Target’s Buying Everyone a Year of Credit Monitoring

In the wake of the holiday hack of Target stores, the company is footing the bill for a year’s worth of credit monitoring and identity protection. The offer is good for “All Target guests who shopped in U.S. stores", however there does not appear to be any required verification for this stipulation and anecdotal evidence indicates that the offer is open to anyone. The program is being handled by Experian’s Protect my ID program.

You can sign up for here.

Honestly, I’m not familiar with the effectiveness of these programs versus the inherent risk of dumping of all your personal information into someone else’s database. Might be a good idea or it might be a placebo. Of course if you were already affected by the Target breach (or any of the many others in the past couple years), your identity may already be out there doing unspeakable things without you anyway. Do your research, read the fine print, and be sure to check out Target’s own FAQ on this program.

Install an Ad Blocking Browser Plugin for a Safer and Prettier Internet

The beginning of 2014 started with a whimper for many netizens as a compromised account on Yahoo’s advertising platform led to the email and messaging giant serving up malware to as many as two million users. This type of cyberterrorism has become more common that you might think. According to Cisco’s 2013 security report:

“Cisco found that online shopping sites are 21 times as likely, and search engines are 27 times as likely, to deliver malicious content than a counterfeit software site.  Viewing online advertisements? Advertisements are 182 as times likely to deliver malicious content than pornography.”

So what’s a web surfer to do? Stop searching and shopping and start pirating and wanking? Hey! HEY! Put that down! Geez, I can’t even make a joke around you people! Besides, it said MORE likely. You still need protection. Especially with a mind like that.

Advertising is the bread and butter that keeps the Internet free. Still, we all need to watch our own buttered bread first lest it become toast. There are a few options out there for filtering your daily browsing to strip ads from web pages. Personally, I’ve been using Adblock Plus on a number of browsers for quite some time and to great effect.

So, you might want to get on that now ‘cause… ya know, gobble gobble.

Also, that rather horrific Coke ad? That comes to us compliments of the “Bad Ads from the Good Ol’ Days” archive at rense.com and they’ve got some more stuff that’s just beyond belief.

Hacked Emergency Broadcast Service Message Warns of Zombie Apocalypse

Residents of Montana were surprised today to have their mid-day television viewing interrupted by a warning from the Emergency Broadcast System that zombies were coming to eat their brains. According to KRTV Channel 3, a CW network affiliate, “Someone apparently hacked into the Emergency Alert System and announced on KRTV and the CW that ‘dead bodies are rising from their graves’ in several Montana counties.” KRTV states that the message did not originate from the station and that there is no emergency. An investigation is continuing into the event to determine if other media outlets were affected.

Or did KRTV just cover up the truth?!

Open Season for Hackers Thanks to Java

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued an advisory late Thursday warning of an vulnerability in the Java 7 development kit and runtime environment  that could allow outside users to bypass a local system’s security. Here’s Brandon with his take on the topic.

Well our favorite annoying program, Java, is now dangerous to use. There is a bug in the latest version that allows hackers to easily hack into your computer by using Java. No more Pogo or random simulators or free mini games for a while. Word of advice, disable Java or bye bye credit card. But on the bright side... ahhh…  Well, this is normal. It will get fixed soon XD

Denied Free Music, Pirate Wages War on Piracy

Last weekend an individual going by the handle of Zeiko began his crusade to take pirate torrent trackers offline. While Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against pirate torrent trackers are nothing new, Zeiko’s case certainly is. A far cry from the usual copyright protection agencies, this botnet bombardier appears to be a jilted pirate. Torrent Freak explains:

“A person using the nickname Zeiko is claiming responsibility for the DDoS action, which was initially intended to force What.cd staff into giving out an invite.

Zeiko joined IRC (Internet Relay Chat) to convince site staff that he already had an account, but when the admins couldn’t find any record of it in the database Zeiko turned his anger on the site.

SOPA Resurrected as a Virus Based Extortion Racket

TorrentFreak is reporting that the nefarious shadow of failed IP blacklisting bill SOPA has been brought back to life for use in a computer virus that locks your system unless you pay up.

“The SOPA virus is so-called ransomware, meaning that it holds computers hostage and only promises to free data after victims hand over cash. In the U.S. and Canada people are instructed to pay with a MoneyPak prepaid voucher, and in other parts of the world they can use Western Union.

Those who don’t pay within three days are in trouble, the virus maker warns.

