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Smart hackers could exploit a loophole that could allow them to steal a significant amount of cash from Google, Microsoft and Instagram using a Premium rate phone number. Security researcher Arne Swinnen from Belgium has discovered an ingenious way to steal money from big tech companies like Google, Microsoft, and Instagram using their two-factor authentication (2FA) voice-based token distribution systems. Swinnen argues that any attacker with malicious intent could create fake Google, Microsoft or Instagram accounts, as well as premium phone services, and then link them together. The attacker could then request 2FA voice-based tokens for all fake accounts using an automated scripts, placing legitimate phone calls to his service to earn him quite a nice profit. Swinnen created accounts on Google, Microsoft Office 365 and Instagram and then tied them to a premium phone number instead of a regular one. As a result, whenever one of these three services would call the account'

To make the configuration of routers easier, hardware vendors instruct users to browse to a domain name rather than numeric IP addresses. Networking equipment vendor TP-LINK uses either tplinklogin.net or tplinkextender.net for its routers configuration. Although users can also access their router administration panel through local IP address (i.e. 192.168.1.1). The first domain offered by the company is used to configure TP-LINK routers and the second is used for TP-LINK Wi-Fi extenders. Here's the Blunder: TP-Link has reportedly " forgotten " to renew both domains that are used to configure its routers and access administrative panels of its devices. Both domains have now been re-registered using an anonymous registration service by an unknown entity and are being offered for sale online at US$2.5 Million each. This latest TP-Link oversight, which was first spotted by Cybermoon CEO Amitay Dan, could lead its users to potential problems. However, it

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

Almost one and a half years ago after the massive leakage of celebrities' photographs — famous as " The Fappening " or "Celebgate" scandal — a man had been charged with the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, facing up to 5 years in prison as a result. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Tuesday that it charged Ryan Collins, 36, of Pennsylvania for illegally accessing the Gmail and iCloud accounts of various celebrities, including Jennifer Lawrence and Kim Kardashian , and leaked their photos onto 4chan. Social Engineering Helped Hacker Stole Celebs' Pics Collins was trapped by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and in the process of the trial, the hacker revealed that… The Fappening did not involve Apple's iCloud services being compromised through password cracking or brute-forcing, but rather it was the result of simple Social Engineering , in the form of Phishing Attacks. Yes, The Fappening scandal was the re

A simple, yet effective flaw discovered on eBay's website exposed hundreds of millions of its customers to an advance  Phishing Attack . An Independent Security Researcher reported a critical vulnerability to eBay last month that had the capability to allow hackers to host a fake login page, i.e. phishing page, on eBay website in an effort to steal users' password and harvest credentials from millions of its users. The researchers, nicknamed MLT , said anyone could have exploited the vulnerability to target eBay users in order to take over their accounts or harvest thousands, or even millions, of eBay customers credentials by sending phishing emails to them. MLT published a blog post about the eBay flaw on Monday, demonstrating how easy it is to exploit the flaw like this and steal customers' passwords. Here's How ebay Hack Works The flaw actually resided in the URL parameter that allowed the hacker to inject his iFrame on the legitimate eBay

A 26-year-old hacker has been sentenced to 334 years in prison for identity theft as well as mass bank fraud in Turkey, or in simple words, he has been sentenced to life in prison . Named Onur Kopçak , the hacker was arrested in 2013 for operating a phishing website that impersonated bank site, tricking victims into providing their bank details including credit card information. Kopçak's website was part of a big credit card fraud scheme in which he and other 11 operators were making use of the illegally obtained bank account details to carry out fraudulent operations. During his arrest in 2013, Turkish law authorities charged Kopçak with: Identity fraud Website forgery Access device fraud Wire fraud... ...and sentenced him to 199 years 7 months and 10 days in prison, following complaints from 43 bank customers. However, during the investigation, 11 other bank customers also filed complaints about their payment card fraud, thus triggering a new trial

Ever registered on StarBucks website? Change your passwords now! If you are one of those Millions Starbucks customers who have registered their accounts and credit card details on StarBucks website, then your banking details are vulnerable to hackers. An Independent Security Researcher, Mohamed M. Fouad from Egypt, has found three critical vulnerabilities on StarBucks website that could have allowed attackers to take over your account in just one click. The vulnerabilities include: Remote Code Execution Remote File Inclusion lead to Phishing Attacks CSRF (Cross Site Request Forgery) Stealing Credit Cards Details In case of Remote File Inclusion flaw, an attacker can inject a file from any location into the target page, which includes as a source code for parsing and execution, allowing attacker to perform: Remote Code Execution on the company's web server Remote Code Execution on the client-side, potentially allowing attacker to perform othe

