June 2011
23 posts
5 tags
Lulz attacks: US orders review as Senate site... →
US officials said they have ordered a security review after hackers managed to break into the Senate website at the weekend. An official said the incident had been “inconvenient”, but had not compromised the security of the staff. The confirmation came after Lulz Security, a loosely aligned group of hackers, said it had carried out the attack for fun and posted files online.
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Supreme Court Affirms High Standard of Proving... →
Today the Supreme Court upheld the Federal Circuit’s rule that, in litigation, a patent may only be proved invalid by clear and convincing evidence. EFF filed an amicus brief in the case – Microsoft Corp. v. i4i Limited Partnership – supporting Microsoft’s request that the standard for proving invalidity merely be by a preponderance of the evidence (more likely than not) rather than...
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Citi Credit Card Data Breached for 200,000... →
Citigroup said Thursday hackers acquired personal information on about 200,000 credit-card holders, the financial institution’s second announced breach this week. The attack, first reported by the Financial Times, comes amid a host of cyber intrusions into well-known companies, including Google, Sony, EMC, Lockheed Martin and L-3.
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Dropbox Left User Accounts Unlocked for 4 Hours... →
At a time when hackers are on a tear looting information willy-nilly from insecure sites on the Web, Dropbox did the unthinkable Sunday — it allowed anyone in the world to access any one of its 25 million customers’ online storage lockers — simply by typing in any password.
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From near earth orbit: How to analyze Usama Bin... →
All right so the title is total link bait. The United States seized some number of computers and peripherals from the compound in Pakistan. Those materials will be evaluated and analyzed for intelligence purposes and perhaps used in planning future actions. Since the method of acquisition is not secret there is little loss of future intelligence capacity due to announcing the acquisition of the...
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Is Google Wallet Secure? What You Need to Know →
Google announced its long-awaited mobile payments platform, Google Wallet, in New York City on Thursday. The company claims it will revolutionize commerce. But with stories about massive data breaches and hacks an almost daily occurance, consumers are most concerned about whether Google Wallet is secure. Here’s what you need to know.
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How to Disable Facebook's Facial Recognition... →
Back in December of 2010, Facebook debuted its tag suggestion feature, which works by using facial recognition technology to examine photos in which you’ve already been tagged, and then creating what Facebook calls your “photo summary” or “photo comparison information,” or what we’ll call your “facial fingerprint.” Using this information, FB suggests your name to your friends when they upload a...
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FTC launching antitrust probe over Google search,... →
Google is about to get served—with a civil subpoena, that is. The Federal Trade Commission is on the verge of serving Google as part of a formal antitrust investigation into Google’s Web dominance, according to sources speaking to the Wall Street Journal, with the requests for more information expected to be sent to Google “within days.”
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Woman Charged With 'Obstructing Governmental... →
We’ve had a ton of stories recently about police reacting badly (and contrary to what the law says) when they discover that someone is filming some of their actions in public. Police keep trying to claim that doing so is illegal, and have even tried to claim that such video taping violates wiretapping laws. The latest such example is really bizarre. Boing Boing points us to a story of how...
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Sony now 'hyper vigilant' regarding user account... →
Considering the fallout from recent hack attacks made against several of Sony’s entertainment properties, it comes as little surprise to learn that the Japanese electronics giant is ramping up its online protection.
More pointedly, the president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) has said the company is now being “hyper vigilant” where the security of user data is concerned.
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The Bitcoin Bubble →
If you haven’t already heard about bitcoin, the first popular cypto-currency, you soon will. The idea for the currency is simple. It’s a software system that makes it possible to manufacture and trade (P2P), in a public and decentralized way, a limited digital resource. That’s it. So why the interest in bitcoin?
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A case of never letting the source spoil a good... →
Why don’t journalists link to primary sources? Whether it’s a press release, an academic journal article, a formal report or perhaps (if everyone’s feeling brave) the full transcript of an interview, the primary source contains more information for interested readers, it shows your working, and it allows people to check whether what you wrote was true. Perhaps linking to...
