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Tag Archives: Hacking
The Latest Hardware Hacking Tool: A Machine that Carves Custom Circuit Boards
Posted by Gsurface
on May 18, 2013
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Watch Dogs game true-to-life hacking developed with real security pros
Posted by Gsurface
on May 12, 2013
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The development team at Ubisoft have been working on the game Watch Dogs for an unusually long time. This hacker-themed game has been in development for 4.5 years, long enough for the original concept to have gotten so close to real life that its developers have been able to easily consult with a team of
Systems manager arrested for hacking former employer's network
Posted by Gsurface
on May 3, 2013
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A 41-year-old man was arrested for allegedly disrupting his former employer's network after he was passed over for promotions, leading him to quit his job and take revenge, the FBI said.
Computerworld News
Dutch Bill Seeks To Give Law Enforcement Hacking Powers
Posted by Gsurface
on May 3, 2013
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An anonymous reader writes “The Dutch government today presented a draft bill that aims to give law enforcement the power to hack into computer systems — including those located in foreign countries — to do research, gather and copy evidence or block access to certain data. Law enforcement should be allowed to block access to child pornography, read emails that contain information exchanged between criminals and also be able to place taps on communication, according to a draft bill published Thursday and signed by Ivo Opstelten, the Minister of Security and Justice. Government agents should also be able to engage in activities such as turning on a suspect’s phone GPS to track their location, the bill said. Opstelten announced last October he was planning to craft this bill.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Dutch bill would give police hacking powers
Posted by Gsurface
on May 2, 2013
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The Dutch government today presented a draft bill that aims to give law enforcement the power to hack into computer systems — including those located in foreign countires — to do research, gather and copy evidence or block access to certain data.
Computerworld News
Hacking HIV
Posted by Gsurface
on April 28, 2013
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Thirty-four million people in the world are infected with HIV. Only eight million have access to life-saving drugs, and there’s no effective vaccine. Researchers at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard won’t rest until they find one.
On a May afternoon in 2008, Bruce Walker and Terry Ragon ‘71 paid a recruiting visit to MIT. Walker is a Harvard Medical School physician who has studied HIV for three decades; Ragon, the founder and CEO of a software company called InterSystems, was about to bankroll a new $ 100 million research institute to develop HIV vaccines, with Walker at its head.
Reuters fires social media editor after Anonymous hacking probe
Posted by Gsurface
on April 23, 2013
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Matthew Keys says he was told his termination was related to his tweet activity during the Boston Marathon bomber manhunt, but that his federal indictment was not mentioned. [Read more]
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Hacking airplanes in flight? I did that a year ago, Brad ‘RenderMan’ Haines says
Posted by Gsurface
on April 12, 2013
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PBS shows how hacking is reclaiming its good name after a bad rap (video)
Posted by Gsurface
on March 31, 2013
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Hacking is still a loaded concept for many, often conjuring negative images of corporate espionage, fraudsters and prank-minded script kiddies. PBS’ Off Book wants to remind us that hacking wasn’t always seen this way — and, thanks to modern developments, is mending its reputation. Its latest episode shows that hacking began simply as a desire to advance devices and software beyond their original roles, but was co-opted by a sometimes misunderstanding press that associated the word only with malicious intrusions. Today, hacking has regained more of its original meaning: hackathons, a resurgence of DIY culture and digital protests prove that hacks can improve our gadgets, our security and even our political landscape. We still have a long way to go before we completely escape movie stereotypes, but the mini-documentary may offer food for thought the next time you’re installing a custom ROM or building your own VR helmet.
Filed under: Misc, Networking, Internet, Alt
Top Chinese university linked to Chinese hacking group
Posted by Gsurface
on March 25, 2013
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Faculty members at one of the top universities in China have been linked to the People’s Liberation Army Unit 61398, the same group that has been accused of hacking several U.S. based companies as well as several media outlets. The university in question, Shanghai Jiaotong University, is a prestigious school known for its successful graduates,
Two charged with gift-card hacking scheme
Posted by Gsurface
on March 16, 2013
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Two California men face charges in Massachusetts of hacking into point-of-sale computers at Subway restaurants and adding more than $ 40,000 in value to gift cards, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
Computerworld News
Pwn2Own hacking contest winds down after paying a record $480K
Posted by Gsurface
on March 8, 2013
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A day after researchers hacked Chrome and Firefox at the Pwn2Own contest, Google and Mozilla patched their browsers Thursday.
