Cyber Crime | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

12-year-old Canadian has pleaded guilty to breaking into multiple major government and police websites in the name of the hacker collective Anonymous . Surprisingly, this Fifth Grade student wreaked computer havoc during the Quebec student uprising in 2012, traded pirated information to Anonymous for video games. He had not just participated in  DDoS attacks , but also stole information belonging to users and administrators. The court estimates he did $60,000 worth of damage by attacking major government websites included those of Montreal police, the Quebec Institute of Public Health, the Chilean government and some non-public sites. His lawyer also described in the Court that buy saw it as a challenge, he was only 12 years old and was no political purpose. According to Montreal police, the boy also taught others how to hack. The 12 year old was among the several hackers arrested over the Anonymous protest. While others have been arrested in connection with t

Cybercrime , identity theft, and frauds are on the rise; and in most cases, the data breaches are associated with credit cards and cardholder data. The impact of data breach not only affects your organization, but also your customers. A common observation cites that organizations that are PCI compliant are 50% less likely to suffer a data breach . It is alarming to notice that most organizations have difficulty complying with the requirements necessary for processing cardholder data . PCI makes the process smooth Based on the feedback from the industry, PCI Security Council has introduced some changes in the compliance regulations and has come up with version 3.0 for PCI compliance whose final version is scheduled for release on November 7, 2013. And, it is expected to be effective from January 2014. So, how will the upgraded version of PCI Compliance impact your organization? Awareness :  Most security breaches happen due to lack of awareness in the following areas:

Imagine a world where the software that powers your favorite apps, secures your online transactions, and keeps your digital life could be outsmarted and taken over by a cleverly disguised piece of code. This isn't a plot from the latest cyber-thriller; it's actually been a reality for years now. How this will change – in a positive or negative direction – as artificial intelligence (AI) takes on a larger role in software development is one of the big uncertainties related to this brave new world. In an era where AI promises to revolutionize how we live and work, the conversation about its security implications cannot be sidelined. As we increasingly rely on AI for tasks ranging from mundane to mission-critical, the question is no longer just, "Can AI  boost cybersecurity ?" (sure!), but also "Can AI  be hacked? " (yes!), "Can one use AI  to hack? " (of course!), and "Will AI  produce secure software ?" (well…). This thought leadership article is about the latter. Cydrill  (a

Ross Ulbricht , the recently arrested mastermind behind Silk Road , appeared in court yesterday where his lawyer begged for more time before the detention hearing. As the Protective Order states, The United States is further authorized to seize any and all Bitcoins contained in wallet files residing on silk road servers and can transfer the full account balance in each silk road wallet to a public Bitcoin address controlled by the United States. Right now the FBI must be feeling pretty good too, because a federally controlled Bitcoin account , renamed as " Silkroad Seized Coins " now contains over $3.5 million worth of the digital currency , seized from Silk Road over 26,000 Bitcoins. As of this writing, the FBI 's Bitcoin address has received 122 transactions, nearly 30 of which apparently come from pranksters and now the account holds 27,365.89919925 BTC. Forbes, Kashmir Hill asked FBI spokesperson that what the plan is for those seized Bitcoins. " W

A College 19-year-old college student and Hacker from Temecula, California has been arrested for hacking the webcams of Miss Teen USA ' Cassidy Wolf ' and other women to extort nude photos and videos from them. Earlier this year Cassidy Wolf received an anonymous email in which the sender claimed to have stolen images from the camera on her home computer. According to the complaint, he threatened to turn her " dream of being a model ... into a ..... " Jared James Abrahams , 19 years-old man forced several women to strip. Based on an investigation launched in March the FBI raided THE suspect's home in June, seizing computers, cell phones and hacking software. Abrahams is accused of hacking the computers of several young women and charged with extortion, that could send him to federal prison for up to two years. Abrahams used malicious software to disguise his identity in order to capture nude photos or videos of victims through remote operat

