Mobile – Page 2

An Exploited Website Can Cause Apple Products To Crash

September 28, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Users of Apple tech have a new reason to worry. A security researcher named Sabri Haddouche, who works for an instant messaging app called “Wire,” has published a proof of concept web page. It contains a fatal exploit that can crash and restart iPhones, iPads and any Mac.

Essentially then, the entire Apple ecosystem is vulnerable. Worse, the security flaw can be exploited using nothing more than CSS and HTML code. The flaw resides in Apple’s WebKit, which is its web rendering engine used by all apps and browsers running on Apple’s OS.

Haddouche tested the exploit using Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and the Safari web browser. He got the same result each time using both a MacBook Pro and an iPhone X. Apple users are advised to exercise extreme caution when visiting any web page until a patch can be issued.

The company is currently investigating the issue, and to this point has not given their legions of users a timeframe for a possible fix.

Sadly, this isn’t the first time a flaw like this has been discovered, and it’s unlikely to be the last. If there’s a silver lining, it is that Apple has historically been quick to patch flaws of this kind, and it should be noted that Linux and Windows systems are not affected.

It’s especially worrisome for small business owners, and until Apple gives us a time frame for a fix, your best bet is to steer clear of any websites but those that are business critical, and trusted sites that you know to be safe.

Although the exploit was specifically engineered to crash Apple devices, it’s easy enough to envision a nastier implementation which could critically damage the OS, rendering the device targeted by the attack completely inoperable. Stay vigilant, and stay tuned for a fix to what could be a devastating issue.

Joseph Martin

President & CEO
I hope you enjoyed this article. My mission is to take your stress away from dealing with IT problems. Call (252) 565-1235 or send me a message at our contact us page if you have a question, comment or want help.

Malware Reports Continue To Rise

September 26, 2018 by Joseph Martin

We’ve known for some time now that the next big crisis the internet will have to come to grips with is the dramatic rise of the Internet of Things (IOT).

The problem isn’t with the devices themselves, which are enormously helpful and rapidly growing in their popularity. Rather, it lies in the fact that the overwhelming majority of IoT manufacturers have been notoriously lax when it comes to building even basic security protocols into the goods they make and sell.

The lack of security and the complete absence of any type of security has made the Internet of Things the new “low hanging fruit” of the internet, and hackers have been happy to take advantage of the incredibly easy access.

Kaspersky Lab has recently given us hard numbers to provide a sense of the scope and scale of the problem.

Last year, the company detected a total of 32,615 malware infections on IoT devices. In just the first six months of this year, the company has spotted 121,588 infections on IoT devices, representing a staggering 273 percent increase.

Far and away, the most commonly compromised devices were routers. Behind them were a whole raft of other IoT devices including smart TVs, refrigerators, DVRs, printers, washing machines and more.

Things have gotten so bad that earlier this year, the FBI issued a public service announcement in a bid to warn users of the dangers of unsecured devices.

These can be slaved by hackers to create enormous botnets like the one that brought down the internet on the entire eastern seaboard earlier this year. However, if they are connected to your home or office network, they provide a perfect launchpad for attacks against other network connected devices.

Sadly, manufacturers to this point have shown little interest in beefing up the security of the devices they sell, so the problem is likely to get much worse before it starts getting better.

Joseph Martin

Your Business Email Is Highly Targeted For Attacks

September 25, 2018 by Joseph Martin

There’s a new report out, authored by ProofPoint, and its findings for business are grim.

It’s no secret that businesses of all shapes and sizes are coming under increasing fire from hackers around the world.

Now we have hard data that shows us exactly how big of an increase we’re seeing.

