The Hacker News | #1 Trusted Source for Cybersecurity News — Index Page

Russian anti-virus company Doctor Web is warning users about the malicious program which is helping attackers carry out mass spam mailings and allow attacker to use victim's PC as slave of his DDOS Army. According to researchers from the company they have discovered a Trojan " Trojan.Proxy.23012 " application that uses a rare method of distribution through peer networks. " The botnet, consisting of Trojan.Proxy.23012-infected computers, is used by criminals to control proxy servers for the purpose of using them to send spam upon command ". An example of such a spam message is shown in the screenshot below. This Malware work as: 1.) Using peer to peer network it will download the executable file and that will be a encrypted malicious module. A very interesting algorithm used by the Trojan to download the infected computer other malware. 2.) After successfully decrypt it launches another module that reads the image in computer memory or other malicious applica...

Computer hacking is truly an epidemic. It's not enough to apply the latest patches to your servers and workstations or otherwise defend yourself reactively. If you're in charge of your network's security, you must understand how hackers minds work and what tools they're using for their attacks.  Also one of the best ways to protect yourself is to think like a hacker. Evil hackers aren't just a threat to national security. They're a threat to your privacy and even your livelihood. Your personal information? Nothing more than a commodity in their billion-dollar black-market enterprise. There's no product that can prevent hackers from plastering passwords and usernames on the Web. But some white hat hackers are not only chasing these cybercriminals but also thwarting the attacks before they can be launched. Vulnerabilities appear in your environment every day. For example, everyone wants to use their tablet or smart phone to conduct business. A...

Kaspersky has discovered new malware dubbed ' miniFlame ', cyber espionage software directly linked to Flame. This new nation-state espionage malware that has ties to two previous espionage tools known as Flame and Gauss, and that appears to be a "high-precision, surgical attack tool" targeting victims in Lebanon, Iran and elsewhere. miniFlame, also known as SPE, was found by Kaspersky Lab's experts in July 2012, and was originally identified as a Flame module. But originally MiniFlame seems to be used to gain control of and obtain increased spying capability over select computers originally infected by the Flame and Gauss spyware. According to Kaspersky, versions of miniFlame were created in 2010 and 2011, and some of the six variants are still considered active. It is expected that development of the malicious program could have started as far back as 2007. " MiniFlame is a high precision attack tool ," said Alexander Gostev, Chief Security Expert, Kaspers...

After last year's big PlayStation Network hack a lot of hacking groups such as Anonymous and LulzSec were intensely publicized. Back in June, a massive hack was conducted on the Sony Pictures Website. The attack led to the theft of details on over 1 million accounts and was linked to the hacker group Lulzsec. At the time, the hacker group claimed to have used a " very simple SQL injection " attack. Samples of the compromised data were later posted online. Purported LulzSec member Raynaldo Rivera, 20, was charged in August with impairing a protected computer and conspiracy charges. In admitting his guilt, he joins Cody Kretsinger, who also pleaded guilty for the Sony Pictures hijack. Kretsinger is scheduled to be sentenced on 25th October. " Rivera used the HideMyAss anonymising proxy service in an attempt to disguise his IP address while he carried out reconnaissance work, probing Sony Pictures' website for security vulnerabilities. HideMyAss turned over his IP...

A very quick and urgent warning for Twitter users, If you receive a direct message (DM) on Twitter saying " My profile was viewed..times..today " with a link then please don't click it. If you do, you will run the risk of having your Twitter account hijacked, your account turned into a spam-spewing tweet factory and all of your Twitter followers will be sent a personal copy of the same DM saying " My profile was viewed..times..today ". The direct message is a Scam aimed at stealing your twitter account. Or If any of this phishing scheme sounds familiar, it's because this scam and others like it have been going around for quite some time now. Reason being, they're all highly effective. Sure, the verbiage in the Twitter DMs may change periodically, but the goal of stealing your Twitter username and password stays the same. We recommend you to: DO  not click the link. DELETE  that message ONCE REVIEW  all the application you have ...

Are you running Linux just because you think it's safer than Windows? Think again. Sure, security is a built-in   feature and extends right from the Linux kernel to the desktop, but it still leaves enough room to let someone muck about with your /home folder. Linux might be impervious to viruses and worms written for Windows, but that's just a small subset of the larger issue. Attackers have various tricks up their sleeves to get to those precious bits and bytes that make up everything from your mugshot to your credit card details. Computers that connect to the internet are the ones most exposed to attackers, although computers that never get to see online action are just as vulnerable. We have a small and enough very fast solution for Hardning the security of your Linux machine in few seconds using  Server Shield , It is a lightweight method of protecting and hardening your Linux server. It is easy to install, hard to mess up, and makes your server instantly and effortl...

