Ethical Hacking

Wade Mackey

Ethical Hacking

MIS 5211.001 ■ Fall 2019 ■ Wade Mackey

Jiahao Karl Li

Macy’s suffers online Magecart card-skimming attack, data breach

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Macy’s has announced a data breach caused by Magecart card-skimming code being implanted in the firm’s online payment portal. The code injection, believed to have been done on October 7, impacted the Macy’s checkout page and wallet page, the latter of which is accessed through the “My Account” facility. The amounts of customers may have been embroiled in the data-stealing campaign is still under water, which lasted at least a week before Macy’s knew of its compromise. However, a Macy’s spokesperson suggests that only a “small” number of customers were involved, and they would be offered consumer protection services for free.

 

www.zdnet.com

Instagram tests hiding Like counts globally

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Instagram is testing a new option to hide the “like” counts from the public and only available to the post owner self. The user can decide whether they wanna receive public’s opinion of the post. Social Media’s new attempt to put humanity in front of technology? My questions would be, why not just having a “like” function without any amounts collecting?

 

techcrunch.com

Chronicle, Google’s moonshot cybersecurity startup that was supposed to completely change the industry, is imploding

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Chronicle Is Dead and Google Killed It

Alphabet announced, in early 2018, their new start-up that helps business to realize their data security. The moonshot project involved machine learning technology and security telemetry data about known malware and internet infrastructure. Not long, one and half year, after the breaking announcement, however, Chronicle has been thrown back to Google’s cloud department and reports of management flaws and staff leaving started appearing.

Vice.com

 

ACLU sues FBI, DOJ over facial-recognition technology, criticizing ‘unprecedented’ surveillance and secrecy

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ACLU sues FBI, DOJ over facial-recognition technology, criticizing ‘unprecedented’ surveillance and secrecy

The reports talked about the the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) suing the Department of Justice, the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration the usage of facial-recognition software, and arguing in a detailed records that Americans’ civil rights and privacy were threaten by their use of the secretly implemented a nationwide surveillance technology.

 

The Washington Post

Avast, NordVPN Breaches Tied to Phantom User Accounts

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Attackers are using forgotten or unknown user accounts with little more than a password to gain remote access to the internal system of Avast, antivirus and security giant, and NordVPN, virtual private networking (VPN) software provider. Both companies disclosed details about the month-long, from May to August, intrusion today.

krebsonsecurity.com

 

 

Google expands Chrome’s Site Isolation feature to Android users

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I am not an android user but it is interesting to know that some methods were taken to prevent cross-sit scripting. Tech company started to focus on mobile device security more nowadays, because mobile device is more portable and versatile, which is convenient to the customers but, at the same time, makes them more vulnerable to and brings more angle of flaws to attackers. When using incognito and private mode is not enough to protect PII of customer, more isolated solution should be implemented to build barriers.

zdnet.com

Pinterest says AI reduced reported self-harm content by 88%

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“Pinterest says it’s using machine learning techniques to identify and hide content that displays, rationalizes, or encourages self-injury. The company says it has achieved an 88% reduction in reports of self-harm content by users and that it’s now able to remove such content 3 times faster.”

Social media plays a big role in raising awareness of mental health. It is important to make use of it to prevent cyber bullying and personal attack instead of encouraging negative influence.

VentureBeat Article 

Microsoft Is Still Rattled Over U.S. ‘Sneak-and-Peek’ Searches

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The article reviewed the battle between Microsoft and the U.S. Government since 2016 about disclosing “secrecy order” from government’s demand to obtain data from Microsoft’s customers. Microsoft is attempting to challenge the federal orders to retain its discipline towards customers’ privacy. In the case of 2016, the U.S. government was investigating a money fraud associated to two email account. Microsoft stopped the them before they moved forwards to obtain orders from the federal judges, as stated by the Dev Stahlkopf, Microsoft’s general counsel.

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-25/microsoft-is-still-rattled-over-u-s-sneak-and-peek-searches