Here are some of the key findings in the report:

Email fraud attacks targeting businesses have increased 25 percent in the last quarter alone

They have increased by a staggering 85 percent from this time last year

Phishing links sent via social media platforms have increased by 30 percent

60 percent of those phishing links specifically targeted individual contributors and lower-level corporate management

23 percent of attacks targeted employees working in operations and production

Incidents of customer support fraud increased by 39 percent, compared to the previous quarter. This increased a whopping 400 percent compared with this time last year

Nick Frost (a co-founder of the Cyber Risk Management Group) had this to say about the disturbing report:

“Key to this is engineering emails and spoofing email addresses to a level of sophistication that fails to alert the recipient that there is anything suspicious about the email. Techniques such as web crawling and web scraping are able to collect and collate key information about an individual that can be used in crafting an email, accompanied by a link (as part of a phishing attack) to an unsuspecting user.

Whilst there are many legitimate web crawlers and many are enabled for business reasons, there may be organizations and individuals that wish for their information not to be collected and shared either for legitimate or adversarial purposes. There are tools that organizations can adopt that prevent or even delay web crawlers.”

Training is the first line of defense here. If you’re not doing it already, you should be holding regular phishing simulations so your employees become adept at spotting them.

Joseph Martin

New Google Chrome Feature Created For Better Password Security

September 24, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Google is taking yet another important step to help save us from ourselves. The company is releasing a complete redesign of their Chrome browser, which is exciting. There’s one feature in particular, however, that bears taking a special look at.

Perhaps the most significant change to the browser is the addition of a new password manager, which will offer to generate a random password when you sign into a website for the first time. The randomly generated password will be securely tucked away inside your Google Account and synced across both desktop and mobile versions of Chrome.

Password security is something humans aren’t very good at. Despite the risks and the repeated dire warnings, many people still have the tendency to use the same passwords that are only marginally different, across multiple websites they have accounts on.

The problem is that if one of the websites you have an account on is breached, it puts most (if not all) of your other web accounts at risk. It’s an extremely bad habit from a security standpoint, and unfortunately, it is one that has proved to be notoriously difficult to break.

Google’s solution to the problem is interesting,T but it should be noted that it is far from all-inclusive. Bear in mind that Chrome only manages passwords inside the browser, so if you log into services like Netflix on your smart TV, those login details won’t be captured in, or stored by your Google Account.

Google isn’t the only company doing what it can to save us from our worst password impulses. Apple is making changes too. With the release of iOS 12, Apple will give its OS the ability to autofill passwords across browsers and apps from third-party password managers.

Joseph Martin

Another Chrome Extension Is Stealing Passwords

September 19, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Do you use the Chrome browser extension for the MEGA file storage service? If you do, please read this article carefully. The official extension for that service has been compromised. It has been replaced with a malware version that has the capability to steal user login data for a number of popular websites, including Github, Google, Amazon, Microsoft and more.

The extension was compromised on September 4th, when an unknown attacker breached MEGA’s Chrome Web Store account and uploaded the poisoned version of the extension. Any user who installs it is at risk of having their other login credentials stolen.

It gets worse. If you allow auto-updates, then the poisoned version of the extension would have automatically “updated” on your PC or smartphone when the malware was uploaded. Note that when the extension attempted to update, it would have asked users for elevated permissions. Those elevated permissions would allow the extension access to personal information, which is the mechanism by which the credentials are stolen.

The poisoned file was in place for a total of four hours before it was found, eradicated and replaced by a clean version (version 3.39.5).

According to MEGA:

“You are only affected if you had the MEGA Chrome extension installed at the time of the incident, auto update enabled, and you accepted the additional permission, or if you freshly installed version 3.39.4.”

If you think there’s even a chance you were impacted by this event, your best bet would be an across-the-board change of all your passwords, as there’s no way to be sure which ones may have been compromised.

Two things to note here: The Firefox extension was not impacted. This applies only to chrome users who have the MEGA extension installed. Also, you should check your extension version number immediately to be sure you’re not running version 3.39.4. If you are, uninstall it immediately and grab the clean version referenced above.

