End of Windows Live Messenger: Microsoft Replacing Live Messenger With Skype

End of Windows Live Messenger: Microsoft Replacing Live Messenger With Skype

In 2011 the Redmond based software giant Microsoft acquired Skype Communications for US$8.5 billion, later we have seen several ups and downs, along with compliment and criticism of this acquirement. But we have to remember that, it is Microsoft Corporation, who always have done the very best to make its product successful. In case of Skype the same ting happened. Microsoft announced Tuesday that it is retiring Windows Live Messenger & chat tool and replace it with Skype's messaging tool. Microsoft said Windows Live Messenger (WLM) would be turned off by March 2013 worldwide, with the exception of China. This move will allow consumers to use Skype's features such as chat on all platforms including iPad and Android tablets; send instant messages; make video calls; share their screen; join a group chat; and call contacts on their mobile or land lines. This announcement from Microsoft is made in an effort to make Skype the company's main instant messaging software. It reflects the firm's determination to focus its efforts on Skype. 

For the information of VOGH readers, WLM launched in 1999 when it was known as MSN Messenger. According to survey MSN had more than 330 million active users world wide. According to internet analysis firm Comscore, Windows Live Messenger (WLM) still had more than double the number of Skype's instant messenger facility at the start of this year in the US, and was second only in popularity to Yahoo Messenger. But the report suggested WLM's US audience had fallen to 8.3 million unique users, representing a 48% drop year-on-year. By contrast, the number of people using Skype to instant message each other grew over the period. Microsoft highlighted the fact that WLM was still more popular than Yahoo's product in most other territories, but nevertheless decided to call time on the service. To ease the changeover, Microsoft is offering a tool to migrate WLM messenger contacts over. In order to transition over to Skype, just download the latest version, then select the option to sign in with your Microsoft account on the sign in screen. You will then be asked if you’re already using Skype or are a new user. If you use Skype and Messenger already, you can merge your Skype and Messenger account into your Microsoft account. Skype says it will assist users over the coming months to smoothly transition over from Windows Live Messenger. The move is nothing too surprising — it seemed obvious that Microsoft wanted to take advantage of its acquisition of the popular IM and video chat client. So far, it looks like Microsoft is on the right track to do that.

For detailed information about this story Click Here

-Source (Skype, BBC)

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Russian Hacker Behind Cyber Attack on Georgia Caught on His Webcam

Suspected Russian Hacker Behind Cyber Attack on Georgia Caught on His Webcam 

It said that there may be hundred ways to commit crimes but there are chances of one hundred and one times to get busted. Exactly the same things happened for a Russian hacker who was behind the cyber attack against the country of Georgia. Since 2011 Georgia is blaming that few Russian hackers are disturbing their cyber space while attacking its computer networks, injecting malicious code into websites, and planting spyware to steal classified information. After discovering that a cyber-spy was infecting government computers with malware designed to mine important documents, government officials decided to fight fire with fire. They intentionally allowed the malicious software to infect one particular computer, and baited it with a ZIP file called “Georgian-Nato Agreement” — exactly the sort of thing they knew the intruder would be looking for. Instead of important documents, however, the bait file was loaded with the hacker’s own malware. Once the hacker downloaded and opened the file, the software went to work stealing his documents and, best of all, hijacking his webcam to capture clear video of his face. According to the CERT-Georgia report, an analysis of the attack's command-and-control center revealed that at least 390 computers were infected in the attack. 70% of compromised PCs were based in Georgia, with other victims found in the USA, Canada, Ukraine, France, China, Germany and Russia. Computers hit in Georgia were predominantly based in government agencies, banks and critical infrastructure the report claims. 

In a 27 page report, the Georgian government explains in details that, how in early 2011 Georgian news websites were hacked in order to exploit vulnerabilities, and spread malware that hijacked infected computers and searched for sensitive documents. 

