NBC.com Compromised, Hackers Exploited The Website to Spread Malware

NBC.com Compromised, Hackers Exploited The Website to Spread Malware

The month of February is still going from bad to worse for the cyber domain, in this very month cyber criminals swallowed the security system of many giant companies like Facebook, Twitter, Apple, New York Times and many more. But the game is not over yet, as we have just passed a few weeks, when the attack on NY Times took place, which stolen the employ database; yet again the cyber criminals have targeted another media giant National Broadcasting Company widely known as NBC. During the attack, hackers have successfully gain access inside the server of NBC and planted malware, in order to harm innocent readers. Famous security expert and blogger Brian Krebs said that the hackers inserted code into the NBC.com homepage. This caused visiting browsers to load pages from third-party sites that were compromised. While explaining the nature of the attacker, Krebs said; "The compromised sites tried to foist the Citadel Trojan, a variant of the Zeus Trojan." The Zeus is a "sophisticated data theft tool that steals passwords and allows attackers to control machines remotely" he added. Not only the NBC’s home page, also several others were affected, including the pages of late night talk show hosts Jay Leno and Jimmy Fallon. Well known security firm Sophos explained how roughly attack played out, and how NBC got sucked into the equation:

• NBC's hacked pages were altered to add some malicious JavaScript that ran in your browser.
• The JavaScript injected an additional HTML component known as an IFRAME (inline frame) into the web page.
• The IFRAME sucked in further malicious content from websites infected with an exploit kit known as RedKit.
• The exploit kit delivered one of two exploit files to try to take control over your browser via a Java vulnerability or a PDF bug.
• If the exploit worked on your computer, financially-related crimeware from the Citadel or ZeroAccess families was installed.

This, of course, is an example of a dreaded drive-by download, where the crooks use a cascade of tricks to download, install and execute software without going through any of the warnings or confirmation dialog you might expect. This, in turn, means that even if you are a careful and well-informed user, you may end up in trouble, since there are no obvious signs that you are doing anything risky, or even unexpected.

As soon as this story get spotted the American commercial broadcasting television network, NBC News reported and confirmed that its site had been attacked. The broadcaster released the following statement regarding the website: "We've identified the problem and are working to resolve it. No user information has been compromised."

The emergency response team immediately take the situation under control and restored the website, and confirmed that the site is back again and completely safe for its visitors. But so far there is no evidence of attackers who were involved in this attack. For the safety of VOGH readers we would like to recommend you to update your operating systems and browser plugins. Also note that the attack on NBC was similar to many that have occurred in recent years in that the malicious sites tried to exploit vulnerabilities in Java. So it will better to disable Java, unless it is that much necessary. So stay tuned with VOGH and be safe in the cyber domain. 

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Twitter Account of NBC News Hacked

Hackers compromised the NBC News Twitter account today and sent several fake tweets from the account about an attack on Ground Zero reminiscent of the attacks of September 11, 2001.

"Breaking News! Ground Zero has just been attacked. Flight 5736 has crashed into the site, suspected hijacking. More as the story develops," was the first tweet this afternoon. It was followed by two others, including one that started "This is not a joke."

The fourth tweet said "NBCNEWS hacked by The Script Kiddies."

An e-mailed NBC News statement said: "The NBC News twitter account was hacked late this afternoon and as a result, false reports of a plane attack on ground zero were sent to @NBCNews followers. We are working with Twitter to correct the situation and sincerely apologize for the scare that could have been caused by such a reckless and irresponsible act."

NBC News also used the Twitter account of its chief digital officer, Vivian Schiller, to alert followers to the problem. "Ignore tweets from @nbcnews till further notice. We've been hacked. Do not retweet," her account tweeted shortly early on. A search for the NBC News Twitter profile shortly thereafter displayed the message "This user does not exist."

It's unclear who the Script Kiddies are. The profile for the Script Kiddies--a term used to describe novice hackers--also appeared to have been removed from Twitter.

