The messaging standard promises better security and cooler features than plain old SMS. Android has had it for years, but now iPhones are getting it too.

If you've been keeping up with all the news out of WWDC 2024 this week, you'll know that Apple is bringing the RCS (Rich Communication Services) messaging standard to iPhones later this year with iOS 18. That's a win for Google, which has long backed RCS on Android. But what actually is RCS? And why does supporting it matter?

The short version: It's an upgrade on the standard SMS/MMS texting standards that smartphones have been using from the start. It brings better support for all the cool features we're used to in our messaging apps, like read receipts and images, and it adds some extra security layers too.

Yes, it's a lot like using iMessage from Apple, or using WhatsApp—though it's not quite that simple. There's no RCS app you can install, but you can find apps that support the RCS standard, as we'll explain.

RCS is coming to iOS this year.

Courtesy of Apple

So the long version: Rich Communication Services is a fundamental standard rather than an app like WhatsApp, Signal, or Telegram. It requires carrier support to work, which is why adoption was slow in the beginning, though RCS now works across most countries and is supported by AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile.

SMS (Short Message Service) and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) weren't really built for the modern way that we communicate through our phones, and RCS tries to fix that. It adds or improves support for sharing large-resolution images and video, group chatting, read receipts, video calls, and messages that actually go beyond 160 characters.

When RCS is supported in your phone's default texting app, you can add reactions to messages, see when someone else is typing, and drop extra elements like GIFs, stickers, and your current location into conversations—all features you may well be used to and accept as standard in other apps.

There are changes and upgrades behind the scenes as well. Whereas SMS/MMS requires a data connection to your cellular network, RCS works over cell networks as well as Wi-Fi. If you don't have a cell signal for whatever reason but you can find a wireless network, your message can still go through.

RCS settings on a Pixel phone.

Courtesy of David Nield

The standard also brings end-to-end encryption with it. It means that no one else—not even Google or your carrier—can see the conversation that's taking place, because only the devices involved in the conversation have the keys necessary to decrypt it. End-to-end encryption is a security feature you should look for in any app that handles sensitive information, including communications.

It's a clear upgrade, which is why Google Messages and Samsung Messages now support it—the messaging apps you'll find on Pixel phones and Galaxy phones, respectively. In November 2023, Apple finally relented and agreed to support RCS on the iPhone in 2024, though this course correction perhaps had more to do with concerns about antitrust procedures than any newfound sense of camaraderie with Google.

Now we know that iPhone RCS support is going to arrive in September with iOS 18. This means all of those features we've mentioned—from read receipts to message reactions—will work inside the iOS Messages app. However, Android users are still going to show up as green bubbles, as the RCS standard isn't going to be fully integrated with the iMessage platform that Apple operates.

When you're texting someone with RCS enabled, you'll see "Text Message RCS" inside the text input box in Messages on iOS, indicating that the recipient can take advantage of all the modern messaging features that we're now used to. There's no need to turn RCS on or off—it's automatically enabled if you're chatting with a contact who has a device that supports RCS.

How RCS messages will look on an iPhone.

Courtesy of Apple

With iOS 18 still in its development stage, there might be changes to come for how RCS is handled on iPhones before the software is rolled out to all compatible devices later in the year. This version of iOS will work on any iPhone models launched in 2018 or later, so most Apple handsets currently in use will get the software and RCS.

It's the same with Samsung Messages: RCS is simply enabled when available. It's Google Messages for Android that gives you most control over RCS settings, and you can get to them from inside the app by tapping your profile picture (top right), then selecting **Messages settings**. Choose **RCS chats** and you're able to turn features such as read receipts and typing indicators on or off.

With RCS soon to appear on iPhones and now extensively supported on Android devices, it's going to become less and less likely that your phone will need to revert back to SMS—though it will do this if RCS isn't available for whatever reason. Otherwise, the standard that has powered our text messages since 1992 will finally be able to enjoy a well-earned retirement.

A Guide to RCS, Why Apple’s Adopting It, and How It Makes Texting Better

The company focused heavily on data and system security in the announcement of its generative AI platform, Apple Intelligence, but experts worry that companies will have little visibility into data security.

Source: Cosmo Condina via Alamy Stock Photo

Apple's long-awaited announcement of its generative AI (GenAI) capabilities came with an in-depth discussion of the company's security considerations for the platform. But the tech industry's past focus on harvesting user data from nearly every product and service have left many concerned over the data security and privacy implications of Apple's move. Fortunately, there are some proactive ways that companies can address potential risks.

Apple's approach to integrating GenAI — dubbed Apple Intelligence — includes context-sensitive searches, editing emails for tone, and the easy creation of graphics, with Apple promising that the powerful features require only local processing on mobile devices to protect user and business data. The company detailed a five-step approach to strengthen privacy and security for the platform, with much of the processing done on a user's device using Apple Silicon. More complex queries, however, will be sent to the company's private cloud and use the services of OpenAI and its large language model (LLM).

While companies will have to wait to see how Apple's commitment to security plays out, the company has put a lot of consideration into how GenAI services will be handled on devices and how the information will be protected, says Joseph Thacker, principal AI engineer and security researcher at AppOmni, a cloud-security firm.

