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April 2, 2013

Can Hackers Be Heroes’: The Off Book Video That Looks At Misconceptions About Hacking

A new video from PBS’s Off Book team entitled “Can Hackers Be Heroes” looks at the ways in which the general public and the media see and define hackers and hacking and seeks to rectify the many misconceptions that are lurking about.

Unfortunately many people believe that hackers are simply cyber criminals, people who sneak into computer systems in order to disrupt, destroy, steal or gain advantage. While no one would argue against the fact that people like this do exist, there has always been people who hack with a totally different goal in mind. These people see hacking as a “finding creative solutions to technical problems” and to them, it is all about having an exploratory mindset. Continue Reading

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January 11, 2013

Hacktivists Anonymous Petition The White House To Get DDoS Classified As Legal Protest

anonymous ddos petition Hacktivists Anonymous Petition The White House To Get DDoS Classified As Legal Protest

Underground hacktivist organization Anonymous have launched an online petition to the White House in a bid to get DDos (distributed denial of service) attacks classified as a legal form of protest, like freedom of speech.

Anonymous argue that the practice of carrying out a DDos attack is similar to some of the “Occupy Wall Street” protests that have taken place across the U.S. over the last year or so. They say that in much the same way as DDoS attacks disrupt access to a website, protesters with the “Occupy” movement would disrupt access to a building. The petition also calls for anyone who is currently jailed for carrying out a DDoS attack to be freed and have the charges expunged from their records. Continue Reading

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November 28, 2012

Penguin-Loving Hackers Take Down Google Pakistan & Numerous Other Sites For 18 Hours!

turkishhacker Penguin Loving Hackers Take Down Google Pakistan & Numerous Other Sites For 18 Hours!

Several high profile websites that belong to big net names Google, eBay, Apple and Yahoo to name but a few, were taken down by hackers over the weekend in an attack that no one really understands yet!

The attacked sites were all .pk (Pakistan domain names) and most of them had their usual content replaced with a picture of 2 penguins and the text “Pakistan downed”. There were some variations of the text and in a few of the pictures featured only one penguin!

Hundreds of websites experienced the penguin-inspired violation and according to Pakistani news website Propakistani.pk hackers were able to exploit a vulnerability that can be traced back to PKNIC, the local domain name admin and a group called Eboz, that allegedly originate from Turkey. Continue Reading

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November 23, 2012

Police Arrest Hacker Suspected Of Stealing ID’s For Most Of Greece

greece id theft Police Arrest Hacker Suspected Of Stealing ID’s For Most Of Greece

Police in Greece have arrested a computer programmer that they believe is responsible for stealing identity information for most of the country’s population!!!
The 35-year-old in question was said to be in possession of 9 million data files that had ID card data, addresses, tax ID numbers and license plate numbers.

Police believe that the suspect intended to sell on this information and they think he obtained it through hacking but they have not ruled out that he may have an accomplice working in a government office.
The authorities have pointed out that many of the 9 million data files may be duplicates, for example one file might contain a person’s name and address, whereas another file might contain their name and tax ID – so that’s two files but one identity. At the moment, there is no exact way of defining how many people’s identities are within the stolen files, but whichever way you look at it – it is still an astonishing amount of people who are victims of identity theft! Continue Reading

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November 16, 2012

Open Letter From Off The Hook Staff Detailing Problems With WBAI

off the hook Open Letter From Off The Hook Staff Detailing Problems With WBAI

The staff of the oldest hackers radio show around, ‘Off The Hook’ have written an honest and heartfelt letter to their listeners apologizing for their inability to help them in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and explaining why they might be moving from their home on station WBAI.

The letter elaborates on how the ‘Off The Hook’ team were desperate to get on the air after Hurricane Sandy hit so that they could help listeners who had power outages and other technological issues with their hacker ingenuity. Their main office in Manhattan was a no-go, so they struggled to make their way to the temporary studios at 2307.

They explain that once they had made the perilous journey across town to the contingency site, they were informed that no one was allowed access to the studio after 6pm. Not only were they angry that they would be unable to help their listeners with the emergency info that they had compiled, they were also rather riled that no one had had the decency to warn them of this curfew. Continue Reading

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October 31, 2012

Updated Version Of Anonymous Documentary ‘We Are Legion’ Is Released Online

WeAreLegion Updated Version Of Anonymous Documentary ‘We Are Legion’ Is Released Online

The documentary that follows the amazing story of underground hacking group Anonymous – ‘We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists’ that was made by filmmaking Brian Knappenberger is finally ready and has been released online.

