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Jail Authorities Mistakenly Early Released 3,200 Prisoners due to a Silly Software Bug

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Washington State Department of Corrections (DoC) is facing an investigation after it early released around<b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">3,200 prisoners per year</b>, since 2002, when a bug was introduced in the software used to calculate time credits for inmates' good behavior.</div>
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The software glitch led to a miscalculation of sentence reductions that US prisoners were receiving for their good behaviour.</div>
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Over the next 13 years, the median number of days of those released early from prison was 49 days before their correct release date.</div>
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<br style="content: ' '; display: block; margin: 16px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; border-left-color: rgb(191, 202, 218); border-left-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 8px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 10px; quotes: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"This problem was allowed to continue for 13 years is deeply disappointing to me, totally unacceptable and, frankly, maddening," </i>Washington State Governor Jay Inslee said in a <a href="http://www.governor.wa.gov/news-media/inslee-announces-immediate-actions-fix-13-year-old-sentencing-errors-discovered-state" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; color: #4184f3; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">statement</a>. <i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"I've [many] questions about how and why this happened, and I understand that members of the public will have those same queries."</i></blockquote>
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What's the Bug and How did it Remain Undetected for 13 Years?</h3>
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The issue lies in DoC software that is used for calculating the release date for prisoners who showed good behavior while imprisoned.</div>
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The software bug was introduced in 2002, when the state's supreme court implemented a change to the "<b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">good time</b>" credit system, allowing prisoners to claim credits for good behaviour while they are in:</div>
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These credits are then used to shorten the length of prisoner’s sentence. To apply these changes, DoCs around the United States released the new versions of software but unfortunately, the code that calculated prison sentences was faulty.</div>
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DoC First Informed of the Issue 3 Years Ago</h3>
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What's even more disappointing is that the authorities first learned of the bug in December 2012, when the family of an assault victim alerted DoC that the attacker was going to be set free too soon.</div>
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At that time, DoC filed a request, <a href="http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/inslee-error-releases-inmates-early-since-2002/" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; color: #4184f3; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">labelling</a> the error as <i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"time sensitive" </i>and to be implemented as quickly as possible.</div>
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However, the Washington DoC hired a new IT manager in November, who alerted the authorities of how serious the bug had become. Inslee assures that a full fix for the bug is expected to be rolled out by 7th January.</div>
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Until then the DoC has been ordered not to release any prisoner without manually checking their actual release date.</div>
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Jail Authorities Mistakenly Early Released 3,200 Prisoners due to a Silly Software Bug

Washington State Department of Corrections (DoC) is facing an investigation after it early released around 3,200 prisoners per year , s...

Thunderstrike 2: World's First Firmware Worm That Infects Mac Computers Without Detection Tuesday

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<a class="url entry-title" href="http://www.hackthesec.co.in/2015/08/thunderstrike-2-worlds-first-firmware.html" itemprop="url" rel="bookmark" style="border: 0px; color: #3d5a99; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 48px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 3px 10px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">Thunderstrike 2: World's First Firmware Worm That Infects Mac Computers Without Detection</a></h1>
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If you think Apple’s Mac computers are much more secure than Windows-powered systems, you need to think again. This isn’t true, and security researchers have finally proved it.</div>
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Two security researchers have developed a proof-of-concept computer worm for the first time that can spread automatically between MacBooks, without any need for them to be networked.</div>
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Dubbed <b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><u style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Thunderstrike 2</u></b>, the new proof-of-concept firmware attack is inspired by previously developed proof-of-concept firmware called Thunderstrike.</div>
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Thunderstrike Attack, developed by security engineer Trammell Hudson, actually took advantage of a<b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">vulnerability in Thunderbolt Option ROM</i></b> that could be used to infect <i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Apple Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI)</i> by allocating a malicious code into the boot ROM of an Apple computer through infected Thunderbolt devices.<br style="content: " "; display: block; margin: 20px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></div>
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Thunderstrike 2 Spreads Remotely</h3>
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<br style="content: " "; display: block; margin: 20px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Although the original Thunderstrike required an attacker to have physical access to your Mac computer to work, the new attack can be spread remotely.</div>
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Thunderstrike 2 can be delivered via phishing emails, malicious Web site, as well as through a peripheral connected to the Ethernet port or USB.</div>
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After downloaded on a computer, Thunderstrike 2 can infect Thunderbolt-connected accessories that use Option ROM. After that, the malware can automatically spread to any Mac that you plug the accessory into.</div>
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Thunderstrike 2 is developed by two security researcher Trammell Hudson and Xeno Kovah of firmware security consultancy Legbacore. The researchers also demonstrated their attack, which you can watch in the video given below.<br style="content: " "; display: block; margin: 20px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></div>
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 Infects Mac Computers Without Detection</h3>
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Given the vicious worm, Thunderstrike 2, targets and lives in the firmware and can even evade a whole system reboot, it’s a real pain for the Mac users.</div>
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"<i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Thunderstrike 2 is really hard to detect, it’s really hard to get rid of, and it’s really hard to protect against something that’s running inside the firmware,</i>" Kovah <a href="http://www.wired.com/2015/08/researchers-create-first-firmware-worm-attacks-macs/" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; color: #3d5a99; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">told</a> Wired.</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: #f9f9f9; border-left-color: rgb(191, 202, 218); border-left-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 8px; font-stretch: inherit; margin: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 10px; quotes: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
"<i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">For most users that’s really a throw-your-machine-away kind of situation. Most people and organizations don’t have the wherewithal to physically open up their machine and electrically reprogram the chip.</i>"</blockquote>
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Many of the firmware vulnerabilities discovered by the researchers to develop Thunderstrike 2 are common to most EFI firmware. A total of six vulnerabilities affected PCs from Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, and others.</div>
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Five firmware vulnerabilities also affected the Mac's firmware, and of those, Apple has fully patched one flaw, partially patched another, and failed to patch the rests.</div>
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The researchers plan to present their findings at the <i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Black Hat</i> and <i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Def Con security conferences</i> in Las Vegas this week.</div>
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