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Articles on Hacking
Who is Michael Knowlton and Why Did He Hack My Website? 825 Views (comments)
If you were hit by the recent Wordpress hack which redirects your visitors to paymoneysystem.info and paymoneysystem.info/in.cgi?michaeleknowlton, you may be wondering just who exactly Michael Knowlton is, and why (and how) he hacked your website. Here's the run-down.
Was Your Site Hacked? Redirecting to itsallbreaksoft.net or paymoneysystem.info? Here’s What Happened. 3,519 Views (This
article has 20 comments)
There is a brand new Wordpress hack attack making the rounds, that redirects all traffic to your site through itsallbreaksoft.net and paymoneysystem.info, and then on to any number of junk sites full of advertisements. The intermediate redirect to paymoneysystem.info actually goes through the URL paymoneysystem.info/in.cgi?michaeleknowlton, suggesting that someone using the name Michael Knowlton is going to be benefiting from any monies earned by the ads. Here's how it was done, and how to fix it. Fortunately, the immediate fix is very easy.
The Story of Tracy Turkish Brooks, Her “Other Pussy”, and Her Hacked Facebook Account 92,148 Views (This
article has 19 comments)
By now you may have read about how Tracy Turkish Brooks and her "other pussy" had an embarrassing Facebook moment when she - supposedly - posted a very steamy note to "Michael", and accidentally published it for the world to see instead of sending it via private Facebook email. The post, which was real enough, read "Thank you too, Micheal, I had a great time as well.I'm glad you enjoyed my OTHER pussy ;). I must admit, I haven't had sex in a while, so getting mounted by such a strong and powerful man was a pleasant surprise after so many long months of ...abstinence. I hope this message doesn't scare you off, I just wanted you to know what a wonderful time I had with you.You are permanently invited to "the love cave between my legs"" However, while the post was real, by all accounts, the person who posted it was not Tracy Turkish Brooks - rather, her Facebook account was hacked.
Use Facebook and Gmail? Your Gmail Password May be at Risk! 9,642 Views (This
article has 3 comments)
If you use Gmail, and also use Facebook, it can be very easy for someone to password crack and access your Gmail account using Gmail's recover password retrieval feature. This is because Gmail's access password recovery feature allows anybody to guess the answer to your "forgot password" reset security question. And if the answer to your forgotten password reset security question happens to be information easily gleaned from your Facebook account (or some other social network information), then password hacking your Gmail account is as easy as typing in that password protection answer. (And we use the term "password protection" loosely.)
Former Hostage Terry Waite Pleads Pentagon Hacker’s Case 914 Views (This article has 1 comment)
Gary McKinnon, the self-confessed pot-smoking, Asperger's-diagnosed British hacker who went by the nickname "Solo", and who hacked into several U.S. military computer systems (including at the Pentagon and NASA) and now faces extradition to the U.S. to stand trial, has none other than former hostage and Anglican envoy Terry Waite pulling for him.
Worst Problem on the Internet is Stupid Users, Survey Says 4,822 Views (This
article has 10 comments)
Stupid users are the worst problem on the Internet, according to this survey of more than 600 Internet users.
Millions of Citibank Customers at Risk Due to Largest PIN Number Hacking in History 2,523 Views (comments)
A breaking news report (why is it breaking in England, not here in the U.S.?) reveals that millions of Citibank customers' accounts are at risk as a result of what the London Times is calling the "biggest and most effective remote PIN code theft scam in US banking history."
Barack Obama Website Hacked to Send Visitors to Hillary Clinton’s Site 1,698 Views (comments)
Ah, the audacity of hopeless childish pranks. The long and drawn-out contest between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to seek the Democratic nomination has for the last few weeks descended into trench warfare. The slinging of barbs and arrows is carried out on every media, including online, where an enterprising Clinton supporter recently hacked the Obama web site; visitors to the community blogs section were redirected to the Clinton web site.
Wordpress Comment Spam Hack Disables Plugins and Allows Massive Comment Spam Injection 3,600 Views (comments)
A new hack has Wordpress hackers disabling all of your Wordpress plugins (including, you see, Akismet or any other anti-spam comment spam stopper plugin), which then allows them to inject comment spam into your blog at will. So if you suddenly find yourself getting an enormous amount of comment spam all at once, or if you suddenly find your blog pages coming up blank (because with your plugins disabled, that often can be the case) you may be the victim of this latest plugin-disabling comment spam hack.
