hacking news

35yeros · #1 01-17-2008, 06:30 PM

ya i wasnt really sure to put this, other than its articles in the news about hacking. i dont in any way encourge the following techniques, i just tell what malicious hackers do... i apoliogize that this may be out of date,(wrong order) but i have lots of articles.

Friday, 8 March, 2002, 09:23 GMT
Empty cans of Pringles crisps could be helping malicious hackers spot wireless networks that are open to attack.

Security company i-sec has demonstrated that a directional antenna made with a Pringles can significantly improves the chances of finding the wireless computer networks being used in London's financial district.
An informal survey carried out by i-sec using the homemade antenna has found that over two-thirds of networks were doing nothing to protect themselves. The security firm said all the companies at risk could easily thwart anyone that wanted to find and penetrate their network by making a few simple changes to the hardware used to build the wireless networks. In one 30-minute journey using the Pringles can antenna, witnessed by BBC News Online, i-sec managed to find almost 60 wireless networks.

"People have made these antennae out of Pringles tubes, coffee cans and even old satellite dishes," said Mr Davies.
"Those doing [war-driving] are not necessarily looking to take down corporate networks, they are looking to use corporate bandwidth," said Mr Davies.
"But if they are doing that then someone with more nefarious purpose could wreak havoc." Mr Davies said that a few basic steps such as changing default names, moving wireless access points to the centre of a building and switching off the networks' broadcast functions could help significantly improve the security of these systems.

Wireless, or WiFi, networks have an encryption system built in, but it is not turned on when the basic hardware of the network is set up.
Geoff Davies, managing director of i-sec, said its informal survey revealed that 67% of the networks it found had this encryption system turned off.

"Many companies are going out and buying a wireless access point to see what it can do," said Mr Davies. "The problem is that they have opened a great big back door into their network."
He said that i-sec had boosted the chance of spotting networks by converting an empty can of Pringles into a directional, or Yagi, antenna. Plans to make such an antenna first appeared on the net last year. Properly made, such an antenna can boost signal strengths by up to 15 decibels, vastly aiding the discovery of wireless networks.

Wednesday, 8 June, 2005, 15:20 GMT 16:20 UK
He is accused of then deleting around 1,300 user accounts.

Gary McKinnon, accused of hacking into 53 US military and Nasa computers in 2001 and 2002, appeared before Bow Street magistrates in London.
The 39-year-old, of Wood Green, north London, will be back in court for an extradition hearing on 27 July.
His lawyer said he would contest extradition to the US "vigorously".
She told reporters: "Of particular concern to him is the treatment of other British nationals under the American judicial system which inspires little confidence.
"We believe that as a British national, he should be tried here in our courts by a British jury and not in the US."
Mr McKinnon, an unemployed computer systems administrator, is known on the internet as "Solo". He is accused of hacking into computer networks operated by Nasa, the US Army, US Navy, Department of Defence and the US Air Force.

One of the networks belonged to the Pentagon.
The US estimates the costs of tracking and correcting the problems he allegedly caused were around $1m (£570,000).
If he is extradited and found guilty, Mr McKinnon faces a long sentence in the US.
The Briton was indicted in 2002 by a federal grand jury on eight counts of computer-related crimes in 14 different states. It claimed that he hacked into an army computer at Fort Myer, Virginia, obtained administrator privileges and transmitted codes, information and commands.
He is accused of then deleting around 1,300 user accounts.

Tuesday, 3 April 2007, 09:12 GMT 10:12 UK

To hear the US government tell it, Gary McKinnon is a dangerous man, and should be extradited back to America to stand trial in a Virginia courtroom.
One US prosecutor has accused him of committing "the biggest military computer hack of all time". But Mr McKinnon has said his motives were harmless and innocent - he was, he says, simply looking for information on UFOs. If found guilty, Mr McKinnon could face decades in US jail, and fines of close to $2m.

The charges against Mr McKinnon are extensive.
The US government alleges that between February 2001 and March 2002, the 40-year-old computer enthusiast from north London hacked into dozens of US Army, Navy, Air Force, and Department of Defense computers, as well as 16 Nasa computers.
It says his hacking caused some $700,000 dollars worth of damage to government systems.
What's more, they allege that Mr McKinnon altered and deleted files at a US Naval Air Station not long after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 and that the attack rendered critical systems inoperable.
The US government also says Mr McKinnon once took down an entire network of 2,000 US Army computers. His goal, they claim, was to access classified information. In July 2005, Mark Summers, another official representing the US government, told a London court that Mr McKinnon's hacking was "intentional and calculated to influence and affect the US government by intimidation and coercion".

But for some, his method of hacking is not nearly so interesting as his reason for doing it.
Mr McKinnon got his first computer when he was 14 years old, and has been a hobbyist ever since. He left school at 17, and became a hairdresser. But, in the early 1990s, some friends convinced him to get a qualification in computers. After completing a course, he started doing contract work in the computing field.
By the late 1990s, Mr McKinnon decided to use his hacking skills to do what he calls "research" on an issue he firmly believes in. Mr McKinnon told the BBC that he is convinced that the United States government is withholding critical information about Unidentified Flying Objects.
"It wasn't just an interest in little green men and flying saucers," said Mr McKinnon. "I believe that there are spacecraft, or there have been craft, flying around that the public doesn't know about." Mr McKinnon further explained that he believes the US military has reverse engineered an anti-gravity propulsion system from recovered alien spacecraft, and that this propulsion system is being kept a secret.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Two high school students are facing punishment after changing their grades and attendance records through their school's computer system, it has emerged.

