Author Archive: VirtualThreat

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5 Mandatory Steps For Protecting Data From Eavesdroppers

5 Mandatory Steps For Protecting Data From Eavesdroppers

Chris Dougherty VirtualThreat Contributing Writer   Every day we hear news reports in the mainstream media about social network hacking, malware, malicious account takeovers and protecting data. It doesn’t matter if you are the average Joe Blow or a huge corporation like Burger King, everyone is being targeted these days. Cyber criminals are searching for everything from [...]

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Anonymous Hackers Target CEOs in Operation Wall Street

Anonymous Hackers Target CEOs in Operation Wall Street

Chris Dougherty VirtualThreat Contributing Writer   Anonymous hackers have launched ‘Operation Wall Street’, a new protest started by the loosely organized hactivist collective against the US government, Wall Street and the financial services industry. The operation is a call to all Anonymous “members” and citizens of the world and seeks justice for the “innocent and exploited people being forced into homelessness” [...]

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McDonald’s Innocent in McHacking of Burger King Twitter Account

McDonald’s Innocent in McHacking of Burger King Twitter Account

Jason Sickles Yahoo News   Don’t blame the Hamburglar. Burger King’s official Twitter account was McHacked about noon EST on Monday and changed to resemble their rival. The pranksters swapped the page’s profile image to include a photo of McDonald’s iconic golden arches and rewrote the account description to claim Burger King, “Just got sold to [...]

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Latest Facebook Hacking Attack Investigated By FBI

Latest Facebook Hacking Attack Investigated By FBI

  Times of India   WASHINGTON: The US Federal Bureau of Investigation is collaborating in the investigation of a “sophisticated Facebook hacking attack” by hackers on Facebook last month, which, according to the social network, has not compromised users’ data. The daily San Francisco Chronicle said Saturday that the FBI is working with Facebook to determine the [...]

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Chinese Hackers Target Bloomberg Journalists in Latest Media Attack

Chinese Hackers Target Bloomberg Journalists in Latest Media Attack

Adam Taylor Business Insider   In next week’s Businessweek cover story, investigative reporters Dune Lawrence and Michael Riley take a deep dive on Chinese hackers, coming up with some fascinating details. It’s a big story given the recent accusations about Chinese hackers that have come from the New York Times and other news outlets, and Lawrence and Riley [...]

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DataLocker DL3 Portable Encrypted hard drive Review

DataLocker DL3 Portable Encrypted hard drive Review

Chris Dougherty VirtualThreat Contributor   The DataLocker DL3 portable encrypted hard drive is a ready-to-use solution that  provides data security and peace of mind in the event of equipment loss or theft. DataLocker, Inc. is a provider of hardware encrypted storage devices. From their headquarters in Overland Park, Kansas they have provided their secure hard drives [...]

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6 Military Grade Solutions For Keeping Your Data Safe

6 Military Grade Solutions For Keeping Your Data Safe

Chris Dougherty VirtualThreat Contributor Keeping your data safe. It might seem inconvenient, but it should be your primary concern. Whether you work for a three-letter government agency or on top of a roof pounding nails, we all have sensitive information that we want to keep away from prying eyes. These days our most private data is stored on computer hard drives, from passwords [...]

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Anonymous Hackers Release Data for 4000 US Bank Officials

Anonymous Hackers Release Data for 4000 US Bank Officials

Jeb Boone Global Post   Anonymous hackers released user and personal information belonging to 4,000 US community bank executives, in an escalation in their online battle against the US Department of Justice. Anonymous released the security credentials for over 4,000 US bank executives on Monday, posting their user account information, passwords and personal information online [...]

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SNOPA Bill Reintroduced To Protect Your Privacy Online [VIDEO]

SNOPA Bill Reintroduced To Protect Your Privacy Online [VIDEO]

Chris Dougherty VirtualThreat Contributing Writer   You may soon have legal recourse in the fight to protect your privacy online.  If a new bill finds its way into law, social networking users might soon be able to make a federal case out of employers asking to snoop through their online accounts. Members of Congress, Rep. Jan Schakowsky [...]

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Chinese Hackers Attack NY Times Over Wen Investigation

Chinese Hackers Attack NY Times Over Wen Investigation

Chris Dougherty VirtualThreat Contributing Writer   Over the past four months, Chinese hackers have penetrated computers belonging to the New York Times and its staff. The hackers appeared to be intent on hunting down and identifying newspaper sources involved in the investigation of a top Chinese leader. China’s Defense Ministry is denying any involvement in [...]

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How Cyber Criminals Are Exploiting Our Swipe-n-Go Society

How Cyber Criminals Are Exploiting Our Swipe-n-Go Society

Chris Dougherty VirtualThreat Contributing Writer   Curtis Abernathy, a small business owner in Arizona, never expected to be caught up as the victim of an international ring of cyber criminals stealing identities online.  But that’s exactly what happened last week when he received a call from Bank of America’s security office. The bank’s security team [...]

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Hacked Security Cameras Are Wide Open To Attackers

Hacked Security Cameras Are Wide Open To Attackers

Kyle Wagner Gizmodo.com   Hacked Security Cameras Are Wide Open To Attackers.  Apparently security cameras are even less secure than we thought. Eighteen popular brands of cameras have been found to have serious flaws in their own security, leaving at least 58,000 unsecured, open-to-basically-anyone security cams out there. Security firm Rapid7 discovered how the widespread [...]

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Experts Say Facebook Hackers May Be Infecting Your Computer

Experts Say Facebook Hackers May Be Infecting Your Computer

John Brandon Fox News   Sadie Ouse, a high school senior, never saw it coming. Recently, Facebook hackers commandeered her Facebook account. Using a common malware tactic, the hacker sent a message to all of her friends with a link to the site homeincomenow3.com, operated by “Zhang Lei” in Beijing, China. A Norton security scan [...]

