But will they bug the confession booth?: After months of public reporting on a suspected Chinese hacking campaign targeting entities linked with diplomacy between the Vatican and Beijing, the hackers are still trying their luck. Researchers at the security firm Recorded Future first called out hackers affiliated with a group called Mustang Panda in July for their efforts to conduct espionage against targets involved in negotiations about the operations of the Catholic Church in China, a historically fraught topic. After Recorded Future published its research on the hacking spree, attackers briefly paused their activity only to resume two weeks later with the same toolset. Read more here.
Laser pointers, not just for teasing cats or blinding pilots: The team that hacked Amazon Echo and other smart speakers using a laser pointer continue to investigate why MEMS microphones respond to sound. Imagine someone hacking into an Amazon Alexa device using a laser beam and then doing some online shopping using that person account. This is a scenario presented by a group of researchers who are exploring why digital home assistants and other sensing systems that use sound commands to perform functions can be hacked by light. Read more here.
Learning from the error of our ways?: UK-based cyber-security vendor Sophos is currently notifying customers via email about a security breach the company suffered earlier this week. “On November 24, 2020, Sophos was advised of an access permission issue in a tool used to store information on customers who have contacted Sophos Support,” the company said in an email sent to customers and obtained by ZDNet. Exposed information included details such as customer first and last names, email addresses, and phone numbers (if provided). Read more here.