"Apple's focus on privacy and security in the design is definitely a good sign," he says. "Features like not allowing privileged runtime access and preventing user targeting show they are thinking about potential abuse cases."

Apple spent significant time during its announcement reinforcing the idea that the company takes security seriously, and published a paper online that describes the company's five requirements for its Private Cloud Compute service, such as no privileged runtime access and hardening the system to prevent targeting specific users.

Still, large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, and other forms of GenAI are new enough that the threats remain poorly understood, and some will slip through Apple's efforts, says Steve Wilson, chief privacy officer at cloud security and compliance provider Exabeam, and lead on the Open Web Application Security Project's Top 10 Security Risks for LLMs.

"I really worry that LLMs are a very, very different beast, and traditional security engineers, they just don't have experience with these AI techniques yet," he says. "There are very few people who do."

**Apple Makes Security a Centerpiece**

Apple seems to be aware of the security risks that concern its customers, especially businesses. The implementation of Apple Intelligence across a user's devices, dubbed the Personal Intelligence System, will connect data from applications in a way that has, perhaps, only been implemented through the company's health-data services. Conceivably, every message and email sent from a device could be reviewed by AI and context added through on-device semantic indexes.

Yet, the company pledged that, in most cases, the data never leaves the device, and the information is anonymized as well.

"It is aware of your personal data, without collecting your personal data," Craig Federighi, senior vice president of software engineering at Apple, stated in a four-minute video on Apple Intelligence and privacy during the company's June 10 launch, adding: "You are in control of your data, where it is stored and who can access it."

When it does leave the device, data will be processed in the company's Private Cloud Compute service, so Apple can take advantage of more powerful server-based generative-AI models, while still protecting privacy. The company says that it never stores or makes accessible any data to Apple. In addition, Apple will make every production build of its Private Cloud Compute platform available to security researchers for vulnerability research in conjunction with a bug-bounty program.

Such steps seemingly go beyond what other companies have promised and should assuage the fears of enterprise security teams, AppOmni's Thacker says.

"This type of transparency and collaboration with the security research community is important for finding and fixing vulnerabilities before they can be exploited in the wild," he says. "It allows Apple to leverage the diverse skills and perspectives of researchers to really put the system through the wringer from a security testing perspective. While it's not a guarantee of security, it will help a lot."

**There's an App for (Leaking) That**

However, the interactions between apps and data on mobile devices and the behavior of LLMs may be too complex to fully understand at this point, says Exabeam's Wilson. The attack surface area of LLMs continues to surprise the large companies behind the major AI models. Following its release of its latest Gemini model, for example, Google had to contend with inadvertent data poisoning that arose from training its model with untrusted data.

"Those search components are falling victim to these kind of indirect injection data-poisoning incidents, where they're off telling people to eat glue and rocks," Wilson says. "So it's one thing to say, 'Oh, this is a super-sophisticated organization, they'll get this right,' but Google's been proving over and over and over again that they won't."

Apple's announcement comes as companies are quickly experimenting with ways to integrate GenAI into the workplace to improve productivity and automate traditionally tough-to-automate processes. Bringing the features to mobile devices has happened slowly, but now, Samsung has released its Galaxy AI, Google has announced the Gemini mobile app, and Microsoft has announced Copilot for Windows.

While Copilot for Windows is integrated with many applications, Apple Intelligence appears to go beyond even Microsoft's approach.

**Think Different (About Threats)**

Overall, companies need to first gain visibility into their employees' use of LLMs and other GenAI. While they do not need to go to the extent of billionaire tech innovator Elon Musk, a former investor in OpenAI, who raised concerns that Apple — or OpenAI — would abuse users' data or fail to secure business information and pledged to ban iPhones at his companies, chief information security officers (CISOs) certainly should have a discussion with their mobile device management (MDM) providers, Exabeam's Wilson says.

Right now, controls to regulate data going into and out of Apple Intelligence do not appear to exist and, in the future, may not be accessible to MDM platforms, he says.

"Apple has not historically provided a lot of device management, because they are leaned in on personal use," Wilson says. "So it's been up to third parties for the last 10-plus years to try and build these third-party frameworks that allow you to install controls on the phone, but it's unclear whether they're going to have the hooks into \[Apple Intelligence\] to help control it."

Until more controls come online, enterprises need to set a policy, and to find ways to integrate their existing security controls, authentication systems, and data loss prevention tools with AI, says AppOmni's Thacker.

"Companies should also have clear policies around what types of data and conversations are appropriate to share with AI assistants," he says. "So while Apple's efforts help, enterprises still have work to do to fully integrate these tools securely."

**About the Author(s)**

Veteran technology journalist of more than 20 years. Former research engineer. Written for more than two dozen publications, including CNET News.com, Dark Reading, MIT's Technology Review, Popular Science, and Wired News. Five awards for journalism, including Best Deadline Journalism (Online) in 2003 for coverage of the Blaster worm. Crunches numbers on various trends using Python and R. Recent reports include analyses of the shortage in cybersecurity workers and annual vulnerability trends.

