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Showing posts sorted by date for query Senate. Sort by relevance Show all posts

Controversial Cyber Security Bill CISPA Passed Again By The US House

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 4/23/2013 11:30:00 pm

Controversial Cyber Security Bill CISPA Passed Again By The US House

Couple of months ago we reported that the White House is planning for an executive cyber security order, from some official sources it has also come to know that the U.S. President Mr. Barack Obama has a special plan to re-introduce the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). Today that deceleration get executed as the US House of Representatives has passed the controversial Cyber Information Sharing and Protection Act. This is the second time when CISPA have been passed by the White House, first it was rejected by the Senator while saying that the bill did not do enough to protect privacy. But yet again with the initiative of Obama and a substantial majority of politicians in the House backed the bill. Though there is a huge chance of getting rejected. According to some relevant sources it has been came to light that, this time also CISPA could fail again in the Senate after threats from President Obama to veto it over privacy concerns. Sources are saying that the main reason of re-introducing CISPA is the the President Barack Obama expressed concerns that it could pose a privacy risk. The White House wants amendments so more is done to ensure the minimum amount of data is handed over in investigations.  The law is passing through the US legislative system as American federal agencies warn that malicious hackers, motivated by money or acting on behalf of foreign governments, such as China, are one of the biggest threats facing the nation.  "If you want to take a shot across China's bow, this is the answer," said Mike Rogers, the Republican politician who co-wrote CISPA and chairs the House Intelligence Committee. 

On the other hand CISPA has also secured the backing of several technology firms, including the CTIA wireless industry group, as well as the TechNet computer industry lobby group, which has Google, Apple and Yahoo as members. By contrast, some other big names like Mozilla, Reddit has been vocal in its opposition to the bill. In the beginning the social networking giant Facebook supported CISPA but later they took back its support. The American Civil Liberties Union has also opposed CISPA, saying the bill was "fatally flawed". The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Reporters Without Borders and the American Library Association have all voiced similar worries.


-Source (BBC)






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Julian Assange's Wikileaks Party Started it's Official Website & Opens Membership

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 4/03/2013 01:47:00 am

Julian Assange's Wikileaks Party Started it's Official Website & Opens Membership 

Earlier this year we came to know about the WikiLeaks Party where we have seen Julian Assange in a different avatar who have taken the first step toward a Senate run in the Australian state of Victoria. The electoral enrollment application was submitted to the Australian Electoral Commission in February. Assange's father Mr. John Shipton said Julian Assange's enrollment was ''a first step'' in a political campaign that would focus on ''the democratic requirement of truthfulness from government''. The party, not yet registered with the Australian Electoral Commission, has an initial 10-member national council comprised of close associates of Mr. Assange and pro-WikiLeaks activists. But as per the rules of Electoral Commission the party must have to 500 members to officially register with them, in order to do that WLParty have started its official website that is wikileaksparty.org.au and opened online membership form. The official twitter account of WikiLekas urges its followers to to join the WikiLeaks Party, though the website is still under testing and expecting to be final in between seven days as shown in the picture below. 

For the fans of WikiLekas, who eager to join the party must know that, they must have to fill out at least 8 fields of personal information including full name, address, phone number, residential suburb & so on. Along with these, the members must have to agree the terms of the party constitution as published on the party website and they have to pay amount of $20 as shown the picture below.

But the WikiLeaks founder has been living at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since June 2102 — eluding Swedish authorities, who have an outstanding arrest warrant for him in connection to a sexual assault investigation. If elected Australian Senator, Assange might still not be able to be physically present at the Australian senate as he might still be trapped in London’s Ecuadorean embassy. British authorities have vowed to detain him if he steps foot outside of the embassy in light of the European Arrest Warrant issued against him. 

-Source (WL Party & RT)






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Julian Assange Started His Journey For Australian Senate on Behalf of WikiLeaks Party

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 2/14/2013 03:16:00 pm

Julian Assange Started His Journey For Australian Senate on Behalf of WikiLeaks Party

