Hackers // Current

Russia and China may have hacked Obama computers

Although there have been reports of sabre-rattling to challenge the Barack Obama presidency, it seems so hackers from China and... more

doithengiaorg
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Obama and McCain computers 'hacked by foreign entity'

"FBI and White House officials told the Obama campaign that they believed that a foreign entity or organization sought to... more

TravG73
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Hackers leverage Obama win for massive malware campaign

Hackers have seized on the results of the U.S. presidential election to launch a major malware campaign that tries to trick users... more

IMMININT
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No On Prop 8 Website Attacked By Hackers

The "No On Proposition 8" website was hit with a Denial-of-Service attack early Thursday morning. The campaign has... more

radiomatthew
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Hacking Your Kitchen

This new cookbook aims to please both foodies and hackers alike, with projects from pumpkin pinhole cameras to edible lingerie.

khsing
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Pensioners accused and fined,for illegal download

Despite never having played a computer game in their long lives, pensioners Gill and Ken Murdoch were targeted, threatened and... more

Beta_Boy
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Alarm raised on teenage hackers

Increasing numbers of teenagers are starting to dabble in hi-tech crime, say experts. Computer security professionals say many... more

Matthuffy
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Chinese Hackers Crack Microsoft Anti-Piracy ‘Black Screen of Death’

On October 20, Microsoft China announced that they would release an anti-piracy patch in China called the “Black Screen of... more

TravG73
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US Voting Machine Vulnerabilities

For those of us unfortunate enough to be Americans right now, we have more to worry about than who we’re going to elect as... more

Apocalipstick
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US hacker escapes child abuse charges through cooperation

A Pennsylvania student was sentenced to 3 months in custody on Tuesday after confessing his part in a cyber attack that crashed... more

Beta_Boy
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Beware the digital zombies

REDMOND, Washington: In a windowless room on Microsoft's campus here, T. J. Campana, a cybercrime investigator, connects an... more

Eat_Disco
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Want to learn to really hack? Easy as pie. Simply learn to ...

Tell me how to hack! Yeah right. You ask any hacker or newsgroup this and your gonna get flamed. Flaming is when someone... more

arcticspirit
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Cybersting: FBI ran DarkMarket forum to catch cybercriminals

Cybercrime trading site was FBI honey trap The cybercriminal forum DarkMarket.ws, frequented by identity thieves looking to... more

arcticspirit
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FBI sees rise in computer crime, cyber attacks

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Computer spying and theft of personal information have risen notably in the past year, costing tens of millions of dollars and threatening U.S. security, the FBI's cyber division head said Wednesday.

FBI Assistant Director Shawn Henry told reporters that organized-crime groups are drawn by the ease of reaching millions of potential victims.

He said as many as two dozen countries have taken an "aggressive interest" in penetrating the networks of U.S. companies and government agencies.

He declined to specify countries, but U.S. intelligence agencies have voiced concern over Russia and China's abilities to electronically spy on the United States and disrupt U.S. computer networks.

As one possible example of Russia's electronic spying prowess, Georgia accused Moscow in August of conducting "cyber warfare" to shut down Georgian government websites at the same time as it carried out a military offensive.

U.S. federal agents are stepping up efforts to fight computer crime, and working with foreign counterparts where the rising wave of computer attacks has awakened international interest, Henry said.

"Over the past year the malicious activity has become much more prevalent," Henry said. "The threat continues to increase."

An attack method growing in popularity is "botnets," in which malicious software spreads via viruses to computers of unwitting individuals and companies forms networks that can then be used for data theft or shutting down a system, Henry said.

Another method, "Spearfishing," when hackers get a copy of a company's e-mail list, then send out official-looking requests for employee personal information, has also been a growing problem, he said.

He said computer crime has invaded Wall Street, but had nothing to do with the current financial system crises.

Individual investment companies have, however, lost tens of millions of dollars through "pump and dump" schemes in which criminals penetrated multiple client accounts and used them to run up the price of low-liquidity stocks and dump them from their own accounts.

Internet Crime Complaint Center, which the FBI helps run, has recorded more than 1 million complaints since its founding in 2000 and numbers are now running about 18,000 to 20,000 per month, Henry said. (Editing by Philip Barbara) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Computer spying and theft of personal information have risen notably in the past year, costing tens of... more

arcticspirit
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1 month ago

Cybercrime Supersite 'DarkMarket' Was FBI Sting, Documents Confirm

DarkMarket.ws, an online watering hole for thousands of identify thieves, hackers and credit card swindlers, has been secretly run... more

tokomoe
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1 month ago

Our Hackable Democracy

Want to be sure that your vote won't be miscounted, redirected or sabotaged in November's election? If you live in New... more

Apocalipstick
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1 month ago

Hackers using fake YouTube pages to attack computers

Computer security specialists warn that hackers are using fake YouTube pages to trick people into opening their machines to diabolical software.

A deceptive YouTube attack evolving as it spreads on the Internet is part of a growing trend of hackers to prowl popular online social networking communities in which people trustingly share web links and mini-programs.

"We are seeing tools like this not just for YouTube, but for MySpace, Facebook, America Online instant messaging ...," Trend Micro software threat research manager Jamz Yaneza told AFP on Thursday.

"All the various social networking sites have been hit with some page or another."

Hackers using the YouTube attack send people links to what are said to be must-see snippets at the Google-owned video-sharing website.

The links, instead, connect to convincingly realistic replicas of YouTube pages and tell people that a software update is needed to view a requested video.

Agreeing to the update lets the hacker install malicious software that could log keystrokes, steal data, or even take over people's computers, according to David Perry of Trend Micro.

Victims are not likely to catch onto the invasion since the hackers' software is able to stealthily link to the real YouTube website and play a promised video.

"This works as your typical drive-by download," Yaneza said of hackers planting malicious software in machines while rerouting online traffic.

"Essentially this can be used as a tool to serve up everything -- botnets, key loggers. Visually, you can't differentiate this from your regular YouTube page, it is done so well."

While some computer users might be able to spy something unusual about the online address, or "URL," of a bogus page, the safest thing to do is not trust links and instead go directly to YouTube for recommended videos.

"The reason they are using YouTube now is that during the elections we are looking at YouTube a lot," Perry said of hackers. "It is using social networking software in an anti-social way -- anti-social networking."

Hackers at a recent gathering of software savants in Las Vegas told AFP that social networks are prime places to take advantage of people's trust.Computer security specialists warn that hackers are using fake YouTube pages to trick people into opening their machines to... more