Hasta La Gadget!

Back in December 2013, a little before Christmas, retailer Target announced that their systems had been breached and that around 40 million credit card numbers were stolen in the process. Target then went on to reveal that encrypted bank PINs were stolen as well, and now according to a new report from the retailer, it seems that the security breach was larger than they had expected as it has been revealed that more than 70 million phone numbers, mailing address, email address, and names had been compromised as well. While most of this information can be readily found online, it can still be used by thieves and hackers who might use it for other nefarious purposes.

According to Target, the information about their customers are stored separately from the 40 million credit card numbers that were previously stolen, and while there could be overlapping information, Target did not reveal how extensive it was. However the semi-good news is that Target has since identified the point of attack which has since been closed off. It is unclear what the authorities are planning to do about these breaches at the moment, and if Target could be facing some legal consequences as well, if not from the government, from its shoppers possibly who might not appreciate having their information stolen as it could be seen as negligence on Target’s part. In any case this recent security breach is definitely not helping customers forgive and forget the previous incident.

Security Breach At Target Compromises 70 Million Names, Phone Numbers, Emails, And More original content from Ubergizmo.

One of the perks of Snapchat is how the media you send over gets deleted after a short period of time, meaning that you can rest assured that anything private you send will not be permanent. Unfortunately it seems that it was recently that Snapchat has experienced a security breach whereby they have managed to get ahold of Snapchat’s 4.6 million usernames and phone numbers and have posted it as a downloadable database a few days ago, although at this time of posting the website appears to have been suspended. Ironically enough Snapchat was alerted to several exploits by a security group called Gibson Security, but released a statement in which they claimed to have safeguards in place.

As it stands the hackers have blurred out the last two digits of each user’s phone number and have indicated that they might be willing to turn the data over to the right party, although it seems that their motives were just to let raise public awareness. According to the anonymous group of hackers, “Our motivation behind the release was to raise the public awareness around the issue, and also put public pressure on Snapchat to get this exploit fixed. It is understandable that tech startups have limited resources but security and privacy should not be a secondary goal. Security matters as much as user experience does. The company was too reluctant at patching the exploit until they knew it was too late and companies that we trust with our information should be more careful when dealing with it.”

Snapchat Hacked: 4.6 Million User Names And Phone Numbers Stolen original content from Ubergizmo.

Some of you guys might have heard a while back that the website, The Onion, was hacked by a group calling themselves the Syrian Electronic Army. Now it looks like the group is back again, and this time they are claiming that they have taken over Twitter’s domain registration. For now it appears to be true as a Whois lookup on Twitter’s domain name reveals evidence pointing at the Syrian Electronic Army. This includes the admin’s name which reads “SEA SEA”, and the admin’s email which points towards “sea@sea.sy”.

In fact the Syrian Electronic Army actually tweeted their exploits, “Hi @Twitter, look at your domain, its owned by #SEA ” along with a screenshot of the Whois listing. According to the folks at Gizmodo who reached out to Twitter, Twitter responded by saying that they are “looking into it”. We’re not sure if the hackers plan to do something more nefarious or if they’re merely showing off their hacking skills, but we’ll keep our eyes peeled and update you guys as more information becomes available.

Syrian Electronic Army Reported Takes Over Twitter’s Domain Registration original content from Ubergizmo.

One of Ubisoft’s websites has been hacked, compromising its users passwords, email address and usernames.

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We’ve seen a number of high profile Twitter accounts being hacked in the past couple of weeks. 60 Minutes and other CBS accounts, 11 accounts of The Guardian and the main account of The Associated Press were all hacked recently. It is believed that the same modus operandi was used in all hacks, and Twitter warns its users that these attacks are likely to continue in the near future, this according to a memo Twitter sent to numerous news organizations.

In its memo Twitter describes various solutions that could help make accounts safer, suggesting that users beef up the security of their email accounts and review applications authorized with their Twitter accounts. They also suggest that one computer must be used for the sole purpose of accessing Twitter, to reduce the risk of malware, this computer should not be used for doing anything else online. It is also rumored that Twitter is working on a two factor authentication system which will greatly boost account security, and that it is rushing to get it out as soon as possible so as to curtail any impending attacks on prominent accounts.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Digg RSS Google Reader Alternative Beta Launch In June, France Allegedly Opposed To YouTube Buying Dailymotion Controlling Share,