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Apple has released iOS and iPadOS updates to address two security issues, one of which could have allowed a user's passwords to be read out aloud by its VoiceOver assistive technology. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-44204, has been described as a logic problem in the new Passwords app impacting a slew of iPhones and iPads. Security researcher Bistrit Daha has been credited with discovering and reporting the flaw. "A user's saved passwords may be read aloud by VoiceOver," Apple said in an advisory released this week, adding it was resolved with improved validation.  The shortcoming impacts the following devices - iPhone XS and later iPad Pro 13-inch iPad Pro 12.9-inch 3rd generation and later iPad Pro 11-inch 1st generation and later iPad Air 3rd generation and later iPad 7th generation and later, and iPad mini 5th generation and later Also patched by Apple is a security vulnerability (CVE-2024-44207) specific to the newly launched iPhone 16 mo

Since its emergence, Generative AI has revolutionized enterprise productivity. GenAI tools enable faster and more effective software development, financial analysis, business planning, and customer engagement. However, this business agility comes with significant risks, particularly the potential for sensitive data leakage. As organizations attempt to balance productivity gains with security concerns, many have been forced to choose between unrestricted GenAI usage to banning it altogether. A new e-guide by LayerX titled 5 Actionable Measures to Prevent Data Leakage Through Generative AI Tools is designed to help organizations navigate the challenges of GenAI usage in the workplace. The guide offers practical steps for security managers to protect sensitive corporate data while still reaping the productivity benefits of GenAI tools like ChatGPT. This approach is intended to allow companies to strike the right balance between innovation and security. Why Worry About ChatGPT? The e

For years, securing a company's systems was synonymous with securing its "perimeter." There was what was safe "inside" and the unsafe outside world. We built sturdy firewalls and deployed sophisticated detection systems, confident that keeping the barbarians outside the walls kept our data and systems safe. The problem is that we no longer operate within the confines of physical on-prem installations and controlled networks. Data and applications now reside in distributed cloud environments and data centers, accessed by users and devices connecting from anywhere on the planet. The walls have crumbled, and the perimeter has dissolved, opening the door to a new battlefield: identity . Identity is at the center of what the industry has praised as the new gold standard of enterprise security: "zero trust." In this paradigm, explicit trust becomes mandatory for any interactions between systems, and no implicit trust shall subsist. Every access request, regardless of its origin,

The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has fined Meta €91 million ($101.56 million) as part of a probe into a security lapse in March 2019, when the company disclosed that it had mistakenly stored users' passwords in plaintext in its systems. The investigation, launched by the DPC the next month, found that the social media giant violated four different articles under the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). To that end, the DPC faulted Meta for failing to promptly notify the DPC of the data breach, document personal data breaches concerning the storage of user passwords in plaintext, and utilize proper technical measures to ensure the confidentiality of users' passwords. Meta originally revealed that the privacy transgression led to the exposure of a subset of users' Facebook passwords in plaintext, although it noted that there was no evidence it was improperly accessed or abused internally. According to Krebs on Security , some of

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a set of now patched vulnerabilities in Kia vehicles that, if successfully exploited, could have allowed remote control over key functions simply by using only a license plate. "These attacks could be executed remotely on any hardware-equipped vehicle in about 30 seconds, regardless of whether it had an active Kia Connect subscription," security researchers Neiko Rivera, Sam Curry, Justin Rhinehart, and Ian Carroll said . The issues impact almost all vehicles made after 2013, even letting attackers covertly gain access to sensitive information including the victim's name, phone number, email address, and physical address. Essentially, this could then be abused by the adversary to add themselves as an "invisible" second user on the car without the owner's knowledge. The crux of the research is that the issues exploit the Kia dealership infrastructure ("kiaconnect.kdealer[.]com") used for vehicle activat

Google has revealed that its transition to memory-safe languages such as Rust as part of its secure-by-design approach has led to the percentage of memory-safe vulnerabilities discovered in Android dropping from 76% to 24% over a period of six years. The tech giant said focusing on Safe Coding for new features not only reduces the overall security risk of a codebase, but also makes the switch more "scalable and cost-effective." Eventually, this leads to a drop in memory safety vulnerabilities as new memory unsafe development slows down after a certain period of time, and new memory safe development takes over, Google's Jeff Vander Stoep and Alex Rebert said in a post shared with The Hacker News. Perhaps even more interestingly, the number of memory safety vulnerabilities tends to register a drop notwithstanding an increase in the quantity of new memory unsafe code. The paradox is explained by the fact that vulnerabilities decay exponentially, with a study finding

