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U.S. officials, while declining to point to a single country that could follow Tunisia and Egypt into regime change, say they believe there are three countries whose protests could, under some circumstances, reach that same level of intensity. The officials cited Yemen, Bahrain and Iran (not necessarily in that order) as being in a separate category from the rest of the Middle East nations. There may be protests and demonstrations in the other countries, but the protests are less widespread or more likely to be put down by brutal state security forces, U.S. officials said. Here's a country-by-country assessment drawn from the accounts of U.S. officials: Yemen: plenty of kindling Yemen has been facing daily protests, and the nation is fraught with all sorts of issues: deep poverty and unemployment, a strong belief that the society is inherently corrupt, an active al-Qaida presence, and an unpopular ruler, who's been in power almost as long as Presidents Ben Ali and Mubarak in...

The inscrutable "voice" of international Internet collective Anonymous, a shadowy organization that has carried out a number of attacks on websites worldwide. In recent days, with Iranians taking to the streets to protest the government, the country's Islamic authorities have boosted their censorship efforts in a bid to crush opposition activity online. Before and during the largest demonstrations seen in Iran since the unrest that followed President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's disputed reelection in June 2009, the authorities have tried to tamp down opposition activity by blocking opposition websites and other media, as well as disrupting mobile phone connections. This is where Anonymous and its "Operation: Iran" come in. The collective is providing users with special advice forums and tools to fight the Iranian government's censorship. The group has also encouraged Iranian users to use distributed denial of service attacks (DDOS) in order to take dow...

EmailRevealer.com  the Colorado based private investigation firm specializing in cyber stalking intervention and email tracing, has added Email Hacking Investigations to their investigative tool box. EmailRevealer's Email Hacking Investigations, available through their web site at  www.emailrevealer.com , can monitor a clients email account, identify any unauthorized access to that account and obtain identifying information to locate and or identify the person hacking into that email account and invading the account owners privacy. Ed Opperman, President Of Opperman Investigations Inc the owner of  EmailRevealer.com , shares how these new advancements in email account security were developed. - "We have probably spent more man hours investigating emails than any other PI agency on Earth. We investigate cyber stalkers, Internet defamation and even developed a unique investigation service where we can trace an email back to a secret online personals ad on a dating s...

The desire of remote free experience urged Harishankar Narayan a mechanical Engineer to hack into the Microsoft Kinect Xbox and control Tata Sky through Kinetic Movements. In a You Tube video which he has uploaded the man is seen controlling the Tata Sky with the movements of his hands. The mechanical Engineer said that he wanted a remote free experience which led him to fiddle with the remote of Microsoft’s Kinect Xbox and by trying and retrying he finally hacked into it to recreate his own codes. He says that he wants every appliance in his home to work according to his gestures. The man built the whole system with keeping in mind the minute details possible like hew had a device called USB UIRP which he connected to his MacMini. The USB acted as a detector of infrared signal and also was a universal remote for all the gadgets. The USB detected the infrared signals for the Tata Sky remote and then from there he set gestures or movemnts to control the Tata Sky. The hack sta...

Chinese hackers not only attacked key federal departments: they also cracked into the computer system of the House of Commons, targeting MPs with large ethnic Chinese constituencies, CTV News has learned. Sources say Canada's secret cyber spy agency -- the Communications Security Establishment -- tracked the hacking operation to the Chinese embassy in Ottawa and to computer servers in Beijing. Toronto MP Derek Lee said Canada needs to show it's capable of fighting back. "It's unacceptable and I think we should hold out some threat -- a counter-strike threat," he said. But Canada might be falling behind when it comes to defending -- and retaliating -- against such attacks. Britain spends $1 billion on cyber security and the United States $55 billion, while Canada has a budget of $90 million. Meanwhile, security experts say the Chinese hackers who have targeted Canadian government computers are just the latest in a wave of cyberspace spies, and Ottawa needs to bols...

Department of Telecommunication (DOT) has been asked by The Intelligence Bureau (IB0) to stop the messaging services of Nokia in India until they can be monitored. Once again security concerns have clouded Intelligence department’s mind and the incident is not first of its kind. Earlier too similar concerns have cropped up and warnings being sent against Skype, Google’s Gmail and BlackBerry. The Intelligence Bureau has communicated to DoT saying that Nokia’s push email services for customers and corporate should be discontinued until the Finnish company gives them monitoring access. Intelligence Bureau (IB) has written a letter to telecom department in which it has raised concerns over security and has asked to make monitoring arrangements. Meanwhile the Intelligence agencies are upset over Nokia’s adamant behavior as the company still advertises its push email services in the market. But Nokia countered the allegations by the agencies and said, “Our messaging offering is still in t...

