• #security on software development security and web security, security best practices and discussions, break-ins and countermeasures. Everything you ever wanted to know about software security but were afraid to ask, for fear of not understanding the answer!

Society

A company with an SQL injection name

Finally, someone registered a company that is an SQL injection attack. We saw the license plates on cars doctored to execute SQL injection attacks but this is the first time, I think, that an attempt to crash all business SQL databases in a country is made. The company name is: ; DROP TABLE “COMPANIES”;– LTD ...

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Don’t patch it, it’s fine?

I wrote back in 2013 about my shock at discovering that the companies are now publicly calling to stop the investment in security and avoid fixing security bugs in my article Brainwashing in security. There, we witnessed the head of Adobe security, Brad Arkin, tell us that the companies should not be wasting their precious ...

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Data breach at LinkedIn

Apparently, there was a serious data breach at LinkedIn and many customer records were stolen including “member email addresses, hashed passwords, and LinkedIn member IDs”. LinkedIn sent out a notification informing that the passwords were invalidated. What is interesting in the note is that they included a cryptic note that the break-in was “not new”. ...

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Backdoors in encryption products

After the recent terrorist attacks the governments are again pushing for more surveillance and the old debate on the necessity of the backdoors in encryption software raises its ugly head again. Leaving the surveillance question aside, let’s see, what does it mean to introduce backdoors to programs and how they can be harmful, especially when ...

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Windows 10: catching up to Google?

Windows 10 has turned out to be a very interesting update to the popular desktop operating system. Apparently, Microsoft envies Google for their success in spying on everyone and their dog through the Internet. Accordingly, Microsoft could not resist turning Windows into a mean spying machine. People were mightily surprised when all of the new ...

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Continue the TrueCrypt discussion: Windows 10

I already pointed out previously that I do not see any alternative to the TrueCrypt for encrypting data on disk. TrueCrypt is the only tool that we can more or less trust so far. You will probably remember that Bruce Schneier recommended to use Windows encryption, the BitLocker, instead of TrueCrypt and I called that ...

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TrueCrypt

Since the anonymous team behind TrueCrypt has left the building, security aware people were left wondering what’s next. I personally keep using TrueCrypt and as long as it works I will keep recommending it. Recently, Bruce Schneier has raised a few red flags by his strange advice that seems to indicate that he is being ...

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GAO report on cybersecurity in Air Traffic Control is outright scary

The fact that the modern aircraft can be controlled from the ground is not widely publicized but known. There was though a lot of controversy, including among specialists, about how much of control could be intercepted by unauthorized 3rd parties. Well, now the extent of the problem is confirmed officially. The U.S. Government Accountability Office ...

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Security Forum Hagenberg 2015

I will be talking about the philosophy in engineering or the human factor in the development of secure software at the Security Forum in Hagenberg im Mühlkreis, Austria on 22nd of April. https://www.securityforum.at/en/ My talk will concentrate on the absence of a holistic, systemic approach in the current software development as a result of taking ...

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Crypto Wars 2.0: Let the Trolling Commence (and don’t trust your phone)

An excellent article by Sven Tuerpe argues that we pay excessive attention to the problems of encryption and insufficient – to the problems of system security. I wholeheartedly agree with that statement. Read the original article: Crypto Wars 2.0: Let the Trolling Commence (and don’t trust your phone). Security cannot be based solely on the ...

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