Computerworld News
Evernote hit in hacking attack, users must reset their passwords
Posted by Gsurface
on March 2, 2013
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Evernote, which makes business and consumer productivity software for things like taking notes and doing research, is forcing all of its 50 million users to change their passwords after detecting a hacker intrusion on its sytems.
Computerworld News
Unmasked, but Unfazed—Chinese Hacking Group Is Still Active
Posted by Gsurface
on March 1, 2013
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An exposé of its methods and technology may not have deterred a group targeting U.S. corporate secrets.
The computer hacking group accused last week of being part of a specific unit of the Chinese military is apparently unfazed by the public attention triggered by a detailed report on its activities published by the security firm Mandiant. Another researcher tracking the group says that most of the infrastructure it had in place to carry out attacks remains in place.
Zendesk Hacking Affects Tumblr, Pinterest and Twitter Users
Posted by Gsurface
on February 22, 2013
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Customer service software provider Zendesk announced a security breach that affects users of Twitter, Pinterest and Tumblr. Zendesk said that the hacker downloaded email addresses of users who have contacted those three Web sites for support, as well as support email subject lines. Tumblr and Twitter have notified affected users (see below), while Pinterest is expected to the same. A report on Wired says that some customers may have also had their phone numbers revealed, but passwords, password hashes, and encrypted passwords were not part of the breach.
TechCrunch
Security Firm Mandiant Says China’s Army Runs Hacking Group APT1
Posted by Gsurface
on February 19, 2013
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judgecorp writes “The Chinese government has been accused of backing the APT1 hacking group, which appears to be part of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), according to the security firm which worked with the New York Times when it fell victim to an attack. The firm, Mandiant, says that APT1 is government sponsored, and seems to operate from the same location as PLA Unit 61398.” Unsurprisingly, this claim is denied by Chinese officials.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Chinese military linked to advanced hacking group targeting US companies
Posted by Gsurface
on February 19, 2013
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Evidence implicates Chinese government in hacking attacks against U.S.
Posted by Gsurface
on February 19, 2013
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You’ll have to be living under a rock to have missed the hoopla this year about alleged Chinese hackers attacking – and sometimes infiltrating – American media companies and other such businesses. The New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal have all stated this year that they were the target of attacks that
Dutch MP Fined For Ethical Hacking
Posted by Gsurface
on February 16, 2013
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An anonymous reader writes “Dutch Member of Parliament (MP) Henk Krol was fined 750 (US$ 1,000) by the district court of Oost-Brabant on Friday for breaking and entering the system of the Dutch medical laboratory Diagnostics for You. Krol said he entered the system as an ethical hacker to show that it was easy to access and download confidential medical information. Krol, leader of the Dutch 50plus party, accessed the systems of the laboratory with a login and password he had obtained from a patient of the clinic, who in turn had overheard the information at the laboratory from a psychiatrist that worked there … In April last year, Krol used the login information to enter the company’s Web server and subsequently viewed and downloaded medical files of several patients. He did this to prove how easy it was to get access to the systems, according to the ruling (PDF in Dutch).’”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Targeted Hacking Forces a New Reality on Antivirus Companies
Posted by Gsurface
on February 14, 2013
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An influx of advanced malware will force big antivirus companies to either evolve or cede turf to a crop of startups.
When the New York Times revealed this month that hackers had recently breached its networks, what turned the heads of security experts wasn’t that the attacks had occurred. It was a top antivirus company’s unusually candid admission about the limits of its own technology.
Symantec was put on the defensive because its software only once detected and quarantined any of the 45 pieces of custom malware the hackers had used to target the New York Times and ferret out certain reporters’ e-mails, a heist the newspaper itself reported in a news article. According to a Times spokeswoman, the paper did have the latest antivirus software on all computers on its network; but to guard against so-called advanced persistent threats, “antivirus software alone is not enough,” read Symantec’s statement.
