Tech

Hackers exploited 0-day, not 2018 bug, to mass-wipe My Book Live devices

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Last week’s mass-wiping of Western Digital My Book Live storage devices involved the exploitation of not just one vulnerability, but a second critical security bug that allowed hackers to remotely perform a factory reset without a password, an investigation shows. The vulnerability is remarkable not only because it made it trivial […]

Tech

SolarWinds hackers breach new victims, including a Microsoft support agent

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) The nation-state hackers who orchestrated the SolarWinds supply chain attack compromised a Microsoft worker’s computer and used the access to launch targeted attacks against company customers, Microsoft said in a terse statement published late on a Friday afternoon. The hacking group also compromised three entities using password-spraying and brute-force techniques, which […]

Tech

A well-meaning feature leaves millions of Dell PCs vulnerable

Enlarge / Dell has released a patch for a set of vulnerabilities that left as many as 30 million devices exposed. (credit: Artur Widak | Getty Images) Researchers have known for years about security issues with the foundational computer code known as firmware. It’s often riddled with vulnerabilities, it’s difficult to update with patches, and […]

Tech

NFC flaws let researchers hack an ATM by waving a phone

Enlarge (credit: Chalongrat Chuvaree | Getty Images) For years, security researchers and cybercriminals have hacked ATMs by using all possible avenues to their innards, from opening a front panel and sticking a thumb drive into a USB port to drilling a hole that exposes internal wiring. Now, one researcher has found a collection of bugs […]

Tech

NFC flaws let researchers hack an ATM by waving a phone

Enlarge (credit: Chalongrat Chuvaree | Getty Images) For years, security researchers and cybercriminals have hacked ATMs by using all possible avenues to their innards, from opening a front panel and sticking a thumb drive into a USB port to drilling a hole that exposes internal wiring. Now, one researcher has found a collection of bugs […]

Tech

NFC flaws let researchers hack an ATM by waving a phone

Enlarge (credit: Chalongrat Chuvaree | Getty Images) For years, security researchers and cybercriminals have hacked ATMs by using all possible avenues to their innards, from opening a front panel and sticking a thumb drive into a USB port to drilling a hole that exposes internal wiring. Now, one researcher has found a collection of bugs […]

Tech

“I’m totally screwed.” WD My Book users wake up to find their data deleted

Enlarge (credit: Western Digital) Western Digital, maker of the popular My Disk external hard drives, is recommending customers unplug their devices from the Internet until further notice while company engineers investigate unexplained compromises that have completely wiped data from devices around the world. The mass incidents of disk wiping came to light in this thread […]

Tech

Hackers are using unknown user accounts to target Zyxel firewalls and VPNs

Enlarge (credit: Zyxel) Network device maker Zyxel is warning customers of active and ongoing attacks that are targeting a range of the company’s firewalls and other types of security appliances. In an email, the company said that targeted devices included security appliances that have remote management or SSL VPN enabled, namely in the USG/ZyWALL, USG […]

Tech

John McAfee, the eccentric AV tycoon dead at 75 by apparent suicide

Enlarge / John McAfee on his yacht off the coast of Cuba in 2019. (credit: Adalberto ROQUE / AFP / Getty) John McAfee—the antivirus tycoon whose eccentric, larger-than-life, and often illegal antics on yachts and in tropical rain forests came to define him in later years—took his own life in a Spanish prison cell while […]

Tech

Altice is reducing cable-Internet upload speeds by up to 86% next month

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | buzbuzzer) Altice is slashing its cable-Internet upload speeds by up to 86 percent starting on July 12. Altice Optimum Online plans that currently have advertised upload speeds of 35Mbps will be reduced to uploads of either 5Mbps, 10Mbps, or 20Mbps, depending on the plan. Altice did not announce any immediate […]