Apple Intelligence Could Introduce Device Security Risks

When a drug kingpin named Microsoft tried to seize control of an encrypted phone company for criminals, he was playing right into its real owners’ hands.

Inside the Biggest FBI Sting Operation in History

Plus, SS7 vulnerabilities are being exploited and BreachForums is taken down again.

Thursday, May 23, 2024 14:00

Since the advent of products like the Tile and Apple AirTag, both used to keep track of easily lost items like wallets, keys and purses, bad actors and criminals have found ways to abuse them. 

These adversaries can range from criminals just looking to do something illegal for a range of reasons, but maybe just looking to steal a physical object, to just a jealous or suspicious spouse or partner who wants to keep tags on their significant other. 

Apple and other manufacturers who make these devices have since taken several steps to curb the abuse of these devices and make them more secure. Most recently, Google and Apple announced new alerts that would hit Android and iOS devices and alert users that their devices’ location is being connected to any location-tracking device.  

“With this new capability, users will now get an ‘\[Item\] Found Moving With You’ alert on their device if an unknown Bluetooth tracking device is seen moving with them over time, regardless of the platform the device is paired with,” Apple stated in its announcement. 

Companies Motorola, Jio and Eufy also announced that they would be adhering to these new standards and should release compliant products soon.  

Certainly, products like the AirTag and Samsung trackers that these companies have direct control over will now be more secure, and hopefully less ripe for abuse by a bad actor, but it’s far from a total solution to the problem that these types of products pose. 

As I’ve pointed out in the past with security cameras and any other range of internet-connected devices, online stores are filled with these types of products, promising to track users’ personal items with an app so they don’t lose common household items like their phones, wallets and keys.  

Amazon has countless listings under “location tag” for a range of AirTag-like products made by unknown manufacturers. Some of these products are slim enough to fit right into the credit card pocket of a wallet or purse,  and others are smaller than the average AirTag and even advertise that they can remain hidden inside a car.  

I admittedly haven’t been able to dive into these individual devices, but some of them come with their own third-party apps, which come with their own set of security caveats and completely take it out of platform developers’ hands.  

There are also other “find my device”-type services that pose additional security concerns outside of just buying a small tag. Android’s new, enhanced “Find My Device” network is a crowdsourced solution to help users potentially find their lost devices, similar to iOS’ Find My network.  

The Find My Device network works by using other Android devices to silently relay the registered device’s approximate location, even if the device being searched for is offline or turned off. In the wrong hands, there are a range of ways that can be abused on its own.  

So, rather than relying on developers and manufacturers to make these services more secure, I have a few tips for how to use AirTag-like devices safely, if you really can’t come up with a better solution for not losing your keys. 

*   Check for suspicious tracking devices. On iOS, this means opening the “Find My” app and navigating to Items > Items Detected Near You. Any unfamiliar AirTags will be listed here. On Android, you can do the same thing by going to Settings > Safety & Emergency > Unknown Tracker Alerts > Scan Now. 
*   Remove yourself from any “Sharing Groups” unless it’s a trusted contact in your phone using the Find My app on iOS. 
*   If location tracking is your primary concern (especially for parents and their children) using the Find My app on iOS and Android is generally a more secure option than trusting a third-party app downloaded from the app store or relying on a Bluetooth connection.  
*   Manage individual apps’ settings to ensure only the services that \*really\* need to track your device’s physical location are using it. (Ex., you probably don’t need Facebook tracking that information.) 
*   Since AirTags are connected to your Apple ID, ensure that login is secured with multi-factor authentication (MFA) or using a passkey.  

**The one big thing **

Cisco recently developed and released a new feature to detect brand impersonation in emails when adversaries pretend to be a legitimate corporation. Threat actors employ a variety of techniques to embed brand logos within emails. One simple method involves inserting words associated with the brand into the HTML source of the email. New data from Talos found that popular brands like PayPal, Microsoft, NortonLifeLock and McAfee are among some of the most-impersonated brands in these types of phishing emails.  

**Why do I care? **

Brand impersonation could happen on many online platforms, including social media, websites, emails and mobile applications. This type of threat exploits the familiarity and legitimacy of popular brand logos to solicit sensitive information from victims. In the context of email security, brand impersonation is commonly observed in phishing emails. Threat actors want to deceive their victims into giving up their credentials or other sensitive information by abusing the popularity of well-known brands. 

**So now what? **

Well-known brands can protect themselves from this type of threat through asset protection as well. Domain names can be registered with various extensions to thwart threat actors attempting to use similar domains for malicious purposes. The other crucial step brands can take is to conceal their information from WHOIS records via privacy protection. And users who want to learn more about Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense's new brand impersonation detection tools can visit this site. 

