Anti-Semitic hackers attacked Israeli websites Tuesday after an international hacking collective threatened to launch an “electronic Holocaust.”
The hacking campaign is timed to strike the country during Israel’s annual “Holocaust Remembrance Day.”
The hackers struck the websites of Israeli musicians and non-profit groups according to the Israeli Computer Emergency Response Team. The hackers replaced the sites with photos of Muslim holy sites and photos of ISIS terrorists holding their militant flag.
“We are always here to punish you! Because we are the voice of Palestine and we will not remain silent!” the message read.
The cyber terrorists had vowed to take down Israeli government sites, banks and other public institutions. However, their attempts to breach advances security measures apparently failed as no major disruptions were reported by any major organization.
Israel’s national cyber bureau admitted they boosted defenses before the beginning of the announced attack.
And now, we have a cyber war.
A group calling themselves Cyber Caliphate and expressing their support for ISIS has taken over the Twiiter and YouTube accounts of the United States Central Command Monday.
The group used the hack to post their own images and statement of support for the terrorist group. They also posted Pentagon documents, army rosters and even the home addresses of military generals.
The hack took place on the same day that President Obama was introducing new legislation aimed at enhancing cybersecurity.
While the actual method of the hack has not been determined, cyber security experts believe it was likely a phishing attack against the person who heads CENTCOM’s social media account. Phishing is when an e-mail is sent with an attachment that will return the passwords saved on a computer to a hacker.
CENTCOM confirmed the hack but would provide no other information to the press.
The White House downplayed the incident.
“There’s a pretty significant difference between what is a large data breach, and the hacking of a Twitter account,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters.
The FBI announced Friday that North Korea was definitively behind the cyberattack against Sony that released movies, damaging e-mails and other personal information about employees and celebrities.
“The FBI now has enough information to conclude that the North Korean government is responsible for these actions,” the FBI said in a statement on Friday. “[There is] significant overlap between the infrastructure used in this attack and other malicious cyber activity the U.S. government has previously linked directly to North Korea.”
The investigators say that North Korea’s intentions were to clearly harm not only Sony but the rights of Americans.
“We are deeply concerned about the destructive nature of this attack on a private sector entity and the ordinary citizens who worked there,” the FBI said in its statement. “Further, North Korea’s attack on SPE reaffirms that cyber threats pose one of the gravest national security dangers to the United States. Though the FBI has seen a wide variety and increasing number of cyber intrusions, the destructive nature of this attack, coupled with its coercive nature, sets it apart.”
Former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton told Fox News that unless the United States responds strongly to this attack, it will be open season on the U.S. from hackers in other countries.
“I think it is correct to treat it as a national security threat because it really could have been in a serious place,” Bolton said. “If we can conclude it was North Korea, we need to put them back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, we need to put all the economic sanctions back in place. If you treat this simply as an inconvenience, other countries will conclude that they can attack and get away with it.”
The Syrian Electronic Army decided to take American Thanksgiving and use it to remind the world they are still watching.
A number of major websites, including major media organizations, were targeted by the SEA. Their websites were met with an error message that read “you’ve been hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA).”
Other websites featured nothing but the SEA logo.
Dell, Microsoft, Ferrari and even UNICEF were hit by the group.
“It is PR move to show they have the skills, but what they are doing is not dramatically sophisticated,” Ernest Hilbert, managing director of cybercrime at investigations firm Kroll, and former FBI agent, told CNBC, who had been a victim of the group.
“This is a defacement of a website and they redirected traffic from the real site to a site with their stuff on it instead.”
The SEA are a group of hackers that support the government of Bashir al-Assad and claim that western media outlets are backing the terrorist groups that have been fighting against the Syrian regime.
A new report is showing that internet routers have significant security flaws that could allow a hacker to take control of your computer without ever putting a virus onto the actual computer.
Security officials have found “backdoors” in routers produced by NetGear and Linksys, two of the biggest selling router manufacturers. The security flaws allow a hacker to take control of the router and guide your web browser to fake websites that could look like Google, Facebook or a host of other sites.
