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If you believe that your organization is not at real risk of cyber attack, then you are absolutely wrong. Incidents of massive data breaches, advanced cyber attacks coming from China , groups like Syrian Electronic Army , Hacking Point of Sale machines at retailers such as Target have splashed across the news in the last one year. Whether a Government Agency or Private Company, Small or a Large Tech Company.... ...It's no secret that No one is Immune to Cyber Attacks . This article is the first in a two-part series from The Hacker News , listing first four out of  Top 7 Brutal Cyber Attacks. And here we go... #1 "Hacking Team" Data Breach Hacking Team , the controversial spyware company, recently been hacked by some unidentified hackers that exposed over 400 gigabytes of its internal sensitive data on the Internet. Milan (Italy) based IT firm 'Hacking Team' sells intrusion and surveillance software solutions to Governments and Law Enforcement agen...

Several of Seagate's 3rd generation Wireless Hard drives have a secret backdoor for hackers that puts users' data at risk. A Recent study done by the security researchers at Tangible Security firm disclosed an " undocumented Telnet services " with a hard-coded password in Seagate Wireless Hard Drives. The secret Telnet Vulnerability ( CVE-2015-2874 ) with an inbuilt user account (default username and password — "root") allows an attacker to access the device remotely, left users data vulnerable to theft. According to US-CERT (Computer Emergency and Response Team) public advisory, multiple models of Seagate hard drives contain multiple vulnerabilities. Affected devices are: Seagate Wireless Plus Mobile Storage Seagate Wireless Mobile Storage (Wirelessly streaming your tablet and smartphone's data) LaCie FUEL (Wirelessly extending storage for iPads) The violation that an attacker can activate is, they can gain root access to the device and ac...

Google is planning to introduce a trimmed down special version of Google Play Store and Android Wear to The Mainland China. But wait, if I'm not wrong… Google had ended ties with China five years ago. Then what made Google to re-establish itself in China once again? Business?? Recent reports by Amir Efrati at The Information state that Google has massive plans to re-establish itself in the Mainland China. The search engine giant is aiming to get approval from China (the largest populated country in the world) for: Reviving Google as the Internet service provider Designing a tailor-made Google play store for China Android Wear software for the wearable existing in China Smart steps, though, but what happened back in 2010? Google and China always contradict each other, China's Internet laws and Google's censoring the search engine was one battle. In 2010, Google famously retracted its search engine Google.cn from Mainland China, after they ma...

China Police has arrested nearly 15,000 people on suspicion of cyber crimes as part of an operation dubbed " Cleaning the Internet ," according to reports. According to the Chinese Ministry of Public Security (MPS), the suspects have been arrested for their involvement in cyber crimes that " jeopardized Internet security ." In July, China launched a six-month campaign codenamed " Cleaning the Internet " to fight online criminal activities. Under the program, the police investigated 7,400 cases, including hacking, online fraud and the illegal sale of personal information, spread over 66,000 websites, the official website of the ministry stated . "For the next step, the public security organs will continue to increase their investigation and crackdown on cyber crimes," according to the Chinese Ministry of Public Security. The MPS did not clear exactly when the arrests took place but said the program also took down major online...

Jailbreaking your device may have got you the best of apps but after reading this you will know what a high price you could have to pay for the jailbreak. Read on… A malware named ' KeyRaider ' has supposedly stolen user credentials of approximately 225K iPhone users. It has been given this name as it raids victims' username and passwords, private keys and certificates. Figures say that KeyRaider malware has affected a large number of users in China and worldwide 17 more countries. Also, the origin of malware is suspected to be in China, as said in investigations conducted by Palo Alto Networks for reporting any suspicious tweaks on iPhones. Users falling prey to KeyRaider may be the victims of: Ransomware Data Theft DDoS Attacks Malware is targeting jailbroken phones and when in action, it captures Apple ID of the users and make transactions using it. The researchers say that it is spreading with the help of Cydia app repositories that are popular amo...

We found a high concern for cybersecurity tactics and an increased awareness of the challenges that it brings. This week, we shared lots of stories with our readers, and to help them in identifying the biggest malware threats to their online safety. We are here with the outline of our last week stories, just in case you missed any of them ( ICYMI ). We recommend you read the entire thing ( just click ' Read More ' because there's some valuable advice in there as well ). Here's the list: ➢ How Hackers Can Hack Your Gmail Accounts? Getting smarter in their phishing tactics, hackers have found out ways to fool Gmail's tight security system by bypassing its two-step verification. Hackers are now using text messages and phone-based phishing attacks to circumvent Gmail's security and take over your Gmail accounts. — Read more . ➢ Not Just Windows 10, Windows 7 and 8 Also Spy on You Laughing at controversial data mining and privacy invasion featur...

