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Brought to you by the letter “X” – Sesame Street’s YouTube channel is back up today after being shut down Sunday when hackers took over the site and replaced the videos with porn.

Cyber-attackers could have stolen defense contractor's passwords October 08, 2011 Passwords for servers at defense contractor Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (MHI) may have been stolen during a wide-ranging cyber-attack. The Kobe Shipyard and Machinery Works, which builds submarines, and the Nagoya Guidance and Propulsion Systems Works, which makes missile-related products, were among installations compromised in the attack, which was reported to the Metropolitan Police Department on Sept. 30. In total, 45 servers and 38 personal computers at 11 of MHI's facilities were infected with viruses. An analysis of a virus used in the attack suggests the perpetrators used simplified Chinese...

Exclusive: A laboratory shows how an e-voting machine used by a third of all voters can be easily manipulated It could be one of the most disturbing e-voting machine hacks to date. Voting machines used by as many as a quarter of American voters heading to the polls in 2012 can be hacked with just $10.50 in parts and an 8th grade science education, according to computer science and security experts at the Vulnerability Assessment Team at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. The experts say the newly developed hack could change voting results while leaving absolutely no trace of the...

Missile and submarine secrets 'may have been stolen' in cyber attack on Japanese defence firm By Rachel Rickard Straus and Rob Waugh Last updated at 6:05 PM on 19th September 2011 Some of Japan’s most sensitive defence secrets have been targeted by hackers, who have gained access to up to 80 computers of its biggest defence contractor - in what appeared to be a coordinated attack. Contractor Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd said today its submarine, missile and nuclear plant component factories had been targeted, according to a report. Some information could have been stolen in the first known cyber attack...

Mitsubishi Heavy comes under cyberattack: Yomiuri Tokyo: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.'s computer network was hacked at factories that build submarines and missiles and make components for nuclear power plants in the first such attack targeting Japan's defence industry, the Yomiuri newspaper said on Monday. Information from the company's computer system was seen stolen in the cyber attack, the Yomiuri said without citing where it got the information. A Mitsubishi Heavy spokesman confirmed the cyber attack, but said the firm was still investigating the case including the possibility of information leaks. Yomiuri newspaper said about 80 virus-infected computers were found at...

The Obama administration is seeking tougher sentences for people who are found guilty of hacking or other digital offenses, two officials said Wednesday... The administration argues the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act should be updated to make CFAA offenses subject to its terms. That law is used to prosecute organized crime

Technology: While Democrats agonize over the "digital divide" separating urban black youth from Web access, data show the gap closing. But hold the applause. It's led to high-tech thuggery. A member of the Congressional Black Caucus this week blamed black unemployment on "racism" and the "digital divide," defined as the gap between those with access to computers and the Internet and those without it. "It has a lot to do with many issues: racism, shipping jobs overseas, no access to technology," said Rep. Frederica Wilson, D- Fla. "You know, the digital divide is there, and many of the new jobs...

LINK ONLY view live news feed of protest: http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/livenow?id=8308260#&cmp=twi-kgo-video-8308260

Link only - Small-business nightmare: 8 million sites hacked to harm customers' computers

35m Cyworld, Nate users’ information hacked 2011-07-28 18:29 SK Communications Co. said on Thursday that personal information of its 35 million online users has been hacked, marking South Korea’s worst online security breach and sparking fears that the leak could lead to massive online and voice scams in coming weeks. “The company has confirmed that a leak of customers’ information has taken place due to hacking on July 26,” SK said in a statement. “The specific scale of the hacking is still being investigated, but it is estimated that some of the personal information of 35 million Nate and Cyworld...

Soon it will be practicable to take someone's photo on a smartphone and within minutes know their Social Security number and a range of other private data like their personal interests, sexual preference and credit status, researchers will tell the Black Hat security conference this week. The technique calls for linking faces of random individuals to images in databases that contain other information about them and using that information to project Social Security numbers, says Alessandro Acquisti, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, who will present the research at the conference. He says if he can arrange the logistics, he...

