Academics Turn PC Power Units Into Speakers To Leak Secrets From Air-Gapped Systems

Academics from an Israeli university have published new research last week showing how an attacker could turn a computer’s power supply unit into a rudimentary speaker that can secretly transmit data from an infected host using audio waves. From a report: The technique, named POWER-SUPPLaY, is the work of Mordechai Guri, the head of R&D at the Ben-Gurion University of the…

WhatsApp: Israeli Firm ‘Deeply Involved’ In Hacking Our Users

WhatsApp has alleged in new court filings that an Israeli spyware company used US-based servers and was “deeply involved” in carrying out mobile phone hacks of 1,400 WhatsApp users, including senior government officials, journalists, and human rights activists. The Guardian reports: The new claims about NSO Group allege that the Israeli company bears responsibility in serious human rights violations, including the…

Facebook Accuses NSO Group of Using US Servers for Spying

Facebook has accused the Israeli surveillance technology company NSO Group of using servers located in the U.S. to infect hundreds of smartphones with spyware. From a report: The allegation comes as part of a lawsuit that Facebook initiated last year accusing the NSO Group of using WhatsApp accounts to hack into the phones. Facebook owns the popular messaging app. In a…

Israeli Soldiers Tricked Into Installing Malware by Hamas Agents Posing as Women

Members of the Hamas Palestinian militant group have posed as young teenage girls to lure Israeli soldiers into installing malware-infected apps on their phones, a spokesperson for the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) said today. From a report: Some soldiers fell for the scam, but IDF said they detected the infections, tracked down the malware, and then took down Hamas’ hacking infrastructure….

Iran Has Been Targeting VPN Servers to Plant Backdoors

“A new report published today reveals that Iran’s government-backed hacking units have made a top priority last year to exploit VPN bugs as soon as they became public in order to infiltrate and plant backdoors in companies all over the world,” writes ZDNet: According to a report from Israeli cyber-security firm ClearSky, Iranian hackers have targeted companies “from the IT, Telecommunication,…

Personal Data of All 6.5 Million Israeli Voters Is Exposed

A software flaw exposed the personal data of every eligible voter in Israel — including full names, addresses and identity card numbers for 6.5 million people — raising concerns about identity theft and electoral manipulation, three weeks before the country’s national election. The New York Times reports: The security lapse was tied to a mobile app used by Prime Minister Benjamin…

UK To Host Spyware Firm Accused of Aiding Human Rights Abuses

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: The British government is helping a controversial Israeli spyware company to market its surveillance technologies at a secretive trade fair visited by repressive regimes, the Guardian can reveal. The government will host the NSO Group, which sells technology that has allegedly been used by autocratic regimes to spy on the private messages…

FBI Probes Use of Israeli Firm’s Spyware In Personal and Government Hacks

nickwinlund77 shares a report from Reuters: The FBI is investigating the role of Israeli spyware vendor NSO Group Technologies in possible hacks on American residents and companies as well as suspected intelligence gathering on governments, according to four people familiar with the inquiry. The probe was underway by 2017, when Federal Bureau of Investigation officials were trying to learn whether NSO…

‘Police Tracked a Terror Suspect on WhatsApp — Until His Phone Went Dark After a Warning From Facebook’

“A team of European law-enforcement officials was hot on the trail of a potential terror plot in October, fearing an attack during Christmas season, when their keyhole into a suspect’s phone went dark,” reports the Wall Street Journal: WhatsApp, Facebook Inc.’s popular messaging tool, had just notified about 1,400 users — among them the suspected terrorist — that their phones had…