**Top security headlines of the week **

**Adversaries have been quietly exploiting the backbone of cellular communications to track Americans’ location for years,** according to a U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The official broke ranks with their agency and reportedly shared this information with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The official said that attackers have used vulnerabilities in the SS7 protocol to steal location data, monitor voice and text messages, and deliver spyware. Other targets have received text messages containing fake news or disinformation. SS7 is the protocol used across the globe that routes text messages and calls to different devices but has often been a target for attackers. In the past, other vulnerabilities in SS7 have been used to gain access to telecommunications providers’ networks. In their written comments to the FCC, the official said that these vulnerabilities are the “tip of the proverbial iceberg” of SS7-related exploits used against U.S. citizens. (404 Media, The Economist) 

**The FBI once again seized the main site belonging to BreachForums,** a popular platform for buying and selling stolen personal information. Last year, international law enforcement agencies took down a previous version of the cybercrime site and arrested its administrator, but the new pages quickly emerged, using three different domains since the last disruption. American law enforcement agencies also took control of the forum’s official Telegram account, and a channel belonging to the newest BreachForums administrator, “Baphomet.” However, the FBI has yet to publicly state anything about the takedown or any potential arrests. BreachForums isn’t expected to be gone for long, as another admin named “ShinyHunters” claims the site will be back with a new Onion domain soon. ShinyHunters claims they’ve retried access to the seized clearnet domain for BreachForums, though they did not provide specific methods. BreachForums is infamous for being a site where attackers can buy and sell stolen data, offer their hacking services or share recent TTPs. (TechCruch, HackRead) 

**The U.S. Department of Justice charged three North Koreans with crimes related to impersonating others to obtain remote employment in the U.S., which in turn generated funding for North Korea’s military.** The three men, and another U.S. citizen, were charged with what the DOJ called “staggering fraud” in which they secured illicit work with several U.S. companies and government agencies using fraudulent identities from 60 real Americans. The U.S. citizen was allegedly placed laptops belonging to U.S. companies at various residences so the North Koreans could hide their true location. North Korean state-sponsored actors have used these types of tactics for years, often relying on social media networks like LinkedIn to fake their personal information and obtain jobs or steal sensitive information from companies. More than 300 companies may have been affected, with the perpetrators earning more than $6.8 million, most of which was used to “raise revenue for the North Korean government and its illicit nuclear program,” according to the DOJ. (ABC News, Bloomberg) 

**Can’t get enough Talos? **

*   Proactive Threat Hunting in Duo Data 
*   Talos Takes Ep. #184: Recapping RSA  
*   You have to look out for these hacks in 2024! 

**Upcoming events where you can find Talos **

**ISC2 SECURE Europe** **(May 29)** 

_Amsterdam, Netherlands_ 

> _Gergana Karadzhova-Dangela from Cisco Talos Incident Response will participate in a panel on “Using ECSF to Reduce the Cybersecurity Workforce and Skills Gap in the EU.” Karadzhova-Dangela participated in the creation of the EU cybersecurity framework, and will discuss how Cisco has used it for several of its internal initiatives as a way to recruit and hire new talent._  

**Cisco Live** **(June 2 - 6)** 

_Las Vegas, Nevada_ 

> _B_ill Largent from Talos' Strategic Communications team will be giving our annual "State of Cybersecurity" talk at Cisco Live on Tuesday, June 4 at 11 a.m. Pacific time. Jaeson Schultz from Talos Outreach will have a talk of his own on Thursday, June 6 at 8:30 a.m. Pacific, and there will be several Talos IR-specific lightning talks at the Cisco Secure booth throughout the conference.

**_AREA41_** **_(June 6 – 7)_** 

_Zurich, Switzerland_ 

> _Gergana Karadzhova-Dangela from Cisco Talos Incident Response will highlight the primordial importance of actionable incident response documentation for the overall response readiness of an organization. During this talk, she will share commonly observed mistakes when writing IR documentation and ways to avoid them. She will draw on her experiences as a responder who works with customers during proactive activities and actual cybersecurity breaches._ 

**Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week **

**SHA 256:** 9be2103d3418d266de57143c2164b31c27dfa73c22e42137f3fe63a21f793202   
**MD5:** e4acf0e303e9f1371f029e013f902262   
**Typical Filename:** FileZilla\_3.67.0\_win64\_sponsored2-setup.exe   
**Claimed Product:** FileZilla   
**Detection Name:** W32.Application.27hg.1201 

**SHA 256:** a024a18e27707738adcd7b5a740c5a93534b4b8c9d3b947f6d85740af19d17d0   
**MD5:** b4440eea7367c3fb04a89225df4022a6   
**Typical Filename:** Pdfixers.exe   
**Claimed Product:** Pdfixers   
**Detection Name:** W32.Superfluss:PUPgenPUP.27gq.1201 

**SHA 256:** 1fa0222e5ae2b891fa9c2dad1f63a9b26901d825dc6d6b9dcc6258a985f4f9ab   
**MD5:** 4c648967aeac81b18b53a3cb357120f4   
**Typical Filename:** yypnexwqivdpvdeakbmmd.exe   
**Claimed Product:** N/A    
**Detection Name:** Win.Dropper.Scar::1201 

**SHA 256:** d529b406724e4db3defbaf15fcd216e66b9c999831e0b1f0c82899f7f8ef6ee1   
**MD5:** fb9e0617489f517dc47452e204572b4e   
**Typical Filename:** KMSAuto++.exe   
**Claimed Product:** KMSAuto++   
**Detection Name:** W32.File.MalParent 

**SHA 256:** abaa1b89dca9655410f61d64de25990972db95d28738fc93bb7a8a69b347a6a6   
**MD5:** 22ae85259273bc4ea419584293eda886   
**Typical Filename:** KMSAuto++ x64.exe   
**Claimed Product:** KMSAuto++   
**Detection Name:** W32.File.MalParent

Apple and Google are taking steps to curb the abuse of location-tracking devices — but what about others?