OTTAWA Federal security agencies are working to deal with cyber threats, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Thursday. He wouldn’t speak directly to what the government calls an “unauthorized attempt” to access computer networks at the Treasury Board. The attack left civil servants in key departments without Internet access. Jay Denney, a spokesperson for Treasury Board president Stockwell Day, said security officials have taken action against the threat in line with the government’s security policy. “There are no indications that any data relating to Canadians was compromised by this unauthorized attempt,” said Denney. Details of the federal budget, expected to be delivered next month, are also apparently still secret.

After observing an increase in the number of phishing attacks and several other cyber crimes, the cyber police have intensified patrolling of the social networking sites. Police, with the help of IT experts, will keep a check on any hate posts or groups created in cyberspace. The action reportedly came after the recent incident where Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s picture was defaced and it lead to riots in the Khar on Tuesday. Websites are patrolled round the clock to check for any objectionable content. Pages or groups that harm the sensitivities of people could be removed or the website could be brought down to avoid any incidents that could affect the law and order situation. All such hate postings will be forwarded to the India Computer Emergency Response Team (ICERT), a government body working under the ministry of information technology. The ICERT will then take up the matter to its logical conclusion by sending communication to these networking sites, asking them to block or remove t...

Operation Bahrain ( #opbahrain ) - Anonymous Press Release ! Dear Free-Thinking Citizens of THE WORLD,  The Bahrainian government has shown by its actions that it intends to  brutally enforce its reign of injustice by limiting free speech and  access to truthful information to its citizens and the rest of the  world. It is time to call for an end to this oppressive regime. The most  basic human right is the transparency of one's government, and  Bahrain's is no exception. By interfering with the freedom to hold peaceful protests, the Bahrainian  government has made itself a clear enemy of its own citizens and of  Anonymous. The actions of this regime will not be forgotten, nor will  they be forgiven.   When people are faced with such injustices, Anonymous hears those cries, and  we will assist in bringing to justice those who commit criminal acts  against the innocent. We will not remain silent and let these crimes...

Foreign hackers successfully penetrated the computer systems of the Canadian federal government. Last month was the first sign that the system had been compromised. The attacks, said to have come from China, hit both the Finance Department and the Treasury Board. Although no statements have been made aside from the government saying that there was an “attempt to access”, the CBC’s sources confirm that the hackers were able to remotely control computers in the offices of senior government executives, hoping to unlock entire government data systems. After realizing what had happened, government security officials immediately brought both departments offline. We haven’t been informed whether anything was taken but CBC mentioned that its “Highly placed sources” told them that the  “cyberattacks were traced back to computer servers in China” but, really a hacker could likely make it appear to come from any server around the world. We’re looking into this and we’ll update if and when we...

THE BBC'S MUSIC WEBSITES have been hacked to stream malware using drive-by downloads for anyone browsing the infected webpages. Hackers set the drive-by malware up at the BBC's 6 Music website and the BBC 1Xtra radio station website. Researchers at the insecurity outfit Websense found the exploits and put its report up on its security labs blog. "The BBC - 6 Music Web site has been injected with a malicious iframe, as have areas of the BBC 1Xtra radio station Web site," an anonymous Websense insecurity researcher wrote. Websense claims the injected iframe is at the bottom of the BBC 6 Music webpage and has been set up to automatically download some dodgy code from a .cc website. Apparently the hack is exactly the same on the BBC's 1Xtra website. "If an unprotected user browsed to the site they would be faced with drive-by downloads, meaning that simply browsing to the page is enough to get infected with a malicious executable," Websense continued. ...

Late last year, activists attacked websites belonging to companies that refused to do business with WikiLeaks, an online group that has disclosed classified U.S. government documents. When the activists, who called themselves Anonymous, found out they were being investigated by the Internet security company HBGary Federal, the group hacked the company's servers and stole thousands of private e-mails. And then it dumped them onto the Internet. It was an embarrassment for the security company to get hacked — but the content of some of those e-mails is raising concerns. 'Brazen' E-mails HBGary Federal was trying to use social networks to unmask the members of Anonymous, so Anonymous struck back. One man, who calls himself Owen, says his Anonymous colleagues broke into the company's servers. Hackers have a name for what they did. "They decided to just rape his servers and take all the information they wanted," he says. "Forgive that term ... 'R...

Cyber Crime has now reached to hacking information from the mobile phones. The 3G technology recently launched by the mobile service providers is in much rage nowadays. The 3G technology allows a user to access internet on a good quality network on the cellphone. As such hackers will now target the 3G users for accessing their personal information and this in turn will result into increased cyber-crime", said Sunny Vaghela, the cyber-crime expert while talking to TOI. When questioned is there any solution to this new problem, Vaghela mentioned that as of now there exists no solution to prevent hacking from taking place from a mobile phone but he added that certain steps can be taken to minimise the cases of hacking. "Never reply to the e-mails that offer lottery prize money. Always keep your anti-virus updated and do not download pictures of celebrities from mails sent by anonymous sender. Also avoid downloading songs from Pakistani wesbites. All these steps if taken can ...

