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

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says he will not leave the Ecuadorian Embassy after Ecuador's foreign minister has said its embassy in London will continue to provide political asylum to Julian Assange. He was staying in embassy  for the past year to avoid extradition to Sweden. The Australian will be arrested if he steps outside the building, so the jet-set lifestyle has been replaced by a single room and his laptop.  Assange said he fears Sweden would allow him to be extradited to the United States to face potential charges relating to WikiLeaks releases of sensitive diplomatic and defense communications. So as of tomorrow, he decided to spent one year inside the embassy, even if sex charges against him are dropped. " The strong view of my US lawyer is that there is already a sealed indictment which means I would be arrested, unless the British Government gave information or guarantees that would grant me safe passage ," he said. Assange ...

A former NSA software developer is saying he has identified how major camera systems used by industrial plants, prisons, banks and the military could be hacked to freeze a frame and would allow hackers to spy on facilities or gain access to sensitive computer networks. Craig Heffner, that there were zero day vulnerabilities in digital video surveillance equipment from firms, including Cisco Systems, D-Link and TRENDnet. He has discovered hundreds of thousands of surveillance cameras that can be accessed via the public Internet. " Somebody could potentially access a camera and view it. Or they could also use it as a pivot point, an initial foothold, to get into the network and start attacking internal systems. " Heffner said. Wrost thing, probably NSA is also aware of these vulnerabilities . They could use it as a pivot point, an initial foothold, to get into the network and start attacking internal systems. He said he doesn't plan on revealing the v...

No longer limited to Hollywood movies about cybercrime, webcam hacking has stealthily and aggressively broken into average households  " I've heard a hacker could access my webcam and watch me in front of my computer. Could this really happen? " YES, other than using a Remote administration tools, it is also technically possible using new Flash based flaw in Google Chrome. According to a recent report by security researchers, there's a big problem in Google Chrome's integrated Flash player. The proof-of-concept posted by Egor Homakov. When the play button is pressed, the user is actually allowing for his/her webcam to grab video and audio from a compromised computer without getting the user's permission. " This works precisely like regular clickjacking - you click on a transparent flash object, it allows access to Camera/Audio channel. Voila, attacker sees and hears you, " Homakov warned.  These kinds of virtual hacks have been taking place for years....

BlackBerry Z10 users should be aware that there is a privilege escalation vulnerability. The vulnerability potentially allows a hacker to modify or edit data on a stolen BlackBerry Z10 smartphone with BlackBerry Protect enabled, identified as BSRT-2013-006 (CVE-2013-3692) According to the advisory , an escalation of privilege vulnerability exists in the software 'BlackBerry® Protect™' of  Z10 phones, supposed to help users delete sensitive files on a lost or stolen smartphone , or recover it again if it is lost. " Taking advantage of the weak permissions could allow the malicious app to gain the device password if a remote password reset command had been issued through the BlackBerry Protect website, intercept and prevent the smartphone from acting on BlackBerry Protect commands, such as a remote smartphone wipe. " The company says that version 10.0.9.2743 is not affected and that they have found no evidence of attackers exploiting this vulnerability in...

Apple revealed on monday that it received between 4,000 and 5,000 data requests in six months from  U.S. law enforcement for user information and affected accounts. Apple said the most common forms of requests involved investigating robberies and other crimes.  Period between December 1, 2012 and May 31, 2013, federal, state and local law enforcement had requested customer information up to 5,000 times, related to between 9,000 and 10,000 accounts or devices. But the iPhone maker said it works vigorously to protect the privacy of its users and only provides information by court order.  " We will continue to work hard to strike the right balance between fulfilling our legal responsibilities and protecting our customers' privacy as they expect and deserve, " statement from Apple. Apple doesn't provide some types of information either because the company doesn't retain it or because it is encrypted , the company said.  Apple also specified certain ...