According to report by Naked Security- Georgian officials lay a trap. Georgia's CERT deliberately infected one of its own PCs with the malware, and planted a ZIP file named "Georgian-Nato Agreement" on its drive, hoping it would prove irresistible for the hacker. Sure enough the hacker stole the archive file and ran malware that Georgia CERT had planted inside, meaning that now investigators had control over the hacker's own computer. This made it relative child's play to capture images of the suspect at work in front of his PC. The CERT researchers claim that they also found a Russian email conversation on the suspect's computer in which he gives instruction on how to use his malware and infect targets. Furthermore, the suspected hacker's city, ISP, email address and other information were also acquired. Curiously, a domain used by the attackers was registered to an address in Moscow belonging to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, department of logistics - which just happens to be based close to the Russian Secret Service (FSB). Furthermore, according to CERT-Georgia, websites used to control the infected Georgian computers have links with RBN, the notorious Russian Business Network.

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US House of Intelligence Committee Warn American Companies Doing Business with Huawei & ZTE

US House of Intelligence Committee Warn American Companies Doing Business with Huawei & ZTE

Though US is very much advance and updated on cyber security but after facing so many large cyber attacks from China, now American government taking few steps to avoid any kind of cyber espionage. Recently the US House Intelligence Committee says that the American companies should avoid doing business with two of China's leading technology firms, ZTE and Huawei. Many of us will not agree with this decisions  but while keeping in mind latest cyber attacks and damages, the authorities have no other way left. 

The Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee, Mike Rogers (R-MI) and C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger released a report recommending to U.S. companies considering doing business with Chinese telecommunications companies Huawei and ZTE to find another vendor.  The report encourages U.S. companies to take into account the long-term security risks associated with either company providing equipment or services to our telecommunications infrastructure.  Additionally, the report recommends that U.S. government systems, particularly sensitive systems, exclude Huawei or ZTE equipment or component parts. The report highlights the interconnectivity of U.S. critical infrastructure systems and warns of the heightened threat of cyber espionage and predatory disruption or destruction of U.S. networks if telecommunications networks are built by companies with known ties to the Chinese state, a country known to aggressively steal valuable trade secrets and other sensitive data from American companies.  Additionally, the report notes that modern critical infrastructure is incredibly connected, everything from electric power grids to banking and finance systems to natural gas, oil, and water systems to rail and shipping channels. All of these entities depend on computerized control systems. The risk is high that a failure or disruption in one system could have a devastating ripple effect throughout many aspects of modern American living.

The report, released in a Capitol Hill news conference, states that Huawei and ZTE provided incomplete, contradictory, and evasive responses to the Committee’s core concerns.  The report comes after a year-long investigation into the national security dangers posed by Huawei and ZTE, the two largest Chinese telecommunications companies doing business in the United States.

The Report Includes Five Recommendations:-

1. US government systems and US government contractors, particularly those working on sensitive systems, should exclude any Huawei or ZTE equipment or component parts.  Additionally, the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS) must block acquisitions, takeovers, or mergers involving Huawei and ZTE given the threat to U.S. national security interests.

2. U.S. network providers and systems developers are strongly encouraged to seek other vendors for their projects.

3. Unfair trade practices of the Chinese telecommunications sector should be investigated by committees of jurisdiction in U.S. Congress and enforcement agencies in the Executive Branch.  Particular attention should be paid to China’s continued financial support of key companies.

4. Chinese companies should quickly become more open and transparent. Huawei, in particular, must become more transparent and responsive to U.S. legal obligations.

5. Committees of jurisdiction in Congress should consider potential legislation to better address the risk posed by telecommunications companies with nation-state ties or otherwise not clearly trusted to build critical infrastructure, including increasing information-sharing among private sector entities and expanding a role for the CFIUS process to include purchasing agreements.

To Download the Full 60 Page Report Click Here

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White House Unclassified Network Hacked By Chinese Hackers Using Spear Phishing

White House Unclassified Network Hacked By Chinese Hackers Using Spear Phishing

Another cyber espionage generated from China targeted the White House. U.S. government computers reportedly including systems used by the military for nuclear commands were breached by Chinese hackers. The White House it self confirmed the breach, while saying that hackers indeed made an attempt to infiltrate its computer system, but says it thwarted the effort and that no classified networks were threatened. Also the security breach did not appear to have stolen any data. White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters the White House is equipped with mitigation measures that identified the attack, isolated it and prevented its spread. He said there was no indication that any data was removed. “There are distinctions between those networks that contain classified information and those that don’t, and the attack was against an unclassified network,” Carney said. 