Joseph Martin

Air Canada Customers May Have Had Their Data Exposed

September 17, 2018 by Joseph Martin

If you fly Air Canada and use their mobile app, it may be time to change your password. The company recently announced that between August 22nd and August 24th of this year, they detected “unusual log-in behavior,” and that a small fraction (some 20,000) of their 1.7 mobile app users may have had their data compromised as a result.

The company stressed that no credit card information was compromised, but that doesn’t make the breach much less damaging.

The exposed data included:

Customer name

Physical address

Email address

Phone number

Any information an individual customer added to his or her profile

Worst of all is the fact that passport numbers were also exposed. Using that information, a hacker could easily gain access to the countries that a person has been to, when the passport expires, country of residence, the flight numbers of any flights they’ve taken, their gender, birthday and more.

As is usually the case when events like this occur, Air Canada has apologized to their customers and has reached out to all of their potentially impacted users.

Even if you didn’t get a notification from Air Canada, it would be prudent to change your password as soon as possible.

The company has not released any details about exactly how the breach occurred, and the matter is still under investigation.

Note that in terms of scope and scale, this is a fairly small breach. The 20,000 users represents about 1 percent of the total user base. Even so, the data stolen has the potential to be quite damaging. Even after you change your password, since email addresses were compromised during the breach, be on the alert for phishing emails, as the group responsible may attempt to leverage the information they have to get even more.

Joseph Martin

Some Apple iPhone 8’s May Have A Manufacturer Defect

September 10, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Do you own an iPhone 8? If so, you may have problems. Apple has recently reported that a small percentage of iPhone 8s “contain logic boards with a manufacturing defect.

Affected devices may experience unexpected restarts, a frozen screen, or won’t turn on.”

The company has isolated the defect to phones manufactured between September 2017 to March 2018, in Hong Kong, India, Japan, China, New Zealand, Macau, and the United States.

To find out if you’ve got one of the impacted iPhone 8s, head to the company’s website and use the tool they’ve placed there, entering your phone’s serial number. If your phone is one of the defective devices, Apple will repair it free of charge for up to three years after the sale.

Note, however, that some types of damage may incur fees to repair, specifically in the instance of a cracked screen or similar.

Apple’s handling of the issue has so far been quite good. They were quick to acknowledge the mistake and isolate it to a very specific frame of time, and equally quick to create a checking tool. Their repair policy is generous, as is the impressive three-year window.

It’s unfortunate that the manufacturing error occurred. However, the reality is that many companies would not have been as forthcoming as Apple has been, nor as generous with their repair policy.

Kudos to Apple for their handling of the issue. If you’re considering buying a new iPhone, don’t let this hiccup change your mind. Although the company isn’t perfect, you’ll find few companies that can top Apple in terms of taking care of their customers. There’s a reason their customers are more like fans, and companies of all shapes and sizes would do well to emulate Apple as best they can.

Joseph Martin

Vulnerability Found In Major Manufacturers Of Android Phones

September 8, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Researchers operating out of the University of Florida, Stony Brook University and Samsung Research America have made a disturbing discovery. Millions of Android smartphones manufactured by eleven different OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) were found to be vulnerable to attack via AT Commands.

If you’re not sure what an “AT Command” is, you’re not alone. Part of the Hayes Command Set, ATtention Commands were developed in the early 1980s and designed to be transmitted via phone lines to issue commands to modems.

Most people aren’t even aware of the fact that their high-tech smartphones contain a basic modem within them, which allows the high-tech wonder to connect to the internet. While AT Commands have been standardized, many vendors have added custom AT Commands to their devices, and unfortunately, these commands can control a surprising variety of advanced features including the built-in camera and the touchscreen interface.

The AT Commands can be accessed via the phone’s USB interface. This means that a would-be attacker would have to gain physical access to the device, or place a malicious component inside a user’s charger, charging station, or USB dock.

Once a hacker is connected in this manner to the victim’s phone, he could use one of the AT Commands to steal data, unlock the screen, mimic touchscreen events, or even rewrite the phone’s firmware.

