Duncan Riley
Latest from Duncan Riley
Florida amends money laundering laws to cover bitcoin
Men in Florida may get up to all sorts of strange things – just check out “Florida Man” – but money laundering using bitcoin can no longer be included on the list with the passage of laws preventing its use in criminal activity. Florida’s legislature passed an amendment to the state law on money laundering ...
Famed investor Tim Draper to back new blockchain cryptocurrency
Famed investor Tim Draper has given a boost to a startup blockchain company called Tezos with a public announcement that he intends to invest in its “initial coin offering” as well as Dynamic Ledger Solutions Inc., the company behind the offering. “The best thing I can do is lead by example,” Draper (pictured, right), best ...
Fatboy ransomware adjusts demands based on where a victim lives
A new ransomware-as-a-service product called “Fatboy” discovered on Russian-language dark web forums is offering a new kind of demand that adjusts the ransom based on where a victim lives. Fatboy automatically adjusts ransom demands based on the victim’s location by using Big Mac Index, an index compiled by The Economist that measures the purchasing power parity between two currencies. ...
Intel chip vulnerability found to be far worse than thought
A security vulnerability in Intel Corp. chips first disclosed last week looks far worse than initially thought, as hackers can hijack Intel processors without even needing a password. The vulnerability, which affects all Intel chips manufactured since 2008, from those code-named Nahalem to today’s Kaby Lake, stems from a flaw in vPro firmware suite including Intel ...
Hundreds of Android apps are tracking you with ultrasonic beacons
New research has discovered the rapid spread among Android apps of a recent form of ad tracking that monitors what users are listening to using hidden audio signals. The ad tracking system, known as ultrasound cross-device tracking, or uXDT for short, involves advertisers embedding high-frequency ultrasound tones known as “beacons” into audio to allow them to detect the ...
Unpatched WordPress vulnerability allows hackers to reset admin passwords
A newly discovered, unpatched vulnerability in all versions of WordPress could allow hackers to reset targeted admin passwords, according to newly published research. The vulnerability (CVE-2017-8295), discovered by Polish researcher Dawid Golunski, is related to WordPress using a variable named “SERVER_NAME” to obtain the hostname of a server when setting the From/Return-Path header in password reset emails ...
Hackers intercept two-factor authentication messages to empty bank accounts
A known vulnerability in a networking protocol used by mobile phone network providers has been exploited by hackers to intercept two-factor authentication SMS messages to steal funds from bank account. The vulnerability, first identified in 2014, involves a security hole in the Signaling System No. 7, a telephony signaling protocol used by telecommunications providers worldwide that ...
Facebook closes Oculus Story Studio in favor of funding external VR content
Facebook Inc. is getting out of the virtual reality content creation business with the social networking giant announcing Thursday that it intends to close its Oculus Story Studio. Since it was established in 2015, the Oculus Story Studio has created narrative driven VR movies and clips to expand the overall content offering within the Oculus VR ...
YL Ventures closes new $75M fund focused on enterprise seed investments
Enterprise startup-focused venture capital firm YL Ventures GP Ltd. has closed its third fund at $75 million, which it says was oversubscribed 25 percent above its target of $60 million. The new fund, which is planned to build on the success of its predecessors, will invest in seed-stage Israeli companies in high-growth sectors, including cybersecurity, ...
Widespread phishing campaign tricks victims with fake Google Docs sharing
A new phishing scheme that initially targeted journalists with fake requests to share a Google Docs document is spreading like wildfire by using emails that appear to be legitimate. First detailed by a user on Reddit, the phishing scheme involves sees targeted users being sent an invitation from someone they may know inviting them to ...









