Gadgetory

it's time to learn about all the new ways we can get hacked I'm Bridget Carey and this is your CNET update it seems we have to worry about a new hacking threat every week but for the next few days you'll hear about more security scares and that's because of two big hacking conferences that are taking place in Las Vegas there's black hat and DEF CON which will shine some light on the state of our cybersecurity one presentation will give you good reason to never use an unknown USB stick researchers at SR labs will explain how USB flash drives can be reprogrammed so a computer sees it as something else like a keyboard the USB Drive can then run commands as if it was someone typing at a keyboard and essentially hijacked the machine a bad USB can also pose as a network card and redirect your internet connection to a malicious site but what's worrisome is that your antivirus software won't detect this using a USB drive to infect a computer may not seem that surprising but the researchers argue that USB sticks are so commonplace that it's more of a threat because we don't think twice about the risk when we pop in a drive researchers say once the computer has been infected by a bad USB it's very hard to fix so think twice before you use any flash drive you find just lying around fitness trackers are also under the security microscope Symantec published a paper on how we need to better protect all the personal data that's being collected from fitness trackers like the Fitbit and jawbone up fitness wristbands and connected apps or keeping track of our names our birthdays addresses as well as our weight our heart rates and what time we sleep and our location that means you can show where you live where you run and for how long and when you're typically sleeping how's that for creepy semantics found that it's possible to hack location data from these devices with a Bluetooth connection and the research showed 20% of apps tested had no encryption when transmitting password data that makes it easier to crack especially with an easy password this week we'll also hear about something more troubling packing a commercial airplane satellite communications through the in-flight Wi-Fi and entertainment system one security researcher will be presenting his work on how it's possible to use a plane's Wi-Fi or in-flight entertainment system to access avionics equipment now this was tested in a lab so it's unclear if a passenger could actually hack into the cockpit with Wi-Fi but it will show manufacturers what potential problems need to be patched that's your tech news update head cnet.com later this week for more cybersecurity coverage from the conference's from our studios in New York I'm Bridget Carey