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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)

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USAToday Twitter Account Hacked By Script Kiddies

The Script Kiddies, which is the same group that recently hacked the NBC Twitter account, struck again Sunday evening. The hacker group, which hacked the @USAToday Twitter account late Sunday evening, used the account to send out spiteful messages daring Twitter to block them again. They also asked Twitter users to vote for what account they should hack next in the tweet below:
“Fox News, Wal-mart, Unilevel, Pfizer, NBC and now USA Today. who’s next? Vote Now!”
The Script Kiddies are the lesser-known splinter group of the famous Anonymous hacking group. On the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack, the Script Kiddies hacked the @NBCNews Twitter account and falsely tweeted that a plane had crashed into ground zero. In addition, in July, they hacked the @FoxNewsPolitics Twitter account and falsely tweeted that President Obama had been assassinated. The FBI
In the past, The Script Kiddies have used a “keylogger Trojan” to access the official Twitter accounts of news organizations. The computer malware is unknowingly installed on the host’s computer and logs the entries a computer user makes and in turn allows the hacker to easily detect passwords. Early evidence points to a high likelihood that the group used the same tactic to gain access to the USA Today Twitter account.
USA Today has worked with Twitter to regain control of their account and recently tweeted:
 

“@usatoday was hacked and as a result false tweets were sent. We Worked with Twitter to correct it. The account is now back in our control.”

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British Spy Agency GCHQ Performed DDoS Attack Against Anonymous -Snowden Documents Transpired

British Spy Agency GCHQ Performed DDoS Attack Against Hacktivist Anonymous & LulzSec -Snowden Documents Transpired

While excavating the past, it was always found that cyber criminals, large hacker collective groups were the culprits for engaging voluminous denial of service attack. But this widely transfusing story get a one eighty degree reverse turn, when the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed another trade secret. Recently a lurid story get spot lighted, as the whistle blower Snowden unfold yet another breathtaking stealthy  documents taken from the National Security Agency. The clandestine documents taken the mask from the so called good guys, unveiling British spy agency GCHQ had launched a secret war against the infamous hacktivist collective Anonymous and a splinter group known as LulzSec several years ago. Many of you guessed right, this was happened when Anonymous were targeting various UK companies and government websites. The documents disclose that GCHQ carried out seemingly illegal DDoS attacks against the collective, flooding their chatrooms with so much traffic that they would become inaccessible – and all with the approval of the British government. The revelations come less than a year after several LulzSec activists were jailed by a British court for carrying out similar DDoS attacks against targets including the CIA, the UK’s Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA), News International, Sony and the Westboro Baptist Church, among others. 

This sensational issue was made public by NBC News deferentially with the help of none other than Edward Snowden. In their exclusive report headed 'War on Anonymous: British Spies Attacked Hackers,' NBC said -The blunt instrument the spy unit used to target hackers, however, also interrupted the web communications of political dissidents who did not engage in any illegal hacking. It may also have shut down websites with no connection to Anonymous. According to the documents, a division of Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the British counterpart of the NSA, shut down communications among Anonymous hacktivists by launching a “denial of service” (DDOS) attack – the same technique hackers use to take down bank, retail and government websites – making the British government the first Western government known to have conducted such an attack.

The documents, from a PowerPoint presentation prepared for a 2012 NSA conference called SIGDEV, show that the unit known as the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group, or JTRIG, boasted of using the DDOS attack – which it dubbed Rolling Thunder -- and other techniques to scare away 80 percent of the users of Anonymous internet chat rooms. 

The existence of JTRIG has never been previously disclosed publicly. The documents also show that JTRIG infiltrated chat rooms known as IRCs and identified individual hackers who had taken confidential information from websites. In one case JTRIG helped send a hacktivist to prison for stealing data from PayPal, and in another it helped identify hacktivists who attacked government websites. 

As soon as this story getting all the spot lights, immediately the GCHQ responded to this saying all their movements and operations were lawful. “All of GCHQ’s work is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework which ensure[s] that our activities are authorized, necessary and proportionate, and that there is rigorous oversight, including from the Secretary of State, the Interception and Intelligence Services Commissioners and the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee. All of our operational processes rigorously support this position.” -GCHQ said the press. To know more detail about this story, don't forget to stay tuned with VOGH. 

