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Chinese hackers broke into the computer systems of United States government agency that keeps the personal information of all federal employees, according to the paper published in the New York Times. The attack occurred on the Office of Personnel Management and Senior American officials believe that the attackers successfully gained access to some of the agency's databases in March before the federal authorities detected the threat and blocked them from the network. The hackers targeted the files of tens of thousands of federal employees who have applied for top-secret security clearances, the newspaper reported. " The intrusion at the Office of Personnel Management was particularly disturbing because it oversees a system called e-QIP, in which federal employees applying for security clearances enter their most personal information, including financial data. Federal employees who have had security clearances for some time are often required to update their personal inf

Cyber criminals are infecting thousands of computers around the world with malware and are utilizing those compromised machines to break into Point-of-Sale (PoS) terminals using brute-force techniques, and the attackers have already compromised 60 PoS terminals by brute-force attacks against poorly-secured connections to guess remote administration credentials, says researchers from FireEye. The new botnet campaign, dubbed as BrutPOS , aims to steal payment card information from the POS systems and and other places where payment data is stored, by targeting Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) servers that were disgracefully using poorly secured and simple passwords. Due to the better track inventory and accuracy of records, the Point-of-sale (POS) machine is used worldwide and it can be easily set-up, depending on the nature of the business. But, Point-of-sale (POS) systems are critical components in any retail environment and the users are not aware of the emerging

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

Due to the better track inventory and accuracy of records, Point-of-sale (POS) systems are being used in most of the industries including restaurants, lodging, entertainment, and museums around the world. It can be easily set-up depending on the nature of the business. Despite that, Point-of-sale (POS) systems are critical components in any retail environment and users are not aware of the emerging threats it poses in near future. So, it is one of the apparent target for cybercriminals and the recent security breach at Information Systems & Suppliers (ISS) proves this. Information Systems & Suppliers (ISS) Inc., the vendor of point-of-sale (POS) electronic cash registers and security systems used by restaurants has warned its customers that it may have experienced a payment card breach. HACKERS COMPROMISED VENDOR'S LogMeIn SERVICE The company on June 12 notified restaurant customers of its remote-access service, the popular LogMeIn, had been compromised

AT&T has confirmed a security data breach in which attackers have compromised the security of a number of its mobile customers and stolen personal information including Social Security numbers and call records. Back in April this year, AT&T suffered a data breach in which some of its customer information, including birth dates and Social Security numbers had been inappropriately accessed by three employees of one of its third-party vendors, in order to generate codes that could be used to unlock devices. Moreover, the hackers would have also been able to access its users' credit report with Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) during the process without proper authorization, that means the information related to what subscribers purchase from AT&T would also have been compromised. The Dallas-based telecommunications giant did not specify the number of customers or type of information affected by this data breach, but state law requires such di

Following the massive data breaches at eBay , Neiman Marcus Group and Michaels Stores , yet another private equity company Centerbridge Partners-backed restaurant chain P.F. Chang's China Bistro suffered a potential Credit and Debit card data breach. The Asian-themed casual dining restaurant chain confirmed on Thursday their customers' Credit and Debit card information were stolen in the cyber attack on its restaurants, saying it is temporarily switching to a manual Credit and Debit card imprinting system for all of its P.F. Chang's China Bistro branded restaurants located in the United States, in order to process cards safety. " At P.F. Chang's, the safety and security of our guests' payment information is a top priority, " said Rick Federico, CEO of P.F. Chang's. " Therefore, we have moved to a manual credit card imprinting system for all P.F. Chang's China Bistro branded restaurants located in the continental United States. This ensures our guests can

Today, the popular Music streaming service Spotify said the company has suffered a Data breach and warned users of its Android app to upgrade it in the wake of a potential data breach in their servers. Spotify is a commercial music streaming service launched in October 2008 by Swedish start-up Spotify AB and is freely available for Android and iOS devices as well as for desktop computers with more than 40 million active users, out of which about 10 million users are its paid subscribers. It offers offline listening and ad-free playback are also available for Premium subscribers of the service. The company announced that a hacker had allegedly broken into its systems and gained unauthorized access to the internal company data. So far only one of its users' accounts has been accessed in the data breach, but the company believes that there is no harm to the financial information, payment details or password of the affected user. " Our evidence shows that only one Spot

If you have an eBay Account then you should change your password immediately, because the World's biggest E-commerce company with 128 million active users announced today in a press release that it had been Hacked. eBay revealed that attackers compromised customers' database including emails, physical addresses, encrypted passwords and dates of birth, in a hacking attack between late February and early March, but financial information like credit card numbers, as well as PayPal information were stored separately and were not compromised. ' After conducting extensive tests on its networks ,' They also said they've found no evidence of unauthorized access or activity by registered eBay users, but as precaution, eBay is resetting everyone's passwords that ' will help enhance security for eBay users. ' Why did eBay wait so long to tell everyone? because just two weeks ago they discovered data breach . They conducted a forensic investigation of its compu

