Sounds a bit extreme just to make sure no one can log on to your laptop or smartphone, but a team of researchers from Stanford and Northwestern universities as well as SRI International is nonetheless experimenting at the computer-, cognitive- and neuroscience intersection to combat identity theft and shore up cyber security-by taking advantage of the human brain's innate abilities to learn and recognize patterns.
"Two prominent hospitals were the victims of data breaching hackers in the last few days with each hospital having over 40,000 patients' personal information at risk. On Monday, Phetchabun Hospital had the personal data of 46,000 of their patients compromised while Bhumirajanagarindra Kidney Institute Hospital had the data from 40,000 patients stolen in parallel attacks."
"The hacker who is taking responsibility for breaking into T-Mobile US Inc.'s systems said the wireless company's lax security eased his path into a cache of records with personal details on more than 50 million people and counting."
""The social engineering type of attack does not tend to scale [up] easily given the time and effort required to succeed, and therefore is more often than not used by individuals rather than the 'call centre' approach of criminal enterprises," Goddard says. "The trigger to target an individual could be targeted, or opportunistic such as overhearing a conversation or getting access to sensitive or exploitable information like a picture or bank statement.""
"Pornbots create fake accounts that are designed to mimic real people. They steal photos from public social media accounts, and follow the real profile's friends. They tack on suggestive captions and post links to external paid adult sites. The fake accounts choose @usernames that are deceptively similar to those they impersonate. And for good measure, the fake accounts block the person they're copying, making it difficult for the victim to see or interact with them."
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