With over 140,000 known computer viruses and 85,000,000 spam emails sent out each day, the likelihood of your PC coming into contact with malware such as viruses, worms, and spyware is almost guaranteed. It is very important to secure your computer just like you would secure your house or car. Your computer can be completely taken over without your permission or knowledge if it is vulnerable and connected to the Internet. Hackers constantly scan the Internet looking for vulnerable hosts, and a computer can be infected by a worm or virus within 15 minutes of connecting to the Internet if certain precautions are not taken. You can avoid most common infections by taking just a few steps, Here is an overview of PC security best practices and tips - " HackerProof : Your Guide To PC Security " This 53 page guide provides an objective, detailed, but easily understood walk through of PC security. By the end of this guide, you will know exactly what PC security means an...

The U.S. have admitted they believe a series of cyber attacks on domestic banks and some foreign oil companies carried out over the last year are the handy work of a group of hackers linked to the Iranian government. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said the cyberthreat from Iran has grown, and declared that the Pentagon is prepared to take action if America is threatened by a computer-based assault. The hackers are apparently part of a group of less than 100 computer security specialists from Iranian universities and network security firms, according to an unnamed US government official. American officials have said they are able to discover the source of the recent cyberattacks. We do welcome this and announce our readiness for any international cooperation to find the source of the attacks. The Iranian official said Tehran has already offered help to boost the companies cybersecurity, as Iran has itself recently been the victim of cyberattacks on its offshore oil platforms....

The city of Burlington is warning its employees to check their bank accounts after finding out funds have been stolen. The Skagit Valley Herald reports the money was electronically transferred to various personal and business accounts throughout the United States during a two-day period this week. " We really don't know exactly how it happened ," said City Manager Bryan Harrison. " Multiple banks in multiple states involved. " " Someone, either through the city system or Bank of America had actually accessed our electric authorization account. " The theft was first reported by the Skagit Valley Herald newspaper which said that Burlington's finance department reported the theft Thursday. Police and the Secret Service are investigating. Burlington is a city of about 8,400 people roughly 60 miles north of Seattle. They believe the money has been shifted to different banks around the world. Officials say they will recover the money that was...

Anonymous  Hackers declare another operation name called -  ANONYMOUS OPERATION JUBILEE . Under this there will be Rally of Millions people To Parliament, London on 5th of November 2012. As planned this will be a peaceful gathering at the Parliament Building in London to declare the true jubilee. This operation was started by Anonymous with Twitter account  @OpJubilee . They have a website with a countdown timer on it till 5th Nov, 2012. Today hackers deface two UK Police sites and post a  YouTube video on it, with the message for all protesters to say that GET READY FOR 5TH NOV . Defaced domains:  https://policespecials.com/ https://policeuk.com/ Mirror of Hack :  https://www.zone-h.org/mirror/id/18466119 https://www.zone-h.org/mirror/id/18466115 Subscribe  to our  Daily Newsletter via email  - Be First to know about Security and Hackers. or Join our Huge  Hackers Community...

Gary's 10 years spent living on a knife-edge has been nothing short of cruel and unnecessary punishment. There is another new hope for Gary McKinnon who is fighting extradition after being accused of hacking US military computers. Computer hacker Gary McKinnon will win his 10-year legal battle against extradition have been significantly raised after Home Office-appointed psychiatrists warned that he would be very likely to attempt suicide if sent for trial in the US. It comes as the result of a medical report by two Home Office psychiatrists, which found there is a "significant risk" of suicidal behaviour by Mr McKinnon. The Home Secretary will tell MPs of her final decision on the case on Tuesday. McKinnon's mother, Janis Sharp, has called on government figures to honour their promises to save her son. But despite this it remains unclear if the Home Secretary, Theresa May, will halt his extradition or not, having previously put it on hold to consider new evidence. M...

Users should be aware that Cyber criminals are finding new ways to install malicious software on devices. The latest threat to Android phone users, according to the FBI , is a "work-at-home opportunity that promises a profitable payday just for sending out email." The IC3 has been made aware of various malware attacking Android operating systems for mobile devices. Some of the latest known versions of this type of malware are Loozfon and FinFisher .  Loozfon is an information-stealing piece of malware. Criminals use different variants to lure the victims. One version is a work-at-home opportunity that promises a profitable payday just for sending out email. A link within these advertisements leads to a website that is designed to push Loozfon on the user's device. The malicious application steals contact details from the user's address book and the infected device's phone number . FinFisher is a spyware capable of taking over the components of a mobile device. Whe...

This afternoon I just got a ping from one of my Friend that Oracle website compromised. Its hard to believe that ORACLE can be compromised ? So lets explore that what going on: Oracle.com , Website Oracle Corporation ,  ( an American multinational computer technology corporation that specializes in developing and marketing computer hardware systems and enterprise software products – particularly database management systems ) homepage showing just " HELLO WORLD " text on page. I tried to open it via mobile, it redirect me to mobile version at  Oracle.mobi , Yes its working fine as normal. Then we start moving on Twitter to find out whats going on, Lots of people tweeting about this and everyone seems to be confused that IS IT A HACK ? or the site is Under Maintenance ? Okay, Next I move to ORACLE twitter accounts @Oracle @OracleDatabase to find out either they have tweeted about this Strange update or ...

