Hacker breaks into TVs to promote PewDiePie

Heroes can come from the most unexpected places.

This week, the knight in question is someone using the pseudonym Hacker Giraffe. He promoted both cybersecurity and PewDiePie by breaking into over 5,500 Chromecasts, Smart TVs, and Google Home devices.

Those affected were treated to a video that warned users about how their Chromecast or TV was exposing information about them. It then shared a link that taught users how to protect their devices. It was also suggested that users subscribe to PewDiePie.

According to Hacker Giraffe, his Shodan scans initially revealed over 100,000 at-risk devices.

Love him or hate him, it seems like YouTube phenomenon PewDiePie can’t help but make his presence felt. At least this time the polarizing personality’s name was used for a good cause. 

One can dream of a world where these type of hacks and intrusions were the worst that could happen.

Source: CNET

Airlines fear data breaches

2018 wasn’t a great year for a number of airlines.

Cathay Pacific, who lost the data of over 9 million passengers, weren’t the only ones hit. British Airways also revealed a breach over 380,000 booking transactions that shared sensitive data, and Delta Airlines also reported the loss of customer data. 

2019 may not be a better year, unless the industry and its partners start to take cybersecurity seriously. 

According to Security Magazine’s Setu Kulkarni, airlines simply aren’t doing enough to protect customers: “Airlines need to model their security endeavors around the hundreds of thousands of customers who trust them to protect the private information they are required to share in order to fly.”

Source: Security Magazine

Newspapers fall victim to ransomware

Malicious hackers targeted major newspapers in the US in a recent attack, using Ryuk Malware to prevent them from printing their issues.

Ryuk’s claim to fame is a cryptojacking operation that let hackers steal over 400 BTC. The affected newspapers included The New York Timesand Wall Street Journal.

Source: Latest Hacking News

Celebrity Twitter accounts hacked to prove a point

A security company called Insinia recently spammed the Twitter accounts of a few notable British celebrities and influencers. Just like the PewDiePie hack, the main objective of the attack seems to have been to expose serious security flaws on the social media platform.

The experts at Insinia broke into the accounts using a flaw within the system that used text messages for security. 

Because social network executives don’t seem to want to listen, those at Insinia pointed out that they’d warned Twitter in both March and November of last year.

You’d think Twitter would have learned to take security a little more seriously, especially because of the year Facebook has had. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be.

Source: Insinia/Medium