Cybercrime and Hacking Topic Center

Get the latest news and analysis on cybercrime and hacking

U.K. spy agency reportedly snooped on delegates at G20 meetings in '09

British intelligence agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) reportedly intercepted the electronic communications of foreign politicians during G20 meetings that took place in London in 2009.
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More malware is traveling on P2P networks these days

Hackers have found a devious new way to disseminate malware: They're using peer-to-peer networks.

US charges eight with multimillion-dollar cybercrime

U.S. federal prosecutors charged eight people on Wednesday in connection with a multimillion-dollar fraud that siphoned money from hacked accounts at banks and financial institutions, laundered it and sent it overseas.

Chinese seller of pirated software sentenced to 12 years in US prison

The operator of a website that sold more than US$100 million worth of pirated software to customers worldwide was sentenced Tuesday to 12 years in a U.S. federal prison.

Scope of NSA's phone data snooping is 'breathtaking'

Although U.S. government officials said the NSA's efforts to secretly collect phone records of millions of Verizon customers is nothing new, reports about its size confirmed long-standing fears among privacy and civil rights advocates.

Microsoft, US feds disrupt Citadel botnet network

Microsoft and the FBI have taken aim at a botnet network based on malware called Citadel that is held responsible for stealing personal online banking information and identities.

Cyberespionage campaign 'NetTraveler' siphoned data from hundreds of high-profile targets, researchers say

An ongoing cyberespionage campaign compromised over 350 high-profile victims from more than 40 countries over the past eight years, including political activists, research centers, governmental institutions, embassies, military contractors and private companies from various industries.

Possibly related DDoS attacks cause DNS hosting outages

Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that could be related have in the past few days slammed the DNS servers of at least three providers of domain name management and DNS hosting services.

LinkedIn aims to block hackers with two-factor login

Add LinkedIn to the list of Internet companies trying to make themselves safer from cyberattacks by adding two-step authentication.

Drupal resets account passwords after detecting unauthorized access

Drupal.org has reset account passwords after it found unauthorized access to information on its servers.

Cisco impresses with first crack at next-gen firewall

When we tested next-generation firewalls last May, at least one important security vendor wasn't there: Cisco, because they weren't ready to be tested. Now that the ASA CX next-generation firewall has had a year to mature, we put the product through its paces, using the same methodology as our last NGFW test.

IT Concerns About Targeted Malware Rising

IT and security professionals are increasingly concerned about targeted malware and data breaches. What's worse is that their confidence in their ability to identify and stop them is waning.

Phishing concerns cause double trouble

Episode 1: Last week the administrators of 7,000 university websites were being called upon to change their .edu domain account passwords after a server security breach. Trouble was that the breach had been reported to the admins by Educause -- the non-profit higher-education IT group that runs .edu -- via an email that some recipients complained bore the familiar markings of a phishing attempt.

Chinese Government's Link to Cyber Espionage Clearer Than Ever

It's a common belief in the information security world that the Chinese government is behind many of the advanced persistent threats that target companies around the world in an effort to steal their IP and trade secrets. Now one security firm has come forward with years of evidence to link a prolific APT group to a unit inside the Chinese government.

Avoiding catastrophic business loss through cyber liability insurance

The benefits could be greatest for small businesses, which could be devastated by a data loss and its complications. (Insider, registration required)

Three charged with distributing Gozi virus

Three people allegedly involved for years in cybercriminal activities in Eastern Europe have been charged in a U.S. court for creating and distributing the Gozi virus that infected more than 1 million computers and allowed cybercriminals to steal millions of dollars over a five-year period.

Mobile Attacks Top the List of 2013 Security Threats

For years, information security experts have predicted a spike in mobile malware. Will 2013 be the year of mobile attacks? And what other security threats are on the horizon?

Outlook 2013 ... Even more interesting than 2012!

Gibbs reviews his predictions from last year and surveys the more than 400 predictions that he's been sent by IT professionals

The (encryption) key to dealing with data insecurity

Valuable data stored in the cloud is sure to be a target. What can be done to make it harder to steal?

We're missing out on the value of security awareness

When a program is ineffective, the problem is usually that the training wasn't designed in a way that would result in changes in behavior. (Insider; registration required)