People who are affected should of course ignore all the above. Searching online for “Stop Online Piracy Automatic Protection System Removal”” is a better option, there are plenty of ways to defeat the resurrected SOPA and get your data back.

The SOPA virus is so-called ransomware, meaning that it holds computers hostage and only promises to free data after victims hand over cash. In the U.S. and Canada people are instructed to pay with a MoneyPak prepaid voucher, and in other parts of the world they can use Western Union.

Those who don’t pay within three days are in trouble, the virus maker warns.

“WARNING!!!: If you don’t pay the fine within 72 HOURS at the amount of 200 USD, all your computer data will be erased.”

People who are affected should of course ignore all the above. Searching online for “Stop Online Piracy Automatic Protection System Removal”” is a better option, there are plenty of ways to defeat the resurrected SOPA and get your data back.”

Caught on Video! World of Warcraft Laid Waste as Hackers Kill Everyone

Shocking news from the World of Warcraft: Everyone’s dead! Not from the Warring, nor the Crafting, nor even from the sudden outbreak of playable pandas, but from hacking.

This Sunday the world’s largest MMORPG, home to some 10+ million players, suffered a plague of biblical proportions as characters from all walks off life, both live and computer controlled, began dropping dead. What began in Orgrimmar and Stormwind on the Ragnaros-EU server soon spread across across all of WoW’s major cities and European servers. While actual details of the cause are scarce, details point to a small group of hackers in possession of a makeshift GM tool flying around executing players from on high with a hacked healing spell.

Blizzard, game designers and stewards of the World of Warcraft, were quick to hotfix the security hole and issues the following statement:

“Earlier today, certain realms were affected by an in-game exploit, resulting in the deaths of player characters and non-player characters in some of the major cities. This exploit has already been hotfixed, so it should not be repeatable. It's safe to continue playing and adventuring in major cities and elsewhere in Azeroth.
As with any exploit, we are taking this disruptive action very seriously and conducting a thorough investigation. If you have information relating to this incident, please email hacks@blizzard.com. We apologize for the inconvenience some of you experienced as a result of this and appreciate your understanding.”

YouTuber BornInCrimson was on hand in Stormwind for WoW’s Rapture and captured the following video of one of the possible perpetrators.

Anonymous vs Early Flicker over Stolen Logo and Slogan. Dumb or Brilliant?

OMG! What picture do I post?!

A trademark application has been filed, and granted, by French fashion company Early Flicker for the use of both the logo and slogan used by legendary hacktivist group Anonymous. While the trademark in question was granted by Institut National De La Propriete Industrielle (INPI) back in February, this issue has only been brought to light this week via Twitter user Asher_Wolf who obtained a PDF copy of the trademark. Early Flicker had an eBay store selling Anonymous-themed T-shirts.

Iranian Nuke Plant Rocks Out Thanks to AC/DC Malware

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Thunderstruck!!!

It looks like Iran’s nuclear power program has once again come under attack from malware. An email for antivirus producer F-Secure states that the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran was given some a surprise pick-me-up in the middle of the night when several computers began blasting out AC/DC’s legendary rock anthem Thunderstruck.

To ensure employees would have the maximum amount of time to enjoy the impromptu concert, the virus attack also shut down several computer systems.

Source: Tecca via Mashable

Hackers In Space? | Out Of This World Weekly

NASA released information about hackers attempting to gain access to all sorts of classified information and control systems. Apparently NASA was the target of 47 hacker attacks in 2011, of which 13 were successful. Some of these hackers gained “full system access” which includes the ability to edit or delete any files contained on secured computers. They also had the ability to add, edit, view, or delete any or all user accounts. Malware isn’t just a common problem at home, as the agency reported over 5,400 malware infections this year alone. So what is the actual cost? According to the report, all these various attacks “"have affected thousands of NASA computers, caused significant disruption to mission operations, and resulted in the theft of export-controlled and otherwise sensitive data, with an estimated cost to NASA of more than $7 million".

While some of the IP addresses were tracked to China, these hackers could have come from anywhere on the planet. Some previous investigations found hackers from such countries as: China, Great Britain, Italy, Nigeria, Portugal, Romania, Turkey and Estonia. Not only are intrusions coming from foreign countries but sensitive data is being taken when NASA employees have their laptops stolen. 48 laptops have been lost or stolen within the last two years, including some with command and control operations for the International Space Station. Apparently the reason these laptops are not secure is that encryption takes too long. As of right now, there is no technological security monitoring at NASA and it shows. Unfortunately, this means that yet more money will have to be spent on security when we are in a time where funding for actual space projects is rapidly diminishing.

