Tag Archive for: hurt

0-days hitting Fedora and Ubuntu open desktops to a world of hurt

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If you run a mainstream distribution of Linux on a desktop computer, there’s a good chance security researcher Chris Evans can hijack it when you do nothing more than open or even browse a specially crafted music file. And in the event you’re running Chrome on the just-released Fedora 25, his code-execution attack works as a classic drive-by.

The zero-day exploits, which Evans published on Tuesday, are the latest to challenge the popular conceit that Linux, at least in its desktop form, is more immune to the types of attacks that have felled Windows computers for more than a decade and have increasingly snared Macs in recent years.

While Evans’ attacks won’t work on most Linux servers, they will reliably compromise most desktop versions of Linux, which employees at Google, Facebook, and other security conscious companies often use in an attempt to avoid the pitfalls of Windows and Mac OS X. Three weeks ago, Evans released a separate Linux zero-day that had similarly dire consequences.

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Technology Lab – Ars Technica

Covering webcam ‘doesn’t hurt,’ not a replacement for good computer security, experts say – Tribune-Review


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Covering webcam 'doesn't hurt,' not a replacement for good computer security, experts say
Tribune-Review
A piece of tape or cover to block the webcams built into laptop screens can serve as a robust cyber-security measure against hackers. “There's some sensible things you should be doing, and that's one of them,” Comey, whose FBI notoriously hacked …
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Covering webcam ‘doesn’t hurt,’ not a replacement for good … – Tribune-Review


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Obama advisors: Encryption backdoors would hurt cybersecurity, net infrastructure vendors

Making encryption backdoors available to law enforcement would be bad for cybersecurity in general and hurt vendors that make encryption gear, a presidential advisory group says.

While the FBI argues that it needs legislation to require access points into encryption platforms, the National Security Council is preparing to tell President Obama that the downsides include weakening the privacy of Internet communications, according to a draft NSC report obtained by the Washington Post.

“[B]ecause any access point to encrypted data increases risk, if government efforts to secure access are successful, this approach would reduce cybersecurity,” the document says.

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Network World Tim Greene