Security News for the Week Ending October 16, 2020
5 Eyes Ask For Crypto Backdoor – Again
Law enforcement does not like it if they cannot snoop whenever they want. It has been a problem since encryption started to be used by the masses. The CIA, for example, even went to go so far as to BUY the Swiss encryption company Crypto AG, insert backdoors into their hardware and sell it to both our allies and our adversaries for decades before circumstances changed and made that hardware less important. They didn’t tell our allies that we were snooping on them. Part of the game.
So it is no surprise that when consumer products contain decent crypto, these same folks are not happy and they have been fighting the battle ever since.
Now they are saying that these companies should allow them to snoop on everyone – which they will do responsibly, of course – is a matter of public safety and protecting children.
And, of course, unlike the TSA, NSA, CIA and others before them who lost control of those secrets, these secret backdoors that companies should provide will not get into the wild. Trust us! credit: SCMagazine
Apple Releases New 5G Phones That Use Non-Existent 5G Service
Okay, this is not a cybersecurity issue, but it is a hot button for me. You can now buy an iPhone 12 Max with Apple care for $1700+ with 5G support.
I guess if you want to spend your money and help the economy, go for it, but if you think that you will be able to surf the web on your phone 10 times faster than today as they claim, you can. But you will have to wait around 10 years.
The problem is that none of the carriers have FAST 5G infrastructure. Verizon, does have some fast 5G – it covers about one percent of the US population. So, if you want to have a new iPhone and be one of the cool kids, go for it. Just don’t expect to surf the web any faster than you do today. Credit: Cybernews
Microsoft Takes Down TrickBot Network
On October 12, Microsoft and several partners announced that they were able to disrupt the TrickBot infrastructure by legally disabling IP addresses, making servers inaccessible and suspending services employed by the botnet. The effort was also aimed at preventing operators from registering new infrastructure. There is a concern that the bot network, which has connections to Russia and has compromised at least a million computers may be used in an attempt by Russia to impact the U.S. Presidential elections.
That takedown lasted two days. The network is back operational again, causing mischief. This just points to the challenge of permanently stopping hackers who are living in unfriendly countries like Russia. Even with the best efforts of Microsoft and Cyber Command, it only stopped them for 2 days. Credit: ZDNet and Security Week.
And You Thought TSA was the Only Non-Secure Part of Flying? Wrong!
The aviation industry uses a system called ACAS internationally or TCAS in the U.S. It is a collision avoidance system which tells a pilot that there is another plane nearby and tells each pilot how to avoid a collision (up, down, left, right, fast, slow, etc.). Except that TCAS has no security in it and it can be spoofed by a bad guy to crash the plane. There is a new version coming out soon called ACAS X and it too can be fooled. So much for the basics of security. Credit: The Register
800,000 Sonicwall Appliances Can be Hacked by a Kid
The patch, which affects 800,000 Internet facing VPN servers, was released on Monday. The details were disclosed two days later, on Wednesday. In its simplest form, a kid can either crash the device or just make it not respond to commands. Worst case, a more skilled hacker may be able to execute arbitrary code, including bypassing login requirements. Sonicwall says that they are not AWARE OF any customers impacted YET. If I was running a Sonicwall appliance, I would treat this as an emergency and patch it as soon as possible. Credit: ZDNet
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