Plus: Google holds off on killing cookies, Samourai Wallet founders get arrested, and GM stops driver surveillance program.

Controversial gunshot-detection company ShotSpotter has deployed more than 25,000 microphones across 170 cities worldwide. This week, WIRED and _South Side Weekly_ revealed the company may continue to provide gunshot data to police in cities even after contracts have ended. Internal emails seen by the publications suggest ShotSpotter sensors may have stayed online despite law enforcement deals having expired, raising questions about what will happen to 2,500 microphones in Chicago when its contract runs out at the end of the year.

Elsewhere, Change Healthcare finally admitted to paying a ransom to the AlphV hackers, also known as BlackCat, that extorted the medical company. Weeks ago, WIRED revealed the attackers were paid $22 million, one of the largest ransomware payments ever. However, in a statement this week the company admitted for the first time that it paid the ransom as part of its effort “to do all it could to protect patient data from disclosure.” Some of that data still found its way onto the dark web.

In another successful grift, researchers have found animators in North Korea creating artwork for major Hollywood studios. A misconfigured North Korea cloud server, discovered at the end of last year, contained thousands of animation files, notes, and working documents for productions of shows that stream on Amazon Prime Video and Max. The companies likely didn’t know workers from the Hermit Kingdom were creating the artwork, but it’s another example of how North Korea is using skilled workers to circumvent sanctions and make the regime money.

Meanwhile, Cisco revealed this week that some of its devices, called Adaptive Security Appliances, have been targeted by state-sponsored hackers who exploited two zero-day vulnerabilities in the systems. The attack, dubbed ArcaneDoor, is believed to have had an espionage focus and sources suspect China’s state-backed hackers may be the culprits.

The November presidential elections may still be months away, but the next US president will have increased surveillance capabilities. This week Joe Biden signed a controversial bill extending and enhancing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. FISA allows spy agencies to collect Americans’ calls, emails, and more when pursuing foreign intelligence. Critics say the changes are “a gift to any president who may wish to spy on political enemies.”

That’s not all. Each week, we round up the security and privacy news we didn’t cover in depth ourselves. Click the headlines to read the full stories. And stay safe out there.

**School Principal Framed Using AI Voice Deepfake**

In January, an Instagram account in Baltimore, Maryland, posted an alleged audio recording of local school principal Eric Eiswert making racist and antisemitic comments. Baltimore County Public Schools quickly opened an investigation into the incident. However, this week, a former athletic director at Pikesville High School was arrested after police said he used artificial intelligence software to create the fake audio clip of Eiswert. The audio included comments about “ungrateful Black kids” and disparaging remarks about the Jewish community.

Dazhon Darien, the former staff member, was arrested after being stopped in possession of a gun at an airport when officials saw there was an outstanding arrest warrant, the _Baltimore Banner_ reported. The media organization reports that Darien was charged with disrupting school activities and stalking. The fake clip was allegedly made in retaliation for the principal investigating Darien over irregular payments to his roommate.

Police reports, the _Banner_ says, indicate that the audio clip had a “profound” impact on the school principal. “It not only led to Eiswert’s temporary removal from the school but also triggered a wave of hate-filled messages on social media and numerous calls to the school,” police reports said.

Voice-cloning technology, which can fall under the broader banner of deepfake technology, has rapidly improved within the last year. Cloning tools can recreate someone’s voice to a relatively realistic level using just a few seconds of real audio. The systems have increasingly been used to impersonate politicians and scam people over the phone.

**General Motors Stops Driving Surveillance, Following Privacy Complaints**

Your car knows a lot about you—from where and how you drive, to your weight and how you sit. This week, following a series of revelations from _New York Times_ reporter Kashmir Hill, General Motors announced it will end its “Smart Driver” program and unenroll all customers. Until the reports from the _Times_, GM was sharing data with data brokers LexisNexis and Verisk, which shared it with insurers and led to high payments for some people. The OnStar Smart Driver program had been designed to promote safer driving, GM said. However, many people were not aware they had been enrolled in the system. Ten lawsuits have been filed so far about the Smart Driver program and how it shared data.

**Google Delays Killing Cookies—Again**

In January 2020, Google said it would remove third-party cookies from Chrome within two years—following Safari, Brave, Firefox, and other browsers in eradicating the tracking technology. It’s now April 2024 and the company has delayed the change for a third time, saying it’ll happen in 2025. Google’s proposed cookie replacement has faced scrutiny from competition and privacy regulators in the UK, with critics saying cookies are just being replaced by another form of tracking and suggesting the changes could further benefit Google’s ad business.

