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The MagSafe2 port, from left, two Thunderbolt ports, a USB 3 port and headphone port (top), SDXC Cardslot, HDMI port, and USB 3 port (bottom), on Apple's MacBook Pro. Similar mage from Apple Inc. substituted for original Getty Image on article site. According to a recent security presentation, attackers could infect Macintosh computers with a special kind of malware using the computer's Thunderbolt port. The attack, dubbed Thunderstrike, was showcased by security researcher Trammell Hudson at the Chaos Communications Congress in Germany. Hudson is well known in the security community, particularly for his work reverse-engineering various devices and systems....

A hacker has released a tool that he says can break into any iCloud account. The tool, iDict, uses an exploit in Apple's security to bypass restrictions that stop most hackers from gaining access to accounts. On iDict's GitHub page, user "Pr0x13" says the exploit used to create the hacking tool is "painfully obvious" and that it "was only a matter of time" before hackers used it to break into iCloud accounts. The tool is described as a "100% working iCloud Apple ID dictionary attack that bypasses account lockout restrictions and secondary authentication on any account."

North Korea is so isolated that rather than bring the Internet to its hackers, it brings them to it—in a swank hotel in China. The luxury hotel that has been called a command post for North Korean hackers would make for a unique holiday getaway and give you lots to talk about back home. “Surprisingly Great Hotel - Clean, Tasteful.... and North Korean!” says a trip advisor review for the Chilbosan Hotel in Shenyang, China. For just $53, you get “a deluxe twin room,” including a North Korean breakfast considerably more substantial than those enjoyed by the vast majority of...

Researchers at Check Point have discovered a serious security vulnerability affecting at least 12 million leading-brand home and SME routers that appears to have gone unnoticed for over a decade. Dubbed the ’Misfortune Cookie’ flaw, the firm plans to give a detailed account of the issue at a forthcoming security conference but in the meantime it’s important to stress that no real-world attacks using it have yet been detected. That said, an attacker exploiting the flaw would be able to monitor all data travelling through a gateway such as files, emails and logins and have the power to infect connected...

For the past two years, a team of Iranian hackers has compromised computers and networks belonging to over 50 organizations from 16 countries, including airlines, defense contractors, universities, military installations, hospitals, airports, telecommunications firms, government agencies, and energy and gas companies. The attacks have collectively been dubbed Operation Cleaver after a string found in various malware tools used by the hacker group, which is believed to operate primarily out of Tehran. "We discovered over 50 victims in our investigation, distributed around the globe," said researchers from IT security firm Cylance in an extensive report released Tuesday. "Ten of these victims...

We took a hacker to a café and, in 20 minutes, he knew where everyone else was born, what schools they attended, and the last five things they googled. In his backpack, Wouter Slotboom, 34, carries around a small black device, slightly larger than a pack of cigarettes, with an antenna on it. I meet Wouter by chance at a random cafe in the center of Amsterdam. It is a sunny day and almost all the tables are occupied. Some people talk, others are working on their laptops or playing with their smartphones. Wouter removes his laptop from his backpack,...

A hacker successfully breached Healthcare.gov in July and uploaded “malicious software,” MarketWatch reports, citing federal officials. However, investigators said consumers’ personal information doesn’t appear to have been compromised or stolen. In a written statement, the Department of Health and Human Services noted that its review shows that the hacked server “did not contain consumer personal information; data was not transmitted outside the agency, and the website was not specifically targeted.” The statement also claimed that measures have been taken to “further strengthen security.”

Multiple banks say they are seeing evidence that Home Depot stores may be the source of a massive new batch of stolen credit and debit cards that went on sale this morning in the cybercrime underground. Home Depot says that it is working with banks and law enforcement agencies to investigate reports of suspicious activity.

Jerusalem: Hackers posted a bogus announcement of a rocket strike against Israel's Dimona reactor and a possible nuclear leak on a Twitter account used by the Israeli military, which said on Friday it was combating such cyber attacks. The English-language account, @IDF Spokesperson, has 252,000 followers and usually scrolls out rapid updates on Israel's various fighting fronts. It was inactive on Friday, however, as a military spokeswoman said "several incorrect tweets" were being investigated by Israeli authorities. She did not elaborate, but the Walla news site published a snapshot of a tweet that had appeared on the account on Thursday...

Jamie Estrada, 41, of Los Lunas, N.M., pleaded guilty Monday to the unlawful interception of electronic communications and false statement charges arising out of the unlawful interception of wire communications intended for others, including New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez and members of her staff. Estrada briefly served as campaign manager in 2009, as Martinez was beginning her bid for governor. The Republican won election in 2010 and took office in January 2011. “Each and every one of us has a right and an expectation of privacy in our electronic communications, including our emails, and those who violate the law by...

