Free Republic

Computer attacks typically don't inflict physical pain on their victims. But in a rare example of an attack apparently motivated by malice rather than money, hackers recently bombarded the Epilepsy Foundation's Web site with hundreds of pictures and links to pages with rapidly flashing images.

Some months ago, my contacts in the defense industry had alerted me to a startling development that has escalated to the point of near-panick in nearly all corners of Government security and IT infrastructure. The very-real concern, being investigated by the FBI, is that either the Chinese government or Chinese hackers (or both) have had the benefit of undetectable back-doors into highly secure government and military computer networks for months, perhaps years. The cause: a high-number of counterfeit Cisco routers and switches installed in nearly all government networks that experienced upgrades and/or new units within the past 18 months.

The site of Freeper EUPHORIADEV was hacked. She has lost over 2 years worth of data. Euphoriadev was covering the Haditha and Hamdania incident extensively she has lost over 2 years worth of data we do NOT believe it is the people who are claiming the hack

Hackers have a lot of fancy names for the technical exploits they use to gain access to a company's networks: cross-site scripting, buffer overflows or the particularly evil-sounding SQL injection, to name a few. But Johnny Long prefers a simpler entry point for data theft: the emergency exit door. "By law, employees have to be able to leave a building without showing credentials," Long says. "So the way out is often the easiest way in." Case in point: Tasked with stealing data from an ultra-secure building outfitted with proximity card readers, Long opted for an old-fashioned approach. Instead of looking...

The MacBook Air went first; a tiny Fujitsu laptop running Vista was hacked on the last day of the contest; but it was Linux, running on a Sony Vaio, that remained undefeated as conference organizers ended a three-way computer hacking challenge Friday at the CanSecWest conference. Earlier this week, contest sponsors had put three laptops up for grabs to anyone who could hack into one of the systems and run their own software. A US$20,000 cash prize sweetened the deal, but the payout was halved each day as contest rules were relaxed and it became easier to penetrate the computers.

Harvard student database hacked, posted on BitTorrent By Robert Vamosi, CNET News.com Friday, March 14, 2008 12:03 PM Harvard University says about 10,000 of last year's applicants may have had their personal information compromised. At least 6,600 Social Security numbers were exposed. Worse, a compressed 125 M-byte file containing the stolen student data is currently available via BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer network. In a statement published Monday night Harvard officials said the database containing summaries of GSAS applicant data for entry to the Fall 2007 academic year, summaries of GSAS housing applicant data for the 2007-08 and 2006-07 academic years, and...

Foreign hackers, primarily from Russia and China, are increasingly seeking to steal Americans’ health care records, according to a Department of Homeland Security analyst. Mark Walker, who works in DHS’ Critical Infrastructure Protection Division, told a workshop audience at the National Institute of Standards and Technology that the hackers’ primary motive seems to be espionage. “They’ve been focused on the [Department of Defense] – the military – but now are spreading out into the health care private sector,” Walker said. Early in 2007, a virus was placed on a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site, he said, and...

Chinese hackers target government CHINESE computer hackers have launched targeted attacks on classified Australian government computer networks. The cyber attacks has prompted an internal review of IT security, Fairfax newspapers report. The federal government will spend $70 million to improve IT security this year, a figure that could be increased after the recent spate of hackings. The attacks are thought to be part of an international espionage operation to glean intelligence from the western world. Australian intelligence figures are believed to be concerned at a growing level of industrial espionage. The attacks late last year are believed to have been...

Computer hackers have managed to shut down power to entire cities by breaking into the systems of electricity companies and then demanding money, a senior CIA analyst has claimed. Tom Donahue told a utilities security conference in New Orleans that all the successful hackings occurred outside America. He did not specify what countries were affected, when the power cuts happened or how long they lasted. Mr Donahue, who was speaking at the Process Control Security Summit, later said in a statement: "We have information, from multiple regions outside the United States, of cyber intrusions into utilities, followed by extortion demands."...

Saturday, January 19, 2008 International computer hackers threatening to hold cities ransom January 18, 2008 CIA says hackers pulled plug on overseas power grid Overseas attacks recently declassified, but some details obscure By Robert McMillan (IDG News Service) -- Criminals have been able to hack into computer systems via the Internet and cut power to several cities, a Central Intelligence Agency analyst said this week. Speaking at a conference of security professionals on Wednesday, CIA analyst Tom Donahue disclosed the recently declassified attacks while offering few specifics on what actually went wrong. Criminals have launched online attacks that disrupted power...

