Calls for Twitter to implement two-factor authentication would not have prevented the hijacking of the Associated Press account last week, experts said. Meanwhile, a new tool for detecting compromised social network accounts called COMPA, could provide a measure of early detection.
A company known for burying bad information to improve its customers’ online images let everyone know this week its network was hacked. Reputation.com sent e-mails to thousands of customers in more than 100 countries to let them know of the attack.
On Friday, Jay Freeman announced on Twitter that he exploited a known vulnerability and subsequently achieved root access to his developer-model of Google Glass – Google’s highly anticipated, wearable, head-mounted computer.
Two elders of information security came to Source Boston 2013 Wednesday morning to encourage the next generation to grab the torch from them and to urge great caution in diving too deeply into specialization.
The attackers who compromised Web hosting provider Linode used a zero day vulnerability in Adobe ColdFusion and were able to access the company’s database, source code and customers’ credit card numbers and passwords. The company said that the customer credit card numbers were encrypted, as were the passwords, but it forced a system-wide password reset after the attack was discovered.
Months of distributed denial of service attacks against major U.S. banks have evolved in magnitude and ferocity causing service disruptions for online banking customers. They’ve also shown the way for other attackers to adapt and evolve techniques used in those attacks.
MIAMI BEACH–Stephen Watt was involved in a series of attacks on retailers and restaurants that federal prosecutors called the largest identity theft in U.S. history. He wrote the sniffer used by some of his friends to steal millions of credit card numbers. After federal agents raided his apartment, confiscated all of his computer equipment, he eventually was indicted on a series of charges related to the attacks on TJX, Dave & Buster’s and others and was facing several years in prison. So he took a plea deal, hoping to reduce his prison time and the financial burden on his family. In all of that, what he regrets most is taking the plea.
As if hurtling through the air at 500 miles per hour in an enormous meshing of metal and wires wasn’t terrifying enough, security researcher Hugo Teso presented a practical demonstration of a remote airline attack in which he took complete control of a virtual aircraft’s flight management system (FMS) at the Hack-in-the-Box security conference in Amsterdam yesterday.
As with any asset of monetary value, once said asset reaches a noteworthy level, cybercriminals’ interest is going to pique. Such is the current situation with virtual currency Bitcoin, which hit a high of $142 yesterday and the value of all Bitcoins in circulation has soared to more than $1 billion.
Security-related policy or legislation is enacted and then enforced to protect corporate, government or military interests. Civil organizations are often left flailing in the wind, fending for themselves with fewer IT resources and experience than a Middle America mom-and-pop operation. Yet these non-governmental—and not-for-profit—organizations have tasked themselves with helping those targeted by lethal adversaries who aren’t just after corporate secrets, but are out to deny people their freedom or, in some cases, their lives.
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