Google offers $3.14159 million in hacking prizes
Posted by Gsurface
on February 2, 2013
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Whoever successfully cracks Google's Chrome operating system at this year's Pwnium hacking contest will walk away with a piece of the pi.
FOX News
Twitter: Hacking attacks may have accessed data of 250K users
Posted by Gsurface
on February 2, 2013
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In a blog post this afternoon, Twitter explained that the attacks may have comprised data for a quarter of a million users, and issued recommendations for stronger password security. [Read more]
CNET News
Twitter warns of a concerted hacking attempt, says 250,000 might be affected
Posted by Gsurface
on February 2, 2013
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Now would be a good time to refresh your Twitter password. The social network has revealed that there was at least one attack on its servers this week that may have collected email addresses, passwords (thankfully encrypted) and session tokens for about 250,000 users. The real risk to users is unknown, but Twitter raises our eyebrows when it suggests that this was more than just a casual scripting hack: it claims the intrusion attempt was “extremely sophisticated,” and that other firms might have been subject to a similar breach. You’ll know that you were immediately affected only if you see Twitter send a notice of a forced password reset, like what you see pictured above. We’d be cautious, all the same — when such attempts seemingly increase in frequency by the day, it’s not a bad idea to stay on guard.
Filed under: Internet
Source: Twitter
Google stakes Pwnium hacking contest to $3.14M in potential prizes
Posted by Gsurface
on January 29, 2013
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Google today announced it would again host its Pwnium hacking contest at a March security conference, but boosted the maximum amount it will pay to $ 3.14 million and changed the target to the browser-based Chrome OS.
Computerworld News
White House unveils National Day of Civic Hacking to solve problems with open data
Posted by Gsurface
on January 23, 2013
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Sure, the freshly announced National Day of Civic Hacking may sound like it’ll occupy a single square on your calendar, but the White House wants folks to get together on June 1st and 2nd to solve problems with a bit of coding and info from Uncle Sam. Government agencies including the Census Bureau, NASA and the Department of Labor are set to serve up publicly available data for developers and entrepreneurs to concoct solutions for problems affecting cities, states and the country. In addition to government support, the effort is being organized by outfits including Code for America, Random Hacks of Kindness and Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors. Currently, 27 cities have events scheduled during the weekend in question, but the initiative’s coordinators are looking to spawn even more powwows throughout the US. If you’d like to pitch in or submit ideas for challenges participants should tackle, hit the source links below.
Via: TechCrunch
Source: White House OSTP, Hack for Change
U.S. government invites hackers to ‘Civic Hacking Day’
Posted by Gsurface
on January 23, 2013
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Agencies — like NASA, Department of Labor, and the Census Bureau — will give hackers access to data for a weekend in June in an effort to help the country’s communities. [Read more]
CNET News
Pwn2Own hacking contest puts record $560K on the line
Posted by Gsurface
on January 18, 2013
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HP TippingPoint, the long-time organizer of the annual Pwn2Own hacking contest, has revamped the challenge for the second year running and will offer cash awards exceeding half a million dollars, more than five times the amount paid out last year.
Computerworld News
Prosecutor in Aaron Swartz ‘hacking’ case comes under fire
Posted by Gsurface
on January 16, 2013
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Carmen Ortiz was being talked about last month as the next Massachusetts governor. Now she’s being investigated for threatening the late Aaron Swartz with decades in prison. [Read more]
CNET News
Extreme Diet Hacking: How Cheesecake Made Me Leaner And Stronger With Carb Backloading
Posted by Gsurface
on December 30, 2012
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Never before have I binged so many delicious desserts, yet been stronger or more ripped. For 3 weeks, I experimented with a cult bodybuilding diet, Carb Backloading, which promises outcomes too good to be true: slam carbs at night after heavy lifting, get slimmer and build muscle. Like all web sensations, there aren’t any large scale studies, and anecdotal reviews never properly control for all the right variables. Only a methodical body hacking experiment, with the latest gadgets and devices tracking calorie burn, fat loss, and training intensity, could legitimately test this dream diet.
The results? Despite eating a thousand more calories a day–mostly comprised of sundaes and cheesecake–I’ve maintained my weight, have noticeable ab definition, and increased my strength an average of 37% over all muscle groups.
