All posts by Bruce Schneier

FBI Had the REvil Decryption Key

Post Syndicated from Bruce Schneier original https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2021/09/fbi-had-the-revil-decryption-key.html

The Washington Post reports that the FBI had a decryption key for the REvil ransomware, but didn’t pass it along to victims because it would have disrupted an ongoing operation.

The key was obtained through access to the servers of the Russia-based criminal gang behind the July attack. Deploying it immediately could have helped the victims, including schools and hospitals, avoid what analysts estimate was millions of dollars in recovery costs.

But the FBI held on to the key, with the agreement of other agencies, in part because it was planning to carry out an operation to disrupt the hackers, a group known as REvil, and the bureau did not want to tip them off. Also, a government assessment found the harm was not as severe as initially feared.

Fighting ransomware is filled with security trade-offs. This is one I had not previously considered.

Another news story.

Alaska’s Department of Health and Social Services Hack

Post Syndicated from Bruce Schneier original https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2021/09/alaskas-department-of-health-and-social-services-hack.html

Apparently, a nation-state hacked Alaska’s Department of Health and Social Services.

Not sure why Alaska’s Department of Health and Social Services is of any interest to a nation-state, but that’s probably just my failure of imagination.

Identifying Computer-Generated Faces

Post Syndicated from Bruce Schneier original https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2021/09/identifying-computer-generated-faces.html

It’s the eyes:

The researchers note that in many cases, users can simply zoom in on the eyes of a person they suspect may not be real to spot the pupil irregularities. They also note that it would not be difficult to write software to spot such errors and for social media sites to use it to remove such content. Unfortunately, they also note that now that such irregularities have been identified, the people creating the fake pictures can simply add a feature to ensure the roundness of pupils.

And the arms race continues….

Research paper.

Friday Squid Blogging: Possible Evidence of Squid Paternal Care

Post Syndicated from Bruce Schneier original https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2021/09/friday-squid-blogging-possible-evidence-of-squid-paternal-care.html

Researchers have found possible evidence of paternal care among bigfin reef squid.

As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered.

Read my blog posting guidelines here.

ProtonMail Now Keeps IP Logs

Post Syndicated from Bruce Schneier original https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2021/09/protonmail-now-keeps-ip-logs.html

After being compelled by a Swiss court to monitor IP logs for a particular user, ProtonMail no longer claims that “we do not keep any IP logs.”

EDITED TO ADD (9/14): This seems to be more complicated. ProtonMail is not yet saying that they keep logs. Their privacy policy still states that they do not keep logs except in certain circumstances, and outlines those circumstances. And ProtonMail’s warrant canary has an interesting list of data orders they have received from various authorities, whether they complied, and why or why not.

Security Risks of Relying on a Single Smartphone

Post Syndicated from Bruce Schneier original https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2021/09/security-risks-of-relying-on-a-single-smartphone.html

Isracard used a single cell phone to communicate with credit card clients, and receive documents via WhatsApp. An employee stole the phone. He reformatted the phone and replaced the SIM card, which was oddly the best possible outcome, given the circumstances. Using the data to steal money would have been much worse.

Here’s a link to an archived version.

Tracking People by their MAC Addresses

Post Syndicated from Bruce Schneier original https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2021/09/tracking-people-by-their-mac-addresses.html

Yet another article on the privacy risks of static MAC addresses and always-on Bluetooth connections. This one is about wireless headphones.

The good news is that product vendors are fixing this:

Several of the headphones which could be tracked over time are for sale in electronics stores, but according to two of the manufacturers NRK have spoken to, these models are being phased out.

“The products in your line-up, Elite Active 65t, Elite 65e and Evolve 75e, will be going out of production before long and newer versions have already been launched with randomized MAC addresses. We have a lot of focus on privacy by design and we continuously work with the available security measures on the market,” head of PR at Jabra, Claus Fonnesbech says.

“To run Bluetooth Classic we, and all other vendors, are required to have static addresses and you will find that in older products,” Fonnesbech says.

Jens Bjørnkjær Gamborg, head of communications at Bang & Olufsen, says that “this is products that were launched several years ago.”

“All products launched after 2019 randomize their MAC-addresses on a frequent basis as it has become the market standard to do so,” Gamborg says.

EDITED TO ADD (9/13): It’s not enough to randomly change MAC addresses. Any other plaintext identifiers need to be changed at the same time.

Zero-Click iPhone Exploits

Post Syndicated from Bruce Schneier original https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2021/09/zero-click-iphone-exploits.html

Citizen Lab is reporting on two zero-click iMessage exploits, in spyware sold by the cyberweapons arms manufacturer NSO Group to the Bahraini government.

These are particularly scary exploits, since they don’t require to victim to do anything, like click on a link or open a file. The victim receives a text message, and then they are hacked.

More on this here.

More Military Cryptanalytics, Part III

Post Syndicated from Bruce Schneier original https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2021/08/more-military-cryptanalytics-part-iii.html

Late last year, the NSA declassified and released a redacted version of Lambros D. Callimahos’s Military Cryptanalytics, Part III. We just got most of the index. It’s hard to believe that there are any real secrets left in this 44-year-old volume.