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Oracle has released a new patch which kills off a vulnerability in Java 7 that was being exploited by malware developers. " Due to the high severity of these vulnerabilities, Oracle recommends that customers apply this Security Alert as soon as possible ," Eric Maurice, the company's director of software security assurance. The out-of-band Security Alert CVE-2012-4681 includes fixes for "three distinct but related vulnerabilities and one security-in-depth issue" affecting Java running within the browser. Users with vulnerable versions of Java installed can have malware silently planted on their systems just by browsing to a hacked or malicious website unknowingly.Java is a free programming language widely used to enable every day programs and website elements to function, including some games, apps and chat, as well as enterprise apps. The attacks using this vulnerability so far have been Windows-based, the exploit was demonstrated on other platforms supported by Java

Saudi Aramco, the world's biggest oil producer, has resumed operating its main internal computer networks after a virus infected about 30,000 of its workstations in mid-August. Immediately after the Aug. 15 attack, the company announced it had cut off its electronic systems from outside access to prevent further attacks. Saudi Aramco said the virus "originated from external sources" and that its investigation into the matter was ongoing. There was no mention of whether this was related to this month's Shamoon attacks. " The disruption was suspected to be the result of a virus that had infected personal workstations without affecting the primary components of the network, " Saudi Aramco said over Facebook . " We would like to emphasize and assure our stakeholders, customers and partners that our core businesses of oil and gas exploration, production and distribution from the wellhead to the distribution network were unaffected and are functioning as reliably as ever

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

Turkish hackers recently hacked the Web site of soccer team FC Spartak Moscow after the Russian team's fans burned Turkish flags and pictures of Atatürk during a Champions League playoff match against Turkish team Fenerbahce on August 21. A portrait of Atatürk next to a Turkish flag was also posted on the website. The group replaced the website's original content with a statement that called on the team to "immediately apologize." " You will immediately apologize to the Turkish Republic and the Turkish people. No crime goes without punishment, and FIFA may forgive you, but we won't ," The Spartak site was running again by Thursday afternoon after the club used its Twitter account to blame the incident on 'Turkish hackers. Spartak Moscow fans burned flags and posters of modern Turkey's founding father, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, during their team's 2-1 victory over the Istanbul giants in the first leg of their Champions League playoff.

Note : This Article Cross posted from our Magazine's 13th Issue - August 2012 called "BOTNET | The Hacker News Magazine", Written by Ann Smith (Executive Editor, The Hacker News Magazine). You can Download full magazine free here . Shame on me.  When someone mentioned Lulzsec I would slightly bristle and turn a mighty heel towards the "real" movement.  You know, the Anons that are taking down corruption and terror, targeting the real enemies of the world.  If you were doing it for the LULZ of it, well, you were playing in the proverbial sand box and I thought you were hindering, instead of helping.  I even wrote an editorial spanking them for releasing the emails of servicemen who had signed up for a porn site.   Then, I read the book, WE ARE ANONYMOUS by Parmy Olson. Every person who considers themselves Anonymous or who  sympathizes and rallies for the cause, must read this book.  You will not only get a good education from this history of the movement but also get t

Today was the day that Hector Xavier Monsegur, a.k.a. Sabu, Xavier DeLeon, and Leon, was supposed to be sentenced for the 12 counts of computer hacking conspiracies and other crimes he pleaded guilty to, including the infamous hacks of HBGary Federal, HBGary, Sony, Fox, and PBS, but he has had his sentencing delayed, perhaps as a reward for assisting the US police with their enquiries and investigations. Monsegur allegedly rooted out the vulnerabilities used in the hacks conducted by LulzSec, which went on a high-profile tear in 2011 that exposed emails, documents, and other information of its victim organizations. Sabu is the hacker nom de plume of 28-year-old New Yorker Hector Monsegur, an unemployed father of two who allegedly commanded a loosely organized, international team of perhaps thousands of hackers from his nerve center in a public housing project on New York's Lower East Side. According to the FBI, he could face a maximum sentence of 124 years and six months for 12 offe

