In September, we noted that officials in the EU were continuing an effort to try to ban end-to-end encryption. Of course, that’s not how they put it. They say they just want “lawful access” to encrypted content, not recognizing that any such backdoor effectively obliterates the protections of end-to-end encryption. A new “Draft Council Resolution Read more about EU Takes Another Small Step Towards Trying To Ban Encryption; New Paper Argues Tech Can Backdoor Encryption Safely. It can’t.[…]

It’s said the NSA drew up a report on what it learned after a foreign government exploited a weak encryption scheme, championed by the US spying agency, in Juniper firewall software. However, curiously enough, the NSA has been unable to find a copy of that report. On Wednesday, Reuters reporter Joseph Menn published an account Read more about NSA: foreign spies used one of our crypto backdoors – we learnt some lessons but we lost them[…]

The Xplora 4 smartwatch, made by Chinese outfit Qihoo 360 Technology Co, and marketed to children under the Xplora brand in the US and Europe, can covertly take photos and record audio when activated by an encrypted SMS message, says Norwegian security firm Mnemonic. This backdoor is not a bug, the finders insist, but a Read more about Backdoorer the Xplora: Kids’ smart-watches can secretly take pics, record audio on command by encrypted texts[…]

In February, a researcher detailed a widely circulating Android backdoor that’s so pernicious that it survives factory resets, a trait that makes the malware impossible to remove without taking unusual measures. The analysis found that the unusual persistence was the result of rogue folders containing a trojan installer, neither of which was removed by a Read more about The secret behind “unkillable” Android backdoor called xHelper has been revealed[…]

Researchers have found a new way to defeat the boot verification process for some Intel-based systems, but the technique can also impact other platforms and can be used to compromise machines in a stealthy and persistent way. Researchers Peter Bosch and Trammell Hudson presented a time-of-check, time-of-use (TOCTOU) attack against the Boot Guard feature of Read more about New Intel firmware boot verification bypass enables low-level persistent backdoors[…]

Right on cue, Cisco on Wednesday patched a security vulnerability in some of its network switches that can be exploited by miscreants to commandeer the IT equipment and spy on people. This comes immediately after panic this week over a hidden Telnet-based diagnostic interface was found in Huawei gateways. Although that vulnerability was real, irritating, Read more about Sinister secret backdoor found in networking gear perfect for government espionage: The Chinese are – oh no, wait, it’s Cisco again[…]

Researchers at cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab say that ASUS, one of the world’s largest computer makers, was used to unwittingly install a malicious backdoor on thousands of its customers’ computers last year after attackers compromised a server for the company’s live software update tool. The malicious file was signed with legitimate ASUS digital certificates to Read more about Hackers Hijacked ASUS Software Updates to Install Backdoors on half a million Computers[…]

A Dutch security researcher has stumbled upon the Kremlin’s backdoor account that the government had been using to access the servers of local and foreign businesses operating in Russia. The backdoor account was found inside thousands of MongoDB databases that had been left exposed online without a password. Any hacker who noticed the account could Read more about Unsecured MongoDB databases expose Kremlin’s single username / password backdoor into Russian businesses[…]

For the fourth time in as many months, Cisco has removed hardcoded credentials that were left inside one of its products, which an attacker could have exploited to gain access to devices and inherently to customer networks. This time around, the hardcoded password was found in Cisco’s Wide Area Application Services (WAAS), which is a Read more about Cisco Removes Backdoor Account, Fourth in the Last Four Months[…]

Today, yet another security blunder becomes publicized, and it is really bad. You see, many Western Digital My Cloud NAS drives have a hardcoded backdoor, meaning anyone can access them — your files could be at risk. It isn’t even hard to take advantage of it — the username is “mydlinkBRionyg” and the password is Read more about Western Digital ‘My Cloud’ devices have a hardcoded backdoor — stop using these NAS drives NOW![…]

WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption relies on the generation of unique security keys, using the acclaimed Signal protocol, developed by Open Whisper Systems, that are traded and verified between users to guarantee communications are secure and cannot be intercepted by a middleman. However, WhatsApp has the ability to force the generation of new encryption keys for offline Read more about WhatsApp backdoor allows snooping on encrypted messages[…]

Cisco’s Talos security intelligence and research group has come across a piece of software that installed backdoors on 12 million computers around the world.The software, which exhibits adware and spyware capabilities, was developed by a French online advertising company called Tuto4PC. The firm, previously known as Eorezo Group and apparently linked to another company called Read more about Cisco Finds Backdoor Installed on 12 Million PCs by French Advertiser Tuto4PC[…]

In the funniest disclosure I’ve read in some time (well, it would be if it wasn’t so terribly dangerous), it turns out that these teleconferencing units had a hardcoded admin account with extra permissions built in with username BlackWidow. In the first “fix”, AMX basically changed the user to Batman. Poor show. SEC Consult: Deliberately Read more about Deliberately hidden backdoor account in several AMX (HARMAN Professional) devices used by whitehouse, CIA, NSA, for communications[…]

The French government has rejected an amendment to its forthcoming Digital Republic law that required backdoors in encryption systems. Axelle Lemaire, the Euro nation’s digital affairs minister, shot down the amendment during the committee stage of the forthcoming omnibus digital bill, saying it would be counterproductive and would leave personal data unprotected. “Recent events show Read more about French say ‘Non, merci’ to encryption backdoors[…]

Anyone who uses this script against vulnerable firewalls will gain administrator-level command-line access to the equipment. After some outcry on Twitter and beyond, Fortinet responded by saying it has already killed off the dodgy login system. “This issue was resolved and a patch was made available in July 2014 as part of Fortinet’s commitment to Read more about Fortinet tries to explain weird SSH ‘backdoor’ discovered in firewalls, calls it “management authentication issue”[…]

A government position paper, published by the Ministry of Security and Justice on Monday and signed by the security and business ministers, concludes that “the government believes that it is currently not appropriate to adopt restrictive legal measures against the development, availability and use of encryption within the Netherlands.” The conclusion comes at the end Read more about Dutch govt says no to backdoors, slides $540k into OpenSSL without breaking eye contact[…]

And that password is: