Free Republic

WASHINGTON — Computer spies have broken into the Pentagon's $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter project — the Defense Department's costliest weapons program ever — according to current and former government officials familiar with the attacks. Similar incidents have also breached the Air Force's air-traffic-control system in recent months, these people say. In the case of the fighter-jet program, the intruders were able to copy and siphon off several terabytes of data related to design and electronics systems, officials say, potentially making it easier to defend against the craft. The latest intrusions provide new evidence that a battle is heating up...

This was going to be a "don't believe everything you read on Twitter" sort of post, but the reality involving a rumor that online celeb/MTV star Tila Tequila had died is a little scarier than that. It appears that a stalker broke into the "A Shot at Love" star's house early Monday and posted two messages to her Twitter account (which has some 79,000 followers). "Tila Tequila is dead," the first one read, followed a few minutes later by "I just broke into her house, killer her and her dog. Logged onto Twitter to tell you guys. She was signed...

The Sun-Sentinel has an article this morning about how a hackers are using a Web site that is posing as the Palm Beach County government Web site: Leaving out the first “.” in www.pbcgov.com lands unwitting visitors on a hoax site. Making the wrong move on that site could enable hackers and spammers to secretly take over a computer, using it to send viruses and mass e-mails without the owner knowing. Michael Butler, the county director of network services, says there’s a Trojan Horse for them to take over your machine. When you visit the hoax site, an official-looking message...

U.S. concerns about the potential for cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure extended to the American electrical power grid on Wednesday and experts pointed the finger anew at Chinese hackers, among others. As a result, electric utilities are likely to face new pressures from the U.S. Congress and government regulators to tighten security and preparations against computer intrusions that would wreak widespread havoc. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told reporters the power grid is vulnerable to potentially disabling computer attacks, while declining to comment on reports that an intrusion had taken place. "The vulnerability is something that the Department of Homeland...

Foreign hackers have reportedly managed to break into the computer network controlling the nation's power grid. The discovery has raised alarm about how such unauthorized access could be used to harm the U.S., though the discovery may motivate actions to strengthen the security systems surrounding the nation's infrastructure. A Wall Street Journal report that foreign hackers have repeatedly penetrated the U.S. power grid computer network has delivered a loud wake-up call. Cyber-spies from countries including China and Russia have breached the electrical infrastructure's computer network and left software tools behind that would have allowed them to control or destroy infrastructure...

Chinese and Russian cyber spies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, according to current and former national-security officials. According to Fox News, the spies are also from other countries, and they were believed to be on a mission to navigate the U.S. electrical system and its controls. The intruders haven't sought to damage the power grid or other key infrastructure, but officials warned they could try during a crisis or war. The espionage appeared pervasive across the U.S. and doesn't target a particular company or region, said...

Deployments of smart grids should be slowed until security vulnerabilities are addressed, according to some cybersecurity experts, citing tests showing that a hacker can cause a major blackout after breaking into a smart-grid system. The idea behind smart grids, a burgeoning energy sector in which even Google is playing a role, is that automated meters and two-way power consumption data can be used to improve the efficiency and reliability of an electrical system's power distribution. A washing machine in a household hooked up to a smart meter, for instance, could be set up to run only at lower-cost, off-peak hours,...

I understand there is a new anti-freeper site started by disgruntled former and present Mormon FReepers and it is their intention of bankrupting FR during the coming Freepathon by withholding their donations and disrupting our activities. Well, all I can say is, if they feel that badly against FR, by all means they should withhold their donations and drop out of FR. But it they attempt to disrupt our operations I will guarantee they will no longer be members of FR. If that is their wish, so be it. I'm not going to try to defend FR from their claims...

A China-based cyber spy network has hacked into government and private systems in 103 countries, including those of many Indian embassies and the Dalai Lama, an Internet research group said here Saturday. The Information Warfare Monitor (IWM), which carried out an extensive 10-month research on cyber spy activities emanating from China, said the hacked systems include the computers of Indian embassies and offices of the Dalai Lama.

