Category: Security (Page 2)
US Water Facility Hacked
It has been revealed that a water utility near Springfield, Illinois, was successfully attacked by hackers. The incident is now being investigated by US homeland security and FBI officials. As a result of the attack, a water pump motor burn’t out when it was continuously switched on and off. This is the first time that a foreign hacker has successfully targeted a US industrial facility and gained access to controls. …
Norwegian Firms Lose Confidential Data to Hackers
Oil, gas and defence firms in Norway are the victim of a series of sophisticated attacks made by hackers. Norway’s National Security Agency (NSM) has stated that industrial secrets and information about contract negotiations have been stolen. NSM are currently unsure how many firms have actually been targeted but know that at least ten firms have been affected so far. These cyber-attacks on Norwegian firms have added the country to …
Web Privacy Tool to Limit the Amount of Information Given Away
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is currently designing a web privacy tool that will help users control how their personal data is managed and reveal websites which do not honour privacy requests. The W3C have now reached the stage where they want users, businesses and browser makers to contribute towards the completion of the tool and to implement the specifications, increasing the likelihood of the tool being deemed as …
DARPA Increase Budget to Improve Internet Security
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was heavily involved in creating the internet and now they are stepping up their efforts to help improve internet security. At its Colloquium on Future Directions in Cyber Security, Dugan declared that the agency has steadily increased its cyber research and that the agency is set to increase its funding once again in 2012. Its budget submission for 2012 will increase cyber research …
Hacker Gets Taste Of His Own Medicine
A hacking group who call themselves d33ds hijacked a rival hacker’s online shop. The rival hacker sells unauthorised access to high-profile websites and data. Since its creation, the website has been used to advertise stolen information from a number of organisations such as the U.S. Army and the U.S. Department of Defense. The owner of this online shop goes by the name of Srblche, and he also offers the service …
EU and US Cyber Security Experts Join Forces to Test Defences
EU and US cyber security officials have come together to find out how they would most appropriately co-ordinate their response to a hacking incident. This is the first time that such an event has taken place between the two governing bodies, who acted out how they would respond to two scenarios. The first scenario that was tested, involved a cyber-attack which attempted to steal secret information from the EU’s security …
Cyber Attacks Traced to China
The security company Symantec have revealed that at least 29 firms in the chemicals industry have been targeted by a series of cyber-attacks which have been traced back to China. Symantec has also revealed that they have evidence that another 19 companies, including defence specialists have been affected. It is believed that the attacks took place from late July and lasted until mid- September. Symantec’s report revealed that at least …
Hacks In Sweden Compromise More Than 400,000 User Account Details.
Over 400,000 user account details have been leaked onto the internet in Sweden after 60 websites have been attacked. The hacks first became known to have happened on Tuesday when Swedish politician William Petzll’s Twitter account was used to publish passwords to email accounts belonging to some well-known journalists. Petzll has claimed that his Twitter account was hijacked and that he had no involvement in the posts. As a result …
Anti-Virus Bugs on the Decline
Researchers have come out and stated that the use of fake antiviruses has declined over the last few months despite new versions being created. Antivirus vendors Kaspersky Lab have released a new report which reveals figures on the average number of antivirus attacks that have taken place over the last few months. The report states that in June, the average number of attacks was in the region of 50,000 and …
Britain Beefing Up Cyber Security Measures
“Cyberspace is going to be one of the great challenges of our day” according to Iain Lobban, director of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). Lobban maintains that cyber attacks pose a serious economic threat. This has certainly rung true in the the past 12 months with a significant rise in the number of apparently government linked cyber threats coming from other countries or organised criminals. In addition attempts to steal …
