hackers

Twitter is investigating the release of what appear to be thousands of user account passwords and e-mail addresses.

"We are currently looking into the situation. In the meantime, we have pushed out password resets to accounts that may have been affected," Twitter spokesman Robert Weeks told CNET in an e-mail. "For those who are concerned that their account may have been compromised, we suggest resetting your passwords and more in our Help Center."

The user data, so vast that it took five Pastebin pages to post, was released yesterday and blogged about on Airdemon.net, putting … Read more

YoVille players starting posting complaints on the gaming company's forum about a month ago. Strange happenings were afoot -- players' virtual items were stolen and not returned and some players' property supply was completely depleted.

Apparently, the game had been hacked. According to the tech news site VentureBeat, hackers disrupted YoVille's gameplay for about 1,000 players during a couple weeks of April. "The Best YoVille Hackers" claimed responsibility for the hack.

"We detected unusual activity in YoVille, and it coincided with reports from a small number of users," Zynga's chief security officer … Read more

The British military's head of cybersecurity, Jonathan Shaw, admitted that there have been a number of successful attacks into the Ministry of Defense's computer systems, according to the Guardian.

"The number of serious incidents is quite small, but it is there," Shaw told the Guardian in a final interview before he retires. "And those are the ones we know about. The likelihood is there are problems in there we don't know about."

He wouldn't say how many attacks there have been, but he did emphasize that it was serious enough to make … Read more

Just when it seemed like things were finally settling down for Google in the Street View debacle, more information has been leaked. The formerly unnamed engineer who wrote the code that enabled Street View cars to collect personal e-mail, text messages, passwords, and Internet-usage history from unsecured wireless networks for four years has been identified, according to The New York Times.

Marius Milner is his name and the Times reported that his LinkedIn profile occupation was listed as "hacker" and under the social network's specialties category his entry said, "I know more than I want to … Read more

The Anonymous defendants arrested last month for allegedly breaking into corporate networks, stealing data, and defacing Web sites as part of LulzSec are likely to have an extended vacation at Club Fed, experts say.

With well-known victims like Sony, Fox Broadcasting, and the FBI, prosecutors will want to make examples of those arrested in the Anonymous-related hacking cases in the hopes that it will send a message to others.

"I believe they will (get harsh treatment)," Michael Bachmann, assistant professor of criminal justice at Texas Christian University, told CNET in a recent interview.

Like Kevin Mitnick, who was … Read more

Anonymous is certainly making the rounds this week. First China, now the telecom and tech industry.

The hacker group has claimed responsibility for leading denial-of-service attacks on two technology trade association Web sites, USTelecom and TechAmerica, according to Bloomberg. Anonymous is reportedly lashing out because these organizations support a cybersecurity bill that some members of congress are working to pass.

The attacks began yesterday when users were unable to log onto the sites, reports Bloomberg. USTelecom represents telecom companies, including AT&T, Verizon, and CenturyLink; and TechAmerica's members include tech companies such as IBM, Microsoft, and Apple.

Both … Read more

The hacker group Anonymous has its sights set again on China.

Anonymous plans to launch more attacks on Chinese government Web sites in an effort to highlight corruption and push for human rights improvements, a member of the activist group told Reuters today.

The comments come after Anonymous, a loosely knit group of hackers, infiltrated hundreds of Chinese government sites last week. Messages posted on the compromised sites warned of the downfall of the Chinese government, although no central government sites were compromised.

The group commented to Reuters through its Anonymous China Twitter account.

Anonymous hinted at taking down the … Read more

Anonymous has recently turned its attention to the human rights struggle in China, hacking and defacing hundreds of government and commercial Web sites in that country.

The online hactivist group claims to have compromised more than 500 Web sites over the past couple of days, defacing them with messages claiming responsibility for the breach while The Who's "Baba O'Riley" plays in the background. (A complete list of the Web sites Anonymous claims to have hacked.)

The group posted the following message -- still visible at the time of this publishing -- predicting the downfall of the … Read more

In December 1998, a U.S.-based hacker group called Legions of the Underground declared cyberwar on Iraq and China and prepared to protest human rights abuses in those countries by disrupting their Internet access.

About a week later, a coalition of hackers from groups including Cult of the Dead Cow (cDc), L0pht, Chaos Computer Club in Germany, and hacker mags 2600 and Phrack issued a statement condemning the move. "We - the undersigned - strongly oppose any attempt to use the power of hacking to threaten to destroy the information infrastructure of a country, for any reason," … Read more