Infosecurity News
Cambodia targeted by hacktivists over Pirate Bay arrest
Arrrrrgh: Cambodia is finding itself under attack from hacktivists protesting the arrest of one of the founders of The Pirate Bay file-sharing website. Cambodian authorities apprehended Gottfrid Svartholm Warg last week.
‘Warbiking’ enters the security lexicon
While the term is not new, the growth of WiFi is making it increasingly viable and attractive. It is the search for insecure WiFi access points by bicycle – and Sophos has been doing it around the streets of London.
Bitfloor becomes the latest hacked Bitcoin exchange
Bitfloor, one of the world’s leading online Bitcoin-to-cash exchanges, has been hacked and taken offline. It follows two earlier hacks this year on the UK trading site Bitcoinica, and has been called the fifth biggest heist of virtual currency.
What the Anonymous attacks on MI5 and MI6 tell us
As Infosecurity reported yesterday, both the MI5 and MI6 websites were attacked by Anonymous in the name of OpFreeAssange. Both sites were down for about an hour, demonstrating that few sites can withstand a concerted DDoS attack.
DSW Shoe Warehouse awarded $8.6M in cyber-insurance payout
Time for a shopping spree? For the owners of the DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse it may be. It has been awarded $6.8 million in insurance coverage, according to a federal appellate court ruling, after a 2005 data breach that exposed transaction information from 1.4 million credit card transactions.
UK schools put kids' information at risk through faulty security policies
The safety of schoolchildren in the U.K. is at risk, according to a new study from the British Educational Research Association, which found that 48% of schools have no personal data policy implemented. That means that a range of exploitable information, including addresses, routes to school and fingerprints are easy game for hackers.
Hackers claim FBI is tracking iPhone users
Is the government spying on your latest Plants vs. Zombies session or watching what you post on Facebook via your smartphone? Some hackers say yes.
Armenian cyber-warriors target Azeri websites after Safarov pardon
A cyber-war of sorts has broken out between Armenian and Azeri hackers over the August 31 extradition and pardon of Azeri murderer Ramil Safarov.
Sony hacked by NullCrew; Anonymous attacks MI5 and MI6
NullCrew, a new hacking group that has been particularly active over the last couple of months, has hacked Sony mobile websites – adding to its rapidly growing list of victims (Cambridge University, Yale University, Cambodia Army, PMT Air and many more).
LulzSec Sony Pictures hackers were school chums
The two hackers from the nefarious cybercriminal group LulzSec arrested in conjunction with the Sony Pictures data breach have turned out to be college friends, sharing a history of cyber-research and seemingly well-meaning training in the arts of security intrusion and detection.
Guild Wars 2 and the hackers’ gold rush
Guild Wars 2 was launched a few days ago, and already users are finding themselves locked out of their accounts. The reasons are primarily twofold: a crackdown on unacceptable behavior and the rise of gold selling.
Apple bans ‘drone strike’ app
An iOS app developed to heighten awareness of the US drone war has been rejected by Apple for the third time – just three weeks after the Electronic Frontier Foundation warned that a proposed new US bill “would have broad consequences for press freedom and the public’s right to know.”
OpFreeAssange turns into a feeding frenzy in the UK
It was always to be expected that hacktivists would respond vigorously to the effective house arrest of Julian Assange within the Ecuador Embassy in London, and the UK’s apparent determination to extradite him to Sweden.
Spyware takes over iPhones, Androids
Call it Invasion of the iPhone Snatchers: a new FinFisher-based spyware is built to infect iPhones and iPads (and Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone gadgets too) in order to take over the device completely – all unbeknownst to the user.
UK data breaches skyrocket more than 1,000%
The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has discovered skyrocketing growth in the number of self-reported data breaches in the last five years, with staggering quadruple-digit figures in the mix. The average percentage increase across sectors since 2007 is 1,014%.
Cyber-espionage Mahdi virus spreads further in Middle East
The Mahdi trojan cyber-espionage attack continues to expand in the Middle East, and especially Iran, despite its detection last month.
Frankenstein malware: a monster stitched together from trusted code
We’re all somewhat familiar with Frankenstein’s monster: an abomination that has been stitched together, a sum of repurposed body parts, given new life that requires re-learning how to be a creature. The heady themes of Mary Shelley’s famous novel have now made their way into the information security realm thanks to cyber-researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas, who have created a monster malware stitched together from other, legitimate programs’ parts.
Virus on virus – set a thief to catch a thief
The old debate on whether it would be ethical to use viruses to detect and even clean other viruses has largely been won by the law of unintended consequences: it's simply too dangerous. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen accidentally...
Rojadirecta.com and Rojadirecta.org to be released soon
A day short of 19 months after ICE’s Operation in Our Sights seized the Rojadirecta.com and .org domains, they are expected to be released within the next few hours, claims Rojadirecta.
Cyberattacks up 400% since 2011
Cyberattacks are intensifying across vectors and industry segments, according to agnostic research from FireEye.
