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Edward Snowden, the self confessed NSA Whistleblower of secret surveillance documents, claimed Wednesday that the United States intelligence agents have been hacking computer networks around the world, specially Chinese targets since 2009. Snowden alleged that the Prism program , which collects information on users of numerous technological services such as Google, Facebook and Twitter, targeted universities, businesses and public officials throughout mainland China and Hong Kong. Out of More than 61,000 targets of the National Security Agency , there are thousands of computers in China which U.S. officials have increasingly criticized as the source of thousands of attacks on U.S. military and commercial networks. China has denied such attacks. " We hack network backbones like huge Internet routers, basically that give us access to the communications of hundreds of thousands of computers without having to hack every single one ," he revealed. But why Snowden leaking all this infor...

Malware authors are notorious for quickly leveraging new exploits in the public domain for nefarious purposes. A recently discovered Linux kernel Local privilege escalation exploit , which allows attackers to gain complete control of infected devices, has been ported to the Android smartphone platform. The Linux kernel 2.6.x, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, Debian 6 and Suse Enterprise Linux 11 are vulnerable to privilege escalation flaw with CVE-2013-2094 .  CVE-2013-2094 states, " The perf_swevent_init function in kernel/events/core.c in the Linux kernel before 3.8.9 uses an incorrect integer data type, which allows local users to gain privileges via a crafted perf_event_open system call. " Exploit for Linux machines is publically available here . Privilege escalation exploits are particularly dangerous as they can allow cybercriminals to gain complete control over the compromised device.  The exploit can be used to to access d...

Windows 8 PCs contain a new technology called Secure Boot that only boots devices that have been verified by Microsoft. Also Microsoft's own Offline Defender won't boot on Windows 8 PCs with Secure Boot on. Neither will Norton's Bootable Recovery Tool. We asked the guys at FixMeStick how their external hardware-based anti-malware device can boot on brand new Windows 8 hardware with Secure boot on, as well as 10 year old PCs with 32 processors running XP. Here's their answer: 1. It got a Master Boot Record. : In other words, it boots on BIOS-based PCs, essentially all PCs prior to Windows 8. 2. and it got UEFI boot partition : It also got a UEFI boot partition, so it will boot on PCs with the latest UEFI firmware too. 3. It's 32 bit : There's a 32 bit operating system on the stick so it will work with 32 bit microprocessors. Most rescue ISOs\disks are 32 bit only, so by default they work on 32 bit processors and 64 bit processors. 4. and it's 64...

If you own an iPhone or an Android device, then the chances are high that you're familiar with the extremely popular cross-platform messaging app, WhatsApp. According to a whitehat hacker Mohammed Saeed , Whatsapp media server ( media.whatsapp.com ) interface was vulnerable to Traversal local file inclusion. This vulnerability occurs when a page include is not properly sanitized, and allows directory traversal characters to be injected. Flaw allowed hacker to gather usernames via an " /etc/passwd " file and also another sensitive files like log files i.e   "/apache/logs/error.log" or " /apache/logs/access.log ". Flaw was reported by Mohammed with proof of conpect to Whatsapp security team on 27th May and was addressed this week. If you are also penetration tester and have something buggy that can help Whatsapp team to make there service more secure, feel free to contact them at  support@whatsapp.com .

A YouTube video posted by a group calling themselves Anonymous is getting a lot of attention online, claims to have outed two men who allegedly tried to lure underaged girls over the internet. In a video posted on Friday, a member of Anonymous describes a sting operation in which two Edmonton-area men were allegedly caught trying to meet up with 13- and 14-year-old girls for sex. Bob Andrews, the head of ALERT's Integrated Child Exploitation unit in Edmonton. "I think it's really important to let the police do their jobs, and not judge someone in a public forum. " Hacker also claims that they contacted Edmonton police about one meeting that was supposed to take place at West Edmonton Mall, but that police did nothing. " There has been no reply. This is unacceptable. Together, we must act, and we must act swiftly to protect our children. For your benefit, we will begin to reveal the identities of the people that were identified ," the video states. T...

The notorious Zeus Trojan , a family of banking malware known for stealing passwords and draining the accounts of its victims, has steadily increased in recent months. The malware family itself is frequently updated with mechanisms designed to evade detection by antivirus and network security appliances. Trend Micro experts spotted another new variant of  ZBOT Malware which is capable of spreading  itself automatically via USB Flash Drives or removable drives. According to report , this particular ZBOT variant arrives through a malicious PDF file disguised as a sales invoice document and when user opens this file using Adobe Reader, it triggers an exploit . Malware also has an auto update module, so that it can download and run an updated copy of itself. To self propagate, it creates a hidden folder with a copy of itself inside the USB drive with a shortcut pointing to the hidden ZBOT copy. Another variant of ZeuS #Malware spotted, with new feature of spread...