According to filmmaker Knappenberger, one of his biggest problems whilst making the documentary was being able to finish it. Anonymous kept growing, their actions never ceased and so much changed so rapidly in the fascinating world of the underground Hacktivist collective that the filmmaker struggled to wrap up the extraordinary tale!Continue Reading

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October 29, 2012

Anonymous Gunning For Zynga For Redundancies & Outsourcing

NewsFDZynga Anonymous Gunning For Zynga For Redundancies & Outsourcing

The hacktivist group Anonymous has set their target on social game developers Zynga this week accusing them of mistreating their employees and taking actions that will “end the US game market as we know it.”

At the end of last week the news emerged that Zynga had shut down their Boston office, laying off all the employees there and getting rid of hundreds of workers from other branches in the U.S too. It was also claimed that these employees were given no warning and ordered to clear their desks within a few hours.

Anonymous is now threatening to take Zynga and Facebook down on November 5th in an operation dubbed “#OP MaZynga.” They claim to have uncovered secret Zynga documents that seem to suggest that the company will be making yet more redundancies in the U.S. and transferring their workforce to more ‘financially convenient’ countries. Continue Reading

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August 9, 2012

Wal-Mart Hacked By Wily ‘Social Engineer’ At Defcon Conference

Wal Mart Hacked By Wily ‘Social Engineer’ At Defcon Conference

Not long ago a man calling himself Gary Darnell made telephone contact with the store manager of a Wal-Mart in a small military town in Canada. When Darnell told him that his store had the opportunity to win a major multi-million dollar government contract, the store manager couldn’t quite believe his luck.

Darnell explained that he was a recently hired manager of government logistics, explained some of the outlines of the contract (“all I know is Wal-Mart can make a ton of cash off it”) and told the store manager of his plans to visit. Continue Reading

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July 11, 2012

Notorious Hackers Anonymous Launch Operation PedoChat

anonymous ops Notorious Hackers Anonymous Launch Operation PedoChat

The infamous Anonymous who are responsible for pulling off some of the world’s most high profile hacking coups are turning their attentions to the scourge of pedophilia on the internet. Launching the somewhat creepily named “Operation Pedochat” these mysterious hackers aim to eradicate the presence of websites and forums that propagate child pornography and predation.
Their mission statement said:

“WE Anonymous aim to diminish if not eradicate this plague from the Internet. For the good of our followers, for the good of mankind, and for our own enjoyment we shall expel from the Internet and systematically destroy any such boards that continue to operate.”

“YOU are Anonymous as well. YOU can get off your ass and help. Spread the word to fellow Anons, to the press, and encourage them to do the same. Those that can attack are asked to fire their lazors; those that cannot are encouraged to learn…”

“Operation Pedochat” has already identified and taken down several violating sites. They have publicly posted information about numerous pedophiles who are users and administrators of this kind of site! They have said they will use “defaces, logs & dox and the occasional domain hijack as well” as part of the operation. Continue Reading

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June 18, 2012

Japanese Police Arrest 6 Men Over Smartphone Porn Virus

androidrobot Japanese Police Arrest 6 Men Over Smartphone Porn VirusPolice in Tokyo have arrested 6 men on suspicion of creating a virus specifically targeted for Android mobiles, that police believe netted them approximately 20m yen (£161,158/$253,273).
The virus was veiled as an app for viewing videos and was available to users through a porn website. Once the app was downloaded, it would not let the user watch a video but would demand a payment of 99,800 yen ($1265/£805) every few minutes.

Police believe that nearly 10,000 people downloaded the phony app, but only 211 actually forked out the funds that it demanded!! However, even those who did not pay the huge fee that the virus app demanded still suffered. Once the virus had been installed on an Android phone it was programmed to steal contacts and personal information from the device.

Police reports state that 2 of the 6 men who were arrested held senior management positions in hi-tech Japanese companies.

It is believed that this is the first case of a virus being specifically written for a smartphone in Japan, however security organizations are warning that there may be a sharp increase in viruses targeted especially to strike Android phones, with one company estimating that there could be as many as 120,000 to watch out for by the end of this year!

(Via BBC)

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