Entries Tagged "video"

Page 3 of 5

iPhone Apps Stealing Clipboard Data

iOS apps are repeatedly reading clipboard data, which can include all sorts of sensitive information.

While Haj Bakry and Mysk published their research in March, the invasive apps made headlines again this week with the developer beta release of iOS 14. A novel feature Apple added provides a banner warning every time an app reads clipboard contents. As large numbers of people began testing the beta release, they quickly came to appreciate just how many apps engage in the practice and just how often they do it.

This YouTube video, which has racked up more than 87,000 views since it was posted on Tuesday, shows a small sample of the apps triggering the new warning.

EDITED TO ADD (7/6): LinkedIn and Reddit are doing this.

Posted on June 29, 2020 at 10:24 AM • View Comments

Hacking Voice Assistants with Ultrasonic Waves

I previously wrote about hacking voice assistants with lasers. Turns you can do much the same thing with ultrasonic waves:

Voice assistants—the demo targeted Siri, Google Assistant, and Bixby—are designed to respond when they detect the owner’s voice after noticing a trigger phrase such as ‘Ok, Google’.

Ultimately, commands are just sound waves, which other researchers have already shown can be emulated using ultrasonic waves which humans can’t hear, providing an attacker has a line of sight on the device and the distance is short.

What SurfingAttack adds to this is the ability to send the ultrasonic commands through a solid glass or wood table on which the smartphone was sitting using a circular piezoelectric disc connected to its underside.

Although the distance was only 43cm (17 inches), hiding the disc under a surface represents a more plausible, easier-to-conceal attack method than previous techniques.

Research paper. Demonstration video.

Posted on March 23, 2020 at 6:19 AM • View Comments

Friday Squid Blogging: Giant Squid Video from the Gulf of Mexico

Fantastic video:

Scientists had used a specialized camera system developed by Widder called the Medusa, which uses red light undetectable to deep sea creatures and has allowed scientists to discover species and observe elusive ones.

The probe was outfitted with a fake jellyfish that mimicked the invertebrates’ bioluminescent defense mechanism, which can signal to larger predators that a meal may be nearby, to lure the squid and other animals to the camera.

With days to go until the end of the two-week expedition, 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of New Orleans, a giant squid took the bait.

As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered.

Read my blog posting guidelines here.

Posted on January 3, 2020 at 4:25 PM • View Comments

Why Technologists Need to Get Involved in Public Policy

Last month, I gave a 15-minute talk in London titled: “Why technologists need to get involved in public policy.”

In it, I try to make the case for public-interest technologists. (I also maintain a public-interest tech resources page, which has pretty much everything I can find in this space. If I’m missing something, please let me know.)

Boing Boing post.

EDITED TO ADD (10/29): Twitter summary.

Posted on October 18, 2019 at 2:38 PM • View Comments

Glitter Bomb against Package Thieves

Stealing packages from unattended porches is a rapidly rising crime, as more of us order more things by mail. One person hid a glitter bomb and a video recorder in a package, posting the results when thieves opened the box. At least, that’s what might have happened. At least some of the video was faked, which puts the whole thing into question.

That’s okay, though. Santa is faked, too. Happy whatever you’re celebrating.

Posted on December 25, 2018 at 6:13 AM • View Comments

1 2 3 4 5

Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.