Nothing could be scarier than that little battery icon in our smart hits the red. All our focus shifts towards searching the nearest charging outlet – and it happens all too often. Yes, the short battery life is the worst thing about our smartphones. It forces us to always carry chargers and battery banks, as well as continually chase plugs walls. But don't worry; Apple is looking to fix this problem soon. The technology giant is working on batteries that could Power its MacBooks and iPhones for 7 Days , according to a new patent filed by Apple. Batteries that Last for 7 Days Apple has filed a new patent for a ' fuel cell system ' that would replace the existing toxic batteries resided in its Macbooks with cells that could last " for days or even weeks without refuelling ". The patent, ' Fuel Cell System to Power a Portable Computing Device ', describes: A fuel cell system that converts fuel to electrical power A controller...

After, Facebook open sourced Thrift Technology ( an internally used tool by Facebook ) in 2007, rival entity Twitter brings Diffy , an internal Twitter service to the world. Yesterday, Twitter introduced " Diffy ," an open source tool, acting as a helping hand for the software developers to catch bugs, test and compare results without writing much code. Diffy plays a vital part in Twitter's development. As a service - Twitter modifies portions of its complex code on a timely basis, and Diffy is packed with such advanced automated techniques that it helps Twitter in its smooth workflow and optimized performance. Diffy simultaneously relieves programmers from writing separate codes to test flaws in the modified code. As, Diffy's minimal setup requirements are adaptable to any kind of environment. Apache Thrift and HTTP-based communication are such elaborate environments where Diffy catches bugs automatically . But, What exactly Diffy is? D...

Rejoice Chrome users! Google has made major improvements to its Chrome web browser that would once again make it one of the least memory eater browsers in the market. Although Chrome is used by hundreds of millions of people worldwide due to its simplicity and power, most people aren't happy with it because it uses too much memory and power. Google has now solved these problems. The most recent release of Chrome ( Chrome 45 ) is intended to make your browsing experience faster and more efficient. Google launched Chrome 45 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android two days ago, but the company announced in an official blog post Friday that the new version includes several new updates that focus on making the browser load faster and use less memory. Also Read:  I keep 200+ Browser Tabs Open, and My Computer Runs Absolutely Fine. Here's My Secret Chrome 45 Uses 10% Less RAM A major issue reported by Chrome users was the browser's consumption of PC mem...

Several video baby monitors from six different manufacturers were under scrutiny for in-depth security testing, and the outcome was negative. Yes, they lacked in serving basic security through their devices. At the High Technology Crime Investigation Association (HTCIA) conference on September 2, 2015, a critical security research was made public by Rapid7 after following a disclosure policy. A month ago, The Hacker News (THN) posted about how IoT is making the smart cities vulnerable to the technology. Similarly, this time a highly personal IoT device i.e. ' Baby Monitors ' has been anticipated as a victim of hacking of such devices. According to a 2014 Gartner's report, the IoT space is expected to be crowded with over 25 billion devices in five years, i.e. by 2020. Reportedly, ten vulnerabilities were found in the Baby Monitoring devices and the related vendors were contacted to get their comments on how are they going to address the severe flaws residing ...

In above picture, Have you noticed those numerous crazy spikes? The Device looks like an Alien artifact, which is actually the World's fastest wireless Wi-Fi router for the Game of Thrones generation. Unveiled at IFA 2015, Asus has launched its uniquely designed RT-AC5300 Wi-Fi router , which they said would offer the fastest connection speed ever. Asus RT-AC5300 Wi-Fi router has Eight external dual-band antennas that promise to deliver ultra-wide area coverage, reaching up to 500 square meters with absolute signal stability. The router is compatible with all those geeks who work in networking arena or love to Play Online Games and want stream 4K resolution videos. Specifications Of Asus RT-AC5300 Wi-Fi router The New Tri-Band Router: Delivers up to 1,000Mbps from the 2.4GHz band, and 2,167Mbps from each of the 5GHz bands (total 5334Mbit/s) Supports USB ports 2.0 and 3.0 versions. Equipped with Broadcom's NitroQAM/TurboQAM technologies to allow u...

Remember StingRays ? The controversial cell phone spying tool , known as " Stingrays " or " IMSI catchers ," has been used by authorities to track criminal suspects most of the times without obtaining court orders. But now, the Federal law agencies will have to be more transparent about their use of Stingrays to spy on cell phones. Thanks to the new policy announced Thursday by the US Department of Justice. For years, local police and federal authorities have used and spent over $350,000 on Stingrays , which essentially mimic mobile phone tower, to track cell phones in countless investigations. What is Stingray? Stingrays , made by the Harris Corporation, has capabilities to access user's unique IDs and phone numbers, track and record locations, and sometimes even intercept Internet traffic and phone calls, send fake texts and install spyware on phones. The authorities used these tracking tools for years to breach people's privacy...