**Samourai Wallet Founders Arrested Over $2 Billion Unlawful Transactions**

Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, the founders of crypto-mixing service Samourai Wallet, were charged by US prosecutors this week for running an unlicensed money transfer business and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The company processed $2 billion in “unlawful transactions” and “facilitated more than $100 million in money laundering,” according to Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and other investigators. The charges can carry a maximum of 20 years each. The move comes as US prosecutors try to clampdown on crypto mixing services that may be used to hide funds or allow illicit behavior. Mixers Bitcoin Fog, Helix, and Tornado Cash have all faced action in recent years.

**Chinese Keyboard Vulnerabilities Could Reveal Typing**

New research from the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab this week revealed vulnerabilities in eight Chinese keyboard apps that, if exploited, could allow everything typed to be intercepted. Up to a billion people may be impacted, the researchers say. They tested apps from major technology companies and phone makers, including Baidu, Honor, Huawei, Samsung and Tencent. “Most of the vulnerable apps can be exploited by an entirely passive network eavesdropper,” they researchers write, adding that most of the impacted companies fixed the vulnerabilities when they were reported.

School Employee Allegedly Framed a Principal With Racist Deepfake Rant

Eight out of nine apps that people use to input Chinese characters into mobile devices have weakness that allow a passive eavesdropper to collect keystroke data.

Source: badboydt7 via Shutterstock

Nearly all keyboard apps that allow users to enter Chinese characters into their Android, iOS, or other mobile devices are vulnerable to attacks that allow an adversary to capture the entirety of their keystrokes.

This includes data such as login credentials, financial information, and messages that would otherwise be end-to-end encrypted, a new study by Toronto University's Citizen Lab has uncovered.

**Ubiquitous Problem**

For the study, researchers at the lab considered cloud-based Pinyin apps (which render Chinese characters into words spelled with roman letters) from nine vendors selling to users in China: Baidu, Samsung, Huawei, Tencent, Xiaomi, Vivo, OPPO, iFlytek, and Honor. Their investigation showed all but the app from Huawei to be transmitting keystroke data to the cloud in a manner that enabled a passive eavesdropper to read the contents in clear text and with little difficulty. Citizen Lab researchers, who have earned a reputation over the years for exposing multiple cyber espionage, surveillance, and other threats targeted at mobile users and civil society, said each of them contain at least one exploitable vulnerability in how they handle transmissions of user keystrokes to the cloud.

The scope of vulnerabilities should not be underestimated, Citizen Lab researchers Jeffrey Knockel, Mona Wang and Zoe Reichert wrote in a report summarizing their findings this week: The researchers from Citizen Lab found that 76% of keyboard app users in mainland China, in fact, use a Pinyin keyboard to input Chinese characters.

"All of the vulnerabilities that we covered in this report can be exploited entirely passively without sending any additional network traffic," the researchers said. And to boot, the vulnerabilities were easy to discover and do not require any technological sophistication to exploit, they noted.  "As such, we might wonder, are these vulnerabilities actively under mass exploitation?"

Each of the vulnerable Pinyin keyboard apps that Citizen Lab examined had both a local, on-device component and a cloud-based prediction service for handling long strings of syllables and particularly complex characters. Of the nine apps they looked at, three were from mobile software developers — Tencent, Baidu, and iFlytek. The remaining five were apps that Samsung, Xiaomi, OPPO, Vivo, and Honor — all mobile device manufacturers — had either developed on their own or had integrated into their devices from a third-party developer.

**Exploitable via Active & Passive Methods**

Methods of exploitation differ for each app. Tencent's QQ Pinyin app for Android and Windows for instance had a vulnerability that allowed the researchers to create a working exploit for decrypting keystrokes via active eavesdropping methods. Baidu's IME for Windows contained a similar vulnerability, for which Citizen Lab created a working exploit for decrypting keystroke data via both active and passive eavesdropping methods.

The researchers found other encrypted related privacy and security weaknesses in the Baidu's iOS and Android versions but did not develop exploits for them. iFlytek's app for Android had a vulnerability that allowed a passive eavesdropper to recover in plaintext keyboard transmissions because of insufficient mobile encryption.

On the hardware vendor side, Samsung's homegrown keyboard app offered no encryption at all and instead sent keystroke transmissions in the clear. Samsung also offers users the option of either using Tencent's Sogou app or an app from Baidu on their devices. Of the two apps, Citizen Lab identified Baidu's keyboard app as being vulnerable to attack.

The researchers were unable to identify any issue with Vivo's internally developed Pinyin keyboard app but had a working exploit for a vulnerability they discovered in a Tencent app that is also available on Vivo's devices.

The third-party Pinyin apps (from Baidu, Tencent, and iFlytek) that are available with devices from the other mobile device makers all had exploitable vulnerabilities as well.

These are not uncommon issues, it turns out. Last year, Citizen Labs had conducted a separate investigation in Tencent's Sogou — used by some 450 million people in China — and found vulnerabilities that exposed keystrokes to eavesdropping attacks.