A family claims they are being terrorized by their cable box. For more than a week, personal and harassing messages are showing up on their TVs. Meeks said it started more than a week ago — “he” or someone has taken control of her AT&T cable box and typing messages on two of her TVs. The family showed us a few. One wrote: ‘ISEEYOUHAHA’. Others even threatened to hurt Alana’s 9-year-old granddaughter, Aniya. “He wants to do more than hurt her,” said Meeks. “He wants to have sex with her. Pervert.” Some were quick to judge. However, an officer who...

The Army private who was tried and convicted as Bradley Edward Manning for leaking U.S. secrets to WikiLeaks is petitioning a Kansas court for a name change, to Chelsea Elizabeth Manning.

CHAMPAIGN — University of Illinois officials are looking into claims made by some Russian media outlets that a Crimea-related cyberattack originated from here. The Voice of Russia, a Russian government-run media outlet, claimed on Sunday that the hacking of websites related to the referendum held in Crimea on Sunday came from the U.S. (Snip) The Voice of Russia described Sunday’s hackings as the “denial-of-service” type of attacks. “Our IT safety experts managed to find out where those attacks came from. It is University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. The most powerful scanning of servers before the attack was carried out...

SNIPPET: "Security concerns ahead of this summer's Brazilian World Cup have increased after a football fan was beaten to death in host city Sao Paulo." SNIPPET: "There are serious concerns about the safety of travelling supporters at this summer's World Cup after more than 30 people were killed in 2013 as a result of football-related violence. One of Brazil’s biggest criminal gangs last year promised a ‘Tournament of Terror’. The threat was issued by Sau Paulo's 'First Capital of the Command', who in 2012 was a group behind the murder of more than a hundred of the city’s police officers."

LOS ANGELES — A notorious “revenge porn” website operator and another California man have been charged with stealing nude photos from hundreds of hacked email accounts and posting the images online. Hunter Moore, 27, who has been dubbed by some media outlets as “the most hated man on the Internet,” was arrested Thursday at his home. FBI agents also arrested Charles Evens, 25, of the Studio City area of Los Angeles. Evens pleaded not guilty in a Los Angeles court while Moore appeared in court in Sacramento but didn’t enter a plea, U.S. attorney’s spokesman Thom Mrozek said. Both remained...

Snapchat, the disappearing-message service popular with young people, has been quiet following a security breach that allowed hackers to collect the usernames and phone numbers of millions of its users. Company spokeswoman Mary Ritti said Thursday morning that the company is assessing the situation, but did not have further comment. As the U.S. and Canada rang in the New Year, hackers reportedly published 4.6 million Snapchat usernames and phone numbers on a website called snapchatdb.info, which has since been suspended. The breach came less than a week after security experts alerted Snapchat of a vulnerability in its system and warned...

Cyber security experts told Congress today that the Obama administration should take Healthcare.gov offline until privacy vulnerabilities are addressed and detection capabilities are improved. David Kennedy, a so-called “white hat hacker” who tests security flaws by hacking online systems to help identify weaknesses, warned that there are critical flaws and exposures “currently on the website that hackers could use to extract sensitive information.” “The purpose of security isn’t to say, ‘Hey, we’re 100 percent impenetrable all the time,’ but can we detect the hackers in the very early stages of the life cycle of the attack, monitor that, and prevent...

Remember that really terrible thing you did as a child? Remember telling yourself it could be worse? Well, now you can really mean it. A 12-year-old boy from Quebec, Canada, pleaded guilty to hacking government and police websites for the hacktivist group Anonymous. (Via Gizmodo) The fifth grader, who was 11 at the time, was working with Anonymous during the 2012 student uprising in Quebec, where students protested a proposed tuition hike for several months. (Via Vimeo / nate) The Montreal Police, the Quebec Institute of Public Health and the Chilean government websites were all hacked by the boy. According...

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/mozillas-lightbeam-tool-will-expose-who-is-looking-over-your-shoulder-on-the-web-8902269.html

The website and personal credit card information of former Gov. Sarah Palin were cyber-attacked today by Wikileaks supporters, the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate tells ABC News in an email. Hackers in London apparently affiliated with “Operation Payback” – a group of supporters of Julian Assange and Wikileaks – have tried to shut down SarahPac and have disrupted Sarah and Todd Palin’s personal credit card accounts. “No wonder others are keeping silent about Assange's antics,” Palin emailed. “This is what happens when you exercise the First Amendment and speak against his sick, un-American espionage efforts.” Palin has criticized Wikileaks founder...