The research team has complied a database of phone models and firmware versions that are vulnerable to this type of attack. They have contacted all the vendors, and are continuing their testing.

Initially, the team tested AT Commands via the USB interface. Phase two of the research will test to see if those commands can be issued via WiFi or Bluetooth connections. The team has also published the Shell script they used in their original testing, available on GitHub.

So far, none of the OEMs contacted have released any information or given a timetable for a fix.

Joseph Martin

Millions Of T-Mobile Customers Data May Have Been Leaked

September 4, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Telecommunications giant T-Mobile is the latest victim of a large-scale data breach, with personal data belonging to more than two million of its customers having been leaked. The exposed information included customer name, phone number, email address, billing zip code, account number and whether the account was pre-paid or post-paid.

As bad as that is, it could have been far worse. Fortunately, no financial information, passwords, or social security numbers were compromised.

According to the official statement released by T-Mobile, their security team shut down the “unauthorized capture of some information” on August 20th of this year. The statement did not provide specific details about how the hackers got into the company’s servers, and only provided an estimate of the total number of customer records impacted.

The statement read, in part:

“We take the security of your information very seriously and have a number of safeguards in place to protect your personal information from unauthorized access. We truly regret that this incident occurred and are so sorry for any inconvenience this has caused you.”

T-Mobile has reached out to law enforcement and has contacted all customers who were impacted by the breach.

Although no passwords were compromised, if you received a notification from the company that information about your account was compromised, it would be wise to change your password just to be safe. Be on guard against phishing attacks that may target you based on the information that was gleaned via the breach.

This is but the latest in a long and growing stream of high profile breaches this year, but it is by no means the largest. Earlier this year, for example, Car phone Warehouse suffered a breach that impacted all of its ~10 million customers. As ever, vigilance is the key.

Joseph Martin

Android Malware Could Access Your Pictures And Calls

September 1, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Android users have a new threat to contend with, according to a sixteen-page whitepaper outlining a new malware strain.

The paper was published by a group of security researchers working for Bitdefender. They identified a robust new strain of malware called “Triout.”

According to the report, although they just discovered the malware a month ago, there are indications that it has been in use since at least mid-May of this year.

Among other things, it can:

Steal call log data

Collect and steal SMS messages

Record every call taking place on the phone

Upload recordings of those calls to a remote server

Send the phone’s GPS coordinates to a remote server

Upload a copy of every picture taken with the phone’s camera to a remote server

Hide from the user’s view

These are robust, highly advanced features that require extensive, detailed knowledge of the Android OS. Typically, malware of this type is used by nation-state hackers with deep pockets, or by well-heeled networks of cybercriminals. At this point, there’s no clear indication which category Triout’s creators fall into.

The malware strain has been found masquerading as a legitimate app, but the team has been unable to trace it back to its source of origin. At this point, there’s no clear indication where it’s coming from. The first sample was uploaded to VirusTotal from Russia, but subsequent samples were uploaded from an Israeli IP address.

The researchers note that despite its advanced feature set, the group responsible appears to have made a mistake:

“What is striking…is that it’s completely obfuscated, meaning that simply by unpacking the cloned app’s .apk file, full access to the source code becomes available….this could suggest that the Triout framework may be a work-in-progress, with developers testing features and compatibility with devices.”

Joseph Martin

An Exploited Website Can Cause Apple Products To Crash

Malware Reports Continue To Rise

Your Business Email Is Highly Targeted For Attacks

New Google Chrome Feature Created For Better Password Security

Another Chrome Extension Is Stealing Passwords

Air Canada Customers May Have Had Their Data Exposed

Some Apple iPhone 8’s May Have A Manufacturer Defect

Vulnerability Found In Major Manufacturers Of Android Phones

Millions Of T-Mobile Customers Data May Have Been Leaked

Android Malware Could Access Your Pictures And Calls

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