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Several Twitter Accounts of CBS News (60Minutes, 48Hours & CBSDenver) Hacked

Several Twitter Accounts of CBS News (60Minutes, 48Hours & CBSDenver) Hacked By Syrian Electronic Army [#twithackery]

Yet again CBS one of the major commercial broadcasting television network of United States faced cyber attack. First it was hacker collective Anonymous who targeted CBS and managed to hack the TV network of CBS in January last year. The attack was done under the banner of Operation Megaupload. And now CBS have fallen victim of what it called twithackery, where hacker managed to gain temporary access of popular twitter accounts and broadcast fake tweets. This Sunday such twithackery targeted and compromised several twitter account of CBS. Infamous hacker community going by the name of Syrian Electronic Army claimed to have hijacked the twitter accounts of CBS, the list of the hijacked accounts include "60 Minutes" and "48 Hours" which is maintained by CBS news program. Later it has been reported that another twitter account @CBSDenver has also been hacked, during this ongoing cyber attack. CBS acknowledged the whole phenomena and later a CBS spokeswoman confirmed that the accounts had been compromised. "PLEASE NOTE: Our Twitter account was compromised earlier today. We are working with Twitter to resolve." - said the CBS spokesman. Another message from CBS said, "A message that was posted earlier to this account was not written or sent by @60Minutes or its staff."

Here is the list of those fake tweets came from the hijacked accounts of CBS:- 

From @60Minutes account we got the following message -

• "The US government is hiding the real culprit of the Boston bombing"
• "The US government is sponsoring a coup in Venezuela and a terrorist war in Syria"
• "Your duty is to protect your nation from the parasites that have taken your government"
• "Obama wants to destroy the Syrian and American people. We must stop this beast" 

Other messages claimed: "Syrian Electronic Army Was Here via @SyrianCyberArmy" and suggested the action was in response to the suspension of the @Official_SEA account. Tweets sent out on the @48Hours account reportedly included: "General Dempsey calls for #Obama's arrest under new anti-terror laws #48hours" As soon as the issue get spotted, CBS regain those hijacked accounts and immediately deleted those rouge messages. Later the two accounts @60Minutes and @48Hours has been suspended. 

While talking about twitter hacking, widely known as #twithackery; we would like to remind you the following names, WWE champion John Cena, Star Rita Ora, Justin Bieber, Teyana Taylor,American pop singer Kesha, NBC News, Fox News Politics, USAToday, Lady Gaga’s Twitter Account, Anders Breivik, Mahesh Bhatt, Huffington Post; these are the famous names who have fallen victim to twithackery before CBS. 

-Source (BBC & Reuters)

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Chinese Hackers Eavesdropping European Diplomats Before G20 Summit

Researchers At FireEye Found -Chinese Hackers Snitching  Europeans Before G20 Summit 

Story of cyber espionage by Chinese hackers used to remain one of most highest pick of breakneck. Yet again another breathtaking issue of  eavesdropping by Chinese hackers get spot light, when  California-based renounced computer security firm FireEye Inc have figured out that a group of Chinese hackers eavesdropped on the computers of five European foreign ministries before last September's G20 Summit, which was dominated by the Syrian crisis. From the detailed analysis we came to know that the hackers have infiltrated the ministries' computer networks by sending emails to staff containing tainted files with titles such as "US_military_options_in_Syria," which sells virus fighting technology to companies. Whenever the targeted recipients opened those documents, they loaded malicious code on to their personal computers. Researchers of FireEye said that they were able to monitor the "inner workings" of the main computer server used by the hackers to conduct their reconnaissance and move across compromised systems for about a week in the late August. But suddenly they lost access to the hackers after they moved to another server shortly before the G20 Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia. 

