Chinese spy chips would be a ‘god-mode’ hack, experts say
October 04, 2018 | Ashley Carman, The Verge
Press
Nicholas Weaver, a professor at Berkeley’s International Computer Science Institute described an alarming attack. Weaver told The Verge that “This is a ‘god mode’ exploit in the system management subsystem.”
There's No Good Fix If the Supply Chain Gets Hacked
October 4, 2018 | Lily Hay Newman, Wired
"This is a scary-big deal," says Nicholas Weaver, a security researcher at the University of California at Berkeley.
AT&T and Verizon want to manage your identity across websites and apps
September 13, 2018 | Jon Brodkin, Ars Technica
But Krebs is still skeptical, and so is security researcher Nicholas Weaver of the International Computer Science Institute at UC Berkeley. Krebs paraphrased Weaver as saying that "this new solution could make mobile phones and their associated numbers even more of an attractive target for cyber thieves."
How Game Apps That Captivate Kids Have Been Collecting Their Data
September 12, 2018 | Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, Natasha Singer, Aaron Krolik, and Michael H. Keller, New York Times
Serge Egelman, a researcher with the International Computer Science Institute affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley, helped lead the study of nearly 6,000 children’s Android apps.
The Gist (Radio Show)
September 11, 2018 | The Gist podcast on Slate.com
Per the recent NY Times op-ed, some see the word “lodestar” as signature Mike Pence, but as Sadia Afroz explains, stylometry—the analysis of prose to uncover its author’s identity—is a little more complicated than looking at individual words. Afroz is a senior research scientist at the International Computer Science Institute. Interview begins at minute 6:20.
Why you need a better handle on the WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram apps
August 14, 2018 | Laura Hautala, CNET
"If it's not sent encrypted, then any of those parties along the way can see the full contents of your message," said Serge Egelman, director of usable security and privacy research at the International Computer Science Institute.
Bitcoin's Use in Commerce Keeps Falling Even as Volatility Eases
August 02, 2018 | Olga Kharif, Bloomberg
“It’s not actually usable," Nicholas Weaver, a senior researcher at the International Computer Science Institute, said in an email. Often, he said, "the net cost of a Bitcoin transaction is far more than a credit card transaction." And Bitcoin-based transactions can’t be reversed, an issue when a merchant or a consumer comes up against fraud.
U.S. indictments show technical evidence for Russian hacking accusations
July 13, 2018 | Joseph Menn, Reuters
“The amount of intelligence gathering capability realized by this is astonishing,” said researcher Nicholas Weaver of the International Computer Science Institute, affiliated with the University of California at Berkeley. In particular, emails between Guccifer 2 and the organization believed to be WikiLeaks “suggest that the NSA (U.S. National Security Agency) obtained access to either Guccifer 2’s email account, Wikileaks’ or both.”
Feds Pose as Cryptocurrency Money Launderer to Bust Alleged Dark Web Dealers
June 27, 2018 | Joseph Cox, Motherboard
“Posing as a money launderer for Bitcoin seems like a great mechanism to find the dealers: There are so many paths for the dark net dealers to get drugs. There are much fewer paths for them to get cash,” Nicholas Weaver, a senior researcher at the International Computer Science Institute at UC Berkeley, told Motherboard in an online chat.
Here's how Apple's browsing privacy features will work in Safari
June 8, 2018 | Laura Hautala, Cnet
"Most people have no idea that this is happening," said Serge Egelman, director of usable security and privacy research at the International Computer Science Institute. Apple's new effort, he said, "gives users more control over how these companies collect information from them."