Apr 04
Mar 27
In the summer of 2011, it was revealed that Koch Industries was one of several big-oil-and-coal names shoveling out money to climate change skeptic Dr. Willie Soon of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, something that made his research seem more than a tad questionable. Shortly before this, however, were attacks on Koch Industries’ website by the hacker collective Anonymous, with one Wisconsin man being indicted yesterday for helping them.
The accussed man is Eric J. Rosol, aged 37, hailing from Black Creek, Wisconsin. According to charges made yesterday by the Witchita attorney’s office, Rosol was took part in the late February attacks on two of Koch’s websites: Kochind.com and Quiltednorthern.com, something that eventually took them offline.
As you may have suspected, the attacks were of the DDOS variety. Rosol is the only individual who has been indicted in the attacks, and has been charged with one count of damaging a protected computer, and another count of conspiracy to damage a protected computer. If the book is thrown at him, the participant could face a total of ten years in prison and a half a million dollar fine.
Although the website attacks came during a time when Koch and his brother came under fire for their support of union cutbacks in Wisconsin, it is possible that Koch Industries’ hand in climate change research could also have been a motivating factor for Roscol. According to the LA Times, the day the attack took place, Rosol linked on his blog the Greenpeace report that shined an unpleasant light on the business.
[via LA Times]
Man charged in 2011 Anonymous attack on Koch Industries is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Mar 14
According to the Department of Justice, Matthew Keys, a 26-year-old journalist hailing from New Jersey has been charged with conspiring with Anonymous, the hacking collective known for trumping some big-name targets. Keys aided the hackers in accessing and altering a Los Angeles Times news article by providing login information.
The information was provided by Keys in an unnamed Internet forum, where he posted the information for Anonymous and added a qualifier to “go [expletive] some [expletive] up.” We’ll let you fill in the blanks. One of the hackers then proceeded to use the login information about a week later, accessing the media company’s website.
A news story on the Times website about Representative Steny Hoyer was altered in an unspecified manner. According to a post by the hacker on the forum with which he was associated with Keys, the altered information was live on the media company’s website for about 30 minutes. Keys responded with “nice,” according to the complaint.
Keys, who has been charged with three felonies related to information transfer, worked for the Tribune until he was fired, at which point he took up his current job with Reuters as deputy socia media editor a little over a year ago. Keys faces up to 10 years in prison, a $250,000, and three years of supervised release per felony.
[via Wall Street Journal]
Journalist charged with giving Anonymous login information is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Mar 05
Google has drawn flak for wanting much of our access to its services linked under a single Google+ identity — and preferably a real one. However, company internet evangelist Vint Cerf argues that Google shouldn’t (and doesn’t) cross a line in the sand on user anonymity. He contends in a Reuters interview that no one should be forced to use their real name, and that Google won’t press for one, especially in politically oppressive situations where there could be dire consequences to protesting under a real identity. What about less sensitive conditions, however? Cerf would like to strike a balance: he prefers solutions that “strongly authenticate” people when necessary, without eliminating anonymity altogether. We’re glad to hear that there’s a place Google won’t go in its quest for social network supremacy, although we’re sure some would like the search giant to take another step back and restore the controls over anonymity and privacy that they believe have been lost.
[Image credit: Joy Ito, Flickr]
Source: Reuters
Feb 28
Anonymous releases 14GB of data on the spying habits of Bank of America and more
Posted in: Today's ChiliAnonymous has released 14GB of data it acquired about Bank of America, Thomson Reuters, ClearForest, Bloomberg, and TEKSystems, an intelligence firm. It did this via a press release on the website Par-AnoIA, including a link to the hacked data and a rundown of the relevant details for those who don’t have the time to look at 14 gigs of info. The data concerns the spying habits of Bank of America and other corporations, which are said to include a log of data on hundreds of thousands of employees and executives at various corporations around the world.
According to Anonymous, it considered this information to be newsworthy for several reasons, including the insecure way it is stored and the rather disconcerting fact that it contains information about “hundred [sic] of thousands” of both employees and executives of many corporations globally, with that information including data about the individuals’ salaries. The data on individuals was named “Bloomberg” and tagged as “reuterscompanycontent,” and comprised a total of 4.8 gigabytes.
