On Giving Tuesday one glumly observes the predictable rise in online scams. On a happier note, one also notes the pleasant rise in legitimate philanthropic opportunities, many provided by the cyber and tech industries. Give prudently, but do consider giving.
Curesec warns of an Android 4.3 vulnerability that lets attackers remove locks from devices. The currently circulating Windows XP exploit uses sophisticated anti-analysis techniques, a discovery that should motivate even the most hidebound users to abandon the obsolescent OS.
Reports concerning BadBIOS (that elusive Sasquatch of malware) remain uncorroborated, but researchers at Germany's Fraunhofer Institut have published a conceptual framework for a stealthy high-frequency acoustic botnet that does indeed seem a plausible threat to air-gapped networks.
Threatpost reports that Google is investigating a possible denial-of-service problem with Nexus phones.
Sheep Marketplace, an underground successor to SilkRoad, reports the theft of about $6M in Bitcoins, and then shuts itself down. Bitcoin becomes CryptoLocker's preferred ransom currency. Various legitimate apps are bundled with a surreptitious Bitcoin miner. (The tip-off to the miner's existence? It's mentioned in the apps' EULA.)
D-Link releases firmware security patches for older versions of its routers.
BlackBerry continues to resist extinction, and gains sales to European governments wary of surveillance. Deciding it's not worth its while to overcome suspicions of cyber-espionage, Huawei continues its long good-bye to the US market.
IEEE Spectrum assesses D-Wave's quantum computer.
Canada and Japan both consider laws permitting more online surveillance. New Zealand's security services will answer Parliamentary questions about Kiwi cyber operations.