The world knows Julian Paul Assange, as the editor-in-chief and founder of WikiLeaks, which publishes submissions of secret information, news leaks and classified media from anonymous news sources and whistleblowers, will now see a different avatar as Mr. Assange have taken the first step toward a Senate run in the Australian state of Victoria as a member of the newly formed WikiLeaks Party. According to sources, Assange's electoral enrollment application was submitted to the Australian Electoral Commission in Melbourne by WikiLeaks supporters, including Assange's father, John Shipton. Mr Shipton said Mr Assange's enrolment was ''a first step'' in a political campaign that would focus on ''the democratic requirement of truthfulness from government''. The party, not yet registered with the Australian Electoral Commission, has an initial 10-member national council comprised of close associates of Mr Assange and pro-WikiLeaks activists. Its constitution highlights the promotion of openness and transparency in government and business. Mr Assange has nominated his mother's home in Mentone, in the federal electorate of Isaacs, as his address for eligible enrolment before his most recent trip overseas in June 2010 -reported a reputed Australian daily. 
According to post of The Age we came to know that --Australian citizens living overseas can enrol to vote as an overseas elector, and consequently run as a Senate candidate if they left Australia within the past three years and intend to return within six years of their date of departure.
Mr Assange has indicated that if elected and unable to return to Australia to take up a seat in the Senate, a WikiLeaks Party nominee would fill the vacancy. Opinion polls last year by UMR Research, the company the Labor Party uses for its internal polling, suggest that Mr Assange could be a competitive Senate candidate in Victoria. 
But the WikiLeaks founder has been living at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for more than six months — eluding Swedish authorities, who have an outstanding arrest warrant for him in connection to a sexual assault investigation.
Assange spoke of his political ambitions in December, when he said he was interested in running for Senate, adding that "a number of very worthy people admired by the Australian public" had signaled they'd be willing to join him on a party ticket. A representative for the Australian Electoral Commission said the application for electoral enrollment is a private matter between the applicant and the commission, so he would not discuss individual cases.

 While talking about Jullian Assange and WikiLeaks, we would like to give you reminder that in this year we got several leaks from WikiLeaks, among them -'Detainee Policies' containing more than 100 classified or otherwise restricted files from the United States Department of Defense covering the rules and procedures for detainees in U.S. military custody. SpyFiles, GI Files (Global Intelligence Files & Five Million E-mails From Stratfor) & The Syria Files Containing 2.5 Million Emails of Syrian Politicians, Govt, Ministries & Companies.




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#opSOTU By Anonymous To Oppose Executive Cyber Security Order (The Revised CISPA)

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 2/14/2013 03:16:00 pm

#opSOTU By Anonymous To Oppose Executive Cyber Security Order (The Revised CISPA)

Last year the Internet and its trillion of users across the globe has faced several barrier when, number of approach from Senate and government, along with few corporate and other organization were in the target to make the entire Internet censored. To engage this motive they have approached and introduced a number of regulations and act such as SOPA, PIPA, CISPA & ACTA. But to implement those enactment was not that easy, as huge number of organization (including White House, Wikipedia & so on), billions of mass people stand against those controversial act, and as expected those acts were ruled back, that said protest might not get the full success, if hackers around the globe did not take part in it. It was the hackers communities who forced the govt to roll back those rules. But the victory was not that easy to achieve, as the president of U.S. appeared before a joint session of Congress to deliver the State of the Union Address and he plans to sign an executive order for cyber-security as the House Intelligence committee reintroduces the defeated CISPA act which turns private companies into government informants. As soon as the deceleration of the executive order for cyber-security came, immediately protest came. Hacktivist group Anonymous yet against stand against the controversial CISPA, and called an operation dubbed Operation SOTU (#opSOTU). In the campaign the hacker group states a clear intent to obstruct Internet broadcasts of the president's State of the Union address, an action the group justifies by pointing to renewed interest in Congress to pass the Cybersecurity Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), a measure Anonymous has long opposed. 

Press Release of Anonymous (#opSOTU):- 
Citizens of the Internet,
Last year we faced our greatest threat from lawmakers. We faced down SOPA, PIPA, CISPA and ACTA.

And we won!

But that victory did not come easily. Nor did it come without a price.

Aaron Swartz was one of the leading voices in the fight against these idiotic and destructive efforts to control the last free space on Earth.

Aaron Swartz was persecuted. Now Aaron Swartz is dead.
Tonight, the President of the United States will appear before a joint session of Congress to deliver the State of the Union Address and tomorrow he plans to sign an executive order for cyber-security as the House Intelligence committee reintroduces the defeated CISPA act which turns private companies into government informants.

He will not be covering the NDAA, an act of outright tyrannical legislation allowing for indefinite detention of citizens completely outside due process and the rule of law. In fact, lawyers for the government have point-blank refused to state whether or not journalists who cover stories or groups the Government disfavors would be subject to this detention.

He will not be covering the extra-judicial and unregulated justifications for targeted killings of citizens by military drones within the borders of America, or the fact that Orwellian newspeak had to be used to make words like “imminent” mean their opposite.

He will not be covering Bradley Manning, 1000 days in detention with no trial for revealing military murders, told that his motive for leaking cannot be taken into consideration, that the Government does not have room for conscience.

