Notorious hacker group “Anonymous” on Thursday claimed responsibility for attacks on several government Web sites in China. The group has launched various Internet attacks on the country over the past week in response to what it believes to be strict and unfair laws. “All these years, the Chinese Communist government has subjected its People to unfair laws and unhealthy processes,” the group wrote on one Chinese website. “Dear Chinese government, you are not infallible, today we...

A report emerged last week from a security researcher claiming Microsoft’s Xbox lacked important security features that might protect owners who sell used consoles from having personal information stolen. Ashley Podhradsky of Drexel University claimed to have purchased a used Xbox console and used readily available hacking tools to recover the prior owner’s credit card number and other personal information. “Microsoft does a great job of protecting their proprietary information, but they do...

Hackers stole credit card numbers belonging to as many as 1.5 million MasterCard and Visa customers, Global Payments, Inc. confirmed on Sunday. The international credit card processor was blocked by Visa after it reported the possibility of a major security breach on Friday. The company did not indicate how the hackers gained access to its system or who might be responsible for the attack. ”Based on the forensic analysis to date, network monitoring and additional security measures, the company believes...

The world’s two largest credit card processors have notified U.S. banks of a potential security breach that may affect more than 10 million cardholders, Reuters reported on Friday. MasterCard and Visa have said that the issue was the result of a third-party vendor and not their own internal systems. MasterCard said it has taken the proper steps by alerting law enforcement officials and hiring an independent data-security organization to review the possible breach. “MasterCard is concerned whenever...

Android users who are looking to sell their old devices should be wary of the possible consequences. McAfee identity theft researcher Robert Siciliano warned that personal data from Android devices is not completely removed after a user activates the built-in wipe option, The Los Angeles Times reported on Friday. “What’s really scary is even if you follow protocol, the data is still there,” Siciliano said. If you have a BlackBerry or Apple device, Siciliano said your data can be fully delete...

Using nothing more than a few common tools, hackers can reportedly recover credit card numbers and other personal information from used Xbox 360 consoles even after they have been restored to factory settings. Researchers at Drexel University say they have successfully recovered sensitive personal data from a used Xbox console, and they claim Microsoft is doing a disservice to users by not taking precautions to secure their data. ”Microsoft does a great job of protecting their proprietary information,&...

A new study suggests that more than half of all Internet traffic is generated by non-human sources such as hacking software, scrapers and automated spam mechanisms. The majority of this non-human traffic, according to cloud service provider Incapsula, is potentially malicious. The study is based on data collected from 1,000 websites that utilize Incapsula’s services, and it determined that just 49% of Web traffic is human browsing. 20% is benign non-human search engine traffic, but 31% of all Internet...

On Wednesday, a Russian hacker discovered a vulnerability in Google’s Chrome web browser during CanSecWest’s Pwnium hacker contest. It was the first time in four years at the competition that Chrome was hacked, and for his efforts, Sergey Glazunov was rewarded with $60,000. Less than 24 hours after the exploit was brought to Google’s attention, the search giant released an update fixing the vulnerability. “The Chrome Stable channel has been updated to 17.0.963.78 on Windows, Mac, Linux an...

Russian university student Sergey Glazunov was able to hack into a secure Windows 7 machine using a remote code execution exploit in Google’s Chrome web browser in five minutes, ZDNet reported Wednesday. The exploit was found during CanSecWest’s Pwnium hacker contest, a competition similar to the popular Pwn2Own contest. Google offered a total of $1 million dollar in prize money to hackers who could exploit the company’s Chrome web browser. Glazunov was rewarded $60,000 for his exploit, which fo...

Members from the notorious hacktivist collective “Anonymous Operations” have reportedly claimed responsibility for hacking two more government websites following the takedown of the Central Intelligence Agency’s website last week. The Associated Press on Friday reported that Anonymous had breached the United States Federal Trade Commission’s consumer protection business center website as well as a National Consumer Protection Week website. Both sites were temporarily replaced by a ...

Two recently uncovered security exploits concerning Google Wallet have left users questioning just how safe the product really is. A security firm exposed a vulnerability last week that allowed hackers to bypass PIN protection, but it was only present on rooted devices. A second exploit, however, did not require a handset to be rooted, leaving all Google Wallet users exposed. By wiping stored Google Wallet data from within a device’s settings, an unauthorized user will be able to access a user’s ...

Hackers from the notorious group “Anonymous Operations” claim to have taken down the United States Central Intelligence Agency’s website shortly after 3:00 p.m. EST on Friday. “CIA TANGO DOWN: cia.gov,” a member of Anonymous posted to one of the group’s Twitter accounts. Anonymous’s motivation for this most recent cyberattack on the CIA is unclear, but this high-profile hit could be one of the group’s most significant attacks yet. As of the time of this writin...

A new exploit has been discovered that allows unauthorized access to a user’s Google Wallet account with a simple hack that can be performed by anyone in a matter of minutes. A security firm recently exposed a Google Wallet vulnerability that allowed hackers to bypass PIN protection, but the vulnerability is only present on rooted Galaxy Nexus handsets. This new exploit, however, does not require a handset to be rooted, which leaves all Google Wallet users exposed. Read on for more. (more…)

Zappos on Sunday confirmed that hackers breached the company’s servers and accessed personal data belonging to many of its customers. The Amazon-owned shoe retailer known for top-notch service and surprising customers with express shipping at no extra cost confirmed that personal data from 24 million accounts was accessed during a recent security breach. The hackers gained access to range of sensitive data including user names, encrypted passwords, customer names, email addresses, phone numbers and the ...