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Displaying items by tag: Hacking

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The threat of a data breach is one that every company faces and it is also an eventuality that they all know can happen at any time. The number of daily attempt to penetrate corporate security is staggering as is the number of successful attack where at least some data is taken. It is for this reason that we still a confused when companies want to move to a cloud based or subscription style software agreement. Once all of that billing information is stored in a single spot (even multiple data centers) it becomes a very big target. Adobe has found that out the hard way as they are now reporting a breach that lost the information for approximately 2.9 Million users and source code for Cold Fusion and Acrobat.

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news pirate-bay-logo

Pirate Pay founder Gottfird Svartholm has managed to successfully appeal the two year sentence imposed after he was found guilty of hacking Logica, a Swedish IT company (as well as aggravated fraud and attempted aggravated fraud). Although throughout the trial Svartholm maintained his innocence the court (Nacka District) still felt he was responsible for at least hacking the IT company. Svartholm was also found guilty of hacking a local bank (Nordea). The court sentenced him to two years in prison.

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Data-Center

Big data is a big business these days. Having information about the billions of people on the planet (or more importantly the hundreds of Millions of consumers) is something that can make you money. These companies collect every bit of information about us and store if for retrieval. In many cases they are the core of background check services, credit check services and other forms of personal investigation that you have to go through in your life. For years they have been putting important information in what amounts to one big basket… with a large bullseye on it.

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14621rotten apple

Despite some members the effort of some members of the tech press to claim that Apple is back on the path of innovation it would seem that many of the “new” features in the iPhone 5s are little more than refreshes of existing technology. One of the new features that everyone has been talking about is the new fingerprint scanner. Well it turns out that this too is just a slight improvement over existing technology. This comes out as the security has been broken by the Chaos Computer Club.

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Code

Corrected 9-26-2013 12:48PM EST to add information from RSA and correct the headline from "RSA Says Not To Use Their Toolkit For Fear it Might Have an NSA Backdoor" to what it currently is.

A couple of weeks ago we reported on a claim that the NSA worked with many security companies and standards groups to help develop encryption algorithms. On the surface this was to help develop stronger and more secure encryption methods to protect US interests and data. However, it turned out that the NSA was actually working to introduce flaws into the system so that they could get back in at a later date. Some of these flaws might have even been exploited by hackers attempting to penetrate systems. We know that in recent years more and more data breaches are happening and the data recovered is often decrypted and sold off. Still until very recently there has not been much to hold up the original claims.

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There is one thing that is certain in the consumer electronics world, if you can lock it … someone can unlock it. Now there is something of an extension to this that says that as soon as a product is launched someone will find a flaw in it. We have already seen that someone found a flaw in the control center that allows access to quite a bit of data. Now there are people out there that will do this as a hobby without payment so what do you think happens when someone offers money to this group of individuals?

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MS-Myth

When I purchased my first Android based phone there was an option for a “connect the dots” style security measure. This consisted of a screen with nine dots which you had to connect in the right order to unlock the phone. It was a pretty neat idea until you consider how simple it is to see your pattern on the screen of the phone. Unless you keep your phone obsessively clean you will leave evidence of your unlock pattern right on the device making it easier for someone to unlock it. Google was quick to realize this and came out alternatives to this method which included passwords, PINs, and even facial unlock (which was a joke).

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money

Cyber Security firm Crowdstrike has managed to pull in $30 million in funding to aid their efforts to track down foreign hackers. The money comes from Accel Partners and Warbug Pincus and shows just how much interest (and money) there is in Cyber Security. Crowdstrike is well known for their hands on approach to tracking down malicious individuals that break into corporate networks. And has had some success over (or they would not be getting the money).

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Virus

One of the things that Apple has always held over Google’s head is the amount of malware that is present in the Google Play Store. It seems that each year the number and complexity of the malware uploaded to the Play Store grows. Much of this is because the Play Store is not as restrictive as the App Store. Apple’s walled garden has protected them from a storm of mobile malware for a long time… well there was that one attempt by Charlie Miller a while ago. Back then Miller used his developer account to submit an app that was actually malware. It got Miller banned from the Apple Developer club which made the news for a little while.

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Friday, 16 August 2013 17:58

Security omission in Google Cloud Messaging

gcm

Kaspersky Lab has announced that they have found a backdoor in the Google Cloud Messaging service that allows developers to directly communicate through their servers with applications installed on Android devices. Backdoor can be used by criminals to send text messages to premium numbers, as well as for theft of data from Android devices.

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