A Polish teenager allegedly turned the tram system in the city of Lodz into his own personal train set, triggering chaos and derailing four vehicles in the process. Twelve people were injured in one of the incidents. The 14-year-old modified a TV remote control so that it could be used to change track points, The Telegraph reports. Local police said the youngster trespassed in tram depots to gather information needed to build the device. The teenager told police that he modified track setting for a prank. "He studied the trams and the tracks for a long time and then built...

Boeing has been ordered to ensure passengers on its new 787 Dreamliner jet cannot hack into the flight system and take control of the plane. The ruling has come from America's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which is concerned that the plane's computer system may be vulnerable. Boeing said it was in constant dialogue with the FAA to resolve the issue. The US giant will start to deliver the mid-sized planes from November. British Airways has ordered 24 Dreamliners. Rival UK carrier Virgin Atlantic has orders for 15.

The South Korean military has issued a warning that computer systems of soldiers and defense institutes have become the victims of presumed Chinese hacking activities, a military source said Tuesday. The source said hackers, believed to be Chinese nationals, penetrated computers of soldiers by sending e-mail involving hacking programs falsely titled ``the situation on North Korea's arms power.'' ``We are now investigating several cyber hacking cases believed to be conducted by Chinese nationals based on evidence that the hackers stole information stored in soldiers' computers,'' the source said, asking not to be named. The hackers appeared to have penetrated Web...

(IsraelNN.com) Police have arrested a 17-year-old Arab youth with Israeli citizenship for involvement in an international group of hackers dedicated to damaging Israeli websites. The group of hackers includes members from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Turkey, and other Muslim countries, and police suspect that other Arabs with Israeli citizenship are involved as well. The group has attacked numerous Israeli sites, including websites belonging to political parties and sports forums, causing millions of shekels in damage. The Israeli youth was arrested after an 18-month investigation. The young man’s mother attempted to hide his personal computer when police arrived at the house, but...

The Story: ItÂ’s not often that an analyst covering computer security issues tells you that he doesnÂ’t do much to protect his systems. But one reputable analyst I know said just that as we talked about the rising threat of malware aimed at AppleÂ’s hardware. I wonÂ’t mention his name, but the gentleman is dead wrong. The days when you can assume that AppleÂ’s products are exempt from harm are over. Is it time to panic? No, actual attacks against Macs and the rest of the Apple family, such as the iPhone, are still rare. But as the platform becomes...

A UK hacker who broke into dozens of US military computers to find secret evidence of alien life and technology faces up to 70 years in a US prison. The 40-year-old unemployed systems administrator faces charges of attacking 97 US military and NASA computers between 2001 and 2002. If found guilty, he could face up to 70 years in prison and may even be sent to Guantanamo Bay as a terrorist suspect. Gary McKinnon will lodge what is likely to be his final appeal against extradition on February 13 next year at London's Court of Appeal. He lost his first...

After years of relative safety, the Apple Mac is becoming an increasingly tempting target for malicious computer hackers, according to a new report published this week. Security researchers have been aware of the threat to Apple since last year, when they detected the first piece of malicious code – or “malware” – specifically designed to target Apple. Over the past few months, however, the number of malicious programmes has increased, according to a report published this week by F-Secure, an internet security company. “Over the past two years, we had found one or two pieces of malware targeting Macs,” said...

LONDON (AFP) - Chinese-backed computer hackers attacked the internal computer network of British airplane engine maker Rolls-Royce, The Times said in its Monday edition. Citing unidentified security sources, the daily said that while the hackers did not manage to get through to the company's sensitive data, the attack earlier this year "nearly took them (Rolls-Royce) out". According to The Times, Anglo-Dutch energy company Royal Dutch Shell uncovered a spy ring made up of Chinese nationals at its facilities in Houston, in the United States, also earlier this year. The two companies declined to comment when contacted by The Times. "The...

San Francisco - A blog set up to promote former U.S. Vice President Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth, has been hacked and is hosting links to Web sites hawking online pharmaceuticals. The links appear to have been created as part of a scheme to boost the Web traffic for sites that promote the drugs, security experts said Monday. They contain titles such as "Xanax On Line," "Viagra," and "Buy Valium Online." Cyber scammers have been using this technique for months now, packing hacked Web sites with links to their products in hopes of bumping up their rankings on search...

A Republican Party Web site has been hacked, and for some time it has been spreading a variation of the long-running Storm Trojan horse to vulnerable visitors, a security researcher said Friday. This is the first time that Storm has taken to the Web for its victims, said Dan Hubbard, head of research at San Diego-based Websense Inc. "The big news is that Storm has added infecting sites to its arsenal," said Hubbard. Storm debuted in January but only cracked the top malware lists early this summer, and has become infamous for its ability to adapt its infection strategies. "They...