We are back with our last week’s top cyber security threats and challenges, just in case you missed any of them (ICYMI).
THN Weekly Round Up is The Hacker News efforts to help you provide all important stories of last week in one shot.
We recommend you read the full story (just click ‘Read More’ because there’s some valuable advice in there as well).
Here’s the list:
1. Quantum Teleportation — Scientists Teleported Quantum Data over 60 Miles
…by successfully Teleporting a small amount of data (qubit) inside light particles over a distance of 60 Miles (100 km) through a network of optical fiber – the record which is four times faster than previous one.
To know how the Quantum Teleportation works and how the researchers able to reach this record, Read More…
2. Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm is a Free Man Again
The Pirate Bay is one of the world’s most popular file-sharing websites predominantly used to share copyrighted material, like pirated software, pirated video files, and other stuff, free of charge.
For more information on Svartholm his release, Read More…
3. Microsoft Responds by Not Addressing Windows 10 Spying
Microsoft finally responded to the growing privacy concerns around its newest operating system to regain the trust of users who are concerned about their online privacy related to Windows 10, But…
According to the company, Windows 10 doesn’t collect two types of data – communications (including e-mail and Skype) and File Contents – but the company collects everything else from Cortana and Bing searches to store purchases.
4. Microsoft’s Love for Open Source
Last month, Microsoft surprised us by announcing that it has built a Linux kernel-based operating system Azure Cloud Switch (ACS) for developing software products for Network Devices.
Once again the company surprised us by choosing Ubuntu as the operating system for their Cloud-based Big Data services.
5. Unpatched WinRAR Flaw Affects 500 Million Users
A Very Big Number Indeed! A highly critical unpatched Zero-day vulnerability discovered in the latest version of WinRAR affected hundreds of Millions of its users worldwide.
The remote code execution vulnerability in the stable version of WinRAR 5.21 for Windows computers can be used by any attacker to insert a malicious HTML code inside the “Text to display in SFX window” section when the user is creating a new SFX file.
To know more about the zero-day flaw in WinRAR, Read More…
6. TrueCrypt Encryption Software Affected by Two Critical Flaws
If you are among those privacy-conscious people who are still using ‘no longer available’ TrueCrypt Encryption Software, then it’s time for you to move on.
- CVE-2015-7358: Allows attackers to gain access to a running process and get full administrative privileges.
- CVE-2015-7359: Allows attackers to impersonate as an authenticated user.
For detailed information on both the vulnerabilities, Read More…
7. One Billion Android Users are at Risk of Stagefright Bug 2.0
Yes, Android Stagefright bug is Back with a Bang. More than 1 Billion Android smartphone devices are vulnerable to hackers once again – Thanks to, not one, but two newly disclosed Android Stagefright vulnerabilities.
This time, the bug allows attackers to hack your Android smartphones just by tricking you into visiting a website that contains a malicious multimedia file, either MP3 or MP4.
For in-depth information on Android Stagefright Bug 2.0, Read More…
8. Amazon Employee bought ‘Google.com’ Just for $12
This was one of the last week’s trending news. Amazon employee Sanmay Ved, who was an ex-Google employee, managed to buy the world’s largest search engine website Google.com just for $12 from Google itself.
However, soon Ved received an order cancelation email and refund from Google Domains, but the experience of owning the search engine giant for one whole minute indeed sounds great.
For detail information and screenshots, he took while purchasing Google.com, Read More…
9. Data Breach Week
This week, we saw 3 high-profile data breaches, compromising personal and sensitive details of millions of people.
- Telecommunication giant T-Mobile – Over 15 Million Users Affected
- Crowdfunding website Patreon – Over 2.3 Million Users Affected
- US brokerage firm Scottrade – Nearly 5 Million Users Affected
T-Mobile’s credit application processor Experian was hacked, potentially exposing highly sensitive details of 15 Million users who applied for its service in the past two years.
In Patreon’s case, hackers managed to steal almost 15 gigabytes’ worth of data including names, shipping addresses and email addresses of 2.3 Million users, and then made it available to various online locations for anyone to download.
US brokerage firm Scottrade also suffered a massive data breach in which hackers managed to access one of its servers in late 2013 and early 2014, stealing names and street addresses for 4.6 million of their clients.
10. Design Flaws Make Drones Vulnerable to Cyber-Attacks
HP Security Researcher Oleg Petrovsky discovered design flaws in the UAV systems that allowed him to capture, modify, and inject a data stream into a telemetry link connection over a serial port, as well as spoof the connection to the ground station to take complete control of Drone.
11. AdBlock Extension has been Sold to an ‘Unknown Buyer’
Yes, your favorite AdBlock browser extension that helps you block annoying online advertising has been sold – and more shockingly – to an unknown buyer.
What’s more bothering is that the ‘Anonymous buyer‘ is turning ON the “Acceptable Ads” feature, which maintains a whitelist of advertisements that are not blocked by default.
This means that AdBlock will now let some advertisements through on by selected websites or by selected companies by default, if those companies pay for showing their ads – the concept entirely contradict the key feature of AdBlock, i.e. blocking ads.
