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Articles for Category Tag - Security

Belkin Fixes Bug that Caused their Routers to Disconnect your Internet

8th October, 2014 (3 Comments)

Owners of broadband routers made by Belkin, an American manufacturer of consumer electronics, recently found themselves unable to get online after a silly flaw in the kit meant that related customers couldn’t connect to the Internet because the device was unable to ping one of the manufacturers own remote “heartbeat” servers.

F-Secure Warns – UK People Ignore Privacy via Careless Use of Public WiFi

30th September, 2014 (0 Comments)

The potential security risks of accessing a public WiFi hotspot are nothing new and yet a new F-Secure study of consumers in London has discovered that many users are continuing to connect themselves, without first checking the hotspots validity, to so-called “poisoned” wireless Internet access points (designed to steal your data).

UPDATE2 Big UK ISPs Say Home Routers Safe from SHELLSHOCK Bug

27th September, 2014 (4 Comments)

Last week’s news was flooded with coverage of a new vulnerability in the command-line Bash interface (shell) for many Linux / Unix based systems, called SHELLSHOCK (CVE-2014-6271). Bash forms a part of everything from web servers to Smartphones (iPhone, Android etc.) and even quite a few broadband routers, but don’t worry because most of you will be safe.. probably, hopefully.

EE’s UK Internet Content Blocking System Goes Haywire

18th September, 2014 (3 Comments)

Customers of EE’s mobile service in the United Kingdom, specifically those who may be attempting to surf the Internet using their 3G or 4G based data connections (Mobile Broadband), are today being hit by sporadic problems that can result in legitimate websites being wrongfully blocked.

Cats and Dogs Used to Expose Your Home WiFi Network Vulnerabilities

11th August, 2014 (0 Comments)

Forget WarDriving because now domestic cats (“War Kittehs“) and dogs (“Denial of Service Dog“) can be hackers too. Security expert Gene Bransfield from Tenacity Solutions told the DEFCON 22 conference in Las Vegas this weekend that he’d adapted a special cat collar to help uncover open or unsecure home wifi networks in his local area.

Millions of Routers Supplied by Broadband ISPs Vulnerable to TR-069 Hackers

11th August, 2014 (4 Comments)

A team working for Check Point Software Technologies have warned that the TR-069 (CWMP) remote management protocol, which is commonly enabled in broadband routers supplied by ISPs and helps the provider to keep your device updated with the latest firmware or to perform various other tasks (e.g. diagnostics), is vulnerable to a variety of potential exploits.

UPD3 Nominet UK Bodge Risks Google.c.uk and BBC.c.uk Typo Security Threat

1st August, 2014 (7 Comments)

Nominet, which handles the registry of .uk Internet domains, is no stranger to controversy and some of their decisions over the years have caused plenty of head scratching. The latest bit of fun seems to be as a result of their new .uk rules, which have allowed typos for UK sites (e.g. bbc.c.uk, google.c.uk and hsbc.c.uk) to go to a different server (you can do it for almost any .uk or .co.uk domain).

UK MPs Consider Judicial Review of DRIP Internet Snooping Act

23rd July, 2014 (4 Comments)

The UK’s semi-recycled Data Retention and Investigation Powers Act (DRIP), which extends the range of Internet snooping that the Government can perform on its citizens and was controversially rushed into law last week under emergency powers (here), will become the subject of a Judicial Review process if some MPs get their way.

UK ISP Adult Internet Website Blocking Report Finds Limited Take-up

22nd July, 2014 (3 Comments)

Ofcom has today published a new report that looks at the measures adopted by four of the largest broadband ISPs (BT, Virgin Media, TalkTalk and Sky Broadband) to help parents “protect children from harmful content online” by offering network-level filtering (censorship) systems to block adult sites. But adoption by new subscribers is fairly limited and there have been a number of errors.

AAISP Pledges to Protect UK Users from Government Internet Snoops

16th July, 2014 (8 Comments)

As the controversial Data Retention and Investigation Powers Bill (DRIP) slips its way through the House of Commons and into the House of Lords, the outspoken boss of broadband ISP Andrews & Arnold (AAISP), Adrian Kennard, has promised to use “all practical legal means” in order to protect their customers from state sponsored Internet snooping.

UPDATE6 Government Recycles UK ISP Internet and Phone Snooping Law

10th July, 2014 (10 Comments)

The government will today announce emergency legislation that many fear could be an amended version of its controversial RIPA or Communications Data Bill (CDB) which, before it was shelved for a second time, aimed to extend the United Kingdom’s existing internet snooping powers by requiring ISPs to log a much bigger slice of everybody’s online activity; regardless of whether or not you’ve ever committed a crime.

UK Government Agrees – Too Much Internet Content Regulation is Bad

4th July, 2014 (1 Comment)

The Government has just given its official response to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee’s inquiry into Online Safety, which in March 2014 warned that website blocking by UK ISPs was “highly unlikely to be a suitable approach” for tackling porn or violent material on the Internet (here). Broadly the government agrees, but you should still expect more filtering by ISPs in the future.

Small ISPs Launch Legal Action to Stop GCHQ UK Internet Snooping

2nd July, 2014 (6 Comments)

A group of smaller ISPs from around the world, including GreenNet from the United Kingdom, have lodged a legal complaint against the UK’s intelligence agency – Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) – after they were last year caught tapping into at least some of the world’s 10Gbps transatlantic fibre optic cable links and snooping on the related phone and Internet traffic.

Parents Say UK ISPs Still Not Doing Enough to Protect Children Online

1st July, 2014 (10 Comments)

A new survey of nearly 500 parents conducted by Super Camps during June 2014 has found that 80% of respondents think broadband ISPs and regulators (Ofcom) have not yet done enough to make the Internet safe for children to use, which is despite all of the major providers now offering an enforced option to enable Parental Controls.

IET Calls on UK ISPs to Restrict Internet Access of Virus Infected Computers

17th June, 2014 (2 Comments)

The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IEF) has called on broadband ISPs in the United Kingdom to help tackle malware (malicious software and viruses) by, for example, restricting Internet access to infected computers and devices (e.g. PCs, Tablets etc.).

UPDATE BT Plc Website Blocked by AntiVirus Firms for Phishing Attack

17th June, 2014 (1 Comment)

The official BT Group website (http://www.btplc.com) is today being flagged up by a number of Internet security checks and Anti-Virus firms due to an alleged infection of Phishing Malware (malicious software), which is normally used to help hackers steal personal information.

Hybrid Broadcast Broadband Smart TV’s Face Hacker Threat

9th June, 2014 (0 Comments)

Modern televisions and set-top-boxes that have adopted the pan-European Hybrid Broadcast Broadband Television (HbbTV) specification, which supports Internet capable features like digital teletext, catch-up TV (IPTV), electronic programme guides, interactive advertising, games and more, could be vulnerable to a simple radio attack by hackers.