What Risk We are Posing! Everyone Can Become Target of the Latest Cyber Security Threats

What Risk We are Posing! Everyone Can Become a Target of the Latest Cyber Security Threats

According to a report by the Washington Post, hackers may soon be setting up a plan to unfold in 2013 that will target 30 different U.S. banking institutions. McAfee Labs, who has compiled a new cyber security report, says that banks should be on the lookout for software that creates false online transactions or targets transfers tied to large dollar amounts.

Sources say that these threats can all be tied back to “Project Blitzkrieg”, which is a program that has been around since 2008. Within the past four years, it has already stolen $5 million and plans to continue for as long as possible. During the past few months, between 300 and 500 victims located within the U.S. have fallen victim to Project Blitzkrieg’s schemes. By the spring of 2013, McAfee says that things could get even worse for U.S. banks and their customers.

Experts note that this scheme may be tied to reports from back in October by security company RSA that mentioned how a hacker out of Russia named “vorVzakone” has been openly discussing his plan to recruit a team to plan the largest Trojan attack tied to banking. McAfee warns that these threats should be taken extremely seriously as the beginning of 2013 is soon to unfold. The software can become extremely dangerous to those doing their banking online because it can replicate transactions and even delete e-mail notifications about certain transfers.

While U.S. banks will no doubt be increasing their security protocols to protect themselves from any unnecessary attacks, most already know that they are continually being cited as targets from hacking groups around the globe. Back in September, both JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America saw their sites crash because of DDoS attacks.

Samsung Smart TV Dangers

The Register has recently reported that Samsung’s newest Smart TV is completely open and vulnerable to hacking because it gives hackers the ability to steal data very quickly. According to security company ReVuln, this vulnerability most notably affects consumers who own and use their Samsung 3D TVs for internet purposes.

Those who use their Smart TVs can rent movies, browse the web for a cheap line rental, go on Facebook, and more. ReVuln claims that they have found an exploit which allows hackers to see everything the user is doing while they are using their TV, retrieve and access information like web history, and hook up an external thumb drive to the TV to conveniently steal all of this information for future use. While ReVuln noticed this exploit while using a Samsung 3D TV, the true problem is that it seems to affect all of the latest Samsung TVs with internet capabilities, which includes many different makes and models.

As these TVs continue to act more as larger PCs, it is only a matter of time until we see even more security vulnerabilities tied to them in the very near future.

Gas Station Bluetooth Skimming

News site KRCA out of Sacramento notes that crooks are using Bluetooth devices in order to steal credit card information from those who are paying for gas at the pump. The biggest issue the cyber security experts noticed is that these thieves do not even have to be near the gas station in order to steal information.

Crooks are using skimming devices that utilize Bluetooth and contain a variety of common security keys that can be used to access gas pumps for maintenance. They don’t simply pull out their device and begin swiping information for oblivious consumers. Thieves will start by installing skimmers on the pumps to collect information from those pumping gas and then pick them back up. Detectives say that these types of devices are impossible to detect.

According to experts, thieves can be up to 100 yards away and continually collect credit card information from unsuspecting users. Because of this, these crooks are impossible to detect, and the problem may only grow larger in the near future.

Troublesome QR Codes

QR codes seem to be everywhere these days. They’re typically on everything from advertisements to products that we purchase on a daily basis. In the Netherlands, hackers are posting QR codes in heavily trafficked areas like airports and major streets. When these QR codes are scanned in by a user’s smart phone, they are taken to a malicious website that may attempt to phish information from the user or possibly infect their smartphone with malware.

Disclaimer:- Before perfection, on behalf of Team VOGH, I would like to personally thank Eve Halton  for sharing this magnificent article with our readers. Eve is a very much passionate Fleet Street, she  has done her graduation in International Business and Journalism. She gained decent experience in writing articles on several fields like global politics, economics, sustainability issues, cyber security & many more.

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">What Risk We are Posing! Everyone Can Become Target of the Latest Cyber Security Threats "https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2014/02/cyber-threats-everyone-can-become-target.html</a>

Pirate Bay Co-Founder Svartholm Warg Accused For Hacking, Fraud & Attempt to Steal Money From Bank

Pirate Bay Co-Founder Svartholm Warg Accused For Hacking, Fraud & Attempt to Steal Money From Swedish Bank 

The Pirate Bay also known as TPB is the most infamous website providing torrent files and magnet links to facilitate peer to peer file sharing. It is fact that many of us love the website, but it is also undeniable that if you are in the core team to run TPB then you are definitely sitting on the edge of legality. Many of you have already started terrifying! But I have the news which will not frighten you but surely will surely frighten Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, the co-founder of Pirate Bay. Gottfrid might get mercy if he could limited himself only into Pirate Bay, but in reality he did not and crossed all the lines. The 27-year-old’s Gottfrid widely known as 'Anakata' has been charged for hacking several Swedish companies and stealing their personal data. He and three others are also accused of attempting to make illegal online money transfers. Prosecutors claim Warg  along with three others—hacked IBM mainframes belonging to tax firm Logica and the bank to transfer money from various bank accounts. In total, the four men reportedly attempted to transfer just over US$900,000. Warg has also been accused of hacking into the databases of several Swedish businesses and the government’s federal taxing agency.