He will not be covering the secret interpretations of law that allow for warrant-less wiretapping and surveillance of any US citizen without probably cause of criminal acts, or the use of Catch-22 logic where no-one can complain about being snooped on because the state won’t tell you who they’re snooping on, and if you don’t know you’re being snooped on, you don’t have a right to complain.

We reject the State of the Union. We reject the authority of the President to sign arbitrary orders and bring irresponsible and damaging controls to the Internet.
The President of the United States of America, and the Joint Session of Congress will face an Army tonight.
We will form a virtual blockade between Capitol Hill and the Internet. Armed with nothing more than Lulz, Nyancat and PEW-PEW-PEW! Lazers, we will face down the largest superpower on Earth.

And we will win!

There will be no State of the Union Address on the web tonight.

For freedom, for Aaron Swartz, for the Internet, and of course, for the lulz.

We Are Anonymous,
We Are Legion,
We Do Not forgive,
We Do Not forget,
Expect Us.

..."

But unlike last year, this time the approach of CISPA is more organized, as not only Congress but also the White House will also unveil President Barack Obama's long-awaited executive order on cyber security. So to stand against such an organized and well planned act, the protester need to be more decent and more united. As we all want and prefer freedom and privacy in our personal life as well as in the Internet, so we will fight and expect to win. So stay tuned with VOGH, and lets see what is coming for us. 




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FBI's Cybercrime Unit Taken New Initiative to Nab Hackers & Intruders

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 10/31/2012 06:09:00 am

FBI's Cybercrime Unit Taken New Initiative to Nab Hackers & Intruders 

The month of October has been declared by FBI as the National Cyber Security Awareness Month of 2012 , and in the last week of this month the cyber crime division of FBI has started a new program which will specially emphasis on hackers and intrusion. The main aim of this program is to focusing on hackers and to prevent cyber crime. Last month  Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued a report based on information from law enforcement and complaints submitted to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) detailing recentcyber crime trends and new twists to previously-existing cyber scams. Now the recent movement of FBI will surely inject fear into the heart & mind of hackers. According to FBI's official release - Early last year, hackers were discovered embedding malicious software in two million computers, opening a virtual door for criminals to rifle through users’ valuable personal and financial information. Last fall, an overseas crime ring was shut down after infecting four million computers, including half a million in the U.S. In recent months, some of the biggest companies and organizations in the U.S. have been working overtime to fend off continuous intrusion attacks aimed at their networks. The scope and enormity of the threat—not just to private industry but also to the country’s heavily networked critical infrastructure—was spelled out last month in Director Robert S. Mueller’s testimony to a Senate homeland security panel: “Computer intrusions and network attacks are the greatest cyber threat to our national security.”
To that end, the FBI over the past year has put in place an initiative to uncover and investigate web-based intrusion attacks and develop a cadre of specially trained computer scientists able to extract hackers’ digital signatures from mountains of malicious code. Agents are cultivating cyber-oriented relationships with the technical leads at financial, business, transportation, and other critical infrastructures on their beats. 

Today, investigators in the field can send their findings to specialists in the FBI Cyber Division’s Cyber Watch command at Headquarters, who can look for patterns or similarities in cases. The 24/7 post also shares the information with partner intelligence and law enforcement agencies—like the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security and the National Security Agency—on the FBI-led National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force.
A key aim of the Next Generation Cyber Initiative has been to expand our ability to quickly define “the attribution piece” of a cyber attack to help determine an appropriate response, said Richard McFeely, executive assistant director of the Bureau’s Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch. “The attribution piece is: who is conducting the attack or the exploitation and what is their motive,” McFeely explained. “In order to get to that, we’ve got to do all the necessary analysis to determine who is at the other end of the keyboard perpetrating these actions.”
The Cyber Division’s main focus now is on cyber intrusions, working closely with the Bureau’s Counterterrorism and Counterintelligence Divisions.  “We are obviously concerned with terrorists using the Internet to conduct these types of attacks,” McFeely said. “As the lead domestic intelligence agency within the United States, it’s our job to make sure that businesses’ and the nation’s secrets don’t fall into the hands of adversaries.”
In the Coreflood case in early 2011, hackers enlisted a botnet—a network of infected computers—to do their dirty work. McFeely urged everyone connected to the Internet to be vigilant against computer viruses and malicious code, lest they become victims or unwitting pawns in a hacker or web-savvy terrorist’s malevolent scheme.
“It’s important that everybody understands that if you have a computer that is outward-facing—that it’s connected to the web—that your computer is at some point going to be under attack,” he said. “You need to be aware of the threat and you need to take it seriously.” 


