Security and Proprietary Software Leftovers
Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Friday 4th of June 2021 05:27:21 PM
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How to delete saved passwords in Firefox
While it is convenient to store your login credentials in your browser, it is also be a privacy and security risk. If a friend or family member, or even a repair man accesses your computer, they will have access to your account on any website that has a saved login. If your computer becomes lost or stolen, or if a hacker is able to remotely gain control of it, this information could very easily fall into the wrong hands.
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Supreme Court Overturns Overbroad Interpretation of CFAA, Protecting Security Researchers and Everyday Users
EFF filed briefs both encouraging the Court to take today's case and urging it to make clear that violating terms of service is not a crime under the CFAA. In the first, filed alongside the Center for Democracy and Technology and New America’s Open Technology Institute, we argued that Congress intended to outlaw computer break-ins that disrupted or destroyed computer functionality, not anything that the service provider simply didn’t want to have happen. In the second, filed on behalf of computer security researchers and organizations that employ and support them, we explained that the broad interpretation of the CFAA puts computer security researchers at legal risk for engaging in socially beneficial security testing through standard security research practices, such as accessing publicly available data in a manner beneficial to the public yet prohibited by the owner of the data.
Today's win is an important victory for users everywhere. The Court rightly held that exceeding authorized access under the CFAA does not encompass “violations of circumstance-based access restrictions on employers’ computers.” Thus, “an individual ‘exceeds authorized access’ when he accesses a computer with authorization but then obtains information located in particular areas of the computer— such as files, folders, or databases—that are off limits to him.” Rejecting the Government’s reading allowing CFAA charges for any website terms of service violation, the Court adopted a “gates-up-or-down” approach: either you are entitled to access the information or you are not. This means that private parties’ terms of service limitations on how you can use information, or for what purposes you can access it, are not criminally enforced by the CFAA.
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Van Buren is a Victory Against Overbroad Interpretations of the CFAA, and Protects Security Researchers
The decision is a victory for all Internet users, as it affirmed that online services cannot use the CFAA’s criminal provisions to enforce limitations on how or why you use their service, including for purposes such as collecting evidence of discrimination or identifying security vulnerabilities. It also rejected the use of troubling physical-world analogies and legal theories to interpret the law, which in the past have resulted in some of its most dangerous abuses.
The Van Buren decision is especially good news for security researchers, whose work discovering security vulnerabilities is vital to the public interest but often requires accessing computers in ways that contravene terms of service. Under the Department of Justice’s reading of the law, the CFAA allowed criminal charges against individuals for any website terms of service violation. But a majority of the Supreme Court rejected the DOJ’s interpretation. And although the high court did not narrow the CFAA as much as EFF would have liked, leaving open the question of whether the law requires circumvention of a technological access barrier, it provided good language that should help protect researchers, investigative journalists, and others.
The CFAA makes it a crime to “intentionally access[] a computer without authorization or exceed[] authorized access, and thereby obtain[] . . . information from any protected computer,” but does not define what authorization means for purposes of exceeding authorized access. In Van Buren, a former Georgia police officer was accused of taking money in exchange for looking up a license plate in a law enforcement database. This was a database he was otherwise entitled to access, and Van Buren was charged with exceeding authorized access under the CFAA. The Eleventh Circuit analysis had turned on the computer owner’s unilateral policies regarding use of its networks, allowing private parties to make EULA, TOS, or other use policies criminally enforceable.
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The M.T.A. Is Breached by Hackers as Cyberattacks Surge
A [cracking] group believed to have links to the Chinese government penetrated the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s computer systems in April, exposing vulnerabilities in a vast transportation network that carries millions of people every day, according to an M.T.A. document that outlined the breach.
The [crackers] did not gain access to systems that control train cars and rider safety was not at risk, transit officials said, adding that the intrusion appeared to have done little, if any, damage.
But a week after the agency learned of the attack, officials raised concerns that [crackers] could have entered those operational systems or that they could continue to penetrate the agency’s computer systems through a back door, the document also shows.
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Malware authors increasingly bypassing scans by Microsoft tool
Malware authors are crafting their wares to bypass scans on Windows systems altogether, using a number of tricks to avoid being put under the microscope by Microsoft's Antimalware Scan Interface, the global security firm Sophos claims.
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Beef Shortage Update: Prices Rise As Plants Recover From JBS Cyberattack [iophk: Windows TCO]
Specialist website Beef Central reported that the U.S. plants are likely to get back to work from Thursday, while its Australian plants will reopen on Friday or at the beginning of next week. It reported that some JBS Australia plants completed boning shifts on Wednesday, but it was only to clear carcasses held in cold storage from kills performed last Friday, before the cyberattack occurred.
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