In his statement prosecutor Henrik Olin said - "A large amount of data from companies and agencies was taken during the hack, including a large amount of personal data, such as personal identity numbers (personnummer) of people with protected identities. I'd say that Svartholm Warg is the main person and brains behind the hacker attack. We've had a lot of theories but I can't find a motive in the evidence. What I can say is that we're talking about an incredibly technically advanced hack against a large server environment considered to have very high security and that can boost one's status in certain circles" 

Three other people have been indicted along with Svartholm Warg. They are all charged with serious fraud, attempted aggravated fraud, and aiding attempted aggravated fraud. According to the indictment, authorities seized a computer and chat transcripts of Svartholm Warg and the other suspects. Olin claims that it is the biggest investigation into a data intrusion ever conducted in the country. 

Here we want to remind you that Svartholm Warg, 27, was arrested in Cambodian and deported to Sweden in September last year due to an arrest warrant issued for him in relation to his conviction in the Pirate Bay trial. Since December, Svartholm Warg has been held in a prison in Mariefred in central Sweden where he is serving out a prison sentence related to his activities with The Pirate Bay.

-Source (The Local, RT)

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">Pirate Bay Co-Founder Svartholm Warg Accused For Hacking, Fraud & Attempt to Steal Money From Bank"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2013/04/TPB-Co-Founder-Svartholm-Warg-Accused-For-Hacking.html</a>

Ambedkar Institute of Telecom Training India (BRBRAITT) Hacked By Hitcher

Ambedkar Institute of Telecom Training India  (BRBRAITT)Hacked By Hitcher

He was noiseless since his last massive attack against Israel, with the banner of #OpIsrael for Muslim Liberation Army. He was mum but not passive, and it shows when well known Pakistani hacker going by the name of "Hitcher" come back again. The name of Hitcher is common to us for defacing high profile websites, his last few high profile hack was HP Training Center, Bank of Punjab, Kingfisher Airlines, Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia & 100+ Chinese Govt Websites, again ensue the same path. This time the target was the official website of Bharat Ratna Bhim Rao Ambedkar Institute of Telecom Training India (BRBRAITT) also known as India Premier National Level Telecommunication Training Center. As per sources the hacker managed to breach the server security and get administrative access into the BBBRAITT system. He not only hacked and defaced the index page, but also stolen sensitive data like employ details, course curriculum,  student details, several ongoing project information, and few more confidential tidings. Immediately after the hack, webmaster of BBBRAITT noticed the issue and patched those security holes and back doors from which the hacker get in. Also he restored the site to its normal format. But still the deface mirror can be found on an archiving site called Th3Mirror.com, though the reason of this hack is still a mystery. 

Brief About BRBRAITT:- 

BRBRAITT is one of the premier institutes of BSNL India, imparting training in various fields like latest technologies in field of telecommunications, computer networking, accounting, management, providing competency and skills to meet the ever changing needs of esteemed customers. 

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">Ambedkar Institute of Telecom Training India (BRBRAITT) Hacked By Hitcher"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2013/02/BRBRAITT-Hacked-By-Hitcher.html</a>

3 Russian Cyber Criminal Who Was The Master Mind of Banking Trojan 'Gozi' Charged in New York

3 Russian Cyber Criminal Who Was The Master Mind of Banking Trojan 'Gozi' Charged in New York 

Yet again another serious issue of cyber crime get resolved when the FBI tracked and figured out the master mind of infamous 'Gozi banking Trojan' which effected more than millions of system world wide, including a handful at NASA, leading to tens of millions of dollars in lost banking funds and damages to computer systems and networks. Three alleged international cyber criminals from Russia, responsible for creating and distributing 'Gozi' that infected over one million computers and caused tens of millions of dollars in losses charged in Manhattan Federal Court. Mihai Ionut Paunescu aged 28, a Romanian, Deniss Calovskis, 27, a Latvian, and Nikita Vladimirovich Kuzmin, 25, of the Russian Federation, are charged with computer intrusion, conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud and access device fraud. Federal authorities said the three were arrested last week; Kuzmin is being held in New York, while Paunescu is in custody in Romania and Calovskis in Latvia. 

