Security

Cybercrime and Hacking Topic Center

Get the latest news and analysis on cybercrime and hacking

Foxconn said to have been hacked by group critical of working conditions

Hackers claimed to have stolen internal data from Apple supplier Foxconn, and leaked the information online, in response to media reports of poor working conditions at the electronics manufacturer's factories in China.
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EU to strengthen its cybersecurity watchdog

A push by European authorities to strengthen the European Union's cyber security watchdog has been given a green light by parliamentarians.

Symantec expects Anonymous to publish more stolen source code

Symantec today confirmed that the pcAnywhere source code published on the Web Monday by hackers who tried to extort $50,000 from the company was legitimate.

Denial-of-service attacks are on the rise, anti-DDoS vendors report

Both the number and volume of distributed denial-of-service attacks are increasing, according to new reports from DDoS mitigation companies Prolexic and Arbor Networks.

Anonymous claims to have released source code of Symantec's pcAnywhere

Hacker group Anonymous claimed late Monday that the source code of Symantec's pcAnywhere had been uploaded on The Pirate Bay site.

Kelihos botnet still dead, say Microsoft, Kaspersky

Contrary to reports, the Kelihos botnet has not crawled out of the grave, Microsoft said last week. But the company acknowledged that a new botnet is being assembled using a variant of the original malware.

Hungarian hacker gets 30 months for extortion plot on Marriott

A Hungarian hacker who attempted to extort money from Marriott International Inc. by stealing confidential data from its computers and threatening to expose it was sentenced to 30 months in prison.

Anonymous grabs email from firm that defended Marine in Haditha case

In what's turning out to be quite a busy Friday for the hacking collective, Anonymous today said it has broken into the website of a law firm that represented a U.S. Marine accused of killing civilians in Haditha, Iraq.

Half of Fortune 500 firms infected with DNS Changer

Half of all Fortune 500 companies and major U.S. government agencies own computers infected with the "DNS Changer" malware that redirects users to fake websites and puts organizations at risk of data theft, a security company said today.

VeriSign admits multiple hacks in 2010, keeps details under wraps

VeriSign, the company responsible for guiding most of the world's Internet users to the correct websites and once the largest encryption certificate issuing authority, was successfully hacked several times in 2010.

4 keys for IP protection

Do you think data breaches are up or down in 2011 compared to 2007 or 2008? The official answer may surprise you. According to DatalossDB and the 2011 Data Breach Investigations Report [PDF link] by Verizon, the number of records compromised per year has been decreasing since its 2008 peak. But these reports are missing something very important. It all comes down to what is reported. Last year I met with more than 450 CIOs and CSOs, and almost all of them said that incidents are way up. New breaches are constantly making headlines, so why is there a discrepancy between our perception and what these reports are finding?

Many pcAnywhere systems still sitting ducks

Symantec warns that its product should not be connected directly to the Internet, yet an estimated 140,000 computers are configured to allow direct external access

Cyber insurance offers IT peace of mind -- or maybe not

Cyber insurance can help mitigate damages after a breach, but it's no substitute for top-notch security, IT pros say.

2012 Outlook: The end of everything?

Gibbs reviews last year's predictions and sees that the end could be nigh ...

Cloud SWAT teams

Cloud computing poses unique security challenges. Here's how cloud-specific 'security incident-response teams' could help governments and large enterprises respond to malicious activity and make the cloud more trustworthy. Insider (registration required)

10 IT news stories to expect in 2012

Well, we erred in our 2011 predictions in not repeating a 2010 forecast that Carol Bartz would be ousted as Yahoo CEO -- it was bound to happen, we just called that one too early. Then again, we also predicted last year that Oracle would buy Salesforce.com and have decided not to repeat ourselves this year, so we'll see if we were just ahead on that one, too. Meanwhile, these are our predictions for the next 12 months:

Gmail Backup, a recipe for happiness

Gibbs wants to avoid a "Googlesplosion" ... Gmail Backup is the recipe for happiness.

15 top quotes of 2011

As another year draws to a close, we look back on the IT-related comments that stuck with us.

A Rush to Judgment on DLP

Our manager has just gotten funding for data leak prevention added to his current budget. But that budget expires in a few weeks.

When Cybercriminals Attack

Criminal hackers are industrious -- they stay up late devising new ways to attack individuals and businesses. Watch out for cyberattacks that can turn smartphones into spam bots, shut off electricity to homes and businesses, jam GPS signals and more.