Security

A British hacker accused of infiltrating computers at NASA and the Pentagon has failed in his most recent attempt to evade extradition to the United States. Gary McKinnon may soon be making his way across the pond to face charges stateside. For some ... time McKinnon has been lobbying London's High Court in a desperate attempt to avoid being extradited to America. Unfortunately for McKinnon, the High Court has refused to even hear the case, pointing out that it did not meet "points of law of general public importance." In other words, the case simply doesn't warrant a halt on the extradition. ( ... (view more)

Amidst news that thousands of Hotmail, Gmail, and Yahoo accounts have been compromised in recent weeks, there's some good news for the good guys: over a hundred phishers have been brought to justice in a multinational investigation spanning half the ... globe. Phishing involves using a fake web page to dupe visitors into entering their sensitive information, including passwords or credit card data. The phisher can then use that information to steal identities and clear out bank accounts. Operation Phish Phry The United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation yesterday revealed that it had charged ... (view more)

A security researcher claims a virus probably led to the compromising of 30,000 email passwords. However, most other sources continue to blame phishers. The email details appeared in two lists published by a user on a legitimate website designed for ... developers to share code. The first list included details of 10,000 Windows Live Hotmail accounts , while the second boasted 20,000 . Mary Landesman of ScanSafe says that while investigating a piece of malicious software in August she discovered the people controlling it had around 5,000 Hotmail user names and passwords which appeared to have been ... (view more)

It seems as if the massive phishing campaign reported yesterday was not specific to Hotmail.com as was initially believed. According to a report by the BBC, many Gmail and Yahoo Mail accounts have also been compromised. (Source: computerworld.com ) ... While the source of the latest attacks has not been determined, many are pointing to the same bug that claimed at least 10,000 passwords from Microsoft Windows Live Hotmail. Microsoft, Google Prompt Password Reset Microsoft has done their part in blocking all known hijacked Hotmail accounts and created tools to help users who had lost control of ... (view more)

Details of a Hotmail security breach emerged early yesterday, and it's suggested that approximately 10,000 accounts could have been compromised. While the exact number of accounts has not yet been confirmed, the breach was likely the result of a ... phishing campaign -- a different kind of hack that uses fake web pages in order to acquire all kinds of sensitive information, from login data and passwords (such as in this case) to credit card and social security numbers. (Source: cnet.com ) "We determined that this was not a breach of internal Microsoft data and initiated our standard process of ... (view more)

New malware being used by cyber criminals takes hacking to a whole new level: it hides evidence of a fraud victim's dwindling bank balance by rewriting online bank statements on-the-fly. The hack employs a Trojan horse program installed on a ... victim's machine that alters HTML (hyper text markup language) coding before it's displayed in a user's web browser. The altered HTML code either erases evidence of a money transfer transaction entirely from a bank statement, or it alters the total amount of money balances and transfers. The hack buys cyber criminals more time before a victim finds out he ... (view more)

It's not often you hear about smartphones being infiltrated by hackers using phishing schemes, but a recent Research in Motion security fix is designed to prevent just that kind of issue. The Waterloo, Ontario-based Research in Motion, which ... produces the extremely popular BlackBerry smartphone, late last week issued a patch for a reported vulnerability which left many of its users susceptible to attack by phishing hackers. According to reports, the flaw could allow a remote hacker to fool a BlackBerry owner into visiting a malicious website with their handheld multimedia device. A BlackBerry ... (view more)

Microsoft has released free security software for Windows. But the company has confirmed it will only work with legitimate copies of the operating system. The software, once codenamed Morro , is now known as "Security Essentials." It's a replacement ... for OneCare, a previous Microsoft security product that was not free. Effective, but Falls Short of Rivals Independent tests of the finished product suggest it's a useful tool, though falls short of the protection offered by commercial rivals. One company testing it found Security Essentials detected 98.4% of malware and 90.9% of spyware ... (view more)

Don't Fall Prey to the IRS Email Scam! Download our Top 10 PC Security Essentials Tech Report at the end of this article, or click to here to visit our Top 10 Tech Reports self-serve kiosk, now! Playing on the natural reservations people have about ... tax collectors, the latest scareware offering from hackers is not only devious and misleading, but is now being recognized as the single most virus-based spam delivered in the world. Hackers often reinvent themselves when seeking new and effective tactics in the hopes of getting more people to download malware and other forms of computer infections ... (view more)

Microsoft is scrambling this morning to find and release a fix for a newly discovered flaw that could end in the unraveling of a new and possibly devastating Windows worm. According to reports breaking late last night, hackers have made known the ... release of a new attack code capable of exploiting a bug in the Windows operating system (OS). The weakness has been public knowledge since the beginning of September, but until this week no one seemed to be taking advantage. That has changed now that Harmony Security Senior Researcher Stephen Fewer has developed an attack that allows a hacker to run ... (view more)