TechCrunch
Defining A Growth Hacker: Debunking The 6 Most Common Myths About Growth Hacking
Posted by Gsurface
on December 8, 2012
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Editor’s note: Aaron Ginn is currently Head of Growth at StumbleUpon.
More and more startups are looking to hire growth hackers or to develop their own growth strategies. However, there are a handful of myths about the purpose and function of growth hacking itself that have gained traction. In this article, I will explore six of the more common myths ones that serve to misconstrue growth hacking methods and goals and set false expectations.
TechCrunch
Conviction in iPad Website Hacking Case
Posted by Gsurface
on November 21, 2012
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Tuesday afternoon in federal court in Newark, NJ, a jury convicted Andrew “Weev” Auernheimer for his role in a 2010 exploit that caused an AT&T account maintenance website to leak 114,000 email addresses of iPad owners. Auernheimer was convicted on both counts for which he was charged.
TechCrunch
Anonymous hacking spree hits PayPal, Symantec
Posted by Gsurface
on November 5, 2012
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PayPal, Symantec hacked as Anonymous begins November 5 hacking spree. [Read more]
CNET News
‘Saturday Night Live’ Web site defaced in apparent hacking
Posted by Gsurface
on November 5, 2012
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Site’s content replaced with Guy Fawkes nursery rhyme as well as an indication that “user info” and “passwords” had been exposed. [Read more]
CNET News
Old-Fashioned Control Systems Make U.S. Power Grids, Water Plants a Hacking Target
Posted by Gsurface
on October 13, 2012
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Critical infrastructure is at risk of a cyberattack because of systems that haven’t kept pace with Internet threats.
U.S. defense secretary Leon Panetta warned this week that successful attacks have been made on computer control systems of American electricity and water plants and transportation systems. Panetta didn’t give details about those incidents, but he said they showed that foreign nations or extremist groups could use such tactics to derail trains or shut down power grids. Computer-security experts say those claims are plausible—even if the scenario is not necessarily likely to happen—because of the outdated technology used to operate critical infrastructure.
Texas man linked to Anonymous hacking group indicted
Posted by Gsurface
on October 5, 2012
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Ask Slashdot: Hacking Urban Noise?
Posted by Gsurface
on September 29, 2012
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b1tbkt writes “I live at the corner of one of the busiest intersections in my city (pop. 350k). Although I’ve replaced all windows, insulated, and caulked every square inch of the place, the fire trucks and cars with obnoxious stereos still regularly intrude on my home office. Most of the noise comes in through the windows. I’m considering mounting an oblong parabolic reflector in the ceiling above the windows with a steady feed of white or brownian noise directed into it (e.g., via a small speaker placed within the reflector) to create a ‘wall’ of sound that would act as a buffer to the outside world. Active noise cancellation would be nice, too, but that’s probably more than I want to take on. I don’t see any products on the market for this sort of thing. Does anyone have any experiences to share with similar homebrew noise remediation efforts?”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Securing Our Minds: The Need For Brainwave Tech Standards Against Hacking
Posted by Gsurface
on September 16, 2012
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Editor’s note: Ariel Garten is the co-founder and CEO of InteraXon, a Toronto-based company that builds brainwave-enabled products and applications. In her work as a neuroscientist and entrepreneur, Ariel’s insights into how the human mind works are creating new ways for society to interact with the world – and ourselves – using the power of our brains. Follow her on Twitter: @ariel_garten.
Last month, researchers from UC Berkeley, Oxford, and University of Geneva posted results of a joint research study suggesting hackers could hijack a brainwave-reading headset and attempt to uncover sensitive user information – think PINs and bank information.
TechCrunch
Hacking Your Hand
Posted by Gsurface
on August 4, 2012
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Japanese researchers take control of your hand. Good idea?
Eerie welding gear isn’t the only thing on display at the forthcoming Siggraph conference in LA. Researchers from Tokyo will be presenting something called “PossessedHand,” an apparatus that can actually control your hand for you. Isn’t human-machine interaction generally supposed to go the other way?