Long story short, hacking is noble if you’re a powerful left-winger, but sinful if you’re allegedly rightwing. It’s also acceptable for powerful left-wingers to tap the phones of less powerful left-wingers, in order to cement their leadership ambitions. The first and most important principle to keep in mind though is to have an unbalanced worldview, bordering on schizophrenic. Don’t worry. There’s a proud history here you should be aware of. Take Democrat Obama’s hero Democrat FDR. The historian Paul Johnson reminds us in Modern Times (page 650): The tradition of presidential skulduggery had begun with Franklin Roosevelt. He had created...

You mess with Murdoch … you mess with the whole family. ABC News puts a spotlight on the reaction of Wendy Deng Murdoch to an attack on her husband, News Corp mogul Rupert Murdoch, as he and his son James testified before a Parliamentary committee earlier today: A Parliament hearing into hacking by News Corp. journalists erupted into chaos Tuesday as CEO Rupert Murdoch was attacked by a man with what appeared to be a pie.Wendi Deng Murdoch, his wife, rose from her seat behind her husband to protect him and took a swing at the intruder. The man was...

LONDON (AP) — Police say Sean Hoare, the whistleblower reporter who alleged widespread hacking at the News of the World, has been found dead. Police said Hoare's death at his home in England was not considered to be suspicious, according to Britain's Press Association news agency. Hoare was quoted by The New York Times as saying that phone-hacking was widely used and even encouraged at the News of the World tabloid under then-editor Andy Coulson.

snip ...British tabloids have been known for decades for buying scoops and digging up dirt on the famous. Fleet Street has long had a well-earned global reputation for the blind-quote, single-sourced story that may or may not be true. The outrage in this case stems from the hacking of a noncelebrity, the murder victim Milly Dowler. snip The idea that the BBC and the Guardian newspaper aren't attempting to influence public affairs, and don't skew their coverage to do so, can't stand a day's scrutiny. The overnight turn toward righteous independence recalls an eternal truth: Never trust a politician. snip...

Breaking news - headline only so far

Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks has been arrested in connection with an investigation into phone hacking and bribery. The 43-year-old was arrested by appointment by Operation Weeting police at a London police station. Met Police said she is currently still in custody. This is the 10th arrest made by police investigating hacking allegations by the News of the World newspaper. She was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and on suspicion of corruption allegations. The Operation Weeting team is conducting the current investigation into phone hacking.

4Share Change font size: A | A Vyan at Daily Kos is getting giddy in a post headlined “Could we soon see a world without Fox News?” It's apparently all over for FNC: "In less than a week the News of the World Wiretapping and Bribery Scandal has quickly metastasized into a Multi-Headed Dragon of Death for Murdoch Empire and simply lopping off one head, doesn't seem to be enough - the infection has already spread." Now that Fox-hating liberal interest groups, bloggers, and Democrat politicians are vowing to investigate, the Kosmonauts think Murdoch's "criminal enterprise" is about to collapse:...

Two "events" caught my attention today. One was something that just happened; the other was more about the infamous Stuxnet worm. I am not sure I have good answers to both these events, but I have some ideas, and I think we need to think together about solutions. Let's start with the event that just happened. According to Information Week, "Hacktivist group AntiSec started the week with yet another intrusion on a government contractor, this time targeting Booz Allen Hamilton and posting what it claims are 90,000 military email addresses and passwords from the contractor online." I took a look...

The Obama campaign website was hacked on Tuesday and invited supporters to two fake anti-government events hosted by an unnamed "Commy Obama."The campaign's application for mobile devices, such as iPhones and iPads, directed users to two events titled "Rules of Politics" scheduled for noon on Tuesday in Washington."1. Politicians and other public servants lie," read the event description provided on the Obama campaign website. (Full screenshot here.) "2. Politicians tell you what you want to hear and offer to provide things for 'free' to get votes. 3. When government buys, the people pay."The 430-word message lists 21 total anti-government criticisms,...