Sean Michael Kerner

In August 2013, Ladar Levison, the owner of operator of encrypted email service Lavabit, decided to shut down his service after the U.S. government requested information from him that would put his clients at risk. A year later, Levison is now building out a new technology platform that aims to provide email security and privacy […]

LAS VEGAS—In the wake of the Target data breach and other retail breaches like it, there has been a renewed call in the United States for a move to Chip and PIN credit cards, also known as EMV. At the Black Hat USA 2014 conference here, however, multiple researchers revealed that EMV isn’t necessarily a […]

LAS VEGAS—Six months ago, Alex Stamos joined Yahoo as its new chief information security officer (CISO). Rather than just try and maintain a security status quo, Stamos has some aggressive plans to improve security for Yahoo and its millions of users that he shared with a standing-room-only audience at the Black Hat USA conference on […]

LAS VEGAS—At the RSA security conference in March, security researchers from Bishop Fox detailed how it’s possible to build a botnet out of free cloud resources. In a session at the Black Hat USA conference here, Bishop Fox is revisiting that topic in more detail and with a specific goal in mind—to stop others from […]

LAS VEGAS–Away from the big show floor where vendors exhibit their wares at the Black Hat USA conference is a smaller room called Black Hat Arsenal, where researchers demonstrate their tools and innovations. Among those demonstrating at Black Hat Arsenal was Dan Petro, a security researcher for BishopFox. Petro demonstrated how, with a small customized […]

For the first time, the open-source Drupal and WordPress content management teams have coordinated joint security releases to fix a new vulnerability. The flaw, first reported by security researcher Nir Goldshlager, is a potential denial-of-service (DoS) issue with PHP’s XML processing module. Drupal and WordPress use the same PHP module, which is why both content […]

LAS VEGAS—One of the highlights at any Black Hat USA event is the annual Pwnie Awards show, which recognizes the best and the worst in the world of information security. The name “Pwnie” comes from the hacker vernacular “to pwn,” which is the process of taking over or owning a target. The actual award in […]

LAS VEGAS—Among the most anticipated talks at the Black Hat USA 2014 conference here was one on automotive hacking by security researchers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek. The pair had attempted to present at Black Hat 2013 on the topic of automotive hacking, but had their talk rejected. “Last year our talk got rejected at […]

LAS VEGAS—The security of a number of devices used by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is being called into question by a researcher at the Black Hat USA conference here. Billy Rios, director of Vulnerability Research at Qualys, looked at three different devices used by the TSA in airports in the United States and […]

LAS VEGAS—Among the most well-known Internet of things (IoT) devices in the consumer market is the Nest Learning Thermostat. According to research discussed at the Black Hat USA security conference here, there is also potential security risk with the thermostat that could enable a backdoor attack. In an interview with eWEEK, researcher Yier Jin from […]

U.S. retailer Target has revealed additional details into the impact of its 2013 data breach, which affected 70 million customers. In a statement providing some preliminary guidance on Target’s second-quarter fiscal 2014 earnings, the company revealed that it will be taking a charge of $148 million in expenses related to its data breach. Target first […]

LAS VEGAS—Antivirus tools have grown in sophistication and capabilities over the years, but there are still areas where they can potentially be bypassed. That’s one of the key messages coming from Kyle Adams, chief software architect for Junos WebApp Secure at Juniper Networks. Adams is speaking at the BSides event here today in a session […]