7, and which Diameter was supposed to prevent.

Researchers say that the Diameter misconfigurations they’ve spotted inside 4G networks are in many cases unique per each network but they usually repeat themselves to have them organized in five classes of attacks: (1) subscriber information disclosure, (2) network information disclosure, (3) subscriber traffic interception, (4) fraud, and (5) denial of service.

1+2) Subscriber and network information disclosure

The first two, subscriber and network information disclosure, allow an attacker to gather operational information about the user’s device, subscriber profile, and information about the mobile network in general.

Such vulnerabilities can reveal the user’s IMSI identifier, device addresses, network configuration, or even his geographical location —helping an attacker track users of interest as they move about.

3) Subscriber traffic interception

The third vulnerability, subscriber traffic interception, is only theoretically possible because both SMS and call transmission often establish channels with previous-generation protocols that do not use the Diameter protocol for authentication.

Nonetheless, Positive Technologies researchers warn that if the attacker is set on SMS and call interception, he can at any time downgrade a Diameter-capable 4G connection to a previous-generation connection and use flaws in SS7 and other protocols to carry out his attack.

For example, SMS interception is possible because most 4G networks send SMS messages via a 3G channel where SS7 is used instead of Diameter for user and network authentication, while phone call channels are handled via VoLTE, a protocol that has been proven insecure and susceptible to such attacks in 2015.

Even if networks handle SMS and phone calls via a pure 4G channel, then the attacker only needs to pose as an inferior network to carry out a MitM attack via an older protocol.

4) Fraud

Attackers can also use Diameter flaws to allow free use of the mobile network for a specific subscriber profile, leading to financial losses for the operator.

There are two types of such attacks, each of which is based on modifying the subscriber profile. The first type involves modifying the billing parameters stored in the subscriber profile and is quite difficult to implement in practice, since it requires knowledge of the operator’s network configuration on the part of the attacker. The values of these parameters are not standardized and depend on the specific operator; they could not be retrieved from a subscriber profile in any of the tested networks. The second type of attack is the use of services beyond restrictions, causing direct financial damage to the operator.

5) Denial of service attacks

Last but not least, Diameter flaws allow denial-of-service attacks that prevent a 4G user from accessing certain 4G features or allow an attacker to limit the speed of certain features, causing problems for a connected device.

Positive Technologies experts warn that the denial-of-service Diameter vulnerabilities “could lead to sudden failure of ATMs, payment terminals, utility meters, car alarms, and video surveillance.”

This is because these types of devices often use 4G SIM card modules to connect to their servers when located in a remote area where classic Internet connections are not possible.

All mobile networks are vulnerable to either SS7 or Diameter flaws

The cyber-security firm says that from all the mobile networks it analyzed in the past years, since it began looking into SS7 and Diameter vulnerabilities, all mobile networks it examined are vulnerable to one or another, or both, leading to unique cases where any mobile networks it inspected ws vulnerable to some sort of network-level hacking.

Diameter flaws scan results

Positive Technologies warns that with the rise of Internet of Things devices, some of which rely on 4G connections when a WiFi network is not in range, such flaws are the equivalent of having an open door for hackers to target such equipment via the 4G network.

“Such frightening consequences are only the tip of the iceberg,” experts wrote in their latest Diameter report. The company, which is known for providing security testing and monitoring of mobile networks, urges 4G operators to get with the times and invest into the security of their networks.

The “Diameter Vulnerabilities Exposure Report 2018” is available for download here. Positive Technologies previous analyzed the SS7 protocol in 2016 and the Diameter protocol in 2017.

In March 2018, ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) published an official advisory about SS7 and Diameter vulnerabilities in modern 4G networks.

Last week, a team of academics disclosed a set of vulnerabilities in 4G (LTE) networks at the “data layer,” the one responsible for data transfer, and not the signal level where Diameter is located at.

Source: Newer Diameter Telephony Protocol Just As Vulnerable As SS7

China brings Star Wars to life with ‘laser AK-47’ that can set fire to targets a kilometre away

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China has developed a new portable laser weapon that can zap a target from nearly a kilometre away, according to researchers involved in the project.

The ZKZM-500 laser assault rifle is classified as being “non-lethal” but produces an energy beam that cannot be seen by the naked eye but can pass through windows and cause the “instant carbonisation” of human skin and tissues.

