All posts tagged: Hacker

A Vigilante Hacker Took Down North Korea’s Internet. Now He’s Taking Off His Mask

A Vigilante Hacker Took Down North Korea’s Internet. Now He’s Taking Off His Mask

Published by skeptic

“That’s not nice, and it’s not a good norm,” says Schneider. She says that much of the US government’s slow approach to cyberattacks stems from its care to ensure it avoids unintentionally hitting civilians as well as breaking international law or triggering dangerous blowback. Still, Schneider concedes that Caceres and Angus have a point: The US could be using its cyber forces more, and some of the explanations for why it doesn’t amount to bureaucracy. “There are good reasons, and then there are bad reasons,” says Schneider. “Like, we have complicated organizational politics, we don’t know how to do things differently, we’re bad at using this type of talent, we’ve been doing it this way for 50 years, and it worked well for dropping bombs.” America’s offensive hacking has, by all appearances, gotten less aggressive and less nimble over the past half decade, Schneider points out. Starting in 2018, for instance, General Paul Nakasone, then the head of Cyber Command, advocated a “defend forward” strategy aimed at taking cyber conflict to the enemy’s network rather …

China’s Hacker Network: What to Know About the I-Soon Document Leak

China’s Hacker Network: What to Know About the I-Soon Document Leak

Published by Sam

Leaked documents posted online last week show how the Chinese government is working with private hackers to obtain sensitive information from foreign governments and companies. The hackers worked for a security firm called I-Soon, part of a network of spies for hire working closely with Beijing. The leak showed how China’s top surveillance agency, the Ministry of Public Security, has increasingly recruited contractors to attack government targets and private companies as part of a cyberespionage campaign in Asia. The leak is likely to stoke fears among leaders in Washington who have warned against such attacks in the United States. What information was revealed? I-Soon targeted telecommunications firms, online gambling companies and local governments throughout Asia. Its hackers were able to get private information including: records from a Vietnamese airline, with the identities of travelers. personal information from accounts on platforms like Telegram and Facebook. access to the private website of traffic police in Vietnam. software that helped run disinformation campaigns and hack accounts on X. The leak also included internal discussions at I-Soon, reflecting a …

Thanks to a shadowy hacker group, the British Library is still on its knees. Is there any way to stop them? | Lamorna Ash

Thanks to a shadowy hacker group, the British Library is still on its knees. Is there any way to stop them? | Lamorna Ash

Published by skeptic

It is not quite accurate to say that the cyber-attack against the British Library took place on 28 October 2023. Most probably, Rhysida, the hacker gang that orchestrated the attack and is thought to be Russian, had already been creeping undetected through the digital territories of the British Library for months, Enrico Mariconti, a lecturer in security and crime science at UCL, told me. Once it broke through to the library’s virtual private network (VPN) – the remote connection that allows employees to access its network from any location – it could in theory start making its way through locked door after locked door of the library’s many online systems, trawling until it discovered emails and documents containing details such as employees’ passport scans and work contracts. It hoped these documents might tempt a single bidder to pay 20 bitcoins (about £600,000) for privileged access to all that personal information. Eventually, after the British Library refused to pay a £600,000 ransom, the hackers published close to 500,000 files of what they called “exclusive, unique and …

Secure a White Hat Hacker education for only

Secure a White Hat Hacker education for only $40

Published by skeptic

Get The Ultimate White Hat hacking e-learning bundle for 63% off. StackSocial Standing out in a professional environment is hard, especially if that environment requires ample knowledge about hacking and all things cybersecurity. Luckily, you can increase your cybersecurity knowledge in a professional environment with a simple all-in-one bundle.  No matter how knowledgeable you are on the subject, you can use The Ultimate White Hat Hacker Certification Bundle to save on expensive cybersecurity programs and apply what you learn to the real world.  This comprehensive bundle features ten courses and nearly 100 hours of content on cyber security with a range of focuses.  The bundle includes a four-volume series of courses entitled The Complete Cyber Security Course, and it features focused breakdowns on hackers, networks, end-points, and more. Another interesting course featured in this bundle, the CompTIA CySA+ Cybersecurity Analyst Prep Course features 51 lessons and nearly seven hours of content designed to help you prepare for a CompTIA certification experience.  This course is taught by Nathan House with Total Seminars. House is a leading …

FBI shuts down Chinese hacker group Volt Typhoon’s Botnet

FBI shuts down Chinese hacker group Volt Typhoon’s Botnet

Published by skeptic

The FBI has suppressed an attack by Chinese hackers Volt Typhoon group. The concentrated attack focused on routers in an attempt to cripple Cisco and Netgear devices in small businesses and homes. The court-authorized operation prevented reinfection of the routers and removed the malware that was deployed by the hackers. ”The United States will continue to dismantle malicious cyber operations – including those sponsored by foreign governments – that undermine the security of the American people,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in a statement. FBI’s Houston Field Office and Cyber Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas and the National Security Cyber Section of the Justice Department’s National Security Division were responsible for the successful co-ordination and delivery of the operation. FBI Director Christopher Wray said “Volt Typhoon malware enabled China to hide as they targeted our communications, energy, transportation, and water sectors. Their pre-positioning constitutes a potential real-world threat to our physical safety that the FBI is not going to tolerate.” ”We are going to continue to work with …

