Month: June 2015

To Serve, Protecte, And Hide, If Necessary

June 27, 2015 — Leave a comment

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One of the latest rumors has it that Facebook managed to get its hand on the former chief of the Yahoo security system. Alex Stamos is supposed to do exactly what in Facebook? The same job he was doing in Yahoo. Right? Is Facebook in trouble? Should we be worried about our cyber security on Facebook?

If you scratch a little bit deeper underneath the Facebook surface, you will realize that it still cares about its users. In a profitable way, of course. That is why, anything and anyone to make users uncomfortable is not welcome on this most popular social network in the world.

Here is the catch. The list of most unwanted guests includes our dear government among other notorious men in black. This means that we will be safe from all kinds of spying and tracking programs made in the NSA or the CIA. If that is really the case here, then our hats off to Facebook.

We have to admit that we are a little bit suspicious. Facebook and Google have quite a negative reputation as being extremely “government-friendly”. They just cannot say no to the government, can they? Let us just hope that Facebook hackers will lose their job, thanks to this man Alex Stamos .

Who’ll Guard The Guardians?

June 26, 2015 — Leave a comment

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Can you imagine this worst case scenario? Your password manager just got hacked. That is the trouble with a strategy, let me put all of my eggs in one basket. On the other side, what other real options do we have? They say, do not use the same password for all of your various devices.

OK, we got it, but who is going to remember dozen of different passwords. Now, you see what is the big problem here. When it comes to the password managers, we expect from them to be bulletproof in terms of flawless cyber security. When they fail, what are we supposed to do?

Passwords are going to be our most annoying problem for quite some time. We are literally helpless. Every now and then, you hear about the more or less successful innovations in this field. There are some experts, who are suggesting us to use Emoji symbols as a password alternative.

Can you believe it? How about body implants? Can this work for you? Do we really need to trade our privacy for an adequate password? The more we talk about passwords, the more frustrated we eventually become. Should we use the word password for our only password?

Emoji Password

June 25, 2015 — Leave a comment

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OK, we got it. We are not rocket scientists, but we know for sure that a password based on Emoji symbols is actually a picture-based security measure. It makes a perfect sense, doesn’t it? This new type of password is supposed to be a tougher challenge for hackers.

For what is worth, thanks to Emoji, we have more combinations at our disposal to play with. On the other side, we could not help ourselves noticing one obvious practical problem. How we are supposed to remember our new Emoji password? This is going to be a little bit harder, than it seems.

If you want a strong password, then you will have to use quite a few Emoji symbols. Very different ones. Right? Which eventually brings us back to the very beginning of our story about the bullet-proof passwords. Do we have to use a special program to memorize our Emoji passwords for us?

We are pretty much convinced that some reckless users are the perfect match for the category called the helpless-cyber-security-cases. Someone will just put six or eight smileys in a row. And, that will be it. The Emoji version of a password for the password.

Cyberphone The New BlackPhone

June 21, 2015 — Leave a comment

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Since the beginning of the smartphone time, we have dreamed about the magical model, which will be a synonym for the uncompromising safety and bulletproof privacy. This is how, we have ended up one fine day with a thing called the BlackPhone under our pillow. Yet, that was not enough.

The main purpose of this dark-knight-smartphone was to encrypt all of your mobile data. Protection of your privacy was its primary and only purpose. However, we still could not find a solution for the secure mobile transactions. This is the reason, the Cyberphone is introduced.

This is the early part of the smartphone day, that is why, we cannot tell you a lot. This smartphone, which comes with a straightforward name Cyberphone, walks in the mysterious mobile ways, as it should be. Nevertheless, this does not solve all of our problems. We need a double-bubble solution.

What if the Cyberphone and the Blackphone can have kids? Smart kids, if possible. This way, we will be able to kill two most troubling cyber-threats with just one smart-stone-phone. Protecting privacy, while ensuring safe mobile transactions. It really sounds like a dream, doesn’t it?

When Experts Walks In, Security Walks Out

June 20, 2015 — Leave a comment

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Here is the thing with the cyber security experts. They talk too much. When you ask them to give you a couple of life saving tips, this is what you get as a result. The very first thing you are going to hear is that you should always walk on the safe side of the cyber cliff. What is that supposed to mean?

Use only legitimate software. Avoid suspicious websites. Do not do anything foolish while being online. Seriously? It is just like they are referring to the regular users of the notorious Silk Road. What else do these brainiacs have to share with us that can improve our security?

We are supposed to forget about all those ridiculous passwords, which include among other hard to believe “crown jewels” of pure ingenuity, such as password, 123456, 123456789, iloveyou, and similar. Do you feel safer already? What is the moral of this story about the top cyber security secrets?

Well, either these experts were in the bad mood mode, or we, the users, are helplessly naive and reckless. Maybe, we can really strengthen our cyber security position, with a few simple steps, we fail to apply over and over again. Maybe, the image in our cyber security mirror is too scary to look at.

