Mozilla Firefox Extension Removes Spying After Miss

Mozilla has removed an extension for Firefox because those users spying and this is not detected during the inspection. It is about the add-on Download Manager S3. With nearly 120,000 users a reasonably popular add-on. Through the add-on downloads can be managed through a small status bar.

The developer of the Download Manager prompts users through a pop-up to support. In this case, additional ads will be displayed, according to the explanation of the add-on. A reader of Reddit discovered, however, that if the user agrees to this, the add-on sends back all kinds of information, such as the HTML of the page visited, customer ID and other data.The reader notes that data collection is not enabled by default, but the developer is trying to turn it in a misleading manner. An employee of Mozilla confirmed on Reddit the behavior of the add-on. He argues that Mozilla has made ​​a mistake.

All extensions for Firefox on addons.mozilla.org appear to be fact checked. A reviewer who checks the add-ons saw a "policy violation" in the latest update of the add-on was added overlooked. Then Mozilla decided all the add-ons on addons.mozilla.org check for this offense, which have resulted in another similar case. Both add-ons are now disabled, according to the Mozilla employee. The Download Manager S3 is indeed no longer on addons.mozilla.org to find, but Mozilla has not yet extend to the blocklist put. In this case, Firefox will unsafe or unstable add-ons that users turn off automatically.

Iran Bans Smartphones Officials For Spying

Fearing espionage going on the Iranian authorities prohibit the use of smartphones for work related matters by officials with confidential information. According to Brigadier General Gholamreza Jalali, these types of phones does not secure since the data is backed up on the device.

The new rule is still waiting for the last approval, but would mean that officials must use other phones for work where confidential information is involved. The ban would not apply to personal use as reported AFP. The measure follows reports that sophisticated malware called Duqu2 was used for nuclear talks with Iran was involved in spying.

The malware would be used at the hotels where the participants stayed at the talks. Because of the incident both the Austrian and Swiss authorities have started an investigation. However, not been the case according to the US government is the security around nuclear talks. "We have taken during the negotiations measures to ensure that confidential details and discussions behind closed doors continued," US spokesman Jeff Rathke said earlier during a press conference to know.

Kaspersky: Not Very Smart To Hack Us

It was not very wise of the nationally sponsored attackers to break into anti-virus firm Kaspersky Lab, so late founder Eugene Kaspersky know. Yesterday the company announced that through an advanced espionage virus access to internal systems was obtained.

According to the Russian virus fighter was no doubt to the public burglary. "It would be like failing to report a traffic accident to the police because your no-claim can harm you." In addition, there would be no shame to confess to the attack, given the way the attackers. "There are two types of businesses, who know they are attacked and who do not know they are attacked," said Kaspersky.

By disclosing the assault would deliver the anti-virus company a signal to the public and the validity and morality of such a country pulling sponsored attacks against commercial enterprises in doubt. Further, the information may help in the protection of other companies. "Even if our" reputation "harms I do not care. It is our mission to save the world without compromise," as late Kaspersky on his own blog know.

Source code

The investigation into the burglary is still ongoing, but the anti-virus company has checked the source code of the anti-malware products and claims that it is intact. The malware databases are not adjusted, the attackers had no access to customer data. In a column for Forbes , Kaspersky it is clearly a case of industrial espionage. "But the more I think about it, the less it makes sense." Thus, some of the technology through licensing agreements simply accessible and possesses anti-virus company no hidden "holy grail".

"Perhaps the attackers had the idea to steal our technology, source code, knowledge and ideas to help their own software," Kaspersky says. That might help in the short term, but in the long run little use. Modern software as virus fighter is always evolving. "You have to really run to keep up, otherwise the copied software is rapidly obsolete." In addition to steal source code or blueprints can help, but people need to be "stolen" that have developed it to understand every detail.

Attribution

Kaspersky says that a country is behind the attack, but would not name names. "We are security experts and we do not weaken our core competency by us to have a political process." Yet there is reported to investigating authorities in several countries to launch an investigation. Furthermore, Kaspersky takes the opportunity to ask countries that they are "rules, ethics and common sense" will respect in cyberspace. Yesterday, Kaspersky also held a conference on the hack. He finished with the words. "Hack me please do not, that's a bad idea."

Research: Critical Infrastructure US Attacked Regularly

Organisations responsible for vital infrastructure in the United States, such as banks, telecom companies and public entities, would make regular cyber attacks have, according to research anti-virus company Trend Micro which 575 respondents were interviewed.

The research was for the Organization of American States carried out and will appear online later today, but news agencyReuters got the report already owned. It shows that 60% of participants had to deal with attacks in which there was an attempt to steal data. 54% saw attempts to operate control systems, while 44% of respondents attempted to remove files.

Furthermore, 40% of the participants have seen attempts to turn off the network. Reuters reports not in how many of the attempts that respondents perceived it also managed to delete files, equipment or networks to operate off.