The hackers would then steal personal information that you enter into the spoofed websites.
Many internet service providers give a cable or DSL modem with a built-in router that could be compromised by hackers depending on the manufacturer.
Security officials recommend placing a password on your router with an unusually long string of letters and numbers to make it unlikely a causal hacker will take the time to try and crack the long code.
A new report released by Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn is showing some shocking revelations about the security of Federal agencies, databases and websites.
The report found that almost 40 percent of breaches in security go undetected by security officials and systems.
“[The report] highlights serious vulnerabilities in the government’s efforts to protect its own civilian computers and networks,” Coburn said.
The report shows that nearly every agency has faced some kind of undetected event from the U.S. Copyright Office to the Department of Homeland Security. Even agencies that don’t seem to be major targets like the National Weather Service or NASA faced major breaches.
An example of one attack was hackers breaking into the national Emergency Alert System in February 2013 sending out a “Zombie Attack Warning” in Midwestern states.
“Civil authorities in your area have reported the bodies of the dead are rising from their graves and attacking the living,” the hackers sent out before being cut off. “Do not attempt to approach or apprehend these bodies as they are considered extremely dangerous.”
The report says that hackers could enter databases regarding U.S. dams that showed which were the weakest or had security problems making them vulnerable to attack. One of the hackers obtained the technology map running the New York Stock Exchange.
The report was based on studies from 40 different audits.
Investigators looking into the massive data breach at Target and Neiman Marcus stores originated in Romania.
The total of customers whose personal data was stolen in a hacking attack on retail card machines continues to climb. The latest reports now put the total over 110,000 potential victims of the hacking attack.
The FBI and U.S. Secret Service officials say that over the last year they have been involved with numerous arrests in Romania connected to hacking attacks on U.S. computers. The rise of cybercrime has been so significant that the Council of Europe has opened an office in Romania’s capital focused on cybercrime.
The U.S. Embassy in Romania said that 80% of cyber attacks from Romania focus on American citizens. They estimate $1 billion a year is stolen by Romanian hackers.
Six people were arrested and charged Monday for stealing $45 million in a worldwide ATM heist.
The five men and one woman were accused of being members of an international cybercriminal organization that targeted prepaid debit cards issued by Middle Eastern banks. They deleted withdrawal limits from compromised accounts then sent teams of “cashers” to make synchronized withdrawals from ATMs worldwide. The six that were arrested visited over 140 ATMs in New York City and withdrew approximately $2.8 million.
“This case is another example of the ability of cybercriminals to inflict significant damage to world financial systems,” said Steven Hughes, Special Agent in Charge of the United States Secret Service New York field office.
Five of the defendants have pleaded not guilty in federal court. The sixth defendant is expected to be arraigned Tuesday. Each person faces up to 7.5 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
South Africa has been struck by a massive cyber-fraud attack that experts are calling one of the biggest in the nation’s history.
A computer virus nicknamed “Dexter”, after the serial killer character in a U.S. TV show, compromised the payment card systems of thousands of businesses, restaurants and hotels.
Losses are thought to be in the tens of millions.
The Dexter code was used to make a series of attacks in the U.S., UK and other countries toward the end of 2012. It skims the information from magnetic cards in a way that allows a criminal to make a duplicate card.
Interpol and Europol believe the hackers behind the attack are based in Europe and have said their investigation is making “good progress.”
“Normal anti-virus software would probably have cleaned up Dexter but it was a particular custom-built variant, which was not detectable with the normal scanning software that everybody’s got,” Walter Volker, chief executive of the Payment Association of South Africa, told the BBC.
The Syrian Electronic Army, who support the government of Bashir al-Assad in its battle against rebels, launched a massive cyberattack Tuesday against the New York Times and Twitter.
The attack was the most severe yet for the group which in the last few months has also hit the Financial Times, BBC, CNN and the Washington Post. Continue reading →