According to the press release of FBI -Deniss Calovskis, a/k/a “Miami,” a Latvian national who allegedly wrote some of the computer code that made the Gozi virus so effective, was arrested in Latvia in November 2012. Mihai Ionut Paunescu, a/k/a “Virus,” a Romanian national who allegedly ran a “bulletproof hosting” service that enabled cyber criminals to distribute the Gozi virus, the Zeus trojan, and other notorious malware and to conduct other sophisticated cyber crimes, was arrested in Romania in December 2012. 

The cases are being handled by the Complex Frauds Unit of the United States Attorney’s Office. Assistant United States Attorneys Sarah Lai, Nicole Friedlander, and Thomas G.A. Brown, along with Trial Attorney Carol Sipperly of the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the Department of Justice on the Paunescu case, are in charge of the prosecution. The charges contained in the Indictments are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Defendant	Age and Residence	Charges	Maximum Penalty
Nikita Kuzmin	25; Moscow, Russia	Conspiracy to commit bank fraud; bank fraud; conspiracy to commit access device fraud; access device fraud; conspiracy to commit computer intrusion; computer intrusion	95 years in prison
Deniss Calovskis	27; Riga, Latvia	Conspiracy to commit bank fraud; conspiracy to commit access device fraud; conspiracy to commit computer intrusion; conspiracy to commit wire fraud; conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft	67 years in prison
Mihai Ionut Paunescu	28; Bucharest, Romania	Conspiracy to commit computer intrusion; conspiracy to commit bank fraud; conspiracy to commit wire fraud	60 years in prison

Brief About Gozi:-
The Gozi virus is malicious computer code, or “malware,” that steals personal bank account information, including usernames and passwords, from the users of affected computers. It was named by private sector information security experts in the U.S. who, in 2007, discovered that previously unrecognized malware was stealing personal bank account information from computers across Europe on a vast scale, while remaining virtually undetectable in the computers it infected. To date, the Gozi virus has infected over one million victim computers worldwide, among them at least 40,000 computers in the U.S., including computers belonging to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), as well as computers in Germany, Great Britain, Poland, France, Finland, Italy, Turkey, and elsewhere, and it has caused tens of millions of dollars in losses to the individuals, businesses, and government entities whose computers were infected.

The Gozi virus was distributed to victims’ computers in several different ways. In one method, the virus was disguised as an apparently benign .pdf document which, when opened, secretly installed the Gozi virus on the victim’s computer. Once installed, the Gozi virus—which was intentionally designed to be undetectable by anti-virus software—collected data from the infected computer in order to capture personal bank account information including usernames and passwords. That data was then transmitted to various computer servers controlled by the cyber criminals who used the Gozi virus. These cyber criminals then used the personal bank account information to transfer funds out of the victims’ bank accounts and ultimately into their own personal possession.

For Detailed Information Click Here

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">3 Russian Cyber Criminal Who Was The Master Mind of Banking Trojan 'Gozi' Charged in New York"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2013/02/MasterMind-of-Banking-Trojan-Gozi-Charged.html</a>

UK Announces Plans for ‘Cyber Reserve’ Online Crime Defence Force

UK Govt. Announces Plans for ‘Cyber Reserve’ Online Crime Defense Force

Earlier this week, the UK government announced that it was planning on setting up a ‘cyber reserve’ force aimed at dealing with security threats brought about by online crime. The proposed force will be run by the country’s ministry of defense and is going to allow the armed forces to draw on the nation’s computer-related talents in order to ward off online attacks and stem the tides of cyber crime. Minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude claims that ‘critical’ work is required in order to combat online lawbreaking. He says that nine tenths of large British corporations and three quarters of small British businesses have reported experiencing a cyber breach within the last year, meaning that this force has now become a necessity.

Cyber Crime in the UK

Research conducted by a team of academics recruited by the UK Ministry of Defense earlier this year concluded that the country spends a billion US dollars per year on protecting against and cleaning up after instances of cyber crime. This includes the cost of measures taken to safeguard bank account security and reduce computer-related fraud, the money forked out by businesses purchasing anti-virus software and the cost of removing viruses from computers. In addition to criminals, terrorists and rogue states have also targeted computers in the UK, meaning that it is not difficult to see why the country would consider setting up such a force.

