Hackers Attack 90,000 WordPress Blogs

via mashable.com

Keeping the default settings on any Internet-connected service is just asking for trouble. It's easy enough to scoff at people whose brilliant "12345" password fell victim to hackers, but it's just as simple to target usernames. A number of WordPress bloggers discovered this the hard way, when their "admin" accounts became part of a hostile, exploitative botnet.

The attacks began last week, and have affected more than 90,000 blogs so far. The hackers behind the attacks have combed through WordPress accounts and attempted to guess passwords via brute force.

Their program cycles WordPress accounts through 1,000 common passwords. While this tactic is useless against savvy users, enough people utilize easy-to-guess passwords to make it worthwhile for the hackers.

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Trader admits fraud in $1-billion Apple stock scheme

via theglobeandmail.com

A former Rochdale Securities trader whose unauthorized purchase of about $1-billion of Apple Inc. stock caused the demise of the financial services company pleaded guilty on Monday to wire fraud and conspiracy.

David Miller, 40, entered his guilty plea before U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna Martinez in Hartford, Connecticut.

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Will the next 9/11 be digital?

via digitaltrends.com

Just as our everyday lives depend on the Internet, the backbones of nations increasingly rely on the Internet for communication, coordination, and financial transactions. But relying on the Internet also exposes those core functions threats from anywhere in the world. Need examples? Two weeks ago, some 30,000 systems at South Korean banks and broadcasters were wiped out in a coordinated attack – it might have come from North Korea, but investigators are still chasing basic details. Last week, a cyber-brawl apparently between Spamhaus and CyberBunker has caused localized collateral damage and may have shaken some top-tier Internet providers.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper offered an assessment of current worldwide threats to the United States. The list included terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, competition for dwindling natural resources, and even pandemics. But the first item? Cyber threats.

Why are online threats now the top priority for U.S. national security – the first time they’ve outranked terror networks? And how could the U.S.’s heightened stance impact everyday use of the Internet?

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The day the internet almost died and what it really means

via techi.com

Let’s establish one thing immediately. Despite the shock journalism and uneducated claims out there saying that the internet attack was so severe that it almost break, the reality is this. It was a big hit that was felt by a lot of people. That’s it. It would be like saying that a 6.5 magnitude earthquake hit a big city. Sure, there was probably a lot of damage depending on which city it was, but at no point during or after the earthquake was the entire planet about to explode.

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Inside the Biggest Cyberattack in History

via mashable.com

A cyberattack originally targeting a single company is now being described by experts as one of the biggest Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks in Internet history. The assault, which recently began impacting elements of the Internet's physical infrastructure, has been dragging down Internet speeds in Europe — but what makes this type of attack different from all other attacks?

First, some background: The attacks originally targeted a European anti-spam company called Spamhaus, which blacklists what it considers sources of email spam and sells those blacklists to Internet Service Providers. The attack began early last week as waves of large but typical DDoS assaults shortly after Spamhaus blacklisted Cyberbunker, a controversial web hosting company. Cyberbunker has not directly taken responsibility for the attacks against Spamhaus.

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Mayor Bloomberg says surveillance drones are inevitable in NYC: 'get used to it'

via theverge.com

Governmental use of unmanned surveillance drones has inspired a lot of concern about privacy, but New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg thinks the battle's already over. In a radio interview this week, Bloomberg said essentially that drones are an inevitable part of our future (and maybe our present), comparing them to the thousands of cameras already located around Manhattan. "What's the difference whether the drone is up in the air or on the building?" he asked. "We're going into a different world, uncharted... you can't keep the tide from coming in."

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Apple Falls Victim To Same Hackers That Attacked Facebook

via readwrite.com

On the heels of Facebook's announcement Friday that its machines were infected by a sophisticated malware attack, Reuters is reporting that the same hackers have also attacked Apple computers. No data was compromised, according to the company.

While it was to be expected that more companies might be targeted by the malware, since Facebook announced that it was not alone in this attack, it is surprising that Apple, a company with very little history of cybersecurity breaches, has been hit.