The hackers breached the network by using a technique known as spear phishing, in which they target victims who have access to sensitive computer networks by sending personalized emails that appear to come from trusted sources. Once the victims click on the bogus attachment or link, the hackers can install malicious software on the PCs to spy on users and steal data.  A law enforcement official who works with members of the White House Military Office confirmed the Chinese attack to press on Monday, but it remains unclear what information, if any, was taken or left behind. But still The White House officially did not say whether the recent attack was linked to China or not. 

"This [White House Communications Agency] guy opened an email he wasn't supposed to open," the source said. That email contained a spear phishing attack from a computer server in China, the law enforcement source told the press. The attack was first reported by the conservative blog Free Beacon. Spear phishing involves the use of messages disguised to appear as valid; in fact, they contain targeted, malicious attempts to access sensitive or confidential information. 

While talking about this breach, we would like to remind you that just few days ago Chinese hackers breached Telvent's corporate network & gained control of US Power Grid. Couple of months ago we have seen that Chinese hackers have broken into Indian Navy's Computer System & stolen sensitive data. Few months before this hack, Tokyo based computer security firm Trend Micro confirmed that Chinese hackers were responsible for biggest cyber-espionage in India, Japan & Tibet. Also the director of National Security Agency (NSA) General Keith Alexander confirmed that hackers from China was responsible for the serious attack on one of the leading IT security & cyber security company RSA. Also in 2011 China was responsible behind the attack on US Chamber of Commerce, Satellite System of U.S, Nortel Network & so on.  But few days ago National Computer Network Emergency Response Coordination Center of China (CNCERT/CC), China's primary computer security monitoring network claimed that China fallen victim of one of biggest cyber attacks originated from US, Japan & South Korea. We must have to say that this statement is truly irrelevant. Cyber crime investigator have found that China was directly responsible for the hack into Japan's Biggest Defense Contractor Mitsubishi, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) & Parliament of Japan. In case of South Korea  more than 13 Million of MapleStory players data has been stolen, there also hackers from China was responsible. 

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Indian Air Force (IAF) Issued Strict Rules & Discipline to Avoid Hacking

Indian Air Force (IAF) Issued Strict Rules & Discipline to Avoid Hacking

Last month in a report we said Indian Govt is working on a robust cyber security structure, and parallely now the Indian Govt is emphasizing its security structure to fight against cyber threats. As a result of this ongoing cyber awareness, a very strict order have been issued by Indian air force to tackle and avoid cyber attacks. From now and onward every officer of the Indian Air Force (IAF) will now have to sign a declaration that they will not save or view any official document on personal computers. Failure to adhere to this directive will lead to a court marshal and prosecution. In a recent case, operational documents were found on the personal computer of a young pilot posted at an airbase in Tamil Nadu. A court of inquiry has been initiated. Over the years, cyberspace has emerged as a critical frontier for espionage as the use of computers and dependence on the internet has grown. Thus, document security has emerged as one of critical areas of concern for the government. It is perhaps alluding to these increasing instances of the cyberspace being used by foreign agencies to collect critical information. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, while addressing top cops of the country at the annual security conference hosted by the Intelligence Bureau earlier this month, said, "Our country's vulnerability to cybercrime is escalating... Large-scale computer attacks on our critical infrastructure and economy can have potentially devastating results. The government is working on a robust cyber security structure."

As a general rule, computers in which sensitive information are stored or prepared are never connected to the internet. "The IAF internal communication network, for instance, is not only a stand-alone network with no connection to the net, but also has the system configured in such a way that it doesn't allow external storage devices like pen drives or CDs," a senior MoD official told the press. Nonetheless, some officers have been found "keeping copies or preparing documents using critical information in their personal computers, which have subsequently passed out by malwares in the system or hacked," the officer added.

Beside of developing a robust cyber security structure, there is another reason behind this decision, and that is Couple of months ago we have seen that Chinese hackers have broken into Indian Navy's Computer System & stolen sensitive data. Later, inquiries revealed that a few naval officers had, against the rules, taken copies of the plans in pen drives from a naval computer, to study. The Chinese-made pen drives allegedly had malwares which transmitted the data back to IP addresses in China once they were used on computers connected to the internet. So the Indian Govt is now very strict about data privacy, so the implemented this new rule. Such bold decisions will surely make security tight and also reduce the probability of data theft & cyber espionage. 