Though the company has declined in open press to identify the nations whose ministries were hacked, although it said they were all members of the European Union. But FireEye informed the FBI about the whole issue in details. FireEye also confirmed that the hackers where from China, but they did not find evidence which may link those hackers to the Chinese government. Not surprisingly and obviously like earlier the Chinese government has distanced itself from any claim that it might have hacked foreign governments for data. FireEye also successfully monitor several dozen hacking groups operating in China, most of which they suspect of having ties to the government. The firms also suspect the hacking groups of stealing intellectual property for commercial gain. The researchers had been following the hackers behind the Syria-related attack for several years, but this is the first time the group's activities have been publicly documented. The company calls the group "Ke3chang," after the name of one of the files it uses in one of its pieces of malicious software. "The theme of the attacks was U.S. military intervention in Syria," said FireEye researcher Nart Villeneuv. 

On reaction Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said- "U.S. internet companies are keen on hyping up the so-called hacker threat from China, but they never obtain irrefutable proof, and what so-called evidence they do get is widely doubted by experts. This is neither professional nor responsible," 

While talking in this story of Chinese eavesdropping, I also want to dig some points from decent parts where we all became very habituated of seeing Europe & U.S. countries blaming China for engaging cyber attacks; and China also do the same for accusing U.S. like vice versa. I am reviving your memories of last few years where If you look at the story of major cyber attacks of this year we will find that the name of China has been involved several times for engaging cyber attacks against several high profile websites and organization of U.S. including New York Times, Twitter, NBC and so on. And if you refresh our memory then then we will find the scenario of big cyber attack and espionage by Chinese hackers have been spotted several times. In 2012 Chinese hackers had  breached Telvent's corporate network & gained control of US Power Grid. Also in the middle of last year, we have seen that Chinese hackers have broken into Indian Navy's Computer System & stolen sensitive data. Few months before this hack, Tokyo based computer security firm Trend Micro confirmed that Chinese hackers were responsible for biggest cyber-espionage in India, Japan & Tibet. Also the director of National Security Agency (NSA) General Keith Alexander confirmed that hackers from China was responsible for the serious attack on one of the leading IT security & cyber security company RSA. Also in 2011 China was responsible behind the attack on US Chamber of Commerce, Satellite System of U.S, Nortel Network & so on.  But few days ago National Computer Network Emergency Response Coordination Center of China (CNCERT/CC), China's primary computer security monitoring network claimed that China fallen victim of one of biggest cyber attacks originated from US, Japan & South Korea. We must have to say that this statement is truly irrelevant. Cyber crime investigator have found that China was directly responsible for the hack into Japan's Biggest Defense Contractor Mitsubishi, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) & Parliament of Japan. In case of South Korea  more than 13 Million of MapleStory players data has been stolen, there also hackers from China was responsible.  

Before I conclude, I request you to closely look at the above mentioned stories, you will find China majorly responsible for eavesdropping & security breach. On the same side China also been effected by the same way. So in conclusion, we cant put a full stop in this chain of cyber attacks, hacking & eavesdropping, as it comes from both end. So this exciting episode will be continued like it does. If you want to stay updated then don't forget to stay tuned with VOGH. 

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WWE Champion & Actor John Cena's Twitter Account Hacked

WWE Champion & Actor John Cena's Twitter Account Hacked

Now a days hacking of celebrities, singer, Media, high profile personalities' twitter has became a very natural phenomena. Here again another twitter hacking, also known as #twithackery occurs. This time the victim is World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) champion and renowned actor John Cena. This week more than 2.8 million fans of American professional wrestler John Cena was shocked after seeing irrelevant tweets coming from John Cena's official twitter account. Immediately after it get noticed, the twitter page was restored and those false tweets was deleted. Later a tweet came from John Cena's official twitter page while saying "Sorry guys, guess some attachments got sent out thru my account. Im been a victim of #twithackery" 

Similar things happened earlier when British pop Star Rita Ora, Justin Bieber, Teyana Taylor,American pop singer Kesha, NBC News, Fox News Politics, USAToday, Lady Gaga’s Twitter Account, Anders Breivik, Mahesh Bhatt, Huffington Post Twitter Account became the victim of such twitter hacking. 

