In the justice system: John Shiefer, the Los Angeles computer security consultant who turned thousands of computers into zombies, was sentenced to four years in prison. More. Four Arizona men accused of spending more than $1 million using stolen credit cards are being held in a Maricopa County jail; they allegedly obtained the card numbers…
Category: Hack
Concerns over increase in Facebook hacking
Computer experts called today for Facebook to review its security processes after the social networking website was hit by hackers five times in a week. Four separate “rogue applications” and a virus targeted users of the site, according to security firm Trend Micro. Although there is no evidence that people’s personal details were stolen by…
Spotify breach creates password hack risk
John Leyden reports: Popular online music service Spotify has warned of a security breach that may have exposed user passwords and other sensitive data. A notice – posted on Wednesday – explains that a bug in Spotify’s protocols that was recognised and resolved in December was more serious than first suspected. Last week Spotify learned…
Western Oklahoma State College alerts library users of data breach
The Associated Press is reporting that about 1,500 users of the college’s library may have had their Social Security numbers and other personal information exposed because of a computer breach that occurred on November 11, but wasn’t discovered until February 18. No details of the breach have been provided yet. (Thanks to Wilma of the…
Bits ‘n Pieces
In the criminal justice system: As a follow-up to a case previously reported, former Navy petty officer, Cora Dixon, pleaded guilty and accepted a 15-year prison sentence for helping run an identity theft ring. She was accused of using her access to direct deposits at the Fort Worth Reserve Joint Base to take banking and…
UK: Health records of Brown and Salmond ‘hacked’
David Leask reports: The health records of Gordon Brown and Alex Salmond were allegedly hacked into, a newspaper claimed last night. The Prime Minister and First Minister are among several high-profile Scots whose confidential files were allegedly accessed without their permission, according to the report. The two leaders’ medical details are on a single database…