Search results for illegal hacking | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Is it wrong to hack back in order to counter hacking attack when you have become a victim? — this has been a long time debate. While many countries, including the United States, consider hacking back practices as illegal, many security firms and experts believe it as "a terrible idea" and officially "cautions" victims against it, even if they use it as a part of an active defense strategy. Accessing a system that does not belong to you or distributing code designed to enable unauthorized access to anyone's system is an illegal practice. However, this doesn't mean that this practice is not at all performed. In some cases, retribution is part of current defense offerings, and many security firms do occasionally hack the infrastructure of threat groups to unmask several high-profile malware campaigns. But a new proposed bill intended to amend section 1030 of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act that would allow victims of ongoing cyber-attacks to fight ...

Breaking in to an encrypted router and using the WiFi connection is not an criminal offence, a Dutch court ruled. WiFi hackers can not be prosecuted for breaching router security. A court in The Hague ruled earlier this month that it is legal to break WiFi security to use the internet connection. The court also decided that piggybacking on open WiFi networks in bars and hotels can not be prosecuted. In many countries both actions are illegal and often can be fined. The ruling is linked to a case of a student who threatened to shoot down everyone at the Maerlant College in The Hague, a high school. He posted a threat on the internet message board 4chan.org using a WiFi connection that he broke into. The student was convicted for posting the message and sentenced to 20 hours of community service, but he was acquitted of the WiFi hacking charges. The Judge reasoned that the student didn't gain access to the computer connected to the router, but only used the routers internet con...

A 29-year-old former CIA computer programmer who was charged with possession of child pornography last year has now been charged with masterminding the largest leak of classified information in the agency's history. Joshua Adam Schulte , who once created malware for both the CIA and NSA to break into adversaries computers, was indicted Monday by the Department of Justice on 13 charges of allegedly stealing and transmitting thousands of classified CIA documents , software projects , and hacking utilities . Schulte has also been suspected of leaking the stolen archive of documents to anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks, who then began publishing the classified information in March 2017 in a series of leaks under the name " Vault 7 ." It is yet unconfirmed whether Schulte leaked documents to WikiLeaks and if yes, then when, but he had already been a suspect since January 2017 of stealing classified national defense information from the CIA in 2016. According to ...

We at The Hacker News get a lot of requests via emails and messages from people who want to hack into someone else's Facebook account or Gmail account or break into somebody's network. However, 80 to 90 percent requests we receive every day are from people who want to hack into their girlfriend, boyfriend, wife, or husband's Facebook account in order to read their private conversations and reveal their secret relationships, if any. Even though we strongly deny any such requests because accessing someone else's account without their knowledge or permission is a crime… ...but there are demands from people – those cheated by their love, betrayal of trust, driven by greed or revenge – to break into the Facebook accounts of other people. So, what about Hiring a Hacker? As money could buy everything, a service received a lot of popularity earlier this year – even featured on the front page of the New York Times – claims to connect these needy people to professional ...

A database of 1.4 billion email addresses combined with real names, IP addresses, and often physical address has been exposed in what appears to be one the largest data breach of this year. What's worrisome? There are high chances that you, or at least someone you know, is affected by this latest data breach. Security researcher Chris Vickery of MacKeeper and Steve Ragan of CSOOnline discovered an unsecured and publicly exposed repository of network-available backup files linked to a notorious spamming organization called River City Media (RCM), led by notorious spammers Matt Ferrisi and Alvin Slocombe. Spammer's Entire Operation Exposed The database contains sensitive information about the company's operations, including nearly 1.4 Billion user records, which was left completely exposed to anyone – even without any username or password. According to MacKeeper security researcher Vickery, RCM, which claims to be a legitimate marketing firm, is responsible for s...

