Sony Again Under Massive Attack, 93K Accounts Compromised

Sony's online services have been the target of another large-scale attack. In a press release, Sony said that attackers made multiple attempts to intrude into users' Sony online service accounts. Apparently, the attacks targeted the Playstation Network (PSN), the Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) and Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) between 7 and 10 October. 

According to Official Press Release of Sony:-

"Sony Network Entertainment International LLC and Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) have detected a large amount of unauthorized sign-in attempts on PlayStation®Network (PSN), Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) and Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) services. We discovered these attempts and have taken steps to mitigate the activity.
Less than one tenth of one percent of our PSN, SEN and SOE consumers may have been affected. There were approximately 93,000 accounts (PSN/SEN: approximately 60,000 accounts; SOE: approximately 33,000) where the attempts succeeded in verifying those accounts’ valid sign-in IDs and passwords, and we have temporarily locked these accounts. As a preventative measure, we will be sending email notifications to these account holders and will be requiring secure password resets or informing consumers of password reset procedures.
Credit card numbers associated with these accounts are not at risk as a result of these unauthorized attempts. Only a small fraction of these 93,000 accounts showed additional activity prior to being locked. We are continuing to investigate the extent of unauthorized activity on any of these accounts.
These attempts appear to include a large amount of data obtained from one or more compromised lists from other companies, sites or sources. These were unauthorized attempts to verify valid user accounts on our services using very large sets of sign-in IDs and passwords. Between October 7 - 10 US Pacific Daylight Time, we confirmed that these were unauthorized attempts, and took steps to thwart this activity. "

-News Source (Sony Corporation)

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">Sony Again Under Massive Attack, 93K Accounts Compromised"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2011/10/sony-again-under-massive-attack-93k.html</a>

Anonymous to target Iran with DoS attack

The hacker group Anonymous has its next denial-of-service (DoS) target in sight: Iran, CNET has learned.

Members of the loosely organized group are planning "Operation Iran," an attack designed to shut down Iranian Web sites beginning Sunday, according to their latest online proclamation. May 1 is International Worker's Day.

"The people of Iran have the admiration of Anonymous, and the entire world," the statement says. "We can see that Iran still suffers at the hands of those in power. Your former government has seized control, and tries to silence you. People of Iran--your rights belong to you."

The operation seemed to already have begun late today with Web page defacements ostensibly targeted at Iranian hackers. Anonymous left messages on several Web sites that had allegedly been previously attacked by the Iranian Cyber Army, including the site of a Canadian information systems firm and the site of a Ukrainian dancing group, according to an observer on an Anonymous Internet Relay Chat channel that members use to coordinate their operations.

Anonymous is known for its renegade cyberattacks in defense of perceived underdogs or to support freedom of expression or other anti-establishment causes. In defense of whistle-blowing site WikiLeaks, the group targeted PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, and other companies late last year that had stopped enabling WikiLeaks to receive contributions.

Earlier this month, Anonymous targeted Sony in protest of the company's treatment of Sony PlayStation hacker George Hotz. Hotz and Sony have since settled the lawsuit Sony filed, and Anonymous has denied any involvement in a recent serious breach that exposed information of millions of Sony PlayStation Network customers.

Other Anonymous targets have been: Broadcast Music Inc., the Church of Scientology; the governments of Egypt, Iran, and Sweden; the Westboro Baptist Church; conservative activist billionaires Charles and David Koch and their companies; as well as security firm HBGary Federal, which had reportedly been working with the FBI to identify the leaders of Anonymous.

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">Anonymous to target Iran with DoS attack"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2011/04/anonymous-to-target-iran-with-dos.html</a>

Anonymous Gave Warning To Sony (#OpBlackout, #OpLulzxmas, #OpMayhem)

Earlier we have told that Anonymous has reacted against the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) reconvenes by the US Senate. This bold protest of Anonymous continues. Recently the have posted a YouTube video declaring that they will hack Sony again. If Sony doesn't stop their support of the Stop Online Piracy Act. They have specifically said they are not hacking the PlayStation Network. "We're hacking the SONY network and exploiting its servers. NOT PLAYSTATION NETWORK" 

Video Release Of Anonymous:- 

According To The Video:-

"Your support to the act is a signed death warrant to SONY Company and Associates," Anonymous said in the video. "Therefore, yet again, we have decided to destroy your network. We will dismantle your phantom from the internet. Prepare to be extinguished. Justice will be swift, and it will be for the people, whether some like it or not. Sony, you have been warned."

A Message From Anonymous To Sony:- 

Brief About SOPA:-
The Stop Online Piracy Act is a bill that was introduced in the United States House of Representatives on October 26, 2011. The bill will increase the power of the U.S. Department of Justice and copyright holders.  The bill "would expand the ability of federal law enforcement to shut down foreign Web sites and services that that use counterfeited or pirated content created by U.S. firms."