A computer security firm working to expose members of hacker group "Anonymous" pulled out of a premier industry conference here due to threats of real-world attacks on its employees. HBGary personnel have been peppered with threatening messages since Anonymous hackers looted data from its computer systems earlier this month, according to a message on the California firm's website Wednesday. "In addition to the data theft, HBGary individuals have received numerous threats of violence, including threats at our tradeshow booth," the company said. "In an effort to protect our employees, customers and the RSA Conference community, HBGary has decided to remove our booth and cancel all talks." Cyber security specialists and national security officials are in San Francisco this week to share insights on topics ranging from guarding "smart" power grids to blocking attacks on smartphones and computer tablets. Anonymous, the hacker group behind online ...

It has really got to hurt when you run a computer security company and an outlaw hacker group manages to steal and post on the Internet embarrassing emails connecting you to much-publicized plans for crushing the enemies of large corporations through unsavory means like disinformation and cyberattacks. Especially when it happens just before one of the security industry's largest annual conferences, at which you have not only been invited to speak but have rented a booth and set up meetings with numerous executives of potential customers. That was the situation facing Greg Hoglund, CEO of HBGary Inc. of Sacramento, at the start of this week's RSA security conference in San Francisco after a pro-WikiLeaks group of hackers calling themselves "Anonymous" posted tens of thousands of emails detailing, among other things, the fact that a spin-out company called HBGary Federal helped develop proposals to combat critics of Bank of America and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce thr...

Last month's compromise of the UK website of the natural ingredients cosmetic firm Lush and the theft of its customers' credit card details must have hurt the company but unfortunately, its troubles are not over yet. "We are sorry to have to announce that the Lush Australian and New Zealand websites have been hacked," it says in a statement posted on the sites in question, whose contents have been completely removed while security checks are performed. "We have been alerted today to advise us that entry has been gained and customer personal data may have been obtained by the hackers. We urgently advise customers who have placed an online order with Lush Australia and New Zealand to contact their bank to discuss if canceling their credit cards is advisable," encourages the company. Whether that means that Lush hasn't been storing that data in encrypted format or whether it really wants to cover all bases just in case, it's anyone's guess. It...

The exploits of Anonymous to hack the systems of firms providing spying services to governments and corporations suggest that the WikiLeaks mini-era has been surpassed. Much of WikiLeaks promise to protect sources is useless if the sources are not whistleblowers needing a forum for publication. Instead publishers of secret information grab it directly for posting to Torrent for anybody to access without mediation and mark-up by self-esteemed peddlers of protection, interpretationa and authentication, including media cum scholars. Ars Technica descriptions of the how the Anonymous hack are the best technical reading of Internet derring-do yet and far exceeds the much simpler rhetorical version of WikiLeaks security carefully bruited as if invulnerable but is not according to Daniel Domscheit-Berg's revelations. AnonLeaks.ru  is a remarkable advance of WikiLeaks. And promises much more by the same means and methods most associated with official spies -- NSA and CIA have long...

The Anonymous attack on HBGary may have amused some who enjoyed the sight of a security firm left embarrassed and exposed, but it should send a shiver down the spine of any IT administrator responsible for securing their own company. Because can you honestly put your hand on your heart and say a hack like the one against HBGary couldn't happen at your organisation too? As Ars Technica explains, a weakness in a third-party CMS product used by HBGary's website allowed Anonymous hackers to steal passwords that employees used to update the webpages. Unfortunately they were passwords that weren't encrypted strongly enough, and were possible to crack with a rainbow-table based attack. Amongst those exposed were CEO Aaron Barr and COO Ted Vera. Worse still, it appears that Aaron Barr and Ted Vera were using the same passwords for their Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, and even for an account which administered the entire company's email. By exploiting software vulnerabilities,...

The Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) has confirmed that its website was hacked last night by an unknown attacker. Major Abdul Raheem today confirmed that the MNDF was made aware of an attack this morning after checking its website. ”Currently our website is down, and we are trying to fix it,” he said. ”so far, he have not been able to identify any person related to the case but we are investigating.” Cyber Crime has become a growing concern to Maldivian authorities of late; especially in terms of the number of minors thought to be involved in practices like hacking. Earlier this year, Dhiraagu become the latest high profile victim of Maldivian cyber crime after facing continued attacks on its servers. The Maldives Police Service arrested four individuals suspected of involvement with the January attacks after conducting special operations at addresses both in Male’ and Addu Atoll. Three of the suspects then arrested were confirmed to be under 18 years of age. Police sai...