To Listen the Podcast of FBI's "“The intrusions are occurring 24/7, 365 days a year.” Click Here






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SOPA Returns! Not From Congress But As a Ransomware Virus

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 10/20/2012 12:07:00 pm

SOPA Returns! Not From Congress But As a Ransomware Virus

Last month in a report we said, that "SOPA & PIPA are dead, they're not coming back". Former Senate Christopher Dodd, now chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, said the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act aren’t going to be floated again in Congress. Now it seems that he was not fully right as The Stop Online Piracy ACT also known as SOPA the most controversial act which terrified almost every people, who is associated with Internet still chasing us, though the bill was defeated after massive protest; still  SOPA is not leaving us. I know its a tragic news, but do't be panic, this time its not the comeback of SOPA act from Congress but as a nasty cryptovirus that locks up people’s computers and accuses them of distributing copyright infringing files. Infected users can get their data back after a payment of $200 – at least, that’s what the virus makers promise. Several researcher have figure out and warning that new ransomware that claims to be an alert from the "Stop Online Piracy Automatic Protection System." It goes on to tell you that your computer is on a "S.O.P.A. IP Black List" because it was used to download copyright infringing materials, child pornography or illegal software. The malware encrypts all of your data files and holds them hostage, offering to decrypt them if you pay a fee to the criminals. According to report by Torrent Freak- the SOPA virus holds all files on the host computer ransom.
“Your computer is locked!” the splash screen above warns, adding:
If you see a warning.txt or warning screen, it means your IP address was included in S.O.P.A. Black List. One or more of the following items were made from your PC:
1. Downloading or distributing audio or video files protected by Copyright Law.

2. Downloading or distributing illegal content (child porn, phishing software, etc.)
3. Downloading or distributing Software protected by Copyright Law.

As a result of these infringements based on Stop Online Piracy Act (H.R. 3261) your PC and files are now blocked.
The SOPA virus is so-called ransomware, meaning that it holds computers hostage and only promises to free data after victims hand over cash. In the U.S. and Canada people are instructed to pay with a MoneyPak prepaid voucher, and in other parts of the world they can use Western Union. Those who don’t pay within three days are in trouble, the virus maker warns. “WARNING!!!: If you don’t pay the fine within 72 HOURS at the amount of 200 USD, all your computer data will be erased.”
People who are affected should of course ignore all the above. Searching online for “Stop Online Piracy Automatic Protection System Removal”” is a better option, there are plenty of ways to defeat the resurrected SOPA and get your data back.



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Former Senate & MPAA Chief Said -SOPA & PIPA "are dead, they're not coming back"

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 10/04/2012 01:58:00 am

Former Senate & MPAA Chief Said -SOPA & PIPA "are dead, they're not coming back"

It seems that the mass protest against controversial act SOPA & PIPA finally succeed. Former Senate Christopher Dodd, now chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, said the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act aren’t going to be floated again in Congress. In an interview after an appearance at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club Tuesday night, Dodd told  “My own view, that legislation is gone. It’s over. It’s not coming back,”  Still, he said the massive protest against the measures, which included online petitions and massive e-mail campaigns, “was over the top.” SOPA, the more draconian of the two failed bills, would have required ISPs to prevent Americans from visiting blacklisted sites by altering the system known as DNS that turns site names like Google.com into IP addresses such as 174.35.23.56. Instead, for the blacklisted sites, ISPs would have had to lie to their customers and tell their browsers that the site doesn’t exist. 
SOPA and its sister bill PIPA were both definitively killed off earlier this year after an overwhelming campaign of online action by citizens and tech companies. Dodd sounded chastened, with a tone that was a far cry from the rhetoric the MPAA was putting out in January. "When SOPA-PIPA blew up, it was a transformative event," said Dodd. "There were eight million e-mails [to elected representatives] in two days." That caused senators to run away from the legislation. "People were dropping their names as co-sponsors within minutes, not hours," he said.
"These bills are dead, they're not coming back," said Dodd. "And they shouldn't." He said the MPAA isn't focused on getting similar legislation passed in the future, at the moment. "I think we're better served by sitting down [with the tech sector and SOPA opponents] and seeing what we agree on."

Dodd also continued to laud the "six strikes" plan that US Internet providers have agreed to enforce on behalf of the entertainment industry, insisting that it's an "educational" program aimed at illegal downloads. "If people are aware they're downloading illegal content, they'll go to a legal service," he said. "It's an experiment to see if we can get cooperation. It's not a law—you don't go to jail."
The MPAA won't have any kind of back-door to subscriber records at Verizon or other ISPs, Dodd said.