Two Arrested For Hacking Personal Data of 8.7 Million Phone Users
Posted by Gsurface
on July 30, 2012
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An anonymous reader writes “South Korea’s second largest wireless service provider, has apologized after personal data of 8.7 millions of its mobile phone subscribers was stolen by hackers. The details are suspected to have been sold to marketing firms, netting the hackers close to $ 1 million. From the article: ‘South Korean police have arrested two men who allegedly stole the personal information of about 8.7 million cellphone customers from KT Corp., the second biggest mobile carrier in South Korea. The company alerted police on July 13 after detecting traces of hacking attacks. The data was collected for the last five months, starting in February 2012.’”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
New Mac Trojan hints at ties to high-priced commercial hacking toolkit
Posted by Gsurface
on July 27, 2012
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French security firm Intego discovered a new Mac Trojan horse this week that is being used to target specific individuals.
Computerworld News
GPS Weakness Could Enable Mass Smartphone Hacking
Posted by Gsurface
on July 27, 2012
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A malicious Wi-Fi network could command devices to report future movements—and perhaps snoop on private data.
Weaknesses in the technology that allows smartphone users to pinpoint themselves on a map, or check into restaurants and bars using apps such as Foursquare, could allow those users to be tracked remotely.
Researcher wows Black Hat with NFC-based smartphone hacking demo
Posted by Gsurface
on July 26, 2012
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At the Black Hat Conference in Las Vegas Wednesday, Accuvant Labs researcher Charlie Miller showed how he figured out a way to break into both the Google/Samsung Nexus S and Nokia N9 by means of the Near Field Communication (NFC) capability in the smartphones.
Computerworld News
Researcher releases smart meter hacking tool
Posted by Gsurface
on July 20, 2012
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Security consulting firm SecureState today released a new open source hacking tool that it claims will let security researchers and penetration testers verify the security of electric utility smart meters being installed in millions of homes around the country.
Computerworld News
AT&T Sponsors Zero-Day Hacking Contest For Kids
Posted by Gsurface
on July 17, 2012
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yahoi writes “AT&T has teamed up with an 11-year-old hacker and DefCon Kids to host a hacking contest during the second annual conference that runs in conjunction with the adult Def Con hacker show later this month in Las Vegas. The kid who finds the most zero-day bugs in mobile apps wins $ 1,000 and an IPad, courtesy of DefCon Kids. The contest was inspired by the mini-hacker’s discovery last year of a whole new class of mobile app vulnerabilities.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
App Shows Promise for Hacking Eating Behavior
Posted by Gsurface
on June 21, 2012
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Data from 100,000 people’s ratings and shared photos of 500,000 meals suggests mobile apps could nudge us toward healthier food choices.
Could a social app that is a kind of Instagram for food help save smart-phone users from their own eating habits? Users of an iPhone app called The Eatery snap photos of everything they eat, follow other users to see what they are enjoying, and rate the healthiness of one another’s meals. Now analysis of patterns in the 7.7 million ratings given to 500,000 meals is being used to plan a follow-up app that will steer people toward eating more healthfully.
N.J. mayor arrested on hacking, conspiracy charges
Posted by Gsurface
on May 26, 2012
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The mayor of West New York, New Jersey, was arrested together with his son on Thursday, for allegedly hacking into a website that criticized him and his administration.
Computerworld News
New ‘Unknowns’ hacking group hits NASA, Air Force, European Space Agency
Posted by Gsurface
on May 3, 2012
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Hacking the Law
Posted by Gsurface
on April 25, 2012
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New submitter sethopia writes “Brooklyn Law School’s Incubator and Policy Clinic (BLIP) hosted its first ‘Legal Hackathon.’ Instead of hacking computer code, attendees — mostly lawyers, law students, coders, and entrepreneurs — used the hacking ethos to devise technologically sophisticated solutions to legal problems. These included attempts to crowdsource mayoral candidacies in New York City and hacking model privacy policies for ISPs.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
News Corp. faces new hacking allegations
Posted by Gsurface
on March 28, 2012
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A software division of News Corp., is accused of knocking off rival pay-TV services by hacking their smartcodes and enabling the public to view the competitors transmissions for free. One rival may have driven out of business as a result.
[Read more]
CNET News
News International security chief arrested in phone hacking case
Posted by Gsurface
on March 15, 2012
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Scotland Yard arrested six people, including Mark Hanna, the media company's director of group security since 2009
Computerworld News
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