Cyber Attack on USA! Duqu / Stuxnet Is Prime Suspect

We’ve been following the development of Cyber Warfare from Stuxnet to Duqu, warning about the dangers of a possible attack on U.S. soil. Well, now it’s happened. Over a period of two to three months, a water pump used in a U.S. water facility has been turning on and off rapidly and it finally broke. This pump was hooked up to a supervisory control and data acquisition software (SCADA) used by the utility which is exactly the type of system the Stuxnet and Duqu computer attacks were designed to infiltrate and control. Other minor glitches were reported in the water utility during this period. According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, this water station was located in Springfield, Illinois – almost in the center of the U.S. It is also known that the SCADA software vendor was hacked, with usernames and passwords stolen.

There are several concerns about this incident. The first is that the I.P. of the attacker is located in Russia. Another is that nobody at any other water pumping stations have been notified. In fact, no other SCADA operators seem to know about this attack. Because of this, there could be multiple facilities under similar attack right now. A different possibility could be that the hackers know how to disable water systems and have moved on to another critical aspect of the infrastructure. While the U.S. military has stated that military response to these type of attacks is a possibility, it’s very difficult to know if this was a state sponsored attack, a criminal enterprise, or recreational hackers. While the attack originated from Russia, it could have been carried out by agents of another country temporarily residing in Russia.

While there are many unknowns, we do know that this was possibly the first major cyber attack in the U.S. to destroy government property. Is this a prelude to a much larger attack? Only time will tell, but we do know that if it could happen once then it will probably happen again and if it could happen in Springfield, Il – then it could happen anywhere in the U.S.A.

Valve Finally Confirms Steam Hack 4 Days Later

Hardcore PC gamers have been gossiping about the closure of the gaming giant Valve’s forums for the past week. Following a hack that replaced the banner atop the forums with an advertisement for a hack site Sunday, November 6th, the forums were closed and have remained offline ever since without a word of explanation. Tonight Valve finally decided to speak. To the press, not their users.

“Dear Steam Users and Steam Forum Users,

Our Steam forums were defaced on the evening of Sunday, November 6. We began investigating and found that the intrusion goes beyond the Steam forums.

We learned that intruders obtained access to a Steam database in addition to the forums. This database contained information including user names, hashed and salted passwords, game purchases, email addresses, billing addresses and encrypted credit card information. We do not have evidence that encrypted credit card numbers or personally identifying information were taken by the intruders, or that the protection on credit card numbers or passwords was cracked. We are still investigating.

We don’t have evidence of credit card misuse at this time. Nonetheless you should watch your credit card activity and statements closely.

While we only know of a few forum accounts that have been compromised, all forum users will be required to change their passwords the next time they login. If you have used your Steam forum password on other accounts you should change those passwords as well.

We do not know of any compromised Steam accounts, so we are not planning to force a change of Steam account passwords (which are separate from forum passwords). However, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to change that as well, especially if it is the same as your Steam forum account password.

We will reopen the forums as soon as we can.

I am truly sorry this happened, and I apologize for the inconvenience.”

Fortunately this is a good deal better than the PSN hack from earlier this year due to passwords and credit card information actually being encrypted. Unfortunately, this is yet another example of how little respect businesses have for their customers.

Update: Valve has finally posted the above message on their forums to replace their generic “Forums are down for maintenance” post. The company still appears unwilling to directly email their users to notify them personally of the fact that their personal information has been stolen.

LulzSec: Still Crazy After All These Weeks

It’s been less than a month since Lulz Security (lulzsec) called it quits. While their Twitter feed never entirely went quiet, it seemed as if the Dementoes of DDOS had tired of the spotlight and sailed off. Things certainly seemed a little strange on Sunday night when @lulzsec roared back to life. My brief conversation with The Mrs. went a little something like this:

“Huh. LulzSec is Tweeting again. A lot.”

“Really? What about?”

“They seem to be doing a running commentary about a car chase on TV.”

“Um… Okay. You saw that double rainbow, too.”

“Yeah. Twitter’s gonna Fail Whale for sure. Something big is up.”

It was of little surprise to watchers today when the website for tabloid newspaper The Sun was redirected to a false story reporting the death of owner Rupert Murdoch. Later, The Sun was directed to LulzSec’s own Twitter feed. Obviously, this little prank is the tip of the iceberg. LAN admins at The Sun will probably not have a clue as to the true extent of the breach until their user data shows up on the Internet. LulzSec is claiming to have also “wrecked” News International’s DNS servers. If pattern follows, look for a torrent upload in the near future with x-thousand usernames and passwords from Murdoch’s media empire.

