How Many Times Do I Need to Say – Crypto is Software, Software Has Bugs, Your Money is at Risk
Decentralized Finance platform (DeFi) Revest Finance said that it lost $2 million due to a software bug and, oh yeah, (a) the can’t recover the funds, (b) they do not have the money to cover the losses and(c) they don’t have insurance to cover the hack. Unless we eliminate the software, we cannot eliminate all bugs. Credit: The Record
Russia Faces Internet Outages Due to Equipment Shortages
One of Russia’s tech unions says that Russian ISPs run the risk of Internet outages as the value of the Ruble goes down and foreign companies won’t sell them parts or new equipment. Right now the government is saying that is the Internet providers’ problem, but if it turns into widespread outages, they are likely to change their tune. Credit: Bleeping Computer
Cryptocurrency was Fun While it Lasted
EU Parliament committees have voted to require crypto exchanges to verify the identity of self-hosted wallets, meaning the end of anonymity for crypto transactions. The US Treasury (FinCEN) has also suggested that we do that, but it has not yet appeared in a bill. That means that the bad guys will need to do peer to peer crypto, minus the exchanges to deal in criminal activities. While this is harder than using exchanges, it is far from impossible. Given that the whole purpose (beside speculating) of crypto is to commit fraud, identifying yourself is probably not high on user’s wish lists. Credit: Vice
Senate Asks Companies About Hackers Creating Fake Warrants
Recently I wrote that hackers have figured out the the government’s search warrant process is as secure as, say, a screen door. Now that the facts have been outed and likely even more hackers will use that fact to steal even more data, a couple of Senators have started asked questions. That is a long way from Congress actually doing anything useful about it, but at least it is a start. Don’t expect anything to happen because it is a hard problem to fix. Credit: Brian Krebs
Apple Fixes More Mac, iPhone Zero Days
In case you haven’t noticed, the last 12 months have not been Apple’s friends when it comes to zero-day bugs. This week Apple patched two more that are actively being exploited in the wild and affect iPhones, iPads, iWatches and Macs. The versions you are looking for are iOS 15.4.1, iPadOS 15.4.1, and macOS Monterey 12.3.1 with improved input validation and bounds checking, respectively. Credit: Bleeping Computer