Sentencing for former LulzSec leader Hector Xavier Monsegur , better known as " Sabu " , has again been delayed. Monsegur pleaded guilty to a dozen criminal counts two years prior and stands to face more a maximum sentence of more than 124 years. Another Lulzsec Hacker Jeremy Hammond has claimed that the FBI used Sabu to coordinate attacks against foreign governments, by  Anonymous hackers and Others. The delays indicate that the FBI is not extracting information from Monsegur and this could mean that the hacker may be helping FBI with other covert operations as Jeremy Hammond claims. Jeremy Hammond, released a statement on Thursday accusing the US government of asking Monsegur to encourage fellow hacktivists to infiltrate foreign government entities. " What many do not know is that Sabu was also used by his handlers to facilitate the hacking of the targets of the government's choosing including numerous websites belonging to foreign governments" , Ham

What would you do if a European Cybercrime Agency locked your PC until you paid a fine? A new Police Ransomware  family dubbed Trojan : HTML/Browlock by F-secure Antivirus firm, known as Browlock , which spreads by tricking unsuspecting web surfers into believing the police are after them. Ransomware is malware that, when installed on a device, can be locked down from remote locations by cyber criminals . Usually, ransomware appears to be an official warning telling the user that the computer has to be locked because it showed illegal activities and payment is necessary to access files. Ransomware is a global phenomenon, but the criminals have learned to localize and customize their software to make the threat seem scarier so that victims act quickly before they have time to think. Researchers said they are tracking this Malware from a while ago and now crooks behind the malware ate targeting users from some new countries including the United States, Canada and th

A second member of hacking group LulzSec - Raynaldo Rivera, 21, of Tempe, Arizona, has been sentenced to 1 year in prison, 13 months of house arrest, and 1,000 hours of community service for hacking into the computers of Sony Pictures Entertainment . Raynaldo who went by Internet names " neuron " was member of LulzSec Hacking Team in an attack on Sony Pictures which saw personal data belonging to 138,000 customers leaked. He's also been ordered to pay $605,663 in restitution.  The attackers distributed the stolen data on the Internet, information that included names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses for tens of thousands of Sony customers. Raynaldo also pleaded guilty to obtaining confidential information from various companies and posting it publicly. Another member of LulzSec ' Cody Andrew Kretsinger ' was given a one-year jail sentence back in April. Rivera and Kretsinger both studied at the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe

The Bitcoin Foundation has received a cease-and-desist letter from the California Department of Financial Institutions, which oversees banks, credit unions, and other financial organizations operating in the state. Jon Matonis, who is a board member at the Foundation, revealed the letter on Forbes. The agency charges Bitcoin Foundation with allegedly " engaging in the business of money transmission without a license or proper authorization ." If they found to be in violation of the California Financial Code, the foundation could be fined up to $2,500 a day per violation, in addition to criminal prosecution. Convictions under the federal statute are punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Bitcoin doesn't have any kind of central regulatory authority, and trading takes place through Mt. Gox or other exchange floors. So, California's decision to send a money transmitter warning to the Bitcoin Foundation is a Washington, D.C., nonprofit, makes no sense

US Cloud hosting providers are constantly targeted by cyber crime according the revelations of two malware researchers Mary Landesman, a senior security researcher at Cisco Systems, and Dave Monnier security expert at Team Cymru explained during the 2013 Gartner Security and Risk Management Summit. The hackers are exploiting with a meaningful increase these architecture to organize financially motivated attacks. Landesman and Monnier explained in two distinct sessions that cyber criminals are exploiting US cloud hosting providers to deploy Command and Control servers for their malicious activities despite the great effort in monitoring activities operated by hosting cloud providers. US is one of privileged countries to host malicious architecture due high availability of its infrastructures and cyber criminals know it. " You can move your command and control servers to Kazakhstan, but that's not a very good business decision," "The U.S. has re

A computer hacker linked to the group known as Anonymous and LulzSec  pleaded guilty on Tuesday to breaking into Stratfor , a global intelligence company.  Hammond, 28, was arrested last March and charged with hacking into the computers of Stratfor. Jeremy Hammond and other members of AntiSec , stole confidential information, defaced websites and temporarily put some victims out of business. Authorities say their crimes affected more than 1 million people. Hammond was charged under the controversial 1984 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the same law used to charge the late Aaron Swartz and other cyber-activists. The plea agreement could carry a sentence of as much as 10 years in prison, as well as millions of dollars in restitution payments, though Hammond's official sentence won't be handed down until September. Beyond Stratfor, Hammond took responsibility for eight other hacks, all of which involved either law enforcement, intelligence firms or defense contractor webs