-Source (WIRED & ars technica)










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A Tribute to The 10 Most Infamous Student Hackers of All Time

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 9/15/2012 04:01:00 pm

A Tribute to The 10 Most Infamous Student Hackers of All Time

Since last two years, we the VOGH team has been covering all the latest cyber security updates. But today lets do some thing different. One of our frequent reader and fan Katina Solomon has requested us to share a fantastic article. Everyday VOGH draws headlines of hackers around the world and their activities. While trying to maintain speed with time, we usually forgot our past. Today we will take you into the past, where we will discuss about those heroes, who are always been ill treated by the society & the system while revamping those heroes into cyber-criminals or infamous hackers. Its our question to our humanity "Did the system has done justice with them??" 
Hacking has always been inherently a young person’s game. The first usage of the word “hacker” was to describe pranksters meddling with the phones at MIT. Many hackers have cited boredom, a desire for change, or the thrill of going somewhere one is not supposed to go as their motivation for hacking, all of which could apply to scores of common activities on college campuses. While today’s hacking scene is dominated by large hacking groups like Anonymous and Masters of Deception, many of the greatest hacks ever have been pulled off by college, high school, and even middle school kids who rose to infamy armed only with a computer and the willingness to cross the bounds of legality.
  1. Sven Jaschan: In the words of one tech expert, “His name will always be associated with some of the biggest viruses in the history of the Internet.” The viruses: the Sasser and NetSky worms that infected millions of computers and have caused millions of dollars of damage since their release in 2004. The man behind the viruses proved to be not even a man at all, legally. Seventeen-year-old hacker Sven Jaschan, a student at a computer science school in Germany, claimed to have created the viruses to become a hero by developing a program that would eradicate the rampaging Mydoom and Bagle bugs. Instead he found himself the subject of a $250,000 bounty courtesy of Microsoft, for which some of his classmates turned him in.
  2. Jonathan James: In 2000, at the age of 16, James, or “C0mrade” as he was known in the hacker community, infamously became the first juvenile federally sentenced for hacking. The targets of his notorious hack jobs were a wing of the U.S. Department of Defense called the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, NASA, and the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. (By hacking the latter James gained the ability to control the A/C in the International Space Station.) All of these were pulled off “for fun” while James was still a student at Palmetto Senior High in Miami. Unfortunately, the fun ran out when James was tied into a massive identity theft investigation. Though insisting he was innocent, James took his own life, saying he had “no faith in the justice system.”
  3. Michael Calce: Yahoo. CNN. Ebay. Amazon. Dell.com. One by one in a matter of days, these huge websites crashed at the hands of 15-year-old Canadian high school student Michael Calce, aka “MafiaBoy.” Armed with a denial-of-service program he called “Rivolta” that overloaded servers he targeted, the young hacker wreaked $7.5 million in damages, according to court filings. Calce was caught when he fell victim to a common ailment of teenage boys: bragging. The cops were turned on to him when he began boasting in chat rooms about being responsible for the attacks. On Sept. 12, 2001, MafiaBoy was sentenced to a group facility for eight months on 56 counts of cybercrime.
  4. Kevin Mitnick: Before performing hacks that prompted the U.S. Department of Justice to declare him “the most wanted computer criminal in United States history,” Kevin Mitnick had already made a name for himself as a hacker in his school days, first at Monroe High School in LA and later at USC. On a dare, Mitnick connived an opening into the computer system of Digital Equipment Corporation, which some fellow hackers then used to steal proprietary source code from the company before ratting on him. While still on probation for that crime, Mitnick broke into the premises of Pacific Bell and had to go on the run from police in the aftermath, during which time he hacked dozens of systems, including those of IBM, Nokia, Motorola, and Fujitsu.
  5. Tim Berners-Lee: “Scandalous” is a synonym for “infamous,” and for this legendary computer scientist, knight of the British Empire, and inventor of the World Wide Web to have been a hacker in his school days is certainly a juicy factoid. During his time at Oxford in the mid-’70s, Sir Tim was banned from using university computers after he and a friend were caught hacking their way into restricted digital areas. Luckily by that time he already knew how to make his own computer out of a soldering iron, an old TV, and some spare parts. And also luckily for him, he will always be revered as the father of the Internet.
  6. Neal Patrick and the 414s: In the early ’80s, hacking was still a relatively foreign concept to most Americans. Few recognized the enormous power hackers could hijack with a few strokes on a keyboard, which explains why a young group of hackers known as the 414s (after a Milwaukee area code) were virtual celebrities after they hacked into the famous Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and elsewhere. While today hacking a lab where classified nuclear research is conducted could earn you a one-way ticket to Guantanamo, the 17-year-old ringleader and high school student Neal Patrick was on the cover of Newsweek. The group members got light sentences but prompted Congress to take a stronger role in cybercrime.
  7. Robert T. Morris: The first ever Internet worm, the Morris Worm derived its name from Cornell grad student Robert Tappan Morris. In 1988, Morris released the worm through MIT’s system to cover his tracks, which would seem to contradict his claims that he meant no harm with it. But that’s exactly what resulted: the worm spread out of control, infecting more than 6,000 computers connected to the ARPANET, the academic forerunner to the World Wide Web. The damages reached as high as an estimated $10 million, and Morris earned the ignominious distinction of being the first person prosecuted under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Morris got community service but was apparently not considered too infamous to be offered his current job as a professor at MIT.
  8. George Hotz: To some, George Hotz (aka “geohot,” aka “million75,” aka “mil”) is a public menace, a threat to electronic businesses everywhere. To many, Hotz is a hero. The high-schooler shot to fame/infamy in 2007 at the tender age of 17 by giving the world its first hacked, or “jailbroken” iPhone. He traded it for a new sports car and three new iPhones, and the video of the hacking received millions of hits. Apple has had to grudgingly come to terms with jailbreaking, seeing as the courts have declared it legal, but Sony Corp. is definitely not OK with such tampering. When Hotz hacked his PlayStation 3 and published the how-to on the web, the company launched a vicious lawsuit against him. In turn, the hacker group Anonymous launched an attack on Sony, stealing millions of users’ personal info.
  9. Donncha O’Cearbhaill: According to the FBI, this 19-year-old freshman at Trinity College Dublin is one of the top five most wanted hackers in the world. Well, he was; now that he’s been arrested he’s not really “wanted” anymore. The Feds contend the young man is a VIP member of the Anonymous and LulzSec hacking groups that have already been mentioned and whose targets have included the FBI, the U.S. Senate, and Sony (in the Hotz backlash). It seems “Palladium” (O’Cearbhaill) took the liberty of listening in on a conference call between the FBI and several international police forces who were discussing their investigations of the hacking groups. He could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison if convicted for that hack alone.
  10. Nicholas Allegra: Just as George Hotz moved on from the Apple hacking game, Brown University student Nicholas Allegra is also hanging up his jersey. “Comex,” as he is known to millions of rooted iPhone fans, created the simple-to-use Apple iOS jailbreaking program JailbreakMe in 2007 and has since released two newer versions of it. However, Comex seems to have gone over to the dark side, accepting an internship with the very company whose products he became famous exploiting. Still, Allegra’s hacking skills are so advanced (one author puts him five years ahead of the authors of the infamous Stuxnet worm that corrupted Iran’s nuclear facilities) and so many people availed themselves of his talents, he will forever live in hacking infamy.

