The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday said pranksters are hijacking weakly-secured smart devices to live-stream swatting incidents.

The&nbsp;domestic intelligence and security service of the United States issued a statement saying&nbsp;"Recently, offenders have been using victims' smart devices, including video and audio capable home surveillance devices, to carry out swatting attacks.''

FBI authorities state pranksters are assuming control over gadgets on which proprietors made records yet reused accreditations that previously leaked online during data breaches at other companies.

Pranksters then place calls to law enforcement and report a fake crime at the victims' residence.

"As law authorization reacts to the home, the wrongdoer watches the live stream film and draws in with the reacting police through the camera and speakers," the FBI said.&nbsp;

"At times, the wrongdoer additionally live streams the occurrence on shared online network stages."&nbsp;

These kinds of episodes, called smacking, have expanded across the US as of late and have even brought about individuals' demises through unplanned shootings.&nbsp;

The originally known instances of a smacking episode being live-streamed online go back to the mid-2010s. The distinction between the thing the FBI is announcing now and those underlying occurrences is that gadgets weren't being hacked.&nbsp;

Clowns would distinguish get-togethers that were being streamed on the web and would organize the occasion to be smacked, for example, weddings, church gatherings, and that's just the beginning.&nbsp;

A considerable lot of these smacking calls are being put through online administrations that give unknown calling abilities -, for example, Discord bots and dull web administrations.&nbsp;

To balance with this new rising hack&amp;swat cases, authority authorities said they are currently working with gadget sellers to prompt clients on how they could choose better passwords for their gadgets.&nbsp;

Moreover, the FBI said it's likewise attempting to alarm law requirement specialists on the call about this new swatting variation, so they may respond accordingly.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday said pranksters are hijacking weakly-secured smart devices to live-stream swatting incidents. The domestic intelligence and security service of the United States issued a statement saying "Recently, offenders have been using victims' smart devices, including video and audio capable home surveillance devices, to carry out swatting attacks.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday said pranksters are hijacking weakly-secured smart devices to live-stream swatting incidents. The domestic intelligence and security service of the United States issued a statement saying "Recently, offenders have been using victims' smart devices, including video and audio capable home surveillance devices, to carry out swatting attacks.'' FBI authorities state pranksters are assuming control over gadgets on which proprietors made records yet reused accreditations that previously leaked online during data breaches at other companies. Pranksters then place calls to law enforcement and report a fake crime at the victims' residence. "As law authorization reacts to the home, the wrongdoer watches the live stream film and draws in with the reacting police through the camera and speakers," the FBI said. "At times, the wrongdoer additionally live streams the occurrence on shared online network stages." These kinds of episodes, called smacking, have expanded across the US as of late and have even brought about individuals' demises through unplanned shootings. The originally known instances of a smacking episode being live-streamed online go back to the mid-2010s. The distinction between the thing the FBI is announcing now and those underlying occurrences is that gadgets weren't being hacked. Clowns would distinguish get-togethers that were being streamed on the web and would organize the occasion to be smacked, for example, weddings, church gatherings, and that's just the beginning. A considerable lot of these smacking calls are being put through online administrations that give unknown calling abilities -, for example, Discord bots and dull web administrations. To balance with this new rising hack&swat cases, authority authorities said they are currently working with gadget sellers to prompt clients on how they could choose better passwords for their gadgets. Moreover, the FBI said it's likewise attempting to alarm law requirement specialists on the call about this new swatting variation, so they may respond accordingly.

Pranksters are hijacking smart devices to live-stream swatting, says FBI

India wants to conduct an audit of WhatsApp's security systems following revelations that spyware exploited vulnerabilities in the Facebook-owned messaging platform, the country's technology minister said on Thursday.

The Indian Computer Emergency Team (CERT-In) "sought submission of information from WhatsApp on November 9, 2019, including a need to conduct an audit and inspection of WhatsApp's security systems and processes," Ravi Shankar Prasad told parliament in a statement.

WhatsApp declined to comment.

WhatsApp last month sued Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group, accusing it of helping clients break into the phones of roughly 1,400 users across four continents. The targets of the hacking included diplomats, political dissidents, journalists, along with military and government officials.

Of those allegedly affected by NSO's Pegasus spyware, 121 are based in India, WhatsApp's biggest market with over 400 million users, two sources told Reuters previously.

WhatsApp has responded to CERT's queries but further clarifications have been sought, Prasad said, adding that the agency had also asked NSO Group to provide information about the malware and its impact on Indian users.

NSO has previously denied snooping allegations and said it sells technology to governments to counter-terrorism.

WhatsApp executives including CEO Will Cathcart made no mention of the spyware when they met Indian technology ministry officials in July and September, the minister said.

WhatsApp had, however, informed CERT of an incident in May in which the firm had identified and fixed a "vulnerability that could enable an attacker to insert and execute code on mobile devices," Prasad said.

A group of Indians including journalists and lawyers whose phones were hacked via WhatsApp have asked the government to make public its ties with the Israeli firm accused of deploying the spyware.

India wants to conduct an audit of WhatsApp's security systems following revelations that spyware exploited vulnerabilities in the Facebook-owned messaging platform, the country's technology minister said on Thursday.