The German police yesterday raided the house of the developer of OmniRAT and seized his laptop, computer and mobile phones probably as part of an investigation into a recent cyber attack, a source told The Hacker News. OmniRAT made headlines in November 2015 when its developer launched it as a legitimate remote administration tool for IT experts and companies to manage their devices with explicit permissions. Available between $25 and $100, OmniRAT quickly became one of the most popular remote administration tools, allowing users to monitor Android, Windows, Linux, and Mac devices remotely and access every available information on them. However, just like any other remote administration tool like DroidJack, DarkComet, AndroRAT, and njRAT, some customers of OmniRAT also used the tool for illicit purposes, especially because it was available at a far cheaper price than other RATs in the market. In one such event earlier this year, a group of hackers attempted to target severa...

Want to hack someone's Facebook account? or Gmail account? or break into somebody's network? But don't have hacking skills to do so. There's no need to worry at all. A new service is out there for you guys where you can search for professional hackers and hire them to accomplish any hacking task. Dubbed Hacker's List , a new service that offers to connect customers and "professional" hackers for hire. The service would made any tech-illiterate person capable to break into his boss' email address. This really sounds like something that happens mostly in movies. As if I'm hiring a hacker to accomplish crimes for me. " Hiring a hacker shouldn't be a difficult process, we believe that finding a trustworthy professional hacker for hire should be a worry free and painless experience, " reads a description on the website. " At Hacker's List we want to provide you with the best opportunity to find your ideal hacker and for professional hackers...

The co-founder of The Pirate Bay torrent site Gottfrid Svartholm Warg (Anakata) and his 21-year-old Danish co-defendant have been found guilty by a Danish court of hacking into systems operated by American IT giant CSC and illegally downloading files. It was the biggest hacking case ever conducted in the history of Denmark . By breaking into the servers maintained by CSC, Svartholm Warg illegally accessed police email accounts and stolen email addresses and passwords of over 10,000 policemen, explored the European border control database, and downloaded millions of social security numbers belonging to Danish citizens. The initial hack attack took place for about six months. " This is the largest hacking case to date. The crime is very serious, and this must be reflected in the sentence, " Prosecutor Maria Cingali said. Gottfrid Svartholm allegedly committed the crime along with his his 21-year-old co-defendant between February and August 2012. His co-defendant ...

It should be noted that hacking a system for unauthorised access that does not belong to you is an illegal practice, no matter what's the actual intention behind it. Now I am pointing out this because reportedly someone, who has been labeled as a 'vigilante hacker' by media, is hacking into vulnerable 'Internet of Things' devices in order to supposedly secure them. This is not the first time when any hacker has shown vigilance, as we have seen lots of previous incidents in which hackers have used malware to compromise thousands of devices, but instead of hacking them, they forced owners to make them secure. Dubbed Hajime , the latest IoT botnet malware, used by the hacker, has already infected at least 10,000 home routers, Internet-connected cameras, and other smart devices. But reportedly, it's an attempt to wrestle their control from Mirai and other malicious threats. Mirai is an IoT botnet that threatened the Internet last year with record-sett...

The Hacker News Magazine September Issue - NO ONE IS SECURE Well folks, after this issue and the obvious intensity of the insecurity of the net, I have a few thoughts on the unfettered access to knowledge. It is more than apparent we all live in a time where the extensive dissemination of opinions, thoughts and ideas and information are done through a modern method of transmission. The simplicity and effectiveness by which computers and networks are used to assemble, store, search, associate, recover, and share information make computer technology especially risky to anyone who wishes to keep personal or protect information from the public sphere or out of the clutches of anyone who is perceived as a probable threat. As this issues explores, the evolving and more advanced capabilities of computer viruses, phishing, fraud schemes, spyware, and hacking activity springing up from every corner of the globe and the diversity of privacy-related issues engendered by computer technolo...

