Hackers make DDoS threats to extort Greek banks
A group of hackers is trying to extort money from three Greek banks and is threatening the financial institutions with DDoS attacks unless they comply.
The group, which goes by the name Armada Collective, has asked the three banks which weren’t named, to pay a ransom in Bitcoin or face a distributed denial of service attack.
GCHQ accused of "persistent" illegal computer hacking
Court documents released during a court case brought by Privacy International show that GCHQ -- the UK version of the NSA -- has engaged in "persistent" illegal hacking. The targets of the intelligence agency's surveillance include computers and phones around the world without the need for individual warrants.
There is concern about the use of "thematic warrants" which allows GCHQ to hack computers with very little justification or oversight, and with very broad remits. Privacy International is involved because there are clear privacy issues involved in GCHQ's activities, and it is seen as being of greater importance than ever with renewed interest in the Investigatory Powers Bill.
VTech Learning Lodge hacked! Your child's identity could be at risk
When a company gets hacked, and its data is breached, it is hardly news anymore. What I mean is, it is so prevalent nowadays, that we are becoming desensitized to it. I personally received a letter regarding the OPM hack today -- yes, I am apparently a victim. If I can't trust the government to secure my data, who the hell can I trust?
Today, yet another company experiences a breach -- VTech. What makes this hack particularly devious and upsetting, is that children are impacted. Sadly, the company's "Learning Lodge", an online digital store for kids, has been compromised by evil-doers. Your child will now get a strong dose of reality -- nothing is safe online, and now their identities are at risk.
Windows Phone hacked! Unlock Lumia bootloader, get root access, flash custom ROMs
If you are the type of person that likes to tinker, Linux-based operating systems are for you. You would probably have many hours of fun playing with an Android device or Raspberry Pi. With that said, Linux is not the only game in town.
Windows Phone and Windows 10 Mobile are probably the last operating systems you would expect to be hacker-friendly. After all, despite its occasional embrace of open source, Microsoft is largely a closed company. Today, this perception could begin to change, you see, as a new tool rocks the mobile community. Called "Windows Phone Internals", it allows Lumia owners to unlock their bootloaders, gain root access and even flash custom ROMs. Whoa.
Companies want to go after their attackers
Corporates on both sides of the Atlantic are calling for changes in the law to allow them to fight back against the current wave of cybercrime.
As things now stand, corporates are discovering that the very laws meant to protect individuals against being hacked are now serving to protect the organized criminal gangs (OCGs) who are stealing billions from their accounts, compromising sensitive customer data and ransoming their most confidential data.
Critical Zen Cart vulnerability could spell Black Friday disaster for online shoppers
It's around this time of year, with Black Friday looming and Christmas just around the corner, that online sales boom. Today security firm High-Tech Bridge has issued a warning to retailers and shoppers about a critical vulnerability in the popular Zen Cart shopping management system.
High-Tech Bridge has provided Zen Cart with full details of the security flaw which could allow remote attackers to infiltrate web servers and gain access to customer data. Servers running Zen Cart are also at risk of malware, meaning that hundreds of thousands of ecommerce sites pose a potential danger.
The cost of cybercrime in UK reaches £1.6 billion
Norton by Symantec has released the findings from its Cybersecurity Insights Report. This online survey was conducted across 17 markets and took into account the responses from 17,125 consumers over the age of 18.
Norton’s report has revealed how heavily British consumers have been affected by cybercrime and the stark differences between the ways in which Baby Boomers and Millennials protect themselves online.
UK's Trident nuclear weapons could be hit by cyberattacks
The UK's former defense secretary Des Browne has issued a stark warning that the country's nuclear weapons could be vulnerable to cyberattacks. The Trident program is already a highly-divisive subject, and Browne is seeking assurance from the Prime Minister that it is secured against attacks from hostile states such as China and Russia.
He has called upon the government to perform an end-to-end assessment of the system. The US had previously warned that it could not be confident that its own defenses and those of its allies would be capable of withstanding a cyberattack from a "sophisticated and well-resourced opponent".
Europe should set up its own cybersecurity agency
Europe is being urged to set up its own international cybersecurity agency to tackle the growing threat posed by cyberattacks. Jose Luiz Gilperez, security chief at Telefonica, said that cyberthreats have developed in recent years to pose just as significant a danger as physical threats.
Of particular concern is a fundamental change in the types of individuals perpetrating cyberattacks. While the stereotypical image of the lone hacker may have held true in the past, cyberattacks are now being carried out by hacking collectives, gangs of organized criminals or even national governments. Gilperez stressed that in order to counter this new threat, cybersecurity must become "a matter of business, and a matter of states".
Anonymous releases guides to help anyone hack Islamic State
Hacktivist group Anonymous, which has recently declared "war" on ISIS, has released a guide on how to find and take out ISIS-related websites and social media accounts.
The group posted three different guides, to be used within #OpParis, the online campaign against the Middle-Eastern militants.
Most smartphone owners fear hackers, thieves and government control
Edward Snowden's NSA and GCHQ revelations seem to be unending. One of his more recent disclosures was that UK intelligence agencies had the ability hack and remotely control any smartphone.
A survey by Broadband Genie shows that smartphone owners are more than a little concerned about this, with more than half (55 percent) saying the possibility of remote control worries them. A similar number (53 percent) express concern that these surveillance and control powers are open to abuse, and nearly a quarter (24 percent) feel they are a breach of human rights.
FCC says it's legal to hack your router
Router hacking is a geek staple. No computer geek worth his or her salt would consider running vanilla firmware -- the likes of Tomato are where it's at. A little while back, the FCC suggested plans to ban such hacking via open source firmware... or at least that's how it seemed.
The commission has now acknowledged that there was more than a little confusion from people who believed that manufacturers would be encouraged to prevent router modifications. The FCC wants to make it clear that most router hacking is fine and will remain fine. With a few exceptions, that is.
The NSA keeps 9 percent of the vulnerabilities it discovers to itself
Openness and the NSA are not happy bedfellows; by its very nature, the agency is highly secretive. But in recent years, post-Edward Snowden, the organization has embarked on something of a PR campaign in an attempt to win back public trust.
The latest manoeuvre sees the NSA promoting the fact that when it discovers security vulnerabilities and zero-days in software, it goes public with them in 91 percent of cases... but not before it has exploited them. No information about the timescale for disclosures is given, but what most people will be interested in is the remaining 9 percent which the agency keeps to itself.
People care more about hacker attacks than break-ins
People feel more violated when someone hacks into their computer, than when someone breaks into their house, a new research has shown.
The research, done by American multinational software Citrix, polled 2,000 full-time workers in the UK about hacking and private files they keep on their computers. The poll shows that 48 percent of young people, aged 16 to 24 have more than one private file on their computers which they want to remain secret.
ProtonMail sets a dangerous precedent and opens itself up to further attacks by paying ransom
In the world of malware, one of the most recent trends is ransomware -- malicious software that either blocks access to a computer until a fee is paid, or files are encrypted until a ransom is put forward. As with ransomware and kidnapping, a ransom is often demanded by hackers and instigators of DDoS attacks.
This is precisely what happened to 'secure' email provider ProtonMail the other day when it found its datacenter inundated with traffic. At the time, the company asked for donations to cover the costs of the "quite expensive solutions" needed to fight back against "the sophistication of this attack". But rather than fighting back, ProtonMail decided to pay the ransom instead. This could prove to be a terrible mistake.
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