Catalin Cimpanu reports: After the ransacking of MongoDB, ElasticSearch, Hadoop, CouchDB, and Cassandra servers, attackers are now hijacking hundreds of MySQL databases, deleting their content, and leaving a ransom note behind asking for a 0.2 Bitcoin ($235) payment. According to breach detection firm GuardiCore, the attacks are happening via brute-force attacks on Internet-exposed MySQL servers, and there’s plenty of those…
Category: Hack
Florida man pleads guilty in attempted hacking of Clinton Foundation
Nate Raymond and Nathan Layne report: A Florida man pleaded guilty in a case stemming from an attempted hacking of the Clinton Foundation on Thursday, months after he was sentenced to 42 years in prison in the wake of child pornography discovered on his computers during the probe. Timothy Sedlak, 43, pleaded guilty in federal…
Opening Appellate Brief filed in U.S. v. Thomas
Tor Ekeland writes: U.S v Michael Thomas, No. 16-41264 (5th Cir.) Last night in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals we filed the Opening Appellant Brief in U.S. v. Michael Thomas. In June of 2016, in an important CFAA case regarding the definition of unauthorized damage, a jury convicted Michael Thomas of a single count felony violation for causing damage…
Manafort faced blackmail attempt, hacks suggest
Kenneth P. Vogel, David Stern, and Josh Meyer report: A purported cyberhack of the daughter of political consultant Paul Manafort suggests that he was the victim of a blackmail attempt while he was serving as Donald Trump’s presidential campaign chairman last summer. The undated communications, which are allegedly from the iPhone of Manafort’s daughter, include a…
Lone hacktivists persist, but are they making a difference?
Sometime around June, 2015, a hacktivist who calls himself @ElSurveillance on Twitter began defacing web sites of escort services. In July, 2015, I became aware of him and began reporting on his attacks, which usually include messages left on the sites about how the service and conduct is an affront to Islam. To get an idea…
Hackers who took control of PC microphones siphon >600 GB from 70 targets
Dan Goodin reports: Researchers have uncovered an advanced malware-based operation that siphoned more than 600 gigabytes from about 70 targets in a broad range of industries, including critical infrastructure, news media, and scientific research. The operation uses malware to capture audio recordings of conversations, screen shots, documents, and passwords, according to a blog post published last…