Lifeboat Foundation

A security researcher was awarded a bug bounty of $107,500 for identifying security issues in Google Home smart speakers that could be exploited to install backdoors and turn them into wiretapping devices.

The flaws “allowed an attacker within wireless proximity to install a ‘backdoor’ account on the device, enabling them to send commands to it remotely over the internet, access its microphone feed, and make arbitrary HTTP requests within the victim’s LAN,” the researcher, who goes by the name Matt, disclosed in a technical write-up published this week.

In making such malicious requests, not only could the Wi-Fi password get exposed, but also provide the adversary direct access to other devices connected to the same network. Following responsible disclosure on January 8, 2021, the issues were remediated by Google in April 2021.

Tabletop exercises allow researchers to explore options and test scenarios in fields from military strategy and cybersecurity to disaster response planning.

Check out all the on-demand sessions from the Intelligent Security Summit here.

It appears that most IT environments have not connected the dots when it comes to ransomware and the importance of a good protection system. It’s easy to infer this when reading a recent IDC survey of more than 500 CIOs from 20-plus industries around the world.

The most headline-grabbing statistic from IDC’s report is that 46% of respondents were successfully attacked by ransomware in the last three years. That means that ransomware has leaped past natural disasters to become the primary reason one must be good at performing large data restores. Many years ago, the main reason for such restores was hardware failure because the failure of a disk system often meant a complete restore from scratch.

Continue reading “Perception vs reality: How to really prepare for ransomware” »

A new information-stealing malware named ‘RisePro’ is being distributed through fake cracks sites operated by the PrivateLoader pay-per-install (PPI) malware distribution service.

RisePro is designed to help attackers steal victims’ credit cards, passwords, and crypto wallets from infected devices.

The malware was spotted by analysts at Flashpoint and Sekoia this week, with both cybersecurity firms confirming that RisePro is a previously undocumented information stealer now being distributed via fake software cracks and key generators.

Continue reading “New info-stealer malware infects software pirates via fake cracks sites” »

In the midst of the Anti AI Art movement and the ever evolving complexity of the algorithms they are rallying against, this video essay discusses current flaws and future potential of AI Translation technology within Retro Game Emulation. Through rigorous testing of 3 games that never got localizations or fan translations (Tokimeki Memorial 2, Sakura Wars 2 & Boku No Natsuyasami 2), we will see how well Retroarch and ZTranslate’s AI Translator works for the average player. We will also discuss the ways in which this technology could one day be used in more formal localisations by professional teams, and wel will come to understand the nuances of the AI debate.

#AI #FanTranslation #Emulation.

Continue reading “Is AI Translation the Future of Video Games?” »

OWASSRF that threat actors are actively exploiting to gain arbitrary code execution through Outlook Web Access (OWA) on vulnerable servers that bypasses ProxyNotShell URL rewrite mitigations.

A recent investigation by CrowdStrike Services found that Microsoft Exchange ProxyNotShell vulnerabilities are probably enabled the common entry vector for several Play ransomware intrusions:

The relevant logs were reviewed by CrowdStrike and no evidence of initial access exploiting CVE-2022–41040 was found.

An Android banking malware named ‘Godfather’ has been targeting users in 16 countries, attempting to steal account credentials for over 400 online banking sites and cryptocurrency exchanges.

The malware generates login screens overlaid on top of the banking and crypto exchange apps’ login forms when victims attempt to log in to the site, tricking the user into entering their credentials on well-crafted HTML phishing pages.

The Godfather trojan was discovered by Group-IB analysts, who believe it is the successor of Anubis, a once widely-used banking trojan that gradually fell out of use due to its inability to bypass newer Android defenses.

Continue reading “GodFather Android malware targets 400 banks, crypto exchanges” »

Artificial Intelligence has seen many advances recently, with new technologies like deepfakes, deepvoice, and GPT3 completely changing how we see the world. These new technologies bring forth many obvious benefits for in workflow and entertainment, but when technology like this exists, there are those who will try and use it for evil. Today we will be taking a look at how AI is giving hackers and cyber criminals more ways to pull off heists focusing on the story of a $35 million dollar hack that was pulled off using artificial intelligence and deep voice software.

0:00 The History of Social Engineering.
1:12 Early Social Engineering Attacks.
5:02 How Hackers are using Artificial Intelligence.
7:37 The $35 Million Heist.

Continue reading “How an AI Stole $35 Million” »

Scientists are trying to teach old crops some new tricks that will let them flourish in these harsher conditions — turning to secrets that reside in plants like pineapples, orchids and agaves. These and certain other plants have hacked photosynthesis in ways that allow them to thrive when it’s hot and dry, and even to withstand blistering periods of drought.

It’s an agricultural moonshot: Scientists hope to increase plant yields by hacking photosynthesis, the process that powers life on Earth.