Cupid Media Network Breach Exposes 42 Million Passwords in Plain Text

Cupid Media Network Breach Exposes 42 Million Passwords in Plain Text (Uunencrypted)

Cupid Media one of the leading niche online dating network that have more than 35 large online dating website, faced a massive intrusion that effects more than 42 million of its registered users. From an exclusive report of Kerbs On Security we came to know that the breach was taken earlier in this year. Where the hackers managed to gain access into the crucial servers belongings to Cupid Media network. According to the managing director of Cupid Media, Mr Andrew Bolton - "In January we detected suspicious activity on our network and based upon the information that we had available at the time, we took what we believed to be appropriate actions to notify affected customers and reset passwords for a particular group of user accounts.” After a preliminary investigation it has been found that the purloined database of Australia-based niche dating service Cupid Media was found on the same server where hackers had amassed tens of millions of records stolen from Adobe. More than 42 million peoples' unencrypted names, dates of birth, email addresses and passwords have been found from the pinched database. I am very much wearied to see that a high value site like Cupid is unconcerned about the basic security counter measure. Even their confidential tables remained unencrypted which allows the hacker to gain the personal information in plain text. Like the Cupid Media security team, the registered users also found very much inadvertent and unaware of basic security measures. I am saying this because of the leaked passwords, almost two million picked "123456", and over 1.2 million chose "111111". "iloveyou" and "lovely" both beat out "password", and while 40,000 chose "qwerty", 20,000 chose the bottom row of the keyboard instead - yielding the password "zxcvbnm". 

Jason Hart of famous data protection firm Safenet said "The true impact of the breach is likely to be huge. Yet, if this data had been encrypted in the first place then all hackers would have found is scrambled information, rendering the theft pointless."

This security breach of Cupid Media reminds us  the decent history of breach where we have seen a slew of attacks against the following sites: Drupal.org  Scribd, Guild Wars 2, Gamigo, Blizzard, Yahoo, LinkedIn, eHarmony, Formspring, Android Forums, Gamigo,  Nvidia,Blizzard, Philips, Zynga, VMWare, Adobe,  Twitter,  New York Times, Apple and so on. While covering this story on behalf of VOGH, I am warning our readers across the globe to use strong alphanumeric passwords to avoid such disaster. Also the webmasters and security administrator are highly recommended to use salted encryption in their database to prevent fortuitousness cyber attack. 

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WikiLeaks Uncovered Secret Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), Incoming Threat For Internet

WikiLeaks Uncovered Secret Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), Incoming Threat For Internet 

After SOPA, PIPA & ACTA now the Internet is about to face another ferocious challenge named Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). I am sure that many of you are unaware of this TPP, as it is still on process, but WikiLeaks have uncovered ad released secret negotiated draft text for the entire TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) which is a multilateral free-trade treaty currently being negotiated in secret by 12 Pacific Rim nations. The current TPP negotiation member states are the United States, Japan, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Chile, Singapore, Peru, Vietnam, New Zealand and Brunei. "This Trans Pacific “Partnership” is really, really bad News. #WikiLeaks" -said the twitter feed of WikiLeaks. From the leaked draft we came to know that  TPP will take time for all the corporate rigging in this lengthy document to be understood, but already it is evident that Internet freedom will be curtailed, access to health care will become more expensive and access to information will be undermined. In short the more you know about the odious Trans-Pacific Partnership, the less you’ll like it. It’s made for corporate intellectual property and profits. According to WikiLeaks official website -"The TPP is the largest-ever economic treaty, encompassing nations representing more than 40 per cent of the world’s GDP. The WikiLeaks release of the text comes ahead of the decisive TPP Chief Negotiators summit in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 19-24 November 2013. The chapter published by WikiLeaks is perhaps the most controversial chapter of the TPP due to its wide-ranging effects on medicines, publishers, internet services, civil liberties and biological patents. Significantly, the released text includes the negotiation positions and disagreements between all 12 prospective member states." 

In the words of WikiLeaks’ Editor-in-Chief Julian Assange, “If instituted, the TPP’s IP regime would trample over individual rights and free expression, as well as ride roughshod over the intellectual and creative commons. If you read, write, publish, think, listen, dance, sing or invent; if you farm or consume food; if you’re ill now or might one day be ill, the TPP has you in its crosshairs.” To download the entire TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) draft click here. 

