hackers

Legal
March 6, 2012
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Top LulzSec hackers arrested, group leader reportedly working for FBI

By on March 6, 2012 at 9:05 AM.

Top LulzSec hackers arrested, group leader reportedly working for FBI

The laughs are reportedly over for five top members of the hacker group LulzSec who were arrested on Tuesday and charged as part of a conspiracy case filed in New York federal court. FoxNews.com reports that the arrests were part of a multinational sting across the United Kingdom, Ireland and the United States on Tuesday morning, and LulzSec leader Hector Xavier Monsegur, who operated online under the alias “Sabu,” provided the Federal Bureau of Investigation with information leading to the arrests. According to the report, Monsegur has been working with the FBI for months. “This is devastating to the organization,” an FBI official told FoxNews.com. “We’re chopping off the head of LulzSec.” Read on for more. More →

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Security
March 2, 2012
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Chinese hackers seized control of NASA computers

By on March 2, 2012 at 4:05 PM.

Chinese hackers seized control of NASA computers

Hackers targeted NASA computers, successfully gained access to employee credentials, and took control of systems at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, CNN reported on Friday. Paul K. Martin, the agency’s inspector general, cited one case in a report issued this week in which intruders from China-based IP addresses gained “full system access” to change or delete sensitive files and user accounts for “mission-critical” systems at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “In other words, the attackers had full functional control over these networks,” Martin said. In an earlier attack, hackers stole credentials of roughly 150 NASA employees. The agency reported that it was targeted with 47 “advanced persistent threats” in 2011, 13 of which successfully compromised NASA’s computers. Read on for more. More →

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Legal
February 29, 2012
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25 ‘Anonymous’ hackers arrested in multinational sting

By on February 29, 2012 at 12:15 PM.

25 ‘Anonymous’ hackers arrested in multinational sting

Interpol on Tuesday announced that 25 suspected members of the hacker group “Anonymous” have been arrested in a raid across Europe and South America. The suspected members ranged in age from 17 to 40 and are accused of planning coordinated cyber-attacks against various government institutions, such as Colombia’s defense ministry and presidential Web sites, Chile’s Endesa electricity company and national library and other targets. The arrests were the result of an ongoing investigation by local and federal police agencies, which searched 40 locations in 15 cities and seized 250 pieces of technology equipment since mid-February. “This operation shows that crime in the virtual world does have real consequences for those involved, and that the Internet cannot be seen as a safe haven for criminal activity, no matter where it originates or where it is targeted,” Acting INTERPOL Executive Director of Police Services Bernd Rossbach said. Read on for Interpol’s press release.

More →

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Security
February 17, 2012
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‘Anonymous’ hacks two more U.S. government websites

By on February 17, 2012 at 10:00 AM.

‘Anonymous’ hacks two more U.S. government websites

Members from the notorious hacktivist collective “Anonymous Operations” have reportedly claimed responsibility for hacking two more government websites following the takedown of the Central Intelligence Agency’s website last week. The Associated Press on Friday reported that Anonymous had breached the United States Federal Trade Commission’s consumer protection business center website as well as a National Consumer Protection Week website. Both sites were temporarily replaced by a “violent German-language video” focused on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. ACTA, which has been signed by a number of countries including the U.S. and Canada, aims to put forth international legal guidelines for fighting piracy. Neither affected agency has confirmed the attacks, but both the FTC business center website and the National Consumer Protection Week website were offline at the time of this writing. More →

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Security
February 10, 2012
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CIA website hacked, taken offline by ‘Anonymous’

By on February 10, 2012 at 3:51 PM.

CIA website hacked, taken offline by ‘Anonymous’

Hackers from the notorious group “Anonymous Operations” claim to have taken down the United States Central Intelligence Agency’s website shortly after 3:00 p.m. EST on Friday. “CIA TANGO DOWN: cia.gov,” a member of Anonymous posted to one of the group’s Twitter accounts. Anonymous’s motivation for this most recent cyberattack on the CIA is unclear, but this high-profile hit could be one of the group’s most significant attacks yet. As of the time of this writing, cia.gov was still offline. More →

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Security
February 7, 2012
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Hackers tried to extort $50,000 from Symantec after stealing source code

By on February 7, 2012 at 11:15 AM.

Hackers tried to extort $50,000 from Symantec after stealing source code

A group of hackers demanded that Symantec pay $50,000 to prevent it from releasing stolen source code for several of the firm’s software titles. Symantec reportedly confirmed that it was cooperating with a sting operation while communicating via email with a group of hackers claiming ties to notorious hacktivist group “Anonymous.” Those ties have not been confirmed. The email conversation was posted to Pastebin on Monday, and a Symantec representative confirmed to CNET that the emails were authentic. Read on for more. More →

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Security
January 23, 2012
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Facebook to become the newest target of hacker group Anonymous [video]

By on January 23, 2012 at 1:05 PM.

Facebook to become the newest target of hacker group Anonymous [video]

Over the past week, notorious hacker group Anonymous has launched numerous DDoS attacks that disrupted service to a number of popular websites. The global hacker collective recently took down websites belonging to the Department of Justice, Universal Music, the Record Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America to protest SOPA, PIPA and the takedown of Megaupload. According to a new video posted on Monday, Anonymous now aims to take down Facebook. It in unclear as to why Facebook is the group’s new target; while the video mentions SOPA as part of its reason for the attack, Facebook openly opposed the controversial bill. In the past, Anonymous has listed potential targets as the United Nations, Xbox Live, U.S. Bank, Twitter and YouTube. More →

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Security
January 16, 2012
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Hackers steal data from 24 million Zappos accounts

By on January 16, 2012 at 11:15 AM.