More Students Trained in Tackling Cyber Crime Needed

Maude has promised to make the UK one of the safest places in the world to conduct online business. He added that further details of the ‘cyber reserve’ plans would be revealed in 2013 and said that British government agencies and departments are working with professional bodies in order to ensure that the consideration of internet security becomes an integral component of corporate governance and the risk management process. He stated that UK officials want more students in the country trained in the skills required for tackling cyber crime and pointed out that the nation’s ministry of defense is examining new methods for attracting talented cyber security specialists, as they are required for critical areas of work.

Cyber-Spying by Hostile Nations

The UK Ministry of Defence’s announcement came in the wake of revelations that hostile foreign states had carried out ‘mapping’ of the systems that control the country’s power and water supplies. Officials refused to name the nations that were believed to have carried out this mapping but there have been reports in the United States that China and Russia have conducted similar reconnaissance exercises there, which suggests that they could be the countries that are responsible for this cyber-spying activity. With this in mind, it is little wonder the UK is stepping up its security, as it wishes to safeguard vital information.

Cyber Confidence Tracker

Francis Maude stated that the increasing number of threats posed to the UK’s online security is partly down to the growth of the internet economy. He said that the country’s government cannot take sole responsibility for fighting cyber crime and emphasized the fact that individuals and businesses would also have to play their part. Next spring the UK will be taking steps to improve online security for consumers and small businesses. The nation plans on launching a ‘cyber confidence tracker’, which will keep tabs on online behaviors and perceptions about internet security in an effort to ensure that the advise that they are delivering to the public about this subject is being conveyed in the best possible way.

Implications

It appears that the UK is now taking the threat of cyber attack extremely seriously, which it is wise to do considering the increasing trend of nations targeting the infrastructures of those that they are hostile towards via the internet. This is a sign that the web is becoming the new battleground in the international struggle for power. The full extent of the country’s plans for its ‘cyber reserve’ are not yet known. It is also questionable whether it will be used solely for defense purposes. Espionage is no longer dominated by spies being physically placed in another country. It is now evidently moving online, meaning that countries are being forced to adapt and develop cyber spies of their own.

Special article by 

Evelyn Anderson of International Business and Journalism

Guest Editor VOGH

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">UK Announces Plans for ‘Cyber Reserve’ Online Crime Defence Force"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2012/12/Cyber-Reserve-an-Online-Crime-Defense-Force.html</a>

#OP maZYNGA: Anonymous Targeted Zynga, Leaked Confidential Documents & Games

#OP maZYNGA: Anonymous Targeted Zynga, Leaked Confidential Documents & Games

Infamous hacker collective Anonymous again vows to destroy the most popular social network Facebook and one of its associate along with one of the best place to play online games Zynga. The offensive has been  named Operation MaZynga or dubbed #OP MaZynga. According to a post on AnonNews forum, the hacker group threatened to to take Facebook down on November 5 and release Zynga games to the public on that day for free if Zynga doesn't stop its alleged plans for massive layoffs and offshoring of jobs. Anonymous says that it has obtained secret documents about Zynga's strategy which includes a "massive layoff of a thousand people." The hacker group is ticked off about the jobs. "With a billion dollars cash sitting in a bank we do believe that such actions are an insult to the population and the behaviour of corporations like Zynga must change," it said. Last week, Zynga reported that it has $1.6 billion in cash, equivalents and marketable securities and confirmed that it laid off 150 people. As for rumors of bigger layoffs, these have been circulating for a while.

#OP MaZynga. Press Release From Anonymous:- 

Transcript:-

"Zynga customers and Facebook users , We are anonymous . During the last few days anonymous has been targeting Zynga for the outrageous treatment of their employees and their actions against many developers. 

We have come to believe that this actions of Zynga will result in massive layoff of a thousand people and legal actions against everyone that speaks to the public about this plan.

It will also come to end of the US game market as we know it as all this jobs will be replaced in other more convenient financial countries.

With a billion dollars cash sitting in a bank we do believe that such actions are an insult to the population and the behaviour of corporations like Zynga must change.

Anonymous could not allow this to happen so it's starting to release confidential documents we have leaked on this plan

As we speak we are planning to release also all the games we've taken from their servers for free.

That being said we will stop the idea of the distribution of such games if Zynga will cease immediately the plan.

The leaked strategy of Zynga , transcript:

Following the preliminary announced of this week the final strategy for the next two quarters has been successfully set to delivery by november 23 an additional but of 800 jobs with further raising of new capital from the market to support businesses.

We've identified our global gambling strategy with bwin.party and as we speak discussions are progressing with a partner to cover the US market.

Work is focused and on-going to completely outsource our development teams in our offices in Bangalore , India to hedge our position in the long term.