Last October, the ' Silk Road ' story broke when its owner Ross William Ulbricht , a 29-year-old who allegedly created and managed the Silk Road underground website, was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The police seized the website that was considered one of the most popular Underground places on the Internet for buying drugs and other illicit goods and services. Just some days after the Shutdown of Silk Road , Authorities in Britain, Sweden, and the United States arrested eight more vendors who dedicatedly used to sell illegal drugs on Silk Road. Yesterday, Cornelis Jan Slomp , a 22-year old Dutch man who allegedly used the Silk Road underground black market website to sell illegal drugs for bitcoins worth millions of dollars has agreed to plead guilty in Chicago federal court to federal drug conspiracy charge filed against him, according to a statement issued by U.S. Attorney Zachary T. Fardon in Chicago and Slomp's lawyer. FBI CASHING OUT ...

We often talk about Underground communities, illegal websites or black markets, but as they are 'Underground' in nature i.e. Hidden websites running under Onion Network, many of us don't know how to reach the one we are searching for and if hopefully found, then its difficult to figure out a trustworthy vendor. Underground websites offer illegal high quality drugs or rifles, hacking tools, or any illegal services, until now you needed to type long, complex and specific Tor browser URLs directly into the browser which is quite difficult and sometimes the sites change their addresses which makes more difficult to navigate. Not any More! As the first search engine, ' Grams ' ( https://grams7enufi7jmdl.onion ) for online underground Black Markets has been launched in Beta last week, that lets anyone to easily find illegal drugs and other contraband online in an easier way ever and it's pretty fast like Google Search Engine. You don't need to do anything, just li...

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Monday unsealed indictments against seven Chinese nationals for their involvement in a hacking group that targeted U.S. and foreign critics, journalists, businesses, and political officials for about 14 years. The defendants include Ni Gaobin (倪高彬), Weng Ming (翁明), Cheng Feng (程锋), Peng Yaowen (彭耀文), Sun Xiaohui (孙小辉), Xiong Wang (熊旺), and Zhao Guangzong (赵光宗).  The suspected cyber spies have been charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusions and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with a state-sponsored threat group tracked as  APT31 , which is also known as Altaire,  Bronze Vinewood , Judgement Panda, and Violet Typhoon (formerly Zirconium). The hacking collective has been  active since at least 2010 . Specifically, their responsibilities entail testing and exploiting the malware used to conduct the intrusions, managing the attack infrastructure, and conducting surveillance of specific U.S. entities, fed...

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Wednesday said that an Israeli national pleaded guilty for his role as an "administrator" of a portal called DeepDotWeb ( DDW ), a "news" website that "served as a gateway to numerous dark web marketplaces." According to the unsealed court documents, Tal Prihar , 37, an Israeli citizen residing in Brazil, operated DDW alongside Michael Phan , 34, of Israel, starting October 2013, in return for which they received kickbacks from the operators of the marketplaces in the form of virtual currency amounting to 8,155 bitcoins (worth $8.4 million at the time of the transactions). In an attempt to conceal the illicit payments, Prihar is said to have transferred the money to other bitcoin accounts and to bank accounts under his control in the name of shell companies. "Tal Prihar served as a broker for illegal Darknet marketplaces — helping such marketplaces find customers for fentanyl, firearms, and other dangerous...

We know that Hackers hack for a variety of reasons: ...some hack to test their skills, …some hack to gain recognition, ...some hack to make money, ...some hack to support their Nation-State strategy, ...and, some hack alone, and some hack in Groups. And Chinese Hackers are the ones who are infamous for their dedication towards Hacking. Chinese hacking groups are better known for attacking and stealing information, organized cyber crimes, theft of intellectual property and state-sponsored cyber espionage attacks. But it seems that several Chinese hacker groups have now shifted their motive of hacking towards ' making money '. How much Money Hackers Actually Make? It is a known fact that hacking makes money, but how much? Answer: At least $4,500,000/year   from one malware campaign. How? We often observe mobile and desktop applications bundled with Ad-displaying programs, called Adware, to generate revenue. Just last week we repo...