Tag: HACKERS

Chinese industrial spies broke into a host of energy companies in a coordinated attack that researchers at McAfee have identified and dubbed "Night Dragon" (which is not a sequel to 'The Last Dragon'). The hackers stole proprietary information, including bidding plans for oil and gas field exploration contracts from five multi-national companies that McAfee was able to identify but declined to ...

Andrew Crossley, the manager of the law firm ACS:Law, made a concerted effort last year to individually punish purported file-sharers. The dismissive Crossley learned a painful and public lesson in hubris, though, when agitated Web vigilantes launched 'Operation Payback is a B****' and specifically targeted the law firm. After having suffered site attacks, network hacks, leaked confidential ...

Back in November, a group of hackers broke into a New Hampshire medical sever hosting 230,000 patient records, but the data itself was apparently just a collateral-damage afterthought. According to the Register, the ne'er-do-wells breached the Seacoast Radiology server in order to appropriate its bandwidth capabilities for playing 'Call of Duty.' Although the server housed names, Social ...

Here are a few of the other noteworthy things we saw today on our never-ending journey through the wild, wild Web. Brooklyn nerds have come together to raise money for "a cyberpunk fête" celebrating the 15th anniversary of the movie 'Hackers.' (15 years? Doesn't that make you feel young?) Funny thing is, Williamsburg dwellers were so eager to get their phreak on with Zero Cool, Acid ...

Sweden's election regulations feature a quaint guideline that allows voters to write-in their selections by literally handwriting them on slips of paper. During the nation's most recent election, hackers attempted to undermine that system by surreptitiously including codes that could have completely crippled the tabulation process. Sweden openly displays the written votes to maintain ...

The same, privacy-conscious German government that threatened Google with legal action over its "invasive" Street View feature is now facing its very own security crisis, after a group of hackers recently demonstrated how to easily extract private information from government-issued ID cards. The hackers, who are part of the so-called 'Chaos Computer Club,' recently appeared on the German TV show ...

The ubiquitous ATM has quickly become a favorite, and often easy, target for hackers looking to make a quick buck. At the Black Hat Conference in Las Vegas, security researcher Barnaby Jack recently demonstrated a pair of hacks that allowed him to force an ATM to literally spit cash at him like he'd hit the jackpot on a slot machine. In the demonstration, Jack attacked ATMs from Triton and Tranax, ...

digg_url ='http://www.switched.com/2010/07/15/netsploitation-the-internet-in-film/'; You can always count on Hollywood to warp real-life technology into something wholly unrecognizable. Whether it's virtual reality or social networking, we can be sure that, once translated to the big screen, representations will become exploitative or far-fetched. As for such movies that deal with the ...

Apple's criticized policy of banning certain content from its App Store may not be so debatable or controversial anymore. Like sharks executing exploratory test bites on possible prey, scammers and cybercriminals progressively seek mobile weaknesses by performing attacks on smartphones and wireless gadgets. According to the Wall Street Journal, probes of Air Force mobile devices exponentially ...

Share In the past few weeks, spammers and hackers have feasted on Facebook like King Curtis on bacon. Now, however, it looks as if Facebook has finally decided to take some action. Yesterday, the social network announced on its blog that users will soon benefit from a host of new security features specially designed to "keep the bad guys out." From now on, you can choose to be automatically ...

This probably won't come as too much of a shock to many of you (especially regular Switched readers), but according to a recent survey from Consumer Reports, 52-percent of adults post potentially risky information about themselves on social networks. The survey revealed that 42-percent posted their full birth date to Facebook and 51-percent post their e-mail address. Oddly these ...

Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines.... The Apple Tablet iSlate iPad finally made its official debut yesterday, but the company seems to be offering only a limited release of some of the gadget's services. The iBooks Store and the iBooks app will apparently first launch only in the States. [From: Engadget] Windows 7 recently became the "fastest selling operating system ...

One of the first and most obvious truisms of advertising is that "sex sells." When said sex is on a billboard, and extremely graphic, it also apparently stops traffic. According to FOX News, "traffic jerked to a standstill" in Moscow last night when hardcore pornographic footage was broadcast on two downtown billboard video screens. The screens are professionally operated by ad firm Panno.ru, ...

As Chinese citizens continue to shower Google's Beijing headquarters with flowers and "Thank You Google" cards, a group of researchers reportedly identified the source behind the cyber attacks that spurred Google's recent decision to stand up to the People's Republic. According to a report from VeriSign iDefense Labs, the Chinese government was indeed behind the December attack on Google and 30 ...

Share Whatever 2010 holds for Facebook, it's going to have a hard time competing with 2009. The social networking site truly exploded into the mainstream this year -- and suffered some growing pains along the way. As the new year approaches, we take a look at some of the biggest Facebook moments of 2009, and how those instances defined the way the '00s will be remembered. Read on. ...