The announcement of the breach follows a report Tuesday morning from The New York Times revealing that a large number of Chinese cyberattacks on the U.S. can be traced back to a single building operated by the military in Shanghai. This is leading some to believe that World War III is already on our doorstep, being fought through cyberwarfare on the U.S.'s most influential, powerful and profitable institutions.

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Crimes Against Content Makers In The Digital Age

via hongkiat.com

It is very easy to now write and be published online, even if you are halfway around the world. But it is much, much easier to have your content ripped off by unscrupulous parasites, who don’t want to put in the hours to create good content.

Some steal in parts, sometimes half-heartedly paraphrasing (to cover their tracks), sometimes using direct copy-and-pasting to take bits and pieces of a few articles to ‘produce’ their own piece. When you do this without crediting the original writer, this is called plagiarism.

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Microsoft and Symantec Just Busted a Major Cyber Crime Ring

via gizmodo.com

It sounds like the plot of a movie: two major software corporations join together to shut down an evil global cyber crime operation and engage in wacky hijinks along the way. While the latter can be neither confirmed nor denied, according to an exclusive report by Reuters, Microsoft and Symantec did shut down servers that had been controlling hundreds of thousands of PCs without their users being any the wiser.

Bamital botnet's—the major cyber crime operation's—main attack involved hijacking search results, among other schemes, that would allow them to fraudulently charge businesses with online ad clicks. The over 18 ringleaders from around the world registered websites and rented servers using pseudonyms. This allowed Bamital to redirect users' search results to the fraudulent websites, where they would be able to benefit from any subsequent clicks.

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The Federal Reserve Said It Was Hacked

via gizmodo.com

The Federal Reserve said that one of its internal websites had been hacked today. It's unclear who did the hacking but the Feds say that the hackers were not able to do any serious damage. Reuters says that, "no critical functions of the central bank were affected by the intrusion."

The internal website that the hackers breached was a contact database for banks to use during a natural disaster—basically, execs used it to update the Federal Reserve on whether or not their operations have been damaged in a disaster. It was not a public website. A Fed spokeswoman said...

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World War III Is Already Here - And We're Losing

via readwrite.com

Every day the Pentagon is attacked 3 million times. They’ve infiltrated our banks. They’ve ransacked our technology industry. They’ve breached the networks of the Chamber of Commerce. They’ve read our email by taking down one of America’s pre-eminent technology companies, Google. It’s already World War III, people. And all we do is smile at the enemy.

Last Wednesday, The New York Times announced that its computers had been hacked. That passwords had been stolen. That its private networks had been traversed with impunity by a bunch of brazen hackers. We’re not talking Anonymous here nor a bunch of ethical hackers. No we’re at war with China.

To paraphrase on old newspaper joke, “what’s black and white and red all over?” The Chinese Red Army, that’s who.

How do we know that? As William Gibson might bark, “Pattern Recognition!” Computer security experts consulting with The New York Times identified the malware “as a specific strain associated with computer attacks originating in China.”

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Anonymous Threatens To Leak Sensitive Records If The Feds Don't Reform An Anti-Hacking Law

via businessinsider.com

Hactivist group Anonymous has hacked the website of the U.S. Sentencing Commission in the name of Aaron Swartz, threatening to leak sensitive government documents if the feds don't reform the justice system, CNET reports.
The collective posted a manifesto regarding "Operation Last Resort," along with a set of encrypted files that it claims have "enough fissile material for multiple warheads."

Anonymous won't specify the contents of the files at issue but said it would start leaking the documents, with heavy redactions, to one media outlet "at a regular interval commencing today," according to CNET.

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Anonymous Attacks Department Of Justice Website and Threatens Worse Over Aaron Swartz's Suicide

via gizmodo.com

Since Aaron Swartz's suicide two weeks ago—an incident largely blamed on the charges being levied against him—the 'net has been grieving. And Anonymous has been doing that in its own special way: tearing shit up. In the latest of several attacks, they took down the U.S. Justice Department's Sentencing Commission site and left behind a video threatening more cyber-carnage.

The defaced website which usually contains sentencing guidelines for federal crimes instead displayed a 10-minute video and written copy of the same message posted below it. First and foremost, it reiterated characteristic Anonymous rage at the situation saying...

