Category: security

  • PSN Account Hijackers

    Patrick Klepek has a terrific read up on Waypoint about his investigation into Sony’s incompetent security practices around user accounts, and the social engineering crews that steal them: $1,200. That’s how much someone is asking for a PlayStation Network account I’ve been investigating for the past few weeks. “Secure,” the person calls it, claiming the…

  • Meltdown & Spectre: Update Everything

    There are two big computer vulnerabilities that were announced recently, Spectre and Meltdown attacks. These are significant because they affect almost every desktop, laptop, smartphone, tablet, and game console. Almost anything with a processor can be exploited to give attackers passwords and whatever other private information is on a device. The attacks work because of…

  • Your Portable Denial-of-Service Launcher

    Garrett M. Graff has this article for Wired about the Mirai botnet denial-of-service attack, saying that it was powered by angry Minecraft server operators and players: As the 2016 US presidential election drew near, fears began to mount that the so-called Mirai botnet might be the work of a nation-state practicing for an attack that…

  • Apple Has a Patch out for the macOS Root Access Security Vulnerability

    Go to the Updates tab in the Mac App Store to apply it now, you won’t even need to reboot. Apple has more details about the update at this link. Here’s the post from yesterday with the details of the vulnerability. Update: If you have any trouble with file sharing after applying this security patch…

  • The macOS Root Access Security Vulnerability

    There’s a vulnerability in the latest version of macOS High Sierra (10.13.1) that may let anyone with physical access to a Mac log in and gain system administrator (root) access. Or, if they already have an account, upgrade their access to the system administrator (root) level. You can work around the issue by setting a…