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20-Year-Old Man Arrested For Carrying Out Germany's Biggest Data Leak

20-Year-Old Man Arrested For Carrying Out Germany's Biggest Data Leak

Jan 08, 2019
German federal police have arrested a 20-year-old local student for stealing and publishing a massive trove of personal data of hundreds of politicians , journalists and other public figures last month. The young man, whose identity has not been revealed by the police, was arrested after police raided his parent's house in west-central German State of Hesse on Sunday and recovered a computer that the suspect tried to destroy 2 days before the search and a data backup. The suspect, who believed to have acted alone, has admitted of carrying out the mass hacking of German politicians out of anger at their political statements, BKA Federal Criminal Police revealed. "The accused was interrogated on 07.01.2019 by the senior prosecutor and officials of the Federal Criminal Police Office. He comprehensively acknowledged the allegations against him and provided information on his own offenses," the BKA said in a press release . "Due to a lack of grounds for detentio
Hackers Leak Personal Data from Hundreds of German Politicians On Twitter

Hackers Leak Personal Data from Hundreds of German Politicians On Twitter

Jan 04, 2019
Germany has been hit with the biggest hack in its history. A group of unknown hackers has leaked highly-sensitive personal data from more than 100 German politicians, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Brandenburg's prime minister Dietmar Woidke, along with some German artists, journalists, and YouTube celebrities. The leaked data that was published on a Twitter account ( @_0rbit ) and dated back to before October 2018 includes phone numbers, email addresses, private chats, bills, credit card information and photos of victims' IDs. Although it is yet unclear who perpetrated this mass hack and how they managed to perform it, the leaked data appears to be collected unauthorizedly by hacking into their smartphones. The hack targeted all of Germany's political parties currently represented in the federal parliament, including the CDU, CSU, SPD, FDP, Left party (Die Linke) and Greens, except for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). While Justice Minister
Making Sense of Operational Technology Attacks: The Past, Present, and Future

Making Sense of Operational Technology Attacks: The Past, Present, and Future

Mar 21, 2024Operational Technology / SCADA Security
When you read reports about cyber-attacks affecting operational technology (OT), it's easy to get caught up in the hype and assume every single one is sophisticated. But are OT environments all over the world really besieged by a constant barrage of complex cyber-attacks? Answering that would require breaking down the different types of OT cyber-attacks and then looking back on all the historical attacks to see how those types compare.  The Types of OT Cyber-Attacks Over the past few decades, there has been a growing awareness of the need for improved cybersecurity practices in IT's lesser-known counterpart, OT. In fact, the lines of what constitutes a cyber-attack on OT have never been well defined, and if anything, they have further blurred over time. Therefore, we'd like to begin this post with a discussion around the ways in which cyber-attacks can either target or just simply impact OT, and why it might be important for us to make the distinction going forward. Figure 1 The Pu
Hacker Clones German Defense Minister's Fingerprint Using Just her Photos

Hacker Clones German Defense Minister's Fingerprint Using Just her Photos

Dec 30, 2015
Hackers have already bypassed Apple's fingerprint scanner using fake fingerprints, and now they have found a way to reproduce your fingerprints by using just a couple of photos of your fingers. Special Fingerprint sensors have already been used by Apple and Samsung in their smartphones for authentication purposes and in near future fingerprints sensors are believed to be the part of plenty of other locked devices that can be unlocked using fingerprints, just to add an extra layer of authentication. But, How secure are your fingerprints? A member of Europe's oldest hacker collective, the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) , claimed to have cloned a fingerprint of a Germany's federal minister of defense , Ursula von der Leyen , using pictures taken with a " standard photo camera " at a news conference. At the 31st annual Chaos Computer Conference in Hamburg Germany this weekend, biometrics researcher Starbug , whose real name is Jan Krissler , explained
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German Aerospace Center targeted by Self-Destructing Spyware