Police on Thursday rounded up 357 foreigners accused of duping Taiwanese and Chinese citizens in an online scam in what an official described as the largest single-day operation against organized crime in the country.  Director Samuel Pagdilao Jr., CIDG director, said CIDG and Paocc agents led by Senior Supt. Ranier Idio raided 20 houses in several subdivisions in Quezon, Manila, Marikina, Cainta and Antipolo cities at around 6:30 a.m. on Thursday and they rounded up the foreigners. The suspects were brought to the Police National Training Institute (PNTI) in Camp Vicente Lim in Laguna. They face charges for violating the Access Device Act. The syndicate's operations involve the use of the internet, wherein the group will call unsuspecting victims in China, claiming that they represent police, prosecutor's office, courts, insurance companies, banks, and other financial institutions. The syndicate raked in at least P20 million ($472,000) each day using the scam, Pagdilao said.

It sounds like an air traveler's nightmare, Researchers at Trusteer recently uncovered a variant of the Citadel Trojan targeting the virtual private network (VPN) credentials used by employees at a major airport.The firm would not disclose the name of the airport because the situation is being investigated by law enforcement. Many businesses use VPNs to provide outside workers with access to secure data. Incursions on these networks often involve advanced "Man in the Browser" malware such as the Citadel, Zeus, and SpyEye programs. The man-in-the-browser (MITB) assault first used form-grabbing malware, which steals data entered into web forms before it is passed over the internet, to steal the airport employees' VPN usernames and passwords, Amit Klein, Trusteer's chief technology officer, said in a blog post. "This was potentially very dangerous, but we don't know whether the attacker group was targeting the financial system of the airport for economic gain or if the attack wa

26-year-old Slovenian hacker known as Iserdo stands thought to have been behind the Mariposa botnet is on trial in Slovenia, charged with having masterminded an international cybercrime gang. At its height, the Mariposa botnet infected up to 12.7 million PCs, with more than half of the Fortune 1,000 companies believed to have been compromised, including 40 major banks. Once a computer had been compromised and brought into the botnet, operators could steal information from innocent users - including credit card details and banking passwords. Computer crime-fighting authorities had succeeded in bringing down the Mariposa botnet at the end of 2009, FBI officials worked with Spanish and Slovenian authorities to track down Mariposa's mastermind, Iserdo. He was said to charge between $500 for basic versions of the botnet code and up to $1,300 for more advanced ones, which included customised features, such as capabilities which allowed its operators to to steal credit cards and onlin

Hong Kong police said Sunday they had arrested a 21-year-old man believed to be a member of the international hacker group Anonymous, after he reportedly said on social networking site Facebook that he would hack several government websites. " The Internet is not a virtual world of lawlessness ," a police spokesman said, adding that the man was required to report back to the police in October. He faces up to five years imprisonment if found guilty.The man is a member of the global hacker group Anonymous, the South China Morning Post said. The group is said to have 20 members in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory, which guarantees civil liberties not seen on the mainland, including freedom of speech. The police spokesman declined to confirm his link to Anonymous. The last posting on the "Anonymous HK" Facebook page on July 22 urged authorities to show "respect" to citizens.

Dmitry Olegovich Zubakha, a  Russian  man accused of launching distributed-denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks on Amazon.com, has been arrested this week by authorities in Cyprus based on an international warrant, the Department of Justice revealed. Zubakha, a native of Moscow, was indicted for two denial of service attacks in 2008 on the Amazon.com website. The indictment, unsealed Thursday, also details denial of service attacks on Priceline.com and eBay. " Orders from Amazon.com customers dropped significantly, as legitimate customers were unable to access the website and complete their e-commerce transactions during the pendency of the attack ," read an indictment unsealed in district court in western Washington on Thursday. The botnet involved requested "large and resource-intensive web pages" on a magnitude of between 600 and 1,000 percent of normal traffic levels, according to the indictment. The hacker is charged with conspiracy to intentionally cause damage

