The Netherlands And The U.S. Have Signed Cybercrime Treaty – Will Hunt Down Hackers

23 02 2012

Dutch Minister of Justice Ivo Opstelten announced that the two countries will work together on topics such as critical infrastructure protectection and that they will share information as well as knowledge and expertise whenever hackers are attacking those infrastructures

“We want to find the criminals who are behind those attacks”, the Minister stated.

Dutch language news article:
http://www.nu.nl/internet/2747630/nederland-tekent-verdrag-cybercrime.html

 





The email addresses and passwords of more than a million users of the YouPorn sex chat site were exposed to all and sundry this week following a coding error that went undetected for years

23 02 2012

The data – which identifies customers of the smut site, exposing them to potential embarrassment as a result – might also be used in attempts to hack into more sensitive accounts maintained by the same potential victims. Those that use the same or similar passwords for more sensitive accounts (webmail, Facebook, PayPal etc) are most at risk of attack.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/02/22/smut_chat_breach/





Established individuals associated with Anonymous have distanced the group from the Global DNS takedown plan

23 02 2012

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/02/22/anon_disowns_dns_takedown_plan/





Tony Blair’s wife sues Murdoch company over hacking

23 02 2012

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57382939-71/tony-blairs-wife-sues-murdoch-company-over-hacking/





A man accused of hacking into the computers of a former British Army intelligence officer on behalf of a News of the World editor has been named as Philip Campbell Smith, also a former British Army intelligence officer

22 02 2012

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/02/21/notw_computer_hacker_named/





Dutch ‘National Theater Ticket Register’ Database Hacked. Personal Data Of 100,000 Customers Compromised

22 02 2012

E-mail addresses, active credit card accounts, personal details of politicians and law enforcement officers out in the open. Some of the most sensitive data was not encrypted.

Dutch language news article:

http://www.nu.nl/internet/2746843/creditcardgegevens-gelekt-hack-nationale-theaterkassa.html

 





Scared of Anonymous? NSA chief says you should be

21 02 2012

Anonymous has so far plied its trade in “hactivist” exploits. But according to the director of the National Security Agency, it might soon turn its focus to U.S. infrastructure.

According to the Wall Street Journal, citing sources, Gen. Keith Alexander has said in private meetings at the White House and elsewhere that the U.S. must keep a close eye on Anonymous’ growth. He reportedly warned that if the organization continues to gain power, it might even take down a part of the U.S. power grid within the next couple of years.





American and Chinese Brands Targeted by Almost 3/4 of Phishing Attacks, Says MarkMonitor

21 02 2012

https://www.markmonitor.com/mmblog/q4-2011-fraud-intelligence-report/





Spam reached its lowest level in years last quarter, but malware surpassed security firm’s estimates for the year, says McAfee

21 02 2012

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57381839-83/spam-continues-to-dip-but-malware-marches-merrily-on/





First IPv6 Distributed Denial of Service Internet attacks seen

21 02 2012

In and of itself, IPv6 won’t make you any more secure than your childhood blue blanket

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/networking/first-ipv6-distributed-denial-of-service-internet-attacks-seen/2039





In what ways are children targeted online?

21 02 2012

Children are targeted through the use of visual lures — flashing colours, pretty animations and interesting graphics can all serve as tools for a hacker to gain access to your machine. It is highly unlikely a young child will be worrying about online safety when a highly-visual animation or graphic ropes them in to clicking a button — and they may not understand what permissions they are granting a piece of third-party software when they do.

A child is also not necessarily aware of what signs to watch out for in order to realize a machine is infected. Slow performance, a spam bot sending out infected emails, or software such as toolbars and a changed Internet home page may rouse suspicion in an adult, but not necessarily someone younger.

Why does this occur?

Children are not always aware of threats lurking on the Internet, and therefore do not know how to prevent themselves becoming exposed to online scams — making them an enticing target for cyber-criminals.

