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If you’re a PlayStation Network or Qriosity customer, you’ve probably been frustrated with the recent service outage. But the news is getting worse: According to a blog post by Sony Sr. Director of Corporate Communications and Social Media Patrick Seybold, the network has been down due to a hacker attack that occurred from April 17 to 19, in which someone acquired customers’ personal information.
More than 100,000 Apple iPad users have had their data revealed, thanks to a Web site glitch that allowed hackers to take the information, according to Ryan Tate at Gawker. The group responsible has a French address and goes by the name Goatse Security. Among those with their details exposed include White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, The New York Times CEO Janet Robinson and ABC News’ Diane Sawyer.
As often as hacked online accounts are in the news right now, you’d think people would learn, but apparently they haven’t. According to an article written by Ashlee Vance for The New York Times, people are still using insecure passwords to their online accounts. Not just insecure, really insecure.
Everyone knows that they’re supposed to use incredibly difficult passwords, and let’s face it, random strings of 12 or 14 upper- and lower-case characters mixed with numbers and symbols aren’t the easiest things to remember.
Companies protect their branding fiercely, often writing a complete set of rules on how their logos can be used. That could include what’s around them, what colors they can be reproduced in, and a lot of other minutiae that are supposed to ensure that people know exactly with whom they’re dealing. So in a way, it’s a little surprising that Google not only allows its logo to be modified at all, let alone gussied up for special events. But the Google Doodle, the modified logo that appears on special occasions and dates of note, has been used more frequently as of late, probably because it attracts users’ attention.
Unfortunately, it’s also attracting the attention of malware authors, who are watching for the creative logo modifications to engage in SEO poisoning, or using search engine optimization techniques to convince users to download and install malware. So said Elinor Mills in her post on CNET’s InSecurity Complex blog yesterday.
Earlier this week, we released the TechStuff podcast Jonathan and I recorded about the hackintosh. As you already know, Apple’s Macintosh is a closed system — they produce the hardware and the software both. It makes for an elegant solution, because in general the machines and operating system are tailored to each other and work well together.
One downside of this is that Apple charges a premium for its computers. So if you like OS X and want to run it on your desktop, you have to buy a Macintosh computer. If you don’t mind, it works out; Apple hasn’t released a lot of underpowered machines lately. But if you’re on a budget, you just might be buying a PC. Also, if you prefer netbooks, you’re also out of luck, since Apple’s stance on the issue is that the company can’t make a netbook of the quality that Apple can get behind.
In what might be part of a more widespread attack on several sites, Twitter announced in its status blog that it’s the victim of a denial of service attack. In general, a denial of service attack involves bombarding Web servers with messages so that the server becomes overwhelmed while trying to respond, ultimately resulting in a crash. Many Web sites have been the target of denial of service attacks. Depending upon the nature of the attack, the response can be as simple as blocking an incoming IP address. But if it’s a more sophisticated attack, such as a distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) in which thousands or even millions of computers are sending messages, the solution can be more complicated.
And Twitter isn’t the only site that has experienced some hiccups this morning. TechCrunch reports that sites like LiveJournal and Facebook have experienced some issues today. I’ve also noticed some odd behavior from my Digsby application.
So the Black Hat security conference just wrapped up, and there are still lots of security news stories floating around, like this one from CNET posted this past Saturday. Elinor Mills wrote about two Israeli researchers, Itzik Kotler and Tomer Bitton, who have figured out a method by which your computer can become infected with malware by attempting to install software updates. In fact, their company, Radware, is going to be releasing a software tool that will help people see a 3-D view of other computers on a Wi-Fi network and help trick them into downloading dangerous programs instead.
The program is called Ippon, Mills said, and attackers can use it to see all the computers on the wireless network that are trying to find updates using the hypertext transfer protocol (that’s the HTTP at the beginning of Web addresses — Web pages use this method).
Yesterday I wrote about Nokia Siemens Networks and how the company has been accused of selling the Iranian government communications equipment that can be used to censor and monitor communications of Iranian citizens.
This morning, as I listened to the BBC World Service on my way to work, I was surprised to hear Business Daily tacking the same topic. But after the segment on Nokia Siemens, host Stephen Evans had a talk with Rafal Rohozinski, the cofounder and CEO of Psiphon, as well as the principal of the SecDev Group, an organization that works with parts of the world that are affected by insecurity and violence.
What’s is Psiphon? Good question. It’s a company based in Ottawa, Canada that uses technology developed by the CitizenLab at the University of Toronto. What Psiphon does is pretty amazing, though. It’s a proxy that helps people who are behind massive firewalls get around them.
Since 2002, Gary McKinnon has fought extradition from the United Kingdom to the United States to face charges that he infiltrated and manipulated the computer systems of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and NASA. In 2007, British courts denied an appeal. But Jacqui Smith, the home secretary who made that decision, is no longer in office and two other judges are reviewing the decision.
I don’t carry cash anymore. I use my debit card almost exclusively, though I admit it makes tipping a pain in the neck. It looks like I’m going to have to change my habits.
Back in 2007, TJX Companies, the parent organization of retailers T.J. Maxx and Marshall’s, announced that it’d had a security breach in which millions of credit and debit card numbers (and driver’s license numbers, names and addresses) had been stolen.
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