Feds Disown All of California’s Ca.Gov Network Due to Porn Hijacking Misunderstanding 1,994 Views (This article has 1 comment)
Last month someone hacked the DNS for the Transportation Authority of Marin (TAM) - a California state agency which lives at tam.ca.gov - allowing the hackers to use the TAM system to redirect traffic to some porn sites. As a result, the Federal government dropped the entire state of California's Internet domain from the entire DNS system!
How to Keep Your SSH Terminal Connected and from Being Automatically Disconnected by the Remote Computer 3,431 Views (comments)
Do you want to stay connected via ssh to a remote computer, even when you're idle? Whether you are on a Windows, Mac, or Linux machine, don't you just hate it when you are connected to a remote system via ssh, and you do something in another window, only to find when you return to your ssh session that you've been automatically disconnected by the remote system, and you have to log in all over again? Here's how make it so that you can stay connected to the remote computer with ssh no matter how long you are idle.
Dozens of Super Bowl Websites Hacked and Installing Trojan Backdoors on Windows Computers of Football Fans 3,325 Views (comments)
The Superbowl Trojan, as some are calling it, has been implanted on dozens of Super Bowl related websites, and is installing itself on any Windows computer that happens to visit any of the Super Bowl sites without adequate protection. The Super Bowl Trojan allows the hacker to take full control over any of these infected Windows PCs by connecting the machine to dv521.com, downloading the W1C.exe file, and installing the Wow-PK Trojan.
Control Your Roomba with a Nintendo Wii Remote - Video Takes the Internet by Storm 4,213 Views (comments)
Chris Hughes has created a video of how to control your Roomba vacuum with your Nintendo Wii remote control - as Roomba hacks go it's a good one - and the video is taking the Internet by storm. Oh, and if you want to try this Roomba hack at home, Chris has also provided the source code!
Zune Hacks - Yes, It’s True, You Can Hack and Modify Your Zune! 30,967 Views (This
article has 13 comments)
While it remains to be seen whether the Microsoft Zune will be the iPod killer that they hope it to be, there is one way in which it has already taken the lead: Zune hacks. The Zune can be hacked (i.e. modified) in many ways, while most are afraid to hack their iPod at all.
Help Wanted: Hack Our One $100 2B1 Laptop Per Child Laptop 3,487 Views (This
article has 2 comments)
The 2B1 "one laptop per child" initiative, also known as the $100 laptop project, is looking for experienced hackers to try to hack the $100 2B1 laptop, so that they can trouble shoot its security issues. But what I want to know is, how many of those laptops will stay with the children, and how many will get sold by their families for food?
Home PCs at Greatest Risk of Security Attack 2,141 Views (comments)
A new report out by online security firm Symantec indicates that the fastest and largest growing sector of online security attacks are attacks against home users and their computers.
Hometown Favorites - Would You Like Phish with Your Candy? 4,421 Views (This
article has 3 comments)
Hometown Favorites is being used as phish bait, and it appears that someone has breached their customer list. The phish being sent out in their name warns customers that "We recently tried to charge your credit card for your HomeTownFavorites.com order, and it was rejected by the bank because it has no complete infomation."
Motion Picture Association (MPAA) Accused of Hacking - Hires exTorrentSpy Employee Robert Anderson to Break Into TorrentSpy Servers 3,849 Views (comments)
TorrentSpy, run by Valence Media, has accused the MPAA of hacking into their computers by hiring an ex-employee, Robert Anderson, to hack into their servers. Not uncoincidentally, TorrentSpy was on the receiving end of a lawsuit by the MPAA just a few months previous.
Gary McKinnon, the NASA Hacker Known as Solo, to be Extradited 2,804 Views (This
article has 2 comments)
Gary McKinnon, the hacker known as "Solo", who infamously hacked into NASA and Pentagon computers, and who claimed that once there he found dozens of other hackers, and proof of aliens, has lost his fight against extradition to the United States for prosecution.
