08.22.25 Security News Bites

Why Are the Solar Panels on Your Roof a National Security Problem?

It would take some work, but if a hacker got access to the same network as your solar panels (like as a result of, say, an unchanged default WiFi password), then due to vulnerabilities in EG4’s solar inverters, a hacker could intercept data, install malicious firmware or seize control of the entire system. CISA released an advisory highlighting fundamental security design flaws. There are at least 55,000 affected systems out there. Potentially, hackers could control a lot of these systems and tell them to do bad things at the same time, taking down the electric grid. Credit: Tech Crunch

China Developing Pregnancy Robots

I can only imagine the cybersecurity implications of this. While designed to help infertile couples, it could be used in many other ways. The process is estimated to cost around $14,000 – way cheaper than the current human surrogate process today. But there are lots of questions from how does fertilization occur to how does the robot deliver the baby. But, I suspect, this is going to happen whether we want it to or not. Credit: Cybernews

Companies Are Going back to In Person Interviews – Here is Why

Companies demanding in person interviews is up to 30 percent of job openings, up from 5 percent last year. This is to stop two things – North Korean spies infiltrating big companies like Cisco, Google and others and also to stop applicants from using AI off screen to answer interview questions. We have already seen multiple instances of these attacks, so this is not a theoretical problem. Credit: Slashdot

Device Searches at US Border Hit Record High

Data shows that U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency tasked with immigration screening at the U.S. border, searched 14,899 devices of international travelers between April through June, a 17% increase on top of the previous record high recorded in early 2022.  Most of the searches are “basic” where they ask the person to unlock the phone and visually look through it. While citizens cannot be denied entry if they refuse, the feds can keep the device indefinitely. Visitors can be refused entry into the country. Still, overall, the number of searches compared to the number of travelers, is low. Credit: Tech Crunch

Hackers Abuse Vibe Coding To Create Malware

Vibe coding is a way to develop software by talking to a system which actually writes the code. It lets you talk in English while the computer writes the software that the system can execute, dramatically speeding up and simplifying the software development process. Lovable, a bit of a unicorn in the vibe coding space, has become the tool of choice for hackers to write malicious code. No good deed goes unpunished. Credit: Dark Reading

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