While talking about Jullian Assange and WikiLeaks, and this sensational leak of TPP, I 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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Australia Joined 38 Other Nations as Part of an International Cybercrime Treaty

Australia Joined 38 Other Nations as Part of an International Cybercrime Treaty

Sitting at the edge of the latest technology, today we can easily separate our world into two parts. One is the real world where we live and another is the virtual or cyber world, in which we all are tightly attached. As these two fields are the prime factor where we have to stay happily so the matter of safety, security is highly required on the both said areas. Being one of the leading cyber media, our main concern is the cyber domain,  so we are worried as well are responsible and committed to server our readers. In this period of time many of us feel terrified to engage themselves in the cyber space due to lack of security and privacy, and also keeping in mind the major disaster done by cyber criminals. But how long? To get rid of that not only we the media people but also the sincere government of several countries make themselves committed to prepare a safe cyber world for the people. Earlier we have seen several developed countries came under a shade, in order to make an united shield to protect this cyber domain and its people. Today that shield got a new member. Yes it is Australia who has now formally joined 38 other nations as a party to the world's first international treaty on crimes committed via the internet. This deceleration came from the Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus. In his speech he said "Australia becoming a party to the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime will help combat criminal offences relating to forgery, fraud, child pornography, and infringement of copyright and intellectual property" 

By joining the Convention, Australian law enforcement agencies will be able to rapidly obtain data about communications relevant to cybercrimes from partner agencies around the world. With the Convention now in effect, Australia's investigative agencies are able to use new powers contained in the Cybercrime Legislation Amendment Act 2012 to work with cybercrime investigators around the globe. The Act amended certain Commonwealth cybercrime offences and enabled domestic agencies to access and share information relating to international investigations. Dreyfus says the Act also created new privacy protections, safeguards and reporting requirements for the exercise of new and existing powers.
"A warrant is always required to access the content of a communication whether the information is in Australia, or accessed from overseas under the Cybercrime Convention. The Cybercrime Act and the Cybercrime Convention do not impact in any way on the need to have a warrant to access content from a telephone call, SMS or e-mail." -Dreyfus said in his statement.

-Source (ZDNet)

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'Data Theft' A Serious Issue! Be Watch Full, Be Safe

Hidden Costs of 'Data Theft' A Serious Issue! What You Need to Know to Be Safe 

Sitting at the edge of technology, we the people of this century are blessed with all the required equipment  which makes our work so easy that one could have even imagined three hundred years ago. Along with these positive sides, we must have to keep in mind that, these technologies not only elaborating our effort  making life easier, but also posing  high level of threat. As the main concern of VOGH is cyber domain, so here w would like to share a fact which will make you think and even make your cyber life and your personal life too uncanny. Yes, I am talking about the rising cyber threats; the more we are shedding with technologies, the more we are involving our lives with some dangerous threats and challenges. Now a days cyber criminals are every where, you don't even know, what trap has already been set for you, that can ruin your happy life. One of the big example is "Data Theft" which becoming boomerang for us. In an age of fully digitized data, consumers and businesses can lose thousands of dollars in the blink of a hacker’s eye. The costs of data theft are well known to anyone who has ever found themselves victim to financial identity or medical record fraud. What few of us realize is that the procedures required to right a financial wrong are often costlier than the crimes themselves. Lets share some interesting statistic, which will surely put terror in your mind - the economy loses an average of $22,346 for every time an identity is stolen. And to fully recuperate losses, repair credit and prosecute fraudsters, consumers, accountants, lawyers and IRS officials can spend up to 5,000 hours, the equivalent of two years of full-time work on a single case. Even so, 60% of medical record fraud victims admit that they don’t monitor their medical statements for inconsistencies. 

Shocking!! Why not?

For one, most consumers don’t have time every month to file through complex medical or financial statements and check for accuracy. And secondly, the image of thousands of evil savants working around the clock to hack BOA databases sure makes a consumer feel helpless. Identity theft seems random and unpreventable–a stroke of bad luck like getting struck by lightning. If we are struck, we tell ourselves, banks, credit agencies and insurance companies are legally bound to recover our funds and correct our records. 

Now lets check out a fascinating video in our Hidden Costs Series to get a deeper look at how our high-cost, high-risk data management systems really work.

Hidden Costs of Data Theft (Statistic At a Glance):-

Data theft includes financial identity theft, identity cloning, and medical identity theft. The average cost per victim was $22,346 in 2012. And the total national cost of just medical identity fraud was $41 billion in 2012. The worst part – nearly 60% of reported victims say they don’t ever check their medical records for fraud. Depending on the severity of the case, it can take over 5,000 hours (the equivalent of working a full-time job for two years) to correct the damage.

Since 1935, over 435 million social security cards have been issued. That’s over 2,175 tons of paper issued as cards, or 52,200 trees and 5 million new cards are issued every year. 

Worldwide, digital warehouses storing private information, like banking and personal history, use about 30 billion watts of electricity, which equals roughly the output of 30 nuclear power plants. Data centers in the US make up almost a third of that usage, and waste 90% of the electricity they pull off the grid.