Ten years ago its capabilities would have been the preserve of sci-fi films, but one laser weapons scientist said the new device is able to “burn through clothes in a split second … If the fabric is flammable, the whole person will be set on fire”.

“The pain will be beyond endurance,” according to the researcher who had took part in the development and field testing of a prototype at the Xian Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shaanxi province.

The 15mm calibre weapon weighs three kilos (6.6lb), about the same as an AK-47, and has a range of 800 metres, or half a mile, and could be mounted on cars, boats and planes.

It is now ready for mass production and the first units are likely to be given to anti-terrorism squads in the Chinese Armed Police.

In the event of a hostage situation it could be used to fire through windows at targets and temporarily disable the kidnappers while other units move in to rescue their captives.

It could also be used in covert military operations. The beam is powerful enough to burn through a gas tank and ignite the fuel storage facility in a military airport. If you like researching and owning guns but haven’t get in to it, this might be a bit to heavy to get, you can start with a only bb guns to feel how it is and then get one of this awesome instruments.

Because the laser has been tuned to an invisible frequency, and it produces absolutely no sound, “nobody will know where the attack came from. It will look like an accident,” another researcher said. The scientists requested not to be named due to the sensitivity of the project.

The rifles will be powered by a rechargeable lithium battery pack similar to those found in smartphones. It can fire more than 1,000 “shots”, each lasting no more than two seconds.

The prototype was built by ZKZM Laser, a technology company owned by the institute in Xian. A company representative confirmed that the firm is now seeking a partner that has a weapons production licence or a partner in the security or defence industry to start large-scale production at a cost of 100,000 yuan (US$15,000) a unit.

Source: China brings Star Wars to life with ‘laser AK-47’ that can set fire to targets a kilometre away

ProtonMail / ProtonVPN DDoS Attacks Are a Case Study of What Happens When You Mock Attackers

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For the past two days, secure email provider ProtonMail has been fighting off DDoS attacks that have visibly affected the company’s services, causing short but frequent outages at regular intervals.

“The attacks went on for several hours, although the outages were far more brief, usually several minutes at a time with the longest outage on the order of 10 minutes,” a ProtonMail spokesperson said describing the attacks.

The email provider claims to “have traced the attack back to a group that claims to have ties to Russia,” a statement that some news outlets took at face value and ran stories misleading readers into thinking this was some kind of nation-state-planned cyber-attack.

But in reality, the DDoS attacks have no ties to Russia, weren’t even planned to in the first place, and the group behind the attacks denounced being Russian, to begin with.

Small hacker group behind ProtonMail DDoS attacks

Responsible for the attacks is a hacker group named Apophis Squad. In a private conversation with Bleeping Computer today, one of the group’s members detailed yesterday’s chain of events.

The Apophis member says they targeted ProtonMail at random while testing a beta version of a DDoS booter service the group is developing and preparing to launch.

The group didn’t cite any reason outside “testing” for the initial and uncalled for attack on ProtonMail, which they later revealed to have been a 200 Gbps SSDP flood, according to one of their tweets.

“After we sent the first attack, we downed it for 60 seconds,” an Apophis Squad member told us. He said the group didn’t intend to harass ProtonMail all day yesterday or today but decided to do so after ProtonMail’s CTO, Bart Butler, responded to one of their tweets calling the group “clowns.”

Tweet

This was a questionable response on the part of the ProtonMail CTO, as it set the hackers against his company even more.

“So we then downed them for a few hours,” the Apophis Squad member said. Subsequent attacks included a whopping TCP-SYN flood estimated at 500 Gbps, as claimed by the group…

Tweet

…and NTP and CLDAP floods, as observed by a security researcher at NASK  and confirmed by another Apophis Squad member.

Tweet

The attacks also continued today when the group launched another DDoS attack consisting of a TCP-SYN flood estimated at between 50 and 70 Gbps…

Tweet

… and another CHARGEN flood estimated at  2 Gbps.

Tweet

Radware, the company which was involved in mitigating the attacks on ProtonMail’s infrastructure, could not confirm the 500 Gbps DDoS attack at the time of writing but confirmed the multi-vector assault.

“We can’t confirm attack size as it varied at different points in the attack,” a Radware spokesperson said. “However we can confirm that the attack was high volumetric, multi-vector attack. It included several UDP reflection attacks, multiple TCP bursts, and Syn floods.”

