Free Republic

Cases of online investment account hacking are on the rise. All it takes is a few keystrokes to wipe out an online investment account, and victims often have little or no recourse. Now the government agency that oversees brokerages is warning investors to protect themselves. Just imagine saving your whole life for retirement only to have it vanish. Online investment accounts are the new target of choice for some criminals who wipe out entire accounts sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars with just a few clicks. Bob Sullivan from msnbc.com says the perps are getting smarter, "Criminals have upped the...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The companies behind an encryption system for high-definition DVDs are looking into a hacker's claim that he has cracked the code protecting the new discs from piracy, a spokesman for one of the companies said on Thursday. A hacker known as Muslix64 posted on the Internet details of how he unlocked the encryption, known as the Advanced Access Content System, which prevents high-definition discs from illegal copying by restricting which devices can play them. The AACS system was developed by companies including Walt Disney Co., Intel Corp., Microsoft Corp., Toshiba Corp. and Sony Corp. to protect...

LOS ANGELES - MySpace devotee Kary Rogers was expecting to see a gut-busting video when a friend from the popular online hangout messaged him a link. First, though, he was directed to a page where he was supposed to re-enter his password. Rogers realized that someone was trying to steal his information, and he didn't take the bait. At best, he would be spammed with junk e-mails; worse, the Web thief might steal his real-life identity. "I immediately went back and changed my password," said Rogers, 29, a network analyst for Mississippi State University in Starkville, Miss. MySpace bills itself...

Microsoft updates Vista in latest piracy crackdown 'Frankenbuild' update detects tampering of Vista code that would let users work around the OS' built-in activation system Microsoft on Thursday released an update to Windows Vista that will shut down unauthorized versions of the OS that allow users to skip the product's activation system. The move comes as pirated copies of Vista are already making the rounds, mere weeks after the product was released to business customers. The update, which Microsoft has dubbed "frankenbuild," detects tampering of Windows Vista code that would allow users of the OS to work around the product's...

Providence, RI -- Hackers attacked the computer network at the Naval War College in Newport, taking down the school's network for more than two weeks, including some e-mail services and the college's Web site. The Navy Cyber Defense Operations Command in Norfolk, Va., detected the intrusion around Nov. 16 and took the system offline, spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Doug Gabos said. He said the unclassified network was used by students.

Wall Street was braced for a terrorist strike on financial websites last night. Sources at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security believe Al Qaeda will try to hack into sites used for online stock trading on the New York markets. Intelligence agencies have picked up 'chatter' on intercepted phone and radio links used by Al Qaeda operatives calling for disruption to start today. Online stock trading is a multi-billion-dollar-a-day market used by investors all over the world, including those in Britain. Last night, a financial expert warned traders to be extremely cautious today. They should double check all buying and...

The authorities in Chile have arrested four people who the police say are members of one of the world's most successful groups of computer hackers. The men are accused of breaching more than 8,000 websites, including that of US space agency Nasa. One of the men, who has used the alias "Net Toxic", is alleged to be one of the most prolific hackers in the world. The men were detained in simultaneous raids in three cities in Chile, including the capital Santiago. The Chilean police carried out the operation in co-ordination with Interpol and intelligence services from the US, Israel...

Home PCs could be under attack from hackers over 50 times a night, suggests a BBC News Website experiment. The BBC News Website team set up a ‘honeypot’ PC – a computer that looks like a normal PC online but records everything that's done to it – in order to find out the dangers facing web users. Every single time the 'honeypot' was put online it was attacked. In one of the busiest nights of malicious online activity, the computer was attacked 53 times: 1 hijack attempt. PC suffered buffer overflow attempt to subvert web server built into Microsoft Windows....

Chinese computer hackers target US Commerce Department Oct 06 2:41 PM US/Eastern via AFP Computer hackers based in China have launched sustained attacks on the computers of a US Commerce Department technology export office, a department official said. The official, who requested anonymity, said the attacks had originated from websites registered with Chinese Internet service providers. Chinese-based hackers, especially in the Chinese province of Guangdong, have mounted systematic efforts to penetrate US government and industry computer networks in order to access secret information, according to computer security experts. The experts and some US lawmakers believe the attacks are sanctioned by...

NEW WEBSITE INCITES ELECTRONIC JIHAD Internet Jihad Update from Global Terrorism Analysis: The latest criticism of Islam being a violent religion, which was sparked by incendiary comments made by Pope Benedict XVI, has caused internet jihadis to launch a new website called Electronic Jihad, located at http://www.al-jinan.org. The purpose of the website is to help organize an electronic jihad against websites that insult Islam and Islamic sacred figures. The site has been well publicized on more established jihadi websites. Jihadi forums are posting quotes from the Quran in order to encourage and convince jihadis and regular Muslims of their duty...