On average, 47% of victims encounter problems qualifying for a new loan and 70% have difficulty removing the negative information from their credit reports.

Over the next five years, the IRS stands to lose as much as $21 billion in revenue due to identity theft, and worldwide, businesses lose close to $221 billion a year with the US, UK, Canada and Australia ranking the highest in reported fraudulent activity.

After reading the above story carefully, many of you will feel insecure and panic. But I would like to inform you that the main purpose of sharing such important information, is to enhance carefulness, to rise cyber awareness. Many people became victim, not because of less knowledge, but of less information, less awareness. So from now onward before connecting your self into the digital world make sure that the significant & the emergent knowledge and information you have gathered from the article, should remain intact inside your brain. Trust me, if you became a bit cautious, you can easily get rid of all those cyber threats, and can enjoy the bless of technologies to make your life prosperous and happy. 

So stay tuned with VOGH and also be canny, be attentive and be safe inside the digital world. 

We the Team VOGH heartily thanks one of our invaluable reader and friend Emily Stewart of Insurance Quotes for the statistic and the awesome video. We love you Emily :) 

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

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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More Leaks are Coming in 2013 Said WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange

More Leaks are Coming in 2013 Said WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange

The government are trying their best to dominate WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, while blocking public search containing WikiLeaks, blocking banking donations, keeping him in under house arrest. But its is a undeniable that the enthusiasm and the will power of Assange can never be ruled or dominated. Again the above fact came into light when Julian Assange announced in a defiant speech from the balcony of Ecuadorian embassy here as his supporters shouted, and sang Christmas carols. In his speech Assange said that WikiLeaks have planned to release over one million new secret documents that would affect "every country in the world" 

It was his second ``balcony’’ address since he sought refuge there six months ago to avoid extradition to Sweden over allegations of sexual assault. And he made clear he had no intention of leaving the cramped mission which he described as ``my home, my office and my refuge’’ until ``this immoral investigation continues’’.

Referring to the impasse over his extradition, Mr Assange said that as long as long as the American government sought to prosecute him and his native country, Australia, refused to defend his journalism, he would remain in the embassy. But, he said, he was open to negotiations. "However, the door is open, and the door has always been open, for anyone who wishes to use standard procedures to speak to me or guarantee my safe passage," he said.

Mr Assange has been given asylum by Ecuador but is prevented by the British Government from leaving the country arguing that it is under a legal obligation to extradite him to Sweden. He will be arrested the minute he steps out of the embassy. Police say he broke his bail conditions when he sought refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy without informing them. Mr Assange claims the case against him is politically motivated and fears that Sweden would hand him over to Americans who have threatened to prosecute him for publishing confidential diplomatic cables.

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.

-Source (The Hindu)

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Hong Kong Govt Opens a New Cyber Security Center Worth $9 Million

Hong Kong Govt Opens a New Cyber Security Center Worth $9 Million

Now a days cyber attack has became one of the most challenging issue for almost every country and its Government. Previously we have seen cyber awareness were mainly limited to the first world countries like USA, England, Australia and few other European countries. While keeping in mind the rising amount of cyber threats and its output, now both second world and the third world countries have also taken this issues very seriously. To get rid of this burring challenge and to make it's cyber fence safe and secure The Hong Kong Govt launched a Cyber Security Center on December 7 to enhance the city’s internet security and protection of critical infrastructure, and strengthen the defense against cyber-attacks. Hong Kong Govt has spent HK$9 million (£730,000) for this new Cyber Security Center in a bid to tackle the growing threat to critical infrastructure in the Special Administrative Region of China. The Center  which will operate under the Technology Crime Division of the Commercial Crime Bureau, will start with a force of 27 police personnel, ranking from Police Constable to Chief Inspector. “The incidence of cyber-attacks is increasing,” said Tsang Wai-hung, Commissioner of Police, during the inauguration ceremony of the Center  “Police recognize the need to respond to the worldwide cyber crime phenomenon, particularly cyber-attacks aimed at critical infrastructures, by enhancing our readiness and capability to counter such threats.

So far the Cyber Security Center has been given four main responsibilities as follows:-

1. It will strengthen collaboration with other government departments and stakeholders, both local and overseas, concerning cyber-attacks against critical infrastructures. 
2. It will monitor the flow, but not the content, of data traffic of major infrastructure systems.
3. The Center will collect intelligence to analyse cyber-attacks, and provide an immediate response when necessary.
4. The Center will conduct research into cyber security and cyber-attacks, and perform security audits to maintain the protection of Hong Kong.

In addition to these key responsibilities, the Center will support the daily operations of the Technology Crime Division in the prevention and detection of technology crimes. 

