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If you rely on encrypted services to keep your data private and, unfortunately, you are in China, then you are about to be worried. As of now Chinese government could snoop into the operations of technology companies as well as circumvent privacy protections in everyday gadgets. China So-called Anti-Terrorism Law Despite months of objections from major technology firms and concerns over human rights… China passed its controversial new anti-terrorism law on Sunday that requires tech companies to help decrypt information or hand over encryption keys to officials when they want to spy on someone's communication in order to counter terror operations. However, the officials swear that the law wouldn't require technology firms to install " backdoors " in their products, but it doesn't make any difference when the government mandate companies operating in China to provide encryption keys and passwords when requested. Just like recent propo

The Raspberry Pi is now gaining attention from malware distributors who want the popular mini-computers to deliver with pre-install malware. The Raspberry Pi Foundation has made a shocking revelation that the charitable foundation has been offered money to install malware onto the Raspberry Pi machines before they were shipped out to users. The Raspberry Pi is an extremely simple computer that looks and feels very basic, but could be built into many geeky projects. Due to the low-cost appeal of the Raspberry Pi, the Foundation has sold over 4 million units. Just Last month, Raspberry Pi unveiled its latest wonder: The Raspberry Pi Zero – a programmable computer that costs just $5 (or £4), may rank as the world's cheapest computer. Last Wednesday, the Foundation tweeted a screenshot of an email in which " business officer"  Linda effectively asked Foundation's director of communications Liz Uptonto to install a suspicious executable file onto Ras

Over the past two years, a shocking  51% of organizations surveyed in a leading industry report have been compromised by a cyberattack.  Yes, over half.  And this, in a world where enterprises deploy  an average of 53 different security solutions  to safeguard their digital domain.  Alarming? Absolutely. A recent survey of CISOs and CIOs, commissioned by Pentera and conducted by Global Surveyz Research, offers a quantifiable glimpse into this evolving battlefield, revealing a stark contrast between the growing risks and the tightening budget constraints under which cybersecurity professionals operate. With this report, Pentera has once again taken a magnifying glass to the state of pentesting to release its annual report about today's pentesting practices. Engaging with 450 security executives from North America, LATAM, APAC, and EMEA—all in VP or C-level positions at organizations with over 1,000 employees—the report paints a current picture of modern security validation prac

Hyatt Hotels Corporation is notifying its customers that credit card numbers and other sensitive information may have been stolen after it found malware on the computers that process customer payments. "We recently identified malware on computers that operate the payment processing systems for Hyatt-managed locations," the company announced on Wednesday. "As soon as we discovered the activity, we launched an investigation and engaged leading third-party cyber security experts." What type of information? The company didn't confirm whether the attackers succeeded in stealing payment card numbers, neither it say how long its network was infected or how many hotel chains were affected in the malware attack. But as the payment processing system was infected with credit-card-stealing malware, there is a possibility that hackers may have stolen credit card numbers and other sensitive information. What happened? Hyatt spokeswoman Stephanie Sheppard

Breaking News: A 23-year-old Bahamian man has been arrested and charged with hacking into the email accounts of 130 celebrities and stealing the unreleased movie and TV scripts, tapes, explicit images and even the upcoming album of a famous A-List Celebrity . The hacker named Alonzo Knowles contacted a famous radio host to sell the stolen scripts for the first six episodes of a hit television drama currently being filmed. The unnamed host informed about it to the Homeland Security that cooked up a sting operation and had the radio host put the hacker in touch with an undercover investigator posing as an interested buyer. The LOSE Among the items he offered to sell were: Scripts for three comedy films A hip-hop biopic Another television show Social Security numbers for actors and professional athletes Emails and phone numbers of at least 130 celebrities Tapes of celebrities The hacker was arrested on Monday in Manhattan, a day after arriving from the B

In the wake of a hoax bomb threat, all public schools in Los Angeles were closed for a day last week, and now German authorities have seized an encrypted email server. But, Does that make sense? In a video statement posted on Monday, the administrator of Cock.li – an anonymous email provider service – said German authorities had seized a hard drive from one of its servers that used to host the service in a Bavarian data center. The email provider was thought to have been used last week to send bomb threatening emails to several school districts across the United States, resulting in the closure of all schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Despite The New York City Department of Education dismissed the e-mail as an obvious hoax, German authorities seized a hard drive that, according to the service admin, actually holds "all data" on the company. According to the service administrator Vincent Canfield, "SSL keys and private keys and f

Security issues have long tantalized over 850 Million users that have Oracle's Java software installed on their computers. The worst thing is that the software was not fully updated or secure for years, exposing millions of PCs to attack. And for this reason, Oracle is now paying the price. Oracle has been accused by the US government of misleading consumers about the security of its Java software. Oracle is settling with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over charges that it " deceived " its customers by failing to warn them about the security upgrades. Java is a software that comes pre-installed on many computers and helps them run web applications, including online calculators, chatrooms, games, and even 3D image viewing. Oracle Left Over 850 Million PCs at Risk The FTC has issued a press release that says it has won concessions in a settlement with Oracle over its failure to uninstall older and insecure Java SE software from customer PCs u

