hacker

On the eve of President Barack Obama's high-level meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, U.S. intelligence officials have revealed that a slew of documents and e-mails were stolen during the 2008 presidential campaign from both the president and then GOP presidential candidate John McCain. Officials are accusing China's government for the hack.

According to NBC News, officials said that they first detected the major cyberattack in the summer of 2008 and were then able to trace the culprits back to China.

"Based on everything I know, this was a case of political cyberespionage by the Chinese … Read more

Jeremy Hammond was arrested in a major federal sweep last year on charges of computer hacking conspiracy, computer hacking, and conspiracy to commit access device fraud.

The self-described hacktivist pled guilty to these counts in court on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.

"As part of each of these hacks, I took and decimated confidential information stored on computer systems websites used by each of the entities," Hammond told a judge in federal court in Manhattan, according to the Associated Press. "For each of these hacks, I knew what I was doing was against the law."… Read more

The designs for some of the most sensitive advanced U.S. weapons systems were reportedly accessed by Chinese hackers, according to a confidential report prepared by the Defense Science Board for the Pentagon.

The report, a copy of which was obtained by the Washington Post, listed more than two dozen compromised weapons systems, including missile defenses and combat aircraft. The security breaches, the latest linked to China, could allow the country to accelerate development of its own systems and weakens the U.S. military position, experts told the Post.

The public version of the report, titled "Resilient Military Systems … Read more

China has been cited as allegedly hacking into U.S. government and corporate networks for years now. Generally, the thinking has been that the government is the only entity in the country actively hacking. But a new report seems to indicate that's not even close to the truth.

The News York Times on Thursday released a report on hacking across China. The Times found that not only does hacking occur at the highest levels of the government, but that everyone on down from local law enforcement officials to company owners to criminals are using their hacking techniques to take … Read more

U.S. officials are concluding that the 2010 hacks into Google's servers may have ended with Chinese hackers getting ahold of sensitive data, according to The Washington Post.

Current and former government officials told the Post that the hackers were able to access information on U.S. intelligence, as well as find out which possible Chinese spies government officials may have been targeting.

In January 2010, Google shocked the security community by being one of the first tech companies to disclose that it and other companies had been hit by attacks that originated in China. The Web giant said … Read more

A global cybercime ring stole $45 million from banks around the world in a matter of hours by hacking a database of prepaid debit cards, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

Seven people are in U.S. custody in connection with the case, which prosecutors said involved thousands of thefts from ATMs using bogus magnetic strip cards. Data stolen during two separate intrusions at credit card processors was used to make more than 40,500 withdrawals in 27 countries during two separate incidents in December and February, prosecutors said.

Eight people in New York have been charged with participating in the conspiracy … Read more

The Chinese government and military have engaged in widespread cyberespionage targeting U.S. government and business computer networks, the Pentagon said Monday.

China maintained a steady campaign of computer intrusions in 2012 that were designed to acquire information about the U.S. government's foreign policy and military plans, according to the Pentagon's annual report to Congress on China's military.

"China is using its computer network exploitation capability to support intelligence collection against the U.S. diplomatic, economic, and defense industrial base sectors that support U.S. national defense programs," according to the 83-page 2013 "… Read more

The interesting thing about Bitcoin isn't what it is today. What's interesting is that this experiment is turning into a serious proving ground for the idea of "crypto-currency," digitally created currency protected by powerful cryptography.

Crypto-currency is traceable, more portable than paper money, and harder to steal. If the Bitcoin experiment proves successful, how soon will a government or other regime develop, back, and distribute crypto-currency as a true alternative currency?

My money, paper or virtual, says that day is coming.

A particularly evolved regime could officially back a crypto-currency, issue some basic standards and regulations … Read more

The Australian Federal Police has reportedly arrested a man who describes himself as the "leader" of the LulzSec hacking group.

The 24-year-old man was arrested on hacking charges Tuesday in the coastal town of Point Clare, according to ABC News Australia, which first reported the arrest. The report did not reveal that man's identity.

The arrest comes two weeks after three members of hacker group pleaded guilty in a British court to carrying out cyberattacks against various media and entertainment companies and the U.K. National Health Service.

LulzSec emerged on the hacking scene in 2011, claiming … Read more