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">Anonymous Gave Warning To Sony (#OpBlackout, #OpLulzxmas, #OpMayhem)"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2012/01/anonymous-gave-warning-to-sony.html</a>

Department of Homeland Security & U.S. Navy Hires Company To Hack Into Video Game Consoles

Department of Homeland Security & U.S. Navy Hires Company To Hack Into Video Game Consoles 

The U.S. government has hired a California-based company to hack into video game consoles, such as Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, to watch criminals, especially child predators, and learn how to collect evidence against them. The $177,000 contract with Obscure Technologies of San Rafael, Calif., is being executed by the U.S. Navy on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security because of the Navy’s expertise in the field, officials said. Under the contract, Obscure Technologies will purchase used gaming systems from abroad that are believed to hold “sensitive information from previous users” and try to hack into them. Obscure’s experts will then report back on how they gained access to the systems, provide instructions to obtain users’ chat room activity, and even report back on the data gleaned, according to the contract and tasking documents. Obscure will also purchase new systems and construct a device that can capture data and activity, the documents state.
Over the past few decades, video game systems have grown in sophistication and capabilities by leaps and bounds. Consoles like the Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation 3, and Microsoft Xbox can be found in many U.S. households and are popular among servicemembers, with Internet access and hard drives that rival personal computers.
With these advances, Garfinkel said, the systems have become a playground of illegal activity for criminals. In 2008, law enforcement agencies contacted the DHS’s Science and Technology Directorate and requested help in analyzing gaming systems seized during court-authorized searches, Garfinkel said. While some tools exist to extract data from gaming consoles, the consoles are hard to crack as they are designed with copyright protection systems, he said. Navy and DHS officials declined to comment on whether the gaming consoles of Americans will ever be hacked and monitored. They also declined to comment as to whether the system manufacturers had been approached about this research.

-Source (Stars & Stripes)

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">Department of Homeland Security & U.S. Navy Hires Company To Hack Into Video Game Consoles"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2012/04/department-of-homeland-security-us-navy.html</a>

Sony's website in 13 countries been hit by hackers

Sony Corp bounced from two-month lows after the electronics conglomerate said this year's operating profit would match last year's, easing worries about the impact of the March earthquake. In its first estimate for the year to March 2012, Sony said operating profit would come in around 200 billion yen (USD 2.44 billion), prompting Macquarie to upgrade its rating on the stock to outperform from neutral. Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and UBS reiterated their overweight, buy or outperform ratings. Separately, Sony said on Tuesday websites in three countries were hacked and personal information for 8,500 people were leaked from its Greek Sony Music Entertainment website, in the latest of a series of security breaches. The company said all three sites had been taken down and that no credit card information had been registered. Analysts said Sony had provided markets with a realistic view of the impact of the quake and a PlayStation network hacking incident, both of which had weighed on the shares. Sony said it expects the quake and the hacking incident to drag down operating profit by 164 billion yen in the current financial year. In contrast, the decline in Sony's market capitalisation of 264 billion yen since the quake "looks overdone," Macquarie analyst Jeff Loff wrote in a report. "With shares cheap and cost impacts one-time in nature, we expect the stock to reverse its fall." Sony expects to report a net loss of 260 billion yen (USD 3.2 billion) for the year ended March 31, its third straight annual net loss, after writing of tax credits following Japan's earthquake and tsunami.

Many of Sony's rivals, including Panasonic Corp, have yet to issue forecasts for the current year due to uncertainty following the disaster. Shares in Sony, the maker of PlayStation video games and Vaio computers, were up 2.4% by 0340 GMT, outperforming a flat Tokyo electrical machinery subindex . Sony's shares dipped nearly 1% in early trade, to its lowest since the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. Some fund managers however said the shares, down 22% so far this year, might not see sharp gains. "I agree that shares are unlikely to keep sliding, but neither do I see any new catalysts that would bring the share price up. I expect shares to continue meandering back and forth at low levels," said Makoto Kikuchi, chief executive officer at Myojo Asset Management. "It's not just Sony. Panasonic, Sharp -- all Japanese home electronics makers have seen the base of their share price sink. They can't compete in prices, so the only route they have is to create new markets with high added value. Products that would make people pay more." "Sony used to have this ability. But I don't see anything that would make share prices rise this fiscal year." Sony has seen a series of hacking attacks that have exposed more than 100 million accounts on its online gaming network to possible data theft, casting doubt on Sony's bid to reinvent itself through its online business. The company cut its annual net earnings forecast for the year ended March 31 to a loss of 260 billion yen from its previous estimate of a profit of 70 billion yen. Credit Suisse analyst Shunsuke Tsuchiya said shares in Sony were close to bottoming out and Morgan Stanley's Masahiro Ono said the announcement cleared uncertainty and was a positive. Sony has been largely squeezed out of the portable music market by Apple Inc's iPod, while losing market share to Samsung Electronics in flat-screen TVs. Sony, which had developed but scrapped products that could be said to predate both the iPod and iPad, is set to announce its full results on Thursday.