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Why we secretly love LulzSec →
Although large sections of the security community will deny it if you ask them, they’re secretly enjoying watching LulzSec’s campaign of mayhem unfold. So far the “hacker group” has penetrated systems owned by Sony, PBS, the “FBI affiliate site” Infragard, security company (hah!) Unveillance and Nintendo, among others. They’re posting proprietary...
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Report: Norwegian Military Hit by Cyber Attack in... →
The Norwegian military has admitted it was hit by a “massive” phishing cyber attack in March, according to a report from Techworld.com. The attack began in an e-mail sent to select members of the defense ministry from what appeared to be another Norwegian government agency. An enclosed attachment containing a virus was discovered, warnings were issued and no classified information was taken, the...
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Gmail Hackers Phished Victims for Months →
An independent security researcher who was among the first to investigate a large scale phishing attack aimed at U.S. government and military personnel says that attackers controlled victim accounts for months and repeatedly phished victims during that time. Mila Parkour, a Washington D.C. based independent says that victims of the account takeovers were repeatedly phished over almost a year by...
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A Weiner Schnitzel →
Congressional member and famous womanizer, Anthony Weiner was caught sexting a picture of his penis to a coed via Twitter. He claims it was a prankster who did it, by hacking his account. Indeed, the guy who broke the story, @PatriotUSA76, has also been Twitter-stalking the congressman for the last month. What’s the likely truth? It’s impossible to say. Celebrities famous for their womanizing...
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Underground Website Lets You Buy Any Drug... →
Making small talk with your pot dealer sucks. Buying cocaine can get you shot. What if you could buy and sell drugs online like books or light bulbs? Now you can: Welcome to Silk Road. About three weeks ago, the U.S. Postal Service delivered an ordinary envelope to Mark’s door. Inside was a tiny plastic bag containing 10 tabs of LSD. “If you had opened it, unless you were looking for it, you...
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DroidDream Returns, Dozens of Apps Pulled From... →
Researchers have identified a second large batch of apps in the Android Market that have been infected with the DroidDream malware, estimating that upwards of 30,000 users have downloaded at least one of the more than 30 infected apps. Google has removed the apps from the market. There are at least 34 applications that researchers have found in the Android Market in the last few days that had a...
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Lockheed Martin: They got nothing... all our... →
In a statement addressing reports of attacks on its systems, Lockheed Martin, the largest military contractor in the world, has stated that it did in fact detect attempts to breach the network, but noted that they were unsuccessful. Located in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed employs more than 126,000 people the world over, and generated nearly $45.8 billion USD in sales last year. Most of this money...
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Lockheed Martin investigates possible link between... →
US-based global defence firm Lockheed Martin says it has beefed up security around remote access to its IT network after a “significant and tenacious attack” on 21 May, which could be linked to an earlier breach at security firm RSA. Lockheed maintains that its systems remain secure and that no customer, project or employee personal data was compromised in the attack, reported a week...
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35 Million Google Profiles Captured In Database →
Caveat poster: A security researcher has assembled a single database containing 35 million people’s Google Profiles information, including Twitter feeds, real names, and email addresses, among other data points. Google bills Profiles as a way to “decide what the world sees when it searches for you.”
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Curmudgeonry →
Take the word curmudgeon and shove it
A lot of people in security call themselves curmudgeon because they think it’s a license to spew vitriol. It’s time to throw that label in the trash. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately because I see an increasing number of security practitioners who are good people and good at their craft who choose to screw it all up by taking...
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iOS 5 overhauls notifications, messaging while... →
Apple on Monday announced that the next major version of iOS, set to ship this fall, will include over 200 new user features. During the keynote presentation at its Worldwide Developers Conference, Senior Vice President of iOS Engineering Scott Forstall demonstrated just 10 of those features, including overhauled notifications, BlackBerry-style messaging for all iOS devices, and the ability to...