James Lyne
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Past articles by James:
James Lyne: Everyday cybercrime
How do you pick up a malicious online virus, the kind of malware that snoops on your data and taps your bank account? Often, it's through simple things you do each day without thinking twice. James Lyne reminds us that it's not only the NSA that's watching us, but ever-more-sophisticated cybercriminals, who exploit both weak code and trusting human nature. → Read More
Hackers Don't Need Sophisticated Attacks If You Leave Your Door Unlocked
Major security breaches have been a mainstay in the headlines over the last year and security is a topic making its way more and more to the worry list of top executives . However, with the flood of "Sorry, we've been compromised" announcements some interesting patterns have emerged. One of the staple [...] → Read More
Why You Could Be At Risk From Shellshock, A New Security Flaw Found In Linux
There has recently been a deluge of serious defects in the public eye that have allowed attackers to exploit all manner of devices--Heartbleed being the most prominent of late. Now another bug has surfaced and it is pretty 'point and click' simple to attack. You should act now. The defect exists [...] → Read More
Google Images Hacked?
A variety of publications reported yesterday that Google was hacked. It is certainly fair to say that a large number of Google Image users experienced some very strange and concerning behavior. For a period of time if you searched Google images you would receive pictures of a car crash (apparently originally [...] → Read More
14 Year Olds Hack ATM In Lunch Hour - How It Happened
VideoOver my morning coffee I saw rumblings on Naked Security's Twitter feed of a couple of teenagers hacking an ATM. Matthew Hewlett and Caleb Turon, two ninth-graders, discovered an old ATM operators manual online and decided over their lunch hour to give it a go. The two boys nearly got in [...] → Read More
New OpenSSL Defects - Another Heartbleed? ToR Stripped?
Today an announcement at www.openssl.org notified of 6 vulnerabilities in the widely used software, OpenSSL . OpenSSL is the same software that recently hit the headlines for the Heartbleed vulnerability. The 6 software defects (details available here) range in severity and impact and can allow an attacker to create a [...] → Read More
TrueCrypt Is Back, But Should It Be?
Last week I wrote about the suspicious and abrupt announcement that TrueCrypt, a popular free open source encryption solution, was being abandoned and is considered “harmful and no longer secure”. In the article I covered the potential motives for this including the technical challenges with producing full disk encryption on [...] → Read More
Open Source Crypto TrueCrypt Disappears With Suspicious Cloud Of Mystery
Encryption is a silent, unsung hero of our modern connected society . From protecting your sensitive details when you log on to Internet banking to protecting data on your laptop or mobile phone if it is lost or stolen, ‘crypto’ (the oft used shortened version of encryption) is a supporting [...] → Read More
Your eBay Password For Sale? How, Where And Why
Since the eBay Inc announcement of a massive data breach a seller has turned up on Pastebin (a notorious site used for posting anonymously that is often used by hacktivists dumping data from hacks) offering a full copy of the 145,312,663 usernames, passwords, postal addresses and date of births from eBay. [...] → Read More
eBay Hacked, Bleeds Data And Why You Need To Act
eBay Inc has in the last few hours have confirmed in an announcement that they have been compromised and that users will need to take action to protect themselves. The compromise, which took place sometime between late February and early March allowed the attackers access to customers names, e-mail addresses, [...] → Read More
Heartbleed Roundup: Hacking Made Easy, First Victims Come To Light And Heartbleed Hacker Arrested
Editor's Note: James Lyne will be answering your questions on the Heartbleed bug this afternoon in a FORBES Twitter chat. Join us at 4 P.M. EST and tweet at @Forbes with #AskForbes to participate. The Heartbleed bug which enables attackers to retrieve chunks of sensitive information from websites, services and devices [...] → Read More
How Heartbleed Happened, The NSA And Proof Heartbleed Can Do Real Damage
Last week during the Heartbleed chaos I wrote two articles, one outlining how to stay safe and the other explaining what heartbleed actually is. As we enter this week it is clear that we are far from out of the woods, indeed I will shortly explain why Heartbleed is going [...] → Read More
Avoiding Heartbleed Hype, What To Do To Stay Safe
I wrote here about the Heartbleed vulnerability that by now most of the Internet and general public has heard of. While it's great to see such an important issue get public awareness the messages on it have become incredibly confusing and hype filled - from TV hosts calling it a [...] → Read More
Heartbeat Heartbleed Bug Breaks Worldwide Internet Security Again (And Yahoo)
If you are looking for tips on how to handle Heartbleed take a look at my other blog post here. Every day you use encryption technology to protect your data, your applications and online services . Most of the time most people are blissfully unaware it is even happening. Whether you [...] → Read More
$116 Million Bitcoins 'Found' At MtGox And How To Protect Your Wallet
The bankrupt Japanese Bitcoin exchange MtGox has declared in it's filing that it has found over 200,000 lost bitcoins valued at over $116 million dollars. MtGox (previously the worlds largest Bitcoin exchange) has been in bankruptcy proceedings in the Japanese courts since a major hack in which nearly 850,000 bitcoins [...] → Read More
What Justin Bieber's Twitter Hack Teaches Us About Social Media Security
Justin Bieber's 50 million follower strong Twitter account was hijacked briefly a couple of days ago and now that the dust has settled it seems like a good opportunity to review how these attacks happen and what all of us (pop stars included) should learn about Twitter security. I'll briefly recount [...] → Read More
Unofficially Fixing Apple's 'Gotofail' Mess And How To Stay Safe
Many of you by now will have read about the Apple security issues in iOS and Mac OS X. Whilst we all wait patiently for Apple to comment on the issue, or better yet to fix it, users are left exposed to a bug that could allow attackers to gain [...] → Read More
Yahoo Hacked And How To Protect Your Passwords
Yahoo yesterday announced that Yahoo mail has been hacked and that at this time it has confirmed a number of users e-mail accounts have been compromised - you may be one of them (and if you are see below for my top tips on how to secure your passwords going [...] → Read More
Would You Shout "My PIN Code Is 9876!" In The Street?
Most readers I suspect are fairly unlikely to shout their PIN code or banking password in the middle of the street. Neither would you choose to go walking around town with banknotes hanging out of your pockets (this I should note is not a challenge). We have all learned whilst [...] → Read More
Target's Latest Failure And How To Spot A Scam
Undoubtedly you have heard about Target's recent loss of millions of consumers credit card data and associated PIN data. Who hasn't at this point? Target in the crucial moments following the data breach should be laser focused on rebuilding consumer trust and naturally consumers are on red alert scrutinising everything [...] → Read More