Liberty Reserve , a payment processor similar to Paypal was down on Saturday after the founder of Liberty Reserve, Arthur Budovsky Belanchuk , 39, on Friday was reportedly arrested in Spain by Costa Rican authorities after his they raided suspect´s home and offices in San José and Heredia. Mr. Belanchuk, a Costa Rican citizen of Ukrainian origin, was under investigation since 2011 after authorities flagged his firm for money laundering . Investigators say that Budovsky's businesses in Costa Rica , including Liberty Reserve , were used to launder money for child pornography websites and drug trafficking. Liberty Reserve is a largely unregulated money transfer business that allows customers to open accounts using little more than a valid email address, and this relative anonymity has attracted a huge number of customers from underground economies, particularly cyber crime . It allowing users to nearly anonymously open accounts with limited documentation of identity. Dep

Peter Sunde ,   the former spokesman for The Pirate Bay has announced he will run in the European Parliament elections next year. Sunde, will participate for the Finnish branch of the Pirate Party. The Pirate Party was founded in Sweden in 2006, and in 2009 Christian Engström was the first member of the Pirate Party elected to European Parliament. Sunde, along with partners Carl Lundström, Frederik Neij , and Gottfrid Svartholm Warg , were convicted of accessory to breaching copyright laws by a Swedish court in 2009. Peter Sunde, who was born in Sweden but holds Finnish citizenship, is facing a prison sentence for his involvement with BitTorrent doesn't seem to concern him very much. He has been fighting the sentence for a while and if he gets elected things might get very interesting indeed. Sunde describes himself as ' socialist, green and a pirate ' on his blog. " I am doing what I can to help solve the problems we have today, as well as the ones we

The IT sector has become one of the most significant growth catalysts for the Indian economy. The government approved the National Cyber Security Policy that aims to create a secure computing environment in the country and build capacities to strengthen the current set up with focus on manpower training. The policy was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) that lays stress on augmentation of the India's indigenous capabilities in terms of developing the cyber security set-up.  The policy is not aimed only at government entities and big business, but at home users as well. It aims to create a cyber security framework that will address all related issues over a long period.  The framework will lead to specific actions and programmes to enhance the security posture of country's cyber space. Cyber Security Policy will also help in enhancing the intelligence as its integral component and help in anticipating attacks and adopt, counter measures.

They didn't use guns, masks or even threatening notes passed to bank tellers. It may be the largest bank robbery in history. A gang of cyber-criminals operating in 26 countries stole $45 million by hacking their way into a database of prepaid debit cards. Reportedly, the group of hackers targeted weaknesses in how banks and payment processors handle prepaid debit cards. Authorities said they arrested these seven U.S. citizens and residents of Yonkers, New York: Jael Mejia Collado, Joan Luis Minier Lara, Evan Jose Peña, Jose Familia Reyes, Elvis Rafael Rodriguez, Emir Yasser Yeje and Chung Yu-Holguin. The eighth defendant charged in the indictment, Alberto Yusi Lajud-Peña, also known as 'Prime' and 'Albertico,' was murdered on April 27 in the Dominican Republic. They're suspected of working with hackers who twice broke into credit card processing companies' computer systems, stole ATM card data and bypassed the withdrawal limits on the accounts.

A suspect hacker ' Shih ' was arrested by Taiwan Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB)  last week for hacking into a popular local classic music website. The police raided the apartment of the suspect and seized his computer. The investigation was launched by the bureau after it received a report from the website's operator who said its site was hacked in March. During initial investigations, Shih confessed to the police that he hacked into the website's customer database and made unauthorized changes to customer data. Shih also confessed that he has used a hacking technique called SQL injection to attack the website's database . SQL injection is a technique used to take advantage of non-validated input vulnerabilities to pass SQL commands through a Web application for execution by a backend database. The result is that the attacker can execute arbitrary SQL queries and/or commands on the backend database server through the Web application. The  Criminal Investi