Report: Cyber Attacks Caused Power Outages in Brazil

"Electrical blackouts impacting millions of people in Brazil in 2005 and 2007 were caused by hackers targeting control systems, according to the CBS news magazine 60 Minutes. In a show set to air Sunday night, CBS blames a two-day outage in Espirito Santo in 2007 on a hack attack. The blackout affected three million people. Another, smaller blackout north of Rio de Janeiro in January 2005 was also triggered by computer intruders, the network claims. Reports that hacker-extortionists triggered at least one blackout outside the U.S. first surfaced last year, based on comments made by the CIA’s chief cybersecurity officer, Tom Donahue, who declined to identify any country or the specifics of the alleged attacks. In an interview with Threat Level’s Kim Zetter last month, former cybersecurity czar ›

Mossad Hacked Syrian Official’s Computer Before Bombing Mysterious Facility

"Agents of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service hacked into the computer of a senior Syrian government official a year before Israel bombed a facility in Syria in 2007, according to Der Spiegel. The intelligence agents planted a Trojan horse on the official’s computer in late 2006 while he was staying at a ho ›

Feds Charge Cable Modem Modder With Aiding ‘Computer Intrusion’

"An Oregon hardware hacker and author has been hit with federal criminal charges arising from his longstanding business of selling unlocked cable modems that can be used to steal extra speed from a broadband provider, or obtain free service. Ryan Harris, known by his pen name DerEngel, was charged in Boston with ›

Worms Invade Corporate Computers, Microsoft Finds

"The Conficker worm may have been something of a letdown for failing to do anything dramatic on April 1, when a code update was supposed to make the malware more dangerous, but its impact on businesses has been significant. The top threat in enterprise environments during the first half of the year was the Conficker worm, Microsoft says in its Security Inte ›

Cyber Security Panorama: How the U.S. Should Fight Cyber Attacks

"Just how safe are America's computer networks? Most tech security experts agree that sensitive data are vulnerable to domestic and international hackers, and recent findings back them up. Such concerns lay behind Senator Joe Lieberman's speech last Friday outlining his cyber-security vision, which would call for the appointment of a new czar. On the same da ›

Still no cybersecurity czar at the White House

"With each day comes word of yet another cyberattack somewhere in the U.S. or in the world. The White House, however, has yet to appoint a cybersecurity coordinator to oversee government preparations for both the public and private sectors. " (Source: Federal News Radio 1500 AM: Still no cybersecurity czar at the White House) ›

Hacker charged in $1m cable ISP customer cloning scheme

"Federal prosecutors have charged a California man with earning $1m over a six-year period by illegally selling products that allowed customers to get high-speed internet service for free. Ryan Harris, 26, of San Diego sold software and hardware that were designed to fool Charter Communications and other internet service providers into believing the gear be ›

Gamers new target for virus writers, warns Microsoft

"The Microsoft Security Intelligence Report found that known cases of the Taterf worm had risen by 156 per cent since the second half of 2008 to 4.9 million, with massively multiplayer online role-playing games, such as World of Warcraft and Legend of Mir, a key target for virus writers. Microsoft said that these attacks relied less on 'social engineering' ›