A critical vulnerability has been discovered in the official Apple's App Store and iTunes Store, affecting millions of Apple users. Vulnerability-Lab Founder and security researcher Benjamin Kunz Mejri discovered an Application-Side input validation web vulnerability that actually resides in the Apple App Store invoice module and is remotely exploitable by both sender as well as the receiver. The vulnerability, estimated as high in severity, has been reported to Apple Security team on June 9, 2015 and the company patched the issue within a month. How the vulnerability works? By exploiting the flaw, a remote hacker can manipulate the name value ( device cell name ) by replacing it with a malicious script code. Now, if the attacker buys any product in the App Store or iTunes Store, the internal app store service takes the device value ( which is actually the malicious code ) and generates the invoice which is then sends to the seller account. This results in

A serious security vulnerability has been uncovered in Apple's Safari web browser that could trick Safari users into visiting a malicious website with the genuine web address. A group of researchers, known as Deusen , has demonstrated how the address spoofing vulnerability could be exploited by hackers to fool victim into thinking they are visiting a trusted website when actually the Safari browser is connected to an entirely different address. This flaw could let an attacker lead Safari users to a malicious site instead of a trusted website they willing to connect to install malicious software and steal their login credentials. The vulnerability was discovered by the same group who reported a Universal Cross Site Scripting (XSS) flaw in all the latest patched versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer in February this year that put IE users' credentials and other sensitive information at risk. The group recently published a proof-of-concept exploit code that makes

Google Chrome browser's new Anti-Phishing Password Alert extension is in controversies right after its launch last Wednesday, but now the search engine giant has effectively pulled off Password Alert from its store. Password Alert was not bypassed once, twice, but every time Google introduced a new updated version of the extension. Google developed this Password Alert Chrome extension in an effort to alert Internet users whenever they accidentally enter their Google password on a carefully crafted phishing website that aimed at hijacking users' account. Here's the worst part: However, the first version of Password Alert was bypassed in less than 24 hours of its launch.  Security expert Paul Moore from UK-based Urity Group quickly circumvented the Anti-Phishing technology by pure JavaScript code of seven lines. Since then Google released Password Alert version 1.4, version 1.5 and version 1.6, but… ...all of them were bypassed, keeping users unaware o

Less than 24 hours after Google launched the new Phishing alert extension Password Alert , a security researcher was able to bypass the feature using deadly simple exploits. On Wednesday, the search engine giant launched a new Password Alert Chrome extension to alert its users whenever they accidentally enter their Google password on a carefully crafted phishing website that aimed at hijacking users' account. However, security expert Paul Moore easily circumvented the technology using just seven lines of simple JavaScript code that kills phishing alerts as soon as they started to appear, defeating Google's new Password Alert extension. Google shortly fixed the issue and released a new update to Password Alert extension that blocked the Moore's exploit. However, Moore discovered another way to block the new version of Password Alert, as well. The first proof of concept exploit by Moore relied on a JavaScript that looks for instances of warning screen every five mil

As cybercriminals have started using sophisticated phishing techniques in an attempt to hijack online users' account, Google on Wednesday launched a new Chrome Extension to fight against Phishing . The search engine giant has launched a new Password Alert Chrome extension that will alert you whenever you accidentally enter your Google password on a carefully crafted phishing website that aimed at hijacking your account. So, GO and INSTALL the freely available, open-source Password Alert extension which is now available in the Chrome Web Store. Password Alert extension does two things: Prevents you from re-using your Google account password on other websites. Protects you if you've typed the same Google password on a non-Google website by generating a warning that you have just been phished and should immediately change your password. According to the company , nearly two percent of the e-mail messages to Google's Gmail are phishing emails from cyber

