Hacks

A security researcher who was convicted of accessing a non-password protected portion of AT&T's Web site and sentenced to more than three years in prison has appealed his conviction.

Andrew Auernheimer, who goes by the nickname "Weev," was convicted by a federal jury last year of hacking and sentenced to 41 months in prison for exploiting a security hole on AT&T's servers to obtain the e-mail addresses of more than 100,000 iPad users.

Auernheimer and co-defendant Daniel Spitler were arrested and charged in January 2011 after they created a script to … Read more

South Korea has suffered its latest cyberattack, and one that marked the 63rd anniversary of the start of the Korean War.

The country's science ministry said that multiple government and private sites were hit in Tuesday's hacking, the Associated Press has reported. Included in the attack were the site for the country's presidential Blue House and several media servers.

The South Korean government said that it's investigating further and has urged officials and citizens to secure their computer systems, the AP added.

No potential suspects were named in the attack. But North Korea would likely top … Read more

Several stories involving whistle-blower/espionage suspect Edward Snowden cropped up over the weekend, including word of a U.S. demand for his extradition and that he flew to Moscow Sunday, and is likely heading for another destination. And news of a Justice Department search of a former WikiLeaks volunteer's Gmail account has also surfaced. Here's a quick summary:

Snowden was allowed to leave Hong Kong because a U.S. extradition request did not fully comply with Hong Kong law. He landed in Moscow early Sunday morning, but his final destination is unclear. According to a report in the New York Times, … Read more

One of the founders of file-sharing site Pirate Bay will apparently spend a couple more years in jail.

Gottfrid Svartholm Warg was arrested last September on charges that he was part of a cyberattack against Logica, an IT outfit that manages tax documents and services for Swedish companies. Warg was accused of hacking into Logica, accessing records of thousands of people, and illegally transferring money, Reuters reported Thursday.

Prosecutors say he was able to grab 24,200 Danish crowns (almost $4,300) online and tried to transfer a total of 683,000 euros (almost $902,000) in a series of … Read more

Adobe's Creative Cloud platform, which moves its Creative Suite applications from "perpetual license" to subscription-based payment plans, was designed to reduce piracy. Unfortunately for Adobe, that effort doesn't appear to have succeeded.

According to tech site PetaPixel, a torrent link was uploaded to The Pirate Bay on Wednesday, allowing users to illegally download Adobe's Creative Suite applications included in Creative Cloud for free. Those who have downloaded the software from The Pirate Bay say that it appears to work just fine.

Adobe's Creative Cloud platform was deployed earlier this week. The company had hoped … Read more

Who understands the importance of performance better than an engineer?

Yet the pressures that come with performing to perfect levels can cause some engineers to cut corners, even obfuscate.

How tragic, then, that three apparently bright (or not quite so bright) young things studying engineering at Purdue University have been charged with using their skills to artificially jack up their grades.

I am not sure how sophisticated this alleged scheme was.

It all began to allegedly unravel at the end of 2012 when an engineering professor was suddenly struck by suspicion that the password on his computer kept changing. He … Read more

The U.S. government had been hacking into computers in Hong Kong and China for years, says NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The former CIA employee stirred up a hornet's nest recently when he leaked details about PRISM, a National Security Agency program that collects certain user information from Internet companies and phone service providers in an effort to track down terrorists.

In an interview with the South China Morning Post, Snowden said that PRISM actually extends to people and institutions in Hong Kong and mainland China. The NSA itself has been hacking into computers in Hong Kong and China … Read more

President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, will have a serious discussion on cybersecurity at a summit they're holding today in California, according to a new report.

Speaking to an unidentified U.S. official, Reuters reported Friday that Obama will ask that Xi assures him that China takes seriously the gripes the U.S. has with its alleged hacking efforts. It's believed that for years, China has been hacking into U.S. government and company servers and gaining access to classified information. Over the last several months, however, more of the details on that alleged hacking … Read more

On the eve of President Barack Obama's high-level meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, U.S. intelligence officials have revealed that a slew of documents and e-mails were stolen during the 2008 presidential campaign from both the president and then GOP presidential candidate John McCain. Officials are accusing China's government for the hack.

According to NBC News, officials said that they first detected the major cyberattack in the summer of 2008 and were then able to trace the culprits back to China.

"Based on everything I know, this was a case of political cyberespionage by the Chinese … Read more