We want to dedicate the above post to the legendary hacker, who left us -Jonathan James aka “C0mrade”. Also the post is a tribute to all the so called 'infamous hackers'. You are our heroes and inspiration, you will always be there in our soul. Team VOGH salutes you...... 


-Thank you Katina & Online Degrees




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Cyber Security Bill Has Been Rejected By The US Senate

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 8/05/2012 02:17:00 am

Cyber Security Bill Has Been Rejected By The US Senate

A cybersecurity bill that had been one of the Obama administration’s top national security priorities was blocked by a Republican filibuster in the Senate on Thursday. Still the topic of cyber security remains controversial in the US Congress. The Senate voted 52 to 46 to cut off debate, falling short of the 60 needed to force a final vote on the measure, which had bipartisan support but ran into a fight over what amendments to the legislation could be proposed.
Soon after the vote, the White House released a statement calling the outcome “a profound disappointment.” White House regretted that the act failed to gain approval, saying that it could have protected the US from "potentially catastrophic cyber attacks". According to the White House, the proposed legislation fell victim to "the politics of obstructionism, driven by special interest groups seeking to avoid accountability". US civil rights campaigners Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), on the other hand, are celebrating a "victory over cyber spying". 
However, many further amendments were proposed by senators over the week. Ultimately, many voted in line with their concerns. For instance, in a statement after the vote, Democrat Ron Wyden said that in his opinion the Cybersecurity Act in its current form does not sufficiently safeguard Internet users’ privacy and civil liberties. According to Wyden, the act would not create enough incentive to actually promote the exchange of information. Republican senators mainly explained their rejection by pointing out that, despite the amendments, companies would be made to comply with too many bureaucratic reporting requirements.
The bill called for the government to provide businesses with classified information about cyberthreats and gave companies the option of sharing information about cyberthreats with the government. White House officials said the president opposed that bill because it called for too much information sharing between the government and businesses, which could have led to violations of Americans civil liberties.


