Stratfor Cyber Breach Adds to Debate Over Govt Role in Protecting Private Networks

A cybersecurity breach at intelligence think tank Stratfor over the weekend struck close to the central point of debate over how to secure domestic networks, Josh Smith wrote in the National Journal today.

Smith wrote that this debate “has revolved around the division between government and private sector security,” where businesses…

Novelist Claims NSA Hacked Wife’s Laptop

Frederick Forsyth, author of The Day of the Jackal and The Odessa File, has accused the National Security Agency of hacking his wife’s computer in an effort to steal copy he was writing for the Daily Express in West Africa.

Forsyth made the claim during a recent interview the BBC program Hardtalk. The author claims the hack happened when he was having a phone conversation regarding his story. He also…

Iran Hackers Hit Genetics Website

The website of the UK’s Human Genetics Commission was hit by a politically-motivated hack earlier this week. Iranian hackers struck the website in protest of the post-World War II plot by the United States and UK to overthrow the democratically-elected leader of Iran.

Following the nationalization of the oil industry in Iran, Mohammed Mossadegh was targeted by the U.S. and UK governments for a coup in 1953. The website has…

Credit Card Clearing House Hacked Says Security Researchers

An underground credit card clearing house has been hacked, according to Trend Micro security researchers. Leaked data from the hack include employee emails and recorded phone calls.

“A group of hackers recently published detailed information from an underground credit card company,” writes Feike Hacquebord, an advanced Threats Researcher with Trend Micro.  “On July 23, an anonymous group claimed to have compromised a server of an online…

Judge Approves Baidu Lawsuit Following Hack

A U.S. federal judge has ruled in favor of China search engine giant Baidu, allowing the company to proceed with its lawsuit against Register.com for negligence.

The ruling followed Register.com’s arguments in March, claiming the suit was not valid because the master services agreement barred claims relating to employee mistakes except in cases of gross…

Hack Exploits Google Street View to Find Victims

A security researcher has developed an attack which can be used for stalking, using JavaScript and geolocation information from Google to determine a victim’s location.

During a presentation at the BlackHat conference last week, titled “How I Met Your Girlfriend,” Samy Kamkar discussed the new method in detail. It works as follows:

1) the hacker lures the victim to a website which uses JavaScript to steal the router’s Media Access Control…

Political Website Hack Results in Arrests

Spanish police have arrested four individuals accused of defacing the websites of Spain’s two main political parties.

The hackers are alleged to have added a red fist to the website of the Partido Socialista Obrero Español and the Partido Popular, the hackers also hit the website for the TV show Sálvame with digital graffiti.

According to Panda, a Spanish security firm, the hackers attacked via configuration or systems errors before modifying…

Taliban Hacked, DoD Starts Cyber Offensive?

The webmaster of a Taliban-endorsed website has claimed that the website was hacked. Abu al-Aina’a al-Khorasani, an administrator for a jihadi forum endorsed by the Taliban wrote in a  post that “group’s main site and the site of its online journal Al-Sumud, have been the subject of an ‘infiltration operation,’” according to Wired.com.

The post goes on to warn online jihadists “to not enter any of the links that concern…

Massive Hack Hits More Than 100,000 Sites

A massive hack has targeted more than 100,000 websites belonging to police, newspapers and other major organizations. When visitors attempt to access the compromised site, the user is redirected to a website that attempts to install malware.

Intljobs.org, The Wall Street Journal‘s wsj.com, and tomtom.com.tw were all hacked, in addition to The Jerusalem Post and the police department website for the UK county of Strathclyde. The websites were infected…

E-Commerce Site Hack Reveals Records

The data of around 200,000 individuals was exposed last week following the hacking of E-commerce company Digital River. The breach was revealed when a 19-year-old man allegedly attempted to sell the information for $500,000.

The man, Eric Porat, repeatedly attempted to sell the information to Media Breakaway, whose officials instead contacted Digital River. The hackers broke into the system through a “highly unusual search command” on the company’s secured servers,…