German Aerospace Center targeted by Self-Destructing Spyware

Apr 15, 2014
It's not so far when Germany confirmed its biggest Data theft in the country's history with the usernames and passwords of some 18 million email accounts stolen and compromised by Hackers, and now German space research center has been reportedly targeted in a cyber attack. The new story broke by the German press, Der Spiegel on Sunday revealing that the German Aerospace Centre ( DLR - Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. ), the country's national center for aerospace, energy and transportation research located in Cologne has been reportedly targeted in a cyber attack out " coordinated and systematic ", apparently launched by a foreign intelligence agency. The systems used by administrators and scientists of the space research center have been found to be infected with Malware and spyware software, and as mention in the report, the attack was " co-ordinated and systematic " with the perfection of Trojan used. SELF-DESTRUCTING MALWARE, WITH LOVE FROM CHI
Worst Data Breach in German History, 18 Million Email Passwords Compromised

Worst Data Breach in German History, 18 Million Email Passwords Compromised

Apr 05, 2014
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
'Chaos Computer Club' filed criminal complaint against German government Over Mass Spying

'Chaos Computer Club' filed criminal complaint against German government Over Mass Spying

Feb 03, 2014
After the revelation of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden , we all very well knew the impact of it on the world, but nobody would have estimated that the impact will be so worst. The revelation, not only defaced NSA, but also its counterpart GCHQ , and various other governments which were serving them in the world's spying scandal. Now, after various allegations on NSA , Chaos Computer Club (CCC) , one of the oldest and Europe's largest association of hackers, along with the International League for Human Rights (ILMR), has filed a criminal complaint with the Federal Prosecutor General's office on Monday. The Chaos Computer club accuses the German government of capitulating to UK, US and other government intelligence agencies and their communications surveillance whims. In a press release they said: " We accuse US, British and German secret agents, their supervisors, the German Minister of the Interior as well as the German Chancellor of illegal and prohibi
16 Million German Users' Data Compromised in mysterious Botnet Malware attack

16 Million German Users' Data Compromised in mysterious Botnet Malware attack

Jan 22, 2014
A New day begins with a Cup of Coffee and with new massive Data Breach News. This time in Germany, the Digital identities of about 16 million online users had been stolen, and posing a risk to their accounts linked to social media and other services. Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) discovered a security breach after running an analysis of the botnet network of computers infected with malware . The compromised accounts have email addresses as their username and also the passwords were stolen, that could also be sold to spammers and people looking to " phish " account holders. Until now it hasn't been known that how and when the analysis was carried out and who exactly were involved behind this massive data breach, as the BSI refused to give details on the source of the information. Authorities have set up a German-language website which allows users to enter their email address and check whether their email accounts are compromised or not.
Alleged Skynet Botnet creator arrested in Germany

Alleged Skynet Botnet creator arrested in Germany

Dec 09, 2013
The German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) has arrested a gang of cyber criminals believed to be responsible for creating the Skynet Botnet. Skynet was first detected by Security Firm G DATA in December 2012. It is a variant of the famous Zeus malware to steal banking credentials with DDoS attack and Bitcoin mining capabilities. The Botnet was controlled from an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) server hidden behind Tor network in order to evade sinkholing. According to a press release from German police, they arrested two people suspected of illegally generating Bitcoins worth nearly $1 million using a modified version of existing malware i.e. Skynet Botnet. German police conducted raids earlier this week on 3rd December and found evidence of other hacking activities i.e. Fraud and distribution of copyrighted pornographic material. A third person is under suspicion but has not been arrested. However, Police didn't mention Skynet Botnet in their press release, but just a day
Exclusive : New Touch ID hack allows hacker to unlock an iPhone by multiple fingerprints

Exclusive : New Touch ID hack allows hacker to unlock an iPhone by multiple fingerprints

Sep 29, 2013
The Iranian group defeated the very basic phenomenon of an iPhone Fingerprinting scanner, which allows them to unlock an iPhone device with multiple Fingerprints. Apple's iPhone 5s , was launched just available in stores two weeks before with a new feature of biometrics-based security system called " Touch ID ", that involves analyzing a user's fingerprint and using that to unlock the phone. Apple launched the technology that it promises will better protect devices from criminals and snoopers seeking access. With this you can purchase things from the iTunes App Store. Basically, you can now use it in place of your password. " Fingerprint is one of the best passcodes in the world. It's always with you, and no two are exactly alike, " according to the Apple's website. Last week Germany Hackers showed that how they were able to deceive Apple's latest security feature into believing they're someone they're not, using a well-honed technique for
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