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Hackers steal Dell 1000's customer information ! The personal information of thousands of Australians has been stolen by hackers who raided a US-based database company, in what some experts are calling the biggest data theft in US hist ory. Dell Australia says customer data was "exposed" by an unauthorised entry into the computer system of email service provider Epsilon. The information includes the names and email addresses of Dell Australia's customers. In a statement, Dell assured its customers that credit card, banking and other personally-identifiable information was not at risk and remained secure. Australian Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim says Dell has informed him of the data breach. "Dell Australia have also advised all of its customers affected by the data breach and have set up an advice service that those customers can use to obtain further information if needed," he said in a statement. Mr Pilgrim has launched an investigati...

Computer hackers embody classic Christian virtues, a Vatican publication says, and shouldn't be perceived negatively. In their passionate commitment to creating, and their openness to sharing ideas, hackers see their online exploits as "a form of participation in the 'work' of God in creation," Jesuit priest Father Antonio Spadaro wrote in the Vatican magazine Civilta Cattolica, Network World reported. Citing the "joyful application of intelligence to problem solving" they demonstrate, and their ingrained rejection of competition, profit and authority, Spadaro said hackers are aligned with the teachings of Christianity. "Under fire are control, competition, property," Spadaro said. It's a mindset, he said, that has "a clear theological origin." (However, citing technology writer Eric S. Raymond, Spadaro said hackers shouldn't be confused with "crackers"— the former builds things and the latter breaks them, Raymond wrote.) A small and ironic wrinkle in the godly hacker theory exis...

Hackers have broken into The Hartford insurance company and installed password-stealing programs on several of the company's Windows servers. In a warning letter sent last month to about 300 employees, contractors, and a handful of customers, the company said it discovered the infection in late February. Several servers were hit, including Citrix servers used by employees for remote access to IT systems. A copy of The Hartford's letter was posted earlier this week to the website of the Office of the New Hampshire Attorney General :  https://doj.nh.gov/consumer/pdf/hartford2.pdf "It was a very small incident," said Debora Raymond, a company spokeswoman. The victims were mostly company employees. Less than 10 customers were affected by the malware, the W32-Qakbot Trojan, she said. Qakbot has been around for about two years. Once installed it spreads from computer to computer in the network, taking steps to cover its tracks as it logs sensitive data and opens up back...

Hackers behind what computer security experts believe could be the biggest data theft in US history may be planning to sell the information to cyber criminals for targeted scams. And while the tens of millions of names and email addresses swiped from online marketing firm Epsilon do not appear to have been used yet for cyber crime, the experts said it may just be a matter of time. Major US banks, hotels, retail outlets and other companies have been warning customers to be wary of fraudulent emails after Epsilon acknowledged last week that hackers had gained access to the Texas-based company's email system. Epsilon, which provides email services for some 2,500 companies around the world, has said that customer data for about two per cent of its total clients was exposed in what it called an "unauthorized entry." Epsilon, which sends out over 40 billion emails a year, did not identify the firms whose customers' names and email addresses were taken but dozens of ...

Microsoft is sorry, quite sorry indeed, that so many Windows Phone 7 owners have yet to receive the NoDo update for their handset. In a weekly written update today, the Windows Phone 7 team expressed sympathy to owners frustrated over the lag in receiving the update: "You want the latest technology and you're tired of waiting. Believe me, [we] get it." But the company also took time to warn against using any sort of workaround or hack to get the update ahead of schedule, saying that Microsoft has yet to fully test the 3rd party methods, and that they could lead to problems stretching from minor glitches to voided warranties. The usual, in other words, for phone hacking. But Microsoft was not all frowns and apologies today, it also had promises. In the same post the company stated that Europeans on O2 and SFR were moving along in the update queue, and that users should be patient just a "bit longer" in waiting for the official update to trickle down. Comments on the story have so...