A Review of the Best News of the Week on AI, IoT, & Mobile Security

Facebook Says It Will Ban ‘Deepfakes’ (The New York Times, Jan 07 2020)
The company said it would remove videos altered by artificial intelligence in ways meant to mislead viewers.

Burner phones are an eavesdropping risk for international travelers (Help Net Security, Jan 07 2020)
Unfortunately, even savvy travelers who do the right things – disabling Bluetooth, not connecting to unknown networks, never leaving their phone out of sight – are still at risk of conversations being eavesdropped on through their burner phones. But instead of choosing a “dumb” phone or asking users to not bring their phones into critical meetings, security teams have the following options at their disposal for mitigating the risk of high-level conversations being captured.

Google shutting down Xiaomi access to Assistant following Nest Hub picking up strangers’ camera feeds (Android Police, Jan 03 2020)
So-called “smart” security cameras have had some pretty dumb security problems recently, but a recent report regarding a Xiaomi camera linked to a Google


Filter Out the Noise
Since I started this curated newsletter in June 2017, I’ve clipped ~12,000 articles and narrowed them down into the best 20 per day & best 15 per week. This is my favorite way to cut through all the security marketing and hype. If you’re enjoying it, tell a friend. If you hate it, tell an enemy.
Thanks! – Lucas Samaras

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Automation And AI: The New Frontier In Cybersecurity (Forbes, Jan 06 2020)
Facing an increasingly complex security landscape, IT organizations cannot rely on manual processes and internal expertise alone

White House proposes regulatory principles to govern AI use (Reuters, Jan 07 2020)
The White House on Tuesday proposed regulatory principles to govern the development and use of artificial intelligence (AI) aimed at limiting authorities’ “overreach”, and said it wants European officials to likewise avoid aggressive approaches.

First international smart home standard ensures secure connectivity between devices (Help Net Security, Jan 05 2020)
The Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) announced that products from BSC Computer GmbH, COMMAX, Haier, LG Electronics, Resideo, Samsung Electronics and SURE Universal will complete OCF 2.1 certification in 2020, ensuring robust and secure connectivity between devices.

Apple targets jailbreaking in lawsuit against iOS virtualization company (Ars Technica, Jan 03 2020)
Corellium responds, says Apple is “demonizing” jailbreaking with new DMCA claim.

Mechanics of a Crypto Heist: How SIM Swappers Can Steal Cryptocurrency (Dark Reading, Jan 02 2020)
The true vulnerability at the heart of SIM-swap attacks on crypto accounts lies in crypto exchanges’ and email providers’ variable implementation of 2FA.

Popular Mideast App Accused of Spying Back on Google Play (SecurityWeek, Jan 06 2020)
The popular UAE-developed mobile application ToTok has returned to the Google Play Store after it was removed on claims it was being used for government spying, the company said Saturday.

Researchers unearth malicious Google Play apps linked to active exploit hackers (Ars Technica, Jan 06 2020)
Apps used a variety of tricks to covertly install well-written espionage software.

Android’s January 2020 Update Patches 40 Vulnerabilities (SecurityWeek, Jan 07 2020)
Google on Monday published the first Android security bulletin for 2020, with patches for 40 vulnerabilities, including a critical flaw in the Media framework