Hacked: former Presidents’ Family Email Accounts & Photos

The Secret Service is investigating a theft from hackers on personal emails and photos belonging to the Bush Family. Such material was posted to the Smoking Gun website last night. A report by the Smoking Gun details that the emails covered a period from 2009-2012 – six accounts now compromised, it appears.

Those hacked were George H.W. Bush, his daughter Dorothy Bush Koch – who’s also the sister of George W. Bush. The other hack was on Jim Nantz, sportscaster and family friend of the Bush’s.

The hacker titled “Guccifer” posted in an account, which was purposeful for posting the material. On Friday, the Bush family’s spokeperson confirmed such hack. It was also confirmed by Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan.

More details can be found within the Washington Post.

Yahoo Flaws Potentially Found by Egyptian Hacker

Security experts are investigating an Egyptian hacker who goes by the name “Virus_Hima”, who released screenshots of potential flaws in Yahoo’s website. This has been done before by the hacker, whose intentions may or may not be good.

One of the flaws identified by this hacker included the ability to access a full backup of one of Yahoo’s domains. The other problems included a cross-site scripting (XSS) and SQL injection vulnerability, according to a PasteBin.com post “Yahoo data leak by Virus_Hima“.

Some of his previous work included Adobe, where he released a batch of more than 200 email addresses obtained from a database belonging to them. Adobe shut down Connectusers.com as a result, which is the Connect Web conferencing service.

Without his “good intentions”, it appears that he also has shut down the claim that he sold a $700 XSS vulnerability in the black market. He claims to be a former blackhat, and that his intentions are good as a vulnerability researcher. However, he was spotted in his PasteBin.com post to be taking shots at security reporter Brian Krebs, calling his site “Krebsonshitz” when it clearly is “Krebs on Security”. Krebs reported about the hacker back when the XSS vulnerability was being sold.

Data Leak about the US/UK reported by Swiss Spy Firm

Secret information on counter-terrorism shared by foreign governments may have been compromised by a massive data theft by a senior IT technician for the NDB, Switzerland’s intelligence service, European national security sources said.

Intelligence agencies in the United States and Britain are among those who were warned by Swiss authorities that their data could have been put in jeopardy, said one of the sources, who asked for anonymity when discussing sensitive information.

Swiss authorities arrested the technician suspected in the data theft last summer amid signs he was acting suspiciously. He later was released from prison while a criminal investigation by the office of Switzerland’s Federal Attorney General continues, according to two sources familiar with the case.

The suspect’s name was not made public. Swiss authorities believe he intended to sell the stolen data to foreign officials or commercial buyers.

A European security source said investigators now believe the suspect became disgruntled because he felt he was being ignored and his advice on operating the data systems was not being taken seriously.

read more in this Reuters’ report

Unknown hackers allegedly steal $400,000 from city of Burlington, Washington

The town of Burlington, Washington fell victim to a recent attack by a band of unknown hackers, stealing $400,000 in the operation. Odds are that taxpayer data was stolen, also.

Burlington officials have warned residents in the city that their private data could have been stolen, and becoming targets for identity theft. A number of billing systems in the town were attacked, notably the online automatic utility billing system, which holds a large amount of resident data. Once these systems were attacked, the band of hackers were able to leak $400,000 out of the city’s funds.

According to Computer World, an alert [that was] issued this morning, city administrator Bryan Harrison said all autopay customers should assume that their name, bank account number and routing number was compromised following an intrusion into a city utility billing system.

Authorities are still investigating this issue, and will provide updates soon.

Related articles

• Police: Hackers Take $400,000 From Washington City Account (seattle.cbslocal.com)
• Hackers steal $487K from Washington town (kgw.com)

AntiSec theft of FBI data a lie

The Anonymous group AntiSec has claimed to have mined around 12 million Unique Device Identifiers (UDIDs) from a FBI laptop, after the hack was claimed to have been part of a Java vulnerability. News has been booming with Java vulnerabilities lately, so this is a very believable story. AntiSec published their list to prove the group had the data. The data is used as identifiers for iPhone and iPad devices.

AntiSec’s reason stated includes that it wanted to expose the FBI’s tracking of Apple device users.

However, the FBI has came back with a press release statement:

The FBI is aware of published reports alleging that an FBI laptop was compromised and private data regarding Apple UDIDs was exposed. At this time, there is no evidence indicating that an FBI laptop was compromised or that the FBI either sought or obtained this data.

That was published on the FBI site.

Therefore, all this was just a tactic to draw attention to themselves.

 

Related articles

• FBI: We Weren’t Hacked, Never Had Apple Device IDs (mashable.com)
• AntiSec Claims to Steal Apple UDIDs from Gov. Laptop, FBI Says No (dailytech.com)
• FBI denies AntiSec’s Apple UDID database claims (h-online.com)
• FBI calls out AntiSec, claim they had nothing to do with stolen Apple IDs (slashgear.com)

Celebrity Nude Photos Trouble Rising Up

There are continuing stories repeatedly of nude photos being stolen from celebrities through hacks and other leaks across the internet. What the problem is, it reveals immorality maybe, but also violates the privacy of the celebrity.

It’s none of anyone’s business but the celebrity itself, on why they decided to post nude photos on the insecure internet. Whether you believe it or not, celebrities reveal way too much personal data too, except in different ways.

Of course, you’ll rarely get to access a celebrity’s Facebook account, or friend them. Now, seeing a Twitter account of a celebrity is probably more likely, but it’s probably not a personal account.

Personal social networking accounts for celebrities are unlikely to be public, and unlikely to be noticed, also! So, at least they know how to handle themselves in social networking. After all, it could cost them their job, for involvement in social networking.

Back on topic…Let’s example Scarlett Johansson’s situation, where Christopher Chaney was held guilty for hacking/leaking the nude photos of this celebrity. Even the same hacker got Mila Kunis’s photos as well.

Now, according to media reports, prosecutors have filed documents at the US District Court in California, calling for 35-year-old Chaney to spend 71 months in prison, and pay over $150,000 in restitution.

To avoid this situation, celebrities listen up: secure your email account with a better password!! End-of-story.

 

 

Julian Assange, Wikileaks Founder Arrested

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who is seeking asylum at Ecuador’s London embassy, faces arrest for breaching his bail, police say.

Mr Assange, 40, whose conditions included staying at his bail address between 2200 and 0800 BST, spent Tuesday night at the embassy.

Last week he failed to reopen an appeal against his extradition to Sweden.

Mr Assange, wanted for questioning in Sweden over rape and sexual assault allegations, denies any wrongdoing.

Ecuador had said it was “studying and analysing” Mr Assange’s request for asylum.

Read more on this story now

Change your Password on All Social Networks!

From the LinkedIn breach to eHarmony to Last.FM breaches – other social networks may be targeted. Sadly, users fall in to this trap everyday of having their password stolen. And believe me, security experts push password security tips…but users ignore them ALL the time!

Facebook has published a banner on the top of the news feed telling users to check out security tips on the following page:facebook.com/about/security

This is also just days after many companies, including Facebook, Twitter, and Google plus others joined in The Ads Integrity Alliance. This was launched last Thursday and has Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) in New York also as a charter member.

OnGuardOnline.gov provides awesome tips. Included is one just like this, which helps understand social networking safety for children: onguardonline.gov/articles/0012-kids-and-socializing-online