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Hackers

Symantec code posted despite attempt to trap suspect

Dan Kaplan February 07, 2012

Email correspondence between a hacker and undercover agent may provide a glimpse into the type of blackmail that takes place when intellectual property is stolen.

MasterCard announces product future around EMV

Greg Masters February 07, 2012

The EMV standard, widely considered an effective way to curb counterfeit card fraud because it requires a microchip to be embedded in a credit or debit card or on a mobile device, is gradually picking up steam in the U.S.

Palin hacker appeal rejected

Greg Masters February 02, 2012

David Kernell, who hacked into Sarah Palin's email account, has lost an appeal against his obstruction of justice charge.

FINRA advises brokers to bulk up security

Dan Kaplan January 27, 2012

The self-regulating authority of Wall Street is warning securities firms about a rise in customers' email accounts being hacked to deliver bogus funds transfer requests.

Four charged with hacking Subway, other retailers

Angela Moscaritolo December 09, 2011

The defendants allegedly compromised the credit card data of 80,000 customers and made millions of dollars in unauthorized purchases.

Anonymous claims new Monsanto-related hack

Dan Kaplan December 08, 2011

The Anonymous hacktivist group claims it is responsible for putting a Washington, D.C. public relations firm, which formerly worked with the oft-criticized biotech giant Monsanto, out of business.

Illinois water pump failure not a cyberattack

Angela Moscaritolo November 28, 2011

An Illinois water utility pump failure may have been an accident caused by an employee -- not the work of foreign hackers.

AT&T struck with "organized" hacking attempt

Angela Moscaritolo November 22, 2011

Attackers attempted to use automated technologies to link AT&T telephone numbers with online accounts.

Anonymous leaks cybercrime investigator's private emails

Angela Moscaritolo November 21, 2011

The hack was carried out as part of Operation AntiSec, as revenge for police crackdowns against the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Water utilities in Illinois, Houston reportedly hacked

Angela Moscaritolo November 18, 2011

Hackers reportedly breached the systems of a company that makes supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, used to manage operations at critical infrastructure facilitates, and stole customer usernames and passwords.

Romanian hacker accused of breaking into NASA server

Angela Moscaritolo November 17, 2011

Robert Butyka was detained Tuesday in Cluj Napoca, Romania's fourth most populated city.

VCU server hacked to compromise personal data of 175K

Angela Moscaritolo November 14, 2011

Hackers accessed a sensitive computer server containing the personal information of faculty and students at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond.

FBI arrests six in click-fraud cyber scam that netted $14M

Angela Moscaritolo November 09, 2011

A gang of Estonians is accused of infecting millions of computers, many in the United States, with DNS-changing trojans capable of manipulating the online advertising industry through clickjacking.

Adversaries, allies stealing U.S. trade secrets

Angela Moscaritolo November 07, 2011

China and Russia were called out in a report as the world's most prolific perpetrators of economic espionage against the U.S.

Accused Scarlett Johansson hacker claims innocence

Angela Moscaritolo November 02, 2011

A Florida man pleaded innocent Tuesday to hacking into the email accounts of Scarlett Johansson, Mila Kunis, Christina Aguilera and dozens of other celebrities to steal photos, emails and other documents.

Microsoft YouTube channel hacked

Angela Moscaritolo October 24, 2011

Hackers over the weekend accessed Microsoft's YouTube channel to swap out videos with their own. It is unclear what the intruders' motive was, but they may have been able to access the account by stealing its login credentials from a Microsoft employee, Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at anti-virus firm Sophos, said in a blog post Sunday. One of the unauthorized videos posted was titled "Bingo" and featured an animated video game character shooting another character. By Monday morning, the channel was operating normally. The incident followed hackers last week taking over the Sesame Street YouTube channel to display pornographic videos.

Accused LulzSec hacker pleads innocent to Sony attack

Angela Moscaritolo October 18, 2011

A purported member of the hacktivist group LulzSec pleaded innocent Monday in federal court in Los Angeles to charges of hacking into the systems of Sony Pictures Entertainment. Cody Kretsinger, a.k.a. "recursion," 23, of Arizona is facing one count each of conspiracy and unauthorized impairment of a protected computer. He faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. He is accused of participating in a weeklong SQL injection attack, ending in early June, on the Sony Pictures site. The compromise resulted in the theft of data belonging to roughly one million users, some of which was publicly posted.

Celebrity email hacker arrested

Angela Moscaritolo October 14, 2011

A Florida man has been charged with hacking into the email accounts of Mila Kunis, Christina Aguilera, Scarlett Johansson and dozens of other celebrities to steal photos, emails and other documents. Christopher Chaney, 35, of Jacksonville was nabbed following an 11-month police investigation dubbed "Operation Hackerazzi," according to an FBI statement this week. Once he had access to a victim's email account, which he obtained by using publicly available information, he allegedly changed the settings so that all of their emails would be automatically forwarded to him. He also stole private photos, which he offered to celebrity blogs. Chaney was charged with accessing and damaging protected computers without authorization, wiretapping and aggravated identity theft. He faces up to 121 years in prison.