Hackers who sympathize with radical Islamic groups increasingly are using hijacked accounts at online file-upload and distribution services to disseminate large files, such as videos of attacks on Western forces in the Middle East, new research suggests. Services like RapidShare, Ziddu, and MegaUpload allow users to share large files, yet each places certain restrictions on non-paying users, such as limiting the number, speed, and size of files that free users can upload and download. But according to analysts at iDefense, a security intelligence firm owned by Verisign, hackers from various online jihadists forums have in recent months begun posting lengthy...

Last week, while trying out breaking-in tools developed by Chinese hackers, an Israeli Network security company, Applicure, brought down the Hezbollah Web site (hizbollah.tv), using no more than 10 bots, which are computers controlled by hackers. Reports of hackers taking out Web sites by bombarding them with massive amounts of information commonly appear in the news media. But often it's hard to estimate both the magnitude of the phenomenon and the ease with which even laymen can use existing web tools. Those attacks geared at bringing down Web sites are know as either denial of service attacks (DOS) or distributed...

Mac owners have been urged to be wary of a new threat that targets the Apple computer as well as Windows-based PCs. Researchers at security firm Sophos have discovered the OSX/RSPlug Trojan horse, which is being distributed on websites offering fake HDTV software. "Mac users are no different to Windows users when it comes to falling for social-engineering tricks like this - they are just as likely to install and run this program on their computer if they believe it will help them watch high-definition TV," said Graham Cluley of Sophos. Apple Mac malware: Caught on camera from Sophos Labs...

http://www.covertradioshow.com # The Daily Blast for March 23, 2009 PodCast Link: http://covertradioshow.com/podcast.cfm?pid=159 SNIPPET: “CHINA Chinese Hackers Target Senate Computers Cyber hackers believed to be based in China have tapped three times into the computer network in US Sen. Bill Nelson’s office, the Florida Democrat said Friday. Two attacks on the same day this month and another one last month targeted work stations used by three Nelson staffers — a key foreign-policy aide, the deputy legislative director and a former Nelson NASA advisor, according to Nelson’s staff.”

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson says hackers breached the computer network in his Washington office, but didn't access any classified information.

""Wikileaks" explained in an earlier email that it was making public the information on Coleman's donors, including their credit card numbers, because of the "Coleman campaign's effort to impugn the election processes in the State of Minnesota." As a result of Wikileak's mass email of a spread sheet containing credit card information for thousands of Coleman donors, the Coleman campaign sent an email to its supporters today suggesting that they cancel their credit cards."

The as-Ansar forum was a place where l33t jihadi hackers claimed credit for attacks on many alleged Zionist websites, back in early January.

...Islamists gloat anyway.

LUBBOCK, Texas: A hacked electronic highway sign in northern Texas carried a warning not seen much since the American Revolution. On Friday, the sign briefly flashed: "OMG The British R coming. They R watching you." KCBD-TV reported the electronic sign was in a construction area in southwest Lubbock.

Transportation officials in Texas are scrambling to prevent hackers from changing messages on digital road signs after one sign in Austin was altered to read, "Zombies Ahead." Chris Lippincott, director of media relations for the Texas Department of Transportation, confirmed that a portable traffic sign at Lamar Boulevard and West 15th Street, near the University of Texas at Austin, was hacked into during the early hours of Jan. 19. "It was clever, kind of cute, but not what it was intended for," said Lippincott, who saw the sign during his morning commute. "Those signs are deployed for a reason —...

A little-discussed provision in President Obama's economic stimulus plan would demand that every American submit to a government program for electronic medical records without a choice to opt out, and it has privacy advocates more than a little alarmed. Patients might be alarmed, too, privacy advocates said, if they realized information such as documentation on abortions, mental health problems, impotence, being labeled as a non-compliant patient, lawsuits against doctors and sexual problems could be shared electronically with, perhaps, millions of people.