Infosecurity News
Emma Watson: World's most dangerous celebrity
Be careful, Harry Potter fans: Emma Watson has supplanted Heidi Klum as McAfee's 2012 most dangerous celebrity to search for online. It will take more than a magic wand to avoid threats: Watson searches yield a nearly a one-in-eight chance of landing on a malicious site.
In search of gold-selling, 11,000 Guild Wars 2 accounts already hacked
Just as security experts feared, the highly anticipated multiplayer video game known as Guild Wars 2 has found itself the target of hackers, who have already compromised 11,000 accounts in the name of gold-selling.
Google to acquire VirusTotal for email security
Joining the fight for online security, internet behemoth Google has acquired tiny security firm VirusTotal.
Pirate Bay co-founder extradited to Sweden
Hollywood studios rejoice: Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm Warg has been finally extradited to Sweden to begin a one-year jail sentence for copyright infringement, stemming from media piracy charges. He was also charged upon landing with a new rap: hacking into Swedish tax authority data.
GoDaddy had problems yesterday – but we don’t yet know what they were
“#tangodown http://www.godaddy.com/ by @AnonymousOwn3r” tweeted the hacker known as Anonymous Own3r yesterday. And sure enough, the company that describes itself as a “Worldwide hosting provider and the Web's largest domain registrar” was having problems.
Al-Jazeera SMS platform hacked by Syrian hacktivists
The war of disinformation surrounding the Syrian unrest and other political hot potatoes is continuing, with the Al-Jazeera news service falling victim in the latest attack.
Active authentication seeks to augment passwords
Passwords and access tokens, we are frequently told, are not enough. They can be broken, stolen or bypassed. DARPA is seeking a new approach – rather than authentication solely on access, it is looking for ways to maintain continuous biometric user authentication.
'Botnet Bandit' gets 2+ years in prison
The Botnet Bandit, as he’s known, has been brought to justice after infecting thousands of computers and using them for profit. Joshua Schichtel has been sentenced in federal court in the District of Columbia to 30 months in prison and three years of supervised release.
Hackers hold Mitt Romney's tax returns for ransom
An unidentified hacking group claims to have hacked PricewaterhouseCoopers's Franklin, Tenn., office to obtain access to Mitt Romney’s tax returns. It’s now attempting to hold the information for ransom, asking for $1 million, deliverable via Bitcoin, the encrypted digital currency.
Cloud, mobile security top of mind for the Feds
The cloud is still just a nascent service environment for the US federal government, for which meeting security compliance requirements is the top concern. Meanwhile, mobile security is the most dynamic area for the government.
The creators of BEAST now present CRIME
From the producers of BEAST, Juliano Rizzo and Thai Duong, comes a brand-new production: CRIME. CRIME will get its first showing at the Ekoparty security conference in Buenos Aires later this month.
The Elderwood project – it started with Aurora, but continues today
The Elderwood project is the name given by Symantec to attacks emanating from the same group implicated in the Aurora hack and Hydraq trojan used against Google two years ago. This group has never ceased being active.
Good Technology targets BYOD security with Copiun acquisition
Enterprise mobility software vendor Good Technology is looking to bolster security for the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend with the acquisition of mobile security firm Copiun.
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.