In addition to targeting ProtonMail, the group also targeted Tutanota, for unknown reasons, but these attacks stopped shortly after. Tutanota execs not goading the hackers might have played a role.

Hackers deny Russian connection

The Apophis Squad group is by no means a sophisticated threat. They are your typical 2018 hacker group that hangs out in Discord channels and organizes DDoS attacks for, sometimes, childish reasons.

The group is currently developing a DDoS booter service, which they were advertising prior to yesterday’s attacks on Twitter and on Discord, claiming to be able to launch DDoS attacks using protocols such as NTP, DNS, SSDP, Memcached, LDAP, HTTP, CloudFlare bypass, VSE, ARME, Torshammer, and XML-RPC.

Their Twitter timeline claims the group is based in Russia, and so does their domain, but in a private conversation the group said this wasn’t accurate.

“We aint russian [sic],” the group told us.

“We believe the attackers to be based in the UK,” a Radware spokesperson told Bleeping Computer via email today.

If the ProtonMail DDoS attack later proves to have been of 500 Gbps, it will be one of the biggest DDoS attacks recorded, following similar DDoS attacks of 1.7 Tbps (against a yet to be named US service provider) and 1.3 Tbps (against GitHub).

Source: ProtonMail DDoS Attacks Are a Case Study of What Happens When You Mock Attackers

Every Android Device Since 2012 Impacted by RAMpage Vulnerability

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Almost all Android devices released since 2012 are vulnerable to a new vulnerability named RAMpage, an international team of academics has revealed today.

The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2018-9442, is a variation of the Rowhammer attack.

Rowhammer is a hardware bug in modern memory cards. A few years back researchers discovered that when someone would send repeated write/read requests to the same row of memory cells, the write/read operations would create an electrical field that would alter data stored on nearby memory.

In the following years, researchers discovered that Rowhammer-like attacks affected personal computers, virtual machines, and Android devices. Through further researcher, they also found they could execute Rowhammer attacks via JavaScript code, GPU cards, and network packets.

RAMpage is the latest Rowhammer attack variation

The first Rowhammer attack on Android devices was named DRammer, and it could modify data on Android devices and root Android smartphones. Today, researchers expanded on that initial work.

According to a research paper published today, a team of eight academics from three universities and two private companies revealed a new Rowhammer-like attack on Android devices named RAMpage.

“RAMpage breaks the most fundamental isolation between user applications and the operating system,” researchers said. “While apps are typically not permitted to read data from other apps, a malicious program can craft a RAMpage exploit to get administrative control and get hold of secrets stored in the device.”

“This might include your passwords stored in a password manager or browser, your personal photos, emails, instant messages and even business-critical documents,” the research team said.

RAMpage may also impact Apple devices, PCs, and VMs

Research into the RAMpage vulnerability is still in its early stages, but the team says the attack can take over Android-based smartphones and tablets.

The researcher team also believes RAMpage may also affect Apple devices, home computers, or even cloud servers.

Source: Every Android Device Since 2012 Impacted by RAMpage Vulnerability

This popular Facebook app publicly exposed your data for years

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Nametests.com, the website behind the quizzes, recently fixed a flaw that publicly exposed information of their more than 120 million monthly users — even after they deleted the app. At my request, Facebook donated $8,000 to the Freedom of the Press Foundation as part of their Data Abuse Bounty Program.

[…]

While loading a test, the website would fetch my personal information and display it on the webpage. Here’s where it got my personal information from:

http://nametests.com/appconfig_user

In theory, every website could have requested this data. Note that the data also includes a ‘token’ which gives access to all data the user authorised the application to access, such as photos, posts and friends.

I was shocked to see that this data was publicly available to any third-party that requested it.

In a normal situation, other websites would not be able to access this information. Web browsers have mechanisms in place to prevent that from happening. In this case however, the data was wrapped in something called javascript, which is an exception to this rule.

One of the basic principles of javascript is that it can be shared with other websites. Since NameTests displayed their user’s personal data in javascript file, virtually any website could access it when they would request it.

o verify it would actually be that easy to steal someone’s information, I set up a website that would connect to NameTests and get some information about my visitor. NameTests would also provide a secret key called an access token, which, depending on the permissions granted, could be used to gain access to a visitor’s posts, photos and friends. It would only take one visit to our website to gain access to someone’s personal information for up to two months.

