Free Republic

Consumers of Internet pornography who secretly signed up for memberships on adult-oriented Web sites in the past few months may be in for a shock -- some of their personal information, including e-mail addresses, may have been compromised by a security breach. Though the breach, which potentially could affect tens of thousands of customers, reportedly did not involve the theft of credit card information, it could nonetheless have a significant impact on the lucrative Internet pornography industry, according to those who monitor the market. These observers note that online porn relies, as much as anything else, on the promise that...

Recent revelations of China's state-sponsored cyber attacks on U.K. financial institutions underscores that strategic financial power is high on Beijing's list of priorities. Moreover, these attacks are consistent with "Unrestricted Warfare," a white paper published in 1999 by two PLA Air Force colonels, Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui, in which they argue that future wars will be fought on many fronts, and that in fact economic and financial warfare will become an increasingly necessary and accepted form of conflict. Whether Unrestricted Warfare represents today's official view of China's strategic outlook is unclear. What is clear, however, is that from a...

One asymmetric threat to our military forces and the nation is "cyber terrorism." Our advanced technologically based military forces — dependent on our satellites, critical infrastructure computers, the Internet, secure software programming, computer-driven telecommunications, air traffic control centers and other sophisticated sensor systems — are tempting targets for cyber terrorism. Not only do we use our satellite and communication technology to support our military forces, but it has also become a key link in all aspects of our complex economic society. Banking, control of electrical grids, stock markets, telecommunications and a vast array of computer networks are part of our...

MANLIUS, N.Y. (AP) - Six students at suburban Syracuse high school and two graduates are accused of hacking into the school's computer system and changing their grades and test scores. Authorities say 6 of the teenagers involved are current students at the school. Of the other two suspects, one attends Syracuse University and the other is a student at John Hopkins University in Baltimore. They're accused of breaking into the school's computers to change their scores on Advance Placement exams, SAT tests and classroom examinations.

Thomas X. Hammes is a retired Marine colonel. He is the author of a seminal book on conducting counter-insurgency warfare. The work is called "The Sling and the Stone: On War in the 21st Century." Recently, he made an intriguing proposal on how to battle jihadists on the Internet (a virtual agora where Islamist militants appear to consort with alarming frequency). This is what he said: "For the last few years, individuals and private organizations that are pro-Israeli have been in a daily fight to shut down or deface anti-Israeli Web sites. Unofficial and informal, this Internet Hagana has had...

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Duncan Hunter's presidential campaign Web site was briefly hacked earlier this week when a starkly anti-war image was posted by an attacker operating from Turkey. The Web site, gohunter08.com, was hijacked either late Sunday or early Monday morning so that visitors were greeted by images of two unhappy-looking children - one peering out between two iron bars with a blood-stained bandage on his head, the other seated on a bleak plateau with a tank in the background. The hacker left an apparent calling card over the graphic - "Hacked by Adnali fOr Turkstorm.Org." Underneath were the words...

Chinese military hacked into Pentagon By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington and Richard McGregor in Beijing Published: September 3 2007 19:00 | Last updated: September 3 2007 20:53 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...

China has hacked into the computers of Angela Merkel’s Chancellery and three other German ministries in an extraordinary economic espionage operation that threatens to blight the German leader’s already delicate trip to Beijing this week. The claims, made in a detailed investigation by Der Spiegel magazine, were denied strenuously by the Chinese authorities yesterday, but there was no mistaking German anger. “If true, it is unacceptable,” Ralf Stegner, a senior Social Democrat, said. “China is a competitor as well as a trading partner. Mrs Merkel has to get to the bottom of the affair on her China trip.” Mrs Merkel...

Back on July the 6th all of my systems that were on Comcast could not connect to most websites. I could connect to google just fine and also some smaller sites. I called around to most people I knew (on Comcast)and found they also had the same problem. So I called Comcast and after waiting on-line for around 30 minutes, I just hung up figuring that they must be inundated with calls. I then proceeded to do some checking on my own, I was able to ping the sites I could not connect to, but unable to do anything else(web/Mail/Telnet)...

Guangdong, television pirates transmit anti government messages from state TV On the night of May 1st a group of hackers re-routed the provinces stat elite signal and for over an hour transmitted messages against the Communist Party. No one has so far claimed the attack. Guangzhou (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Unknown television pirates successfully re- routed the television signal in the rich southern province of Guangdong and for over an hour transmitted messages against the Communist Party. The attack took place on the night of May 1st, the national Labour Day holiday. Local media and dozens of witnesses report that between 8...