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BBC Server Compromised! Russian Hackers Broke Into FTP & Tried to Sell Unauthorized Access

BBC Server Compromised! Russian Hackers Hacked Into FTP & Tried to Sell Unauthorized Access on The X-Mass Evening 

Earlier we have seen world renowned media houses like CNN, NBC, Fox News, Washington Post, NY Times, NDTV and so on have fallen victim to hackers and cyber criminals. Now it was the turn for world’s largest and oldest broadcaster -British Broadcasting Corporation, widely known to us as BBC. Sources revealed that cyber criminals have managed to breach the security system of BBC and secretly took over a computer server at the BBC and then launched a Christmas Day campaign to convince other cyber criminals to pay him for access to the system. The attack was first identified by a cyber security firm named Hold Security LLC, in Milwaukee that monitors underground cyber crime forums in search of stolen information. However, it is still not clear whether the hacker stole any information or data or caused any damage to the site. In conversation with press Alex Holden, founder and Chief Information Security Officer of Hold Security told -"So far Hold Security researchers have found no evidence the conversations led to a deal or that data was stolen from the BBC.” So far the identity of hacker has not been confirmed, but the firm researchers observed a notorious Russian hacker known by the monikers "HASH" and "Rev0lver," attempting to sell access to the BBC server on December 25. However, BBC's security team managed to secure the site on Saturday, claims a person close to clean up efforts. One of the BBC spokesman refused to comment on the issue, he said, “We do not comment on security issues.” On the other hand, Justin Clarke, a principal consultant for the cyber security firm Cylance, said that while "accessing that server establishes a foothold within BBC's network which may allow an attacker to pivot and gain further access to internal BBC resources.” So far Hold Security researchers have found no evidence the conversations led to a deal or that data was stolen from the BBC. But we all know that  ftp systems are typically used to manage the transfer of large data files over the Internet. That's why the chances of data breach cant not be denied at this time. For updates on this piece of news and other hot information of the cyber & tech world stay tuned with VOGH. 

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Google, Microsoft & Yahoo are looking to buy Hulu

Elisa Schreiber, a spokesman for Hulu was contacted and asked to comment on the subject of the potential sale. She declined to reveal any information regarding the transaction of the company. The spokesmen for the potential buyers, Microsoft, Google and Yahoo!, would not comment on the matter, either. The experts say that if Hulu were to be bought by any of the mentioned companies it would be improved. A new owner could equip it with a better monetary foundation.

Hulu was founded in March 12, 2008 and has its headquarters in Los Angeles, California. Its services cover the area of the United States and its overseas territories. It distributes video on its own website but also on other websites. It also allows its users to embed its videos in their websites. Hulu’s content includes programs from TV channels such as NBC, ABC, FOX, MSNBC, CNBC, MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon and National Geographic Channel, as well as a large number of movies. Since November 2009, Hulu is also distributing music. It signed partnerships with record labels in order to host music videos and concerts. Among the partners, there are EMI (since November 2009) and Warner Music Group (December 2009). Hulu can be followed on TV, on computers, on tablets or on smart phones.

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Twitter Account of Hacktivist Group Anonymous Hacked By 'Rustle League'

Twitter Account of Hacktivist Group Anonymous Hacked By 'Rustle League'

The scenario of hackers targeting another hacker has became a very common matter, in last two years we have seen many instances of the above matter where a hacker hit another hacker's site, community, blog, forums and so on. Today the story which I will about to discuss is the same matter where infamous hacker community named 'Anonymous' fallen victim. A newly formed hacker group calling them selves "Rustle League" targeted one of the officially recognized twitter account (@Anon_Central) belongs to hacktivist group which have more than 160,000 followers. According to security experts  "the reason Anonymous fell victim is probably human weakness." Or in other word many of twitter accounts get hacked due to choosing week passwords. "Chances are that they followed poor password practices, like using the same password in multiple places or choosing a password that was easy to crack. Everyone should learn better password security from incidents like this - if it can happen to an account run by Anonymous supporters, it could happen to you" said another expert of security firm Sophos. The hack on Anonymous twitter account placed Thursday morning and three hours later, those running the feed tweeted that they had gained back control of their account. 

