A hacker who gained fame for unlocking Apple's iPhone when he was a teen now claims he's managed to hack the Playstation 3 too.
George Hotz said the hack took him five weeks to figure it out. He says he's planning on sharing the details online soon, when he's ironed out a couple of creases, and when he does, PS£ users could be able to run pirated games and homemade software.
Weirdly, figuring out the hack seems to have caused Hotz to take to speaking like a comic book evil villain.
"It's supposed to be unhackable - but nothing is unhackable," Mr Hotz told BBC News.
"I can now do whatever I want with the system. It's like I've got an awesome new power - I'm just not sure how to wield it."
Cisco’s existing product lines offer a number of different appliance options which allow companies the ability to block the various web based threats in existence. The problem that this type of solution has is that it does require constant tweaking of the filtering and analysis settings as well as someone to constantly keep an eye on current events as zero-day attacks become more prominent.
Malicious hackers have managed to infect about 57,000 web pages with a potent exploit cocktail that targets a variety of vulnerable applications to surreptitiously install malware on visitor machines.
The exploits install an assortment of nasty software, including Gologger, a keystroke logging trojan, and a backdoor that attempts to connect to a website hosted in China, according to Mary Landesman, a researcher at ScanSafe, a company that protects end users from malicious websites.
The attackers were able to plant a malicious iframe in the pages by exploiting SQL injection vulnerabilities. Once in place, the script silently pulls down javascript from a0v.org that silently runs while people are visiting one of the infected websites. Affected sites included health care organizations such as the New York Methodist Hospital, charitable and nursing facilities such as howellcarecenter.com, sweetgrassvillagealf.com, foodsresourcebank.org, and morningsideassistedliving.com, and others.Malicious hackers have managed to infect about 57,000 web pages with a potent exploit... more
Advancements in technology over the past decade have created a tremendous amount of opportunity for the savvy businessperson. Whether it’s mobility, streamlined processes, marketing, or the ability to sell to a global market, there’s never been a better time to be in business. Like anything good, there is always a negative…
I must be the luckiest person alive. In the past three days I found out I won $1,500,000.00(ONE Million, Five Hundred Thousand USD) in an e-mail lottery held by the MICROSOFT WINDOWS Company. Wow! What did I do to receive all these riches?
The sad truth is there are actually people who fall for these schemes. For the promise of a quick buck (or million USD as the case may be) people will turn over their bank account numbers, wire money in the hopes of getting more back, or give other information that could lead to identity theft.
These lottery and sweepstakes schemes have gone on long before the internet, with one of the oldest being the phony sweepstakes which required an entrance fee to claim your prize, which amounted to more than the “prize” was worth. Another variation of that scheme was requiring the potential “winner” to call a certain number to find out if he or she was a winner. The phone call cost the potential “winner” a certain amount per minute with an unusually-long wait time on hold. The real winner was the scamming company which made money off the phone calls.
Today’s thieves have a wide choice of scam-delivery mechanisms, including in person, the mail, phone and internet. However, the same holds true no matter how the scam is delivered: if it sounds too good to be true, it is.I must be the luckiest person alive. In the past three days I found out I won... more
According to Consumer Reports’ 2009 State of the Net Survey, cybercriminals have bilked $8 billion from consumers in the past two years, and McAfee warns consumers not to fall victim to the twelve most dangerous online scams that computer users face this holiday season.
If you've been enjoying Snow Leapoard on your PC "Hackintosh" your fun might be over (until there is a new hack, that is).
Users who want the Mac OS X experience on a netbook budget have figured out how to hack the Mac OS X operating system to force it to work on netbooks based on the Intel Atom processor. The latest update to the Snow Leopard update removes support for the Atom processor and puts an end to the 'hackintosh'--at least for now.If you've been enjoying Snow Leapoard on your PC "Hackintosh" your fun... more
Large enterprises rely on software products. And as everything else in large enterprises, the software products are large, complex, cumbersome and nearly unchangeable. This last attribute is better known as vendor lock-in. Software vendors love vendor lock-in.
Despite the fact that CDI has inherent weaknesses, as do all of the prior fraud prevention technologies, it is providing tremendous benefit to many companies, ranging from credit and loan issuers to social networking sites to online retailers. This is especially true when layering it with other effective technologies.