Much more:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/children-and-hackers-what-you-need-to-know/14855





FTC dropped security requirements from contract for sites hit by Anonymous

20 02 2012

http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2012/02/recipe-for-getting-hacked-ftc-dropped-security-requirements-from-contract-for-sites-hit-by-anonymous.ars





Dutch Government: KPN Hackers Were Able To Manipulate Internet Traffic. Have They Caused Recent Outages?

20 02 2012

Dutch tech news website Tweakers.net is wondering whether recent DNS and VOIP disruptions, which coincided with KPN’s attempts to remedy the problems, can be attributed to the hackers

Dutch language news article:
http://tweakers.net/nieuws/80160/kabinet-hackers-konden-kpn-verkeer-manipuleren.html

Previously:
http://vrritti.com/?s=kpn





Greek police say they have arrested an Athens schoolboy and identified two more suspected of a computer hacking attack on the Justice Ministry website

20 02 2012

A police statement says the three claim to be part of the international “Anonymous” activist collective, which has attacked computers in several countries.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9T14EG00.htm

See also:

http://vrritti.com/2012/02/20/you-must-appreciate-the-90s-depiction-of-the-hacker-when-the-stereotype-was-a-cunning-scofflaw-with-a-marlboro-hanging-from-his-lips/

http://vrritti.com/2012/02/18/judges-facing-new-types-of-crimes-new-types-and-levels-of-damage-new-types-of-suspects/

 





You must appreciate the 90s depiction of the hacker, when the stereotype was a cunning scofflaw with a Marlboro hanging from his lips

20 02 2012

…rather than a 13-year-old asshole cursing at you via Xbox Live as he downloads Anonymous software

And what do we have now? Kids like this.

http://gizmodo.com/5886362/hackers-were-scary-in-1990

Previously:

Judges Facing New Types Of Crimes, New Types (And Levels) Of Damage, New Types Of Suspects? (MegaUpload)
http://vrritti.com/2012/02/18/judges-facing-new-types-of-crimes-new-types-and-levels-of-damage-new-types-of-suspects/

 





Professor of Software Security and Correctness, Bart Jacobs: “Governments need to invest in people with true IT knowledge, not merely managers”

19 02 2012

Jacobs also states that the state of security at government level almost makes him cry.

Dutch language news article:
http://www.nu.nl/tech/2744710/ict-veiligheid-bij-lagere-overheden-janken.html

About Bart Jacobs: http://www.cs.ru.nl/~bart/

See also:

Based on what has been demonstrated thus far, ongoing research efforts, and the continuing advancements of computing and networking technology, we believe that cloud computing is poised to have a major impact on our society’s data-central commercial and scientific endeavors.
http://cryptome.org/2012/01/nsa-cloud.pdf

 





Network operators lack confidence in Law Enforcement Agency’s ability and willingness to investigate online attacks, and “evince strong dissatisfaction with current governmental efforts to protect critical infrastructure”

19 02 2012

http://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/view/23790/service-providers-lack-confidence-in-leas/





Android DIY DoS App Boosts Hacktivism in South America

19 02 2012

http://blogs.mcafee.com/mcafee-labs/android-diy-dos-app-boosts-hacktivism-in-south-america





Judges Facing New Types Of Crimes, New Types (And Levels) Of Damage, New Types Of Suspects? (MegaUpload)

18 02 2012

Mr Ortmann is described as shy, very straight and a humble person who lives a modest life in rented accommodation with a long-term girlfriend (MegaUpload)
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/198088/three-co-accused-same-address

Previously:

MegaUpload’s Bram van der Kolk: I’m a humble programmer with a wife and two-year-old son
http://vrritti.com/2012/02/11/megauploads-bram-van-der-kolk-im-a-humble-programmer-with-a-wife-and-two-year-old-son/

