Magazine's database of US military personnel is hacked | Technology. A magazine subscriptions database which held personal information of members of the US armed forces has been hacked into, according to an American media company. The Gannett Government Media Corporation holds information about subscribers to Defense News, one of the world's most widely read publications on the military, and other publications aimed at serving US army, navy, air force and marines personnel. The company discovered the breach on 7 June and notified subscribers via email.
It said that names, passwords and email addresses had been hacked, and that other details, such as duty status, pay grades and type of service, were also obtained by the hackers. Emails can be used by cyber criminals for so-called phishing scams, where recipients receive an email purportedly from a trusted sender that is then used to gain control of their computer. One fear is that hackers could go on to take control of a government computer system.
Hacker Group Releases Allegedly Stolen Files. Usable Privacy and Security Lab (CUPS) September 2008: Our Anti-Phishing technologies are being commercialized by Wombat Security Technologies. Visit Wombat's web site for the latest version of the game and licensing information. About the game Anti-Phishing Phil is an interactive game that teaches users how to identify phishing URLs, where to look for cues in web browsers, and how to use search engines to find legitimate sites. Our user studies have found that user education can help prevent people from falling for phishing attacks. However, it is hard to get users to read security tutorials, and many of the available online training materials make users aware of the phishing threat but do not provide them with enough information to protect themselves. Our studies demonstrate that Anti-Phishing Phil is an effective approach to user education.
S. Licenses Anti-Phishing Phil is an entertaining and fun way to inform your employees or customers about phishing attacks and how to avoid them. Credits Contact Us. Hacks make Internet look lawless, but security just hasn't caught up to spear-phishers yet. The No-Duh Headline of the Day has to be Reuters' " Hacker attacks threaten to dampen cloud computing's prospects. " There isn't a thing wrong with either the headline or the story except that it's too narrow. Successful data breaches at Google, Epsilon, Sony, Sony, Sony, Sony, U.S. Rep Anthony Weiner, Lockheed Martin, HotMail, Yahoo,HTC and Sony don't just make consumers and businesses nervous about using the cloud. They make people nervous about using any kind of computer or network. They do shy away from buying or building those systems for themselves because they perceive that, since all those sites that got hacked are on the Internet, and everything on the Internet is "the cloud," then "the cloud" itself is a security threat.
First, the cloud and the Internet aren't the same thing. Consumers don't know that, and the finance execs that write the checks for big IT systems don't care. Neither "the cloud" nor the Internet are any more insecure than they were a couple of months ago. How You Can Directly Help the People of Egypt, Tunisia, and Others When Governments Control Communications. The Tor relay system allows individuals to access the internet while protecting their privacy and anonymity. This is of crucial importance to those whose governments are blocking access to their internet resources. You can install a Tor relay on your personal computer and directly assist those in other countries who are struggling for their freedom against their government oppressors.
Here are some resources to get you started: Campaign Access: Help the People of Egypt Help Egypt: Join the Cloud Tor Project: Relay Configuration Instructions The presence of numerous Tor relays will be an important service for the Egyptian people once internet service is again available. Ham Radio: There is discussion about trying to form an ARES type of emergency network via ham radio. Faxes: Faxes may be another way of communicating. Welcome to AnonOps Network | Anonymous Operations (AnonOps), Bitches don't know about our IRC Network. #openmesh Help Egypt.
Code for America: Hackers Helping Municipalities. Evidently corporate America needs to encourage a hacker culture to bounce back, and now local governments need hackers to help them solve their ever-increasing problems using their ever-decreasing budgets. Modeled after Teach for America, Doctors Without Borders and Architecture for Humanity, Code for America (CfA) officially launched on January 5, 2011. The brightest minds on the Internet frontier commit to an 11-month fellowship working with cities to use technology to build solutions for urban problems that are effective, cost-effective and can be duplicated in other cities around the country in the future.
Could this be the beginning of a Gov 2.0 boom? Out of 360 applications, 20 fellows were selected to work in four cities: Boston, Seattle, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. Unfortunately, Boulder had to drop out at a late date due to a severe budget issue. The problems vary from city to city, but are common to other cities throughout the country. Scroll down to see comments. 'Hacktivist' takes credit for WikiLeaks attacks via Twitter | Technology | Los Angeles Times. A self-proclaimed "hacktivist" is apparently taking some credit for the Internet attacks that shut down many pages on WikiLeaks.org today. The hacker, who goes by the name Jester, claims on his blog to have used distributed denial of service attacks to bring down websites in the past -- the same method WikiLeaks says it was hampered by on Sunday and today. Jester often claims responsibility for bringing down websites on his Twitter account using the phrase "tango down," which is used by the military to indicate that an enemy has been eliminated in a firefight.
Today, he sent multiple tweets directed at WikiLeaks: "www.wikileaks.org - TANGO DOWN - for attempting to endanger the lives of our troops, 'other assets' & foreign relations #wikileaks #fail""If I was a wikileaks 'source' right now I'd be getting a little twitchy, if they cant protect their own site, how can they protect a src? "" WikiLeaks says it's been hacked, crashed pages include U.S. diplomatic cables -- Nathan Olivarez-Giles. Stuxnet worm targets Iranian nuclear infrastructure. A high-ranking Iranian official recently acknowledged that at least 30,000 computers belonging to classified "industrial units" have been infected and subsequently disabled by the enigmatic Stuxnet worm. The official, who is responsible for overseeing Iran's industrial computer servers, also confirmed that Stuxnet was coded to specifically target Siemens control systems and transfer classified data abroad.
According to DebkaFile, Stuxnet is currently categorized as the "most destructive" virus ever designed to attack major industrial complexes, reactors and infrastructure. "Experts say it is beyond the capabilities of private or individual hackers and could have [only] been [developed] by a high-tech state like America or Israel, or its military cyber specialists," explained DebkaFile staff. "[And] it seems like the parts of Stuxnet dealing with PLCs have been designed to work on multiple nodes at once - which makes it fit well with a centrifuge plant like Natanz. " Who's Behind Stuxnet? The Americans? The Israelis? - Security Watch.
The security research world is oohing and ahhing lately at what may turn out to be the most sophisticated malware attack ever: Stuxnet. Stuxnet appears to be more than just another malware attack, and more than just another targeted attack. Many believe that it is a government-sponsored attack against Iran's nuclear facilities. Stuxnet first came to our attention as the first attack using Microsoft Windows Shortcut 'LNK/PIF' Files Automatic File Execution Vulnerability described first by Belorussian security firm VirusBlokAda.
The worm drops itself on the system and a link to that copy on any removable drives. Loading that drive on another system exploits the LNK vulnerability to load the malware automatically on that system. This was impressive enough when it came to light, but in fact Stuxnet uses 3 other zero-day vulnerabilities to spread under various circumstances. Together, all this sets a new record of Bob Beamon caliber and definitely merited further scrutiny.