Video proof:

An unauthorised website getting access to my Facebook information

As you can see in the video, NameTests would still reveal your identity even after deleting the app. In order to prevent this from happening, the user would have had to manually delete the cookies on their device, since NameTests.com does not offer a log out functionality.

Source: This popular Facebook app publicly exposed your data for years

All-Radio 4.27 Portable Can’t Be Removed? Then Your PC is Severely Infected

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Starting yesterday, there have been numerous reports of people’s Windows computers being infected with something called “All-Radio 4.27 Portable”. After researching this, it has been determined that seeing this program is a symptom of a much bigger problem on your computer.

All-Radio 4.27 Portable
All-Radio 4.27 Portable

If your computer is suddenly displaying the above program, then your computer is infected with malware that installs rootkits, miners, information-stealing Trojans, and a program that is using your computer to send send out spam.

Unfortunately, while some security programs are able to remove parts of the infection, the rootkit component needs manual removal help at this time. Due to this and the amount of malware installed, if you are infected I suggest that you reinstall Windows from scratch if possible.

If that is not an option, you can create a malware removal help topic in our Virus Removal forum in order to receive one-on-one help in cleaning your computer.

Furthermore, some of the VirusTotal scans associated with this infection have indicated that an information stealing Trojan could have been installed as well. Therefore, it is strongly suggested that you change your passwords using a clean machine if you had logged into any accounts while infected.

Source: All-Radio 4.27 Portable Can’t Be Removed? Then Your PC is Severely Infected

Adidas Reports Data Breach of a few million customers

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Adidas AG ADDYY 2.03% said Thursday that a “few million” customers shopping on its U.S. website may have had their data exposed to an unauthorized party.

Neither the specific number of users affected nor the time frame of the potential breach were immediately disclosed, but the German sportswear maker said it became aware of the issue on Tuesday and has begun a forensic review.

Adidas said they are alerting “certain customers who purchased on adidas.com/US” and that, according to the company’s preliminary examination, data affected include contact information, usernames and encrypted passwords.

“Adidas has no reason to believe that any credit card or fitness information of those consumers was impacted,” the company said.

Source: Adidas Reports Data Breach – WSJ

The International Space Station’s has a New AI-Powered Bot: CIMON

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Once aboard, CIMON—short for Crew Interactive MObile companioN—will assist the crew with its many activities. The point of this pilot project is to see if an artificially intelligent bot can improve crew efficiency and morale during longer missions, including a possible mission to Mars. What’s more, activities and tasks performed by ISS crew members are starting to get more complicated, so an AI could help. CIMON doesn’t have any arms or legs, so it can’t assist with any physical tasks, but it features a language user interface, allowing crew members to verbally communicate with it. The bot can display repair instructions on its screen, and even search for objects in the ISS. With a reduced workload, astronauts will hopefully experience less stress and have more time to relax.

CIMON with its development team prior to launch.
Image: DLR

CIMON was built by Airbus under a contract awarded by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). It has 12 internal fans, which allows the bot to move in all directions as it floats in microgravity. CIMON can move freely, and perform rotational movements such as shaking its head back-and-forth in disapproval. CIMON’s AI language and comprehension system is derived from IBM’s Watson Technology, and it responds to commands in English. CIMON cost less than $6 million to build, and less than two years to develop.

The pilot project will be led by DLR astronaut Alexander Gerst, who arrived on the ISS about a month ago. CIMON is already familiar with Gerst’s face and voice, so the bot will work best with him, at least initially. The German astronaut will use CIMON to see if the bot will increase his efficiency and effectiveness as he works on various experiments.

Indeed, with CIMON floating nearby, the ISS astronauts could easily call upon the bot for assistance, which they can do by calling out its name. They can request that CIMON display documents and media in their field of view, or record and playback experiments with its onboard camera. In general, the bot should speed up tasks on the ISS that require hands-on work.