Hackers steal data from 24 million Zappos accounts

Zappos on Sunday confirmed that hackers breached the company’s servers and accessed personal data belonging to many of its customers. The Amazon-owned shoe retailer known for top-notch service and surprising customers with express shipping at no extra cost confirmed that personal data from 24 million accounts was accessed during a recent security breach. The hackers gained access to range of sensitive data including user names, encrypted passwords, customer names, email addresses, phone numbers and the last four digits of credit card numbers. The company stated that full credit card numbers were not compromised. As a security measure, Zappos reset the passwords of all affected customers and sent out emails alerting them to the situation. The company’s full email to customers follows below. More →

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mobile
December 14, 2011
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More than $1 million stolen from Android users in 2011, mobile threats to increase in 2012

By on December 14, 2011 at 10:15 AM.

More than $1 million stolen from Android users in 2011, mobile threats to increase in 2012

The Carrier IQ scandal has shifted attention from malicious mobile threats to carrier-sourced spyware over the past month, but a new report suggests the threat of more serious mobile malware continues to intensify. More than $1 million was stolen from Android smartphones alone in 2011 according to Lookout Mobile Security, which pulled data from more than a million apps and 15 million handsets around the world to compile its 2012 Mobile Threat Predictions report. The likelihood of an Android user encountering malware grew from 1% to 4% in 2011, and Lookout expects the trend to continue in 2012. Read on for more. More →

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mobile
November 14, 2011
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Hackers crack Siri to work on any device

By on November 14, 2011 at 9:15 PM.

Hackers crack Siri to work on any device

A group of developers from Applidium posted a story recently that explains how the group was able to crack Siri so that they could run the virtual assistant on any device. Basically, the group was able to get Siri to analyze voice inputs that were never spoken through an iPhone. It turns out Siri uses TCP to speak to a server at 17.174.4.4 using port 443. Applidium then logged on to a desktop computer, entered in that IP address, and realized that Apple was returning a server named “guzzoni.apple.com” and that Siri was using HTTPS as its protocol. Putting it simply, the group then created a fake guzzoni.apple.com address and tricked Siri into sending commands there instead of to Apple’s own server. Applidium discovered that Siri sends Apple a time stamp for each word spoken, as well as a reply confidence score, and described the software as “very, very chatty.” It is possible to get the software working on an Android device, or any similar gadget, but you’ll need at least one iPhone 4S identifier and some coding know-how. The hackers published a set of tools that it says can be used by anyone to create Siri-enabled applications and is encouraging fellow hackers to try the tools out and see what they can develop. “And let’s see how long it’ll take Apple to change their security scheme,” the group jested.

More →

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Security
October 12, 2011
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Sony: Hackers compromised 93,000 PSN, other online accounts

By on October 12, 2011 at 8:30 AM.

Sony: Hackers compromised 93,000 PSN, other online accounts

Following a period of peace after weeks of cyberattacks launched against various Sony-run online networks, Sony has confirmed that hackers are once again targeting the company’s digital properties. The electronics giant said on Wednesday that it discovered a “large number” of sign-in attempts on its PlayStation Network, Sony Online Entertainment and Sony Entertainment Network between October 7th and the 10th. According to Sony, approximately 93,000 accounts were compromised when valid log-in details were verified during what appears to have been a brute force attack. The company says it has locked the affected accounts and that credit card data tied to the compromised accounts was not at risk. More →

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Legal
September 22, 2011
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No more lulz: FBI arrests LulzSec hackers following nationwide manhunt

By on September 22, 2011 at 9:15 PM.

No more lulz: FBI arrests LulzSec hackers following nationwide manhunt

The FBI has arrested at least two alleged members of “LulzSec” and “Anonymous,” FoxNews reported on Thursday. One LulzSec hacker was arrested at a technical school in Phoenix, Arizona and is believed to have been behind the infamous attacks on Sony in late May. A second hacker was arrested in San Francisco and manhunts are ongoing in Minnesota, Montana and New Jersey according to an FBI official speaking to Fox News. 32 Anonymous hackers were detained in Turkey in June while another 16 were arrested in the United Kingdom and the United States. A 19-year old LulzSec member named Jack Davis who went by the handle “Topiary” was arrested in July and later released on bail. Anonymous and LulzSec are believed to have been behind a number of high-profile attacks against the U.S. government, Sony, Apple and other targets. Anonymous has egged on the FBI with numerous statements over the past few months and even published a public letter that stated: “Your threats to arrest us are meaningless to us as you cannot arrest an idea … there is nothing – absolutely nothing – you can possibly to do make us stop.” More →

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Legal
September 1, 2011
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Two additional ‘Anonymous’ hackers charged in UK

By on September 1, 2011 at 7:45 PM.

Two additional ‘Anonymous’ hackers charged in UK

Two additional members of Anonymous have been charged in the United Kingdom. The hackers were identified by London’s Metropolitan Police as Christopher Jan Weatherhead (20 years old) and Ashley Rhodes (26 years old), and they were both arrested in January of this year, The Wall Street Journal said. According to London’s Metropolitan Police, Weatherhead and Rhodes are charged with “conspiracy to do an unauthorized act in relation to a computer, with intent to impair the operation of any computer or prevent or hinder access to any program or data held in a computer or to impair the operation of any such program or the reliability of such data.” Rhodes and Weatherhead are out on bail and will appear in court on September 7th. A 22-year old U.K. hacker named Peter David Gibson was also charged for the same crimes on August 22nd. In addition, Jack Davis, a.k.a. Topiary from LulzSec, was arrested and released on bail earlier this month. Anonymous and LulzSec have carried out a number of large-scale DDoS attacks against major corporations, and most recently targeted Apple. More →

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