Free Republic

Internet security has deteriorated markedly this year as a new generation of invasive computer attacks, often masterminded by criminal gangs, has reached a heightened level of sophistication, according to the latest studies of online threats. “It’s getting worse year after year,” warned Pat Peterson, chief security researcher at Cisco Systems, who blamed the deterioration on the fact that computer “hacking” is quickly turning into big business. “Capitalism is working against us,” he said. In particular, computer security experts warn that so-called botnets, or networks of “slave” PCs whose owners do not know their machines have been infected, have become both...

Users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer are being urged by experts to switch to a rival until a serious security flaw has been fixed. The flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer could allow criminals to take control of people's computers and steal their passwords, internet experts say. Microsoft urged people to be vigilant while it investigated and prepared an emergency patch to resolve it. ....

Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Israel Intelligence Heritage & Commemoration Center (IICC) November 23, 2008 Iran and Hamas declare digital war against Israel: Hamas recently participated in a digital communications exhibition in Tehran and was involved in establishing a group calling itself “The Digital Intifada.” Its objective was to develop websites to fight Israel and encourage the criminal activity of hacking Israeli websites.

A former prison inmate has been arrested and charged with hacking the facility's computer network, stealing personal details of more than 1,100 prison employees and making them available to fellow inmates. Francis G. Janosko, 42, gained access to the names, addresses, dates of birth, social security numbers and telephone numbers of employees working for the Plymouth County Correctional Facility in Massachusetts, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday in US District Court in Boston. Using a thin client that was connected to a prison server, the prisoner was able to access an employee database by exploiting a bug in legal research...

For the past week or so, a couple of really strange things have been happening with my FR account. One, I keep getting mysteriously 'bumped' off the site (logged out). Once bumped off I am unable to get back on (log in) for hours. Two, a few days ago, nearly every one of my posts were deleted from the message board. All of the posts were direct responses to questions asked and contained powerful spot-on facts about the issue at hand. Now, as a lot of you know, I've compiled quite a bit of evidence on the ObamaRats' connections to...

Security Warning Issued by DHS for Possible Terrorist Cyber Attack on U.S. Financial Institutions Friday, December 01, 2006 WASHINGTON — The government warned on Thursday of a possible Internet attack on U.S. stock market and banking Web sites from a radical Muslim group, but officials said the threat was unconfirmed and seemed to pose no immediate danger. The notice was issued to the U.S. cybersecurity industry after officials saw a posting on a "Jihadist Web site" calling for an attack on U.S. Internet-based stock market and banking sites in December, said Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke. There is no...

The son of a Democratic Tennessee state legislator surrendered to authorities in connection with the hacking of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's e-mail, the Justice Department said Wednesday.

Posted: 8:24 AM Oct 8, 2008 Last Updated: 8:51 AM Oct 8, 2008 Reporter: Brian Gregory KNOXVILLE, Tenn (WVLT) -- A University of Tennessee student is due in federal court this morning to answer charges in connection with the hacking of Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's e-mail. David C. Kernell, 20, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Knoxville, Tennessee on October 7th, but the indictment was not unsealed until this morning. Federal prosecutors allege Kernell intentionally accessed without authorization Palin's e-mail account. Kernell, the son of Tennessee State Representative Mike Kernell (D-Memphis), turned himself into federal authorities for...

The way I read it, no indictment was returned today, but the process is not over.

Two days after someone broke into the email account of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, unknown intruders have hacked the website of conservative commentator Bill O'Reilly and posted personal details of more than 200 of its subscribers. The breach into BillOreilly.com came as retaliation for remarks O'Reilly made on FoxNews condemning the attack on Palin's Yahoo email account, according to Wikileaks, a site that makes it easy for whistleblowers, hackers and anyone else to leak documents. As proof, Wikileaks posted a screenshot of the BillOreilly.com administrative interface that showed the names, email addresses, passwords, and home town of 20 subscribers...