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">Sony's website in 13 countries been hit by hackers"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2011/05/sonys-website-in-13-countries-been-hit.html</a>

PSN returns to Asia

The PlayStation Network and Qriocity Services have been restored across Asia, Sony has announced.
The platform was restored in countries including Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand with increased security measures yesterday. In addition to the new safeguards, the platform holder has appointed a chief information security officer at Sony Network Entertainment inc, charged with reinforcing security across the firm's infrastructure, Examiner reports.
Sony president Kaz Harai said: "I'd also like to send my sincere regret to customers in Japan and Asian countries and regions for the inconvenience these events have caused you. We are taking aggressive action including increasing security measures and working with respective authorities to address the concerns that were raised by this incident. "We are making consumer data protection a full-time, company wide commitment so that our customers can rest assured about enjoying their entertainment."
PSN functionality was partially restored in Europe and North America on May 15. The PlayStation Store is expected to return at the end of the month. 

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">PSN returns to Asia"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2011/05/psn-returns-to-asia.html</a>

Phishing site found on Sony’s servers.

Okay, okay. Sony has had a lot to deal with of late, what with its Playstation network being hacked and subsequently being taken offline for quite some time. But we believe that Sony has been hacked yet again, this time its Sony Thailand’s website.
As security firm f-secure reports, Sony Thailand’s hdworld.sony.co.th URL has a phishing site running on it, leading to an Italian credit card company.

As you can see, visiting the site on Google Chrome reveals a blatant warning that the site is in fact a phishing scam:

The phishing site is in fact  a sub-domain of Sony Thailand’s website, and it’s possible the hackers either have access to Sony Thailand’s DNS record or there could be a redirect in place on the servers itself, but we can’t be sure. We’ll update this as more information comes in and once we’ve spoken to a security consultant to learn how this could actually be possible.

Update

Okay, we’ve now spoken with Jobert Abma, an online security consultant from Online24. When asked how common this is, he said:

“It’s not as common as other vulnerabilities such as ‘usual’ web issues like data injection. But, when having mayor issues like file access, the success rate of such an attack becomes much higher.”

When asked how phishers actually carried out these hacks, Abma stated that the hackers simply looked for weaknesses in the application or infrastrucutre:

“It can be done through, for example, having file access. To grant such access, weaknesses in the application or infrastructure need to be found. As application issues, you’d mention database access to write files, including remote scripts, able to execute commands on the server and so on. As for weaknesses in an infrastructure, weak passwords or buffer overflows in software could be used to grant access.”

Following on from our chat with Jobert Abma, we spoke with Mikko H. Hyppönen from f-secure – the firm that found this latest hack. Hyppönen came across the site while investigating potential Playstation phishing scams. After confirming it was definitely a hack, Hyppönen gave his thoughts on how access was gained:

“If you have a large site with lots of legacy apps and mini-sites, it’s not unheard of for something like this to happen. In Sony’s case, it’s likely its a PHP or SQL hole rather than DNS access or  htaccess edit on the server itself.”

Hyppönen also stated that this doesn’t necessarily mean that Sony.co.th or Sony.com got hacked, because the sub-domain in question may run on an external party’s server:

“I believe this particular site might run on some ad agency’s IP address. Nevertheless, it’s under Sony’s name, so technically, it’s Sony’s server.”

But it’s not just Sony that will suffer from this. It’s likely that part of the scam will involve spamming people with .it (Italy) email addresses whilst this phishing site is still live. And the hope for the scammers, of course, is they’ll hit someone who does hold the credit card in question.

So, not a good few weeks for Sony at all.

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">Phishing site found on Sony’s servers."https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2011/05/phishing-site-found-on-sonys-servers.html</a>

Top 5 DDoS Attacks of 2011, Exclusive Report By Corero Network Security

Corero Network Security (cns:LN), the leader in on-premises Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Defense Systems for enterprises, data centers and hosting providers, named its list of 2011's Top 5 DDoS attacks. Corero's findings show an increase in newer, intelligent application-layer DDoS attacks that are extremely difficult to identify "in the cloud," and often go undetected until it is too late. Corero also found an uptick in attacks against corporations by "hactivists" DDoS-ing sites for political and ideological motives, rather than financial gain. Attacks against Mastercard, Visa, Sony, PayPal and the CIA top Corero's list.
"The cat-and-mouse game between IT administrators, criminals and hactivists has intensified in 2011 as the number of application-layer DDoS attacks has exploded. Coupled with an increase in political and ideological hactivism, companies have to be extremely diligent in identifying and combating attempts to disable their websites, steal proprietary information and to deface their web applications, " said Mike Paquette, chief strategy officer, Corero Network Security.