Working with a former student, the hackers also gathered details on their teachers to form a website featuring quizzes and puzzles, reports Wave3.com.

From Manual High School in Louisville, Kentucky, the students were caught in the act last October and school officials are now seeking to find out how they managed such a feat and what damage may have been caused, the article notes.

The students could face jail if the school decides to press charges, but the individuals are currently working with computer technicians to help improve the security of Manual High's website, Cary Petersen, executive director of information technology at Jefferson County Public Schools, told the news provider.

"I think it was more a less for show ... you know,'look what I can do,'" he added.

Students at Monta Vista High School in Cupertino recently altered their forthcoming tests and homework questions after breaching computer security systems at the institution, Inside Bay Area reported.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007
The website of a Police department is set to go back live after being involved in a hacking incident, it has been revealed.

About a fortnight ago, Tucson Police Department's online arm was breached by a cyber-thief, but confidential data was not obtained, reports azstarnet.com.

The Webmaster Pat Johnson stated that all of the press releases present on the site at the time were altered to show the words "Hmei7 has touched your soul".

And the site has been out of action for so long while the relevant parties aim to work out how the hacker managed to break through the system defences in the first place, Mr Johnson added.

There are verification services available on the market for those firms worried about security issues.

Recently, it was revealed that two students from Manual High School in Kentucky are to be punished after hacking into the school system,

Friday, December 21, 2007
Hackers are no longer isolated and now operate within broader social circles, an expert has said.

"People that author malware feel like they have their own community now, their own social circles. They have their own social networks," said SecureWorks senior security researcher Don Jackson, as reported by Information Week.

Forming an underground economy, cyber criminals discuss knowledge and tactics through internet forums and are able to rent groups of compromised computers, known as botnets, to conduct their activities, the article noted.

Now that there is money to be made through hacking on the international circuit, breaking into other people's computers has acquired a reputation for professionalism, suggested Dave Marcus, security research and communications manager at MacAfee, the news provider added.

Disproving the traditional image of a hacker as a "pimply kid in the basement", Mr Marcus added in the article that the most highly-skilled individuals in criminal hacking tend to be female.

"They're considered much more elite," he noted.

Many new threats now face people and businesses through hacking and computer users should ensure that they have adequate security channels in place, commented Jay Fraser of Threats Watch this month.

Thursday, December 27, 2007
Apple has filed a patent application for an anti-piracy technology which would control where software is being run.

The digital rights management (DRM) system is similar to Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage and restricts execution of applications to "specific hardware platforms".

In the patent application, Apple said that it would be "beneficial" to introduce a mechanism which was "transparent to the user" but would also protect digital information from being pirated.

It also noted that it is "easy to break" a promise not to copy or distribute software.

The scheme, currently known as Run-Time Code Injection To Perform Checks, would insert code into the application's executing code stream, produce data to send to a DRM module, then compare that data with a cryptographic key.

If the data matches the key, the application would function; if not, it would be prevented from opening.

Currently, Apple's Mac OS X operating system is not copy-protected.

Saturday, December 29, 2007
There has been a sharp decrease in the number of outbreaks of email attachment viruses, according to Infoworld.com,

Dave Mayer, an IronPort product manager, predicted that total email attachment outbreaks would only reach 450 by the end of 2007, compared to 860 in 2006 and 844 the previous year.

"Traditional viruses have been around for years, a long enough time to harden defenses against malicious attachments," he explained.

However, spammers are coming up with more innovative ways of attacking technology, he added, claiming that the viruses are now being embedded in photo-sharing sites, making them difficult for filters to block.

The news provider also reports that other viruses have increased, such as macro viruses which target Office applications. This form of bug has risen by 50 per cent to 60 per cent, it claims.

IronPort also found that URL viruses climbed by up to 250 per cent within 2007.

The firm recently estimated that it costs $500 per computer to deal with spam emails.

Monday, December 31, 2007
More than £15 million has been taken by cyber-criminals in Scotland using stolen and cloned credit cards.

The Sunday Mail reports that a dossier complied by Retail Decision has shown fraud against online businesses rose by nearly 50 per cent compared to the previous year.

Chief executive of the detection agency Clive Clump told the newspaper: "Organised gangs are in the fraud business 24 hours a day, seven days a week and Christmas and New Year is a particular bonanza time."

He warned that money generated through such theft could be used to fund more sinister criminal activity, including drug trafficking, terrorism and human trafficking.

Stewart Hosie, Scottish Nationalist Party treasury and finance spokesman at Westminster, told the Sunday Mail he wanted banks to take action to make it harder to copy credit and debit cards.

Earlier this month, retailer TK Maxx was forced to admit that the credit card details of 45 million customers had been stolen, thanks to an open wireless link.