Keyboard Sound Spying Gives Away What’s Being Typed 2,904 Views (This
article has 2 comments)
Key clicks and other keyboard sounds reveal everything you are typing, all with a simple decoding program which turns keyclicks into their associated letters. In fact, the keyboard clicks allow spies to very accurately determine what you are typing. Researches say that keyboard click spying has a 96% accuracy.
Paris Hilton’s Teen DFNCTS Hacker Pleads Guilty - Member of Defonic Crew Team Screen Name Club 4,067 Views (This
article has 5 comments)
The Defonic Crew, also known as the Defonic Team Screen Name Club, or just DFNCTSC for short, is the hacking group to which the young hacker who hacked Paris Hilton's Sidekick belonged. Now the youngest member of Defonic Crew has pleaded guilty to the hacking.
Millions of Windows Users at Risk by Massive ID and Bank Account Theft Piggybacking on CoolWebSearch 2,753 Views (This
article has 4 comments)
The implications are staggering. Internet security software company Sunbelt Software was investigating CoolWebSearch, a spyware package, when they noticed that stowing away in the CoolWebSearch download were two trojans, a spam zombie engine, and a keystroke logging program. It was the ...
What is Bluejacking? 4,232 Views (comments)
Aunty has had several people ask her recently what "Bluejacking" is. Bluejacking is really just another name for Bluespam, or for what the Car Whisperer does.
Wikipedia defines "Bluejacking" as "the sending of unsolicited messages over Bluetooth to Bluetooth-enabled devices such as mobile ...
The Car Whisperer: Eavesdrop On and Take Part In Nearby Bluetooth Conversations (a/k/a Bluejacking) 7,942 Views (comments)
Meet the Car Whisperer. Aunty told you it could happen. Remember the BlueSniper "Rifle" which could sniff out and Bluejack Bluetooth devices up to a half-mile away?
And the Bluetooth Bluespam being sent to movie-goer's phones? [Oh sure, ...
Hackers, Government Unite to Take Down Terrorist Websites 3,821 Views (This
article has 2 comments)
Hacking and politics have contrived to make strange bedfellows. According to a report by the British news organization, The Sun, hackers have come forward and started to take down web sites which are fomenting terrorism, and inciting terrorist acts - something ...
Are the Chinese Stealing U.S. Corporate Secrets Through Internet Worms? 2,603 Views (This article has 1 comment)
Are the Chinese stealing U.S. corporate trade and other secrets through the use of computer worms and trojans?
According to at least one security expert, the answer is "yes".
Joe Stewart, with U.S. security company Lurhq, claims that a new worm called "Myfip" is being ...
Hack Causes Doctor’s Answering System to Answer with Passionate Moans 2,284 Views (This article has 1 comment)
The concept of "first, do no harm" apparently doesn't extend to those who provide support services for doctors, as a founder of a medical answering service has been charged with hacking into a competitor's service, and rearranging the system so that calls to ...
Nasa Hacker: “I Found More Hackers There. And Aliens Too” 4,879 Views (This
article has 6 comments)
Gary McKinnon, the extra-terrestrial-seeking Nasa hacker who was apprehended last month, has explained how he managed to hack into Nasa's computers, along with those of several other government agencies, and what he found there.
According to the 39-year old ...
University of California at San Diego Computers Hacked, UCSD Students and Staff Compromised 1,939 Views (comments)
The University of California at San Diego announced this week that hackers have again broken into their computer system, compromising the personal data of thousands of UCSD students, staff, and faculty. The UCSD machines which the hackers accessed contained the trifecta payload ...
Republican Specter and Democrat Leahy Unite in Proposing New Personal Data Privacy and Security Law 1,572 Views (This
article has 2 comments)
Following this year's rash of personal data security breaches, starting with the ChoicePoint and Lexis-Nexis leaks, and culiminating with the CardSystems hack and exposure of the credit card information of more than 40million customers, Democratic Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy has teamed up with ...
Lawsuit Filed Against CardSystems Over Hack and Leak 2,011 Views (comments)
As Aunty reported last week, the personal data of 40 million consumers was compromised when CardSystems Solutions had their computer system hacked. CardSystems provides back-end processing for MasterCard and Visa transactions.
Now a lawsuit has been filed in San Francisco against CardSystems, requesting ...
