Free Republic

The Global Positioning System helps power everything from in-car satnavs and smart bombs to bank security and flight control, but its founder has warned that it is more vulnerable to sabotage or disruption than ever before – and politicians and security chiefs are ignoring the risk. Impairment of the system by hostile foreign governments, cyber criminals – or even regular citizens – has become “a matter of national security”, according to Colonel Bradford Parkinson, who is hailed as the architect of modern navigation. “If we don’t watch out and we aren’t prepared,” then countries could be denied everything from ‘navigation’...

A local congressional candidate now says she will not be hiring a cyber-security firm to look into claims that someone hacked her campaign’s website. The situation started in September, 2013, when Democrat Martha Robertson’s campaign sent an e-mail out to supporters claiming “GOP ops” were trying to hack their website. In early October, the Robertson campaign backed off the “GOP ops” claim during an interview with WETM, but presented evidence showing there were multiple “SQL injection” attacks made on the website. And during an interview with the political site Roll Call, Robertson state the campaign was looking into hiring a...

Visitors to the Sochi Winter Olympics can expect for their computers and mobile devices to be hacked, NBC’s Richard Engel reported Tuesday evening on NBC Nightly News. Engel conducted multiple experiments with the help of an American based security expert in which the NBC reporter logged onto various public WIFI networks around Moscow. Almost immediately, all of Engel’s devices were exposed to malicious malware. Analysis revealed some of Engel’s devices were transmitting personal data stored on his computer to a server based in Russia. The best way for travelers to avoid these issues, Engel said, is to avoid public WIFI...

A 19-year-old who lived at home with his mom and worked at a local call center stole the identities of America's rich and famous — including Kim Kardashian and the head of the FBI — and took over their financial accounts..... ...Earlier this week, Flores learned he'll spend the next 3 1/2 years in federal prison for his identity theft scheme..... ....At the time, Flores was already facing criminal charges in state court, where he was accused of taking private information from a coworker's personnel profile and having his colleague's paycheck directly deposited into his own bank account. Flores was...

Beware of malformed FileZilla FTP client versions 3.7.3 and 3.5.3. We have noticed an increased presence of these malware versions of famous open source FTP clients. The first suspicious signs are bogus download URLs... Malware installer GUI is almost identical to the official version. The only slight difference is version of NullSoft installer where malware uses 2.46.3-Unicode and the official installer uses v2.45-Unicode. All other elements like texts, buttons, icons and images are the same. The installed malware FTP client looks like the official version and it is fully functional! You can’t find any suspicious behavior, entries in the system...

The man who appeared before Congress last week to explain the security pitfalls of HealthCare.gov took to Fox News on Sunday to explain just how easy it was to penetrate the website. Hacking expert David Kennedy told Fox’s Chris Wallace that gaining access to 70,000 personal records of Obamacare enrollees via HealthCare.gov took about 4 minutes and required nothing more than a standard browser, the Daily Caller reported. PHOTOS: Eye-popping excuses in American political scandals “And 70,000 was just one of the numbers that I was able to go up to and I stopped after that,” he said. “You know,...

<p>Researchers with Trustwave's SpiderLabs said they discovered the credentials while investigating a server in the Netherlands that cyber criminals use to control a massive network of compromised computers known as the "Pony botnet."</p> <p>The company told Reuters on Wednesday that it has reported its findings to the largest of more than 90,000 websites and Internet service providers whose customers' credentials it had found on the server.</p>

Target confirmed Friday that debit card PIN data was stolen in its recent massive breach, reversing its earlier stance that the codes were not part of the hack. However, the retailer believes the PINs remain "safe and secure." In a statement, Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder said the PINs are "strongly encrypted" and were never stored on Target's systems in plain text. In other words, from the moment a customer entered a PIN after swiping a debit card, Target's payment system translated that number into an indecipherable string of code. Target claims that the PINs remained encrypted after they were stolen....

If your personal info is filched from the site, the government doesn’t have to tell you. Christmas shoppers were stunned to learn last Thursday that computer hackers had made off with the names and other personal info of some 40 million Target customers. Some of the pilfered information is reportedly being sold on the black market, prompting JP Morgan Chase to limit purchases and cash withdrawals on debit cards owned by recent Target shoppers. But at least Target informed its customers of the security breach, as it is required by federal law to do. HealthCare.gov faces no such requirement; it...