The point about the data being stored insecurely is underscored not just by the fact that the hackers accessed it, but also by how they did it – without hacking. The amassed data is reportedly stored in Tel Aviv, where ClearForest is based, on an open server that is misconfigured, meaning that just about anyone can get it with a little bit of elbow grease.
Says the hackers, the information gathered is of a poorly researched nature, meaning that portions of it may not even be correct. The information being gathered is coming from IRC channels, social media, forums, and other such Internet locations, and has a focus on targeting activist movements and Anonymous. The spying utilizes an apparent keyword list with in excess of 10,000 entries used to find content on Twitter, IRC, and other Internet locations. Most of the entries are Wikipedia references, with 1,125 believed to be actual, relevant keywords.
Says Anonymous, it has released the data it found to raise awareness and make a point.
[via Paranoia]
Anonymous releases 14GB of data on the spying habits of Bank of America and more is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Feb 22
Anonymous Hacked
Posted in: Today's Chili
I guess there is no need for any long winded title, especially when you consider how hacker collective Anonymous have had done their bit in the past to deface several websites before. In a nutshell, what goes around, comes around, and BBC News has reported that this week saw Anonymous suffer from “an embarrassing breach, as one of its popular Twitter feeds is taken over by rival hacktivists.”
The Anonymous Twitter hack came after a couple of other high-profile Twitter hacks that happened, including Burger King that tweeted a false dawn of rival McDonald’s purchasing it to deliver what we can presume to be McWhoppers, while Jeep’s Twitter feed too, was hacked, having seen its logo change, too. This is definitely highly preventable in the first place, and chances are the hack is a result of poor password practices.
Having said that, just how secure are your Twitter, email and online banking accounts? Do you use the same password across multiple accounts, or do you have that kind of eidetic memory that ensures you can throw in 16-character passwords that comprise of a mixture of uppercase, lowercase, numbers and symbols which are different throughout all 10 accounts without batting an eyelid?
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Chromebook Pixel Konami Code Easter Egg, Chrome Delivers Voice Recognition Capability To The Internet,
Feb 06
This past week has been full of hackings of various organizations, and the Federal Reserve is the latest on the list. They have confirmed that they were recently hacked by Anonymous. One of the organization’s website was breached, and Anonymous reportedly leaked the contact information of thousands of bankers.
While the bank said that the breach didn’t “affect critical operations”, the news definitely doesn’t make the situation any less worrisome. The bank didn’t specifically mention any details, but a spokesperson said that the hacker group got in “by exploiting a temporary vulnerability in a website vendor product…exposure was fixed shortly after discovery and is no longer an issue.”
The hackers accessed the St. Louis Fed Emergency Communications System database, which was put in place in 2008, and is used by banking agencies to communicate during an emergency. In total, the system is used by 17 states in the US, with several more to utilize the system sometime this year.
Of course, some are saying that the Federal Reserve is downplaying the severity of the hack on its systems. Sensitive data on more than 4,000 banking officials was compromised, and while the organizations try to minimize the damage of the hack, security experts say that the damage that was already done is bad news and poses serious risks.
[via ZDNet]
Federal Reserve confirms Anonymous hack, critical operations not affected is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Feb 04
Anonymous Leaked Account Data for 4,000 Bank Executives on a Government Website
Posted in: Today's Chili
After hacking up government websites last week, and the week before, Anonymous has pulled off another hack to push their agenda of reforming computer crime law in the wake of Aaron Swartz’s suicide. This time, they’ve leaked names, addresses, and other information about over 4,000 bank executives. And they did it all on a government site. More »
Jan 28
A New Anonymous Hack Lets You Shoot Up Government Sites with a Nyan Cat Spaceship
Posted in: Today's Chili
In the wake of Aaron Swartz’s suicide, your friendly neighborhood cyber-vigilantes Anonymous have been lashing out. It’s mostly been DDOSes and cyber-vandalism, but their most recent project is a bit more fun, and lets you play Asteroids with a Nyan Cat spaceship that blasts up sites. More »
Jan 26
Anonymous Attacks Department Of Justice Website and Threatens Worse Over Aaron Swartz’s Suicide
Posted in: Today's Chili
Since Aaron Swartz’s suicide two weeks ago—an incident largely blamed on the charges being levied against him—the ‘net has been grieving. And Anonymous has been doing that in its own special way: tearing shit up. In the latest of several attacks, they took down the U.S. Justice Department’s Sentencing Commission site and left behind a video threatening more cyber-carnage. More »
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