The FBI is warning people against using public phone-charging stations, worrying that the combination power-data port can be used to inject malware onto the devices:

Avoid using free charging stations in airports, hotels, or shopping centers. Bad actors have figured out ways to use public USB ports to introduce malware and monitoring software onto devices that access these ports. Carry your own charger and USB cord and use an electrical outlet instead.

How much of a risk is this, really? I am unconvinced, although I do carry a USB condom for charging stations I find suspicious.

News article.

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What is an e-mail?

E-mail, also referred to as electronic mail, is an internet service which allows people and digital services to transmit messages(letters) in electronic form across Internet. To send and receive an E-mail message, an individual or service requires to have an e-mail address, i.e. electronic mail address which is generally in emailaddress@domain.com format. E-mails are more reliable, fast, and inexpensive form of messaging both in personal and professional environment.

What are e-mail headers?

E-mail headers are metadata information attached with every email sent or receive across the internet, email headers contain important information required for delivery of emails. E-mail headers contain information such as:

Sender’s IP address
Server the email came through
Domain the email originated from
SPF (Sender Policy Framework)
DKIM
DMARC
Time of sending receiving email message
Other important information required to validate the authenticity of the email received

Using E-mail header analysis, users can identify if an e-mail is legitimate or a scam. To view email headers in most clients, you can right click on the message and choose “show original” or “view-source.”

Metadata

Now, let us understand the terms related to metadata what it is and why the metadata associated is so important for email communications.

Metadata: Metadata is kind of data which provides information about the other data. For example: Email headers provide information about email communication.

SPF: also known as Sender Policy Framework, is a DNS record used for authentication mechanism in email addresses. SPF is a txt record configured in DNS records. It contains IP addresses and domain names which are authorised to send emails for a domain. The recipient can check the SPF record under email headers to verify if the email was originated from specified IP addresses or domain names.

DKIM: DomainKeys Identified Mail, is a cryptographic method that uses a digital signature to sign and verify emails. This allows the receiver’s mailbox to verify that the email was sent by authenticated user/owner of the domain. When an email is sent from a DKIM configured domain, it generates hashes for the email and encrypts them with private key which is available to the sender. It uses hashes to compare the mail origination and mail received content so that recipient can verify that email was not manipulated or tampered.

DMARC: Domain based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance is an email standard used for protecting email senders and recipients from spam, spoofing and spamming. DMARC indicates that an email is protected by SPF and DKIM as well. If SPF or DKIM fails to match the records, DMARC provides options such as quarantine or reject options for the message. For configuring DMARC to DNS records, SPF and DKIM configuration is mandatory.

Message ID: Message ID is a unique mail identifier for each email received; every email will have a unique Message ID.

E-mail header analysis has been used in criminal investigations to track down suspects and in civil litigation to prove the authenticity of emails. It’s also used by business to combat modern day email attacks like email spoofing.

There are various tools available for email header analysis, however, free tools may have limited capabilities.

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Microsoft-backed OpenAI has launched a bug bounty program and is inviting the global community of security researchers, ethical hackers, and technology enthusiasts to help the company identify and address vulnerabilities in its artificial intelligent systems. 

“We are excited to build on our coordinated disclosure commitments by offering incentives for qualifying vulnerability information,” OpenAI said in its blog post on Tuesday.

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W4SP stealer copycats among the latest finds

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When many of us moved our server and application needs to the cloud, we rejoiced that we no longer had to worry about the drudgery of patching. We didn’t have to monitor servers and their Patch Tuesday deployments; it was all in Microsoft’s hands. But as often occurs with cloud deployments, a solution that means you no longer have to worry about one area can create security issues in others.  

Time and again in the handling of any cloud deployment, how we manage identity and authentication needs to be reviewed on a scheduled basis to ensure that the security of cloud assets is being handled according to the latest recommended guidance. In the worst-case scenario, the attackers find out first and don’t inform us to take action. In the best case, researchers find a flaw and work with the vendors to help us all make better security decisions — Orca Security recently pointed out just such a flaw.

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Researchers say exploit is delivered via iCloud calendar invitation

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