Hackers

Internet-Connected Appliances Are a Hacker’s Dream Come True

The web-connected appliances on the “internet of things” promise to make life way more convenient for you and me. But according to a security study by Hewlett-Packard, the most popular smart devices are about as secure as an unlocked screen door. Think twice before you share your street address with your TV. Researchers at HP’s…

Hacks Stole Data From Companies That Built Israel’s Main Defense System

Israel currently tries to protect itself from a barrage of rocket attacks using its “Iron Dome” missile shield—but Krebs on Security reveals that hackers have stolen sensitive documents from the three Israeli defense contractors responsible for building it. Krebs reports that hacks in 2011 and 2012 were carried out against the three top Israeli defense…

Russia Wants to Expose Tor for Fun and Profit

Crack your knuckles, and get out your checkbooks, hackers! Russia is offering a $110,000 contract to the first person who can come up with a good way to discover the personal information of otherwise anonymous Tor users. But there’s a catch. The privilege of competing will cost you over $5,500. So this is funny on…

It’s Alarmingly Easy for Hackers to Control Your Hotel Room

Next time you’re in Shenzhen, “the Silicon Valley of mainland China,” don’t stay at the St. Regis hotel. Sure, it looks nice and everything. And those iPad-powered “digital butlers” sound neat. But really, the system is so littered with security vulnerabilities that a hacker on the other side of the planet can easily break in…

NYT: Chinese Hackers Are Turning Attention to Smaller Federal Agencies

Sometimes, you can find secrets in the strangest places—and it seems Chinese hackers are well aware of that fact. According to the New York Times, digital attacks from China have recently been focussing on more obscure federal agencies. The newspaper notesthat, according to senior American officials, the Government Printing Office and the Government Accountability Office…

This Movie About Hackers Is Free for 24 Hours Before It Disappears

The new film Algorithm tracks the travails of Will, a freelance computer hacker who “breaks into a top-secret government contractor and downloads all their recently developed programs.” Like the subjects it tackles, the film has a tech-forward business model that make it more like a startup than a cinematic feature: It’s free today only. That’s…

Chinese Hackers Targeting Top-Secret Federal Employee Records

Earlier this year, Chinese hackers broke into U.S. government computer networks in order to gain access to the personal information of thousands of employees with top-secret security clearances. The New York Times reports that the hackers gained access to databases of the Office of Personnel Management in March. Federal authorities identified the intrusion and blocked…

Stuxnet-Like Malware From Russia Is Attacking U.S. Power Plants

Security researchers confirmed on Monday that a vicious new cyberattack has compromised the computer systems of over 1,000 organizations in 84 countries. Dubbed “Energetic Bear,” the Stuxnet-like malware is largely targeting energy and utility companies. It’s almost certainly from Russia. This is scary stuff. Not only has the attack been going on for 18 months,…

The Biggest Thing That Yo Got Right Is Hiring Its Hackers

Yo is a borderline-offensively useless (if amusing) app, but its founder Or Arbel made a shrewd decision by hiring one of the Georgia Tech students who hacked into the absurdly simple service last week. https://gizmodo.com/yo-review-yo-1593276009 Arbel’s dumbass novelty app should never be replicated, but it’d be a boon for everyone if his attitude towards hackers…

Hackers Reverse-Engineer NSA Spying Tools Using Snowden Leaks

Besides exposing all of the not-so-good things the NSA and other clandestine agencies around the world were up to, the documents leaked by Edward Snowden have allowed hackers to reverse-engineer some of the tools the NSA has used to spy on us. Along with the nefarious details of our constant surveillance, the NSA’s Advanced Network…

Every Webpage From the 1995 Movie The Net

To say the 1995 movie The Net is a classic would be…an overstatement. The Irwin Winkler film starring Sandra Bullock, Jeremy Northam, and Dennis Miller didn’t have the best reception when it came out, and over time it’s gotten a reputation as a very schlocky paranoid thriller (in reality, it’s probably become more realistic as…

AT&T recently confirmed that a breach in April that let unauthorized contractors into the mobile giant’s database to snag personal information including Social Security Numbers about AT&T Mobility customers. AT&T won’t say how many users are affected, but unlucky folks have already been notified.

P.F. Chang’s Is Using Stone-Age Credit Card Tech So It Can’t Be Hacked

Restaurant chain P.F. Chang’s China Bistro got hacked recently, compromising thousands of credit cards. Oopsies. But business doesn’t stop just because you got hacked, so in the short term the company is resorting to some old-school tech so that it can keep taking plastic. Earlier this week, Brian Krebs reported that thousands of credit cards…

Report: There’s a New Chinese Hacker Army Attacking the U.S.

A report by security company CrowdStrike claims that a new Shanghai-based cyberattack unit, with links to the People’s Liberation Army in China, has been hacking the U.S.. The group—codenamed “Putter Panda” because it often preys on golf-playing conference attendees—is believed to have been in existence since 2007. Over the past seven years, it’s claimed the…

14-Year-Old Kids “Hack” Into ATM Using Default Security Code

A couple of crafty 14-year-old kids from Winnipeg figured out how to get past the security on a a Bank of Montreal ATM. Crazy as it might sound, the “hack” didn’t require any advanced computer hacking at all—these kids just looked up the ATM manual on the internet. The Edmonton Journal reports that Matthew Hewlett…

How Teen Hackers Were Portrayed In 1980s Family Magazines

Like all things, the way we portray hackers in pop culture has evolved through the years. But they were maybe never more adorable than in 1980s family magazines. According to a USC study that looked at 74 youth- and family-computing publications like FamilyPC and Family Computing from the 80s to show that people didn’t see…

Hackers Created a Fake News Site to Friend US Officials on Facebook

The extent to which hackers think up elaborate schemes to win people’s trust online never ceases to amaze. The latest ones to be so bold are a crew of Iranian hackers who won the trust of American leaders by building a fake news site, along with phony social media profiles for all its fake writers.And…

College Student Discovers a Second Ebay Security Flaw

Just a few days after discovering a flaw that compromised millions of user accounts, a 19-year-old British college student found another flaw in Ebay’s website. It’s not as bad as the one that forced pretty much everybody to change their Ebay passwords. But it’s not good, either. The second vulnerability affects the way that Ebay…

Hackers Are Using Find My iPhone to Hold iOS Devices for Ransom

A strange rash of virtual iPhone kidnappings in Australia recently spread to the United States, and boy, are they strange. Hackers appear to be using Find My iPhone to lock iOS devices remotely, and then demanding a ransom to unlock them. Said ransom is payable through PayPal. You should not pay it. Again, these incidents…

The US Is Already Turning Back Chinese Hacker-Types at the Border

A senior administration official recently listed several ways that the United States is taking aim at the Chinese hacker community on the whole. That list includes everything from economic sanctions to a blanket ban on Chinese hackers attending conferences in the U.S. It’s actually already happening. Reuters reports, “Ten to 12 Chinese citizens were unexpectedly…