Corero's 2011 Top 5 DDoS Attacks:-

1. Anonymous DDoS Attacks on WikiLeaks "Censors" Visa, MasterCard and PayPal. The most significant DDoS attack so far this year, the WikiLeaks-related DDoS attacks on Visa, MasterCard and PayPal were both Anonymous' "coming out" party, and the first widespread example of what has been dubbed "cyber rioting" on the Internet, with virtual passersby joining in the attack voluntarily.

2. Sony PlayStation Network DDoS. A shocking wake-up call for many gamers, customers and investors, the Sony Playstation Network DDoS attack began a series of cyber attacks and data breaches that damaged Sony financially and hurt its reputation.

3. CIA and SOCA Hit by LulzSec DDoS Attacks. The appearance of LulzSec on the cyber attack scene, highlighted by bold DDoS attacks on the CIA and the U.K. Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), made us wonder if anyone was safe on the Internet.

4. WordPress DDoS. A massive DDoS attack disrupted one of the world's largest blog hosts--some 18 million websites. The huge attack hit the company's data centers with tens of millions of packets per second.

5. Hong Kong Stock Exchange. This DDoS attack had a major impact on the financial world, disrupting stock market trading in Hong Kong. This was a highly leveraged DDoS attack, potentially affecting hundreds of companies and individuals through a single target.

For all the pain and suffering DDoS attacks have caused, there are a number of best practices that companies can implement to reduce their risk. The most effective defense against DDoS attacks requires expert preparation of defensive resources, ongoing vigilance and a rapid, organized response.

-News Source (Corero Network Security)

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">Top 5 DDoS Attacks of 2011, Exclusive Report By Corero Network Security"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2011/10/top-5-ddos-attacks-of-2011-exclusive.html</a>

PlayStation 3 Hacked Again (Jailbroken)

Reports suggest the PS3 has been opened up to piracy again via a new hack which takes the form of a successor to the original PSJailbreak. Dubbed JB2, Digital Foundry says the device is a USB dongle that plugs directly into the PS3 and circumvents its security measures, giving users access to a number of features only available on developer consoles and allowing for the installation of illegal or copied code.
Newer games released after the PS3 firmware 3.60 update that locked out previous piracy methods reportedly can't be played from the hard drive using JB2. Instead, they have to come in the form of burned Blu-ray discs, which the machine reads as authorised. With most of the evidence surrounding JB2 based on internet videos and unverified claims from sources, all talk of the device and its abilities remains speculative. However, the report goes on to say that JB2 is believed to have undergone a small launch in Indonesia - with a number of pirate games including PES 2012, God of War Collection Volume II and FIFA 12 made available - in preparation for a global rollout.

Video Demonstration:- 

-News Source (CVG)

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">PlayStation 3 Hacked Again (Jailbroken)"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2011/10/playstation-3-hacked-again-jailbroken.html</a>

2 Hacker From UK Get Busted For Stealing Michael Jackson Back Catalog From Sony

2 Hacker From UK Get Busted For Stealing Michael Jackson Back Catalog From Sony

Two hacker from UK have allegedly been arrested for illegally downloading more than 50,000 tracks from Sony's collection of world's famous pop star Michael Jackson's back catalog. James Marks, 26 and from Daventry, and 25-year-old James McCormick from Blackpool, were arrested last May and are due to stand trial in January 2013.

Sony purchased the rights from the Jackson estate in 2010 for $200 million to complete 10 projects over seven years. The actual crime happened last April when the Sony PlayStation Network was hack and shut down for 23 days due to hackers breaching the company's servers. Personal data from about 77 million customers were compromised in the cyber attack, including names, home addresses, birthdays, usernames and passwords. Sony apologized to customers and offered free identity theft protection services.

-Source (BBC)

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">2 Hacker From UK Get Busted For Stealing Michael Jackson Back Catalog From Sony"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2012/03/2-hacker-from-uk-get-busted-for.html</a>

