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Apple has faced a number challenges over the last year related to software errors and flaws on its flagship iPhone. According to a latest video posted on YouTube  iPhone and iPad users running the latest iOS 6.1 platform can bypass the lock screen, even when a password is set. Basically, he found that by attempting and canceling an emergency call on the iPhone, holding the lock button and then taking a screenshot took him past the stage where he should have had to enter a password to access the phone. The flaw is relatively easy to exploit and this lets you bypass the security code and use the full Phone app. From there you have access to the address book, and the pictures app by trying to change a contacts picture. Apple promised to fix the iOS 6.1 iOS Exchange bug in a forthcoming software update so perhaps they'll fix this annoying glitch as well. Steps to follow: First part: -Go to emergency call, push down the power button and tap cancel. -D...

An old vulnerability in Word for OS X is being used in increasing levels of attacks,  probably government-sponsored hacking programs  against Uyghur group, including Tibetans, NGOs and human rights organizations. A number of attacks have been seen directed at the World Uyghur Congress, a Munich-based organization that promotes human rights. Potential victims are often tricked by so-called spear phishing attacks, the targets receive an e-mail with a subject relevant to their interests, and a Word document attached.  When they open the document, TinySHell exploits a vulnerability and then infects the computer. Exploit allows long-term monitoring or even control of the compromised system though a backdoor it installs. The malware is configured to connect to command and control servers that have been used for years in APT attacks. All the attacks use exploits for the CVE-2009-0563 (Microsoft Office) vulnerability and The backdoor also includes hard...

Police in Spain have arrested a gang of 11 cyber criminals who used ransomware to demand money from thousands of victims in 30 countries using malware known as Reveton . Police arrested six Russians, two Ukrainians and two Georgians in the Costa del Sol. The gang leader, a 27-year-old Russian, was arrested in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates in December 2012 on an international arrest warrant. Spanish authorities are seeking his extradition. According to researchers from Trend Micro who worked with the Spanish to track down the group, estimate that this ransomware operation netted the group more than 1 million euros a year. The Trojan was distributed using drive by download techniques, in conjunction with the Black Hole exploit kit and initially the malware was focused on German individuals, but in later months began to target other countries, primarily the USA. Trend Micro, said there were 48 different variations of the virus in use and the malware has bee...

A Cross platform back door ' Frutas ' remote access tool (RAT) is available for download on many forums from January 2013. This Trojan builder is completely written in Java. Recently, Symantec experts analyse that Frutas RAT allows attackers to create a connect-back client JAR file to run on a compromised computer. The back door builder provides some minor obfuscation, which allows the attacker to use a custom encryption key for some of the embedded back door functionality. Once a backdoor connection is established, the RAT server alerts the attacker and allows them to perform various back door functions on the compromised computer i.e Browse file systems, Download and execute arbitrary files, Perform denial of service attacks, Open a specified website in a browser. According to Symantec only 2 out of the 46 vendors from Virus Total are detecting it as a threat.

FireEye researchers recently came across a zero-day security flaw in Adobe Reader that's being actively exploited in the wild. The zero-day vulnerability is in Adobe PDF Reader 9.5.3, 10.1.5, 11.0.1 and earlier versions. According to researchers, once malware takes advantage of the flaw, its payload drops two dynamic-link libraries, or DLLs, which are application extensions used by executable files to perform a task. In this case, they allow the infected computer to communicate with a hacker-owned server. No additional details about the zero-day vulnerabilities have been publicly released, and but researchers with antivirus provider Kaspersky Lab have confirmed the exploit can successfully escape the Adobe sandbox. " We have already submitted the sample to the Adobe security team. Before we get confirmation from Adobe and a mitigation plan is available, we suggest that you not open any unknown PDF files ," said FireEye team. But until the vulnerability gets patched,...

Television viewers in Montana, perhaps looking to stay inside from the scary cold outside, got an even scarier surprise when warnings of a zombie apocalypse took over their TV screens. There TV Stations Montana's KRTVMichigan's, WNMU-TV and WBUP-TV were victims of this zombie prank. The channels later said that somebody had hacked into its system. The message warned zombies were attacking the living and warned people not to approach or apprehend these bodies as they are extremely dangerous. Channel said on its website , " Someone apparently hacked into the Emergency Alert System and announced on KRTV and the CW that was an emergency in several Montana counties. The message did not originate from KRTV, and there is no emergency. Our engineers are investigating to determine what happened and if it affected other media outlets. " Officials with the stations in Michigan said law enforcement authorities determined the attack originated outside the U.S. The message was quickly...

