cybersecurity

Worm breeds botnet from home routers, modems

Security researchers have identified a sophisticated piece of malware that corals consumer routers and DSL modems into a lethal botnet. The "psyb0t" worm is believed to be the first piece of malware to target home networking gear, according to researchers from DroneBL, which bills itself as a real-time monitor of abusable internet addresses. It has already infiltrated an estimated 100,000 hosts. It has been used to carry out DDoS, or distributed denial of service, attacks and is also believed to use deep-packet inspection to harvest user names and passwords. (Register) ›
CyberSECURITY

Pwn2Own trifecta: Hacker exploits IE8, Firefox, Safari

A security researcher named “Nils” (he declined to provide his full name) performed a clean drive-by download attack against the world’s most widely used browser to take full control of a Sony Vaio machine running Windows 7. He won a cash prize and got to keep the hardware. Details of the vulnerability, which was described by contest sponsor TippingP ›
CyberSECURITY

Dearth of technical experts leaves US open to cyber attack, panel says

The United States isn't producing enough engineers and technicians to combat the growing threat to government and business computer networks, a panel of security experts said yesterday. Limitations on visas for foreign students and the attraction of careers in finance and law have contributed to the dearth in com ›
CyberSECURITY

Telco hires Kiwi hacker

The Whitianga teenager who brought a US university to its knees with his hacking antics has been hired by a telecommunications company. Owen Thor Walker, 19, offending under the name Akill became the subject of a United States Federal Bureau of Investigation cyber crime investigation spanning the US, Europe and New Zealand. Starting as a 16-year-old at school, Mr Walker ›
CyberTHREATS

'Smart Grid' may be vulnerable to hackers

Is it really so smart to forge ahead with the high technology, digitally based electricity distribution and transmission system known as the "Smart Grid"? Tests have shown that a hacker can break into the system, and cybersecurity experts said a massive blackout could result. Until the United States eliminates the Smart Grid's vulnerabilities, some experts ›
CyberSECURITY

Rockefeller Crafting Cybersecurity Bill

Senate Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller and Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, are crafting legislation that they hope will improve the country's cybersecurity posture in the face of increasingly sophisticated global attacks against U.S. government networks as well as the nation's broader critical infrastructure. Rockefeller indicated he was working on the bill at a Thur ›
CyberWAR

Report links Russian intelligence to cyber attacks

A follow-up report authored by a group of cyber-security experts claims that Russian intelligence agencies were probably involved in the 2008 cyber attacks on Georgia. The report, released Friday, concludes that there is a "strong likelihood" that the Foreign Military Intelligence agency (the GRU) and Federal Security Service (the FSB) directed cyber attack ›
CyberTHREATS

ATMs At Risk

Cracking automatic teller machines isn't new: ATMs have been rigged with sniffers, spoofed with cloned cards created from successful phishing attacks, and even physically blasted open by explosives. But a new, sophisticated attack that inserted information-stealing malware on ATM machines has raised the bar on just what determined criminals can and will do to steal banking information and money. The latest ATM hack ›
CyberSECURITY

Computer Experts Unite to Hunt Worm

An extraordinary behind-the-scenes struggle is taking place between computer security groups around the world and the brazen author of a malicious software program called Conficker. The program grabbed global attention when it began spreading late last year and quickly infected millions of computers with software code that is intended to lash together the infected machine ›
CyberSECURITY

Hackers penetrating industrial control systems

The networks powering industrial control systems have been breached more than 125 times in the past decade, with one resulting in U.S. deaths, a control systems expert said Thursday. Joseph Weiss, managing partner of control systems security consultancy Applied Control Solutions, didn't detail the breach that caused deaths during his testimony before a U.S. ›
CyberSECURITY

Researchers make wormy Twitter attack

Computer security researchers have devised a new Twitter attack that they say could spread virally, much like a worm on the microblogging service. The attack, posted online Thursday by researchers at Secure Science, is an innocuous proof of concept that forces users to send out a predetermined Twitter message, but it could be repurposed into a very nasty worm, said Lance ›
CyberTHREATS

Small Business: The New Black In Cybercrime Targets

Hacking banks and large businesses? That's sooo 2008. Hackers and computer criminals this year are taking a new aim -- directly at small and midsize businesses, according to experts who spoke here today at Visa's annual security event. The consensus: Smaller businesses offer a much more attractive target than larger enterprises that have steeled themselves ›
CyberATTACK

Feds: Hacker Disabled Offshore Oil Platforms' Leak-Detection System

A Los Angeles federal grand jury indicted a disgruntled tech employee Tuesday on allegations of temporarily disabling a computer system detecting pipeline leaks for three oil derricks off the Southern California coast. Mario Azar, 28, faces a maximum 10-year term after being accused of purposely impairing a compu ›