Amazon cloud service blamed for Sony hacking

An anonymous source claims the person who hacked into Sony’s Playstation network did so using Amazon’s cloud computing servers. If true, it would suggest previous warnings of the potential for misuse were very much valid.
An unnamed Bloomberg source says the Sony hacker carried out the attack using Amazon’s EC2 service which, unlike more basic forms of cloud computing that are mainly for storage or document editing, allows users to carry out the data processing of their choice on a pay-per-use basis.
Sensibly enough, the hacker is said to have used a bogus name to set up the EC2 account and has since disabled the account. Amazon — which can probably expect a visit from the FBI if the story is true — does have measures to keep track of who uses its services, such as requiring a valid phone number and credit card. There are ways round both of those checks, though it would require a little more determination.
It’s not just the potential for anonymity that can make cloud computing services attractive, however. Back in January a German security consultant said he’d been able to use EC2 to successfully break a wireless password in 20 minutes and that he believed he could cut that to six minutes. That’s not just an issue of saving time, but also money: with Amazon’s pricing structure, a six-minute attack could cost under $2.
If EC2 was indeed used in the Sony attack, it’s clearly going to have been a slightly more sophisticated technique than a brute force attack on a wireless password (in effect, guessing every possible answer, usually starting with dictionary words.) But the basic principle remains the same: using cloud computing allows access to intensive processing without the hardware costs.
Amazon has previously noted that its acceptable use policy bars customers using EC2 for unauthorized hacking, though it isn’t clear if or how it attempts to stop such behavior.

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">Amazon cloud service blamed for Sony hacking"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2011/05/amazon-cloud-service-blamed-for-sony.html</a>

VOGH Exclusive: Xbox Live Outage Caused For Networking Misconfiguration, Not Hacker Attack

Microsoft Said Xbox Live Outage Caused For Networking Misconfiguration During Routine Maintenance, Not Hacker Attack 

Xbox Live -one of the world's most popular and usually very reliable gaming network which rarely has unexpected outages, nor does Microsoft ever take it down for any extended period of time. But accident occurs, and it happened in last Sunday. The software giant and the developer of Xbox - Microsoft has reported a significant Xbox Live outage, rendering the service unavailable since earlier last 13th afternoon, smack in the middle of the peak weekend usage period. The outage is preventing users from signing in to Xbox Live, blocking access to the online services normally available through the console. While acknowledging the issue, on their official Xbox Live Status page Microsoft said “There is still an issue members are having signing in to Xbox LIVE, we greatly appreciate you sticking it out with us while we work as hard as we can to get this problem fixed. Keep checking back here every 30 minutes for another update on our progress.” This update came from Microsoft at 3:30 Pacific time on 13th of April. As soon as this story get spotted, several hikes rises. Among this buzz, it was a few unnamed hacker who took credit of the Xbox outage, while declaring that a cyber attack. Another buzz which just got spread so quickly, was that the outage of Xbox Live network has been caused by hacker collective Anonymous.  Here we must have to say that those buzz have some solid reasons as couple of months ago Windows Azure faced an organized cyber attack which effected the service of Azure storage, Xbox Live and 52 other. And that outage or in other word service interruption stays for 12 long hours. But unlike earlier, this time the issue get resolved immediately. Within one hour all the service get restored and came back to its normal order. On the same Xbox Live Status page Microsoft said “If you were one of the members who was having issues signing in to Xbox LIVE, good news! This issue has been fixed! Thank you so much for your patience during this time, feel free to go enjoy your favorite games and content!”

So far we have discussed about the story of the outage and it's restoration. Now we will talk about the cause of this interruption. As I have said earlier that the rumor of hacker's attack was there which was claiming responsibility of the Xbox Live outage. But in reality it was not due to cyber attack but some internal network problems. In their official respond of the situation and those buzz Microsoft completely dines all those rumors and said  "The Xbox Live service outage on 13 April resulted from networking misconfiguration during routine maintenance and was in no way related to false claims of hacking the service." 

While talking about Xbox outage, we would like to remind you that - another world famous gaming console 'PlayStation' had fallen victim to cyber attacks. It was Anonymous who hit Sony PSN and caused massive outage, data leak and many other devastating damages. 

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">VOGH Exclusive: Xbox Live Outage Caused For Networking Misconfiguration, Not Hacker Attack "https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2013/04/Xbox-Live-Outage-Exclusive-Report.html</a>

Hackers plan third attack on Sony

Hackers are planning a third attack on Sony in retaliation for its handling of the PlayStation Network and Online Entertainment services data breaches, according to US reports.

The attack on Sony's website is planned for this weekend, says a CNet report, citing an unnamed observer of the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel used by the hackers.

According to the source, the hackers claim to have access to some of Sony's servers and plan to publish information they are able to copy from those servers.

Although Sony has stopped short of blaming the hacker group known as Anonymous for the latest breaches, it said in a letter to a Congressional hearing that it had found a file named "Anonymous" containing a fragment of the group's slogan, "We are Legion".

Anonymous has a history of denial-of-service attacks against Sony websites in retaliation for Sony's legal action against hacker George Hotz, but the group has denied responsibility.

Anonymous has never been known to have engaged in credit card theft, the group said in a statement.

According to the group, whoever broke into Sony's servers to steal the credit card information and left a document blaming Anonymous clearly wanted Anonymous to be blamed.