Juniper Networks has announced that it has discovered " unauthorized code " in ScreenOS , the operating system for its NetScreen firewalls, that could allow an attacker to decrypt traffic sent through Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). It's not clear what caused the code to get there or how long it has been there, but the release notes posted by Juniper suggest the earliest buggy versions of the software date back to at least 2012 and possibly earlier. The backdoor impacts NetScreen firewalls using ScreenOS 6.2.0r15 through 6.2.0r18 and 6.3.0r12 through 6.3.0r20, states the advisory published by the company. However, there's no evidence right now that whether the backdoor was present in other Juniper OSes or devices. The issue was uncovered during an internal code review of the software, according to Juniper chief information officer Bob Worrall , and requires immediate patching by upgrading to a new version of the software just released today. &quo

Ever wonder how to hack Instagram or how to hack a facebook account? Well, someone just did it! But, remember, even responsibly reporting a security vulnerability could end up in taking legal actions against you. An independent security researcher claims he was threatened by Facebook after he responsibly revealed a series of security vulnerabilities and configuration flaws that allowed him to successfully gained access to sensitive data stored on Instagram servers , including: Source Code of Instagram website SSL Certificates and Private Keys for Instagram Keys used to sign authentication cookies Personal details of Instagram Users and Employees Email server credentials Keys for over a half-dozen critical other functions However, instead of paying him a reward, Facebook has threatened to sue the researcher of intentionally withholding flaws and information from its team. Wesley Weinberg , a senior security researcher at Synack, participated in Facebook's b

What do you do to earn up to $150,000? Somebody just hacks into airlines and sells fake tickets. That's exactly what a 19-year-old teenager did and made approximately 1.1 Million Yuan (£110,000 or $150,000) by hacking into the official website of an airline and using the stolen booking information to defraud hundreds of passengers. The teenager, identified as Zhang from Heilongjiang, north-east China, hacked into a Chinese airline website and illegally downloaded 1.6 Million passengers bookings details, including: Flight details Names ID card numbers Email addresses Mobile phone numbers Zhang then used this information to successfully defraud hundreds of customers by convincing them that there was some issue with their booking flights, and they had to pay extra fees, according to People's Daily Online . Moreover, the hack caused the airline to lose almost 80,000 Yuan ( $12,365 USD ) as a result of customers requesting refunds. The incident too

Remember the notorious hacker group Lizard Squad that spoiled last Christmas holidays of many game lovers by knocking the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live offline with apparent Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks? But, Will you be able to Play Xbox and PlayStation Game this Christmas? Probably Not. Because a new hacking group is threatening to carry out similar attacks by taking down the Xbox LIVE and PlayStation Network for a week during Christmas. Be Ready this Christmas for Attacks on PSN and XBox LIVE In a series of tweets, a bunch of DDoS hackers calling themselves " Phantom Group " (@PhantomSquad) announced that they will disrupt the XBox Live and PlayStation networks in a coordinated DoS attack. The attacks could prevent millions of gamers worldwide from enjoying their newly opened Christmas gifts and accessing games online. Also Read: PlayStation 4 Jailbreak Confirms . Here are the tweets by Phantom Squad: We are goi

MacKeeper anti-virus company is making headlines today for its lax security that exposed the database of 13 Million Mac users' records including names, email addresses, usernames, password hashes, IP addresses, phone numbers, and system information. MacKeeper is a suite of software that claims to make Apple Macs more secure and stable, but today the anti-virus itself need some extra protection after a data breach exposed the personal and sensitive information for Millions of its customers. The data breach was discovered by Chris Vickery , a white hat hacker who was able to download 13 Million customer records by simply entering a selection of IP addresses, with no username or password required to access the data. 21 GB Trove of MacKeeper Customer Data Leaked 31-year-old Vickery said he uncovered the 21 GB trove of MacKeeper customer data in a moment of boredom while searching for openly accessible databases on Shodan – a specialized search engine that looks fo

After targeting the Islamic State (ISIS) group in the wake of Deadly terror attacks in Paris, hacktivist group Anonymous has now turned its attention to controversial US presidential candidate Donald Trump . The hacktivist group has declared war against Donald Trump following his recent radical speech stating he wanted to ban Muslims from entering the United States. Anonymous vs. Donald Trump On Wednesday, Anonymous slams Trump by posting a YouTube video in which a man in a Guy Fawkes mask says: "Donald Trump, it has come to our attention that you wish to ban all muslims from entering the United States. Muslims and Islam are not the problem. This policy will have grave impact and will serve only to fuel the emotions that ISIS uses to recruit muslims. Certainly ISIS will use this to their advantage in their social media campaigns. Instead of focusing on the innocent, the focus should be set on ways to protect them from the radicalized individuals they flee. Dona