-Source (NDTV)

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Chinese Hackers Breached Telvent's Corporate Network & Gained Control of US Power Grid

Chinese Hackers Breached Telvent's Corporate Network & Gained Control of US Power Grid

Telvent - the maker of power-grid control systems and smart meters and whose software and services remotely administers and monitor large sections of the US energy industry has began warning its customers about a sophisticated hacker attack originated from China. Telvent, a division of Schneider Electric, has admitted hackers breached its corporate network, implanted malicious software and lifted sensitive project files. The raid spanned Telvent systems in the US, Canada and Spain, according to a letter sent to the company's customers this month. Criminals can now study the documents for vulnerabilities in the systems, and potentially devise attacks to sabotage nations' electricity distribution networks. It looks like the hackers managed to get past the company firewall and security systems. In letters sent to customers last week, Telvent Canada said the attack happened on September the 10th.

The attackers installed malicious software and stole project files related to one of its core offerings — OASyS SCADA — a product that helps energy firms mesh older IT assets with more advanced “smart grid” technologies. The company said it was disconnecting the usual data links between clients and affected portions of its internal networks. Meanwhile it is looking for virus or malware files. Telvent has cut data links between at-risk portions of its internal network and clients' systems as a precaution while it probes the breach. Police have been called in to investigate the attack. 

In a report The Register said -Dale Peterson, founder and chief of industrial control security specialist Digital Bond, spelled out the kinds of information present in the lifted documents. "Some project files contain the 'recipe' for the operations of a customer, describing calculations and frequencies at which systems run or when they should be turned on or off," He told press. "If you're going to do a sophisticated attack, you get the project file and study it and decide how you want to modify the pieces of the operation. Then you modify the project file and load it [onto a company's control system], and they're not running what they think they're running." 

While talking about US power grid, we would like to remind you that, earlier researcher have warned about several security holes in power which could even allow an attacker to shutdown the entire system. Soon after  this story made public, National Security Agency (NSA) suspected that hacktivist Anonymous may target the Entire U.S. Power Grid. What ever such massacre did not happen, and Anon said they are not interested to hit power industry. 

Chinese Hackers Behind Some Biggest Cyber Espionage:- 

Couple of months ago we have seen that Chinese hackers have broken into Indian Navy's Computer System & stolen sensitive data. Few months before this hack, Tokyo based computer security firm Trend Micro confirmed that Chinese hackers were responsible for biggest cyber-espionage in India, Japan & Tibet. Also the director of National Security Agency (NSA) General Keith Alexander confirmed that hackers from China was responsible for the serious attack on one of the leading IT security & cyber security company RSA. Also in 2011 China was responsible behind the attack on US Chamber of Commerce, Satellite System of U.S, Nortel Network & so on.  But few days ago National Computer Network Emergency Response Coordination Center of China (CNCERT/CC), China's primary computer security monitoring network claimed that China fallen victim of one of biggest cyber attacks originated from US, Japan & South Korea. We must have to say that this statement is truly irrelevant. Cyber crime investigator have found that China was directly responsible for the hack into Japan's Biggest Defense Contractor Mitsubishi, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) & Parliament of Japan. In case of South Korea  more than 13 Million of MapleStory players data has been stolen, there also hackers from China was responsible. 

The above phenomena are clearly indicating that hackers from China was directly linked and responsible for all those biggest cyber espionage. Still it is not clear that whether these cyber criminals are supported by the Govt. or not!!

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Cyber Crime Cost $8 Billion Loss For India in Last 12 Months

Cyber Crime Cost $8 Billion Loss For India in Last 12 Months While Affecting 42 Million People 

In its annual cybercrime report, security firm Norton has estimated that India has lost more than $8 Billion; in Indian currency around 42,000 Crore in last twelve months. This big consumer cyber espionage has effected more than 42 million of people around the country. In terms of cost, this is a full 18 per cent increase. Against this, the global loss has been pegged at $110 billion. The study further notes that as many as 66 per cent of online adults in India have been a victim of cyber crime. During the past 12 months, as many as 56 per cent of online adults here have experienced cyber crime, over 1,15,000 victims per day, 80 victims per minute and over one every second.