While talking about attack on Twitter, we would like to remind you that, in this month a sophisticated cyber attack compromised the security system of the social networking giant twitter, where more than 250,000 twitter users have fallen victim. Though the hack of Anonymous twitter account does not resembles to the said matter, but the hack can be considered in the list of twitter hacking, widely known as #twithackery; where hackers gain temporary access of celebrity and famous twitter accounts. If you did the history we will find the following names, WWE champion John Cena, Star Rita Ora, Justin Bieber, Teyana Taylor,American pop singer Kesha, NBC News, Fox News Politics, USAToday, Lady Gaga’s Twitter Account, Anders Breivik, Mahesh Bhatt, Huffington Post; these are the famous names who have fallen victim to twithackery. 

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British pop Star Rita Ora's Twitter Account Hacked

British pop Star Rita Ora's Twitter Account Hacked

Yet again another celebrity have fallen victim of twitter hacking. After Justin Bieber, Teyana Taylor, American pop singer Kesha; now it was time for British pop star Rita Ora. The hacker have broken into the pop star's account and posted a fake tweet saying "I wanna be with Harry Styles". 

Rita Ora has immediatley apologized to fans after a prankster hacked her Twitter account and posted that she has a crush on One Direction singer Harry Styles. The 21-year-old pop singer got to know about the news Saturday when she discovered a tweet on her page. She quickly deleted the message and told her 1.1 million followers she had contacted bosses at the social networking site about temporarily closing her account while resolving the problem. She writes, "My Twitter has been hacked! Trying to get it frozen for a bit!! Sorry guys!!"

Similar things happened earlier when NBC News, Fox News Politics, USAToday, Lady Gaga’s Twitter Account, Anders Breivik, Mahesh Bhatt, Huffington Post Twitter Account became the victim of such twitter hacking. 

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White House Calls China to Stop Hacking & Cyber Espionage Against U.S.

White House Calls China to Stop Hacking & Cyber Espionage Against U.S.

The story of cyber espionage by Chinese hackers used to remain on the spot light due to its consistency, but now the situation get nasty and takes a new way as the national security adviser of U.S. President Obama directly pointed his finger to China. Many of our readers might take this issue lightly as earlier China has been blamed for engaging cyber attacks against different countries for many times. But this time there is a twist as the U.S. government vows to take the issue in a very serious manner. In his speech the national security advisory Tom Donilon said that "The international community cannot afford to tolerate such activity from any country," Like earlier China has denied any type of involvement and condemned the report for lack of hard evidence. But this time such reaction will not at all be entertained as the president said in the State of the Union, "we will take action to protect our economy against cyberthreats." The above two statements can be taken in both friendly warning or also in a serious threat. The White House already warned China to end the campaign of cyber espionage against U.S. companies, saying in its toughest language yet on the issue that the hacking activity threatens to derail efforts to build stronger ties between the two countries. 

Donilon did not directly accuse the Chinese government of launching the attacks on U.S. computer systems, only noting that the attacks are coming from inside the country. "Increasingly, U.S. businesses are speaking out about their serious concerns about sophisticated, targeted theft of confidential business information and proprietary technologies through cyber intrusions emanating from China on an unprecedented scale," he said. Another important message came from the Obama administration saying United States “will not accept North Korea as a nuclear state” and called on Chinese leaders to get serious about cracking down on cyber-related crimes. 

While covering this story we would like to remind you that couple of weeks ago Chinese officials issued a same complain against United States where they blamed U.S. for engaging massive cyber attacks against Chinese military and defense system. If you look at the story of major cyber attacks of last few days we will find that the name of China has been involved several times for engaging cyber attacks against several high profile websites and organization of U.S. including New York Times, Twitter, NBC and so on. And if you refresh our memory then then we will find the scenario of big cyber attack and espionage by Chinese hackers have been spotted several times. In 2012 Chinese hackers had  breached Telvent's corporate network & gained control of US Power Grid. Also in the middle of last year, we have seen that Chinese hackers have broken into Indian Navy's Computer System & stolen sensitive data. Few months before this hack, Tokyo based computer security firm Trend Micro confirmed that Chinese hackers were responsible for biggest cyber-espionage in India, Japan & Tibet. Also the director of National Security Agency (NSA) General Keith Alexander confirmed that hackers from China was responsible for the serious attack on one of the leading IT security & cyber security company RSA. Also in 2011 China was responsible behind the attack on US Chamber of Commerce, Satellite System of U.S, Nortel Network & so on.  But few days ago National Computer Network Emergency Response Coordination Center of China (CNCERT/CC), China's primary computer security monitoring network claimed that China fallen victim of one of biggest cyber attacks originated from US, Japan & South Korea. We must have to say that this statement is truly irrelevant. Cyber crime investigator have found that China was directly responsible for the hack into Japan's Biggest Defense Contractor Mitsubishi, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) & Parliament of Japan. In case of South Korea  more than 13 Million of MapleStory players data has been stolen, there also hackers from China was responsible. 