Smartphones, Smart TVs, Smart Watches, Cell Phone Towers, Messaging services… but now, What's Next? Smart Toys? Yes, probably. Tech expert is warning that 'Smart Toys' could now be used by the government intelligence agencies to spy on suspects. As part of the Investigatory Powers Bill , children's connected toys could be the next item to be used by the government in an effort to spy on people, claims Antony Walker, deputy CEO of technology trade association techUK. The Snooper's Charter – Government's Spy Eyes While speaking to the UK parliament's Commons Science and Technology Committee, Walker warned MPs of how the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill could be abused to turn any Internet-connected device into a snooping tool. The draft Investigatory Powers Bill (or the Snooper's Charter ) would make it the legal duty of Internet service providers (ISPs) to help and assist the British intelligence agencies in hacking into various connected devices if

Someone just DDoSed one of the most critical organs of the Internet anatomy – The Internet's DNS Root Servers . Early last week, a flood of as many as 5 Million queries per second hit many of the Internet's DNS ( Domain Name System ) Root Servers that act as the authoritative reference for mapping domain names to IP addresses and are a total of 13 in numbers. The attack, commonly known as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, took place on two separate occasions. The first DDoS attack to the Internet's backbone root servers launched on November 30 that lasted 160 minutes ( almost 3 hours ), and the second one started on December 1 that lasted almost an hour. Massive Attacks Knocked Many of the 13 Root Servers Offline The DDoS attack was able to knock 3 out of the 13 DNS root servers of the Internet offline for a couple of hours. Also Read:  Secure Email Service Paid Hackers $6000 Ransom to Stop DDoS Attacks . The request queries fired

The man accused of being "a senior advisor" and mentor of Ross Ulbricht , the convicted operator of the illegal drug marketplace Silk Road , has been arrested in Thailand and charged with conspiring to traffic drugs and money laundering. The US Department of Justice (DoJ) announced on Friday that Roger Thomas Clark , 54, is accused of being " Variety Jones ," who was a close confidante of Ulbricht's who: Advised Ulbricht on all aspects of Silk Road's operations Helped Ulbricht grow the notorious website into an extensive criminal enterprise Clark was arrested Thursday in Thailand and is now awaiting extradition to face United States charges of: Narcotics Trafficking Conspiracy – carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. Money Laundering Conspiracy – carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Life in Prison If convicted, Clark faces at least 10 years and as long as life in prison, according to a statement from Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet

A new research showed that Scripting languages, in general, give birth to more security vulnerabilities in web applications, which raised concerns over potential security bugs in millions of websites. The app security firm Veracode has released its State of Software Security: Focus on Application Development report ( PDF ), analyzing more than 200,000 separate applications from October 1, 2013, through March 31, 2015. The security researchers crawled popular web scripting languages including PHP, Java, JavaScript, Ruby, .NET, C and C++, Microsoft Classic ASP, Android, iOS, and COBOL, scanning hundreds of thousands of applications over the last 18 months. Also Read:  A Step-by-Step Guide — How to Install Free SSL Certificate On Your Website Researchers found that PHP – and less popular Web development languages Classic ASP and ColdFusion – are the riskiest programming languages for the Internet, while Java and .NET are the safest. Here's the Top 10 List:

You should be very careful while visiting websites on the Internet because you could be hit by a new upgrade to the World's worst Exploit Kit – Angler , which lets hackers develop and conduct their own drive-by attacks on visitors' computers with relative ease. Many poorly-secured websites are targeting Windows users with a new "Cocktail" of malware that steals users' passwords before locking them out from their machines for ransom. Yes, stealing Windows users' passwords before encrypting their data and locking their PCs for ransom makes this upgrade to the Angler Exploit Kit nastier. Here's How the New Threat Works: Once the Angler exploit kit finds a vulnerable application, such as Adobe Flash, in visitor's computer, the kit delivers its malicious payloads, according to a blog post published by Heimdal Security. The First Payload infects the victim's PC with a widely used data thief exploit known as Pony that systematic

In the most surprising manner, the Chinese government said it arrested criminal hackers behind the massive cyber attack on US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) earlier this year, dismissing its involvement. Three months back, we reported that China arrested a handful of hackers within its borders who were suspected of allegedly stealing commercial secrets from US companies. The arrests took place shortly before China President Xi Jinping visited the United States in September 2015 when both heads of states agreed that neither side will participate in commercial espionage against one another. China: Cyber Criminals Hacked OPM, Not Government Spies Now, those suspected hackers have turned out to be the ones in connection with the OPM hack that resulted in the theft of personal details of more than 21 Million United States federal employees, including 5.6 Million federal employees' fingerprints . Citing an " investigation ", the Chinese governme

The point of Sale systems are the most tempting target for cyber crooks to steal your credit card information and with this Christmas, you need to be more careful while using your credit cards at retailers and grocery stores. Here's why… Cyber criminals are now selling a new powerful strain of Point of Sale (PoS) malware through underground forums. Like several POS malware families discovered last year, including vSkimmer and BlackPOS , the new malware is also designed to steal payment card data from the infected POS systems and support TOR to hide its C&C (Command and Control) servers. Pro PoS – Light Weight, Yet Powerful Malware However, the new malware, dubbed " Pro PoS ," packs more than just a PoS malware. Pro PoS weighs only 76KB, implements rootkit functionalities, as well as mechanisms to avoid antivirus detection, according to threat intelligence firm InfoArmor. What's even more interesting about this malware is… Pro P