According to the report, the average direct financial cost per victim is $192, which is up 18 per cent over 2011 when it was $163. One key finding this year is that both the cost per victim as well as social and mobile incidents are on the rise due to cybercrime. The study is based on the findings of self-reported experiences of over 13,000 adults across 24 countries, Norton by Symantec said in a statement. 

Globally, every second, 18 adults fall victim to cybercrime, resulting in over 1.5 million cybercrime victims each day. With losses totaling an average of $197 per victim across the world in direct financial costs, in the past 12 months, an estimated 556 million experienced cybercrime, representing 46 per cent of online adults, says the report. Last year, the figure was 45 per cent. "Cybercriminals are changing their tactics to target fast growing mobile platforms and social networks where consumers are less aware of security risks," says Norton by Symantec Asia director and internet safety advocate Effendy Ibrahim said. 

If we compare with other countries who are very much advance in IT then a very nasty truth will come appear, and that is being sound in IT still India is very much week and also careless of cyber security. This carelessness of Indian Govt has already cost maximum damage in terms of finance, defense, privacy and so on. India has already faced big damage in cyber space (both financially & reputation) from native countries like China, Pakistan, where sensitive data of Govt, defense, nuclear & space research has allegedly been stolen by cyber criminals. So far India was dam careless but couple of weeks ago things changed dramatically. And now the Indian Govt is working on a robust cyber security structure, Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh himself confirmed that from now on wards India will pay as much attention as possible to make the cyber fence digitally safe and secured. 

-Source (Norton & msn)

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11,000 Guild Wars 2 Account Hijacked On a Campaign By Chinese Hackers

11,000 Guild Wars 2 Account Hijacked On a Campaign By Chinese Hackers 

After the security breach on Gamigo & Blizzard yet again online gamer's have fallen victim to cyber criminals. The second sequel of the popular Guild Wars multiplayer online RPG by ArenaNet has been released less than two weeks ago, and player accounts are already being heavily targeted by what seems to be a dedicated account hijacking campaign coming from China. ArenaNet and publisher NCSoft have been in touch to dispute the number of Guild Wars 2 accounts that have been hacked, saying in a statement: "Over the past three days we've received approximately 8,500 new support tickets related to hacked accounts and other blocking login issues." The accounts of an estimated 11,000 Guild Wars 2 players have been hacked - and developer ArenaNet says they only have themselves to blame for not using unique usernames and passwords. In a post on the official Guild Wars 2 Wiki, the developer says that its customer support team is treating the recovery of hacked accounts as a priority, and urges those who have escaped unscathed to change their passwords as a precaution.

"Hackers have lists of email addresses and passwords taken from other games and websites, and collected through spyware, and are systematically testing Guild Wars 2 looking for matching accounts," the post reads. "To protect yourself, use a strong, unique password for Guild Wars 2 that you've never used anywhere else. "If your current password isn't unique to Guild Wars 2, change it today. Do not under any circumstances use the same password for Guild Wars 2 as you do for your email account. "We've observed hack attempts against hundreds of thousands of accounts that don't even exist. To protect those people in case they purchase Guild Wars 2 and create an account, we will now disallow customers from picking passwords that we've previously seen used in a hack attempt." 

The company has so far received around 11,000 support requests related to hacked accounts, and is likely to receive more as time goes by, Here we want to draw the attention of our readers that not only  Guild Wars  2 players,  In the last few months we have been a slew of attacks against the following sites: Yahoo, LinkedIn, eHarmony, Formspring, Android Forums, Gamigo,  Nvidia, Blizzard and  Philips. Earlier in 2011 we have seen several other gaming sites became victim of cyber attacks, among them there are Square Enix, Eidos, MapleStory & so on. So all customers are advised to change their passwords now to a long and unique one for Guild Wars 2 that they never before used for any other game or website. 