"Combining the vulnerabilities discovered in this and our previous report analyzing Sogou's keyboard apps, we estimate that up to one billion users are affected by these vulnerabilities," Citizen Lab said.

The vulnerabilities could enable mass surveillance of Chinese mobile device users — including by signals intelligence services belonging to the so-called Five Eyes nations — US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand — Citizen Lab said; the vulnerabilities in the keyboard apps that Citizen Lab discovered in its new research are very similar to vulnerabilities in the China-developed UC browser that intelligence agencies from these countries exploited for surveillance purposes, the report noted.

**About the Author(s)**

Jai Vijayan is a seasoned technology reporter with over 20 years of experience in IT trade journalism. He was most recently a Senior Editor at Computerworld, where he covered information security and data privacy issues for the publication. Over the course of his 20-year career at Computerworld, Jai also covered a variety of other technology topics, including big data, Hadoop, Internet of Things, e-voting, and data analytics. Prior to Computerworld, Jai covered technology issues for The Economic Times in Bangalore, India. Jai has a Master's degree in Statistics and lives in Naperville, Ill.

Chinese Keyboard Apps Open 1B People to Eavesdropping

By Waqas
Popular keyboard apps leak user data! Citizen Lab reports 8 out of 9 Android IMEs expose keystrokes. Change yours & protect passwords!
This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: Popular Keyboard Apps Leak User Data: Billion Potentially Exposed

Citizen Lab investigated the security of cloud-based pinyin keyboard apps and found that eight out of nine vendors transmitted user keystrokes in an insecure manner. This means keystrokes could be intercepted by eavesdroppers on the network.

A new report by Citizen Lab has uncovered critical security vulnerabilities in popular keyboard apps, potentially exposing the keystrokes of nearly a billion users to eavesdroppers.

The report, titled “The not-so-silent type: Vulnerabilities across keyboard apps reveal keystrokes to network eavesdroppers,” investigates cloud-based pinyin input method editors (IMEs) used on a vast majority of Android devices in China.

Researchers analyzed keyboard apps from nine major vendors: Baidu, Honor, Huawei, iFlytek, OPPO, Samsung, Tencent, Vivo, and Xiaomi. Alarmingly, they found vulnerabilities in eight of these apps that could allow attackers to steal users’ keystrokes as they type.

The report details various weaknesses in how these apps transmit data. Some apps, like Samsung Keyboard, send keystrokes completely unencrypted, making them easy for anyone snooping on the network to intercept. Others rely on flawed encryption methods that can be cracked.

The ease of eavesdropping varies depending on the app. In some cases, a malicious actor on the same Wi-Fi network could steal your data. Even more concerning, some vulnerabilities are exploitable by entirely passive eavesdroppers, who can intercept data without needing any interaction from the user.

The report highlights Huawei as the only vendor whose keyboard app did not exhibit these vulnerabilities. This offers some peace of mind for Huawei users but leaves a significant number of users potentially exposed.

Citizen Lab estimates that the combined market share of Baidu, Sogou (mentioned in a previous report by Citizen Lab), and iFlytek represents over 95% of the third-party IME market in China, translating to roughly one billion users at risk.

This security lapse has serious consequences. Keystrokes can contain sensitive information like passwords, credit card details, and private messages. If intercepted, this data could be used for identity theft, financial fraud, and other malicious activities.

Nevertheless, the report shows the importance of using secure keyboard apps. Users should prioritize apps with a strong reputation for security and that encrypt user data properly. Additionally, it’s recommended to avoid using sensitive information on public Wi-Fi networks.

Researchers urge app developers to address these vulnerabilities immediately by implementing strong encryption methods and secure data transmission protocols.

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Popular Keyboard Apps Leak User Data: Billion Potentially Exposed

Security vulnerabilities uncovered in cloud-based pinyin keyboard apps could be exploited to reveal users' keystrokes to nefarious actors.
The findings come from the Citizen Lab, which discovered weaknesses in eight of nine apps from vendors like Baidu, Honor, iFlytek, OPPO, Samsung, Tencent, Vivo, and Xiaomi. The only vendor whose keyboard app did not have any security

Major Security Flaws Expose Keystrokes of Over 1 Billion Chinese Keyboard App Users

By Waqas
LG TVs vulnerable! Update now to block hackers from taking control & stealing data (webOS 4-7). Millions at risk!
This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: 91,000 Smart LG TV Devices Vulnerable to Remote Takeover

Cybersecurity researchers from Bitdefender discovered critical vulnerabilities in LG TVs running webOS versions 4 through 7. These vulnerabilities could allow attackers to gain complete control over the TV, steal data, or install malware.

The vulnerabilities were identified by Bitdefender as part of their research into the security of popular IoT devices. They found that attackers could bypass authentication mechanisms and create new user accounts with elevated privileges. This would allow them to take full control of the TV, including injecting malicious code, stealing data, or moving laterally across the smart home network.

Bitdefender responsibly disclosed the vulnerabilities to LG in November 2023. LG confirmed the vulnerabilities in November and released a patch in March 2024. However, Bitdefender waited until today, April 9th, 2024, to publicly disclose the details of the vulnerabilities to raise awareness among users and encourage them to update their TVs.