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48 Countries Worldwide Joined Biggest Global Alliance Against Child Sexual Abuse Online

48 Countries Worldwide Joined Biggest Global Alliance Against Child Sexual Abuse Online

Cyber bullying, online child sexual abuse has became one of the biggest threat and challenge for the society. Several security report are pointing out that the number of cyber bully is increasing every day. There are daily reminders about those risks, whether it's the tragic fate of Amanda Todd, bullied into suicide. To get rid of these burning issues European Union (EU) Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström together with US Attorney General Eric Holder launched a Global Alliance against Child Sexual Abuse Online. In this campaign Forty-eight countries have joined forces to launch the most expansive fight ever against the spread of online child sex abuse. According to current estimates, there are more than one million images of sexually abused and exploited children now online. Every year, that number grows by 50,000 new images, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Participants at the launch include Ministers and high-level officials from 27 EU Member States, who are also joined by 21 countries outside the EU (Albania, Australia, Cambodia, Croatia, Georgia, Ghana, Japan, Moldova, Montenegro, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, the Philippines, Serbia, Republic of Korea, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United States of America, and Vietnam). The countries of the alliance are committing themselves to a number of policy targets and goals. Thanks to increased international cooperation, the fight against child sexual abuse online will therefore be more effective.

"Behind every child abuse image is an abused child, an exploited and helpless victim. When these images are circulated online, they can live on forever. Our responsibility is to protect children wherever they live and to bring criminals to justice wherever they operate. The only way to achieve this is to team up for more intensive and better coordinated action worldwide", said Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström.

“This international initiative will strengthen our mutual resources to bring more perpetrators to justice, identify more victims of child sexual abuse, and ensure that they receive our help and support,” said Attorney General Holder. “Through this global alliance we can build on the success of previous cross-border police operations that have dismantled international pedophile networks and safeguard more of the world’s children.” 

The participants of this campaign put out this list of goals for the new initiative, which has been dubbed the Global Alliance Against Child Sexual Abuse Online, in a press release:-

• Enhance efforts to identify victims and ensure that they receive the necessary assistance, support and protection;
• Enhance efforts to investigate cases of child sexual abuse online and to identify and prosecute offenders;
• Increase children's awareness of online risks, including the self-production of images and "grooming" methods used by paedophiles;
• Reduce the availability of child abuse material online and the re-victimization of children;
• Establish dedicated law enforcement units for these crimes in all countries;
• Make it easier to initiate joint cross-border police investigations;
• Intensify co-operation with hotline services, where the public can report findings of online child pornography; and
• Ensure that the Interpol international database of child abuse material grows by 10 percent annually.

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Anonymous Targets Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) & Defence Signals Directorate (DSD)

Anonymous Targets Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) & Defence Signals Directorate (DSD)

Australian rampage of Anonymous continues, after took down of several Australian Government website & a massive data breach from Australian ISP named AAPT now the nuisance hacker collective group today attempted to hack into both the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) websites. The attack was took place in early Friday, and here also Anon enlisted this cyber attack among their F**k Friday rampage also known as #FFF. The hacker group claimed to have shut down a computer server belonging to Australia's domestic spy agency ASIO, reportedly briefly closing down access to its public webpage. On its Twitter feed Anonymous Australia (@AuAnon) wrote: "The anonymous Operation Australia hackers have today again been busy with further attacks on the ASIO and DSD website."

According to sources - ASIO server faced massive traffic generated from a DDoS botnet, which immediately effected the normal service and later when loads get increased then as expected ASIO became passive and gone offline. The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) acknowledged some disruption to its website. "ASIO's public website does not host any classified information and any disruption would not represent a risk to ASIO's business."- said ASIO spokesman. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that ASIO's website was down for at least 30 minutes Friday morning, but it appeared to be loading normally Friday afternoon. Operation Australia, which has its own @Op_Australia Twitter stream said it would "stop the attacks at 10pm Aus. BUT we will never stop watching!". 

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Anonymous Steals 40GB User Data From Australian ISP Named AAPT

Anonymous Steals 40GB User Data From Australian ISP Named AAPT  

Australian rampage of Anonymous continues. Anonymous has claimed to have breached & stolen more than 40GB data from an Australian internet service provider named AAPT. Also the hacker collective group vows to publish those online. This cyber attack on AAPT comes just days after Australian arm of the group claimed responsibility for bringing down 10 government websites and warned that it will continue the attacks on ".gov.au" sites until plans to force ISPs to store user data and make it further available to security services are shelved. This hack comes as the second stage of a campaign against new surveillance and data retention laws that would force ISPs (Internet Service Providers) to store user data and make it available to intelligence agencies for up to two years. A formal statement purporting to be from the CEO of AAPT has appeared on PasteBin says:-

"STATEMENT FROM DAVID YUILE, CEO AAPT

IT WAS BROUGHT TO OUR ATTENTION BY OUR SERVICE PROVIDER, MELBOURNE IT, AT APPROXIMATELY 9.30PM LAST NIGHT THAT THERE HAD BEEN A SECURITY INCIDENT AND UNAUTHORISED ACCESS TO SOME AAPT BUSINESS CUSTOMER DATA STORED ON SERVERS AT MELBOURNE IT.