If you visit John McCain's MySpace page (as of 9am PST Tuesday morning), you will notice an interesting announcement from him. He's apparently reversed his position on gay marriage as well as revealed a bias towards attractive lesbians. Why would a presidential candidate make such an important announcement on his MySpace page? The answer? He wouldn't. But I would.

Oracle Corp accused its German rival SAP AG of hacking into its computers to heist secret product information in a lawsuit that highlights the escalating tensions between two of the world's largest business software makers. "This isn't really about protecting intellectual property," said Forrester Research analyst Ray Wang. "This is all about the art of war." The complaint, filed on Thursday in the San Francisco federal court, alleges that SAP resorted to high-tech skullduggery in a desperate attempt to maintain its leadership in business applications software -- programs that help companies manage a wide range of administrative tasks. Long the...

WASHINGTON, March 23, 2007 – Defense Department officials have launched an investigation into recent computer hackings of servicemembers’ home computers that compromised personal information and led to the redirection of funds from their military pay accounts. Over the past eight months, nearly two dozen Defense Finance and Accounting Service “myPay” participants have had their accounts accessed by unauthorized personnel, officials said. The myPay program allows DFAS users to manage pay information, leave and earnings statements and W-2s online. The compromise likely came from personal information being stolen from home computers via spyware and keystroke-logging viruses, DFAS officials said. A...

At the Naval Network Warfare Command here, U.S. cyber defenders track and investigate hundreds of suspicious events each day. But the predominant threat comes from Chinese hackers, who are constantly waging all-out warfare against Defense Department networks, Netwarcom officials said. Attacks coming from China, probably with government support, far outstrip other attackers in terms of volume, proficiency and sophistication, said a senior Netwarcom official, who spoke to reporters on background Feb 12. The conflict has reached the level of a campaign-style, force-on-force engagement, he said. “They will exploit anything and everything,” the senior official said, referring to the Chinese hackers’...

Internet Hit by Significant Hack Attack By Ted Bridis February 6, 2007 5:22PM Although hackers launched an unusually powerful attack on the Internet that lasted as long as 12 hours on Tuesday, the hacker attack seems to have gone unnoticed by most Internet users. Experts said the hackers appeared to disguise their origin, although vast amounts of rogue data in the attacks were traced to South Korea. Related Topics Hackers Attack Internet ICANN Latest News Internet Hit by Significant Hack Attack Sony Ericsson Unwraps Slim New Phones Gates Won't Intercede in Piracy Case Helio Discloses Subscriber Numbers Gates Attacks Mac...

One bad apple...What if I told you that it would take only one person—one highly motivated, but only moderately skilled bad apple, with either authorized or unauthorized access to the right company's internal computer network—to steal a statewide election? You might think I was crazy, or alarmist, or just talking about something that's only a remote, highly theoretical possibility. You also probably would think I was being really over-the-top if I told you that, without sweeping and very costly changes to the American electoral process, this scenario is almost certain to play out at some point in the future in...

The federal governments Commerce Department admitted Friday that heavy attacks on its computers by hackers working through Chinease servers have forced the bureau responsible for granting export licenses to lock down Internet access for more than a month. Hundreds of computers must be replaced to cleanse the agency of malicious code including rootkits and spyware.

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...

TRENTON, N.J. - A Princeton University computer science professor added new fuel Wednesday to claims that electronic voting machines used across much of the country are vulnerable to hacking that could alter vote totals or disable machines. In a paper posted on the university's Web site, Edward Felten and two graduate students described how they had tested a Diebold AccuVote-TS machine they obtained, found ways to quickly upload malicious programs and even developed a computer virus able to spread such programs between machines. The marketing director for the machine's maker — Diebold Inc.'s Diebold Election Systems of Allen, Texas —...

The California Highway Patrol is investigating a possible breach of the governor's computer system after The Times published an audio recording of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger bantering with staff in a private meeting last spring. Schwarzenegger apologized Friday for comments made on the six-minute recording, which The Times posted Thursday on its website. Andrea Hoch, the governor's legal affairs secretary, issued a statement Monday saying that the recording had been stored on a private, password-protected section of the governor's computer network. On Aug. 29 and Aug. 30, "an unknown person or persons" downloaded an audio file from that private section, her...