Tell a Tale

A flaw in the way thousands of popular mobile applications store data online is leaving passwords, addresses, door codes and location data vulnerable to hackers, researchers claim. The German team of researchers found 56million items of unprotected data in products they studied, including games, social networks, messaging, medical and bank transfer apps. The problem lies in the way those who write and sell the apps authenticate users when storing their data in online databases, said the team from Darmstadt University of Technology. In almost every category we found an app which has this vulnerability in it,' said Siegfried Rasthofer, part of the team from the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology and Darmstadt University of Technology. Team leader Eric Bodden said the number of records affected 'will likely be in the billions'. Another security researcher working separately, Colombian Jheto Xekri, said he had also found the same flaw. Mos...

Consumers who outfit their homes with home automation devices without considering security may be inviting hackers and thieves inside. Repeatedly, studies have revealed that devices designed to automate the home have serious vulnerabilities. Many devices have weak password policies and do not protect against man-in-the-middle attacks, according to an HP survey of 10 off-the-shelf home security systems. Others do not prevent access to the device’s debugging interface, which could allow easy hacking of the device, according to an April study by code-security firm Veracode. And, if an attacker is able to gain access to the device, almost all devices could be easily compromised and turned into a Trojan Horse, according to a study by security firm Synack. In fact, it only took between 5 and 20 minutes to find a way to compromise each device, once the researchers unpacked the hardware. “These companies are really pushing to get a product to market to really co...

Russian and Chinese intelligence agencies have reportedly decrypted files of former U.S. National Security Agency contractor and leaker Edward Snowden, and have identified British and U.S. secret agents. MI6, the U.K.’s secret intelligence service, has withdrawn agents from overseas operations in hostile countries, according to a report in the Sunday Times of London, citing U.K. government officials and Western intelligence agencies. The report contains some apparently contradictory information. Although The Sunday Times quoted a U.K. Home Office official saying that Snowden has “blood on his hands,” it also quoted a government source saying that there was no sign that agents have been hurt. Prime Minister David Cameron’s aides, however, confirmed that Snowden’s files are in the hands of Russian and Chinese intelligence agencies, according to the report. “It is the case that Russians and Chinese have information,” according to one top U.K. government source cited by ...

One in five of us use online passwords that we haven’t changed in a decade, a study shows. And almost half – 47 per cent – rely on at least one password that has not been changed for five years. Worryingly, a staggering 73 per cent of online accounts are activated by the same password we use for another account. Indeed, on average we have just six unique passwords to protect 24 online accounts.