AAPT IMMEDIATELY INSTRUCTED MELBOURNE IT TO SHUT DOWN THE SERVERS WHEN WE WERE NOTIFIED OF THE INCIDENT. PRELIMINARY FINDINGS SUGGEST IT WAS TWO FILES THAT WERE COMPROMISED AND THE DATA IS HISTORIC, WITH LIMITED PERSONAL CUSTOMER INFORMATION. FURTHER, THE SERVERS ON WHICH THE FILES WERE STORED HAVE NOT BEEN USED OR CONNECTED TO AAPT FOR AT LEAST 12 MONTHS..."

Anon Australia claimed the attacks aimed to show how we should not trust ISPs to store personal information. "You want to trust these ISPs with your data? When they can't even keep it secured?! If I were you, I wouldn't trust anyone but myself with my data." Anonymous claimed that it plans to release a sample of the data later today, but will deliberately censor private details, because "the people were not their target".

"We don't want to publish personal innocent personal details like some of the other Anons have in other operations which have lost the public's support. Our target is the (Federal) Government who think they can get away with doing something like this," the hacker added.

-Source (TOI)

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Anonymous Targets Australian Govt Sites Over Internet Privacy Laws

Anonymous Targets Australian Govt Sites Over Changes in Internet Privacy Laws

The Australian Government has became the latest victim of international hacker collective group Anonymous. At least 10 of the country's government websites were sent offline in a series of attacks over proposed changes to Internet privacy laws. The first attacks were conducted in conjunction with Prime Minister Julia Gillard's online Q&A session this weekend, Anonymous. So far, the only targeted sites are run by the Queensland State Government. 

Site List:- 

sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au

regions.qld.gov.au

sd.qld.gov.au

dtrdi.qld.gov.au

science.qld.gov.au

createitmakeitliveit.qld.gov.au

smartawards.qld.gov.au

tourism.industry.qld.gov.au

workliveplay.qld.gov.au

lib.qld.gov.au

If an Australian online security bill gets passed into law, it could require ISPs to store user activity for a period of two years, allowing Web users' every online move to be watched by the government.

In response, the Australian arm of Anonymous threatened to continue its attacks on ".gov.au" sites until the bill is halted.

Anonymous said  the sites were specifically chosen because the group had “proof” that small to medium businesses, education departments, student and personal accounts had been tracked by the State Government. “The Australian Government is attempting to strip away its citizens’ internet rights by forcing them to surrender passwords and internet usage data,” Anonymous Australia said via email. “Unless the Government starts acting in the best interest of its people, it will continue to bring the noise.” The hackers said the attacks were in response to changes being discussed by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS). 

Not only Internet privacy but also Anonymous confirmed that its actions were also in response to recent denials of Australian-born WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's extradition. 

A Department of Defence spokesperson said the department was aware of the reports of Australian attacks but did not publicly comment or discuss details of cyber incidents. "Defence, through the Cyber Security Operations Centre, works with affected government agencies, as required, to help mitigate threats to information security," the spokesperson said. A spokesperson for Federal Attorney-General Nicola Roxon said it was critical Australia's national security capability could keep up with technology and global security. "We must always stay a step ahead of terrorists, cyber criminals and organised criminals who threaten our national security," the spokesperson said.

This is not the first time, earlier the world have seen several protest generated from all over the world against Internet censorship. In case of SOPA, PIPA & ACTA hackers from different part generated massive cyber attack. Even Wikipedia go dark for 24 hrs. 

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Facebook Launched Its App Center in India & Six Other Countries

Facebook Launched Its App Center in India & Six Other Countries

Today the world's largest social networking site Facebook has started Application Center (App Center) in India and six other countries around the world. We all know that App Center makes it easier for people around the world to discover the best apps and games for them, wherever they are. Last month this social networking giant had launched its App Center in the U.S. According to Facebook software engineer Drew Hoskins - “The App Center is now available to everyone in the U.S., Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and the U.K.” In addition, Facebook said that it will be launching App Center to users in Brazil, France, Germany, Russia, Spain, Taiwan, and Turkey in the coming weeks. The launch is part of a plan to expand its reach to a large number of Facebook users, with 80 per cent residing outside the U.S. and Canada. The users can access new App Center icon located on the left side of the home page on Facebook.com recommending apps to users based on their interests. Additionally, the service is also available on Apple and Android mobile devices.

