By Terence Huynh / 3 July 2009 / No Comments
Apple is working round the clock in fixing a security hole in the iPhone operating system that could allow an attacker to remotely have root access to the device and install and run unsigned software code that could potentially allow your iPhone to be part of a botnet.
The new security hole was found by Charles Miller, security researcher and co-author of the Mac Hacker’s Handbook, at the SySan Conference in Singapore, according to a report by Computerworld. He, however, has left no description on the attack, citing an agreement with Apple not to disclose it.
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By Terence Huynh / 2 July 2009 / No Comments
In what has been a turbulent week for The Pirate Bay, they have launched quietly their anonymous virtual private network, IPREDator, to the public. The new network, like we reported before, hopes to give you anonymous access to the internet, so the ISPs won’t be able to trace your steps.
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By Terence Huynh / 9 June 2009 / No Comments
A British hacker who broke into the computer systems of NASA and the United States Navy is set to have his case reviewed again to see if now-former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith’s handling of his extradition proceedings were acted under the correct procedure.
The hacker, Gary McKinnon – a UFO-hunter-turned-hunter, is said to be diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, and faces up to 70 years in a US prison if his extradition to the United States is given the go ahead by the British judiciary system.
McKinnon is accused of hacking into 97 government computers belonging to several organisations based in the United States during 2001 and 2002, causing damages of US$800,000 – during the time where security was heightened at the wake of September 11.
In February of this year, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) turned down a request for McKinnon to be prosecuted in the UK under lesser charges, according to the BBC, because of his mental state. However, the CPS has said that the case was better to be heard in the US.
By Terence Huynh / 24 May 2009 / 1 Comment
The US Army has announced that it will upgrade all of its computers to Windows Vista, as it offers to “bolster Internet security and standardize its information systems”, and will include a change from Office 2003 to Office 2007. All of this is expected to be finished by the end of this year, according to a press release.
Around half of the computers have already upgraded to Office 2007, but only 13 percent have upgraded to the Windows XP successor, panned by critics for being too incompatible with older software and for its high price, mainly because of support. Despite these critics, many have accepted that Windows Vista has an advantage over XP in security, after years and years of fixing flaws – except for that one where Conficker exploited.
The Army will be offering training sessions to educate its personnel, but the learning curve is expected to be not that steep since many should have used it before.
And while it may sound a bit silly that it has only taken two years to decide to upgrade, it has been noted that the Army has been testing the operating system to make sure that all of its legacy software will still work in Vista – as the Army cannot let any of its software be offline because of some incompatibility issue.
The only problem is that Windows 7, Vista’s successor, is slated to be released in 2010 – so does the Army plan to upgrade all of its computers by then, or wait until 2 years to test out its systems, despite the fact that most of the architecture of Windows 7 is from Windows Vista,
By Terence Huynh / 2 May 2009 / No Comments
Twitter has today confirmed that it has again been attacked by a security breach, this time by someone who hacked into one of Twitter administrators’ account and managed to gain accessed to 10 accounts – including Britney Spears, Ashton Kutcher and Barack Obama.
The attack has also resulted in several screenshots of the entire Twitter administration posted online on a French blog, with another couple of images being posted on the ZATAZ forums, again a French website. The images not only showed user administration, but also a blacklist of users and images of administrating applications that are using its OAuth API.
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By Terence Huynh / 21 April 2009 / No Comments
Spies have broken into the Pentagon’s US$3 billion Joint Strike Fighter project – one of the costliest weapons spent by the Defence Department in the United States – according to the Wall Street Journal, quoting current and former government officials who are familiar with the attacks.
The intruders were able to copy and paste several terabytes of data that was related to the design and the electronics system of the new fighter jet, the F-35 Lightning II. According to the newspaper, the attacks have since escalated in the past six months. “There's never been anything like it,” an unnamed person said to the reporter.
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By Terence Huynh / 20 April 2009 / No Comments
You should be careful on who has your contact details, especially after watching this video; as a hacker, with the right tools, can and take your personal details and possibly hijack your phone remotely by using a simple SMS message, according to Trust Digital.
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By Terence Huynh / 11 April 2009 / No Comments
Researchers from both Trend Micro and Kaspersky Lab have found another feature in the Conficker worm that could, finally, give us another clue on what the hell are they’re planning – the worm installs malware that is disguised to look like antivirus software.
The program, known as “Spyware Protect 2009”, starts showing that you have your computer infected for every couple of minutes, “detects” the viruses, network attacks and browser issues, and then tells you need to pay US$49.95 to disinfect your computer. REMEMBER: THIS IS A FAKE ANTIVIRUS SYSTEM!
Kaspersky Lab also notes that it also attempts to install “Trojan-Downloader.Wind32.Fraudload.ecl” and new versions of the software from a domain, which they have said it has been shut down after they notified the domain registrar.
Trend Micro is saying that this could be a way to monetise their actions, which is highly likely, since people tend to pay by credit cards on the internet – meaning that they can reap in your money for fake antivirus software and have your credit card details as well.
Conficker, if you haven’t heard by now, is a worm that exploits a hole in Windows that Microsoft has patched in October. However, not everyone updates their computers, so that is why the worm has lasted this long. TECHGEEK.com.au has produced a guide for you about the Conficker Worm – Read it and follow the steps.
Image from: Kaspersky Lab
By Terence Huynh / 9 April 2009 / No Comments
It seems that the Conficker threat , which was said to activate on April 1, is still not over; as a mysterious new payload has been introduced to infected computers and is said to be a new variant of the worm, according to a blog posting on the Trend Micro Malware blog.
The latest variant, known as WORM_DOWNAD.E by Trend Micro, is known to be spreading over the a peer-to-peer connection established by the previous variant to the worm. However, this one will reactivate the original functions and open a brand new port, port 5114.
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By Terence Huynh / 30 March 2009 / No Comments
Vietnamese security firm BKIS, which makes the BKAV anti-virus software, has said that they have found clues that tell them that the Conficker worm may have originated from China, as opposed to countries like Russia and in Europe, according to a report by CNET News.com.
It’s conclusion is based on the coding of the virus, saying it is closely related to the notorious Nimda virus, which wrecked havoc across the web and e-mail in 2001. BKIS was also the company that determined that Nimda was originated from China, though it has never been verified with hard evidence.
The virus is set to download on April 1.
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