-Source (The-H & NYTimes)








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Mozilla Stand Against CISPA, Saying The Bill Will Infringes on Our Privacy

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 5/07/2012 06:13:00 pm

Mozilla Stand Against CISPA, Saying The Bill Will Infringes on Our Privacy
 
When almost 99% of leading IT Industry, software giant like Microsoft, Facebook, AT&T, Intel, Verizon has been either silent or quietly supportive of the controversial bill HR 3523 Act dubbed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). But here we get one exception late Tuesday, Mozilla’s Privacy and Public Policy lead sent me the following statement:-
"While we wholeheartedly support a more secure Internet, CISPA has a broad and alarming reach that goes far beyond Internet security. The bill infringes on our privacy, includes vague definitions of cybersecurity, and grants immunities to companies and government that are too broad around information misuse. We hope the Senate takes the time to fully and openly consider these issues with stakeholder input before moving forward with this legislation."
CISPA’s official supporters include Facebook, Microsoft, IBM, Intel, Oracle and Symantec among others–carriers including AT&T and Verizon have signed on, too. Despite reports that Microsoft had backed off its support for the bill citing privacy, a Microsoft spokesperson Monday told reporters that the company’s supportive position on CISPA remains “unchanged.”




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China Was Responsible for RSA Hack & Military Related Intellectual Property Theft- Said NSA

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 3/29/2012 12:54:00 am

China Was Responsible for RSA Hack & Military Related Intellectual Property Theft- Said NSA

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. Yesterday the Cyber Command commander & Director Mr. Alexander presented the testimony at Senate Hearing. He has also confirmed that not only RSA, but also large amounts of military-related intellectual property has also been stolen and yet again China was behind this attack. "I can't go into the specifics here, but we do see [thefts] from defense industrial base companies," Alexander said, declining to go into details about other attacks. "There are some very public [attacks], though. The most recent one was the RSA exploits." The NSA director believes the US Government needs more real-time capabilities to work with the private sector to stop attacks. He explained how in one attack, the attackers were attempting to get 3GBs of data from a foreign defence contractor but the Department of Defence processes for communicating with that company were predominantly manual. He did not present any evidence for the China allegations and it is yet to be seen if there is any diplomatic fallout from his disclosures.
The attack was taken place in earlier March 2011, where hackers managed to gain access to the enterprise's servers and take sensitive data. The attackers manage to obtain data on SecurID, RSA's popular two factor authentication system. 
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.




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Cyber-Crime Prevention Act (Bill No. 2796) Approved By The Senate

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 1/31/2012 11:38:00 pm

Cyber-Crime Prevention Act (Bill No. 2796) Approved By The Senate
The Senate has approved on third and final reading the Cyber-crime Prevention Act of 2012 or Senate Bill No. 2796, which seeks to establish a legal framework for the investigation, apprehension, and prosecution of cyber-criminals. Sen. Edgardo Angara, author of the measure, lauded the Senate for acting quickly on the measure which seeks to establish a legal framework for the investigation, apprehension, and prosecution of cyber-criminals.
“Their approval sends out a clear message that the Philippines is taking decisive steps not only in safeguarding its digital space, but also in ensuring its transition into a full-fledged knowledge-based economy,” Angara said. The measure calls for an initial appropriation of P50 million for its implementation. The bill also seeks to protect children from pornography. Under the measure, the Office of the President (OP) and two other government agencies are also required to create an anti-cybercrime office that would deal with matters on web crimes. These agencies include the Department of Justice (DoJ), and the Department of Science and Technology (DoST)’s Information and Communications Technology Office (DoST-ICTO). Other than that, Angara said the measure aims to ensure that the public has access to adequate Internet security in the face of a rapidly changing technology. He said Internet usage has become more prominent, especially in social networking. 
“A large chunk of human activity nowadays is no longer merely physical — it occurs in the Internet. Crime and harm is thus no longer merely physical — they can occur online as well. There is a need for us to innovate security measures and enact laws that will help protect us in the digital world,” Angara said.

 
-Source (Mb.com/Philippines)  



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Zee-News Bengali Unit 24ghanta.com Hacked

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 1/30/2012 06:51:00 pm

Zee-News Bengali Unit 24ghanta.com Hacked 

Zee-News Bengali unit named 24ghanta.com under cyber attack. A hacker group named Sec Indi Security Team has hacked the mail server of 24ghanta (Largest News Channel In West-Bengal).

The above screen shots ware taken from 24ghanta official mail account which was clearly indicating that hacker had his access on the mail server. Not only mail account also the official website of 24ghanta sent off-line by the hackers. The attack was took place few days ago and still the hacker group has maintained their access on that particular server and as a result the official site of 24ghanta is still down.
We also want to give you reminder that this is not the 1st attack of Sec Indi Security Team, earlier this group has found serious vulnerability on many high profile sites such as Wikileaks official site, New York State Senate, Click India, US Senate and so on. The hacker group claimed that they have knocked the server Admin about the vulnerability and also through this hack Sec Indi Security Team did not make any damage.