Vienna-based privacy non-profit noyb (short for None Of Your Business) has filed a complaint with the Austrian data protection authority (DPA) against Firefox maker Mozilla for enabling a new feature called Privacy-Preserving Attribution (PPA) without explicitly seeking users' consent. "Contrary to its reassuring name, this technology allows Firefox to track user behavior on websites," noyb said . "In essence, the browser is now controlling the tracking, rather than individual websites." Noyb also called out Mozilla for allegedly taking a leaf out of Google's playbook by "secretly" enabling the feature by default without informing users. PPA, which is currently enabled in Firefox version 128 as an experimental feature, has its parallels in Google's Privacy Sandbox project in Chrome. The initiative, now abandoned by Google , sought to replace third-party tracking cookies with a set of APIs baked into the web browser that advertisers can t

Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) was introduced with the promise of revolutionizing Security Operations Centers (SOCs) through automation, reducing manual workloads and enhancing efficiency. However, despite three generations of technology and 10 years of advancements, SOAR hasn't fully delivered on its potential, leaving SOCs still grappling with many of the same challenges. Enter Agentic AI—a new approach that could finally fulfill the SOC's long-awaited vision, providing a more dynamic and adaptive solution to automate SOC operations effectively. Three Generations of SOAR – Still Falling Short SOAR emerged in the mid-2010s with companies like PhantomCyber, Demisto, and Swimlane, promising to automate SOC tasks, improve productivity, and shorten response times. Despite these ambitions, SOAR found its greatest success in automating generalized tasks like threat intel propagation, rather than core threat detection, investigation, and response (TDIR) workloads.

The U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC) said it's proposing a ban on the import or sale of connected vehicles that integrate software and hardware made by foreign adversaries, particularly that of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Russia. "The proposed rule focuses on hardware and software integrated into the Vehicle Connectivity System (VCS) and software integrated into the Automated Driving System (ADS)," the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) said in a press statement. "These are the critical systems that, through specific hardware and software, allow for external connectivity and autonomous driving capabilities in connected vehicles." The agency said nefarious access to such systems could enable adversaries to harvest sensitive data and remotely manipulate cars on American roads.  The proposal extends to all wheeled on-road vehicles such as cars, trucks, and buses. Agricultural and mining vehicles are not included. The BIS said "cert

Antivirus vendor Kaspersky has formally begun pulling back its offerings in the U.S., migrating existing users to UltraAV, effective September 19, 2024, ahead of its formal exit at the end of the month. "Kaspersky antivirus customers received a software update facilitating the transition to UltraAV," the company said in a post announcing the move on September 21. "This update ensured that users would not experience a gap in protection upon Kaspersky's exit from the market." The Russian company, which was banned from selling its software in the U.S. due to national security concerns, said it "worked closely" with UltraAV to ensure that the standards of security and privacy were maintained after the switch. However, some users who experienced the update have taken to Kaspersky's forums and Reddit , stating that Kaspersky's software was automatically deleted and replaced by UltraAV without any prior notice. UltraAV, in an FAQ , said &quo

Popular social messaging platform Discord has announced that it's rolling out a new custom end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) protocol to secure audio and video calls. The protocol has been dubbed DAVE , short for Discord's audio and video end-to-end encryption ("E2EE A/V"). As part of the change introduced last week, voice and video in DMs, Group DMs, voice channels, and Go Live streams are expected to be migrated to use DAVE. That said, it's worth noting that messages on Discord will remain unencrypted and are subject to its content moderation approach. "When we consider adding new privacy features like E2EE A/V, we do not do so in isolation from safety," Discord said . "That is why safety is integrated across our product and policies, and why messages on Discord are unencrypted." "Messages will still be subject to our content moderation approach, allowing us to continue offering additional safety protections." DAVE is publicly au

Law enforcement authorities have announced the takedown of an international criminal network that leveraged a phishing platform to unlock stolen or lost mobile phones. The phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) platform, called iServer, is estimated to have claimed more than 483,000 victims globally, led by Chile (77,000), Colombia (70,000), Ecuador (42,000), Peru (41,500), Spain (30,000), and Argentina (29,000). "The victims are mainly Spanish-speaking nationals from European, North American and South American countries," Europol said in a press statement. The action, dubbed Operation Kaerb, involved the participation of law enforcement and judicial agencies from Spain, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Pursuant to the joint exercise that took place between September 10 and 17, an Argentinian national responsible for developing and running the PhaaS service since 2018 has been arrested. In total, the operation led to 17 arrests, 28 searches, and the seizure of 92