Security Expert Comments on 40 Million Credit Card Records Stolen and Customers Await Answers (News Release) 2,348 Views (This
article has 2 comments)
Some interesting observations about the recent CardSystems hack in this news release:
SAN FRANCISCO, June 24 /PRNewswire/ -- A week after CardSystems
Solutions, Inc. disclosed that thieves made off with credit-card information
affecting up to 40 million cardholders, the company has ...
CardSystems Compromises Data of 40 Million MasterCard and Visa Cardholders 3,212 Views (This article has 1 comment)
In case you were listening to the radio or televion news today, yes, you heard it right, and your ears were not deceiving you. The credit card information of 40 million MasterCard and Visa cardholders was compromised when someone hacked into the ...
ISP Not Responsible for Policing Zombies Says Jury of ITs Peers 2,388 Views (comments)
A mock trial, in which ISPs were sued for damage done by a zombie network to a few fictitious companies' business and financial interests, found that a jury of IT professionals overwhelmingly held the opinion that the ISPs were not responsible for the ...
Pentagon and NASA “UFO Hacker” Gary ‘Solo’ McKinnon Apprehended 4,116 Views (This
article has 8 comments)
Gary McKinnon, Nasa's ET hacker, has been arrested in London.
Firefox and Mozilla Still at Risk for Spoofing “Frame Injection” Security Flaw 1,867 Views (This
article has 3 comments)
Online security company Secunia has said this week that versions of Firefox and Mozilla, as well as the lesser known Camino, are again at risk for a frame injection security flaw which has dogged Mozilla on and off for nearly seven years.
The problem, ...
Corporate Espionage: International Giants Implicated in Israeli Industrial Spy Ring 2,754 Views (comments)
Talk about spyware versus spyware. Authorities in Isreal have arrested dozens of people, including high level executives of multinational corporations, in what increasingly is developing into the Internet Trojan spyware custerfluck of the year. Only on the Internet can a Trojan ...
Stanford Computer System Hacked - Personal Information of Thousands Compromised 2,156 Views (comments)
Stanford University has joined that special inner circle - no, not the top tier schools - those which have had their computer systems hacked and data compromised. Earlier this month a hacker broke in to the Stanford Career Development Center's computer, compromising ...
Internet Infection Holds Your Files Hostage for Ransom - On Your Own Computer! 3,109 Views (This
article has 6 comments)
Federal authorities are investigating what they have dubbed an "Internet infection" which holds personal computer files hostage for ransom. This Internet infection is the first known instance of a virus or other malware which gets onto your computer, locks up your files, ...
Biggest Bank Breach Beleaguers Bank of America, Others 2,581 Views (comments)
In what may be the biggest leak of personal data to date, police are reporting that a whopping 676,000 bank customers have had their personal information stolen from Bank of America, Wachovia, Commerce Bancorp, and PNC Financial Services. B of A has ...
Internet Vigilantes Hack and Deface Phishing Sites 5,770 Views (This
article has 2 comments)
Groups and individuals being dubbed as Internet vigilantes are taking matters into their own hands when it comes to phishers and their phishy sites, and are using their hacking powers for good (they would argue) by hacking into phishing sites and defacing and ...
Paris Hilton’s Sidekick’s Teenaged Hacker Talks 3,602 Views (This article has 1 comment)
As many of the Internet Patrol's regular readers know, Paris Hilton's Sidekick was hacked, and the data was posted to the Internet, several months ago. And they also know that one Nicholas Lee Jacobsen pleaded guilty to the T-Mobile hacking ...
WidgetJacking: Zaptastic Shows Us the Big Hole in Tiger’s Dashboard 3,378 Views (This
article has 3 comments)
That gaping hole in Tiger's Dashboard is no air vent - it's a wide-open, highly exploitable security threat for users of Apple's newest version of OS X for Mac. And we have Stephan.com's Zaptastic and Goatse widgets to thank for showing us ...
Evil Twin Wifi Shows Up at IT Conference 2,047 Views (This article has 1 comment)
Aunty told you about wifi hotspot evil twins, but you didn't quite believe her, did you?
Well, attendees of the Wireless LAN Event in England this past week are believers now, after hackers infiltrated the conference, and set up an evil twin hotspot right ...