-Source (Edge, Net Security)

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Indian Govt is Working on a Robust Cyber Security Structure -Said Manmohan Singh

Indian Govt is Working on a Robust Cyber Security Structure -Said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

After facing so many loses finally Indian government is taking the very cyber security issue seriously. India has already faced big damage in cyber space (both financially & reputation) from native countries like China, Pakistan, where sensitive data of Govt, defense, nuclear & space research has allegedly been stolen by cyber criminals. While expressing concern over India's escalating vulnerability to cyber crime, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh  said the government is working on a robust cyber security structure. The structure will help in mitigating threats, by building capacity to face them and enhancing research. Dr. Singh said the police leaders should also dedicate themselves to planned technological up-gradation of their forces. In his speech at the annual conference of DGPs/ IGPs;  Dr. Manmohan Singh said - ""There are many emerging areas where our police forces need to develop new expertise. I have already mentioned the use of new media by miscreants to spread rumours and falsehood. Another such area is our cyber-security. Our country's vulnerability to cyber crime is escalating as our economy and critical infrastructure become increasingly reliant on interdependent computer networks and the Internet"

"Large-scale computer attacks on our critical infrastructure and economy can have potentially devastating results. To this end, we need to build partnerships between Government, academia and the private sector," he added. Dr. Singh said the use of bulk SMSes and social media to aggravate the communal situation was a new challenge. "We need to fully understand how these new media are used by miscreants. We also need to devise strategies to counter the propaganda that is carried out by these new means. Any measure to control the use of such media must be carefully weighed against the need for the freedom to express and communicate," said Dr. Singh.

"I am sure that in the coming months our police forces would be able to work out effective strategies to deal with these tendencies," he added.

-Source (ANI)

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Blizzard's Battle.net Server Hacked, Millions of Users Affected

Blizzard's Battle.net Server Hacked, Millions of Users Affected

Blizzard has revealed that its Battle.net servers have been compromised, leading to millions of account details being stolen by hackers. The service is employed in all of Blizzard's popular games, including World of Warcraft, Diablo 3 and StarCraft 2. The news is particularly bad considering the upcoming release of an expansion for World of Warcraft, called Mists of Pandaria, set to launch on 25 September.

According to Mike Morhaime, president and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment - the company's servers have suffered unauthorised access that exposed customer information to the attackers. The company learned of the intrusion on 4 August and decided to first investigate the problem and close the security holes before making the incident public. The data accessed by cyber-criminals includes email addresses, security question answers for players on North American servers, and information relating to authenticators, including the mobile authenticator app. More worryingly for North American players is that cryptographically scrambled passwords were also taken, though they may be extremely difficult to unscramble, which at least shows that Blizzard is responsible with password data. Only those outside of China are affected by the hack.

Blizzard believes that this data alone is not enough to gain access to an account, but it is still urging players to change their passwords. It suggested changing passwords elsewhere if the passwords are the same or similar, though that is always a major faux pas in net security. The company also emphasised that it never looks for passwords in emails, warning of the potential of phishing scams.

Blizzard will be forcing players to change their security questions and update their authenticator software in the coming days. Traditionally an authenticator is considered one of the best ways to ensure account security, but not if Blizzard's own servers have been compromised.

"At this time, we’ve found no evidence that financial information such as credit cards, billing addresses, or real names were compromised. Our investigation is ongoing, but so far nothing suggests that these pieces of information have been accessed," -said Mr. Morhaime. For more information about the break-in, including the actions that Blizzard has already taken to resolve problems caused by it, is available in an FAQ on the Battle.net support site. Earlier in 2011 we have seen several other gaming sites became victim of cyber attacks, among them there are Square Enix, Eidos, MapleStory & so on. In the last few months there have been a slew of attacks against the following sites: Yahoo, LinkedIn,eHarmony, Android Forums, Formspring, Gamigo, and Nvidia. We advice to all the users who are registered with Gamigo and have used the same password at other web sites should immediately change their login credentials. Enjoy reading Voice of Greyhat, stay safe and happy on the Internet.  

