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

Catching APT41 exploiting a zero-day vulnerability (Darktrace Blog, Apr 02 2020)
This blog looks at how the cyber-criminal group APT41 exploited a zero-day vulnerability, and examines how Darktrace’s AI detected and investigated the threat at machine speed.

Google Mobility Reports Show Impact of Lockdown (Infosecurity Magazine, Apr 03 2020)
Google aggregates phone location data to report on how well lockdown rules are being followed

States plan to expand mobile voting amid coronavirus pandemic, despite security concerns (Washington Post, Apr 06 2020)
States weigh increasing access to voting during a crisis with cybersecurity risks.


Filter Out the Noise
Since I started this curated newsletter in June 2017, I’ve clipped ~13,000 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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Threat detection and the evolution of AI-powered security solutions (Help Net Security, Apr 06 2020)
The first thing to note is AI should not be confused with machine learning. What most people associate with AI is actually machine learning algorithms with no human level intelligence. AI is based on heuristics whereas machine learning requires a lot of data and algorithms that must be trained to learn the data and provide insights that will help to make decisions.

VIDEO: Chillingly real ‘deepfake’ of Hillary — as imprisoned Hannibal Lecter (The American Mirror, Apr 06 2020)
What would Hillary Clinton look like imprisoned, and as psycho killer Hannibal Lecter? Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9jrxQDqPpM

Elections: Early warning system to fight disinformation online (ScienceDaily – Artificial Intelligence, Mar 24 2020)
A new project is an effort to combat the rise of coordinated social media campaigns to incite violence, sew discord and threaten the integrity of democratic elections.

IoT proliferation and widespread 5G: A perfect botnet storm (SC Media, Apr 01 2020)
By now, we’ve heard the many promises of the 5G era. Organizations across industries are poised to take advantage of the enhancements 5G will bring to boost their products and services in ways that were difficult or expensive to achieve using 4G networks. The Internet of Things (IoT) is a big part of this shift…

Total number of IoT connections to reach 83 billion by 2024 (Help Net Security, Apr 02 2020)
The total number of IoT connections will reach 83 billion by 2024, rising from 35 billion connections in 2020, according to Juniper Research. This represents a growth of 130% over the next 4 years. The research identified the industrial sector as a key driver of this growth.

Large number of mobile apps may be vulnerable to hacking (Help Net Security, Apr 01 2020)
A team of cybersecurity researchers has discovered that a large number of mobile apps contain hardcoded secrets allowing others to access private data or block content provided by users. Hidden behaviors within the app The study’s findings: that the apps on mobile phones might have hidden or harmful behaviors about which end users know little to nothing…

Phone carriers must authenticate calls to fight robocalls, says FCC (Naked Security – Sophos, Apr 02 2020)
The FCC has given voice carriers until June 2021 to implement technology it says will stop the robocall plague that’s driving us all insane.

Researchers Discover Hidden Behavior in Thousands of Android Apps (SecurityWeek, Apr 03 2020)
Thousands of mobile applications for Android contain hidden behavior such as backdoors and blacklists, a group of researchers has discovered.

PayPal and Venmo Are Letting SIM Swappers Hijack Accounts (VICE, Apr 06 2020)
Even after being warned by researchers, some companies still haven’t fixed systems that make it easy for hackers to take over accounts.

Vulnerabilities Detected in Government-sanctioned COVID-19 App (Infosecurity Magazine, Apr 06 2020)
Colombian government endorsed COVID-19 app containing vulnerabilities

Will Apple’s “microphone switch” stop your iPad getting bugged? (Naked Security – Sophos, Apr 06 2020)
A microphone switch! What will they think of next?