Top 10 Stories

Citizen Lab researchers have uncovered what they describe as a spyware attack campaign dubbed Stealth Falcon which targets dissidents and activists in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). They believe that there is circumstantial evidence suggesting a link between the targeted spyware attack and the UAE government. The Toronto-based research lab started to investigate this case when Rori Donaghy, a journalist and founder of the Emirates Center for Human Rights shared a suspicious email he had received in November 2015 with Bill Marczak,...

Phishing scammers are going after people hoping to claw some of their money back from the MtGox collapse. Researchers with computer security biz Cyren have spotted a new round of spam messages claiming to originate from Kraken, the exchange that is heading up efforts to pay out Bitcoins recovered from the MtGox implosion. The messages redirect users to a Google Docs page claiming to host an update on the status of Bitcoin recovery claims. View full story...

A proposal raised late May at the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) suggests adding cookies to the DNS to help defend the critical system against denial-of-service exploits. The domain name system (DNS) is an old and fundamental piece of the Internet architecture, providing translation between human-readable addresses like theregister.co.uk and IP addresses. View full story  ORIGINAL SOURCE: The Register

Yesterday was the first Monday of the month, and that means another batch of patches for Android, fixing flaws that can be exploited by apps and webpages to hijack devices. As usual, if you're not using a Google Nexus device, you're at the mercy of your manufacturer and phone carrier to approve and distribute these updates, which may take some time. Although Google Play Services on Android gadgets can install updates quietly in the background direct...

The alarm on Mitsubishi's Outlander hybrid car can be turned off via security bugs in its on-board wi-fi, researchers have found. The loophole could mean thieves who exploit the bugs gain time to break into and steal a vehicle. View full story ORIGINAL SOURCE: BBC

Protection against cyber attacks is becoming a growing challenge in the aviation industry, according to Tony Tyler, CEO of the International Air Transport Association (Iata). Experts estimate that cyber-security breaches cost a total of $500 million in 2015. It is also estimated that 94% of global companies have experienced some form of cyber-attack. It is further estimated that about 13% of people still click on phishing lures. View full story ORIGINAL SOURCE: Destiny Connect

A hacker has put up for sale 100,544,934 records he claims were stolen from VK.com, a Russian-based social network. This is the same hacker who had previously sold data dumps from MySpace, LinkedIn, Tumblr, and Fling.com. Named Peace (or Peace_of_mind), the hacker is asking for 1 Bitcoin (~$570) for the entire dataset, which is available for sale on The Real Deal Dark Web marketplace. View full story ORIGINAL SOURCE: Softpedia

Researchers have discovered a new kind of malware that was developed to attack industrial systems. FireEye, which named the discovery Irongate, said that the malware is capable of disrupting industrial control systems that are operating within simulated Siemens computing environments. View full story ORIGINAL SOURCE: Tech Times

Copy+paste crew rip off white hat proof-of-concepts and make them dangerously real. Symantec engineer Dinesh Venkatesan says malware writers have one up on Google with the pillaging of a keystone trick that permits attacks on Android Marshmallow. The method was extracted from white hat proof-of-concept works published initially to show how malware could extract credentials from Android apps. It allows malware to determine the running apps on a device and relies on social engineering users. View full story...

Facebook will shutter its native message facility, forcing users to install the Messenger client which will sport opt-in end-to-end encryption. The change brings the ad-slinger inline with Google's Allo chat service, which will activate its privacy conscious mode only if users flick a switch. That decision won brought derision from privacy pundits who argue end-to-end encryption should be the default state with users opting-out should they wish to use the data-sniffing artificial intelligence features. End-to-end...