WhatsApp, like Facebook, uses OpenSignal opensource to encrypt messages. It encrypts all chat messages and does not need to be turned on. Here we explain how that works. And we explain how it might be possible to compromise that security by copying a phone’s private key, although reasoning through
Facebook has rolled out encrypted chat now, shortly after WhatsApp having done the same. They call it Secret Conversations (SC). It is based on the opensource Signal protocol developed by Open Whisper Systems (OWS). OWS has their own encrypted chat app too, called Signal. It has some notable differ
Bart Ransomware is a new ransomware reported in the media only a few days ago. Proofpoint wrote a detailed technical analysis of it here. Like other ransomware, this sets the wallpaper to show the ransom message, then directs the user where they can pay the ransom to obtain the passcode to their fi
A couple of years ago thieves descended in large numbers on Chile to replace debit card readers in ATM machines with their own recording device to vacuum up stolen data. This type of crime is called skimming. They also installed tiny cameras in the ATMs to record the pin as users typed those in. T
This writer has been saying for years that security products do not work 100% of the time. So there is the need to use several different approaches to cybersecurity. Even if intrusion detection tools worked 99.99% of the time then all it would take is 9,999 tries for the probability of someone pene
Lots of people who follow cybersecurity news know that hackers stole data on 83 million customers at JP Morgan in 2014. But in a development that does not happen enough, now the hackers have been caught. Lots of criminal hackers operate from places like Russian and Romanian where they are pretty mu
There is a new exploit that has been found to attack the previously known security weakness in the Android Stagefright multimedia library. The exploit lets a hacker take over an Android device. Here we explain how it works, what versions of Android it affects, and when you can expect it to be fixed
It’s too bad most people don’t use Ubuntu. While your mom would not understand it, maybe your sister would. Because Windows has too many security vulnerabilities. It also has more viruses, because it has more users, so it is a bigger target. Yet the weakest part of any system, Windows or not, remain
Oscar winning documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras has a new film. It’s about Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder. She was at the Cannes Film Festival previewing it this week. In case you do not know who Laura Poitras is, she is the documentary film maker who Edward Snowden first contacted when
Hackers have for the second time stolen money from banks using the SWIFT payment system. Now we have some technical details about the first attack. Usually when hacking news breaks the technical details are not given to the public. Often law enforcement tells the victim to keep those secret. Yet th