Tag Archives: Technology

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Was Sally Beauty Hacked Yet Again?

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The cosmetic retailer states that it is investigating “reports of unusual activity” on payment cards used at some of their U.S. Sally Beauty retail stores.

“Since learning of these reports, we have been working with law enforcement and our credit card processor and have launched a comprehensive investigation with the help of a leading third-party forensics expert to aggressively gather facts while working to ensure our customers are protected,” the company says in a statement. “Until this investigation is completed, it is difficult to determine with certainty the scope or nature of any potential incident, but we will continue to work vigilantly to address any potential issues that may affect our customers.”

In last year’s beach more than 25,000 records of Sally Beauty customers were affected, including sensitive information like payment card numbers and security codes. The data went on sale on Rescator, a rather popular underground crime store.

Customers who are concerned about the security of their payment cards are advised to call the companies Customer Service Hotline, where the individual concerns will be addressed. Once available further updates will also be released on sallybeautyholdings.com.

For further information read the companies official statement over here or find out more about last year’s hack.

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Ask Me Anything (on Reddit) with Avira

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We are sure you guys have a lot of questions as to how an antivirus company works.  That’s why we’re happy to announce that Carlos Valero Llabata, our Manager for the Virus Lab Detection Service, will be doing an Ask Me Anything on Reddit, the extremely popular gathering place/social networking/news website.

The IAmA will take place on the Mai 12th and start at 16:00 CEST. Once the Ask Me Anything on Reddit is live, we will update this post with a link, so that you can’t miss it and start posting your questions.

Wait a second – what is an AMA?

AMA is an acronym and means “Ask Me Anything”. On Reddit it basically offers the opportunity to interview people, but in a new way. “IAmA” is the traditional way of beginning the description of who you are; “AMA” is the traditional way of ending the description. Carlos will begin the process by starting a short introduction post. Then it’s your turn: You can leave questions and vote on other questions according to which ones you would like to see answered. You can ask any question you want. Take a look at some of the old or running AMAs if you are still unsure, it’s a lot of fun.

This doesn’t sound too hard, right? So gather your questions – we’ll see you in a week on /r/IAmA/ !

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Can your next password be found in your browsing history?

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Some companies try to help us out and make the login process into mobile phones and other devices easier – the most recent example being Yahoo with its ideas of using you ear and knuckles to do so. It sounds cool, but will it help you getting rid of the good old password altogether? Probably not.

Researchers believe that a very personalized authentication process could help out though. It would be a bit creepy if your smartphone asked you “Which YouTube-Video did you watch yesterday evening”, but at the same time it would also be pretty secure.  Romit Roy Choudhury, an associate professor at the University of Illinois who researched the topic and wrote a paper on it, says: “Whenever there’s something you and your phone share and no one else knows, that’s a secret, and that can be used as a key.”

There are some drawbacks though:

  • We all have horrible memories. To actually work, the event apparently has to be unique enough to jog our memory, and not much older than a day.
  • Good friends might be able to predict some of the answers (and consequently your password).

Overall the results were not bad. The study showed that the password prompt works well enough – users were able to answer three questions correctly 95% of the time.

For more information head over to the article from MIT Technology Review.

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Social Networks: How Their Privacy Settings Compare

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Particularly Facebook has often been the in the media when it comes to privacy issues and concerns. But do you really know what can and cannot be set in the sometimes rather confusing options? And what about all the other social networks likes Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+?

ITWorld decided to check out the top social networks and compare their privacy setting – in one handy chart. The list of things they checked out for you is rather extensive and includes the following points:

  • Profile visibility limits upon sign-up
  • Control how people can search for you
  • Control who can connect with you
  • Control whether people can message you
  • Control who can see your connections
  • Prevent users from tagging you in posts
  • Choose who can see your photos
  • Block users
  • Opt out of photo tagging
  • Disable facial recognition
  • Opt out of search engine indexing
  • Review recent logins
  • Set login alerts
  • Enable two-factor authentication
  • Automatically supports a secure connection
  • Control connected applications
  • Limit data sharing with third-party apps
  • Turn off location tracking
  • Delete location information
  • Manage advertising
  • Opt out of all advertising
  • Request an archive of your data
  • Delete your account

Just head over to ITWorld to read the whole article which also includes instructions for finding and updating these options in the different social networks.

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Hackers Could Exploit Phones With an Implanted NFC Chip

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Biohacking or wetware hacking is the practice of engaging biology with the hacker ethic. It encompasses a wide spectrum of practices and movements one of which are the “grinders” who design and install do-it-yourself body-enhancements such as magnetic implants.

It sounds rather “out there”, right? But it apparently isn’t, as Wahle decided to demonstrate. You only need a good stomach. In order to show that an implanted NFC chip can be sneaked passed scanners at the airport and other high-security locations, he had to not only acquire a chip designed to normally be injected into cattle but also needed to use a needle that was rather big and made him want to vomit.

Said chip has a NFC (Near Field Communications) antenna which pings Android phones that are in close vicinity and then asks them to open a link. If followed, the link will lead to a malicious file which, once installed, will establish a connection to a remote computer from which the owner can carry out further exploits. With the right amount of social engineering this could become a real danger.

