1 – Walgreens says mobile app leaked users’ personal data
Walgreens, the second-largest pharmacy store in the US, said on Friday that its official mobile app contained a bug that exposed the personal details of some of its users. The leak, described as “an error within the Walgreens mobile app personal secure messaging feature,” exposed details such as first and last name, prescription details, store number, and shipping addresses, where available. “Our investigation determined that an internal application error allowed certain personal messages from Walgreens that are stored in a database to be viewable by other customers using the Walgreens mobile app,” the company said in a breach notification letter it sent customers.
2 – Visser, a parts manufacturer for Tesla and SpaceX, confirms data breach
A precision parts maker for space and defense contractors has confirmed a “cybersecurity incident,” which TechCrunch has learned was likely caused by ransomware. Visser Precision, a Denver, Colorado-based manufacturer, makes custom parts for a number of industries, including automotive and aeronautics. In a brief statement, the company confirmed it was “the recent target of a criminal cybersecurity incident, including access to or theft of data.” The company said it “continues its comprehensive investigation of the attack, and business is operating normally,” a spokesperson told TechCrunch.
3 – Boeing acknowledges “gaps” in its Starliner software testing
On Friday, during a detailed, 75-minute briefing with reporters, a key Boeing spaceflight official sought to be as clear as possible about the company’s troubles with its Starliner spacecraft. After an uncrewed test flight in December of the spacecraft, Boeing “learned some hard lessons,” said John Mulholland, a vice president who manages the company’s commercial crew program. The December mission landed safely but suffered two serious software problems. Now, Mulholland said, Boeing will work hard to rebuild trust between the company and the vehicle’s customer, NASA. During the last decade, NASA has paid Boeing a total of $4.8 billion to develop a safe capsule to fly US astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
4 – OnlyFans says it wasn’t hacked after hundreds of performers’ videos leak online
More than 1.6TB worth of videos and images from OnlyFans has been leaked online. The data dump appears to be primarily comprised of women’s accounts, specifically those who use the site to share pornographic images. OnlyFans claims it’s not due to a hack, though. Steve Pym, OnlyFans’ marketing chief, said on Twitter that the company has “found no evidence of any breach of our systems” and that the leaked files appear to “be curated from multiple sources, including other social media applications.” The statement was first reported by Motherboard. OnlyFans allows influencers, models, public figures, and more to share content via a premium pay model. For many sex workers, it’s a way to control and share their content behind a seemingly reliable paywall. It’s all the more important following the passage of FOSTA, a federal bill that led to the shutdown of many online platforms they used to be able to work on.
5 – ‘Surfing attack’ hacks Siri, Google with ultrasonic waves
Ultrasonic waves don’t make a sound, but they can still activate Siri on your cellphone and have it make calls, take images or read the contents of a text to a stranger. All without the phone owner’s knowledge. Attacks on cell phones aren’t new, and researchers have previously shown that ultrasonic waves can be used to deliver a single command through the air. However, new research from Washington University in St. Louis expands the scope of vulnerability that ultrasonic waves pose to cellphone security. These waves, the researchers found, can propagate through many solid surfaces to activate voice recognition systems and — with the addition of some cheap hardware — the person initiating the attack can also hear the phone’s response.
6 – Tesco sends security warning to 600,000 Clubcard holders
The supermarket giant said it believed a database of stolen usernames and passwords from other platforms had been tried out on its websites, and may have worked in some cases. No financial data was accessed and its systems have not been hacked, it added. It said this was a precautionary measure and apologised for the inconvenience. “We are aware of some fraudulent activity around the redemption of a small proportion of our customers’ Clubcard vouchers,” a Tesco spokesperson said. “Our internal systems picked this up quickly and we immediately took steps to protect our customers and restrict access to their accounts.”
7 – Coder charged in massive CIA leak portrayed as vindictive
A software engineer on trial in the largest leak of classified information in CIA history was “prepared to do anything” to betray the agency, federal prosecutors said Monday as a defense attorney argued the man had been scapegoated for a breach that exposed secret cyberweapons and spying techniques. A Manhattan jury heard conflicting portrayals of Joshua Schulte, a former CIA coder accused of sending the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks a large portion of the agency’s computer hacking arsenal — tools the agency had used to conduct espionage operations overseas. Schulte left a trail of evidence despite learned attempts to erase his digital fingerprints, Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Laroche said in closing arguments. Schulte became disgruntled at the CIA, he said, and took meticulous steps to plan — and cover up — the 2016 theft.
8 – China’s coronavirus detection app is reportedly sharing citizen data with police
Last month, China rolled out an app for people to test if they’ve been in ‘close contact’ with people exposed to the fast-spreading coronavirus. Yesterday, the New York Times reported that the app assigns a color code to users. While the code is visible to folks using the app, it also shares that data with the police. The system, powered by Alibaba’s popular payment app Alipay, is in use in more than 200 cities. People can scan a QR code to get a green, yellow, or red tag. The green tag means you are healthy and can roam around the city unrestricted, yellow means a seven-day quarantine, and red means a 14-day quarantine.
9 – Our quantum computer will get 100,000x faster by 2025, Honeywell says
If you’ve been paying attention to quantum computing, you’ll have seen familiar names — IBM, Google, Microsoft, Intel and Amazon — trying to bring about this revolution. Now, a name from computing’s distant past wants a turn. Honeywell, which once sold massive mainframes but withdrew from the business decades ago, said on Tuesday it expects to improve the performance of its quantum computers by a factor of 10 every year for each of the next five years — 100,000 times faster in 2025. That would blow past IBM, which has a more modest goal of doubling its performance annually. “We are at the cusp of releasing the world’s most powerful quantum computer,” said Tony Uttley, president of Honeywell Quantum Solutions, adding that the machine will have double the capability of IBM’s 53-qubit quantum computer.
10 – U.S. Charges Two Chinese Nationals Linked to North Korean Hacker Attacks
The U.S. Department of Justice announced on Monday that two Chinese nationals have been charged with laundering over $100 million worth of cryptocurrency stolen by North Korean hackers from a cryptocurrency exchange. The suspects, Tian Yinyin and Li Jiadong, have been charged with money laundering conspiracy and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. The second charge is related to allegations that the Chinese nationals laundered money through financial accounts in the United States, for which they should have registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).