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Personal Information of 123,000 US Government Employees Stolen

Personal Information of 123,000 US Government Employees Stolen

Personal information of over 123,000 federal employees have been exposed after a cyber attack in last July. The cyberattack occurred against a Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) contractor, Serco Inc. The FBI notified both Serco and the TSP last month about the attack. According to the Guardian has called Serco "probably the biggest company you have never heard of." It's on the FTSE 100 (Big!), has 100,000 employees and operates everything from railways in the UK and Australia to driver licensing in Ontario, Canada to retirement accounts for US government employees, members of the armed forces and US Postal Service workers. Perhaps taking advantage of the holiday weekend in the United States, Serco announced this morning that hackers had compromised systems at its Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) operation.

After extensive forensic investigation it was determined that 43,000 members' names, addresses and Social Security Numbers had been accessed by the intruders, and the Social Security Numbers of another 80,000 may have been involved. 

"Serco regrets this incident and the inconvenience it may cause to some Thrift Savings Plan participants and payees whose personal data was involved," said Serco Chairman and CEO Ed Casey in the statement. "We have fortified our information security measures and cyber defenses."

Further information has been published that shows the original intrusion into Serco's system occurred in July 2011. Information that was accessed has been available to criminals for nearly a year before Serco was notified by the FBI.

-Source (FOX News & NS)

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Security Breach Australia's Largest Telecom "TELSTRA" Forces 35K Users To Change Password

Security Breach Australia's Largest Telecom "TELSTRA" Forces 35K Users To Change Password 

TELSTRA, Australia's largest telecommunication company has been forced to change 35,000 users' passwords on its  gaming websites GameArena and Games Shop after a hacking attack. A statement issued by Telstra on Thursday morning warned that information such as user names, email addresses and passwords may have been stolen. 

"We have reset the passwords of GameArena and Games Shop customers, after the sites were victims of a hacking attack," the statement said. "While your password for access to the site has been changed, and the new password has been emailed to you, we encourage you to change it at any other site where you might have used the same password." No financial or credit card details were kept on the sites. Telstra said the site is operated by a third party, so other Telstra customers should not be affected. "We will contact affected customers, with their new password, as soon as possible," Telstra added.

In 2011 we have seen similar attacks when cyber criminals targeted MapleStory Players & Stolen personal details of 13 million players, same things happened to Square Enix server hacked which leads more than 1.8 million accounts compromised. 

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Kingfisher Airlines Official Website & 3 Other Domain of Kingfisher Hacked By Hitcher

Kingfisher Airlines Official Website & 3 Other Domain of Kingfisher Hacked By Hitcher 

Official website of one of KingFisher Airline - one of the best airline in India and central Asia get hacked. Well-known Pakistani hacker code named Hitcher from a hacker collective group Pak Cyber Force (PCF) took responsibility of this hack. Not only the official website but also three other domain of KingFisher get hacked. Among them there are kingfisherxpress, kingfisher-travel & kingfishercargo. The hacker has also created a deface mirror on Zone-H. This cyber-attack took place in the evening of 1st May and still the hacker managed to establish his access on the KingFisher web-server. Hitcher is widely known for defacing high profile websites, his last three high profile hack was United Bank of India, IDBI Paisabuilder & Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia & 100+ Chinese Govt Websites.

Brief About KingFisher & It's Achievement:- 

Kingfisher Airlines Limited is an airline group based in India. Its head office is in Andheri (East), Mumbai and Registered Office in UB City, Bangalore. Kingfisher Airlines, through its parent company United Breweries Group, has a 50% stake in low-cost carrier Kingfisher Red. The airline has been facing financial issues for many years. Best Airline in India and Central Asia’, ‘Best Economy Class Seats’ and ‘Staff Service Excellence Award for airlines in India and Central Asia’ in World Airline Awards,2010. STAR AIRLINE' award by Skytrax for 3rd consecutive year, 2010. India’s Favourite Airline' in HT MARS Consumer Satisfaction Survey , 2009. Best Airline in India and Central Asia', 'Best Cabin Crew-Central Asia' for Kingfisher Airlines and 'Best Low-Cost Airlines in India and Central Asia' for Kingfisher Red services in SKYTRAX World Airline Awards, 2009. Bonus Promotion' (Japan, Pacific, Asia, Australia) and ‘Best Customer Service’ (Japan, Pacific, Asia, Australia) in Freddie Award, 2009. Kingfisher Airlines frequent flyer programme, King Club has won Top Honors at the 21st Annual Freddie Awards in the Japan, Pacific, Asia and Australia region & so on. 