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New York State Senate Official Site Is Vulnerable

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 1/29/2012 07:16:00 pm

New York State Senate Official Site Is Vulnerable
Few days ago Sec Indi Security Team exposed a Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in wikileaks website. Again they have found SQL-i on the official website of New York State Senate. Earlier this group have also detected  SQL-i vulnerability on the official website of US Senate, also they have hacked the Admin panel of famous Indian website click India. The vulnerability on the NY State Senate is still UN-patched. They hacker group has submitted the vulnerable link to VOGH and to know that click here. According to the hackers group - an attack can easily misuse this security flaws and can gain illegal access on the database of the NY Sate Senate.



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Wikileaks.org Hacked By Sec Indi Security Team !!!

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 1/23/2012 06:23:00 pm

Wikileaks.org hacked By Sec Indi Security Team
Sec Indi Security Team strikes again. This time also they have maintained their class. If you dig the history you will find that this group has already made thier influence in the cyber space. Earlier they have found SQL-i vulnerability on the official website of US Senate, also they have hacked the Admin panel of famous Indian website click India. Now they have targeted Wikileaks official website. And as expected they have found a Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in wikileaks website. Sec Indi Security Team also submitted the vulnerable link. To know that link click Here. This not the first time, before this Wikileaks have faced cyber attack & an Anonymous member took responsibility of that Attack on Wikileaks website. That was a massive Denial of Service attack executed by newly developed tool #refref. Also that DDoS attack was recognized as one of biggest cyber attack in 2011.






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US Congress Postponed SOPA & PIPA Bills

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 1/23/2012 12:13:00 am

US Congress Postponed SOPA & PIPA Bills

#Blackout Protest against SOPA really works and the result is now in front of us. The US Congress has halted debate on two contested anti-online piracy bills. In a statement Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said "In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday's vote on the PROTECT IP Act,"

Chairman Smith: “I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy. It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products. The problem of online piracy is too big to ignore. American intellectual property industries provide 19 million high-paying jobs and account for more than 60 percent of U.S. exports. The theft of America’s intellectual property costs the U.S. economy more than $100 billion annually and results in the loss of thousands of American jobs.  Congress cannot stand by and do nothing while American innovators and job creators are under attack."

Actually they are forced to take this decision as because the mass did not at all welcome these acts. Not only Anonymous but also Wikipedia, The White House and many other sites opposed to see 'Censored web'. So US Congress is forced to delayed those two controversial bills. This is indeed a big win for those who stand against SOPA/PIPA. 



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Wikipedia Will Go Dark (Blackout) While Protesting Against SOPA/PIPA

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 1/19/2012 12:01:00 am


Not only Anonymous, The White House but also The Wikipedia Community has decided to blackout (Go Dark) the English version of Wikipedia for 24 hours, in protest against proposed legislation in the United States the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and PROTECTIP (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate. Wiki said that if the bill get passed, "this legislation will harm the free and open Internet and bring about new tools for censorship of international websites inside the United States." 

In A Public Statement Wikipedia Said:- 
"Over the course of the past 72 hours, over 1800 Wikipedians have joined together to discuss proposed actions that the community might wish to take against SOPA and PIPA. This is by far the largest level of participation in a community discussion ever seen on Wikipedia, which illustrates the level of concern that Wikipedians feel about this proposed legislation. The overwhelming majority of participants support community action to encourage greater public action in response to these two bills. Of the proposals considered by Wikipedians, those that would result in a "blackout" of the English Wikipedia, in concert with similar blackouts on other websites opposed to SOPA and PIPA, received the strongest support.
“Today Wikipedians from around the world have spoken about their opposition to this destructive legislation," said Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia. "This is an extraordinary action for our community to take - and while we regret having to prevent the world from having access to Wikipedia for even a second, we simply cannot ignore the fact that SOPA and PIPA endanger free speech both in the United States and abroad, and set a frightening precedent of Internet censorship for the world."
We urge Wikipedia readers to make your voices heard. If you live in the United States, find your elected representative in Washington (https://www.eff.org/sopacall). If you live outside the United States, contact your State Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs or similar branch of government. Tell them you oppose SOPA and PIPA, and want the internet to remain open and free."

The announcement follows a tweet by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales in which he said "Wikipedia protesting bad law on Wednesday!" The proposed legislation in question is the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), also known as House Bill 3261 or H.R. 3261, and the PROTECT IP Act (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011), aka Senate Bill 968 or S. 968. This legislation is intended to prevent online piracy, but those opposing the proposals believe that the legislation will be used to censor the internet and endanger free speech. In an open letter, Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Sue Gardner said that, if passed, the proposed laws "would seriously damage the free and open Internet, including Wikipedia". 



-Source (The-H)



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