hackers

Hackers to flock to Black Hat, Defcon this week

Last year, a security researcher was forced to cancel his talk scheduled for two hacker conferences about weaknesses in ATM software after the ATM vendor complained.

This year the talk is back on the agenda for Black Hat and Defcon, which run Wednesday and Thursday, and Friday through Sunday, respectively, in Las Vegas.

"I've always liked the scene in "Terminator 2" where John Connor walks up to an ATM, interfaces his Atari to the card reader and retrieves cash from the machine. I think I've got that kid beat," Barnaby Jack, who works for … Read more

White hat hacker Maiffret returns to eEye

Security researcher and former Microsoft gadfly Marc Maiffret has returned to the company he started when he was a teenager, eEye Digital Security.

Maiffret had been serving as chief security architect at antimalware firm FireEye since December and will remain on the company's technical advisory board, Maiffret said in an interview on Monday.

"I'm coming back to eEye as chief technology officer to lead the overall technology vision and be involved in day-to-day stuff on the research front," he said.

Asked why he was returning to the company he started in 1998 when he was a … Read more

Report: Google issues fix for hacked YouTube

Google has plugged a hole hackers used Sunday morning to festoon YouTube videos with off-color pop-ups and adult-site redirects, according to a news outlet.

Hackers took advantage of a cross-site scripting vulnerability that enabled them to insert code onto the popular video site's viewer-comments pages, IDG News Service said in a report. The hackers apparently had it in for Justin Bieber, focusing on clips related to the teen pop star, who's set to appear Sunday night on an NBC television celebration of the Fourth of July and who's reportedly one of the most popular attractions on YouTube. … Read more

Twitter, FTC reach agreement on security

An investigation that the Federal Trade Commission launched into Twitter's allegedly lax security practices following two high-profile hacking incidents last year has been settled, the company announced Thursday.

Twitter general counsel Alexander MacGillivray, who joined the company last summer after serving as a member of Google's legal team, posted an entry on the company blog Thursday explaining the situation. "Early in 2009, when Twitter employed less than 50 people, we faced two different security incidents that impacted a small number of users," the post explained. "Put simply, we were the victim of an attack and … Read more

AT&T hacker released on bail after drug arrest

A hacker involved in the disclosure of a security flaw in an AT&T iPad-related Web site was released from an Arkansas jail Thursday after posting a $3,160 bond on felony drug possession charges, authorities said.

Andrew Auernheimer, 24, was arrested Tuesday after officials searching his Fayetteville, Ark., home on an FBI search warrant said they found less than a gram of cocaine, one ecstasy pill, 19 tabs of LSD, and some Oxycodone. They also allegedly found a different pharmaceutical classified as schedule 3, which makes it a misdemeanor.

FBI officials would not say whether or not the … Read more

Money trumps security in smart-meter rollouts, experts say

In a rush to take advantage of U.S. stimulus money, utilities are quickly deploying thousands of smart meters to homes each day--smart meters that experts say could easily be hacked.

The security weaknesses could potentially allow miscreants to snoop on customers and steal data, cut off power to buildings, and even cause widespread outages, according to a number of experts who have studied the meters and looked into smart-grid systems. A new paper out of the University of Cambridge highlights privacy concerns from smart meters, as well as security risks caused by linking home-area networks, of which smart meters … Read more

Hackers were right to disclose AT&T-iPad site hole

commentary If you are an iPad 3G user, it's possible that your e-mail address is in the hands of malicious hackers who could send you e-mails with malware targeted to infect your device. There's also the possibility--albeit much slimmer--that someone could use the serial number for your device to get more information on you and even track your whereabouts.

That's because of a hole in AT&T's customer Web site for iPad 3G users that became public last week. (You can read more details about it here.)

AT&T issued an apology to its affected iPad 3G customers … Read more

The 404 577: Where we will not quack at the principal (podcast)

Leave it to Wilson to make the rest of us look bad on Mother's Day. While we were all scrambling to make it to Duane Reade before closing time on Saturday, Wilson had already ordered a Fed Ex truck to deliver all the presents to his Mother down in Florida. We hope the rest of you had a fun weekend, but don't forget that just because Mother's Day is over doesn't mean that you're off the hook for the rest of the year; keep up the love!

President Barack Obama gave a commencement speech at Hampton University over the weekend where he warned the graduates about the dangers of a "24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content...some of which don't always rank all that high on the truth meter."

We were in complete agreement with everything Obama was saying...until he openly admitted to not knowing how to use an Apple iPod/iPad, an XBox, or a Playstation. It's no surprise that our Commander-in-Chief has bigger issues to worry about than dead pixels, but if a 99-year-old Grandma can pinch and pull her way around an iPad, what's Obama's excuse?

Don't forget to don your lead underwear the next time you get in line for a body scan at the airport. Rolando Negrin, a 44 year old attendant with the TSA learned that lesson the hard way when he threatened a colleague with a police baton after the bully allegedly made fun of his exposed genitalia during a routine training session at a Miami Airport.

The lesson began with Negin showing a group of trainees how to use the full body scanner, but the session soon turned into a roast when his colleagues started poking fun at the smaller-than-average size of his junk. In the bully's defense, it's completely possible that the first joke was made to relieve the tension of seeing his boss in his birthday suit, and Negin shouldn't have gotten so pissed- I'm sure they keep the air condition on pretty high during Spring and Summer.

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EPISODE 577 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Ubisoft's controversial 'always on' PC DRM hacked

Ubisoft's always-on digital rights management solution, dubbed the "Online Services Network," has apparently been circumvented by hackers. News of its arrival on peer-to-peer file-sharing networks began circulating in places like social-news site Reddit Wednesday morning.

The DRM, which now ships with every new PC game made by Ubisoft, requires that gamers have a constant connection to the Internet in order to play their games. The security feature caused a large backlash by users for its inclusion in Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed 2 title, which was released last month.

The hack itself removes the DRM entirely and … Read more

Marc Maiffret--the quick rise of a teen hacker (Q&A)

For Marc Maiffret, the turning point in his life came when--at the age of 17--he woke up to an FBI agent pointing a gun at his head.

A runaway and high school dropout, he had just returned home and landed his first professional job using his computer skills for the good of companies instead of for mischief. But his past was still catching up to his present.

Young, articulate, and outspoken, Maiffret went on to become a celebrity hacker wunderkind, testifying before Congress on security issues, featured in cover stories in numerous magazines and newspapers, appearing in MTV's "… Read more