Florida Veterinarian Nails WarDriver Outside His Home 4,072 Views (This
article has 7 comments)
A St. Petersburg, Florida veterinarian nailed a wardriver he caught parked outside his home, jacked into his Internet connection. Realizing that there was someone surreptitiously using his Internet connection, the unnamed veterinarian called St. Petersburg police, who quickly came and arrested Benjamin ...
What is Pharming? DNS Poisoning and DNS Cache Poisoning Explained 3,477 Views (This
article has 3 comments)
There has been a lot about "pharming", which is another term for DNS poisoning, also known as DNS cache poisoning, in the news lately. But what exactly is DNS poisoning? Put simply, DNS cache poisoning is when a DNS server is ...
Wifi Hotspot Evil Twins Mimic Wi-fi Hotspots and Steal Your Data 10,892 Views (This
article has 7 comments)
Does your favourite wifi hotspot have an evil twin? How would you know an evil twin wi-fi hotspot if you saw one? Just what is a wifi hotspot evil twin, anyways?
Remember the Patty Duke show? When Patty and her identical ...
Are You an Ameritrade Customer? Ralph Lauren? LexisNexis? If So You Could Become a Victim of Identity Theft 2,785 Views (This
article has 7 comments)
Joining the ranks of Choicepoint and LexisNexis, Ameritrade and Ralph Lauren (Polo) have both acknowledged that private data belonging to their customers has been compromised, meaning that those customers could be at risk for identity theft. Also, LexisNexis this week announced that ...
War Driving: Can War Drivers Crash Your Wifi Party? 2,812 Views (This
article has 5 comments)
War driving is back in the news. It seems that the news outlets are only just now (re)discovering what war drivers have known for ages: war driving is hot. It's more than just the brute desire for open access to someone else's computer network, their Internet connection, or even their personal information which drives wardriving (although these are certainly a large part of it). It's also the thrill of the game.
Website Allows You to Crack Windows Password Hashes 16,869 Views (This
article has 6 comments)
If you have ever looked at any of your stored Windows passwords, you know that they are encrypted and look nothing like your actual password. That is because your system "hashes" the password, and the resulting gobbleygook is in fact known as ...
Bluejacking with the BlueSniper Bluetooth Hacker “Sniper Rifle” Can Sniff Bluetooth Devices Up to 1/2 Mile Away 26,934 Views (This
article has 11 comments)
The BlueSniper Bluetooth sniffing and hacking "sniper rifle" is truly the Bluetooth hacker's Bluetooth hack. Equipped with a yagi antenna, and powered by a little bitty Gumstix motherboard, the BlueSniper can detect vulnerable Bluetooth devices up to a kilometer away. ...
ChoicePoint Syndrome: Lexis Nexis Hemorrhages Personal Information of Thousands to Identity Thieves 3,255 Views (This article has 1 comment)
Lexis Nexis has been compromised and has hemorrhaged the personal information of tens of thousands of individuals whose data was stored with Lexis Nexis. Identity theft is a real possibilty for these people. Many will remember that this exact same thing ...
Harvard Hacked Off by Hacking, Rejects MBA Applicants for Admission 2,353 Views (This
article has 4 comments)
Remember the MBA applicants who hacked in to the admissions database for Harvard, Stanford, Duke, and other business schools? Well, the dean of Harvard's business school has indicated that any applicant who hacked in to find out their application results ...
Fred Durst Sex Video Posted to Internet by Paris Hilton’s “T-Mobile Terrorist” Hacker 36,698 Views (This
article has 7 comments)
Fred Durst, frontman for rock band Limp BizKit, is finding himself in a new leading role, in a sex video in which Durst is seen having sex with an unidentifed woman, and which has been posted to the Internet by someone calling themselves ...
Hacked MBA Admissions Info at Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and Duke 2,689 Views (This article has 1 comment)
Dozens of future MBA students flunked their first business ethics test when they hacked in to the admissions information for Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Duke, and Dartmouth, among others, following instructions which had been written by a hacker calling himself "brookbond".
Brookbond, after determing ...
Digital Peeping Tom Spies on Girls Through Their Own Webcams 31,786 Views (This
article has 3 comments)
Remember the man who used his webcam and free webcam software to catch a burgler? In a twist, a peeping Tom has been caught spying on girls using their own webcams, connected to their own computers. He was able to do ...