Do your ever use YouTube Instant Search engine (a really fast way to search YouTube) ? That was developed by a 21 years old developer name - Feross Aboukhadijeh in 2012. Chad Hurley, CEO and co-founder of YouTube, was so impressed that he immediately offered him a job at YouTube. He a web developer, designer, computer security researcher. Recently he has developed an attack concept that exploits the fullscreen application programming interface in HTML5 in order to carry out advance phishing attacks. The HTML5 "Fullscreen API" allow web developers to display web contents in full-screen mode, that is, filling-up the display screen completely. Fullscreen API is perhaps known for its spoofing potential, leading to major browser vendors canvassing for the implementation of an overlay to notify users when full-screen is activated. Feross demonstrated how the Fullscreen API can aid phishing attack portals appear rather innocuous to the end users, by utilizing t...

Windows 8 is the first operating system from Microsoft to support alternative non-biometric authentication mechanisms such as Picture Password and PIN. A vulnerability discovered by a password security vendor - " Passcape " in Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system that it saves a log on password in plain text and allows any user with admin rights to see the password details. In September, though, some drawbacks of the new authentication method were reported by Passcape Software. The picture password had seemed invulnerable, because whoever tries to guess it must know how and what parts of the image to choose, and in addition, the gesture sequence. However, security experts from Passcape discovered that such a unique password is based on a regular account. A user should first create a regular password-based account and then optionally switch to the picture password or PIN authentication. Notably, the original plain-text password to the account is still stored in ...

ICS-CERT - Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team has released the Advisory titled ICS-ALERT-12-284-01 - Sinapsi eSolar Light Multiple Vulnerabilities . They Report about report multiple vulnerabilities with proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit code that affecting the Sinapsi eSolar Light Photovoltaic System Monitor which is a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) monitoring product. The US Department of Homeland Security is warning about vulnerabilities in a common SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) package that is used to remotely monitor and manage solar energy-generating power plants. The eSolar Light Photovoltaic System Monitor is a SCADA product that allows solar power stations to simultaneously monitor different components of photovoltaic arrays, such as photovoltaic inverters, energy meters, gauges The disclosure was made by Roberto Paleari and Ivan Speziale, who described the vulnerable system as being the Schneider ...

Last week, Mozilla announced it will prompt Firefox users on Windows with old versions of Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash, and Microsoft Silverlight, but refused to detail how the system will work. Finally today  Firefox 17 is now in beta and with it is a very cool feature, click-to-play plugins. When a user lands on a site that requires the use of a plugin, say Adobe Flash, if the version running in the user's browser is on the list of known vulnerable applications, Mozilla will disable it and show the user a message saying that she needs to update the plugin. " By combining the safety of the blocklist with the flexibility of click-to-play, we now have an even more effective method of dealing with vulnerable or out-of-date plugins. " Mozilla wrote on blog. Mozilla is still working on implementing the controls, which would allow you to block all plugins by default and then pick where you want them to run. As already mentioned, this feature will be enabled by ...

AndroidPolice reports that Google is actively working on a built-in malware scanner for the Play Store. A new version of the Play Store app has been released and it is starting to roll out to Android owners. Google Play Store 3.9.16 includes the ability to remove apps from the All Apps list.  There is a module called " App Check " that will allow Google to inspect every app you've already downloaded, and a doorman-style app blocker that will warn you if an app is suspicious. Devices without Google Play installed (and there are plenty, especially in Asia and China) still won't be protected. Google's Bouncer was a server-side Play Store malware cop, but this sounds like a new, client-side initiative, possibly the result of their recent acquisition of VirusTotal . In the past we've seen fake versions of Instagram, Angry Birds and many more popular Android apps distributed via non-official channels with the intention of infecting Android phones and tab...

Irish websites Google.ie and Yahoo.ie went offline on Tuesday afternoon after their DNS servers were apparently hijacked to point to those of a third party, resulting in visitors being redirected to an 'allegedly fraudulent' address - farahatz.net. That site has now been taken offline, but it is not known whether the site could have been created with malicious intent. A short note on the homepage of the IE Domain Registry said the move followed a " security incident on Tuesday 9th October, involving two high profile .ie domains that has warranted further investigation and some precautionary actions on the part of the IEDR ." The IE Domain Registry have requested assistance from the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation. There was an unauthorised access to one registrar's account [MarkMonitor] which resulted in the change to the DNS nameserver records for the two .ie domains. The IEDR worked with the registrar to ensure that the nameserver records were rese...

As warned by Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters They launched another distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attack against the website of Regions Financial Corp (regions.com) and SunTrust. The computer attacks burden the bank websites with heavy traffic volume that causes slow service for the sites or makes them completely unavailable. In a Pastebin post dated Oct. 8, the hacktivist group announced the planned Oct. 9 attack against Capital One, the Oct. 10 attack against SunTrust and an Oct. 11 takedown date for Regions Financial Corp and THEY DID IT. SunTrust ( suntrust.com ) spokesman Michael McCoy confirmed SunTrust's site had been hit by an uptick in traffic. "We have seen increased online traffic today and experienced intermittent service availability of some online functions," he said. A couple of days ago, Regions representatives told Fox Business that the organization was aware of the threats. At the time, they claimed they were "taking every mea...