Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, Author at TechCrunch

Thousands of new honeypots deployed across Israel to catch hackers

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 20:07:37 +0000

On October 7, Hamas launched an unprecedented terrorist attack on Israel, killing more than 1,200 people, with hundreds taken hostage. The attack prompted a deadly response from the Israel Defense Forces, which has reportedly left more than 10,000 people dead in airstrikes and a land incursion. Shortly after the attack, the number of internet-connected honeypots […]

Children’s tablet has malware and exposes kids’ data, researcher finds

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Thu, 16 Nov 2023 15:06:52 +0000

In May this year, Alexis Hancock’s daughter got a children’s tablet for her birthday. Being a security researcher, Hancock was immediately worried. “I looked at it kind of sideways because I’ve never heard of Dragon Touch,” Hancock told TechCrunch, referring to the tablet’s maker. As it turned out, Hancock, who works at the Electronic Frontier […]

PSA: Your chat and call apps may leak your IP address

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 14:10:32 +0000

Your favorite messaging and calling app could reveal your IP address to the person on the other end of a call. And that, essentially, is because most chat apps default to using peer-to-peer connections — meaning you and the person you’re talking to connect directly to each other — to improve the quality of the […]

Internet access in Gaza partially restored after blackout

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 20:01:09 +0000

After a weekend of almost complete internet blackout, connectivity in Gaza has been partially restored. On Friday, internet monitoring firms and experts reported that access to the internet had significantly degraded in the Palestinian enclave. The local internet service NetStream “collapsed,” according to NetBlocks, a firm that tracks internet access across the world. At the […]

Internet access in Gaza is collapsing as ISPs fall offline

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Fri, 27 Oct 2023 14:43:51 +0000

As the conflict between Israel and Hamas reaches its third week, internet connectivity in Gaza is getting worse. On Thursday morning, internet monitoring firm NetBlocks wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that the Palestinian internet service provider NetStream “has collapsed days after the operator notified subscribers that service would end due to a severe shortage of […]

Telegram is still leaking user IP addresses to contacts

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 15:04:17 +0000

The popular messaging app Telegram can leak your IP address if you simply add a hacker to your contacts and accept a phone call from them. Denis Simonov, a security researcher, who is also known as n0a, recently highlighted the issue and wrote a simple tool to exploit it. TechCrunch verified the researcher’s findings by […]

Hacker leaks millions more 23andMe user records on cybercrime forum

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 16:33:35 +0000

The same hacker who leaked a trove of user data stolen from the genetic testing company 23andMe two weeks ago has now leaked millions of new user records. On Tuesday, a hacker who goes by Golem published a new dataset of 23andMe user information containing records of four million users on the known cybercrime forum […]

Hackers advertised 23andMe stolen data two months ago

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Tue, 10 Oct 2023 22:00:08 +0000

Genetic testing company 23andMe has been investigating a security incident after hackers advertised a trove of alleged stolen user data on a hacking forum last week. But the alleged stolen data may have been circulating for much longer than first known. TechCrunch has also found that some of the advertised stolen data matches known 23andMe […]

23andMe resets user passwords after genetic data posted online

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Tue, 10 Oct 2023 14:09:57 +0000

Days after user personal surfaced online, the genetic testing company 23andMe said it’s requiring all users to reset their passwords “out of caution.” On Friday, 23andMe confirmed that hackers had obtained some users’ data, but stopped short of calling the incident a data breach. The company said that the hackers had accessed “certain accounts” of […]

Hacktivism erupts in response to Hamas-Israel war

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Mon, 09 Oct 2023 19:38:03 +0000

Several groups of hacktivists have targeted Israeli websites with floods of malicious traffic following a surprise land, sea and air attack launched against Israel by militant group Hamas on Saturday, which prompted Israel to declare war and retaliate. Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post reported Monday that since Saturday morning its website was down “due to […]

