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Why This Scares Business Owners: New Attack Methods That Could Destroy Your Company
The Black Hat conference is a big meeting where computer safety experts share what they’ve learned. This year, they found some serious problems in the technology we use every day. These problems can affect everything from your computer at work to the satellites flying high above the Earth. It’s a reminder that even the most trusted technology can have hidden dangers.
A Scary Flaw in Windows Hello
You might use your face or fingerprint to unlock your computer. This is called biometrics. Windows Hello is a popular system that uses this technology. At the Black Hat conference, two researchers, Tillmann Osswald and Dr. Baptiste David, showed a big problem with the business version of Windows Hello. They found that if a bad guy gets control of your computer as an administrator, they can trick the system.
Here’s how it works:
- Gaining Access: An attacker first needs to get local administrator access to your computer. This could happen if they trick you into installing bad software.
- Adding Their Own Data: Once they have control, they can add their own face or fingerprint to the system.
- Bypassing Security: The computer will then think the attacker is you. They can unlock your computer just by showing their face or using their fingerprint.
Microsoft has a feature called Enhanced Sign-in Security to help stop this, but not all computers can use it. This leaves many people and companies at risk. The researchers said that if your computer doesn’t support this extra security, it’s safer to use a PIN instead of your face or fingerprint to log in.
The Hidden Dangers in Your Video Calls
Many of us use video call apps like Zoom and Microsoft Teams every day for work and talking to family. Adam Crosser, a security expert, revealed that these apps can be used by hackers to sneak into your computer. Because these apps need to work smoothly, they can easily get through firewalls, which are supposed to protect your computer network.
Crosser explained that a hacker could steal your login information from a video call. They could then use a special technique to send harmful software to your computer through the video call app. His team even built a tool that looked like a normal meeting invitation but was actually designed to download malware. These apps are so common and trusted that people might not be suspicious of them. Zoom quickly fixed this problem, but at the time of the conference, Microsoft Teams had not. This shows how important it is to be careful with meeting links and to only join calls from people you trust.
Problems in Space: Satellite Software at Risk
The problems don’t stop on Earth. Researchers Milenko Starcik and Andrzej Olchawa from VisionSpace Technologies found some frightening weaknesses in the software that runs satellites and the ground stations that control them. They looked at popular systems used by big organizations like NASA and Airbus and found many serious flaws.
They were able to:
- Change a satellite’s orbit without anyone on the ground noticing.
- Take control of systems through remote code execution.
- Crash important flight systems.
- Break the encryption used to send secret messages, allowing them to send fake commands.
The good news is that these researchers told the software companies about the problems, and fixes have already been released. This discovery reminds us that even the most advanced technology needs constant checking to stay safe.
AI Assistants Can Be Tricked, Too
Artificial intelligence, or AI, is becoming more common in our lives. We use AI assistants like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot to help with many tasks. However, researchers from a company called Zenity showed that these AI agents can be tricked into doing bad things. This is done through something called “prompt injection.”
An attacker can hide malicious instructions in a document or an email. When the AI reads this hidden message, it can be tricked into:
- Searching for secret information, like passwords or API keys, in your connected files.
- Sending this secret information to the attacker.
This can happen without you even clicking on anything. Companies like OpenAI and Microsoft have already started to fix these issues, but because AI understands language like a person, it’s very hard to make it completely safe from these kinds of tricks.
These discoveries from the Black Hat conference are a big deal. They show that there are hidden dangers in many of the technologies we rely on. It’s a powerful reminder for companies to keep making their products safer and for all of us to be a little more careful in our digital lives. By learning about these problems, we can all help to make the internet a safer place for everyone.