Successful Chinese Hacking Team Is Looking For Math Nerds

A Chinese hacking team that in recent years during various competitions hacker vulnerabilities in popular software such as Adobe Flash Player, Windows 8.1, Apple Safari and Mac OS X Mavericks discovered is particularly looking for mathematical geniuses who are also "real geeks" are.

The Keen Team consists of over twenty highly talented hackers, although the leader himself does not mention that. "We call ourselves geeks, not hackers, because we do not want people to think we are invaders who want to destroy things," said the 37-year-old CEO Wang Qi in front of Vice Magazine . It is the first time that Chinese hackers do an interview in English.

Income

The Pwn2Own hacker contests deserved members of Keen Team tens of thousands of dollars. Yet the prize is not their main source of income. The hackers are hired by parties like Microsoft and Google to find vulnerabilities in software. How many employees earn Wang would not say, but he describes the prize of the Pwn2Own hacker contests as a nice pocket money.The CEO pointed Keen Team in 2011, before that he worked for Microsoft.

According to Wang, the standards Keen Team employs more than Microsoft's. "They should be as high as any computer or phone is touched by our research." In finding new hackers main focus is on math. Some of the members are winners of international math competitions. The best students from Chinese schools are also selected.

"You have real nerds need for this kind of work:. Who have no friends and no life but first we need to know your character and morality, you can not use your talents for criminal matters If you have a criminal past, we will not.. take. " Keen Team members are between 20 and 40 years old and all man. "Maybe it's because women do not like playing with hardware. And maybe they can not stand the loneliness," Wang noted.

Method

What exactly are hackers proceed will not tell the CEO, but the core consists of writing programs that automatically search for vulnerabilities, also known as fuzzing. "It's not that we endlessly looking at code and find vulnerabilities in our eyes," Lu Juhui adds. He managed to earn during the recent Pwn2Own contest with his exploits tens of thousands of dollars. Despite the automated portion of the hackers make their hours. Lu works in their own words twelve hours a day.

NATO Organizes Major Cyber Exercise In Estonia

400 computer experts will this week in Estonia to participate in a major NATO cyber exercise, where an attack is simulated on a fictional country. A total of sixteen teams from countries for Locked Shields 2015 registered as the exercise is called.

Locked Shields is an annual simulation held since 2010 in the cyber defense center of NATO in Tallinn. The organizers announced that this year, in addition to SCADA systems including Windows 8, a test version of Windows 10, Android devices and IP cameras are part of the exercise, as well as an "element of active defense".

"Locked Shields prepares computer emergency response specialists for continuously evolving cyber security landscape. Unique about this is that we are realistic technologies, use networks and methods of attack," said Colonel Artur Suzik, director of the NATO Cooperative Cyber ​​Defense Center of Excellence. "In order to ensure that the exercise is flush with real developments will be there every year new technologies and added attack vectors."

Critical Vulnerability In Google Chrome Patched

Google has released a new version of Google Chrome released that fixes four vulnerabilities, including a critical vulnerability that the underlying operating system in the worst case could be full. Visiting a malicious or hacked website or see getting an infected ad would have been sufficient in this case.

This kind of critical vulnerabilities are rare in Google Chrome. Last year there were only three of these types of leaks reported in Chrome. Critical vulnerabilities allow an attacker to run arbitrary code on the computer can perform, such as installing malware, come because of the sandbox security in the browser rare. In addition to a leak in the browser must also be a leak in the sandbox are found to execute code on the underlying system.

The vulnerability, which consists of various bugs, was reported by an anonymous security researcher. Google rewarded the researcher before with a total of almost $ 30,000. Besides this leak is also a vulnerability patched during the Pwn2Own contest was demonstrated. Researcher Jung Hoon Lee aka "lokihardt" succeeded during the event in order to execute arbitrary code via various vulnerabilities. Update to Chrome 41.0.2272.118 will happen automatically in most cases.

Also, Google Chrome And Safari Hacked During Competition

After Internet Explorer and Firefox during the Pwn2Own contest in Vancouver also Google Chrome and Safari hacked. The Pwn2Own contest is an annual event organized at the CanSecWest conference where researchers and the safety of popular browsers, and browser plug-ins can be tested. During the first day of the event there were leaks in Adobe Flash Player (3) Adobe Reader (3) Windows (3) Internet Explorer 11 (2) and Firefox (2) demonstrated.

During the second day were 11 Internet Explorer and Firefox again to believe. Additionally died also Google Chrome and Safari on Mac OS X. The attacks on IE11, Chrome and Safari were demonstrated by Jung Hoon Lee aka "lokihardt". The researcher was awarded a total of $ 225,000. Most of it, $ 110,000, Lee received because of his attack on Google Chrome.The researcher also showed also two Windows Leaks which he could execute code with system privileges.

In total there are 21 vulnerabilities demonstrated during the two days for which no security updates are available from the respective vendors. Microsoft leads with five vulnerabilities in Windows and four leaks in IE11 the list. Details on the vulnerabilities found will be made public until the updates are available.