There have been numerous public statements made about WikiLeaks and its editor-in-chief Julian Assange that are factually inaccurate.Prime Minister Julia Gillard said about WikiLeaks, "It's illegal." Attorney General Nicola Roxon said my son "fled Sweden." The media repeatedly states, "Assange is charged or facing charges" in relation to Swedish sex allegations. If you want to know  The Truth About Julian Assange And Wikileaks , Please read our previous Story " One Man Fights for 7 Billion People, One Mother Battles to Wake Them Up " Letter is as below, To read complete Press Release ( Click Here) Dear Member of Parliament, We (Wikileaks Australian Citizens Alliance) are writing to you on behalf of Christine Assange, (Julian Assange's mother) who is currently in the UK, waiting for the UK Supreme Court Ruling on her son's appeal against extradition to Sweden. This ruling will be handed down later today (EST) and we, like Chris

Nikhil Kolbekar, aka HellsAngel, was arrested on July 11 in Mumbai, India. Eric Bogle, known as Swat Runs Train, and Justin Mills, or xTGxKAKAROT, were taken into custody in Canada, respectively Colorado, US.  HellsAngel and  Bogle is suspected of selling complete credit card details, including names, addresses, social security numbers, birth dates, and bank account information. He also sold remote desktop protocol (RDP) access data that could be utilized to breach computers in countries such as Turkey, India, Czech Republic, Brazil, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and others. The suspect, Nikhil Kolbekar, was produced before the Esplanade Court on Thursday and has been remanded in judicial custody. He will be produced before the Patiala House court in Delhi on July 25, with the US pressing for his extradition through the Interpol. Carding refers to various criminal activities associated with stealing personal identification information and financial information belonging to

Bulgarian Hackers Group arrested Bulgarian authorities say that after months of investigation they have busted the "most powerful hacker group" in the country, the Cyber Warrior Invasion. The operation was conducted by Bulgaria's Sector for Computer Crimes, Intellectual Property and Gambling and the territorial units of the Chief Directorate for Fight with Organized Crime in the municipalities of Pleven, Shumen, Plovdiv, Burgas, Haskovo, Stara Zagora and Kyustendil. Using cyber "terrorist" methods, the group had attacked more than 500 websites worldwide, including those of financial institutions, web-based companies, and governmental and non-governmental organizations. On the confiscated computers, police discovered databases with large amounts of stolen emails, social network profiles and associated passwords, as well as stolen credit card data. The site www.cwi-group.org was used by the members of the group to coordinate their activities. Constantly changing its location and usin

Thousands May Lose Net Access On July 9th July The warnings about the Internet problem have been splashed across Facebook and Google. Internet service providers have sent notices, and the FBI set up a special website. Thousands of Canadians could be among the hundreds of thousands of people around the world who might lose Internet access on July 9.That's the day the FBI will shut down all the "clean servers" it set up to combat a massive hacking operation. Last November the FBI arrested and charged six Estonian men behind the malware as part of Operation Ghost Click. These hackers were able to make a fortune off their project, raking in millions for ads placed on their fraudulent websites.On the eve of the arrests, the FBI hired Paul Vixie, chairman of the Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) to install two temporary Internet servers that would prevent infected users from losing access to the Internet once the DNSChanger botnet was shut down. DNS (Domain Name System) is a

Chinese hackers allegedly plant bug via flash drives on India navy's computers, which relayed sensitive data to China IP addresses. The sniffing tool was found in the naval computers exactly as INS Arihant, India's first nuclear missile submarine, was in trials at the targeted facility in Visakhaptnam. The virus had reportedly created a hidden folder, collected specific files and documents based on certain "key words" it had been programmed to identify. It remained hidden on the pen drives until they were put in computers connected to the internet, after which the bug quietly sent files to the specific IP addresses. Officials of the Indian Navy stated for The Indian Express that " an inquiry has been convened and findings of the report are awaited. It needs to be mentioned that there is a constant threat in the cyber domain from inimical hackers worldwide ." So far, India has arrested six officers for procedural lapses which led to the breach. It is not clear if any of

