passwords

Hackers have reportedly initiated a widespread attack on sites that use the WordPress publishing platform. Hosts using particularly weak passwords are being told to change those passwords or risk having their sites taken over. The hacking campaign ... reportedly uses a "brute force" strategy, meaning hackers use the login name "admin" and then try thousands of typical passwords to bypass security. Hackers Hoping to Create a "Beefy" Botnet The goal, according to security experts, is to build a huge and powerful botnet. "One of the concerns of an attack like this is that the attacker is ... (view more)

Hackers have reportedly breached Twitter security defenses. According to the social networking site, it's possible that up to a quarter of a million accounts were affected by the attack. Twitter director of information security, Bob Lord, announced ... on Friday afternoon that the site had been under attack throughout the day. An investigation by Twitter's security team discovered that the attackers had in fact bypassed site security and had gained access to a large amount of user data. That user data reportedly contained user names, email addresses, and encrypted passwords. Passwords Reset, ... (view more)

If you have trouble devising and then remembering complex, secure passwords for your many online and offline accounts and services, Google may soon provide you with an attractive solution. The search giant is reportedly investigating physical ... password devices, including objects like USB cards and smartphones. In a recent research paper submitted to the IEEE Security ... (view more)

A newly-unveiled password-cracking system can reportedly guess billions of unique passwords every second. At that rate, it's entirely practical to have the device attempt every possible eight-character Windows password. The password-cracking system ... is a Linux-based graphical processing unit (GPU) 'cluster' that uses a special type of virtualization software which allows it to use not one, not two, but 25 Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Radeon graphics cards. 350 Billion Passwords Guessed Each Second That kind of GPU power enables the cluster to guess passwords at an astonishing rate: 350 billion ... (view more)

A security firm has revealed the twenty-five most common passwords used on websites. For the most part, they leave users particularly vulnerable to hacking. One reason? "Password" is still the most common password. The list, from analyst firm ... SplashData, is based on login details published by hackers online. Sadly, the amount of data that becomes publicly available this way seems to be ever increasing. Following "password", the next most popular passwords in decreasing order are "123456", "12345678" and "abc123", all of which appear to have been chosen by users who obviously cared ... (view more)

A security company has come up with a way to reduce the effectiveness of website hacking. The plan is to split customer passwords and store them in two or more separate locations. The idea for split passwords comes from security firm RSA, which says ... the new technique aims to frustrate hackers who breach website security in order to acquire user names and passwords. Sometimes that data are stored without any encryption. Even when they are encrypted, hackers are often able to break the encryption, given enough time. Such breaches of security can be particularly dangerous if any of the site's ... (view more)

Business-oriented social networking site LinkedIn has been hacked. According to new reports, hackers infiltrated the site's systems and stole an estimated 6.5 million passwords. LinkedIn is a social media platform designed with business users in ... mind. It allows members to find past and present colleagues, to search for new jobs, and exchange advice and expertise with workers in their field. It's estimated that approximately 161 million people have LinkedIn accounts, which means that it's no surprise this most recent security breach has caught the attention of many social media users. Stolen ... (view more)

Weak security passwords and overlooked security updates have kept Conficker, a malware 'worm' first reported in 2008, alive and well. According to Microsoft, Conficker has not only survived, it is steadily infecting more corporate networks all the ... time. The Conficker worm was first detected in November, 2008. It targeted networks and tried to penetrate them by guessing at their login passwords. At this, it was surprisingly successful. The main reason for its success was that so many business users employ extremely weak passwords, including '12345', the word 'Password' and the default password ... (view more)

Congress has rejected a bill that would have barred employers from demanding workers reveal their passwords for social networking sites. The vote won't have any immediate effect, but could lead to further legal cases on the issue. The U.S. House of ... Representatives considered the topic as part of a wider bill that aims to limit the power of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) by restricting the way it makes new regulations. There's no guarantee the bill itself would ever become law. Even if it passed the House, it may be rejected by the Senate or vetoed by the President. Representative ... (view more)

A new study conducted by Trustwave, an IT research firm, is providing a startling look at the security vulnerabilities and hacking trends within computer systems used in the business world. For example, the Global Security Report for 2012 shows that ... the most popular computer password selected by business users is "Password1". Of the 2.5 million passwords Trustwave studied in total, about 5 per cent contained the word "password." (Source: slashgear.com ) According to Trustwave, "Password1" is so popular because "it satisfies the default Microsoft Active Directory complexity setting," ... (view more)