The round robot features no sharp edges, so it poses no threat to equipment or crew. Should it start to go squirrely and use it’s best HAL-9000 imitation to say something like, “I’m sorry, Alexander, I’m afraid I can’t do that,” the bot is equipped with a kill switch. But hopefully it won’t come to that; unlike HAL, CIMON has been programmed with an ISTJ personality, meaning “introverted, sensing, thinking, and judging.” Its developers chose a face to make it more personable and relatable, and it can even sense the tone of the crew’s conversation. CIMON smiles when the mood is upbeat, and frowns or cries when things are sad. It supposedly behaves like R2D2, and can even quote famous sci-fi movies like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

Source: The International Space Station’s New AI-Powered Bot Is Actually Pretty Cool

Why you should not use Google Cloud – it just turns your project off with no warning and no customer support!

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We have a project running in production on Google Cloud (GCP) that is used to monitor hundreds of wind turbines and scores of solar plants scattered across 8 countries. We have control centers with wall-to-wall screens with dashboards full of metrics that are monitored 24/7. Asset Managers use this system to monitor the health of individual wind turbines and solar strings in real time and take immediate corrective maintenance. Development and Forecasting teams use the system to run algorithms on data in BigQuery. All these actions translate directly to revenue. We deal in a ‘wind/solar energy’ — a perishable commodity. If we over produce, we cannot store and sell later. If we under produce, there are penalties to be paid. For this reason assets need to be monitored 24/7 to keep up/down with the needs of the power grid and the power purchase agreements made.

What happened.

Early today morning (28 June 2018) i receive an alert from Uptime Robot telling me my entire site is down. I receive a barrage of emails from Google saying there is some ‘potential suspicious activity’ and all my systems have been turned off. EVERYTHING IS OFF. THE MACHINE HAS PULLED THE PLUG WITH NO WARNING.

[…]

Customer service chat is off. There’s no phone to call. I have an email asking me to fill in a form and upload a picture of the credit card and a government issued photo id of the card holder. Great, let’s wake up the CFO who happens to be the card holder.

We will delete project within 3 business days.

“We will delete your project unless the billing owner corrects the violation by filling out the Account Verification Form within three business days. This form verifies your identity and ownership of the payment instrument. Failure to provide the requested documents may result in permanent account closure.”

What if the card holder is on leave and is unreachable for three days? We would have lost everything — years of work — millions of dollars in lost revenue.

I fill in the form with the details and thankfully within 20 minutes all the services started coming alive. The first time this happened, we were down for a few hours. In all we lost everything for about an hour. An automated email arrives apologizing for ‘inconvenience’ caused. Unfortunately The Machine has no understanding of the ‘quantum of inconvenience’ caused.

[…]

This is the first project we built entirely on the Google Cloud. All our previous works were built on AWS. In our experience AWS handles billing issues in a much more humane way. They warn you about suspicious activity and give you time to explain and sort things out. They don’t kick you down the stairs.

I hope GCP team is listening and changes things for better. Until then i’m never building any project on GCP.

Source: Why you should not use Google Cloud. – Punch a Server – Medium

Over 10,000 troops from nine nations ready to meet global challenges in Joint Expeditionary Force led by UK

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With the UK at the forefront as the framework nation, the JEF can now deploy over 10,000 personnel from across the nine nations.

Speaking at the event at Lancaster House today Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said:

Our commitment today sends a clear message to our allies and adversaries alike – our nations will stand together to meet new and conventional challenges and keep our countries and our citizens safe and secure in an uncertain world.

We are judged by the company we keep, and while the Kremlin seeks to drive a wedge between allies old and new alike, we stand with the international community united in support of international rules.

Launched in 2015, the joint force has continued to develop so that it’s able to respond rapidly, anywhere in the world, to meet global challenges and threats ranging from humanitarian assistance to conducting high intensity combat operations.

The JEF, made up of nine northern European allies Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, is more than a simple grouping of military capabilities. It represents the unbreakable partnership between UK and our like-minded northern European allies, born from shared operational experiences and an understanding of the threats and challenges we face today.

In May this year, the JEF demonstrated it readiness with a live capability demonstration on Salisbury Plain. It featured troops from the nine JEF nations, including troops from the UK Parachute Regiment, the Danish Jutland Dragoon Regiment, the Lithuanian “Iron Wolf” Brigade and the Latvian Mechanised Infantry Brigade, which conducted urban combat operations with air support provided by Apaches, Chinooks, Wildcats and Tornados.

Source: Over 10,000 troops from nine nations ready to meet global challenges – GOV.UK

This is not a standing force, but one where each time it is deployed is created by the countries deciding whether to (or not) add earmarked forces to the structure.