Mangham - who it is believed has Asperger’s and was said to have ‘no social life’ - claims that his work was ‘ethical hacking’ and he breached the security so that he could find vulnerabilities within the site, which the developers could then strengthen. This is someone who in previous times would have thrown everything aside to seek the source of the Nile and he would have continued until he did
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2102690/Glenn-Mangham-hacked-Facebook-student-bedroom-brought-31m-empire.html

This endless pressure on an Aspergic man with severe mental health issues is barbaric
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-16996362

Richard O’Dwyer said the website had helped him with studies and said when he first set it up he “didn’t even think it would get that popular to be honest”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/student-to-face-us-trial-over-tvshack-website-6289235.html

On Thursday police in Cheltenham arrested a 26-year-old man who ran TV Links, which linked to video content on other sites, and shut down its Dutch servers. Then yesterday a 24-year-old IT worker who ran members-only torrent tracker website OiNK was arrested in Middlesbrough. Its servers – also in the Netherlands – were seized.
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/media/news/a78397/tv-links-oink-shut-in-download-site-raids.html

Dutch hacker Brenno de Winter will not be prosecuted in The Netherlands for hacking Public Transportation Cards. He did break the law but was acting as a reporter too
http://vrritti.com/2011/09/09/dutch-hacker-brenno-de-winter-will-not-be-prosecuted-in-the-netherlands-for-hacking-public-transportation-cards-he-did-break-the-law-but-was-acting-as-a-reporter-too-public-prosecutors-office-argu/ and http://vrritti.com/2011/06/24/dutch-public-transportation-card-hacker-brenno-de-winter-interrogated-for-four-hours/ and http://vrritti.com/2011/09/15/public-transport-card-hacker-brenno-de-winter-and-wikileaks-hacker-rop-gonggrijp-criticize-and-advise-dutch-government-on-diginotar-issue-during-political-debate-emphasize-need-for-better-it-security/





Anonymous Promises Regularly Scheduled Friday Attacks

18 02 2012

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/02/anonymous-friday-attacks/





Computer spyware is newest weapon in Syrian conflict

18 02 2012

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/02/17/tech/web/computer-virus-syria/index.html





Student who hacked Facebook from his bedroom ‘could have brought down the £31bn empire’ and its 845 million active users

18 02 2012

Bypassing security and accessing the protected internal systems he ‘hacked and hijacked’ the account of employee Stefan Parker and managed to reset his password.

Using the employee’s details he then accessed the ‘mailman server’ and the ‘phabricator server’ which contains the sites most sensitive intellectual property.

The hacker said that although he knew he was breaking the law he thought the company would be ‘grateful’ for his information based on his previous experience.

26-year-old Glenn Mangham - who it is believed has Asperger’s and was said to have ‘no social life’ - claims that his work was ‘ethical hacking’ and he breached the security so that he could find vulnerabilities within the site, which the developers could then strengthen.

He has to spend 8 months in jail now. His internet use was restricted for five years in a similar way as child porn offenders where officials can check on his usage and he cannot delete his history.

More:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2102690/Glenn-Mangham-hacked-Facebook-student-bedroom-brought-31m-empire.html





McCain: Cybersecurity Bill Ineffective Without NSA Monitoring the Net

17 02 2012

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/02/cybersecurity-act-of-2012/





2,000 EUR will get you an SDK for botnets

17 02 2012

Dutch language news article:

http://webwereld.nl/analyse/109539/open-source-verovert-duistere-botnetwereld.html





KPN Decides To Outsmart Hackers…By Sending Snail Mail Containing Usernames And Passwords

17 02 2012

Customers are furious. KPN agrees with their view (that anyone who will intercept their snail mail will be able to access their personal details and e-mail messages) but is only able to halt the distribution of the letters as of this Sunday.

http://www.security.nl/artikel/40382/1/KPN_stuurt_wachtwoord_en_e-mailadres_in_%C3%A9%C3%A9n_brief.html

Previous disasters:
http://vrritti.com/?s=kpn

 








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