We've identified key new products from third parties such as Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime , Shove Prod and Music Invaders in which we are starting business contacts to buy these IP for transaction value of approximately 20 million.

We strongly believe we will conclude these deals this month and compete with this titles against mobile competitors with ease.

Our business continues to evolve and we must evolve with it. We operate in a exciting and challenging industry and I am very pleased that our senior leadership team continue to strengthen and develop with us." 

 ******

Here are the documents it mentions:-

http://www.multiupload.nl/DELBKM7I2I mazyngaop_docs.zip (36.41 MB)

http://www.multiupload.nl/WV48I345JM ANON_MA_ZYNGA.7z (412.59 MB)

Not that above files have already been removed for “copyright infringement”. Here we want yo give you reminder that in 2011 Anonymous openly declared to take down Facebook. The operation was dubbed #Op-Facebook and Anonymous told that they will hit FB on the 5th of November last year. But in reality it was just a threat and as expected Anonymous failed to execute Operation Facebook. This year also members of Anonymous vows to re-engage the same operation on the same day (November 5th) also known as Guy Fawkes Day, named for the English historical figure from which Anonymous derives inspiration. So far neither Facebook, nor Zynga responded this message of the hacker group, so lets wait till November 5th, and stay tuned with VOGH for all the latest update on this & also other stories on cyber security, hacking & infosec industry. 

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">#OP maZYNGA: Anonymous Targeted Zynga, Leaked Confidential Documents & Games"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2012/10/OPMaZynga-Anonymous-Targeted-Zynga.html</a>

HSBC Comeback Online After Prolonged DDoS Attack From Anonymous

HSBC Comeback Online After Prolonged DDoS Attack From Anonymous 

Massive attack against banking and financial sector continues, this time HSBC became the latest victim of cyber attack. The attack which interrupt the service for 10 hours long were mainly originated from Iran and Russia. After 'Izz ad-Din al Qassam Cyber Fighters' now it was the time for Fawkes Security, an offshoot of hacktivist group Anonymous, quickly took credit for the attack, acknowledging the take down in posts yesterday afternoon on Twitter and Pastebin The group claimed to have knocked HSBC’s main site, along with its US, UK and Canadian counterparts offline and on Friday,claimed it logged 20,000 debit card details from the site while it was down. 

According to HSBC newsroom- "On 18 October 2012 HSBC servers came under a denial of service attack which affected a number of HSBC websites around the world." But HSBC denied any sort of data loss. Fawkes Security claimed to have details of more than 20K cards, but in their release HSBC said "This denial of service attack did not affect any customer data, but did prevent customers using HSBC online services, including internet banking." 

But now the whole situation is under control, websites belonging to British bank and financial services company HSBC are back online and working normally. According to an update posted on its website, HSBC restored all of its websites globally to full accessibility as of 3:00am UK time. 

New York Stock Exchange, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, US Bank and PNC was brought down by few hacker collective group as protest against the anti Islamic movie. After this attack the name of HSBC has also been enlisted with those poor victims (affected banks & finance sector) who suffered DDoS attack in last month.

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">HSBC Comeback Online After Prolonged DDoS Attack From Anonymous"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2012/10/HSBC-Recovers-From-Prolonged-DDoS-Attack-By-Anonymous.html</a>

Most Organized Banking-Trojan Called 'Gozi Prinimalka' By Russian Hackers Targeting U.S. Banks

Most Organized Banking-Trojan Called 'Gozi Prinimalka' By Russian Hackers Targeting U.S. Banks

We all might be aware of massive attack which took place last month, targeted several leading banking and financial sector of United States. The attack came just after 'anti Islamic' video was posted online. The US National Security officials accused the Iranian government for engaging cyber attacks against US Banks mainly Bank of America. Sooner or later the situation came under control. But cloud of trouble for US Banking sector is not gone completely, recently security professionals unveiled that a cartel of Russian hackers is planning to launch a separate attack aimed at stealing money from about 30 U.S. financial institutions, an apparent attempt to piggyback and capitalize on the ongoing cyber attacks on U.S. banks. The emergence of Russian hackers suggests a potential shift in the motivation of the cyber attacks from ideological to financial and also points to a longer duration of the ongoing attacks. Security experts have picked up on chatter in the cyber underworld indicating Russian cyber hackers have set their sights on about 30 U.S. financial institutions. Dubbed “Operation Blitzkrieg,” the attack is planned for this fall on 30 U.S. banks, though it’s not clear which specific institutions will be targeted. In a blog post last week, RSA said it “believes this is the making of the most substantial organized banking-Trojan operation seen to date.”