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FBI Arrested Anonymous Hacker After Posting Girlfriend's Abusive Photo

FBI Arrested Anonymous Hacker After Posting Girlfriend's Abusive Photo 

FBI arrested  a 30-year-old computer programmer from Galveston named Higinio O. Ochoa III, who is widely known as @AnonW0rmer. He was active member of Anonymous affiliated 'CabinCr3w' He made a mistake that probably makes his fellow hackers cringe at the stupidity of it. Taunting law enforcement, he posted a photo of his girlfriend from the neck down, breasts pushed up with a sign taped to her saying ''PwNd by w0rmer & CabinCr3w <3 u B****'s!' 

Trouble is, the photo was taken with an iPhone...with GPS co-ordinates embedded in the photo. The FBI said it confirmed the identity of Ochoa, who calls himself 'w0rmer' online and is a member of 'CabinCr3w', an offshoot of hacking group Anonymous. GPS co-ordinates embedded in the photo - as are found in all pictures taken by a smartphone - showed authorities the exact street and house in Wantirna South, Melbourne where it was taken. Different tweets from @Anonw0rmer pointed to other sites referring to 'w0rmer', including one which had Ochoa's name with it and more pictures of his girlfriend. Authorities then found Ochoa's Facebook page, on which he named Kylie Gardner from Australia as his girlfriend. The FBI was then satisfied she was the woman in the photo taken in South Wantirna. Even though the breasts photo does not show the woman's face, the FBI is convinced it is the same woman. They add it is definitive proof that Ochoa is w0rmer.  

In a post allegedly written by Ochoa on Pastebin, he said 'around 8 agents from the FBI stormed my apartment'. He was taken to an FBI office in Houston where he paid a $50,000 bail. Ochoa appeared in court on April 10 before a magistrate, where the photograph evidence above was revealed in the FBI's affidavit. It comes a month after former Lulzsec leader and Anonymous member Sabu was revealed as an FBI informant. But in the Pastebin post, Ochoa claimed he was not guilty of the same betrayal.
He wrote: 'I did tell FBI that I would participate in the capture of my fellow crew mates, a play which undoubtfully both satisfied and confused the FBI. Those however who know me best would vouch for me undoutfully that doing so would put this movement at risk. ALL information provided to the FBI merely made MY case weaker and caused internal confusion showing the inherent weakness in the system.'

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Flashback Trojan Infected Over 600,000 Mac-OS Users, Apple Pushes Out Fix Again

Flashback Trojan Infected Over 600,000 Mac-OS Users, Apple Pushes Out Fix Again 

Russian anti-virus vendor Dr. Web spotted a Trojan affecting nearly 600,000 Macs around the world. The near immune image of the Mac OS X has simply crumbled. So much for Macs being relatively safe against malware attacks. That idea took a punch to the stomach this week when the news broke about the Flashback trojan affecting more than half a million Macs worldwide. Flashback is essentially the malware equivalent of a smash-and-grab thief. Exploiting a Java vulnerability, the code installs and runs when the user visits a compromised or malicious website, intercepting private data, like passwords, and sending it back out over the internet. According to Doctor Web, sources claim that “links to more than four million compromised web-pages could be found on a Google SERP [search results] at the end of March. In addition, some posts on Apple user forums described cases of infection by [the latest variant] BackDoor.Flashback.39 when visiting dlink.com.” The trojan, Backdoor.Flashback.39, can infect computers via an infected web page. The vulnerability itself lies in Java, a product which is not Apple’s
About 57% of infected machines were in the US, 20% in Canada, 13% in UK and 6% in Australia. Apple has already issued patches that curb the vulnerability, but it does not necessarily mean that all users have applied the security patch on their Macs. Even Mozilla has block listed all the older and vulnerable Java plug-in from Firefox. Users are recommended to install the recent Apple Java update to close the hole which allows malicious web pages to drop the trojan onto a system and to always check which application is actually asking for your password when requested.

Update: To detect if a system is infected with Flashback, run each of the following commands in the Mac OS X Terminal:-
defaults read ~/.MacOSX/environment DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES
defaults read /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Info LSEnvironment
defaults read /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/Info LSEnvironment

If all these commands respond with "The domain/default pair of ... does not exist", then there is no Flashback infection. Otherwise consult the F-Secure advisory for manual removal instructions.

If you’re running Mac OS X v10.6.8, Mac OS X Server v10.6.8, OS X Lion v10.7.3 and Lion Server v10.7.3, be sure to hit up Software Update in your System Preferences.