"No one who is actually associated with our movement would do something that would prompt a massive law enforcement response. On the other hand, a group of standard online thieves would have every reason to frame Anonymous in order to put law enforcement off the track," the statement says.

In an attempt to tackle criticism for its handling of the breach, Sony has issued a letter to customers in which it blames forensic analysis for delays in notifying customers that their personal data may have been stolen.

The company has also promised to help protect customers from identity theft around the world and offer a "Welcome Back" package, including free subscriptions, once its networks are restored.

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">Hackers plan third attack on Sony"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2011/05/hackers-plan-third-attack-on-sony.html</a>

Thousands of E-Mails, Résumés at Risk After Eidos Hacking

Hackers might have accessed up to 25,000 e-mail addresses and 350 résumés during an attack on game developer Eidos Interactive’s websites, parent company Square Enix said Friday.

The security breach, which Square Enix said occurred Wednesday, could have given hackers access to user data for the Deus Ex: Human Revolution website, as well as résumés submitted by job applicants to Eidos.

“Square Enix can confirm a group of hackers gained access to parts of our Eidosmontreal.com websiteas well as two of our product sites,” the company told Joystiq. “We immediately took the sites offline to assess how this had happened and what had been accessed, then took further measures to increase the security of these and all of our websites, before allowing the sites to go live again.”

Square Enix added that it would be contacting all parties that might have been affected by the breach, emphasizing that no credit card information was compromised.

According to a report by former Washington Post writer Brian Krebs, the official Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Eidos websites were inaccessible Thursday morning. During this period, hackers reportedly put up a banner that read “Owned by Chippy1337.”

The hackers, Krebs wrote, said they plan to distribute the stolen information on file sharing networks. His report pegs the volume of information stolen, according to the hackers, to be the personal information of more than 80,000 users and 9,000 ésumés.

A recent Ars Technica report suggests there might be discord among members of hacking collective Anonymous, centering on a 17-year-old British hacker named Ryan. According to a chat log uncovered by Krebs, the Eidos hackers attempted to frame Ryan for the attack.

It’s unclear whether this is related to the crippling hack on Sony’s PlayStation Network several weeks ago that left millions of users’ personal information at risk. Anonymous has disavowed responsibility for that attack.

Neither Square Enix nor Eidos Interactive responded to Wired.com’s requests for comment Friday.

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">Thousands of E-Mails, Résumés at Risk After Eidos Hacking"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2011/05/thousands-of-e-mails-resumes-at-risk.html</a>

Internet Criminals Targeting Smaller Companies

Last week Sony announced that its PlayStation Network fell victim to hackers. This was embarrassing for the company, worrisome for gamers and just proved that big companies remain targets. But last week Verizon also released its annual Data Breach Investigation and there was good news and bad news.

The good was that cyber criminals were far less successful in 2010, with the amount of data that was obtained or compromised falling dramatically last year. One reason cited is that law enforcement has begun to crack down on cyber crime, with one individual receiving a 20-year prison sentence last year. In total the Secret Service arrested more than 1,200 suspects last year for cyber crime violations.

So what’s the bad news? Instead of targeting large companies, it seems the new breed of cyber criminals is going after smaller companies that tend to be less well-guarded. According to reports, about 40 percent of the breaches were in the hospitality industry, 25 percent in retail and 22 percent in financial services.

Attacks against small business have been on the rise since 2008, and in according to a recent report from KnowBe4 in 2009 cyber criminals extracted nearly $400,000 from a Florida dentist’s account! Talk about a painful extraction.

But it was also a savvy style of attack, where Robert Thousand Jr. received thousands of calls to his business, home and mobile phones. These calls consisted of 30-second long recorded messages from a sex hotline – and these were done to keep Thousand’s phone lines tied up while cyber criminals made five transfers totaling $399,000 from a TD Ameritrade retirement account.

Cyber criminals also targeted lawyer Kimberly Graus, bypassing her anti-virus software to initiate $35,000 in wire transfers from a trust fund she managed. She was likely the victim of a phishing attempt, which installed malware that allowed hackers to capture her account passwords.

Both Graus and Thousand had virus protection in place, but today’s savvy hackers are finding inventive ways around it.

Part of the issue for small business is that identity theft is often a large component of the cyber crime. When fraud strikes it reportedly costs the average consumer $631 and take on average 130 hours to recover from identity theft

The good news is that help may be on the way. Last month President Barack Obama stated that he is looking to create an “identity ecosystem” that could include unique software that creates one-time digital passwords. This is part of the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC).

The most important thing to do is to always be on guard, and not to be the low hanging fruit for cyber crimina

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">Internet Criminals Targeting Smaller Companies"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2011/05/internet-criminals-targeting-smaller.html</a>

After #opTurky, 32 Anonymous get busted by Turky Police

After hacker group Anonymous' apparently successful Operation Turkey to protest Internet censorship, the country's authorities have detained 32 people in connection with the attack on Turkish government Web sites.