Zero-days for hacking WhatsApp are now worth millions of dollars

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 14:05:16 +0000

Thanks to improvements in security mechanisms and mitigations, hacking cell phones — both running iOS and Android — has become an expensive endeavor. That’s why hacking techniques for apps like WhatsApp are now worth millions of dollars, TechCrunch has learned. Last week, a Russian company that buys zero-days — flaws in software that are unknown […]

FBI most-wanted Russian hacker reveals why he burned his passport

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Tue, 03 Oct 2023 15:05:46 +0000

Russian hacker Mikhail Matveev, also known on the internet as “Wazawaka” and “Boriselcin,” is wanted by the FBI, which is offering a $10 million reward for information that could lead to his arrest, and has been put on a U.S. sanctions list. But, according to Matveev, his life hasn’t changed much since he was outed […]

This startup wants to verify your ID without storing your personal data

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 19:38:51 +0000

As government and banking services move away from verifying identities in the real world, moving toward online ID verification, several companies have entered the market to solve this problem. A new startup from France is entering the market with a solution that, in theory, should protect people’s privacy. ShareID spokesperson Eliana Daboul described the company […]

Russian zero-day seller offers $20M for hacking Android and iPhones

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 15:59:13 +0000

A company that acquires and sells zero-day exploits — flaws in software that are unknown to the affected developer — is now offering to pay researchers $20 million for hacking tools that would allow its customers to hack iPhones and Android devices. On Wednesday, Operation Zero announced on its Telegram accounts and on its official […]

Hackers steal $200M from crypto company Mixin

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Mon, 25 Sep 2023 16:28:52 +0000

Hong Kong-based crypto company Mixin announced on Sunday that it was breached and that the hackers stole around $200 million. “In the early morning of September 23, 2023 Hong Kong time, the database of Mixin Network’s cloud service provider was attacked by hackers, resulting in the loss of some assets,” the company wrote on X, […]

One of the FBI’s most wanted hackers is trolling the US government

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 19:06:17 +0000

Earlier this year, the U.S. government indicted Russian hacker Mikhail Matveev, also known by his online monikers “Wazawaka” and “Boriselcin,” accusing him of being “a prolific ransomware affiliate” who carried out “significant attacks” against companies and critical infrastructure in the U.S. and elsewhere. The feds also accused him of being a “central figure” in the […]

Polish Senate says use of government spyware is illegal in the country

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Fri, 08 Sep 2023 13:56:55 +0000

A special commission within Poland’s Senate concluded that the government’s use of spyware, like the one made by NSO Group, is illegal. The commission announced on Thursday the conclusion of its 18-month investigation into allegations that the Polish government used NSO’s spyware, known as Pegasus, to spy on an opposition politician and other politicians around […]

Apple fixes zero-day bugs used to plant Pegasus spyware

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Thu, 07 Sep 2023 20:51:09 +0000

Apple released security updates on Thursday that patch two zero-day exploits — meaning hacking techniques that were unknown at the time Apple found out about them — used against a member of a civil society organization in Washington, D.C., according to the researchers who found the vulnerabilities. Citizen Lab, an internet watchdog group that investigates […]

Hacking device Flipper Zero can spam nearby iPhones with Bluetooth pop-ups

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Tue, 05 Sep 2023 18:41:19 +0000

Thanks to a popular and relatively cheap hacking tool, hackers can spam your iPhone with annoying pop-ups prompting you to connect to a nearby AirTag, Apple TV, AirPods and other Apple devices. A security researcher who asked to be referred to as only Anthony demonstrated this attack using a Flipper Zero, a small device that […]

Maker of ‘smart’ chastity cage left users’ emails, passwords, and locations exposed

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Sat, 02 Sep 2023 13:00:37 +0000

A company that makes a chastity device for people with a penis that can be controlled by a partner over the internet exposed users’ email addresses, plaintext passwords, home addresses and IP addresses, and — in some cases — GPS coordinates, due to several flaws in its servers, according to a security researcher. The researcher, […]