Whilst the media is keen to portray hackers as suave super-spy characters with a range of gadgets at their disposal, zipping through pleasing graphical dioramas of color, in reality this is not the case. Some herald them as heroes, whilst others revile them as nothing more than criminals with a bit of technical knowhow. This list is an introduction to some of the most famous real-life non-fiction hackers/crackers from recent history. But ultimately, the best ones out there are the ones we’ll never hear of, because they’ll never get caught.Whilst the media is keen to portray hackers as suave super-spy characters with a range... more
An important consideration with information security incidents is identifying if personally identifiable information - PII - is involved. If it is, then the privacy breach response team needs to be put into action to determine whether or not an actual privacy breach occurred. I’m always interested in hearing the challenges and unique situations they run across as they not only create their plans, but also for how they execute them. Here are three of these situations, often overlooked and not planned for, but experienced by organizations.
Analyzing an incident when the manufacturer claims that it’s an operator error and the operator claims that it is an application error is one of the most daunting tasks of a security officer. And this is a type of incident that the security officer will be called upon to investigate simply because the management needs an independent observer and has doubts both in the operator as well as the manufacturer. Here is what to do when thrown into the fire…Analyzing an incident when the manufacturer claims that it’s an operator error... more
Companies buy these so called certified products thinking they have the magic bullet to solve their ITIL project, and they’ll skip the hard part, which is designing the processes for their organization.
So instead of a magic bullet they’ll just shoot themselves in the foot with a real bullet.
ITIL isn’t about specific products but instead about putting in processes that bring efficiency to the organization.Companies buy these so called certified products thinking they have the magic bullet... more
Authorities investigating the RBS WorldPay breach, as well as the breach at Heartland Payment Systems, have used similar language to describe an international conspiracy that is targeting multiple financial institutions. Based on these similarities, it seems highly likely that Tenenbaum and his cohorts may indeed be the culprits behind a rash of major information security breaches that have the Payment Card Industry pointing fingers and attempting to dodge responsibility for security compliance.Authorities investigating the RBS WorldPay breach, as well as the breach at Heartland... more
Reading through a Windows security log or any other log can be very difficult and time consuming, so a lot of companies have created their own tools to analyze windows event logs. But before you start going commercial, there is a tool that will get you going without any cost. Against all odds, it’s a tool made by Microsoft!
Ever forge your husband’s signature? Wife’s? Parent’s? Client’s? Do you think the clerk behind the counter at Walmart is skilled in handwriting analysis? The fact is, a handwritten signature provides zero proactive security. If someone signs your name to a check, and you call the bank and say it wasn’t you, they look at the signature and determine whether it’s yours or not. From there they assign liability. That’s dumb.
An electronic spy network, based mainly in China, has infiltrated computers from government offices around the world, Canadian researchers say. They said the network had infiltrated 1,295 computers in 103 countries. They included computers belonging to foreign ministries and embassies and those linked with the Dalai Lama - Tibet’s spiritual leader. There is no conclusive evidence China’s government was behind it, researchers say. Beijing also denied involvement.An electronic spy network, based mainly in China, has infiltrated computers from... more
We are observing an incredible rise in cybercrime. New profiles of attackers arrived in the so-called hacking underground, and the hacking world – sometimes – is meeting with organized crime and State-sponsored attacks. The world is changing and, basically, the keyword is the information. In today’s world Information is the Power that’s the sole reason why all of this is happening.
Every Mac owner needs to be just as concerned as a PC owner. If a Mac was not able to be hacked or infected why would the Apple Support Website publish Security Update Patches? Mac owners should review the following pages at Apple support to update and patch, just like 95% of all computer owners!Every Mac owner needs to be just as concerned as a PC owner. If a Mac was not able to... more
After initially being taken offline by Swedish authorities, and after its first escape route failed, The Pirate Bay has returned with all guns blazing. With a modified copy of one of Churchill’s most famous speeches, The Pirate Bay team tells the public that they will defend the Internet, with or without the site.
tpbWhen The Pirate Bay was shut down yesterday many believed that this was the end for the Internet’s largest BitTorrent tracker.
However, despite the fact that the site is set to be sold later this week, the Pirate Bay team worked around the clock to serve their users in these final hours.
A mere three hours after it went offline the site reappeared from a different location, but because of technical issues at the new ISP a full comeback took almost a day. The site is back online and the tracker is expected to follow soon.
They released the following statement:
We have, ourselves, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once more able to defend our Internets, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone.
Even though large parts of Internets and many old and famous trackers have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Ifpi and all the odious apparatus of MPAA rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the ef-nets and darknets, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Internets, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the baywords.org, we shall fight on the /. and on the digg, we shall fight in the courts; we shall never surrender, and if, which I do not for a moment believe, the Internets or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the Anon Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in Cerf’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.
Signed;
The Pirate Bay Crew – Now until needed.
//Oh bay of pirates. You are a fearsome and awesome groupAfter initially being taken offline by Swedish authorities, and after its first escape... more