As it turned out, all of those involved in the infamous leakage of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's recorded -- albeit private -- remarks about the proclivities of Republican legislators sullied themselves. For those who have been out of touch for the past week -- or tuned out -- the Los Angeles Times published excerpts from a private conversation Schwarzenegger had last spring with some aides in which, among other things, he speculated about GOP Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia's ethnicity and added: "I mean, they are all very hot. They have the, you know, part of the black blood in them and part...

Los Angeles -- Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides on Thursday maintained his campaign did nothing wrong when it downloaded an audio tape of a private meeting from the governor's Web site. Instead, the state treasurer sought to steer the debate away from the legal or ethical questions of obtaining the file and focus attention on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's comments. The governor was overheard on the tapes, during a private meeting with staff members last March, remarking about the fiery temperament that results from the mixing of "black blood" and "Latino blood." "As I understand it, this audiotape was downloaded from...

That sound you hear is the backfire coming from Phil Angelides' gubernatorial campaign for its on-the-sly release of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's comments about "hot"-blooded Latinos. The Angelides folks would like everyone to believe that there's more embarrassing material on the tapes the Democratic campaign obtained from a governor's Web site -- which may or may not have been secure -- but that the firestorm over the affair is making it impossible for them to circulate other remarks. "That's the real irony here," said one Angelides insider, who would speak only on the condition of anonymity. "These two guys (campaign staffers)...

California Highway Patrol officials have opened a criminal investigation into "multiple" breaches and illegal downloads by outside hackers into the computers of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office, after an embarrassing private taped conversation was leaked last week to the Los Angeles Times, administration officials told The Chronicle. "There is an investigation conducted by the California Highway Patrol on how the tape obtained by the L.A. Times was acquired," said a senior official who spoke on condition of anonymity. "This is a criminal matter that has been turned over to the CHP." The governor was criticized last week after the Times reported...

STOCKHOLM (AFX) - Sweden's ruling Social Democratic Party has reported hundreds of incidents of unauthorized computer access to the police, and alleges that 'someone linked to the Liberal Party' had hacked into its internal network, reported Dagens Industri. The hacking enabled unauthorized people to view secret Social Democrat (SD) information about strategies and plans for the forthcoming Sept 17 election campaign. snip --- 'We are now looking into whether we can find out any information via our network about what has been claimed, I have asked anyone in the Liberal Party who has information about this to come forward,' he...

See for example this thread first. Mohammed Ahmedijenad has a blog--or should I say "had"? The website got hacked defaced, and attacked (but by the wrong folks). That's just sad!

The old business model was smashed to rubble in the mountains of Tora Bora, Afghanistan. Although soundly defeated and on the run, AlQaeda and their Taleban hosts were able to disseminate the closely guarded secrets and methods of the AlQaeda Encyclopedia to more tech-savvy true believers and would-be jihadists. Now, all the AlQaeda 2.0 needs is a willing mind, and an internet connection. In the September/October edition of Foreign Affairs Evan Kohlmann said: Al Qaeda and similar groups rely on the Internet to contact potential recruits and donors, sway public opinion, instruct would-be terrorists, pool tactics and knowledge, and organize...

Cyberwars? Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's new personal Web site has come under attack by Israeli hackers intent on crashing it, Ynetnews reports. The ahmadinejad.ir site was announced Sunday and allows Internet users to post comments and questions for the president in Farsi, Arabic, English or French. But by Monday afternoon, Israeli bloggers claimed they had organized an effort by thousands of Israelis to enter the site simultaneously, causing it to crash, Ynet said. The site was down for several hours late Monday but UPI found it functional early Tuesday morning. Ahmadinejad has posted his biography on the site, along with...

U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman's campaign Web site remained offline Thursday, and federal and state authorities were investigating why it crashed on the eve of this week's defeat in a high-profile primary. The site, Joe2006.com, appeared to have suffered from a so-called "denial of service" attack, in which computers overwhelm a site with fake traffic so real visitors can't get through, said Richard M. Smith, an Internet security consultant in Brookline, Mass. The Lieberman campaign denied speculation among liberal Web pundits that the centrist Democrat's Web site had simply crashed because it used a low-budget Web host unable to handle the...

Hackers are taking a page from the open-source playbook, using the same techniques that made Linux and Apache successes to improve their malicious software, according to McAfee Inc. Nowhere is this more apparent than within the growing families of "bot" software, which allow hackers to remotely control infected computers. Unlike viruses of the past, bots tend to be written by a group of authors, who often collaborate by using the same tools and techniques as open source developers, said Dave Marcus, security research and communications manager with McAfee's Avert Labs. "Over the last year and a half, we've noticed how...