Christmas shoppers were stunned to learn last Thursday that computer hackers had made off with the names and other personal info of some 40 million Target customers. Some of the pilfered information is reportedly being sold on the black market, prompting JP Morgan Chase to limit purchases and cash withdrawals on debit cards owned by recent Target shoppers. But at least Target informed its customers of the security breach, as it is required by federal law to do. HealthCare.gov faces no such requirement; it need never notify customers that their personal information has been hacked or possibly compromised. The Department...

Documents provided to the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform reveal that the Obama administration knew of security vulnerabilities within Healthcare.gov prior to Oct. 1, but launched the website anyway. Chairman Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) said Health and Human Services (HHS) officials showed a “disturbing lack of judgment” by going ahead with the site’s launch and putting Americans’ personal information at risk. Results of a security assessment conducted by a contractor on the site, MITRE Corporation, found that 19 security vulnerabilities remained unaddressed on Oct. 1. Eleven of the 19 vulnerabilities “significantly impact the confidentiality, integrity and/or availability of...

Daniel_Stuckey writes "Earlier this year, it was London. Most recently, it was a university in Germany. Wherever it is, [artist Aram] Bartholl is opening up his eight white, plainly printed binders full of the 4.7 million user passwords that were pilfered from the social network and made public by a hacker last year. He brings the books to his exhibits, called 'Forgot Your Password,' where you're free to see if he's got your data—and whether anyone else who wanders through is entirely capable of logging onto your account and making Connections with unsavory people. In fact, Bartholl insists: "These eight...

The Queen marked the level in bowls of nuts left around Buckingham Palace as she was "irritated" by police officers eating them, the Old Bailey has heard. According to an email sent by Clive Goodman, ex-royal editor at the News of the World, she was "upset" by it. The journalist added that a memo was sent to palace officers, telling them to "keep their sticky fingers out". The phone-hacking jury has also heard one of the defendants, Ian Edmondson, is no longer fit to stand trial. Mr Justice Saunders said that it was "not appropriate to adjourn to wait for...

China hacked computers in the foreign ministries of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia and Portugal in summer 2013, The New York Times reports, citing own research and work by IT firm FireEye. It said officials triggered malware by clicking email links to naked pictures of French celebrity Carla Bruni.

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...

The American intelligence service - NSA - infected more than 50,000 computer networks worldwide with malicious software designed to steal sensitive information. Documents provided by former NSA-employee Edward Snowden and seen by this newspaper, prove this. A management presentation dating from 2012 explains how the NSA collects information worldwide. In addition, the presentation shows that the intelligence service uses ‘Computer Network Exploitation’ (CNE) in more than 50,000 locations. CNE is the secret infiltration of computer systems achieved by installing malware, malicious software. One example of this type of hacking was discovered in September 2013 at the Belgium telecom provider Belgacom....

Here's to your health...your health insurance credentials, that is. Information security service provider Dell SecureWorks has uncovered in a new report that buyers are dropping big bucks for health insurance documents that are being hawked on the internet underground with the goal of using them to commit fraud. Dell SecureWorks Counter Threat Unit (CTU) senior security researcher Don Jackson has investigated underground market supply and demand for years, and beginning in May, he sought to update how buyers are spending their money in 2013. Jackson discovered people are laying down top dollar for all-inclusive health insurance dossiers known as “Kitz,”...

Experts’ warnings of Obamacare website’s complete lack of security apparently have been justified. The website gave at least 3 unknown individuals access to a woman’s Social Security number, address, and other data that could be used for identity theft. Customer service operators at Healthcare.gov’s 1-800 number told Lisa Martinson about the unauthorized access when she called in to change her password. When Martinson asked for her information to be removed from the site she was told it would take 5 days.

Someone may have posted something on this already...Scary concept and has a little too close to real feel... http://www.dragondaymovie.com/?video=video-8-3

**SNIP** According to the US authorities, the arrested man hacked into systems of the US Army, Nasa and the Environmental Protection Agency, among others. **SNIP** The suspected hackers allegedly placed "back doors", or code, to allow them to get back into the systems later to steal confidential information.