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The 2012 Cyber Defence University Challenge (Australia's First National Cyber Security Competition)

The 2012 Cyber Defence University Challenge - Australia's First National Cyber Security Competition

The 2012 Cyber Defence University Challenge, Australia’s first national cyber security competition, has been announced  by The Gillard Government, in partnership with Telstra and Australian universities. The ultimate prize, sponsored by Telstra, is travel and entry to the Black Hat 2012 Conference in Las Vegas, USA, in July 2012. Black Hat conferences are much sought-after technical information security congresses and briefing seminars which bring together trainers and speakers from corporate, government and research sectors worldwide.
Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy Senator Stephen Conroy said the Challenge would test the cyber problem-solving skills of teams of Australian undergraduates in a virtual computer network scenario. “The Challenge will raise awareness of the importance of cyber security, particularly in the university and business sectors, while also showcasing the diverse career opportunities for ICT graduates,” Senator Conroy said.
“The need for greater awareness of cyber security issues and for more high-skilled ICT graduates were two of the key themes to emerge from the public engagement process associated with the Government’s Cyber White Paper, due for release later this year. “The Challenge is a positive example of the Government partnering with industry and academia to enable Australia to overcome the challenges associated with being a modern, digital economy. “The Government is committed to working with industry to develop a safe and secure digital economy for Australians.  We are also committed to increasing the skills and expertise necessary to protect online environments from cyber crime such as data theft.”

The Challenge will run for 24 hours on 3 – 4 April 2012. University undergraduates across Australia who are studying computer science and related degrees are encouraged to register a team in the Challenge via their university.

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HACMS- High Assurance Cyber Military Systems By DARPA

HACMS- High Assurance Cyber Military Systems By DARPA

Computer scientists at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, released a formal solicitation (DARPA-BAA-12-21) to industry for the agency's High-Assurance Cyber Military Systems (HACMS) program to safeguard civil and military embedded systems in vehicle electronics from hackers, computer viruses, and other cyber malware. Earlier in the week, DARPA conducted its first industry briefings on the HACMS military cyber security program, which aims to develop a set of publicly available tools to help build embedded computing for high-assurance military vehicles with onboard networked military embedded systems that are able to resist efforts by hackers to attack and damage vetronics computers remotely while hiding the effects from monitors. Although the HACMS program initially aims at embedded computing systems on military vehicles, DARPA officials say the tools and techniques the program develops may be applicable to other kinds of embedded systems, which in some circles are referred to as "cyber-physical" systems.
Networked, embedded systems are vulnerable to remote attack, DARPA officials point out. Exploits have resulted in the theft of water (Gignac Canal System in France), the release of raw sewage (Maroochy Shire Sewage plant in Australia), the delivery of incorrect dosages of insulin, printers catching on fire, interference with a Landsat-7 earth observation satellite, and computer viruses infecting the ground-control systems of the Predator and Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), DARPA officials say. The HACMS program aims to integrate publicly available tools into a high-assurance software workbench, which will be widely distributed to commercial and defense software developers. HACMS will use these tools to generate an open-source, high-assurance operating system and control system, and then use these components to build high-assurance military vehicles that are invulnerable to hacker attack.
Developing this kind of cyber security technology for military vehicles will require a fundamentally different approach from what the software community has done so far, DARPA officials explain. HACMS seeks to enable semi-automated code synthesis from executable, formal specifications, as well as produce machine-checkable proof that the code is secure. HACMS has five parts: synthesizer, formal specifications, verified libraries, proven code, and diagnostic information. Key HACMS technologies will include interactive software synthesis systems, verification tools such as theorem provers and model checkers, and specification languages. DARPA officials say they anticipate making several awards for the program.

 

-Source ( DARPA, Military Aerospace)

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Vodafone - World's Largest Mobile Telecom Company Under Cyber Attack

Vodafone - World's Largest Mobile Telecom Company Under Cyber Attack 

Hackers have targeted the world's largest mobile telecommunications company  Vodafone. A hacker named THA Disastar from The Hackers Army has breached the security of vodafone Germany, Australia, Italy, Portugal, Denmark, Romania, Turkey, and Czech Republic. The hacker has released a pastebin containing all the credentials which he has stolen such as customer login details, Online portal, Broadband service, web-mail and so on. Here are some screen shots submitted by the hacker:

The above images clearly indicating that the hacker had his access on several Vodafone web portal. Not only Vodafone, earlier THA Disastar has hacked the official website of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Karnataka, President of Guyana. Before that Tha Disastar has hacked and defaced the anonyops.com. It was one of the important site of Hacktivist Anonymous. Not only that he also performed a massive DDoS attack on Hacktivist site and as a result the site was remain offline for a long time. 

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