Editor's News

Only 50 websites were deactivated in the dark web takedown last week.   According to an article by Forbes, the investigation, nicknamed Operation Onymous, deactivated upward of 50 websites, including Silk Road 2.0 and Blue Sky, as well as Mr. Quid’s Forum and Cannabis Road Markets.   Despite the original announcement stating that 414 websites had been taken down, this equates to only a dozen or so websites, according to FBI spokesperson David Berman.   While Berman...

Microsoft will release 16 security bulletins next week, five of which are rated as critical.   Patching flaws in Windows, Internet Explorer, Office, Exchange and the .NET Framework, the five critical patches all affect Windows, while the second bulletin affects both Windows and Explorer.   Russ Ernst, director of product management at Lumension, said: “We have enjoyed a relatively low number of patches each month in 2014, but November definitely takes a big jump up....

  More than 400 “hidden” websites have been taken down as part of an international effort involving European nations and the USA.   Following the takedown of the Silk Road 2.0 domain this week, this action has seized 414 sites, Bitcoins worth approximately $1 million, and drugs, gold and silver and seen 17 arrested.   Koen Hermans, assistant to the national member for the Netherlands at Eurojust and leader of the coordination centre, said: “This case is...

The second version of the dark web marketplace Silk Road has been closed down by the FBI, who have announced the arrest of Blake Benthall, also known as “Defcon”.   According to an FBI statement, Benthall has been arrested in San Francisco in connection with his operation and ownership of the Silk Road 2.0 website, which enabled users to buy and sell illegal drugs and other unlawful goods and services anonymously.   Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara...

Malware specifically targeted at Apple products named “WireLurker” has been detected. Malware specifically targeted at Apple products named “WireLurker” has been detected. Named WireLurker due to its ability to monitor when any iOS device connects via USB with an infected OS X computer, it installs third-party applications or automatically generated malicious applications onto the device, and combines a number of techniques to successfully realize a new breed of threat to all iOS devices. “WireLurker exhibits...

Researchers from Newcastle University have discovered a major flaw in contactless VISA cards. In the United Kingdom, these cards don’t recognise transactions that are made in non-UK currencies and can be tricked into allowing a transaction of up to 999,999.99 to go through. In the UK, contactless payment cards are supposed to have an upper limit of £20 per transaction which allows consumers to make purchases by simply tapping their card on the scanner, without the need...

The best and worst examples of instant messaging and communication tools have been evaluated in a new scorecard.   The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) released its Secure Messaging Scorecard today, evaluating dozens of messaging technologies on a range of security best practices.   Evaluating more than 30 tools, including chat clients, text messaging apps, email applications and technologies for voice and video calls, the EFF examined them on seven factors including whether the message is encrypted...

There can be no consent to be recorded where Google Glass is used. Speaking at a Halsbury’s Law Exchange event in central London, chair Joshua Rozenberg said that Google Glass is better than a hidden camera, but asked if there was a personal risk with presumed consent or a significant change, Andrew Caldecott QC said that mere awareness cannot be consent, and the fact that you are being recorded cannot mean consent. He said that...

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is warning organisations that they must make sure their websites are protected against SQL flaws.   Pointing at a recent case, where the hotel booking website Worldview Limited was fined £7,500 due to a vulnerability on its website which allowed attackers to access the full payment card details of 3,814 customers, the ICO said that the data was accessed after an attacker exploited a flaw on a page of the...

There are two divisions in wearable technology – one that collects information about you and another about the wearer. Speaking at a Halsbury’s Law Exchange event in central London, wearable technology was determined to be as powerful as a computer and it was difficult to nail down the “fluid borders”. Andrew Caldecott QC said: “The key legal argument is that something should allow us to keep control of our own private information and we should...