Dennis Fisher

About

Dennis Fisher is a journalist with more than 13 years of experience covering information security.

Usbkill Script Can Render Computers Useless

The idea of needing to disable a computer quickly as the police–or another potential adversary–comes through the door typically has been the concern of criminals. But in today’s climate activists, journalists, and others may find themselves wanting to make their laptops unusable in short order, and that’s where usbkill comes in.


The earthquake that hit Nepal late last month has caused untold damage in the region and kicked off a massive relief and aid effort. Attackers are loathe to let a chance like that go by, and they have concocted a number of schemes to deprive victims of their money and hope for relief funds. Aid organizations […]

A security researcher has developed a method–actually two methods–for defeating the new Chrome Password Alert extension that Google released earlier this week. The Password Alert extension is designed to warn users when they’re about to enter their Google passwords into a fraudulent site. The extension is meant as a defense against phishing attacks, which remain […]

Researchers have identified a serious vulnerability in some versions of Oracle’s MySQL database product that allows an attacker to strip SSL/TLS connections of their security wrapping transparently. The vulnerability is the result of the way that an option in MySQL handles requests for secure connections. Researchers at Duo Security discovered the bug after noticing some […]

Google is rolling out a new extension for Chrome that will monitor users’ logins and warn them if they enter a Google password on a non-Google page, a move designed to help protect users against phishing attacks. The new extension, called Password Alert, works for both consumer accounts and Google Apps for Work accounts. Company […]

Malware that uses macros as part of its infection method has been around for more than a decade, and was one of the first major techniques to drive changes at software vendors such as Microsoft. The tactic has been making a comeback of late, and Microsoft is seeing a major spike in the volume of […]