The Market of E-commerce websites is at its peak, as today people love to shop online to save their time. However, E-commerce and financial sites stand first in the rundown of potential victims as they manage financial exchanges. The traditional way to target victims of e-commerce sites is to use targeted "phishing" attacks via social media and emails. But… …due to increased awareness among the people about the threat of phishing attacks, hackers have now discovered new way — by malvertising legitimate websites where people assume to be safe and secure. We know: Today, there are many ready-to-use e-commerce platforms available on the Internet that are very easy to install and manage and that too at no extra cost; ' Magento ' is one of the most popular out of them. The most popular, the most targeted: Yes! Security researchers at Sucuri have found a malicious code inside the Magento e-commerce website that was intended to send all the data

When it comes to cyber security, even big organizations lack the basic knowledge of how to protect company's data from the outside. Everyday businesses are facing the threat of phishing, ransomware , data breaches and malware attacks that not only results in millions of dollars losses, but also damaged the reputations. A new study shows that five out of six of the most serious IT security threats directly relate to phishing or the aftermath of a successful phishing attack . SEA, short for Syrian Electronic Army , is famous for its advanced phishing attack capabilities and with the help of the same technique they fooled many popular organizations, social media and news media, including Twitter, Microsoft, Skype, Forbes, eBay and Paypal. Where do we lack? According to the annual Verizon Data Breach Investigations report, about 58% of cyber security incidents were caused by employees, either due to failure in handling data or approving malicious data. So, in

A critical vulnerability has been discovered in the Google Apps for Work that allows hackers to abuse any website's domain name based email addresses, which could then be used to send phishing emails on company's behalf in order to target users. If you wish to have an email address named on your brand that reads like admin@yourdomain.com instead of myemail@gmail.com , then you can register an account with Google Apps for Work. The Google Apps for Work service allows you to use Gmail, Drive storage, Calendar, online documents, video Hangouts, and other collaborative services with your team or organization. To get a custom domain name based email service from Google, one just need to sign up like a normal Gmail account. Once created, you can access your domain's admin console panel on Google app interface, but can not be able to use any service until you get your domain verified from Google. SENDING PHISHING MAILS FROM HIJACKED ACCOUNTS Cyber security researchers

The United Kingdom's National Crime Agency (NCA) has arrested 56 suspected hackers in a campaign against cybercrime called "strike week." Law-enforcement officials conducted, in total, 25 separate operations across England, Scotland and Wales, and those arrested were suspected in a wide range of cyber crimes including: Network intrusion and data theft from multinational companies and government agencies Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks Cyber-enabled fraud Malicious software and virus development The raids conducted by NCA were coordinated by its National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU) , special officers Metropolitan Police and Regional Organised Crime Unit's (ROCUs) , associated with local forces around the UK. The arrested hackers also include alleged hackers suspected of being behind attacks on Yahoo, the US Department of Defence (DoD) , and PlayStation. The list of hackers arrested in the operation is given below: A 23-year-old man w

It seems like the world has declared war against the Cyber Criminals. In a recent update, we reported that FBI is offering $3 Million in Reward for the arrest of GameOver Zeus botnet mastermind, and meanwhile British cyber-police has taken down widely-spread RAMNIT botnet . The National Crime Agency (NCA) in a joint operation with Europol's European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) and law enforcement agencies from Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom has taken down the Ramnit "botnet", which has infected over 3.2 million computers worldwide, including 33,000 in the UK. Alike GameOver Zeus, RAMNIT is also a ' botnet ' - a network of zombie computers which operate under criminal control for malicious purposes like spreading viruses, sending out spam containing malicious links, and carrying out distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) in order to bring down target websites. RAMNIT believes to spread malware via trustworthy links se

One of the most popular computer manufacturers Lenovo is being criticized for selling laptops pre-installed with invasive marketing software, or malware that, experts say, opens up a door for hackers and cyber crooks. The software, dubbed ' Superfish Malware ', analyzes users' Internet habits and injects third-party advertising into websites on browsers such as Google Chrome and Internet Explorer based on that activities without the user's permission. Security researchers recently discovered  Superfish Malware  presents onto new consumer-grade Lenovo computers sold before January of 2015. When taken out of the box for the first time, the adware gets activated and because it comes pre-installed, Lenovo customers might end up using it inadvertently. SUPERFISH CERTIFICATE PASSWORD CRACKED The  Superfish Malware  raised serious security concerns about the company's move for breaking fundamental web security protocols, carrying out " Man in the Middle " (MitM) at