Free Republic

Saudi hacker dies of asthma attack A Saudi hacker known just as "Cyber Terrorist" died in Riyadh after suffering an apparent acute asthma attack caused by the dust storm that hit the Saudi capital last week, UAE’s al- Bayan newspaper reported on Saturday. The 28-year-old hacker was known for penetrating the most well protected sites including Microsoft, Kaspersky, Milworm, besides the server of another hacker known as the king of hackers Kevin Mitnick. In addition to numerous Jewish sites, banks and major companies, he was also able to hack into the site of the Danish cartoonists who drew caricatures...

Has social networking changed hacking? Made it easier. I can go into LinkedIn and search for network engineers and come up with a list of great spear-phishing targets because they usually have administrator rights over the network. Then I go onto Twitter or Facebook and trick them into doing something, and I have privileged access. If I know you love Angry Birds, maybe I would send you an e-mail purporting to be from Angry Birds with a new pro version. Once you download it, I could have complete access to everything on your phone. How easy was it for those...

If only computer security did not have to involve people THE stereotype of the malicious hacker is a pale-skinned young man, hunched over a keyboard in a darkened room, who prefers the company of computers to that of people. But the most successful attackers are garrulous types who can talk their way into, and out of, almost any situation. In the words of Mr Schneier, the security guru, “Amateurs hack systems, professionals hack people.”Kevin Mitnick, perhaps the most notorious hacker of recent years, relied heavily on human vulnerabilities to get into the computer systems of American government agencies and technology...