After Friday's attack, Turkey's telecommunications authorities investigated and took the people into custody, according to a report today by Turkey's state news agency. Eight of those detained were under 18 years old, the report said.

The arrests come just days after Spain said Friday it arrested three Anonymous hackers in connection with attacks on Sony's PlayStation Network, governments, banks, and others. Retribution followed quickly, with an Anonymous attack that reportedly took a Spanish police off the Net.

The attacks take the form of a distributed denial of service (DDoS), which involves a coordinated flooding of a Web site with traffic with specially crafted network tools.

Security firm Sophos, though, said the Turkish attackers apparently used an attack tool called LOIC (Low Orbit Ion Cannon) that isn't terribly anonymous.

"LOIC...doesn't do a very good job of covering your tracks--making it potentially easy for computer crime authorities to track those behind the attacks," said Sophos' Graham Cluley.

A loose group of angry hacktivists is only one force spotlighting the Net's vulnerabilities today. The International Monetary Fund suffered what was reported over the weekend to be a major network breach. Google said it disrupted a plan the company said originated from China to break into Gmail accounts. It's open season for hackers.

One person's illicit hacker might be another person's sanctioned military authority, though. The United States and United Kingdom increasingly talk of cyberwar as just a facet of ordinary war.

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">After #opTurky, 32 Anonymous get busted by Turky Police"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2011/06/after-opturky-32-anonymous-get-busted.html</a>

Young Hacker been Approached Diplomatically To Avoid Backlash by Microsoft

Sony’s recent nightmarish experiences with hackers has made Microsoft rethink their policies regarding how to engage with hackers. If we are to believe the words of Microsoft Corp.’s Ireland General Manager Paul Rellis, his company has learned a valuable lesson from the recent assault on Sony’s worldwide network, and has decided to approach hackers more diplomatically, TechEye reports. 

Apparently a 14-year-old Irish boy was caught trying to break into the Xbox LIVE network, but instead of prosecuting him, Microsoft has decided to help him become a better coder. Microsoft hopes that by helping the young hacker he will become a productive, white-hat hacker in the future instead of an online trouble-maker, and that they company will earn some respect from the hacker community in the process. 

Sony's problems began when they prosecuted the hacker Geohot for jailbreaking the PlayStation 3. Jailbreaking a device allows users to run their own code and, while it is controversial, its legality is still a matter of dispute.

Sony's harsh reaction to an activity that most online hackers consider relatively harmless brought about the attacks that have cost Sony more than $100 million in damages according to their own reports.

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">Young Hacker been Approached Diplomatically To Avoid Backlash by Microsoft"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2011/05/young-hacker-been-approached.html</a>

The End Of Anonymous: Anonymous Attacks Eachother

It now seems that there is an internal war happening in the ranks of leaderless hacker group ‘Annoymous’ in which a rogue admin had taken control of two key sites that the group uses to coordinate their actions online.

In a message to users posted on AnonOps.in, part of Anonymous’s AnonOps network, admins accused a former comrade of organising a “coup d’etat“.

The name that seems to be comng up is ‘Ryan’, who is now being accused of stealing IP addresses and passwords of users of two ‘Anonymous’ sites. AnonOps.net and AnonOps.ru were attacked by first getting the precious information, and then getting Denial of service (DoS) attacks directed against them.

The sites provide communication within the members of the group through IRC channels and have been used to launch several attacks, they were also key in organising Anonymous activity in support of the uprising in Tunisia and Egypt and Siria.

Some messages have been appearing in hacking websites from anonymous:

‘We regret to inform you today that our network has been compromised by a former IRC-operator and fellow helper named “Ryan”. He decided that he didn’t like the leaderless command structure that AnonOps Network Admins use. So he organised a coup d’etat, with his “friends” at skidsr.us . Using the networks service bot “Zalgo” he scavenged the IP’s and passwords of all the network servers (including the hub) and then systematically aimed denial of service attacks at them.’

‘We would STRONGLY ADVISE all users to STAY AWAY from AnonOps.net and AnonOps.ru, and they should be considered COMPROMISED. Using or connecting to any service on those addresses may put your computer, and by extension your person, at risk’.

These latest developments come after Sony had accused the hacker group to be more than likely (however without providing definite evidence) involved in the data leak that caused the loss of personal and financial information of over 70 million users of the Playstation Network. Please let us know what are your thoughts by leaving a comment below.

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">The End Of Anonymous: Anonymous Attacks Eachother"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2011/05/end-of-anonymous-anonymous-attacks.html</a>

Three million PS3 users in danger of fraud

Gaming giant Sony has confirmed subscribers’ card details have been stolen in the world’s biggest online hacking.