Zemra Botnet Leaked, Cyber Criminals performing DDoS Attacks The Zemra DDoS Bot is currently sold in various forums for about 100 € and detected by Symantec as Backdoor.Zemra . Zemra first appeared on underground forums in May 2012. This crimeware pack is similar to other crime packs, such as Zeus and SpyEye, in that is has a command-and-control panel hosted on a remote server. Zemra uses a simple panel with an overview of all statistics is needed.With the help of two graphs can be seen operating machinery and the region location.In addition, statistics on online and for more information. You have a chance to see everything online Socks5 and export them to the list.Traffic is encrypted and protected using the algorithm AES, each client communicates with a unique generated key. Note : In " Tools Yard " we have Posted Zemra Source Code , Only for Educational Purpose. A brief functional: • Intuitive control panel • DDos (HTTP / SYN Flood / UDP) • Loader (Load and ru

Operation Card Shop : FBI Arrested 24 Credit Card Cyber Criminals The FBI has arrested 24 cybercriminals part of an international law enforcement operation aiming to arrest and prosecute the users of a sting operation called "Carder Profit". The suspects, collared after a two-year investigation dubbed "Operation Card Shop," allegedly stole credit card and banking data and exchanged it with each other online. " We put a major dent in cybercrime ," she said. " This is an unprecedented operation. "In the sting, which they called Operation Card Shop, undercover investigators created an online bazaar to catch buyers and sellers of credit card data and other private financial information. They also aimed at people who clone and produce the physical credit cards that are then used to buy merchandise. Some CarderProfit users apparently learned of the involvement of the feds months ago. A Twitter user with the name @JoshTheGod wrote that "has informants and most likly to be belie

Hacker made calls worth £10,000 from public phone Computer expert Dariusz Ganski, of Sunny Bank, Kingswood, used a router to tap into BT phone boxes and made hours of calls to expensive numbers. He make calls worth £10,000 of premium-line bills and he has been jailed for 18 months. Prosecutor David Maunder commented: " Police located the vehicle and they found Mr Ganski with two laptop computers and numerous mobile telephones." Bristol Crown Court heard that the 27-year-old committed his crimes to get electronic credits for music and on-line games, while still on licence from prison for almost identical offences. Ganski made 648 calls, totalling nearly 43 hours, from a phone box in Kelston, North East Somerset. BT was alerted to unpaid calls costing them about £7,700 on that box. He said: " Your counsel says you're intelligent. What a waste that what you really do is go round defrauding companies in this way. "

The tale of LulzSec  two admits targeting websites Two British members of the notorious Lulz Security hacking collective have pleaded guilty to a slew of computer crimes, in the latest blow against online troublemakers whose exploits have grabbed headlines and embarrassed governments around the world. LulzSec members Ryan Cleary , 20, and Jake Davis , 19, pleaded guilty in a London court to launching distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks last year against several targets, including the CIA, the Arizona State Police, PBS, Sony, Nintendo, 20th Century Fox, News International and the U.K.'s Serious Organized Crime Agency and National Health Service Ryan Cleary is from Essex, United Kingdom who was arrested by Metropolitan Police on June 21 2011 and charged with violating the Computer Misuse Act and the Criminal Law Act 1977. He was accused of being a member of LulzSec but was not a member of the said group although he admitted that he did run one of the IRC channels that t

A virus specialized for AutoCAD , a perfect cyber espionage tool In recent years we are assisting to a profoundly change in the nature of malware, it is increased the development for spy purposes, for its spread in both private and government sectors. The recent case of Flame malware has demonstrated the efficiency of a malicious agent as a gathering tool in a typical context of state-sponsored attack for cyber espionage. Event like this represent the tip of the iceberg, every day millions of malware instances infect pc in every place in the world causing serious damages related to the leak of sensible information. Specific viruses are developed to address particular sectors and information, that is the case for example of "ACAD/Medre.A", a malware specialized in the theft of AutoCAD files. The virus has been developed to steal blueprints from private companies mostly based in Peru according the expert of the security firm ESET. The virus is able to locate AutoCAD file on infected ma