Inside IOActive’s Innovative Key Fob Badge for DEF CON 2024’s Car Hacking Village – Part 2/3
This is Part-2 of a 3-Part Series. Check out Part-1 here and Part-3 here. This is the second in a series of three posts in which I break down the creation of a unique key fob badge for the 2024 Car Hacking Village (CHV). Part 1 is an overview of the project and the major components; I recommend you begin there. In this post, I’ll discuss some of the software aspects and the reasoning behind certain decisions. This blog covers several high-level…
Inside IOActive’s Innovative Key Fob Badge for DEF CON 2024’s Car Hacking Village – Part 1/3
This is Part-1 of a 3-Part Series. Check out Part-2 here and Part-3 here. IOActive recently sponsored the DEF CON 2024 Car Hacking Village (CHV) by designing one of the exclusive badges sold at the event. This took the form of a key fob badge that mirrors the functionality of everyday car key fobs, which support keyless entry and keyless start, also known as Passive Entry Passive Start (PEPS). This post kicks off a three-part series explaining the creation of this unique…
Getting Your SOC SOARing Despite AI
It’s a fact: enterprise security operations centers (SOCs) that are most satisfied with their investments in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) and Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) operate and maintain less than a dozen playbooks. This is something I’ve uncovered in recent years whilst building SIEM+SOAR and autonomous SOC solutions – and it perhaps runs counterintuitive to many security leaders’ visions for SOAR use and value. SOAR technology is one of those much-touted security silver bullets that have tarnished over time and been subsumed into broader categories of…
Potential Integrated Circuit Supply Chain Impacts from Hurricane Helene
The damage caused by Hurricane Helene in Spruce Pine will likely cause disruptions at the start of the microchip and integrated circuit (IC) supply chain by preventing the mining and distribution of high purity quartz until the mines and local transportation networks are fully repaired. BACKGROUND Hurricane Helene Impacts In late September 2024, Hurricane Helene impacted the Caribbean, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and other southeastern states in the United States[1]. Its impacts varied widely depending on location and the associated exposure to the primary…
About to Post a Job Opening? Think Again – You May Reveal Sensitive Information Primed for Cybersecurity Attacks
People are always on the move, changing their homes and their workspaces. With increasing frequency, they move from their current jobs to new positions, seeking new challenges, new people and places, to higher salaries. Time and hard work bring experience and expertise, and these two qualities are what companies look for; they’re looking for skilled workers every single day, on multiple job search and recruiting platforms. However, these job postings might reveal sensitive information about the company that even the most seasoned Human Resources specialists don’t notice. Job posting websites…
Get Strategic About Cyber Risk Management
With global cybercrime damage costs exceeding $11 trillion last year and moving toward an estimated $20 trillion by 2026, robust cybersecurity risk management has never been more imperative. The interconnected nature of modern technology means that, by default, even small vulnerabilities can lead to catastrophic losses. And it’s not just about finances. Unmitigated risk raises the specter of eroded customer confidence and tainted brand reputation. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll give enterprise defenders a holistic, methodical, checklist-style approach to cybersecurity risk management. We’ll focus on…
5G vs. Wi-Fi: A Comparative Analysis of Security and Throughput Performance
Introduction In this blog post we compare the security and throughput performance of 5G cellular to that of WiFi. This work is part of the research IOActive published in a recent whitepaper (https://bit.ly/ioa-report-wifi-5g), which was commissioned by Dell. We used a Dell Latitude 7340 laptop as an end-user wireless device, a Panda Wireless® PAU06 as a WiFi access point, and an Ettus Research™ Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP™) B210 as a 5G base station to simulate a typical standalone 5G configuration and three typical WiFi network…
WiFi and 5G: Security and Performance Characteristics Whitepaper
IOActive compared the security and performance of the WiFi and 5G wireless protocols by simulating several different network types and reproducing attacks from current academic research in a Dell-commissioned study. In total, 536 hours of testing was performed between January and February 2024 comparing each technologies’ susceptibility to five categories of attack: user tracking, sensitive data interception, user impersonation, network impersonation, and denial of service. IOActive concluded that a typical standalone 5G network is more resilient against the five categories of attack than a typical WiFi network….
Recent and Upcoming Security Trends in Cloud Low-Level Hardware Devices: A survey
The rapid evolution of cloud infrastructures has introduced complex security challenges, particularly concerning all of the processing devices and peripheral components that underpin modern data centers. Recognizing the critical need for robust and consistent cloud security standards, technology firms, developers, and cybersecurity experts established the Open Compute Project Security Appraisal Framework and Enablement (OCP S.A.F.E.) Program. At the 2024 OCP Regional Summit in Lisbon, I was joined by my colleague Alfredo Pironti, Director of Services at IOActive, to present a deep dive into the security of cloud infrastructures, the threats…
The Security Imperative in Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming industries and everyday life, driving innovations once relegated to the realm of science fiction into modern reality. As AI technologies grow more integral to complex systems like autonomous vehicles, healthcare diagnostics, and automated financial trading platforms, the imperative for robust security measures increases exponentially. Securing AI is not only about safeguarding data but also about ensuring the core systems — in particular, the trained models that really put the “intelligence” in AI — function as intended without malicious interference. Historical lessons from earlier technologies offer…