Last week was eventful in the world of security, with the Black Hat and Defcon conferences taking place in Las Vegas. One of the highlights was a researcher’s discovery that the spikes in radiation recorded at the Chernobyl nuclear facility following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 may have been manipulated. This finding contradicts the official explanation and calls for a thorough investigation.
In other news, Intel researchers found a flaw in multiple generations of Intel chips, known as Downfall. Although the latest chips are not affected, some vulnerable chips are still available for purchase. Intel has released patches to address the issue.
A group of teenagers in Boston successfully hacked the city’s subway cards, allowing them unlimited free rides. This follows a similar hackMIT researchers in 2008. The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority worked with the teens to address the vulnerability, which will be resolved with the implementation of a new subway card system.
Researchers at IOActive created a device that allowed them to win every hand of pokeraccessing the internal camera of the widely used card-shuffling machine, Deckmate 2. They plugged their device into the shuffler’s USB port to learn the order of the cards in the deck.
GoSecure researchers used a clever honeypot to catch over 2,000 hacking attempts in real time. The honeypot allowed them to record the screens of hackers during their attempts. Similarly, Panasonic researchers turned their internet-of-things devices into honeypots to track malware types and protect their products.
Yandex, an international tech giant, experienced a source code leak earlier this year. Researchers investigating the code discovered the extent of data collection and how it is used for targeted advertising.
Microsoft’s AI red team has been attacking AI tools since 2018 to identify vulnerabilities and prevent malicious behavior.
In addition to the conferences, researchers in the UK developed a deep-learning algorithm that can decipher what someone is typinglistening to keystrokes. This acoustic attack can be performed using a phone’s microphone, making it a serious threat to privacy.
The UK also suffered a series of data breaches. The Electoral Commission revealed a cyberattack that exposed the data of 40 million voters, including personal information such as names, emails, and addresses. The Police Service of Northern Ireland accidentally published the names and roles of 10,000 officers and staff in response to a Freedom of Information request.
These incidents demonstrate the ongoing challenges in cybersecurity and highlight the importance of continued efforts to protect sensitive data and prevent malicious activities.
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