ChoicePoint Sued Over Hacking, Identity Theft 2,242 Views (comments)
Do you remember when Aunty told you that ChoicePoint had been hacked, leading to dozens of thousands of people having their private information which had been stored on ChoicePoint's servers compromised, including credit card numbers, social security numbers, and other personal information?
And do ...
Everyone Loves Paris in Springtime - Along with Her Hacked Sidekick Address Book 5,367 Views (This
article has 3 comments)
What do you think the hot news is on the mean streets of the Internet? The Apple lawsuit against pre-med student Vivek "Desicanuck" Sambhara for putting a beta version of Mac OS X 10.4 ("Tiger") on Bit Torrent? The teenager who ...
Paris Hilton’s Sidekick Hacked - Data Posted to Internet 7,905 Views (This
article has 17 comments)
Yes, it's true. During the time that the Tmobile system supporting the Tmobile Sidekick was hacked by Nicholas Lee Jacobsen, who just pleaded guilty for the Tmobile hacking, one of the accounts to which he had access was none other than ...
T-Mobile Sidekick Hacker Pleads Guilty 2,935 Views (comments)
Those of you who recall Aunty telling you about the T-Mobile Sidekick hacker will be interested to know that not only has he been apprehended, but he has pleaded guilty.
Twenty-one year old Nicholas Lee Jacobsen, an engineer now living in Oregon, formerly of ...
ChoicePoint Hacking Puts Californians at Risk for Identity Theft 1,992 Views (comments)
As many as 35,000 Californians may have had their credit card numbers, social security numbers, and other personal information compromised when hackers accessed identification and credential verification service provider ChoicePoint's data servers.
Hacks into ChoicePoint's system have already lead to six documented cases of ...
Teen Steals Exam Answers with Key Logger 2,345 Views (This
article has 4 comments)
And here Aunty thought that public school education in our country had gone down hill. Apparently our public schools are in fact turning out students well-suited to the demands of the next generation of technologists - or a life of crime.
A sixteen-year-old ...
T-Mobile’s Trusty Sidekick Caught in Compromising Position 2,677 Views (comments)
I'm a big fan of the T-Mobile Sidekick, nee "Danger Hiptop". I carry mine with me wherever I go (well, almost). Once thought of as the poor man's Blackberry, the Sidekick has really come into its own, offering all if not ...
Panix in a Panic as Entire ISP Domain Gets Hijacked 1,583 Views (comments)
Internet service provider Panix.com found that their entire domain was hijacked over the weekend. The ISP, which serves the greater New York City area, found that the domain had been moved from their own registrar to one in Australia, that their DNS ...
Hacker Compromises 32,000 User Accounts 2,174 Views (This
article has 2 comments)
A hacker has compromised the personal information and identification of as many as 32,000 users whose details were stored on computers at George Mason University, in Fairfax, Virginia.
The computer system which was compromised was that holding all of the information associated with university ...
Two More Windows Patches from Microsoft 1,665 Views (This article has 1 comment)
In addition to the critical fix for the Help flaw which implicated Active X, and which Aunty posted about here, Microsoft today announced two additional security patches for Windows users.
The first one involves both a cursor and icon handling vulnerability, along with a ...
Microsoft Announces Patch for “Help Flaw” Security Hole 1,768 Views (This article has 1 comment)
Not a moment too soon, Microsoft has announced a fix for that pesky "help flaw" involving ActiveX which Aunty first reported on here and again here just yesterday.
Making this flaw even more devestating than some others is the fact that it affects so ...
Internet Explorer 6 Security Flaw Given “Extremely Critical” Status 1,738 Views (comments)
Security company Secunia, Inc. has raised the security threat warning for recently revealed Internet Explorer 6 security flaws to "extremely critical", their highest threat level.
This is the result of yet another "security" site publishing yet another set of instructions for how to exploit ...
Hardware Hacker Does Hard Time 2,301 Views (This
article has 4 comments)
Some of you may remember when infamous hacker Kevin Mitnick was all over the news. Mitnick spend a bit over 5 1/2 years in prison for his hacking exploits.
Well, a Michigan man has just received the longest prison sentence ever handed down ...
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