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‘Red October’ Spy Network Goes Dark Hours After Being Exposed

‘Red October’ Spy Network Goes Dark Hours After Being Exposed

Chris Dougherty VirtualThreat Contributing Writer   The command and control servers behind the ‘Red October’ espionage network started shutting down only hours after the campaign was exposed by Kapersky Lab last week. The Red October malware campaign targeted governments, embassies and scientific organizations around the world. According to researchers at Kapersky Lab, the spy network [...]

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Fatal Cyber-Attacks ‘are Possible and Plausible’

Fatal Cyber-Attacks ‘are Possible and Plausible’

James Hayes The Institute of Engineering and Technology   2013 could be the first year in which cyber-attacks lead to human deaths, a Web security expert has warned. Corey Nachreiner, director of security strategy at security management firm WatchGuard Technologies, argues that the accelerated proliferation of both networked devices and online threats over the next [...]

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Chinese Hackers To Blame For One Third of Global Cyberattacks

Chinese Hackers To Blame For One Third of Global Cyberattacks

Michelle Florcruz International Business Times   Though the story of computer network attacks by Communist spies sounds like a plot line from a Hollywood action film, a new report has found that one-third of cyberattacks actually originate in China. According to Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ: AKAM), a digital technology platform developer, China accounted for 33 percent of [...]

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Feds Say Cyber Crime Ring Targeted U.S. Bank Accounts

Feds Say Cyber Crime Ring Targeted U.S. Bank Accounts

Andrew Tangel LA Times   A cyber crime case brought by U.S. prosecutors in New York may add to the fears of anyone who banks online. The charges against three foreign nationals — a Russian, a Latvian and a Romanian — allege they were involved in creating and distributing a computer virus that infected more than 40,000 [...]

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Hacked ‘iPhone Sexting App’: Why Texting Naked Photos is a Bad Idea

Hacked ‘iPhone Sexting App’: Why Texting Naked Photos is a Bad Idea

Dominique Mosbergen The Huffington Post   iPhone Sexting App May Not Be Secure As You Think… There are a few good reasons why sending incriminating pictures, naked or otherwise, over the photo and video app Snapchat may not be such a great idea. Other than concerns about bullying and underage sexting, it’s becoming increasingly clear that Snapchat messages, once thought to be [...]

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Anonymous Hackers Have Access to U.S. Government Classified Databases

Anonymous Hackers Have Access to U.S. Government Classified Databases

Catherine Solyom NationalPost Anonymous hackers have keys to the kingdom … The world needs to be concerned. Christopher Doyon, a.k.a. Commander X, sits atop a hillside in an undisclosed location in Canada, watching a reporter and photographer make their way along a narrow path to join him, away from the prying eyes of law enforcement. [...]

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U.S. Cyber Command Plans To Increase Workforce By 15%

U.S. Cyber Command Plans To Increase Workforce By 15%

Amber Corrin FCW.com   The Air Force plans to increase its Cyber Command workforce by 15 percent in 2014, according to the Defense Department. Gen. William Shelton, commander of Air Force Space Command, said he expects to receive orders next year from U.S. Cyber Command’s leadership to hire roughly 1,000 cyber specialists, mostly civilians. They [...]

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3 Ways Facebook Hackers Target Your Account

3 Ways Facebook Hackers Target Your Account

Chris Dougherty Virtual Threat Contributing Writer   Facebook accounts are an often overlooked gateway into an individual’s personal life.   We, as social networking users, have few reservations about posting our photos, location, plans to travel, private outbursts, and information regarding friends, family and work.  We include names, phone numbers, email addresses, GPS coordinates and [...]

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Operation “Red October” is Spying on Governments Worldwide

Operation “Red October” is Spying on Governments Worldwide

  Chris Dougherty VirtualThreat.com, Contributing Writer   Kaspersky Lab has uncovered a cyber espionage campaign that is targeting diplomatic and government agencies around the world.  The campaign has been dubbed “Rocra”, short for “Red October”. As of this writing the malware at the heart of the attack is actively sending data to several command and control (C&C) [...]

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M.I.T. Hackers Pay Tribute to Reddit Co-Founder Aaron Swartz

M.I.T. Hackers Pay Tribute to Reddit Co-Founder Aaron Swartz

Nicole Perlroth NYTimes Bits Blog   Anonymous, the loose collective of hackers, attacked the Web site of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Sunday, in a tribute to Aaron Swartz, the 26-year-old technology programmer who killed himself on Friday. Mr. Swartz, a passionate advocate for the freedom of information, helped create Reddit and RSS technology, [...]

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Hackers Pay Big Money to Use New Exploit Kit

Hackers Pay Big Money to Use New Exploit Kit

John Lister InfoPackets   The group behind a collection of ‘premium’ hacking tools is apparently charging hackers $10,000 a month for permission to use their exploit kit. The proceeds are helping fund rewards for anyone who shares information with the hackers about previously unknown software vulnerabilities. According to security firm Sophos, the ‘premium’ hacking kit [...]

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Al-Qaeda Linked to New York Phone Hacking Scams

Al-Qaeda Linked to New York Phone Hacking Scams

Chris Dougherty VirtualThreat Contributing Writer   Hackers with ties to Al-Qaeda terrorist cells in Somalia and the Philippines are targeting New York small businesses using international phone hacking scams.  The scams are costing the companies hundreds of thousands of dollars in phone charges each month. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) said that the hacker group has a [...]

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