…Researched and contributed by Henry George for TDPel Media.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) workers have reportedly abused their law enforcement databases to snoop on individuals’ sensitive information such as medical, biometric, and location data without permission.
The privacy breach was discovered by Wired, which obtained records through a request for public information.
Since 2016, hundreds of ICE staff and contractors have been investigated for attempting to access information that they have no legal authority to see.
The revelations raise further concerns about ICE’s procedures for safeguarding personal data.
Security researchers at ESET have found that many old enterprise routers contain login details for companies’ virtual private networks (VPNs), hashed root administrator passwords, and information about the previous owners.
The information would make it easy to impersonate the original business that owned the router.
Motherboard reported this week that criminals are using hacking tools, often hidden in Nokia 3310 phones or Bluetooth speakers, to steal cars by performing controller area network (CAN) injection attacks.
This allows thieves to unlock and start the car without needing the keys.
The devices are being sold online and on Telegram channels for between $2,700 and $19,600.
Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto has found that Apple’s Lockdown Mode has been effective in preventing hacks using NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware, which is as powerful as elite hackers’ capabilities.
Lockdown Mode has added extra security protections to iPhones and limits how successful spyware could be.
Research by Citizen Lab found that iPhones running Lockdown Mode have blocked hacking attempts linked to NSO’s software and sent notifications to the phones’ owners.
Check Point, a cybersecurity company, has found that cybercriminals have been trading stolen ChatGPT accounts since OpenAI released GPT-4 in March.
ChatGPT is a text-generating system, and its login details have been used to gain access to OpenAI’s system.
There has been an increase in the discussion and trade of stolen ChatGPT accounts, which includes criminals swapping premium ChatGPT accounts and guessing email logins and passwords to brute-force their way into accounts.
WhatsApp, Signal, and the companies behind five other encrypted chat apps have signed an open letter saying that the UK’s proposed Online Safety Bill could effectively ban encryption, which keeps billions of people’s conversations private and secure.
The bill aims to regulate the internet and deal with a dizzying range of online activities but has alarmed technology firms as it poses an unprecedented threat to the privacy, safety, and security of UK citizens and people worldwide who communicate with UK citizens.
Finally, Russian forces have been testing an electronic warfare system called Tobol, which is thought to be designed to disrupt Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite system.
US documents leaked on Discord reveal that the system is more advanced than previously believed and could also be used for offensive purposes, disrupting signals as they are sent from the ground to satellites orbiting the Earth.