Top 10 Stories

A hacker-in-chief from the National Security Agency (NSA) has explained that the consequences of zero-day vulnerabilities, which are undetected exploits that can create software problems, have been overstated by governments and security experts, since focus and persistence are also important when hacking a system. Declarations from Rob Joyce, the NSA’s chief of Tailored Access Operations (TAO), come after the security agency have been considering the impact of attacks that can be deployed to harm machines...

European and US negotiators are scrambling to meet today’s deadline to reach a new data-sharing agreement that could save business millions in extra fees for privacy protection. The two sides have been working on the deal since last October, when the European Union’s top court struck down the 15-year-old “safe harbour” pact between the US and EU allowing American companies to import the personal data of Europeans. Businesses warn that a lack of a deal could...

A council whose computer systems were closed down by a cyber attack has said it will not be paying out a ransom. Lincolnshire County Council's systems were closed on Tuesday after an email was opened that triggered the malware attack. Initially thought to have been asked for a £1m ransom, the council said it was actually asked to pay $500 (£350). Judith Hetherington-Smith, from the council, said: "We are not going to pay... we wouldn't...

The government's plans to massively ramp up surveillance of Brits' Internet activity could severely hinder the UK's tech sector due to a lack of clarity on costs, MPs and peers have warned. Objections to the collection and storing of so-called Internet connection records (ICRs) have also been raised by members sitting on the cross-party science and technology committee. Among other things, politicos on the panel are concerned about the vague definitions used by the Home...

The NSA and Britain’s GCHQ have access to the video feeds of Israel’s fleet of drones and aircraft, according to new documents. The spy agencies have intercepted data streams containing videos, pictures and GPS data from Israeli jets and drones since at least 2008, according to Snowden-supplied documents seen by The Intercept in a project codenamed “Anarchist". Drone feeds from Iranian aircraft have also been picked up.   Original Source: The Register View the full story...

The United States and Britain have monitored secret sorties and communications by Israel's air force in a hacking operation dating back to 1998, according to documents attributed to leaks by former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden. Israel voiced disappointment at the disclosures, published on Friday in at least two media outlets and which might further strains ties with Washington after years of feuding over strategies on Iran and the Palestinians. View full story ORIGINAL...

Cyber-defense expert Gil Shwed says a quarter of recipients opened emails and thus unknowingly enabled hackers to steal information from their hard drives. Iran launched a cyber-attack targeting Israeli army generals, human rights activists in the Persian Gulf and scientists, an Israeli cyber-security firm said Thursday. Gil Shwed, CEO of Check Point Software Technologies, said the attack began two months ago and was directed at some 1,600 people worldwide. They received email messages aimed at...

The advanced persistent threat (APT) actor behind the recent attacks targeting Ukraine has started delivering BlackEnergy malware using specially crafted Word documents with embedded macros. BlackEnergy malware, which is leveraged by one or multiple groups, has become increasingly sophisticated and its operators have been using it to target energy and ICS/SCADA companies from across the world. A recent campaign involving BlackEnergy malware has been seen targeting Ukraine’s critical infrastructure. A coordinated attack launched against the country’s...

It took the developers of OpenSSL just over two weeks to patch a high severity vulnerability that allows attackers to obtain information that could be used to decrypt secure traffic. The flaw, identified as CVE-2016-0701, was reported on January 12 by Antonio Sanso of Adobe and it was patched by the OpenSSL Project on Thursday with the release of version 1.0.2f. The researcher’s attack is based on a key recovery method described in a paper published in 1997. Starting...

Private files belonging to America’s biggest police union, including the names and addresses of officers, forum posts critical of Barack Obama, and controversial contracts made with city authorities, were posted online Thursday after a hacker breached its website. The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), which says it represents about 330,000 law enforcement officers across the US, said the FBI was investigating after 2.5GB of data taken from its servers was dumped online and swiftly shared...