Race relations at Facebook; Nissan car hacked by remote control; IBM to buy Resilient

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly taken to an internal company announcement page to decry what he called the “silencing” of Black Lives Matter sentiments at Facebook HQ.

According to a story on Gizmodo, Zuckerberg posted on an employee-only company announcement page that: “There have been several recent instances of people crossing out ‘black lives matter’ and writing ‘all lives matter’ on the walls at MPK [Facebook’s HQ, located in Menlo Park, California].”

‘Black Lives Matter’ is the name of a movement opposing violence against black people, particularly that perpetrated by police officers in the United States. It’s also the name of a US-based organisation that campaigns against anti-black racism in the States.

“We’ve never had rules around what people can write on our walls — we expect everybody to treat each other with respect. Regardless of the content or location, crossing out something means silencing speech, or that one person’s speech is more important than another’s,” Zuckerberg reportedly wrote.

He wrote that “‘Black lives matter’ doesn’t mean other lives don’t — it’s simply asking that the black community also achieves the justice they deserve.”

Zuckerberg said in the post that he had previously issued a warning that crossing out ‘black lives matter’ messages was “unacceptable”, and that he now considers the issue as “malicious as well”.

“[W]e are now investigating the current incidents,” he wrote.

Gizmodo has Zuckerberg’s post in full.

Controlling a Nissan LEAF remotely

Security researchers have found a way to control certain systems of target Nissan LEAF electric cars via the internet.

Australian writer Troy Hunt explained the issue in a post titled ‘Controlling vehicle features of Nissan LEAFs across the globe via vulnerable APIs’ on his website.

The post contains a video of Hunt demonstrating the vulnerabilities with help from fellow security researcher Scott Helme.

In the video, Hunt — sitting at his laptop somewhere in Australia — appears to remotely turn on the heated seats and climate control systems of Helme’s Nissan Leaf, as Helme sits behind the vehicle’s wheel in England.

Hunt manages this feat by opening his web browser and entering a URL containing the vehicle’s VIN.

By inputting another URL containing the vehicle’s VIN, Hunt is able to view some details of the vehicle’s driving history.

Hunt’s post details how a student of his uncovered the vulnerability by examining how a LEAF mobile companion app interacted with the online services underlying the app.

Following the publication of Hunt’s post, Nissan shut down the NisscanConnect EV mobile companion app, according to SlashGear.

“The NissanConnect EV app (formerly called CarWings and used for the Nissan LEAF) is currently unavailable. This follows information from an independent IT consultant and subsequent internal Nissan investigation that found the dedicated server for the app had an issue that enabled the temperature control and other telematics functions to be accessible via a non-secure route,” SlashGear quoted a Nissan representative as saying.

However, SlashGear noted that: “[W]hile the NissanConnect EV app is no longer accessible, it’s still possible to access the Leaf API using VIN numbers by way of a Canadian HTTP GET exploit that makes use of the same type of non-authenticated connection between remote users and vehicle systems.”

IBM to purchase Resilient

IBM has revealed its intent to purchase Resilient Systems, a company that offers security incident response solutions.

According to Big Blue, Resilient’s tech helps customers to respond to security breaches faster.

Marc van Zadelhoff — General Manager for IBM Security — provided some background on the acquisition in a post on IBM’s Security Intelligence blog.

“With Resilient Systems … IBM will be in a position to provide the industry’s first integrated end-to-end Security Operations and Response Platform offering that spans the entire life cycle of an attack, from protection and detection to response,” Zadelhoff said.

The purchase price for Resilient was not disclosed, but IBM did say it expected the transaction to close later this year.

Image courtesy nrkbeta under CC