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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...

More than a Billion of Android devices are at risk of a severe vulnerability in Qualcomm Snapdragon chip that could be exploited by any malicious application to gain root access on the device. Security experts at Trend Micro are warning Android users of some severe programming blunders in Qualcomm's kernel-level Snapdragon code that if exploited, can be used by attackers for gaining root access and taking full control of your device. Gaining root access on a device is a matter of concern, as it grants attackers access to admin level capabilities, allowing them to turn your device against you to snap your pictures, and snoop on your personal data including accounts' passwords, emails, messages and photos. The company's own website notes that Qualcomm Snapdragon SoCs (systems on a chip) power more than a Billion smart devices, including many Internet of Things (IoTs) as of today. Thus, the issue puts many people at risk of being attacked. Although Google has pus...

The Giant search engine Google has lost an anti-monopoly appeal in Russia against ruling related to its Android mobile OS The Moscow Arbitration Court on Monday ruled that Google had violated its dominant position with the help of its free open source mobile platform " Android " by forcing its own apps and services like Youtube, Google Map, and others, on users — reducing competition. The complaint was brought against Google last February by competing search engine Yandex — Russian Counterpart of Google — which had argued that Google broke competition rules by requiring handset manufacturers to pre-install its apps on Android phones and tablets. Yandex-1, Google-0 According to the survey conducted by Liveinternet data in September 2013, Yandex accounted 57.4% of the Russian search market, while Google shared 34.9%. This stats reflected in the share market, as their shares were 62.2 and 26 percent respectively. These statistical analyzes really worried...

Before winding up the dispute of Apple and FBI over encryption, another buzz on the Whatsapp Snooping is now the hot debate on the court bench. In the wake of WhatsApp's move to offer end-to-end encryption to text messages as well as VoIP calls made through its app, federal authorities have not been able to execute wiretapping warrants on WhatsApp users. Though the US Department of Justice was discussing how to proceed with a continuing criminal investigation, the government is considering legal proceedings similar to those involved with Apple. According to the New York Times , as recently as this past week, a federal judge had approved a wiretap in a criminal investigation, but WhatsApp's encryption hindered investigators. Since any court officials have not made a final decision, the Department of Justice is very keen to drag Whatsapp into the Encryption fight war zone similar to the ongoing San Bernardino case . In San Bernardino case, the DoJ was gr...

Card Skimmers have been around for years, but the video posted below is a perfect example of the evolution of the technology used by thieves. The video released by Miami Beach Police involved two men who work as a team to install a credit card Skimmer on top of a card terminal at a local gas station in LESS THAN 3 SECONDS . Yes, in just less than 3 seconds hackers can turn a regular credit and debit card reader into a Skimmer – a device designed to secretly steal a victim's credit or debit card information. The two men were caught on video by a security camera, but it all happened so fast that one might have to rewatch the video to actually catch the crime. Miami Beach Police have published the video of the cyber crook and his partner, who was tasked with distracting the station's clerk, in the hopes that someone recognizes the criminals and helps track them down. Video Demonstration: Here's What Happened: The incident took place on We...

The recent cyber attack on Bangladesh's central bank that let hackers stole over $80 Million from the institutes' Federal Reserve bank account was reportedly caused due to the Malware installed on the Bank's computer systems. Few days ago, reports emerged of a group of unknown hackers that broke into Bangladesh's central bank, obtained credentials needed for payment transfers from Federal Reserve Bank of New York and then transferred large sums to fraudulent accounts based in the Philippines and Sri Lanka. The criminal group was able to steal a total value of about $81 Million from the Federal Reserve's Bangladesh account through a series of fraudulent transactions, but a typo in some transaction prevented a further $850 Million Heist . However, the question was still there: How the Hackers managed to transfer $80 Million without leaving any Trace? Security researchers from FireEye's Mandiant forensics are helping the Dhaka investigat...

