Monday, August 29, 2011

Keep your friends close...

Kent Brockman would know what to do.


Forbes recently unveiled the identity of "Comex", the hacker famous for JailBreakme.com. JailBreakMe exploited a loophole on iPads and iPad 2s that allowed easy jailbreaking via a website, at least before Apple released a patch.

As Forbes explains, Comex is actually Nicholas Allegra of Chappaqua, NY, a student at Brown University who describes jailbreaking is as easy for him as "editing and English paper." At the end of the article, Forbes suggested Apple hire the young jailbreaking pioneer, probably a dream come true for Allegra, a self-described "Apple fanboy."

Apple has now done just that, and decided that rather than wage a back-and-forth war, they should coach the boy as a summer intern. (We're sure they'd like to glean some skills from the lad, too). Sony should take notice.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Zeus Targets Victims Using The RSA SecurID Breach as Bait

Malware writers are notorious for being flexible and oftentimes ahead-of-the-curve when it comes to exploits. According to a post by Dan Raywood at SC Magazine, the latest victims of malware writers are the users of RSA SecurID, which was breached by hackers in February 2009, and who were told they were in "safe" hands by none other than RSA. Well the nefarious and multifaceted Zeus has started to target RSA users as well. Victims receive a link with what's purported to be a security scanner for exploits of the RSA securid breach. This then installs a variant of the Zeus trojan. The RSA Securid related hack saga continues.

Zeus, and other hack attempts of RSA SecurID users will be on the increase. The number of phishing, spear phishing and man-in-the-middle attacks will be on the upswing and more such breaches will come to light. The key thing is for institutions, whether small or large, to adopt as many preventative measures as possible to mitigate such risks.