James Vincent reports: An iPhone feature designed to discourage theft by letting users shut down their smartphone remotely has reportedly being compromised by hackers using it to hold mobiles to ransom. Posts from Apple’s official support forums describe how users’ Find My iPhone feature (also available for the iPad) has been hijacked by fraudsters who…
Month: May 2014
Computer hacker “Sabu” turned FBI mole sentenced in U.S. to time served
Bernard Vaughn and Nate Raymond report: A leading hacker who authorities say helped disrupt at least 300 cyber attacks after agreeing to become an FBI cooperator was sentenced to time served on Tuesday. Authorities say Hector Xavier Monsegur, a onetime member of the cyber-activist hacking group Anonymous who under the name “Sabu” co-founded the offshoot…
Computers with patient test data stolen from Denver VA hospital
John Ferrugia reports: Two bio-medical computers containing data from tests on about 239 VA patients have been stolen from a pulmonary lab at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Denver. These are computers used to record data from pulmonary function tests for the patients and were in a locked pulmonary lab. Read more on The Denver…
Spotify takes security ‘precautions’ after breach
Clara O’Brien reports: Streaming music service Spotify has become the latest company to be hit by a security breach as it admitted that it had uncovered “unauthorised access” to its systems. However, the firm said its investigation had shown only one user’s data had been accessed, and said it was not aware of any increased risk to…
Avast takes community forum offline after data breach
Jeremy Kirk reports: Prague-based antivirus company Avast said Monday it took its community forum offline after a data breach, but payment information was not compromised. Usernames and nicknames, email addresses and encrypted passwords were obtained in an attack over the weekend, wrote Avast CEO Vince Steckler on a company blog. The attack affected less than 400,000 of…
White House mistakenly identifies CIA chief in Afghanistan
Yes, this counts as an insider/human error breach: The CIA’s top officer in Kabul was exposed Saturday by the White House when his name was inadvertently included on a list provided to news organizations of senior U.S. officials participating in President Obama’s surprise visit with U.S. troops. The White House recognized the mistake and quickly…