Point-of-sale (POS) is the hottest topic in payment structures and its one of the most popular technology topics as well. A Point-of-sale (POS) machine is a computerized replacement for a cash register. It has ability to quickly process a customer's transaction, accurately keep the records, process credit and debit cards , connect to other systems in a network, and manage inventory. A basic POS system would consist of a computer as its core part provided with application specific programs for the particular environment in which it will serve, along with a cash drawer, barcode scanner, receipt printer and the appropriate POS software. Point-of-sale (POS) terminals are used in most industries that have a point of sale such as a service desk, including restaurants, lodging, entertainment, and museums. Due to the better track inventory and accuracy of records, the Point-of-sale (POS) machine is used worldwide and it can be easily set-up, depending on the nature of the busi

Despite the contrary regarding NSA's DROPOUTJEEP program, Apple had always denied working with the NSA in the creation of any backdoors used to spy on its users and also claimed that the NSA doesn't have backdoor access to its data. But, Apple could legally share your phone data with the law enforcement agencies if asked for. Being a secretive company, Apple is very clear at its point of sharing its users' data with the government when U.S. law enforcement agencies request data relating to the company's users. With the release of a set of new guidelines late Wednesday regarding requests for customer data from the U.S. law enforcement agencies, Apple specifies what information can and cannot be lifted from its users devices upon the receipt of disclosure requests, search warrants, or legal orders. " These guidelines are provided for use by law enforcement or other government entities in the U.S. when seeking information from Apple Inc. about users of Apple

The famous URL shortening service is facing a data breach . The very popular URL shortening service Bitly, has issued an urgent security warning saying that its users' account credentials may have been compromised, according to a blog post published yesterday. " We have reason to believe that Bitly account credentials have been compromised; specifically, users' email addresses, encrypted passwords, API keys and OAuth tokens ," Bitly CEO Mark Josephson wrote in a blog post . At this point, however, there is no indication that hackers have broken into any user accounts, he said. Bitly was founded in 2008, allows users to shorten links and making it to share on other sites easier for users. It is privately held and based in New York City. Bitly shortens more than one billion links per month and powers over 10,000 custom short URLs and offers an enterprise analytics platform that helps web publishers and brands grow their social media traffic. Bitly users' acc

French leading telecommunications company ' Orange ' hit by second major data breach of its kind in a matter of months. Company announced that hackers have stolen personal data of 1.3 million customers of its online portal. ORANGE HACKED SECOND TIME IN THREE MONTHS Hackers have stolen a " limited amount of personal information concerning clients and future customers ", including their first names, Surnames email addresses, phone numbers for both mobiles and fixed lines, dates of birth as well as the names of clients' mobile and Internet operators. " The data recovered could be used to contact those concerned by email, SMS or by phone, particularly for phishing purposes ," company said in an statement . The Incident was detected by the company on April 18, but the company has waited until now to inform customers to determine its full extent and to ensure that the security holes leveraged by the hackers have been patched. BEWARE OF PHISHING ATTAC

We're comfortable in sharing information with our Facebook friends, but it is quite sneaky for Facebook users to offer their Identities and credentials when logging in to third-party apps , they don't trust. To deal with this issue, the social network giant has plans to improve the way users login to the third party apps with more privacy controls on the web as well as mobile devices. ANONYMOUS LOGIN At Facebook's F8 developer conference in San Francisco on Wednesday, Keynote speaker - Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg announced the new Facebook's login tool, " Anonymous Login " that would let users sign into apps and websites anonymously without sharing their personal information-Biggest news for Facebook users. " Today, we want to do more to put control and power back into people's hands, " Zuckerberg said at the conference. " Up until now, your friends have been able to share your data via using apps. Now we're changing this, so every

The founder of 4chan , Christopher Poole , aka "moot" has confirmed few hours ago, in a blog post that the popular image-based bulletin board was hacked. The attacker gained access to the administrative functions and successfully hacked into one of 4chan's database by exploiting a website's software vulnerability last week. The motive behind the hack was to expose the posting habits of a specific user the attacker didn't like, moot wrote. It is believed that the software vulnerability allowed the attacker to hack into only the image-board moderation panels, and some tables in the 4chan back-end database . According to the blog post, the way hacker extracted the information from its database, 4chan knows the " detailed logs of what was accessed", which indicate that the "primarily moderator account names " and their "credentials" were targeted and compromised by the hacker. " Due to the way the intruder extracted information from the database, we have detailed logs of wh

