Dave Lee reports: A complex targeted cyber-attack that collected private data from countries such as Israel and Iran has been uncovered, researchers have said. Russian security firm Kaspersky Labs told the BBC they believed the malware, known as Flame, had been operating since August 2010. The company said it believed the attack was state-sponsored, but…
Category: Malware
Plaxo online address book service warns of security breach
Online address book service Plaxo has confirmed that an unknown malicious third-party gained access to the company’s API connection to Google’s address book and calendar. As a result of the security breach, Google took precautionary measures and temporarily disabled the connection, and sent Google account holders a “Suspicious sign in prevented” email advising them that…
UK: York computer hacker, Edward Pearson, jailed for identity fraud
From York Press, an update to a case mentioned previously on this blog: A York computer hacker has been jailed for an ID fraud which affected thousands of people and could have netted him £834,000. Southwark Crown Court was told how Edward Pearson, 23, used internet viruses to gain more than eight million personal details…
Dutch Police Arrest 17-year-old Suspected of Breaching Hundreds of KPN Servers
Loek Essers reports: The Dutch High Tech Crime Team has arrested a 17-year-old suspected of compromising customer account data on hundreds of servers belonging to telecommunications operator KPN….. The arrested teenager called himself “xS”, “Yoshioka” and “Yui” online, and is suspected of breaching the security of hundreds of KPN servers last January, compromising user data…
Central Connecticut State University server infected with Z-Bot; over 18,000 notified of incident
A statement linked from CCSU’s home page, dated today: Central Connecticut State University officials have announced that a security breach in a CCSU Business Office computer exposed the Social Security Numbers of current and former faculty, staff, and student workers to potential misuse. James Estrada, the University’s Chief Information Officer, says the computer was infected…
Cyber thieves piggyback off Stratfor breach
Aliyah Sternstein reports: Hackers posing as officials from the geopolitical analysis publisher Stratfor are emailing infected links to government subscribers whose email addresses were stolen during an earlier raid on the company’s computers, Microsoft researchers say. Read more on NextGov.