Free Republic

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...

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. — As operators of sex-oriented Web sites gather at the Internext convention in Las Vegas this week, a major leak at a little New Jersey company is likely to be a big topic. Freehold-based Too Much Media, which sells accounting software for adult Web sites, told its customers last month that a security breach on its computers allowed hackers to access various adult Web sites' subscriber lists. Keith Kimmel of Norman, Okla., who runs two Web sites that feature porn, said the breach has the potential to embarrass. "Would you really want a record floating around the...

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.

This site has been hacked for at least an hour now, apparently by an illiterate, anti-Christian, teenaged hacker from Finland. I traced down the domain owners and called their North Carolina phone #. They are in today, and know about the hacking, and are trying to fix it at the moment.

Tan Dailin lets out an audible gasp when he is told that he was identified in the U.S. as someone who may have been responsible for recent security breaches at the Pentagon. "Will the FBI send special agents out to arrest me?" he asks. Much as they might want to talk with him, though, FBI agents don't have jurisdiction in Chengdu, the capital of China's Sichuan province, where Tan lives. And given that he has been lauded in China's official press for his triumphs in military-sponsored hacking competitions, Tan is unlikely to have problems with local law enforcement. But Tan...

Hackers have newer methods to hack into your systems. They are smart enough to detect security loop holes in your PC and enter through open ports,unencrypted Wi-Fi connections,malicious websites or internet servers. It is better you check your PC periodically for invasions and protect your system to prevent pilfering and damage of data. Detecting security loopholes. Eliminating malicious programs. Tracking hackers .

Seagate Technology LLC has shipped Maxtor disk drives that contain Trojan horses that upload data to a pair of Chinese Web sites, the Taiwanese government's security service warned this weekend. The Investigation Bureau, a part of the Ministry of Justice that's responsible for both internal security and foreign threats, said it suspected mainland China's authorities were responsible for planting the malware on the drives at the factory. "The bureau said that the method of attack was unusual, adding that it suspected Chinese authorities were involved," a story posted by the English-language Taipei Times reported Sunday. "Sensitive information may have already...

<p>If Texas congressman Ron Paul is elected president in 2008, he may be the first leader of the free world put into power with the help of a global network of hacked PCs spewing spam, according to computer-security researchers who've analyzed a recent flurry of e-mail supporting the long-shot Republican candidate.</p>

[Tanslation ScaniaBoy] A hacker war between Turkey and Sweden has erupted. Last week Turkish hackers attacked thousands of Swedish sites on the Internet, and this weekend Swedish hackers revenged by publishing pornographic pictures of the prophet Muhammed. The Turkish attacks started several weeks ago. Swedish Web-hotels were attacked and thousands of home-pages were erased, and sometimes the attackers left political messages. On Saturday the Swedish hackers hit back. They had localised a Turkish discussion forum where some of the hackers were registred. The database with names and passwords for all the members to the site was stolen, Per Hellqvist, head...

Several months ago, the Pentagon's network and e-mail system fell victim to computer hacking. After an internal investigation, Pentagon officials declared that the hack was perpetrated by the Chinese military. In particular, officials said the attack "was by China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) and that it led to the shutdown of a computer system serving the office of Defense Secretary Robert Gates." Now, a Chinese company with ties to the country's military, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and the Taliban will gain access to U.S. defense-network technology under a proposed merger.According to a story in the Washington Times, Huawei Technologies...

Looks like Christian Chronicle web site has been defaced by sickos.

China bids for firm that makes "intrusion prevention" technology for the Department of Defense. THE CHINESE ANNOUNCED on Saturday that they would be buying into the company that provides the Pentagon with technology to prevent cyber-attacks--of the sort the Chinese launched a few weeks ago. Why worry? We are all free traders now, according the president and his secretary of the Treasury--all except misguided Democrats, trade unions, displaced workers, and those who worry about our national security. True, free trade is great--when dealing with other parties who are in it for the same thing--to make money. But that ain't the...

Chinese military hackers have prepared a detailed plan to disable America’s aircraft battle carrier fleet with a devastating cyber attack, according to a Pentagon report obtained by The Times. The blueprint for such an assault, drawn up by two hackers working for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), is part of an aggressive push by Beijing to achieve “electronic dominance” over each of its global rivals by 2050, particularly the US, Britain, Russia and South Korea.

In August 2006, just a few months in advance of the midterm elections, 26 million citizens were logging on to the Internet to get information about the campaigns, according to a survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. ) That amounts to 13 percent of all adults in the country using the Internet as a tool to make informed political decisions.... And notably, since the inception of Google bombing seven years ago, political Google bombs have been predominantly a tactic of the Left. While Google bombing isn’t exclusive to Democratic partisans (in 2004 a Republican blogger instigated a...

Lieutenant General Robert Elder, senior Air Force officer for cyberspace issues, recently joked that North Korea “must only have one laptop” to make the more serious point that every potential adversary – except Pyongyang – routinely scans US computer networks. North Korea may be impotent in cyberspace, but its neighbour is not. The Chinese military sent a shiver down the Pentagon’s spine in June by successfully hacking into an unclassified network used by the top policy advisers to Robert Gates, the defence secretary. While the People’s Liberation Army has been probing Pentagon networks hund­reds of times a day for the...

The Chinese military hacked into a Pentagon computer network in June in the most successful cyber attack on the US defence department, say American ­officials. The Pentagon acknowledged shutting down part of a computer system serving the office of Robert Gates, defence secretary, but declined to say who it believed was behind the attack. Current and former officials have told the Financial Times an internal investigation has revealed that the incursion came from the People’s Liberation Army. One senior US official said the Pentagon had pinpointed the exact origins of the attack. Another person familiar with the event said there...

The official website of the United Nations appeared to have been hacked early Sunday, and was displaying a message protesting US and Israeli policies in the Middle East. The section of the site reserved to statements by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon showed a message, repeated several times, that read: "Hacked By kerem125 M0sted and Gsy That is CyberProtest Hey Ysrail and Usa dont kill children and other people Peace for ever No war." The message also appeared on other web pages that usually display quotes and speeches from the secretary general. The address for the UN chief's website is http://www.un.org/News/ossg....

That exploration goes well beyond invading the closed corners of the Internet. DefCon's more than 6,000 attendees hack everything: their cars, to increase horsepower and remove pesky safety and emissions controls; their brains, using biofeedback receptors attached to videogames to relieve anxiety disorders; even the war in Iraq. One Navy engineer gave a presentation detailing the nine months he spent hacking insurgent bombs, jamming their radio frequencies to prevent detonation.

An NBC reporter learned the hard (and embarrassing) way that DefCon 15, a conference of underground hackers who also happen to be security experts, is not the place to go undercover with a hidden camera. George Ou, who blogs for CNET News.com's sister site ZDNet, has written a detailed account of the drama that unfolded Friday at the Las Vegas conference when staff members announced the "spot the undercover reporter" game. Staffers had apparently learned that a Dateline NBC producer hoping to catch someone confessing to a hacking crime was there as a regular attendee after refusing repeatedly to seek...

SEATTLE — Microsoft Corp. is once again on the defensive against hackers after the launch of a new program that gives average PC users tools to unlock copy-protected digital music and movies. The latest version of the FairUse4M program, which can crack Microsoft's digital rights management system for Windows Media audio and video files, was published online late Friday. In the past year, Microsoft plugged holes exploited by two earlier versions of the program and filed a federal lawsuit against its anonymous authors. Microsoft dropped the lawsuit after failing to identify them. The third version of FairUse4M has a simple...