If you are a user of the American On-Line (AOL) mail service then you are advised to change your password as soon as possible. AOL Inc. on Monday confirmed the company suffered a massive data breach that may have affected a "significant number" of email accounts. The company has issued a warning to users that their personal information including email addresses, postal addresses, address books, encrypted passwords and the encrypted answers to security question-answers, has been stolen by attackers, the New York-based company said Monday. " The ongoing investigation of this serious criminal activity is our top priority, " AOL said in a blog post . " We are working closely with federal authorities to pursue this investigation to its resolution. Our security team has put enhanced protective measures in place, and we urge our users to take proactive steps to help ensure the security of their accounts ." AOL said it began investigating the

A teenager has been arrested by the Canadian police in relation to the infamous malicious breach on the country's taxpayer system using one of the most critical internet flaws, Heartbleed . Heartbleed bug , that made headlines over past two weeks and every websites around the world flooded with its articles. Every informational website, Media and Security researchers are talking about Heartbleed, probably the biggest Internet vulnerability in recent history. According to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), a 19-year-old ' Stephen Arthuro Solis-Reyes ' of London, Ontario, is charged with the unauthorized access of the computer and criminal mischief in relation to the data breach of taxpayer's private information from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) website. " The RCMP treated this breach of security as a high priority case and mobilized the necessary resources to resolve the matter as quickly as possible ," Assistant Commissioner Gilles Michaud said in

Yahoo-owned Flickr , one of the biggest online photo management and sharing website in the world was recently impacted by critical web application vulnerabilities, which left website's database and server vulnerable hackers. Ibrahim Raafat , a security researcher from Egypt has found SQL injection vulnerabilities on  Flickr Photo Books , new feature for printing custom photo books through Flickr that was launched 5 months ago. He claimed to have found two parameters ( page_id , items ) vulnerable to Blind SQL injection and one  (i.e. order_id ) Direct SQL Injection that allowed him to query the Flickr database for its content by the injection of a SQL SELECT statements. A Successful SQL exploitation could allow an attacker to steal the Database and MYSQL administrator password. Furthermore, Flickr's SQL injection flaws also facilitate the attacker to exploit remote code execution on the server and using  load_file("/etc/passwd")   function he was successfu

Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has arrested a Pakistani Hacker allegedly involved in hacking into a telecom company and uploading their database on his website. With the help of the National Response Center for Cyber Crime (NR3C) of Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency, the local authorities were able to trace and arrest the hacker suspected of infiltrating into the systems of Warid Telecom, an Abu-Dhabi-based telecoms company that provides services in Congo, Pakistan and Uganda. The suspect, Mubashar Shahzad , a resident of Kasur, is believed to have downloaded Warid Telecom's customer information from the company's databases and exposed it online, which was published on earlysms.com , a site hosted with HosterPK . Investigation started after one of the senior manager of a cellular company filed a complaint saying the ' information of its consumers till 2006 had been exposed over the internet. ' " A technical/forensic analysis found that the web

Do you know, Why another major company is getting hacked every week? Because of poor policies, Laziness to Incident Response and lack in will-power to put efforts on applying important patches. Some companies are not taking their security more seriously, and best suitable example for this is  TxTag,  an electronic toll collection systems in Texas operated by Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) . 1.2 MILLION CREDIT CARD ARE AT RISK Security researcher, David Longenecker   claimed a serious flaw at  TxTag website that exposes the active Credit Card Details and Personal Information of 1.2 Million Drivers including active TxTags (vehicle stickers with microchips, which are scanned by electronic readers on toll roads), Names, phone numbers, full residence addresses, email addresses, along with their complete Credit card numbers and Expiration date. According to David, the account names could be easily predictable by anyone, which is typically an 8-digit number that beg

Germany has confirmed its biggest Data theft in the country's history with usernames and passwords of some 18 million email accounts stolen and compromised by hackers. The Story broke by the German press, Der Spiegel on Thursday, when German Authorities revealed another mass hacking of private data belonged to German citizens and major Internet companies both in Germany and abroad. 16 MILLION AND NOW 18 MILLION Authorities in the northwestern city of Verden unearthed a treasure of personal information, a list of about 18 million stolen email addresses and passwords, and seized it just after only two months from the previous major data breach, when researchers came across 16 million compromised email accounts of German users while conducting research on a botnet, a network of computers infected with malware.  The accounts were compromised by hackers in the mid of January, and Der Spiegel suggests that the same group of hackers is responsible for both thefts and t