-Source (VR-Zone, The-H)

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KT Corp. -South Korea's No. 2 Wireless Service Provider Hacked, 8.7 Million Subscriber Effected

KT Corp. -South Korea's No. 2 Wireless Service Provider Hacked, 8.7 Million Subscriber Effected

Yet again South Korea became victim of cyber-attack. Few days ago hacker collective Anonymous attacked Australian internet service provider named AAPT and stolen 40GB user data. After AAPT another  service provide named 'KT Corp.' which is the second largest wireless service provider in South Korea became victim to cyber-criminals. Authority of KT Corp apologized after personal data of millions of mobile phone subscribers was hacked. "We deeply apologize for worrying you," KT said in a statement. The company said it had blocked any further illegal access to data. The hacking began in February this year.

It is the latest in a string of large-scale personal information hacking cases in one of the world's most wired countries. Police said two computer programmers had been arrested for hacking personal data of about 8.7 million KT subscribers. KT claims a mobile service subscription membership of 16 million. Police were also investigating seven others suspected of having purchased and used the hacked KT data, which included names, resident registration numbers and phone numbers. We would like to remind you that last year another massive cyberattack generated from China stolen personal details of more than 13 Million of MapleStory players. After that hack this one is the second largest attack which infected millions of South Korean people.  

In the last few months there have been a slew of attacks against the following sites: Yahoo, LinkedIn,eHarmony, Android Forums, Formspring, Nvidia and Gamigo which infected total of almost 50 Millions of users world wide. This hack on KT corporation again establishing that security experts are far behind from cyber-criminals. Stay tuned with VOGH for all the latest information and updates on cyber-security & hacking news. 

-Source (Reuters)

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Chinese Hackers Broke Into Indian Navy's Computer System & Stolen Sensitive Data (VOGH Exclusive)

VOGH Exclusive:- Chinese Hackers Broke Into Indian Navy's Computer System & Stolen Sensitive Data

Again cyber criminals from China targeted Indian cyber fence. This time Indian Navy have fallen victim of this cyber espionage. According to sources hackers have broken into sensitive naval computer systems in and around Visakhapatnam, the headquarters of the Eastern Naval Command, and planted malware that relayed confidential data to IP addresses in China.  There is, to date, nothing known about the data thieves. 

Primary investigation revealed that the classified data has been leaked and that the breach may have occurred as a result of the use of USB flash storage on important systems. The Navy and other armed forces store sensitive data on standalone systems, unconnected to the internet and supposedly with no free USB ports where a flash drive could be plugged in.

The malware is reported to have created a hidden folder on the USB flash drives. When the drive was plugged into a Navy system, the malware searched for files based on particular key words it had been configured to look for. These files were then copied to the flash drive where they would remain hidden. When the drive was plugged into a system which was connected to the internet, the malware would then begin to transfer the files to a specific IP address. The extent of the loss is still being ascertained, and officials said it was “premature at this stage” to comment on the sensitivity of the compromised data. But the Navy has completed a Board of Inquiry (BoI) which is believed to have indicted at least six mid-level officers for procedural lapses that led to the security breach. Navy official also said: “An inquiry has been convened and findings of the report are awaited. It needs to be mentioned that there is a constant threat in the cyber domain from inimical hack ers worldwide.”

Couple of months ago Tokyo based computer security firm Trend Micro confirmed that Chinese hackers were responsible for biggest cyber-espionage in India, Japan & Tibet. Also the director of National Security Agency (NSA) General Keith Alexander confirmed that hackers from China was responsible for the serious attack on one of the leading IT security & cyber security company RSA. Also in 2011 China was responsible behind the attack on US Chamber of Commerce, Satellite System of U.S, Nortel Network & so on.  But few days ago National Computer Network Emergency Response Coordination Center of China (CNCERT/CC), China's primary computer security monitoring network claimed that China fallen victim of one of biggest cyber attacks originated from US, Japan & South Korea. We must have to say that this statement is truly irrelevant. Cyber crime investigator have found that China was directly responsible for the hack into Japan's Biggest Defense Contractor Mitsubishi, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) & Parliament of Japan. In case of South Korea  more than 13 Million of MapleStory players data has been stolen, there also hackers from China was responsible. 

The above phenomena are clearly indicating that hackers from China was directly linked and responsible for all those biggest cyber espionage. Still it is not clear that whether these cyber criminals are supported by the Govt. or not!!

 

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