Following the revelation that 77 million subscriber accounts on Sony’s PS3 network had been hacked into, three million Brits are now vulnerable to being victims of identity fraud scams.

Customers should keep a close eye on their account for any unusual activity

The data stolen by the hackers includes names, postal addresses (including postcode, city and country), dates of birth, online IDs, email addresses, online passwords and other log-in details.
Sony has confirmed that all credit card data on its systems was stored in encrypted form, which should limit its usefulness for financial fraud.
However, other user data, such as passwords and address details, was stored in plain text, and will be open to use by “phishers” and spammers.
Although it took Sony a week to admit the colossal breach of online security, bank industry body Financial Fraud Action UK (FFA UK) has issued an urgent alert to victims.
“There’s no need for customers to contact their bank or card company at this stage,” said a FFA UK spokesman.
“However, customers should continue to do what they should normally be doing: checking their statement and keeping a close eye on their account for any unusual activity. If they spot any, they should contact their bank or card company.”
One of the major worries for UK PS3 subscribers is that many customers use the same passwords for their PlayStation account as they do for other financial accounts. FFA UK recommends they should change these passwords as soon as possible.
Victims of hacking have also been warned to watch out for spam emails - “phishing” attacks - which are targeted attempts to acquire confidential information.
Phishers send out emails that look like a genuine communication from the recipient’s credit card company or bank, with the request they fill in an online form with personal information.
This information can then be used to open accounts in the victim's name, such as mobile phone contracts or utility services, or used to apply for credit cards and loans.
Fraudsters can also open bank accounts, apply for state benefits, order goods in someone else's name and obtain genuine legal documents such as passports, driving licences and birth, marriage and death certificates. 

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">Three million PS3 users in danger of fraud"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2011/04/three-million-ps3-users-in-danger-of.html</a>

Sony Released Head Mounted Display Equipped With High Definition OLED Panel (Personal 3D Viewer, HMZ-T1)

 

Sony Corporation announced the launch of Head Mounted Display “Personal 3D Viewer” ‘HMZ-T1’, a device that offers a spectacular new style for viewing both 2D and 3D content. Simply slip the device onto your head to experience the movie theater-like virtual screen (equivalent to a 750-inch screen*2) expand before your eyes.*3
It is equipped with the newly-developed 0.7-inch (diagonal 18.0mm) high definition OLED panel (1280 x 720), which have been realized through Sony’s unique expertise in both OLED display and semiconductor silicon drive technologies. The ‘HMZ-T1’ achieves HD picture quality that makes full use of the OLED display’s high contrast, color reproducibility, and fast response. In addition, the device adopts the ‘Dual Panel 3D Method’ which consists of separate panels for the left and right eye in order to display independent HD picture quality to each eye, which realize 3D vision. The viewer can enjoy natural and bright 3D picture quality that is crosstalk-free. Furthermore, we have achieved a wide horizontal viewing angle of 45 degrees by incorporating an optical lens that thoroughly suppresses unwanted elements such as aberration and distortion. Viewers can now enjoy watching video on a movie theater-like big-screen (750-inch virtual screen, virtual viewing distance approx. 20m)*2. Sony has also adopted its original virtual surround signal processing technology. Combined with the high-resolution 3D picture quality, viewers will be able to fully enjoy powerful acoustics equivalent to a maximum of 5.1ch through the left and right headphones alone.

 Sony group has offered a wide range of 3D products and 3D content production systems, from industrial 3D filming and editing equipment and movie theater systems through to its “BRAVIA” LCD TVs, home projectors, Blu-ray™ Disc devices, Personal Computer VAIO and “PlayStation 3” while its “Handycam” and “Cyber-shot” cameras even enable people to film 3D video themselves. And now, this new 3D viewing style provided by ‘HMZ-T1’ will enable users to enjoy the movie theater-like experience whilst relaxing on their living room sofa, thus further expanding Sony’s 3D world.

Main Features:-

1. The high definition OLED panel delivers HD picture quality.
2. The ‘Dual Panel 3D Method’ delivers natural and bright 3D picture quality that is crosstalk-free.
3. Optical lens which realize wide 45-degree horizontal viewing angle (750-inch virtual screen, virtual viewing distance approx. 20m)*2 which is equivalent to a movie theatre screen, while the shielding construction creates a deep feeling of immersion.
4. ‘5.1ch Virtual Surround Technology (Virtualphones Technology)’ for realistic and expressive sound.  

Demo:-

 

 

For more information & to see the official press release by Sony click Here

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">Sony Released Head Mounted Display Equipped With High Definition OLED Panel (Personal 3D Viewer, HMZ-T1)"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2011/09/sony-released-head-mounted-display.html</a>