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Anonymous Declares War on the US Government

via theverge.com

Hacktivist group Anonymous took over the United States Sentencing Service's website earlier today to announce its intention to expose government secrets in response to the US Department of Justice's treatment of Aaron Swartz. The group says Swartz's indictment was a "twisted and distorted perversion of justice," and claims to have hacked government organizations in retaliation. Anonymous hasn't revealed the nature of the "sensitive" information it's uncovered, but says that "everyone has secrets, and some things are not meant to be public." It's gathered all the information into a "warhead:" a file called U S - D O J - L E A - 2013 . A E E 256.

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Now The Guy Who Won $2.7 Billion From Yahoo Is In Hiding And Fears For His Life

via businessinsider.com

Carlos Bazan-Canabal may seem like a lucky guy.

The cofounder of Worldwide Directories, got a $2.7 billion judgment in his favor in a lawsuit with Yahoo in Mexico.

But the money isn't his yet. Yahoo is appealing the case. And in the meantime, he's been labeled as the "$2.7 billion guy"—the kind of headline that attracts unwanted attention. Kidnapping by criminal gangs has soared in Mexico in recent years.

As a result, he fears for his safety, he told El Economista, a Mexican newspaper.

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Antivirus Software Pioneer John McAfee Believes He Is About To Die At The Hands Of Police

via businessinsider.com

Antivirus software entrepreneur John McAfee is reportedly on the run from the police in Belize.

He is reportedly wanted for murder.

He told Wired he didn't do it, and that the man who was murdered was actually killed by police who thought they were killing him.

He told Wired that the police "will kill me if they find me."

At 5 AM Pacific time this morning McAfee was on the phone with Wired reporter Joshua Davis at 5 in morning Pacific time, and told him: "I will not turn myself in."

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Fake Letters Inform Florida Residents They Can’t Vote

via newsfeed.time.com

For some Florida voters, last weekend started on a low note — literally.

Last Friday, letters that questioned registered voters’ eligibility began appearing in mailboxes across the state, NBC News reported. The letters, which resemble an authentic message from the Florida Division of Elections with a letterhead and contact information, notify recipients that the department has gleaned “information” concerning “citizenship status, bringing into question your eligibility as a registered voter.” The document also informs voters that they must complete a Voter Eligibility Form and return it to the Supervisor of Elections Office within 15 days or else they will surrender their eligibility to vote. Chris Cate, a spokesperson for the Florida Secretary of State’s Office, told NBC that as of Oct. 24, state officials have received reports of between 50 and 100 of these letters from individuals in at least 28 counties. Cate also told NPR that although voters in both parties have received the mailings, most of which were sent from Seattle, Republicans constitute the bulk of the addressees.

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Foxconn admits child labor laws breached by use of underage interns

via engadget.com

Foxconn has admitted that it employed underage interns in breach of China's child labor laws. An internal investigation at its Yantai factory found some of the young trainees were aged 14- and 15-years old (16 being the legal minimum). In a statement received by CNET, the company advised that "this is not only a violation of China's labor law, it is also a violation of Foxconn policy and immediate steps have been taken to return the interns in question to their educational institutions." This comes as a further blow to the firm's employment record, after recent riots breaking out and strikes over iPhone 5 quality standards. These interns were sent to the facility from schools, with Foxconn carrying out full investigations with the relevant educational bodies to try to work out how this was allowed to happen. The tech manufacturer has been keen to accept responsibility for its part in the situation, advising strong action will be taken against any full-time members of staff found to have played a part in the breach.

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Cybercrime and the Future of the URL

via mashable.com

For more than a decade, Verisign, Inc. — the registry operator for .com, .net and other top-level domains (TLDs) — has been connecting people to the websites that shape the world.

This means every time you type a .com or .net web address into your browser, it sends a “query” to Verisign’s servers to locate the website’s Internet address and enables your computer to connect to the site. It also provides security and network availability to keep sites online even during peak traffic conditions and large cyber attacks.

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Obama And Romney Respond To Colorado Tragedy

via buzzfeed.com

The two presidential candidates take time out of their contentious campaign to unite in their grief and shock over the mass shooting in Colorado.

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