As to the reason of Lulz Boat’s return? LulzSec tweets:

“Thank you for the love tonight. I know we quit, but we couldn’t sit by with our wine watching this walnut-faced Murdoch clowning around.”

Maybe those hundreds of thousands of “professional” reporters who unfollowed Lulz Security’s Twitter immediately after they announced an end to their campaign will get a wake up call. Egads… This Is Internet! Get it or get off!
Personally, I’d prefer the latter. The ‘Net makes us all reporters. All they do these days is dumb it down and tart it up to sell commercials. We don’t need you anymore. “Professionals” indeed!

Tangent? What tangent? Today we celebrate the return of chaos and spectacle. Low Orbit Ion Cannon fire!

iPhone / iPad Security Exploit Allows Full Admin Access

With the current rush of malware in the Android store, Apple users have had one more reason to gloat. Until today.

ReadWriteWeb is reporting that the German Federal Office for Information Security has discovered an exploit using a vulnerability in Adobe’s PDF reader system that will give the attacker administrative rights to the device in question allowing access, removal, or insertion of all data. This is the same exploit used to deploy the recently released web based jailbreak for iOS 4.3.3.

Apple has yet to either respond or issue a security update for this flaw. However, there is one place you CAN get a patch to fix this. Where? You sitting down?

Cydia.

Yep, the unofficial app store available only to those who jailbreak their iOS devices can already download a free patch to fix this problem. Proof yet again that MILLIONS of fans laboring out of love in their spare time can create a more secure system than a small team of developers working 8 hours a day. Duh. Just ask any Linux fanboy.

What flavor is the Kool-Aid today, Apple faithful? My money is on sour apple.

*Update 7/15/2011: Apple has issued a fix iOS 4.3.4

Who Hacked the What Now? The Data Thefts of 2011 Cheat Sheet!

Cnet has been so kind as to put together a spreadsheet detailing the Great 2011 Hackathon as we know it thus far. All of the whos, whats, whens, and whys, even links to related articles. Check it out.

Lulz Security Offers to Help Sega Get Hackers

Sega sent out a newsletter to customers of its  “Sega Pass” system with the following message:

“We have identified that a subset of SEGA Pass members emails addresses, dates of birth and encrypted passwords were obtained. To stress, none of the passwords obtained were stored in plain text.”

Unsurprisingly, LulzSec is now connected to this data breach, just not the way you’d expect:

Ask Lulz Security : How Safe is Your Facebook Data

Honestly, if you haven’t been following the free, live, online circus that is the Twitter feed of hacker group Lulz Security (@lulzsec), you are missing out! While skimming today a little something caught my eye:

You might hate general Facebook users, but Facebook is like the Gibson on steroids for defensive prowess...The Lulz Boat
LulzSec

If you try to snack on Facebook's innards, it unleashes phantom anti-hacker arms that tear you limb from limb while boiling your bones. The Lulz Boat
LulzSec

Lulz Security Hacks FBI Cyber Security Affiliate, Declares “Game on” to NATO

On the night of June 3rd, @LulzSec Tweeted a link to the following statement:

“Dear Internets,

It has come to our unfortunate attention that NATO and our good friend Barrack
Osama-Llama 24th-century Obama have recently upped the stakes with regard to hacking.

They now treat hacking as an act of war. So, we just hacked an FBI affiliated website
(Infragard, specifically the Atlanta chapter) and leaked its user base. We also took
complete control over the site and defaced it, check it out if it's still up: http://infragardatlanta.org/”

Report: Sony Music Japan, Sony Ericsson hacked | InSecurity Complex - CNET News

Too bored to write about it anymore, too fascinated to look away. Here's your Sony Hack of the Day:

Report: Sony Music Japan, Sony Ericsson hacked | InSecurity Complex - CNET News

Hacktivist Group Anonymous Splinters Yet Again

Reporter, author, and Anonymous mouthpiece Barrett Brown states he is leaving the group along with two dozen other members to form Project PM, a group supporting organizations that want to expose pro-government and pro-corporate bias in the media.

"I'm tired of the drama," Brown told Threatpost in a phone interview May 10. "You've got kids fighting for control of an IRC channel. I'm a researcher. I'm into revolutionary stuff. But there are other people for whom its about exerting power," he said.

Threat Post has a fantastic article up covering all of this and a history of Anonymous’ recent problems