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To expect computing speeds, known in the cryptocurrency world as “hash rates,” to remain steady “is ridiculous,” said Nicholas Weaver, a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley.

As Berkeley International Computer Science Institute researcher Nicholas Weaver noted, “The cost estimates are insanely wrong: Assumes no increase in mining rate, no power cost” (though the language does specify Kodak’s partner Spotlite will cover most operational costs including electricity).

WannaCry, Petya, NotPetya: how ransomware hit the big time in 2017
December 30, 2017 | Alex Hern, The Guardian

NotPetya had another oddity: it didn’t actually seem created to make money. The “ransomware” was coded in such a way that, even if users did pay up, their data could never be recovered. “I’m willing to say with at least moderate confidence that this was a deliberate, malicious, destructive attack or perhaps a test disguised as ransomware,” UC Berkeley academic Nicholas Weaver told the infosec blog Krebs on Security.

Ethiopia targets activists with Israeli spyware: Report
December 11, 2017 | Jillian Kestler-D'Amours, Al Jazeera

Israel's CyberBit Solutions Ltd sold spyware to Ethiopia, which used the technology "to target activists and journalists, even PhD students and lawyers", explained Bill Marczak, a researcher at the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, which wrote the report.

Ethiopia Allegedly Spied on Security Researcher With Israel-Made Spyware
December 5, 2017 | Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai

Marczak is a researcher at Citizen Lab, a group that studies how governments around the world use new technologies such as spyware against dissidents and activists. For years, Marczak and his colleagues have exposed several hacking attacks against people all over the world. This time, however, Marczak himself became the target.

Wi-Fi + Malware = Surveillance Dealers' Answer To Spying On WhatsApp
December 4, 2017 | Thomas Fox-Brewster, Forbes

Nicholas Weaver, senior staff researcher focusing on computer security at the International Computer Science Institute at Berkeley, wasn't impressed with what Almenta advertised. "Really, this is a surveillance vendor taking some off-the-shelf tools, combining it with a directional antenna, slapping some [graphical user interface] on it, and probably selling it for way, way, way, way too much money," he said.

Google says phishing attacks are the biggest risk to web users
November 10, 2017 | James Walker, Digital Journal

Google teamed up with the University of California, Berkeley and the International Computer Science Institute to find the most common way in which user accounts get hijacked. The study looked at a variety of hacking techniques to determine the biggest threat to web users. The results may come as a surprise.

'I think we must be honest: If it wasn't Mimikatz there would be some other tool.' - Nicholas Weaver

What iPhone X Face ID Means for You
November 1, 2017 | Nicole Kobie, Teen Vogue

"Biometrics, be it face or fingerprint, offer a tradeoff between a very narrow additional security risk and a lot of convenience," added Weaver. "The convenience is I no longer have to keep typing my password all the time."

"That is nuke drive," Nicholas Weaver, a computer science researcher at the International Computer Science Institute, told Ars. "Degaussing literally destroys the drive because it not only erases data, it erases the synchronization information on the drive."

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