****What LG TV models are affected?****

The following LG TV models are affected by these vulnerabilities:

*   LG TVs running webOS 4.9.7 – 5.30.40 (e.g., LG43UM7000PLA)
*   LG TVs running webOS 5.5.0 – 04.50.51 (e.g., OLED55CXPUA)
*   LG TVs running webOS 7.3.1-43 (mullet-mebin) – 03.33.85 (e.g., OLED55A23LA)
*   LG TVs running webOS 6.3.3-442 (kisscurl-kinglake) – 03.36.50 (e.g., OLED48C1PUB.

The first vulnerability, identified as CVE-2023-6317, permits attackers to bypass the authorization mechanism, enabling them to add users to the TV set by manipulating a specific variable.

In a subsequent step, attackers can exploit another vulnerability (CVE-2023-6318) to escalate their access privileges to root, effectively gaining full control over the device.

Furthermore, a third vulnerability (CVE-2023-6319) allows for operating system command injection by tampering with a library responsible for displaying music lyrics. Lastly, the CVE-2023-6320 vulnerability enables attackers to inject authenticated commands through manipulation of the API endpoint.

****Most Impacted Countries****

A glimpse into Shodan, the search engine designed to uncover misconfigured and exposed Internet of Things (IoT) devices, reveals the most impacted countries in terms of smart device vulnerabilities. South Korea leads the list of 91,938 exposed devices, followed by Hong Kong and the United States in second and third place, respectively.

Screenshot: Bitdefender

****What should LG TV owners do?****

LG released a patch to address these vulnerabilities in March 2024. LG TV owners should update their TVs to the latest software version as soon as possible. You can usually check for updates in the TV’s settings menu.

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91,000 Smart LG TV Devices Vulnerable to Remote Takeover

By Uzair Amir
After raising $2.5 million in its latest seed funding round, Unstable Protocol is on a mission to transform…
This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: DeFi Protocol Unstable Raises $2.5M to Drive LRTfi Sector Forward

After raising $2.5 million in its latest seed funding round, Unstable Protocol is on a mission to transform the burgeoning Liquid Restaking Token Finance (LRTfi) movement. The project, which is building the leverage layer of (re)staked Ether, attracted investment from multiple ETH-aligned funds including Lattice, Laser Digital (Nomura Group), Blockchain Founders Fund, Assouline Ventures, Agnostic Fund, Artichoke Capital, Black Edge Capital, NewTribe Capital, and NxGen. 

Several notable angel investors, protocol executives, media partners, and KOLs also threw their support behind the Protocol, including @dcfgod, @wsbmod, @AltcoinSherpa, @devchart, Trader Lenny, Wes Cowan (Juice Finance), Rahim Noorani (Satori Finance), Tony Jiang (Cognition AI), Adil Virani (blitz.gg), Collin Goltra (YGG), Peter Huo (Whampoa Digital), Andy (TheRollup), Tian Zeng, and BlockBuilders (MarketAcross).

A subsector of **DeFi**, LRTfi enables users to leverage liquid staking and restaking tokens for innovative yield strategies to maximize returns. Unstable will use the capital it has raised to power its groundbreaking zkOracles and serve as the day-one leverage layer for staked and restaked Ether.

The LRT market has witnessed remarkable growth of approximately $50 billion in the last year, surging from virtually zero to around $15 billion in three months

As an LRTfi-native lending protocol, Unstable Protocol offers users the ability to borrow against their (re)staked ETH and even unlock the utility of their (re)staked ETH on Layer-2 blockchains. The latter is made possible thanks to a strategic partnership with interoperability platform Axelar, whose executive team already backs Unstable.

“Unstable’s pioneering use of zkOracles to enhance DeFi utility for the LST and LRT ETH market is exactly the kind of forward-thinking technology that will push the entire ecosystem forward,” said Mansoor Madhavji, Partner at Blockchain Founders Fund. “We look forward to seeing the impact this will have on liquid staking and the broader DeFi landscape.”

Unstable’s lending protocol engine is powered by a zkSNARK-based validator and EigenLayer AVS balance proofs, valuing collateral based on the underlying backing. This is powered by a key partnership with Succinct Labs that concluded its own $55 million funding round, co-led by Paradigm. 

“ZKPs are a powerful technology that will enable DeFi to be more expressive and secure. Unstable’s use of ZK oracles to power their lending protocol engine shows how ZK can enable a new category: zkDeFi,” said Uma Roy, Founder and CEO of Succinct Labs. 

****About Unstable Protocol:****

Unstable Protocol utilizes zkOracles to enhance DeFi utility for the LRTfi market. Backed by several prominent Web3 VCs and angel investors, the protocol enables users to borrow against their LST and LRT collateral and unlock the utility of their (re)staked ETH on L2 chains. Unstable’s lending protocol engine is powered by a zkSNARK-based validator and EigenLayer AVS balance proofs. The Unstable Protocol testnet launches today and will be accessible via its website.

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