The legal battle between Apple and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is turning ugly with each passing day. Apple is fighting with the federal authorities over iPhone encryption case . The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) requires Apple's assistance to unlock an iPhone 5C belonging to San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook. Apple CEO Tim Cook has said explicitly that providing a backdoor would likely open up the company's iPhones to not just the federal agents, but also to malicious hackers who could use it for evil purposes. Now the Apple's decision not to comply with the court order has provoked a Florida sheriff, who has threatened to arrest Tim Cook if he gets the chance. Sheriff Vows: I'll Lock the Rascal up. During a Wednesday press conference, when Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd was asked about Cook's refusal to help create a custom operating system that would assist the FBI to circumvent security measures on terrorist iPhone ...

Staminus Communications – a California-based hosting and DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) protection company – is recovering a massive data breach after hackers broke down into its servers and leaked personal and sensitive details of its customers. Though the company acknowledged that there was a problem in a message posted to Twitter on Thursday morning, it did not specify a data breach. Staminus's website went offline at 8 am Eastern Time on Thursday, and on Friday afternoon, a representative said in a Twitter post that "a rare event cascaded across multiple routers in a system-wide event, making our backbone unavailable." What type of information? The dump of information on Staminus' systems includes: Customer usernames Hashed passwords E-mail addresses Customer real names Customer credit card data in plain text Customer support tickets Server logs data Chat logs Source code of some of the company's services including Intreppi...

The Department of Justice (DoJ) has warned Apple that it may force the tech giant for handing over the source code to the complete operating system if it does not help the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) unlock the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone . Apple is battling with the FBI over iPhone encryption case. The federal investigators needs Apple's assistance to unlock an iPhone 5C belonging to San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook. However, Apple CEO Tim Cook has said explicitly that providing a backdoor would likely open up the company's iPhones to not just the federal agents, but also to malicious hackers who could use it for evil purposes. On Thursday, Apple and the FBI head to another court hearing on the San Bernardino iPhone case. The DOJ's latest 43-page brief filing contains an implicit threat that if Apple does not create the vulnerable version of its iOS operating system needed to bypass the passcode protection on the terroris...

Microsoft reckoned Bitcoin was the future of payment system and added it as a payment option for Windows store at the end of 2014, but the company has silently pulled support for Bitcoin in the Windows 10 Store. In November 2014, Microsoft struck a deal with third-party bitcoin payment processor ' Bitpay ' that allowed people to use Bitcoin to purchase Microsoft's products and services from Windows Stores. However, Microsoft quietly updated the Windows Store FAQ that popped up " Microsoft Store doesn't accept Bitcoin. " The end of support for Bitcoin payments only applies to Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile stores.  "Microsoft Store doesn't accept Bitcoin. You can no longer redeem Bitcoin into your Microsoft account," the update reads. "Existing balances in your account will still be available for purchases from Microsoft Store, but can't be refunded." In short, you can make use of an existing balance in your accou...

The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) has put forward a proposal that aims to protect Internet user's privacy. The proposal [ pdf] will regulate the amount of customers' online data the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are able to collect and sell to the advertising companies. Currently, there is no particular rule by law covering broadband providers and customer privacy, and if adopted, this would be the first privacy rule for ISPs. The FCC already governs how phone companies can use and resell customer data, and the Chairman Tom Wheeler believes similar rules should be applied to ISPs. Is Your ISP Tracking Your Web Surfing and Selling Data to Advertisers? Your complete Internet traffic passes through your Internet Service Provider, which gives it the ability to access to vast and potentially lucrative amount of your web-browsing activity. If you are using a mobile phone, your ISP can also track your physical location throughout the day in real time. ISPs ...

Typos are really embarrassing, but this time it saved the Bangladesh Central Bank and the New York Federal Reserve by preventing a nearly $1 Billion ( £700 Million ) heist. Last month, some unknown hackers broke into Bangladesh's central bank, obtained credentials needed for payment transfers and then transfer large sums to fraudulent accounts based in the Philippines and Sri Lanka . But… A single spelling mistake in an online bank transfer instruction prevented the full theft, according to Reuters . Here's what actually was happened: Nearly three dozen requests hit the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on 5 February using the Bangladesh Bank's SWIFT code, out of which four resulted in successful transfers, for a total value of about $81 million. However, when the hackers attempted to make their fifth transfer of $20 Million to a Sri Lankan non-governmental organization called the Shalika Foundation , they made a typo by attempting a transfer to the Shalika " ...