So far it’s not clear who the specific Russian hackers are, but famous security professional & blogger Brian Krebs pointed to series of posts beginning in early September on Underweb forums by a Russian hacker who uses the nickname “vorVzakone,” which translates to “thief in law.” RSA said “underground chatter” indicates the gang plans to deploy a Trojan, called “Gozi Prinimalka,” in an effort to complete fraudulent wire transfers via Man-In-The-Middle (MiTM) manual session-hacking scenarios. Herberger said MiTM is a type of attack that aims to deceive targets by violating otherwise secure communications, similar to tapping into a landline phone conversation or breaching a VPN session. “If successfully launched, the full force of this mega heist may only be felt by targeted banks in a month or two,” RSA said. The Trojan is part of a family of malware used by a crime gang that has successfully siphoned at least $5 million from banks, RSA said. The Russian hackers are also offering to pay individuals who help them carry out the attacks, indicating a desire to monetize the intrusions.

So now the vows of hacker group named 'Izz ad-Din al Qassam Cyber Fighters' is proving to be more dangerous for US. The hacker group earlier said "These series of attacks will continue until the Erasing of that nasty movie from the Internet". For your reminder this hacker group was responsible for all the major DDoS attacks against US financial sector. “It’s not uncommon that people who have a financial motive may try to take advantage of nefarious techniques,” said Herberger. “They will jump in because they can take advantage of the fact banks are laboring and security departments are becoming overrun and softened for a different kind of motivated attack.” The emergence of the threat from Russian groups underscores the prolonged nature of the attacks against corporations, especially in the financial industry. “Security teams are coming to terms that these attacks are long,” often measured in days and weeks, said Herberger. However, security teams often aren’t “staffed for attrition.”

-Source (FOX Business)

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">Most Organized Banking-Trojan Called 'Gozi Prinimalka' By Russian Hackers Targeting U.S. Banks"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2012/10/Russian-Hackers-Targeting-US-Banks-With-Trojan.html</a>

Leading US Banking & Financial Sector Suffering From Massive DDoS Attack

Leading US Banking & Financial Sector Suffering From Massive DDoS Attack 

Few days ago in a report we said that US National Security officials accused the Iranian government for engaging cyber attacks against US Banks. The attack came just after 'anti Islamic' video was posted online. Attacks against the websites of leading banks in the United States have the banking and financial services industry on edge. The Financial Services ISAC (Information Sharing and Analysis Center) set its Threat Level to “High” on Wednesday, September 19, indicating a high risk of cyber attacks. Attacks against the websites of leading banks in the United States have the banking and financial services industry on edge. A Muslim hacking group calling itself Izz ad-Din al Qassam Cyber Fighters took responsibility for attacks on the New York Stock Exchange, Bank of America and Chase last week. This week brought attacks against Wells Fargo, US Bank and PNC. Wells Fargo used its Twitter account to apologize for service interruptions on Wednesday and said it was working to "quickly resolve this issue." Most of the targeted banks were back online and operational Thursday. The events prompted U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) to use an interview on C-SPAN to point the finger of blame at the Iranian government and its elite Quds Force.
Wheather it is Iran Govt or that hacker group 'Izz ad-Din al Qassam Cyber Fighters' but the main issue of concern is that the Banking and financial sector has been highly disturbed since last few weeks. Though the situation came under control at last Thursday but still experts are predicting that this ongoing cyber attack is not over yet. In their statement the hacker group vows to engage more attack. "These series of attacks will continue until the Erasing of that nasty movie from the Internet," said the hacker.

-Source (Naked Security) 

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">Leading US Banking & Financial Sector Suffering From Massive DDoS Attack "https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2012/09/US-banking-Financial-Sector-Suffering-From-DDoS-Attack.html</a>

Iran Accused of Carrying out Cyber Attacks Against US Banks Over Anti Islamic Movie Issue

Iran Accused of Carrying out Cyber Attacks Against US Banks Over Anti Islamic Movie Issue

Since last few days, the conspiracy with the 'Anti Islamic Movie' was the headline in every where. We have seen global violence and a mass protest mainly came from Muslim brotherhood. This protest was also touched the internet, and as expected Muslim hackers joined the movement, which cost many damages for the cyber fence. Thousands of websites became victim of cyber attack, and among them several US banks also faced huge disturbance. This protest takes a new direction when Govt of Iran announced the blockage of Google Inc's search engine and its email service. "Google and Gmail will be filtered throughout the country until further notice," an official identified only by his last name, Khoramabadi, said, without giving further details. The Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) said Google ban was connected to the anti-Islamic film posted on the company's YouTube site which has caused outrage throughout the Muslim world. 

