Is it time to kill the pen test? | Salted Hash Ep 22

Host Steve Ragan reports from the show floor at RSA 2018, talking with guest Adrian Sanabria, director of research at Savage Security, about de-emphasizing network penetration tests to put more focus on attack simulations and helping companies improve their defenses.

Casino Gets Hacked Through Its Internet-Connected Fish Tank Thermometer

Internet-connected technology, also known as the Internet of Things (IoT), is now part of daily life, with smart assistants like Siri and Alexa to cars, watches, toasters, fridges, thermostats, lights, and the list goes on and on.

But of much greater concern, enterprises are unable to secure each and every device on their network, giving cybercriminals hold on their network hostage with just one insecure device.

Since IoT is a double-edged sword, it not only poses huge risks to enterprises worldwide but also has the potential to severely disrupt other organisations, or the Internet itself.

Popular Android Phone Manufacturers Caught Lying About Security Updates

Android ecosystem is highly broken when it comes to security, and device manufacturers (better known as OEMs) make it even worse by not providing critical patches in time.

According to a new study, most Android vendors have been lying to users about security updates and telling customers that their smartphones are running the latest updates.

In other words, most smartphone manufacturers including big players like Samsung, Xiaomi, OnePlus, Sony, HTC, LG, and Huawei are not delivering you every critical security patch they're supposed to, a study by Karsten Nohl and Jakob Lell of German security firm Security Research Labs (SRL) revealed.

Facebooks Data Scandal Has Affected 2.7 Million EU Citizens

Facebook has informed the European Commission that the data of 2.7 million EU citizens have been affected by the recent data scandal. The company has already revealed the statistics of which countries have been affected so far because of the data scandal.

Privacy is a fundamental right under Europes legal regime therefore the improper sharing of users data is completely illegal.

Facebook Collected Your Android Call History and SMS Data For Years

Facebook knows a lot about you, your likes and dislikes—it's no surprise.

But do you know, if you have installed Facebook Messenger app on your Android device, there are chances that the company had been collecting your contacts, SMS, and call history data at least until late last year.

A tweet from Dylan McKay, a New Zealand-based programmer, which received more than 38,000 retweets (at the time of writing), showed how he found his year-old data—including complete logs of incoming and outgoing calls and SMS messages—in an archive he downloaded (as a ZIP file) from Facebook.

Bitcoin Ransomware Attack Halts Major American City’s Government and Police

Bitcoin Ransomware Attack Halts Major American City’s Government and Police

Many government services in Atlanta, Georgia, a major metropolitan US city, were brought to a halt this week. Ransomware appeared on municipal computers, urging a payment of $51,000 in equivalent bitcoin, otherwise vital city functions would be shut down. The hackers made good on their threat, and services all over the city were impacted, including police. Into the weekend, the issue has not yet been resolved.

Pre-Installed Malware Found On 5 Million Popular Android Phones

Security researchers have discovered a massive continuously growing malware campaign that has already infected nearly 5 million mobile devices worldwide.

Dubbed RottenSys, the malware that disguised as a 'System Wi-Fi service' app came pre-installed on millions of brand new smartphones manufactured by Honor, Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, Vivo, Samsung and GIONEE—added somewhere along the supply chain.

All these affected devices were shipped through Tian Pai, a Hangzhou-based mobile phone distributor, but researchers are not sure if the company has direct involvement in this campaign.