India wants to conduct an audit of WhatsApp's security systems following revelations that spyware exploited vulnerabilities in the Facebook-owned messaging platform, the country's technology minister said on Thursday. The Indian Computer Emergency Team (CERT-In) "sought submission of information from WhatsApp on November 9, 2019, including a need to conduct an audit and inspection of WhatsApp's security systems and processes," Ravi Shankar Prasad told parliament in a statement. WhatsApp declined to comment. WhatsApp last month sued Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group, accusing it of helping clients break into the phones of roughly 1,400 users across four continents. The targets of the hacking included diplomats, political dissidents, journalists, along with military and government officials. Of those allegedly affected by NSO's Pegasus spyware, 121 are based in India, WhatsApp's biggest market with over 400 million users, two sources told Reuters previously. WhatsApp has responded to CERT's queries but further clarifications have been sought, Prasad said, adding that the agency had also asked NSO Group to provide information about the malware and its impact on Indian users. NSO has previously denied snooping allegations and said it sells technology to governments to counter-terrorism. WhatsApp executives including CEO Will Cathcart made no mention of the spyware when they met Indian technology ministry officials in July and September, the minister said. WhatsApp had, however, informed CERT of an incident in May in which the firm had identified and fixed a "vulnerability that could enable an attacker to insert and execute code on mobile devices," Prasad said. A group of Indians including journalists and lawyers whose phones were hacked via WhatsApp have asked the government to make public its ties with the Israeli firm accused of deploying the spyware.

India plans security audit of WhatsApp after hacking attempt

For 26-year-old Laxman Muthiyah, a Chennai based independent security researcher, every scroll through his social media feed has a different significance. He thinks deeply to understand the working of the websites and the functions performed by the millions of lines of code. It is followed by thinking of possible loopholes and also spotting and identifying them.&nbsp;

In digital space, there are many prying to take control of our accounts, hack and misuse them. Laxman, over the past 5 years, has won bug bounty amounting to over a whopping $62,000 for spotting bugs that could overthrow online hacking attempts.

Most of his rewards came from Facebook and Facebook-owned Instagram. His most recent earning amounted to a whopping $40,000 Instagram.&nbsp;

“It all began after I attended an ethical hacking workshop when I was in college. In 2013, I won my first bug bounty from Facebook - a princely sum of $1500 for a student”, recalls Laxman.&nbsp;

Although Laxman has completed a degree in computer science engineering, he considers himself a self-taught ethical hacker who learnt the tricks of the trade from workshops, free online content and months of trial and error.

His latest find involved proving to Facebook that multiple accounts could be hacked within 10 minutes.&nbsp;

“When we choose the forget password option, they send us a 6-digit code to authorize our login. Since it is a 6-digit code, there are 1 million possibilities. We could enter between 50-200 random codes every minute and attempt login, and it could be tried for 10 minutes. With multiple IP addresses, we could use lakhs of codes to attempt logging-in and take control of an account. I sent a video of this method to Facebook and after verifying it, they sent me the payment of $30,000 as this method has a high rate of success,” Laxman told WION.

Subsequently, he spotted another bug where the success rate was relatively lower and received a payment of $10,000.

If you’re getting ready to put your bug-hunting skills to use, remember that only a few websites encourage and reward it, whereas it is considered illegal when done without the knowledge of the website owner.&nbsp;

When asked if bug-hunting was a popular profession in India, Laxman said, “there is quite a community of bug hunters in India and some companies support it, but it isn’t so in the West, where there are many more opportunities. In the West, techies work full-time jobs and also take up bug-hunting assignments in their spare time. The work-life balance we have in India does not permit that”.

While bug-hunting is more lucrative than a full-time IT job, one must realize that the practice is pretty much like fishing where one could end up with a really good catch or none and we could go without a catch for months, Laxman says laughingly.&nbsp;

For 26-year-old Laxman Muthiyah, a Chennai based independent security researcher, every scroll through his social media feed has a different significance. He thinks deeply to understand the working of the websites and the functions performed by the millions of lines of code.

For 26-year-old Laxman Muthiyah, a Chennai based independent security researcher, every scroll through his social media feed has a different significance. He thinks deeply to understand the working of the websites and the functions performed by the millions of lines of code. It is followed by thinking of possible loopholes and also spotting and identifying them. In digital space, there are many prying to take control of our accounts, hack and misuse them. Laxman, over the past 5 years, has won bug bounty amounting to over a whopping $62,000 for spotting bugs that could overthrow online hacking attempts. Most of his rewards came from Facebook and Facebook-owned Instagram. His most recent earning amounted to a whopping $40,000 Instagram. “It all began after I attended an ethical hacking workshop when I was in college. In 2013, I won my first bug bounty from Facebook - a princely sum of $1500 for a student”, recalls Laxman. Although Laxman has completed a degree in computer science engineering, he considers himself a self-taught ethical hacker who learnt the tricks of the trade from workshops, free online content and months of trial and error. His latest find involved proving to Facebook that multiple accounts could be hacked within 10 minutes. “When we choose the forget password option, they send us a 6-digit code to authorize our login. Since it is a 6-digit code, there are 1 million possibilities. We could enter between 50-200 random codes every minute and attempt login, and it could be tried for 10 minutes. With multiple IP addresses, we could use lakhs of codes to attempt logging-in and take control of an account. I sent a video of this method to Facebook and after verifying it, they sent me the payment of $30,000 as this method has a high rate of success,” Laxman told WION. Subsequently, he spotted another bug where the success rate was relatively lower and received a payment of $10,000. If you’re getting ready to put your bug-hunting skills to use, remember that only a few websites encourage and reward it, whereas it is considered illegal when done without the knowledge of the website owner. When asked if bug-hunting was a popular profession in India, Laxman said, “there is quite a community of bug hunters in India and some companies support it, but it isn’t so in the West, where there are many more opportunities. In the West, techies work full-time jobs and also take up bug-hunting assignments in their spare time. The work-life balance we have in India does not permit that”. While bug-hunting is more lucrative than a full-time IT job, one must realize that the practice is pretty much like fishing where one could end up with a really good catch or none and we could go without a catch for months, Laxman says laughingly.

Meet Indian techie Laxman Muthiyah - Chennai guy who has won over $62,000 from Facebook

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