US-CERT has outlined about Wireless routers developed by Belkin supposedly containing several vulnerabilities. CERT in their Vulnerability Note VU#201168 (Vulnerability ID) said, that Belkin's N600 DB Wireless Dual-Band N+ Router, model F9K1102 v2 with firmware version 2.10.17 and very likely earlier versions are packed with multiple and critical vulnerabilities. The targeted router is the fastest long-range router with speeds up to 300Mbps + 300Mbps** allows a great multi-device coverage and with its dual-band operating speed empowering and prioritizing exhaustive activities like video streaming and online gaming. Few months back, The Hacker News (THN)  reported about vulnerabilities in routers capable of hijacking user's data at different instances. Belkin router is accused of loopholes that allow an attacker to spoof DNS, conduct man-in-the-middle attack, perform privilege escalation and implement Cross Site Request Forgery(CSRF). CERT lists out the m...

Bought a brand new Android Smartphone? Don't expect it to be a clean slate. A new report claims that some rogue retailers are selling brand-new Android smartphones loaded with pre-installed software. Security firm G Data has uncovered more than two dozens of Android smartphones from popular smartphone manufacturers — including Xiaomi , Huawei and Lenovo — that have pre-installed spyware in the firmware. G Data is a German security firm that disclosed last year the Star N9500 Smartphone's capability to spy on users, thereby comprising their personal data and conversations without any restrictions and users knowledge. Removal of Spyware Not Possible The pre-installed spyware, disguised in popular Android apps such as Facebook and Google Drive , can not be removed without unlocking the phone since it resides inside the phone's firmware. "Over the past year, we have seen a significant [growth] in devices that are equipped with firmware-level [m...

Widely popular AppLock for Android by DoMobile Ltd. is claimed to be vulnerable to hackers. Having an applock for iPhone or Android device is useful. It is suitable for security and keeping people out of your business. But when it comes to how to password protect apps on Android? How to put passwords on apps? — the one app that comes to mind is AppLock. What is AppLock? AppLock is a lightweight Android app that enables users to apply a lock on almost any type of file or app on their devices, preventing access to your locked apps and private data without a password. The most basic functionality of the security feature is to lock your Android apps so that nobody can access or uninstall them, but applock can hide pictures and videos, and even contacts and individual messages. For example, if you have an app lock on WhatsApp, one of your friends borrow your phone to play games cannot get into your WhatsApp app without a password you have set for the locked app. App Lock si...

Back in July, a security researcher disclosed a zero-day vulnerability in Mac OS X that allowed attackers to obtain unrestricted root user privileges with the help of code that even fits in a tweet . The same vulnerability has now been upgraded to again infect Mac OS X machines even after Apple fixed the issue last month. The privilege-escalation bug was once used to circumvent security protections and gain full control of Mac computers. Thanks to the environment variable DYLD_PRINT_TO_FILE Apple added to the code of OS X 10.10 Yosemite. The vulnerability then allowed attackers to install malware and adware onto a target Mac, running OS X 10.10 (Yosemite), without requiring victims to enter system passwords. However, the company fixed the critical issue in the Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan Beta builds as well as the latest stable version of Mac OS X – Version 10.10.5 . Mac Keychain Flaw Now, security researchers from anti-malware firm MalwareBytes spotted t...

In both April and June this year, a series of cyber attacks was conducted against the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) . These attacks resulted in 21 million current and former Federal government employees' information being stolen. After months of investigation, the FBI's Cyber Task Force identified several Remote Access Tools (RATs) that were used to carry out the attack. One of the more effective tools discovered is named ' FF-RAT '. FF-RAT evades endpoint detection through stealth tactics, including the ability to download DLLs remotely and execute them in memory only. Hackers use RATs to gain unlimited access to infected endpoints. Once the victim's access privilege is acquired, it is then used for malware deployment, command and control (C&C) server communication, and data exfiltration. Most Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) attacks also take advantage of RAT functionality for bypassing strong authentication, reconnaissance, spreading...

No plan to install Windows 10 due to Microsoft's controversial data mining and privacy invasions within the operating system? Well, Windows 7 and Windows 8 OS users should also be worried as Windows 10 spying is now headed their way too… Microsoft has been caught installing latest updates onto Windows 7 and Windows 8 computers that effectively introduce the same data collecting and user behavior tracking features used in Windows 10. Under the new updates, the operating systems indiscriminately upload data to Microsoft's servers, which might be a major privacy concern for many users. Creepy Updates The updates in question are: KB3068708 – This update introduces the Diagnostics and Telemetry tracking service to existing devices. KB3022345 (replaced by KB3068708 ) – This update adds the Diagnostics and Telemetry tracking service to in-market devices. KB3075249 – This update adds telemetry points to the User Account Control (UAC) feature in order to collect data on ele...