Dec 28, 2005 3:27 PM

2005 computer security year in review

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/27/security_review_2005/

Man, when I read stuff like this, it makes me want to give up blogging and become a stonecutter.

Imagine the nerve of some marauders with mere keyloggers

who schemed to electronically steal almost HALF A BILLION!

Wow, even Enron would be impressed.

The PHP Meltdown Shows How AI Makes Bugs More Exploitable

Security researchers used AI tools to help uncover years-old vulnerabilities in the PHP web scripting language. Then the AI-assisted attacks began.

Lily Hay Newman

WIRED Ghost Stories

Five hauntings from the other side of technology.

‘Nightmare Scenario’: Zero-Click Spyware Is Infecting Phones via Targeted Ads

Researchers at The Citizen Lab have for the first time released technical evidence of sophisticated mercenary spyware being distributed via online advertising.

Matt Burgess

‘This Is Not a Drill’: Critical PHP Vulnerabilities Are Setting the Internet on Fire

The PHP Foundation has revealed two serious vulnerabilities that could impact millions of websites. Security experts warn that failure to quickly patch the flaws could have dire consequences.

Matt Burgess

Bluesky Is Blocking Links to a Major Leak of DHS Employee Records

Bluesky tells WIRED it blocked links to a leaked archive of information on 41,000 ICE, CBP, and other DHS workers because it contains people’s contact information, shared without their authorization.

Dhruv Mehrotra

Encryption Is Getting Squeezed From All Sides

Canada’s planned surveillance law is the latest grim step in a series of threats to encryption that are spreading around the world.

Matt Burgess

Polymarket Halted International Trading After Hackers Drained Accounts

The company says an unnamed third-party provider was compromised. Trading has resumed, and Polymarket says affected traders will be made whole.

Kate Knibbs

Shaq Got Hacked. Now He’s Pitching for a VPN

At a recent event for security firm NordVPN, NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal revealed that he got hacked—and warned the public about the need to “have control of their own information.”

Lily Hay Newman

AI Guardrails Aren’t Stopping Criminal Hackers

Hackers around the world are all-in on using agentic AI to wage attacks—and manipulating tools like Anthropic’s Claude to help them carry out their crimes.

Lily Hay Newman

Hackers Exploited the PHP Vulnerabilities Days Before They Were Patched

Amazon Web Services logged attempts to leverage the internet-melting PHP2Shell bugs four days ago. They’re now being “broadly exploited” across the internet.

Lily Hay Newman

A Defense Contractor Gave Their Personal AI Agent Access to a Secure Pentagon System

Sources tell WIRED that an Accenture employee’s personal Claude agent ran on a DOD network for two months before it was identified and the vulnerability could be patched.

Vittoria Elliott

Most Servers on the Planet Are Vulnerable to This Firmware Code-Execution Flaw

The critical flaw in UEFI firmware—used by most server vendors and data centers—allows attackers to execute code early in the boot process.

Dan Goodin, Ars Technica