-Source (The Hill, Cnet & WT)

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China Claiming Their Defense & Military Sites are Serially Attacked By U.S. Hackers

China Claiming Their Defense & Military Sites are Serially Attacked By U.S. Hackers 

We all are very much familiar of hearing the story of cyber espionage and cyber attacks originated from China by Chinese hackers. Where many countries across the globe have fallen victim like U.S. India, Japan, South Korea, many European countries and many more. But today a complete reverse story came under light where the Chinese government are claiming that several top secrete government sites like defense, army, military were targeted and hit by hackers from United States. According to some classified sources it came that Chinese government websites are routinely hacked from IP addresses originating within the United States. In a news conference, spokesman of Defense Ministry of China; Mr. Geng Yansheng said that - more than 144,000 hacking attempts per month are targeted at the China Military Online and Defense Ministry websites. According to Chinese defense ministry a close to two-thirds of those attacks (62.9 percent) originated in the United States. Geng said he had noted reports that the United States planned to expand its cyber-warfare capability but that they were unhelpful to increasing international cooperation towards fighting hacking.

"We hope that the U.S. side can explain and clarify this." The U.S. security company, Mandiant, identified the People's Liberation Army's Shanghai-based Unit 61398 as the most likely driving force behind the hacking. Mandiant said it believed the unit had carried out "sustained" attacks on a wide range of industries. Yansheng did not mention a direct link between the cyber attacks and the U.S. government only that the attacks originated in the United States. He did note, however, that China is concerned with reports that the United States is planning to expand its cyber warfare capabilities. 

In the last month China was blamed for engaging cyber attacks against several high profile websites and organization of U.S. including New York Times, Twitter, NBC and so on. And if you refresh our memory then then we will find the scenario of big cyber attack and espionage by Chinese hackers have been spotted several times. In 2012 Chinese hackers had  breached Telvent's corporate network & gained control of US Power Grid. Also in the middle of last year, we have seen that Chinese hackers have broken into Indian Navy's Computer System & stolen sensitive data. Few months before this hack, Tokyo based computer security firm Trend Micro confirmed that Chinese hackers were responsible for biggest cyber-espionage in India, Japan & Tibet. Also the director of National Security Agency (NSA) General Keith Alexander confirmed that hackers from China was responsible for the serious attack on one of the leading IT security & cyber security company RSA. Also in 2011 China was responsible behind the attack on US Chamber of Commerce, Satellite System of U.S, Nortel Network & so on.  But few days ago National Computer Network Emergency Response Coordination Center of China (CNCERT/CC), China's primary computer security monitoring network claimed that China fallen victim of one of biggest cyber attacks originated from US, Japan & South Korea. We must have to say that this statement is truly irrelevant. Cyber crime investigator have found that China was directly responsible for the hack into Japan's Biggest Defense Contractor Mitsubishi, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) & Parliament of Japan. In case of South Korea  more than 13 Million of MapleStory players data has been stolen, there also hackers from China was responsible. 

After keeping in mind all the above facts, we can not conclude the matter very easily, but what we can say that, whether China is responsible or not is neither been proved so far. In spite of looking at the situation we can only say, the entire matter is foggy; where the original truth has either been manipulated or been still untold. But it is sure that those untold or manipulated issues will some day came in front, till that time we have to keep patience and don't forget to stay tuned with VOGH for all kind of cyber related topics and expert reviews.

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