This stand of Iran Govt created a controversy, which make them responsible for carrying out cyber attacks against US banks. According to NBC news report US National Security officials accused the Iranian government for engaging cyber attacks against US Banks mainly Bank of America. But when the ball goes to Iran's side then they completely denies the blame, while saying "We officially announce that we haven't had any attacks," This statement came from the Head of Iran's civil defense agency Gholam Reza Jalali when he was asked about the report. The western media reports alleged on Friday that Muslim hackers have repeatedly attacked Bank of America Corp, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Citigroup Inc over the past year as part of a broad cyber campaign targeting the United States. Security sources told Chicago Tribune and NBC News that the attacks on the three largest US banks originated in Iran, but it is not clear if they were launched by the state, groups working on behalf of the government, or "patriotic" citizens. 

Here we want to refresh your memory while digging up a story, when Iran Govt decided a permanent Internet ban in Iran, where Iran Government has announced its plans to establish a National Intranet within five months. The Iranian minister for Information and Communications Technology, announced the setting up of a national Intranet and the effective blockage of services like Google, Gmail, Google Plus, Yahoo and Hotmail, in line with Iran's plan for a "clean Internet." And that five months is almost over, so may be the blockage of Google came due to that reason, or may be not. We suggest our readers that, it will be better if you ask yourself, that whether Iran was indeed responsible for the cyber attack or not??!!

-Source (Reuters, NBC & FARS News Agency)

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">Iran Accused of Carrying out Cyber Attacks Against US Banks Over Anti Islamic Movie Issue"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2012/09/Iran-Accused-Cyber-Attack-Against-US-Banks.html</a>

Dutch Hacker Sentenced To 7 Years in Prison For Stealing Credit Card Numbers

Dutch Hacker Sentenced To 7 Years in Prison For Stealing Credit Card Numbers 

Another cyber criminal from Maryland get busted and has been sentenced for seven years in prison. He was part of a credit card hacking ring that targeted businesses in Seattle and across the country.  The U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle says Christopher A. Schroebel partnered with 21-year-old Dutch computer hacker David Benjamin Schrooten to steal credit card numbers from businesses across the country and sell them in bulk through websites. In their charges, prosecutors say Schroebel had in his possession 84,000 credit card numbers he had stolen or bought from other hackers. The two hackers operated "point of sale" operations, in which spy software is installed in computers used by businesses for transactions. The software records credit card numbers used. Schroebel pleaded guilty in May to charges of bank fraud, obtaining information from a protected computer, access device fraud, among others. Schrooten, who was arrested in Romania, is set to stand trial next month. 

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">Dutch Hacker Sentenced To 7 Years in Prison For Stealing Credit Card Numbers "https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2012/08/Hacker-Sentenced-To-7Years-in-Prison-For-Stealing-CreditCard.html</a>

Official Website of NIOS-National Institute of Open Schooling Hacked By Hitcher

Official Website of NIOS-National Institute of Open Schooling Hacked By Hitcher 

After remaining silent for couple of months, here again well-known Pakistani hacker known to as 'Hitcher' from a hacker collective group named Pak Cyber Force (PCF) strikes. Hitcher is widely recognized for targeting and defacing high profile sites such as Govt, Bank, IT, University and so on. This time also he caught a big fish. The official website of World's largest Open Schooling system, widely known to us as The National Institute of Open Schooling (often abbreviated as NIOS, NOS or National Open School) get hacked. According to resources the hacker managed to get access on the web-server, and thus he manipulated the three domains of NIOS. In-spite of having full privilege, the hacker did not harm the main index. He just uploaded his deface page as shown in the picture. This cyber attack took place yesterday & still the deface page injected by the hacker exist on the web-server. We can conclude while predicting NIOS authority either overlooked the whole matter or else, they are still very careless in cyber-security.  

Hacked Sites:- 

http://www.nios.ac.in/admin/index.html

http://www.nos.org/admin/index.html

http://220.156.188.229/admin/index.html

Deface Mirror:- 

http://www.zone-hack.com/mirror/id/86553

http://www.zone-hack.com/mirror/id/86552

http://www.zone-hack.com/mirror/id/86551

Brief About NIOS:- The National Institute of Open Schooling (often abbreviated as NIOS, NOS or National Open School), is the Board of Education for open schools in India. It was established by the Ministry of Human Resource Development of the Government of India in 1989 to provide education inexpensively to remote areas. The NIOS is a national board that administers examinations for Secondary and Senior Secondary examinations of open schools similar to the CBSE and the CISCE. It had a cumulative enrollment of about 1.5 million students from 2004–2009 at Secondary and Senior Secondary levels and enrolls about 350,000 students annually which makes it the largest open schooling system in the world.