Browser Hijackers

June 17, 2015 — Leave a comment

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Is there at least one place in our brave new cyber world, which is safe from hacker’s harm? We have seen quite a few troubling things, and heard so many horrific stories, but this is simply too much to handle. Now, our precious web browsers are not going to be left aside, “thanks” to the so-called browser hijackers.

The use of the term hijacking, says a lot about this extremely annoying cyber menace, doesn’t it? Someone hijacks your browser in order to change its settings without your knowledge nor permission. So, what do you get as a result? Well, you do not have to guess twice, do you?

Your browser is very likely to pump up some website’s search results or even worse to steal your privacy and logging data. Unfortunately, this is almost a fully legitimate way to do some illegal things. There is more. This is not the worst  thing about the web browser hijackers. Can you guess what it is?

It turns out that you yourself are to be blamed for your hijacking situation. You have installed some completely unnecessary piece of software or you have followed some naughty link. Either way, no one hacked your browser in a traditional sense. Remember that. Prevention is still the best cyber defense.

iOSecurit9

June 15, 2015 — Leave a comment

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What is the use of the new OS, if there are no security improvements? This is a golden, and yet unwritten rule, in the mobile world. With this shiny thought in mind, what can we expect from the new iOS 9? Well, for what is worth we are going to make a few wild guesses, based on some serious rumors.

For the time being, we have a fingerprint scanner and a four-characters-code at our disposal. These 10,000 possible combinations are obviously not enough for the busy little bees in Apple. How about a million of potential combinations of a new six-character-code? This sounds like a plan.

Sometimes is good to have your reputation at stake. Why? Because, you will work really hard to create one hell of a tough system for hackers to crack. Yes, you care about your users, but at the end of the day, it all comes down to your shiny logo, which you need to protect at all costs.

OK Apple, you have certainly caught our attention. You want us to feel safe and invulnerable. Then, we have no other choice than to put your name to the rigorous tests. We will see what was this, an intriguing ad or a serious decision to set new standards in the cyber security field.

USA Patriot Act vs USA Freedom Act

June 12, 2015 — Leave a comment

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The busy little bees in the Congress are not going to be bored this summer, that is for sure. The clash of the legal titans USA Patriot Act and US Freedom Act is far from over. In addition, all the voices calling Edward Snowden to come back home are perhaps still premature despite their noble intentions.

From what we know for sure, the most decisive battle is going to be fought over the phone records. The NSA has a couple of months left to do what it wants with our phone records. After the moment the USA Freedom Act reaches its full legal power, a court order would be an absolute must in this field.

Either way, this is a tricky situation, and there are no winners here. Our privacy is incurably lost between our need for the flawless security and our desire to be left alone, from time to time. You cannot have it both, can you? One side of this story has to suffer, either our privacy or our safety.

The President Obama is going to have more than one sleepless night. His signature will set the beginning of this legal war. We sure hope that a new devastating terrorist attack is not going to be required to determine a winner. Maybe, it is simply impossible to enjoy your privacy and safety at the same time.

The Four-Million Super-Hack

June 11, 2015 — Leave a comment

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No one knows for sure, what has actually happened. Maybe, we are too embarrassed to admit it. Yet, for what is worth, some 4 million federal employee data were stolen. Does it mean that all federal data are compromised? How many federal employees, we have in the first place?

Or, let us ask the right question. Who is to blame? It turns out that all eyes are on Chinese hackers, for the moment. Although, it is not quite clear, what are you supposed to do with these federal data. Can you sell them? Are these people more attractive to people, because they have reliable sources of income?

The black-cyber-markets can be very generous for these types of data. On the other hand, this is a huge blow straight in the face of the federal cyber security. If the US government cannot protect its own employees, then what is going to happen to the so-called ordinary citizens?

You can rest assured that this cyber embarrassment is not going to disappear so easily. We are going to write and read much more about the aftermath of this hack attack of epic proportions. Can you hack an entire country? Now, under these circumstances, this question does not sound crazy at all.

Capture The DARPA’s Flag

June 10, 2015 — Leave a comment

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The DARPA stands for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), or in plain English, one of Fox Mulder’s most favorite non-secret government agencies. You dream about it, they make it. The most unimaginable and crazy weapons among other things.

However, this time the DARPA’s men in black have decided to borrow some of Defcon’s strategies. If you want to earn two million dollars in two days, here is what you have to do. You or your team have to come up with a software, which has mastered the skill of superior self defense.

The intention is more than clear with this one. No price is too big to pay for the state-of-the-art software, which can withstand the most sophisticated cyber attacks. In addition, the DARPA is aiming high with this one. How high you may ask? Let us put it in this more understandable way.

The perfect software according to DARPA’s rigorous criteria is supposed not only to successfully defend itself, but also to strike back with all the power of a cyber vengeance. This is a true win-win the busy little bees in the DARPA are trying to achieve with this challenging contest.