The hacktivist group Anonymous says it's planning to block all live streams of President Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night, in an operation entitled " Operation SOTU ". " We reject the State of the Union. We reject the authority of the President to sign arbitrary orders and bring irresponsible and damaging controls to the Internet, " the statement reads. " The President of the United States of America, and the Joint Session of Congress will face an Army tonight. " Anonymous group is upset with a pending Internet security bill. According to Anonymous and other Internet freedom activists, if the CISPA (Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Information Act) is passed it will infringe on online privacy and freedom. A Twitter account associated with Anonymous also hinted by tweeting ," ADVANCED WARNING: This year's State of the Union Address WILL be cancelled if internet regulation is passed by executive order #opLastResort " ...

What if you could easily host malicious websites, send phishing emails, and manage compromised hosts across diverse internet addresses? This week's Cobalt Strike adds the ability to manage multiple attack servers at once. Here's how it works: When you connect to two or more servers, Cobalt Strike will show a switch bar with buttons for each server at the bottom of your window. Click a button to make that server active. It's a lot like using tabs to switch between pages in a web browser. To make use of multiple servers, designate a role for each one. Assign names to each server's button to easily remember its role. Dumbly connecting to multiple servers isn't very exciting. The fun comes when you seamlessly use Cobalt Strike features between servers. For example: Designate one server for phishing and another for reconnaissance. Go to the reconnaissance server, setup the system profiler website. Use the phishing tool to deliver the reconnaissa...

Systems on your network log data 24/7/365. Simply allowing logs to take up disk space, reviewing them only after something has happened and deleting logs when you run low on disk space are all the strategies of an admin doomed to always being in firefighting mode, reacting to bad things when they happen. Proactive log management can help an admin get into a proactive mode You know that event log monitoring is important, since all your systems and key applications log data. But since no two systems log to the same place, or in the same format, it's almost impossible to get ahead of the logging and actually pay attention to what is being logged. That's where event log monitoring comes into play; here's why: Aggregate your logs in a central location:  With logs spread across dozens or even hundreds of systems, there's no way you can manage them where they are. Event log monitoring applications can gather up all your logs in a central location, making them easy to analyze, store, a...

A multinational security firm ' Raytheon ' has secretly developed software called ' RIOT ', capable of tracking people's movements and predicting future Behavior by mining data from social networking websites. The multi billion dollar company, didn't want its concept video revealed, but the Guardian posted it anyway. Raytheon has not yet sold RIOT to any clients but has been shared with the US government as part of a joint research project to develop a Big Data system capable of surveilling large parts of the population. The software can also pull metadata from pictures taken to pinpoint a user's location when the picture was taken. From this and other location data taken from applications i.e Foursquare, the software can predict future movements of users. The video shows how Riot works on a sample Raytheon staff member, tracking his regular visits to Washington Nationals Park and a local gym. RIOT creates unique profiles from publicly available data, inclu...

One week after launching a Bug bounty program by the Kim Dotcom 's new file-storage and sharing service MEGA claims to have fixed seven vulnerabilities. Although Mega hasn't shared how much money and to whom it paid out in the first week. But as promised, it is clear that MEGA paid out thousands of dollars in bug bounties during the first week of its security program. We found bug hunter yesterday (tweeted)- Mr.  Frans Rosén received 1000 Euros in the bug fixing challenge. This tweet was also Re-tweeted by Kim Dotcom later, that confirmed Frans's class III bugs reward. Congratulations @ fransrosen for XSS in #MEGA . Handsome EUR 1000 in Bug Bounty Program twitter.com/fransrosen/sta… — The Hacker News™ (@TheHackersNews) February 10, 2013 In a blog post, Mega explained how it classifies vulnerabilities and their impacts. Vulnerabilities were classified into VI classes, with I being the lowest risk and VI being the highest. Seven qualified bug details are as shown...