“In Miami, Wahle and Soto are planning to detail the steps hackers will need to go through to add implants to their arsenal, including how to acquire the hardware and program the chip. Could this be the beginnings of the democratisation of malevolent biohacking?” writes the Forbes magazine in its article. And security consultant Rod Soto adds: “This is just the tip of the iceberg … anyone can do this.”

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Banned From the Internet: The Life of an Ex-Hacker

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Higinio Ochoa, a former hacker who went by the name “wOrmer” when online, talks about it on Reply All. He recounts how he got the ultimate punishment for his crime: “I’m not to touch any computer, smartphone or device that has internet connectivity. That would be against my rules.”

Just imagine how hard it would be for you to not be allowed and use the internet. It’s everywhere nowadays – you shop online, you chat with your friends and family online, you sometimes even have a job that requires you to be online all the time!

Ochoa is a programmer, which means he still works with computers. Not being allowed on the internet makes this job pretty weird though: He codes from his home in Austin, but in order to get whatever he did to his boss, he has to actually print and mail it because he is – of course – not allowed to use an email program.

Find out more about how Ochoa lives without the net in the digital age in this article on Digg or listen to the Reply All podcast over here. He also talks about what he did to get arrested and his first computer experience.

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Surgical robots and the remote surgery hacking threat

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This sounds horrible but it could never happen in real life anyway, right? Wrong! Telesurgery is something that is already happening today, and while it is not all that common yet it’s likely that it will become more and more popular in the near future. The tech allows a doctor to perform surgery on a patient even though they are not physically in the same location. All in all a great thing, considering how many lives can be saved that way.

But how secure are those lifesaving robots when it comes to cyber threats? The answer to this question, presented in a recent research paper called „To Make a Robot Secure: An Experimental Analysis of Cyber Security Threats Against Teleoperated Surgical Robots”, is shocking. A team from the University of Washington identified a slew of possible cyber security threats.  They were also able to “maliciously control a wide range of robots functions, and even to completely ignore or override command inputs from the surgeon.” Just imagine a denial of service attack which is launched during a crucial point during surgery! It could be fatal to the patient.

Luckily a scenario like this has not happened yet – but would you feel comfortable being under the knife knowing some hacker could end your life just because he feels like starting a DDoS attack?

Read the rest of the article over here to find out what the team concluded and gain a deeper insight into the research paper.

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Student wanted to improve grades, got jailed instead

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Nowadays, with all the technological advances and everything being stored on a PC or even online, committing such a crime is actually easier than ever if the school isn’t prepared for it and has no security measures in place to prevent incidents as this one. But crime doesn’t pay even if it is “only” in order to change one’s grades, as Imran Uddin had to discover.

According to The Independent, the 25 year old student hid four logging devices into computers at the University of Birmingham. He apparently wanted to steal staff logins and then use the information to access the grading system to improve his own grades.

Fortunately the students trick was discovered, the police got involved, and – after pleading guilty to six offences under the Computer Misuse Act – he has been jailed for four months. While this might sound harsh to some let’s not forget that he actually committed a real crime that would have provided him with false qualifications would he have been successfull.

Detective Constable Mark Bird, from the Regional Cyber Crime Unit, said: “The audacity of Uddin to install not just one but four of these devices showed how determined he was to cheat his way to a better degree.”

You can read the whole article over here.

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Unlock your phone with your ears & knuckles, says Yahoo

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The cool thing: It doesn’t need the comparatively expensive fingerprint sensors to unlock your device, but can easily be used with any phone that sports a capacitive touchscreen.

With an app called Bodyprint, the users’ ears, knuckles, palms and fingers can be scanned. The only thing one needs to do is press the chosen body part against the touchscreen and voilà, it will unlock. The system, which was tested in a small study with 12 participants, was able to identify the users correctly 99,52% of the time.

“Unlocking your smartphone is something you do 150 times per day,” said Christian Holz, a research scientist at Yahoo Labs in Sunnyvale, California. “You want to make unlocking it convenient but also secure. That’s why fingerprint scanners are so successful.”

This sure sounds interesting! If you want to find out more just read the in-depth article over here.

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Avira Antivirus Security for Android: they’re loving it!

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Your device’s mobility makes it easier for crooks to hack it or simply steal it together with all the information you store on it. When choosing a certain mobile security provider, you might need to take into consideration more than just classical protection parameters that used to apply for your old computer. Take a look at all the amazing features offering you complete protection in our free Antivirus Security for Android.

Avira’s Mobile Development team has done an outstanding job in the last couple of months, updating our Android Security Solution on a regular basis. Besides the traditional bug fixes, some really useful features have been added to the menu, making sure that our users get full protection on all levels.

Here’s a complete list of the cool features in Avira’s Antivirus Security for Android:

  • Complete device scan: no corrupted apps, files or malware can escape our radar
  • Anti-theft feature: locate your device, wipe any data from it or simply lock it.
  • Identity safeguard: scan your email address and your contacts to identify any association with potential account breaches at other companies.
  • AppLock: lock your applications by using PIN code identification to allow access.
  • Blacklist: keep away unwanted conversations
  • Premium Secure Browsing: available only for users who upgrade, this feature scans the websites you visit on your mobile device to make sure they are safe and to prevent any potential phishing attack.

With all these features and powerful technology involved, it’s no wonder Avira’s Antivirus Security for Android is receiving so many awards. 83% of the users who rated us on Google Play awarded our product 4 and 5 stars. Want to know why everybody is loving it? See it for yourself, download it now!

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