French hacker Sébastien Raoult sentenced in the US to three years in prison

French hacker Sébastien Raoult sentenced in the US to three years in prison

Published by skeptic

A computer hacker who was part of a criminal gang that stole data from hundreds of millions of people and sold it on the dark web was jailed in the United States on Tuesday, January 9. Frenchman Sébastien Raoult created fake login pages as part of the ShinyHunters hacking group, which were used to raid the personal and financial information of unsuspecting users. “For over two years, Mr. Raoult participated in extensive computer hacking that caused millions of dollars in losses to victim companies and unmeasurable additional losses to hundreds of millions of individuals whose data was sold to other criminals,” said Sarah Vogel of the US District Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Washington state. “Mr. Raoult’s motive was pure greed. He sold hacked data. He stole people’s cryptocurrency. He even sold his hacking tools so that he could profit while other hackers attacked additional victims.” Raoult, 22, was arrested in Morocco in May 2022 and extradited to the United States eight months later. He initially denied all charges, but later agreed to …

Sébastien Raoult, the French hacker and wannabe-millionaire, awaits his sentence

Sébastien Raoult, the French hacker and wannabe-millionaire, awaits his sentence

Published by skeptic

Sébastien Raoult, pictured on his father’s phone, in Epinal, eastern France, on August 1, 2022. JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VERHAEGEN / AFP On March 14, 2021, on the social network Discord, a certain Sezyo swaggered: “My greatest hacking success was ‘Sawfish’.” This code name stood for a “spectacular” scam campaign, he asserted. And the pseudonym Sezyo stood for one brazen hacker: Sébastien Raoult. Three years after these messages were posted, the fate of this young 22-year-old Frenchman from Epinal (eastern France) is now hanging on a verdict from the American courts. His sentencing hearing is due to take place at 11 am local time on Tuesday, January 9, in Seattle, where he was extradited in January 2023 after being arrested in Morocco eight months earlier. Raoult has been accused of being part of the ShinyHunters, a gang of French hackers who have targeted a total of around 60 organizations between April 2020 and July 2021. After initially pleading not guilty, the Frenchman eventually admitted his responsibility for two of the nine charges. At the heart of the case …

Teenage ‘GTA 6’ hacker sentenced to an indefinite hospital stay

Teenage ‘GTA 6’ hacker sentenced to an indefinite hospital stay

Published by skeptic

The teenage hacker who leaked clips of the new Grand Theft Auto VI (GTA VI) has been sentenced to a hospital stay of indefinite length. Arion Kurtaj, an 18-year-old from Oxford in England, could remain in a secure hospital for life unless doctors determine he is no longer a danger to the public, the BBC reported this week. The outlet reported that Kurtaj, who is autistic, was a key part of the hacker group Lapsus$ that cost major companies Uber, Nvidia, and Rockstar Games — which makes GTA — some $10 million in damages. Kurtaj leaked 90 clips, totaling more than 50 hours of gameplay footage, to GTA forums in 2022, when he was just 17 years old. He was arrested in September of last year. The Guardian reported that, during trial, it was noted that Kurtaj had proven violent and destructive to property while in custody. Doctors determined that he was unfit to stand trial due to his acute autism, the Guardian reported, and that a mental health assessment determined he “continued to express …

Film to tell story of Scottish hacker Gary McKinnon’s fight against US extradition | Gary McKinnon

Published by Sam

The story of the computer hacker Gary McKinnon and his long battle against extradition to the US is to be turned into a feature film. It will tell the story of how a young man hunting for evidence of UFOs found his way into the Pentagon’s system and carried out what US authorities described as “the biggest military computer hack of all time” and then faced the possibility of a long sentence in a US high-security prison. The film, The People v Gary McKinnon, will be directed by Paul McGuigan, who made Gangster Number 1 and Lucky Number Slevin. The screenplay is by Peter Harness, who has written scripts for Wallander, Doctor Who, McMafia and Sherlock as well as the film Is Anybody There? starring Michael Caine. It will be produced by Wall to Wall Media and Warner Brothers. Gary McKinnon. Photograph: Handout “It’s great news,” said Janis Sharp, McKinnon’s mother, who led the decade-long campaign to halt the extradition and whose book Saving Gary McKinnon: A Mother’s Story is the basis of the film. …

Hacker claims theft of Shadowfax users’ information

Hacker claims theft of Shadowfax users’ information

Published by skeptic

A hacker claims to be selling millions of user records relating to Indian startup Shadowfax, which offers logistics services to e-commerce and hyperlocal platforms across the country. The pseudonymous hacker said in a listing on a known cybercrime forum that they are selling the allegedly stolen Shadowfax data for an undisclosed amount. A portion of the data published in the listing claims to include mobile phone numbers, order delivery and pickup statuses, and tracking identifiers of users who received orders or processed pickups through the platform. The hacker said the breach happened in November, which led to the compromise of five million users’ information. It is unclear if the data was obtained directly from Shadowfax servers directly or as part of an existing breach incident. TechCrunch verified some of the published data by passing the tracking identifiers through Shadowfax’s order tracker, which returned valid tracking information at the time we checked. TechCrunch shared the portion of the allegedly stolen data with Shadowfax co-founder and CTO Vaibhav Khandelwal, who told TechCrunch prior to publication that the …