October 31, 2018 Mohit Kumar Apple introduces a new privacy feature for all new MacBooks that "at some extent" will prevent hackers and malicious applications from eavesdropping on your conversations. Apple's custom T2 security chip in the latest MacBooks includes a new hardware feature that physically disconnects the MacBook's built-in microphone whenever the user closes the lid, the company revealed yesterday at its event at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. Though the new T2 chip is already present in the 2018 MacBook Pro models launched earlier this year, this new feature got unveiled when Apple launched the new Retina MacBook Air and published a full security guide for T2 Chip yesterday. "This disconnect is implemented in hardware alone, and therefore prevents any software, even with root or kernel privileges in macOS, and even the software on the T2 chip, from engaging the microphone when the lid is closed,&qu
Iranians charged with $6M hacking scheme in New Jersey
The
ransom note told the city of Newark to cough up the digital currency
Bitcoin or they would lose the files on computers that had been hacked.
Federal
authorities allege the note was part of an international hacking plot
in which computers were remotely locked up with software called "SamSam
Ransomware," then the owners were shaken down for a total of $6 million,
according to court documents and a statement from the U.S. Attorney's
Office in New Jersey.
The hacker's targets included
hospitals and municipal governments nationwide including Newark,
Atlanta, the Port of San Diego, the Colorado Department of
Transportation, the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, Hollywood
Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles, Kansas Heart Hospital in
Wichita, LabCorp, headquartered in Burlington, North Carolina, MedStar
Health, headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, OrthoNebraska Hospital, in
Omaha, and Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc., headquartered in
Chicago.
Police are hunting for two Iranians they charged with the hacking scheme in a federal indictment filed in New Jersey.
Faramarz
Shahi Savandi, 34, and Mohammad Mehdi Shah Mansouri, 27, are charged
with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud and
related activity in connection with computers, two counts of intentional
damage to a protected computer and two counts of transmitting a demand
in relation to damaging a protected computer, according to the statement
from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The pair created
the first version of their hacking software in December 2015 and the
most recent attack they're accused of occurred in September, according
to the statement. They're accused of striking outside business hours,
when a target would find it more difficult to react.
“The
defendants in this case developed and deployed the SamSam Ransomware in
order to hold public and private entities hostage and then extort money
from them,” U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said in the statement. “As
the indictment in this case details, they started with a business in
Mercer County and then moved on to major public entities, like the City
of Newark, and healthcare providers, like the Hollywood Presbyterian
Medical Center in Los Angeles and the Kansas Heart Hospital in Wichita –
cravenly taking advantage of the fact that these victims depend on
their computer networks to serve the public, the sick, and the injured
without interruption. The charges announced today show that the U.S.
Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey will continue to act to
disrupt such criminal acts, and identify those who are responsible for
them, no matter where in the world they may seek to hide.”
Andrew Ford: @AndrewFordNews; 732-643-4281; aford3@gannettnj.com