attack

An unconfirmed report claims foreign hackers were able to gain control of a US water company's pump and destroy it, remotely. If true, this appears to be the first such publicly acknowledged attack in the US. The report comes from Joe Weiss of ... Applied Control Solutions, an independent security firm for industrial control systems. Weiss says he received a government report about a water utility firm (which doesn't use ACS services), on the condition he withhold the water company's name and location. Separate reports have indicated the site was in Springfield, Illinois. (Source: theregister.co. ... (view more)

Facebook has been criticized many times before for failing to protect the personal information of its hundreds of millions of users. But now the site faces a new challenge: explaining to users why their "News Feed" has been taken over by advertising ... for adult-mannered websites. As of late last week, Facebook users' home pages were bombarded with inappropriate photographs depicting extreme violence and supposed celebrities 'in the buff'. While situations like this are relatively rare, the scale of the recent attack has led Facebook to re-evaluate the safeguards it has in place. Facebook: ... (view more)

Less than a year after Sony's PlayStation Network (PSN) was nailed by a widespread security breach, it appears the online video game service has yet again been exposed by another attack by hackers. According to reports, the Japanese firm was ... recently forced to lock nearly 100,000 users accounts to prevent the breach from spreading. Back in the spring, Sony faced a massive security breach that paralyzed PSN for about a month. Hundreds of thousands of user accounts were exposed in that attack, forcing Sony to make apology after apology and even issue online credits for free games. PCWorld ... (view more)

Hackers calling themselves members of the Anonymous group claim they intend to take down Facebook on November 5th, 2011. The threat was originally made in a video posted on YouTube several weeks ago, which now has more than a million viewers. Those ... who posted the video have since attempted to get other members of Anonymous to back the attack. The video clip complains about Facebook's handling of personal data and its lack of privacy controls. It also attacks the site for allegedly handing over information to governments in the Middle East and North Africa. (Source: youtube.com ) It's ... (view more)

Chinese hackers are being blamed in the wake of a recent attack on two popular South Korean websites, breaches that together resulted in the loss of personal information associated with 35 million personal accounts. South Korea's SK Telecom, which ... owns and operates both of the websites involved in the attack -- a social networking platform called 'Cyworld' and a web portal named 'Nate' -- was recently forced to apologize for the breach. The number of personal accounts exposed in the attack is quite staggering, given that South Korea's population is only about 50 million. That equates to 70 ... (view more)

On Thursday last week, the Washington Post admitted the Jobs section of its website had been hacked in June, a breach that led to the theft of 1.27 million user log-ins and email addresses. (Source: pcworld.com ) According to the Post, an ... "unauthorized third party" laid siege to the employment opportunities section of its website and on two occasions (June 27 and June 28) was able to access user information. Although log-in names and email addresses were lost, the Washington Post emphasizes that no passwords were stolen and that other personal information remained unaffected by the attack. ... (view more)

A 'jihadist' Internet forum known as al-Shamukh has been disabled by an unknown hacker, counter-terrorism experts report. These same experts report that the group's website and its server appear to have been knocked out by the attack. Flashpoint ... Partners counter-terrorism expert Evan Kohlmann recently described the al-Shamukh site as a pro-Al Qaeda propaganda forum. He's not sure why the site has been allowed to continue operating, but suspects it might give Western governments a window into terrorist movements. "These sites can be like spy satellites, they're great ways of gathering ... (view more)

One of the most controversial dating sites on the web has been hit by a supposed malware attack. Critics, however, suggest that the attack is nothing more than a media stunt to garner attention to the site. 35,000 Ugly People Rejected from ... Superficial Dating Site BeautifulPeople.com, which allows only visually attractive people to join, has reportedly suffered an online 'virus attack,' allowing 35,000 ugly people to sign on in search of love. BeautifulPeople.com operates in a seemingly disturbing, yet straightforward fashion: members vote on whether or not new applicants to the dating site ... (view more)

Microsoft has announced an overhaul of the way it assess and publicizes the risk security problems pose to users of its products. The new technique will give added detail as well as highlighting the benefits of upgrading to the latest version of ... Windows. The changes will affect Microsoft's monthly security update, which includes ratings for the potential damage that could be caused by a particular security flaw if the relevant patch is not applied. As well as giving an overall idea of the range and scale of problems, the ratings are also aimed at business users for whom applying updates ... (view more)

A computer programmer will spend two years behind bars after bringing down several high-profile websites. But unlike most modern hackers, Bruce Raisley was motivated by embarrassment rather than greed. Raisley had formerly worked for an online ... vigilante group known as Perverted Justice, which has members pose as youngsters online in order to catch and expose adults seeking an illicit meeting. The group works with television show To Catch A Predator. Eventually, Raisley quit the group following an argument with its founder, Xavier Von Erck, who then carried out a quite spectacular and ironic ... (view more)