MySQL.com hacked to distribute malware

Angela Moscaritolo September 26, 2011

Visitors to MySQL.com on Monday were greeted with a drive-by download that attempted to silently install malware on their machine.

USA Today Twitter account hacked by The Script Kiddies

Angela Moscaritolo September 26, 2011

The Twitter account belonging to the USA Today was hacked over the weekend by a group called The Script Kiddies. In tweets posted from the compromised account, the hacktivist group bragged about past hacking feats, and urged users to "like" them on Facebook and vote on who they should infiltrate next. It is unclear how the hackers were able commandeer control of the account. The same group also claimed responsibility earlier this month for hacking the NBC News Twitter account and sending a series of erroneous tweets. In that case, a trojan permitted the takeover.

Seattle men indicted on hacking, fraud charges

Angela Moscaritolo September 22, 2011

Three men in their 30s used low- and high-tech means to install malware to steal banking credentials and credit numbers from dozens of businesses, according to federal prosecutors.

Hacker "soldier" steals $3.2 million from U.S. companies

Angela Moscaritolo September 15, 2011

Researchers at Trend Micro say they have been hot on the tracks of a corporate hacker, and now they are turning over their findings to U.S. law enforcement.

NBC Twitter hack attributed to 'Christmas tree' trojan

Angela Moscaritolo September 14, 2011

A group of hacktivists was able to compromise the NBC News Twitter account on Friday by tricking the network's social media head into clicking on a malicious attachment. According to an MSNBC report, a group known as The Script Kiddies commandeered control of the account to send a series of tweets falsely reporting an attack on Ground Zero in New York, two days before the 10th anniversary of 9/11. The mischief makers may have obtained the account's login information by duping Ryan Osborn, NBC News' director of social media, into clicking on an attachment, which installed a copy of the password-stealing "Christmas tree" trojan onto his machine. The erroneous tweets were removed soon after they were posted, and the FBI is looking into the matter. Twitter has since suspended the account of the The Script Kiddies, who also have hacked into the Facebook account of Pfizer.

GlobalSign discovers "isolated" web server compromise

Angela Moscaritolo September 13, 2011

Certificate authority GlobalSign has discovered that the web server hosting its site was compromised by hackers .

Possibly breached GlobalSign to bring services back Monday

Angela Moscaritolo September 08, 2011

Portsmouth, N.H.-based certificate authority (CA) GlobalSign plans to be back fully operating on Monday after temporarily suspending the issuance of SSL credentials due to claims from a hacker linked to attacks on Comodo and DigiNotar. In a Monday post to Pastebin, a hacker claimed responsibility for the major attack on DigiNotar and said he has access to four other CAs, including GlobalSign. "We are adopting a high-threat approach to bringing services back online and we are working with a number of organizations to audit the process," the company said in a news release. GlobalSign is still investigating the hacker's claims, but said it believes CAs are facing an "industry-wide" attack.

Account takeover still common, but getting detected faster

Dan Kaplan August 25, 2011

A new survey from FS-ISAC shows that corporate account takeover remains a persistent issue for banks, but they are getting better at detecting the fraud before any money changes hands.

Hackers break into sensitive Purdue University server

Angela Moscaritolo August 19, 2011

A computer server containing the personal information of thousands of former Purdue University students was accessed by hackers.

Attacks on BART continue as police records dumped

Dan Kaplan August 17, 2011

Revenge-seeking hackers have again struck at Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), this time infiltrating the agency's police association website to steal the personal information belonging to 102 officers.

Tracing the advanced persistent threat: Interview with Joe Stewart

Dan Kaplan August 10, 2011

While McAfee's recently released "Shady RAT" report concentrated on the victims of a mass cyberespionage ring, another researcher has decided to focus his attention on the adversaries behind such attacks. In a video recorded last week at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas, Joe Stewart of Dell SecureWorks explains how he was able to trace 60 families of custom malware thanks to error messages yielded by a "connection bouncer" tool used by the hackers to hide their tracks, but which inadvertently pointed back to about a dozen command-and-control centers hosted by ISPs in China. Two of the malware families are known to have been used in the RSA SecurID breach. "It gives you a better line on attribution," Stewart told SCMagazineUS.com.

Report: NSA to recruit from DEFCON attendee pool

Dan Kaplan August 02, 2011

Hackers attending the annual DEFCON show in Las Vegas this weekend won't just have the opportunity to see stimulating presentations and network with peers - they also may be able to score a government job. According to a report in Reuters, the National Security Agency will be at the $150-cash-only event, recruiting some of the brightest computer security minds to join the U.S. government as "cyber warriors." The NSA is looking to hire 3,000 people over the next two fiscal years for roles in cyber offense and defense. But this isn't the first time U.S. government agencies have been at DEFCON to recruit potential employees. In fact, the show's founder, Jeff Moss, is also a member of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Advisory Council. On the flip side, federal authorities also have made arrests at the show.