The evolution of software always catches us by surprise. I remember betting against the IBM computer Deep Blue during its chess match against the grandmaster Garry Kasparov in 1997, only to be stunned when the machine claimed victory. Fast forward to today, would we have imagined just three years ago that a chatbot could write essays, handle customer support calls, and even craft commercial artwork? We continue to be amazed by what software can achieve—tasks we once thought were strictly human domains. Such is the surprise unfolding in the sphere of cybersecurity testing. Hold tight! Demystifying Penetration Testing If someone had told me 10 years ago that computer software could one day perform the work of an ethical hacker, I would have said 'No way, Jose'. Penetration testing—PT for short—is when experts mimic hackers to test a company's defenses. It's a critical practice, mandated by major regulatory bodies like PCI DSS, HIPAA, and DORA to ensure network safety. Yet, despite

Google has announced that it's rolling out a new set of features to its Chrome browser that gives users more control over their data when surfing the internet and protects them against online threats. "With the newest version of Chrome, you can take advantage of our upgraded Safety Check, opt out of unwanted website notifications more easily and grant select permissions to a site for one time only," the tech giant said . The improvements to Safety Check allow it to run automatically in the background, notifying users of the actions it has taken, such as revoking permissions for websites they no longer visit, and flagging potentially unwanted notifications. It's also designed to notify users of security issues that need to be addressed, while automatically revoking notification permissions from suspicious sites identified by Google Safe Browsing . "On Desktop, Safety Check will continue to notify you if you have any Chrome extensions installed that may pose

The GSM Association (GSMA), the governing body that oversees the development of the Rich Communications Services (RCS) protocol, on Tuesday, said it's working towards implementing end-to-end encryption (E2EE) to secure messages sent between the Android and iOS ecosystems. "The next major milestone is for the RCS Universal Profile to add important user protections such as interoperable end-to-end encryption," Tom Van Pelt, technical director of GSMA, said . "This will be the first deployment of standardized, interoperable messaging encryption between different computing platforms, addressing significant technical challenges such as key federation and cryptographically-enforced group membership." The development comes a day after Apple officially rolled out iOS 18 with support for RCS in its Messages app, which comes with advanced features like message reactions, typing indications, read receipts, and high-quality media sharing, among others. RCS, an impro

The U.S. Department of Treasury has imposed fresh sanctions against five executives and one entity with ties to the Intellexa Consortium for their role in the development, operation, and distribution of a commercial spyware called Predator. "The United States will not tolerate the reckless propagation of disruptive technologies that threatens our national security and undermines the privacy and civil liberties of our citizens," said Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Bradley T. Smith. "We will continue to hold accountable those that seek to enable the proliferation of exploitative technologies, while also encouraging the responsible development of technologies that align with international standards." The sanctioned individuals and entities are listed below - Felix Bitzios, the beneficial owner of an Intellexa Consortium company that's believed to have supplied Predator to a foreign government client and the

Meta has announced that it will begin training its artificial intelligence (AI) systems using public content shared by adult users across Facebook and Instagram in the U.K. in the coming months. "This means that our generative AI models will reflect British culture, history, and idiom, and that U.K. companies and institutions will be able to utilize the latest technology," the social media behemoth said . As part of the process, users aged 18 and above are expected to receive in-app notifications starting this week on both Facebook and Instagram, explaining its modus operandi and how they can readily access an objection form to deny their data being used to train the company's generative AI models. The company said it will honor users' choices and that it won't contact users who have already objected to their data being used for their purpose. It also noted that it will not include private messages with friends and family, as well as information from accounts

The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has announced that it has commenced a "Cross-Border statutory inquiry" into Google's foundational artificial intelligence (AI) model to determine whether the tech giant has adhered to data protection regulations in the region when processing the personal data of European users. "The statutory inquiry concerns the question of whether Google has complied with any obligations that it may have had to undertake an assessment, pursuant to Article 35[2] of the General Data Protection Regulation (Data Protection Impact Assessment), prior to engaging in the processing of the personal data of E.U./E.E.A. data subjects associated with the development of its foundational AI model, Pathways Language Model 2 (PaLM 2)," the DPC said . PaLM 2 is Google's state-of-the-art language model with improved multilingual, reasoning, and coding capabilities. It was unveiled by the company in May 2023. With Google's European headqu