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">Official Website of NIOS-National Institute of Open Schooling Hacked By Hitcher"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2012/07/NationalInstituteofOpenSchoolingHacked.html</a>

More Than 8 Million Gamigo Passwords Leaked After The Hack

More Than 8 Million Gamigo Passwords Leaked After The Hack 

Several months after Gamigo warned its users of a server breach infected 8,243,809 user account credentials including e-mail addresses and encrypted passwords. In February 2012 Gamigo was hacked by a hacker named "8in4ry_Munch3r." Immediately after the breach company's website was taken down for an extended period of maintenance. After five months now the hacker published millions of password hashes belonging to users of the online games platform Gamigo. A 478MB file contains 8.2 million email addresses, usernames and password hashes. Among them around 3 million of these belong to users from the US, 2.4 million are German addresses and 1.3 million are supposed to originate in France. The list also includes corporate email addresses from companies such as IBM, Siemens, Deutsche Bank and the German insurance company Allianz. The file appeared in the same forum which had previously circulated millions of password hashes from Linkedin, eHarmony and other web sites. One user of the forum has claimed to have cracked 94% of the MD-5 hashes in a trivial amount of time. The fact that it was possible to crack the hashes this quickly would suggest that they were not salted. Earlier in 2011 we have seen several other gaming sites became victim of cyber attacks, among them there are Square Enix, Eidos, MapleStory & so on. This breach is bigger than anything we've seen so far this year. In the last few months there have been a slew of attacks against the following sites: Yahoo, LinkedIn, eHarmony, Android Forums, Formspring, and Nvidia. We advice to all the users who are registered with Gamigo and have used the same password at other web sites should immediately change their login credentials. Enjoy reading Voice of Greyhat, stay safe and happy on the Internet. 

Brief about Gamigo:- Gamigo is a German online games publisher that focuses on Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) and has so far released 14 client games as well as five browser games.

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">More Than 8 Million Gamigo Passwords Leaked After The Hack"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2012/07/8MillionGamigoPasswordsLeaked.html</a>

Russian Hacker Petr Murmylyuk Charged For Hacking Millions of Dollar & Stealing Identity

Russian Hacker Petr Murmylyuk Charged For Hacking Millions of Dollar & Stealing Identity 

The U.S. Justice Department charged a Russian, currently living at New-York for his alleged role in a ring that stolen roughly $1 million by hacking into retail brokerage accounts and executing sham trades. Petr Murmylyuk aka “Dmitry Tokar,” 31, of Brooklyn, N.Y., is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, as well as unauthorized access to computers, and securities fraud. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is also filing a parallel civil action. Beginning in late 2010, Murmylyuk worked with others to steal from online trading accounts at Scottrade, E*Trade, Fidelity, Schwab and other brokerage firms. Members of the ring first gained unauthorized access to the online accounts and changed the phone numbers and email addresses on file to prevent notice of unauthorized trading from going to the victims.

Once the hackers controlled the accounts, they used stolen identities to open additional accounts at other brokerage houses. They then caused the victims’ accounts to make unprofitable and illogical securities trades with the new accounts that benefitted the hackers. One version of the fraud involved causing the victims’ accounts to sell options contracts to the accounts, then to purchase the same contracts back minutes later for up to nine times the price.
In another version of the fraud, they used the accounts to offer short sales of securities at prices well over market price and to force the victim accounts to make irrational purchases. Murmylyuk and a conspirator recruited foreign nationals visiting, studying, and living in the United States – including Russian nationals and Houston residents Anton Mezentsev, Galina Korelina, Mikhail Shatov and others – to open bank accounts into which illegal proceeds could be deposited. Murmylyuk and the conspirator then caused the proceeds of the sham trades to be transferred from the brokerage accounts into the bank accounts, where the stolen money could be withdrawn.

Fidelity, Scottrade, E*Trade, and Schwab have reported combined losses to date of approximately $1 million as a result of the fraudulent schemes. Murmylyuk is also accused of placing a telephone call to Trade Station Securities in which he claimed to be “Dmitry Tokar,” through whose brokerage account the ring placed approximately $200,000 in fraudulent securities trades. Murmylyuk was arrested in Brooklyn on November 3, 2011, in possession of a laptop that evidenced the fraud.

-Source (On Wallstreet)

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">Russian Hacker Petr Murmylyuk Charged For Hacking Millions of Dollar & Stealing Identity"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2012/04/russian-hacker-petr-murmylyuk-charged.html</a>