See story at: http://www.wbir.com/news/breaking/story.aspx?storyid=64033&catid=29

Chicago news conference: Obama author Andy Martin says Barack Obama has declared war on the First Amendment and unleashed his "Obamabots" on the opposition "Factually Correct, Not Politically Correct" FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: ATTENTION DAYBOOK/ASSIGNMENT EDITORS ANNOUNCEMENT OF CHICAGO NEWS CONFERENCE Obama opposition leader Andy Martin says "Obamabots" have launched an unprecedented "cyberwar" against anyone who stands up against or speaks out against Barack Obama Obama author Andy Martin is under attack from Obama's cyberwar minions (CHICAGO)(September 18, 2008) Legendary Chicago Internet columnist, public interest lawyer and Obama opposition leader Andy Martin will hold a Chicago news conference today to charge...

Gawker, a site best known for its catty observations about important subjects like celebrity clothing faux pas and stalker celebrity sightings, claims to have obtained screen shots from one of Sarah Palin's private Yahoo e-mail accounts. Now, of course, Gawker isn't the New York Times, so it's only reasonable to be skeptical, but there are reasons to think this report is legitimate. According to Gawker, numerous anonymous individuals managed to hack their way into one of Palin's private accounts, gov.palin@yahoo.com. This is a different e-mail than gov.sarah@yahoo.com, which Palin allegedly used to send work-related messages, including e-mails about her involvement...

John McCain's campaign said Wednesday it has contacted "appropriate authorities" over a report that Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin's personal e-mail had been hacked. "This is a shocking invasion of the Governor's privacy and a violation of law," campaign manager Rick Davis said in a statement. "The matter has been turned over to the appropriate authorities and we hope that anyone in possession of these emails will destroy them. We will have no further comment." The statement came hours after a user on the Web site WikiLeaks said he had gained access to Palin's Yahoo e-mail account and gained access....

Per a contact with the DOJ, an investigation will begin into the group who hacked into Sarah Palin’s email and posted messages on the internet. Intercept of private email communication - even of a public figure - is a federal offense. Not only can the original hackers be charged, but all those who posted the messages as well. The website Gawker may be in further trouble for going beyond the email to post pics from the Palin’s personal message box, as well as other personal information that may be afoul of laws dealing with identity theft.

A group of Greek hackers broke into the particle accelerator's systems just as scientists were turning it on in front of the world's media Monday, 15th September 2008 Even as the scientists at CERN, the centre for nuclear research, were switching on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) particle accelerator under Geneva last week, a group of Greek hackers were one step away from controlling a 12,500-ton electromagnet that serves as one of the machine’s four detectors. The intruders posted a lengthy note in Greek on the machine’s network introducing themselves as ‘the Greek Security Team’, mocking the system’s poor security...

Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...

Russian researcher claims vulnerabilities can be exploited in less than a day, but others disagree... Patches meant to fix a flaw in the Internet's Domain Name System (DNS) don't completely protect the Web's traffic cop from attack, a Russian research claimed Friday. The head of the non-profit that maintains the most commonly used DNS software, however, said there was little to worry about. In a blog post , Russian researcher Evgeniy Polyakov said he had created an exploit able to insert bogus routing information into systems running the most-up-to-date version of BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain), the popular open-source software...

Marisel Garcia is one of eight or nine women in the Gainesville, Florida who is a victim of a Webcam Spy Hacker voyeurism scandal, orchestrated by Craig Feigin. Craig Feigin, a computer programmer, worked on Marisel Garcia's computer to fix her laptop. When she got her machine back from Feigin, it had a slew of other problems so she brought it to another area repair man. One of the new problems was that the computer's built-in camera light came on every time she was near the machine. When Marisel Garcia got her computer back, she learned that Craig Feigin had...

A criminal gang is using software tools normally reserved for computer network administrators to infect thousands of PCs in corporate and government networks with programs that steal passwords and other information, a security researcher has found. The new form of attack indicates that little progress has been made in defusing the threat of botnets, networks of infected computers that criminals use to send spam, steal passwords and do other forms of damage, according to computer security investigators. Several security experts say that although attacks against network administrators are not new, the systematic use of administrative software to spread malicious software...