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…)

Amazon’s Silk Web browser has received mixed reviews from the media and from consumers. In our review of the Amazon Kindle Fire, we noted that loading Web pages in the cloud-assisted browser on the tablet seemed to stall at first but once content finally began downloading, it indeed seemed to move very quickly. Other reviews found Silk to be much slower than other comparable browsers, however. Curious Android device owners who aren’t among the millions who purchased the Kindle Fire ahead of the ho...

All GSM phones, such as those that run on T-Mobile and AT&T in the United States, are vulnerable to a major security flaw that could allow hackers to send text messages or place phone calls remotely using a new security flaw, one hacker said recently. Speaking to Reuters ahead of a hacking convention in Berlin, Karsten Nohl, the head of Germany’s Security Research Labs, said the attack could be initiated on a large scale, too. ”We can do it to hundreds of thousands of phones in a short timefr...

New York University’s Polytechnic Institute has discovered a Skype security flaw that leaves Skype users’ locations and P2P sharing activity accessible to hackers. The security hole was discovered while NYU scientists monitored 10,000 Skype users and 20 volunteers during a two-week period. “A hacker anywhere in the world could easily track the whereabouts and file-sharing habits of a Skype user – from private citizens to celebrities and politicians – and use the information for purposes of ...

Apple has addressed a major security vulnerability with the latest version of its iOS software. Just released on Thursday afternoon, iOS 5.0.1 was welcomed with open arms by iPhone users plagued by poor battery life. Apple promised that this new build addresses issues causing the lackluster battery performance — though its effectiveness remains in question — and it also addresses a much more serious problem. Security expert Charlie Miller revealed a major security flaw in iOS last week that allowed develo...

A major security flaw in Apple’s iOS operating system that could allow hackers to remotely gain unauthorized access to an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad has been uncovered by a security expert. Described by Forbes as a “serial Mac hacker,” Accuvant LABS computer security researcher Charlie Miller has uncovered a security flaw that allows hackers to build apps that look legitimate and pass through Apple’s App Store approval process. Using a code-signing vulnerability, however, the malicio...

Anonymous, the “hacktivist” group that waged war on the U.S. government and large companies such as Apple, has shifted its focus from cracking corporations to fighting online pedophilia. The group is now targeting web host Freedom Hosting and is accusing it of knowingly hosting child pornography. “The owners and operators at Freedom Hosting are openly supporting child pornography and enabling pedophiles to view innocent children, fueling their issues and putting children at risk of abducti...

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley recently said her iTunes account was compromised by identity thieves and that she will press Apple for answers. It is unclear how the thieves gained access to Coakley’s account, perhaps through an application, but the hackers stole credit card information and made fraudulent purchases, ThreatPost said. Coakley brought up the attack during a speech for the launch of the Massachusetts Advanced Cyber Security Center. She noted that Dell blocked her credit card ...

Security blog Defense in Depth has found a glaring security flaw in OS X Lion that enables hackers to change the password of any user on a machine running Lion. “[While] non-root users are unable to access the shadow files directly, Lion actually provides non-root users the ability to still view password hash data,” Patrick Dunstan from Defense in Depth explained in a recent blog post. The result is that anyone could use a simple Python script, created by Dunstan himself, to discover a user’...

Following a major security breach earlier this year, Sony made good on its promise to bolster its security by hiring a former official from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to serve as its chief information security officer and senior vice president, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Philip Reitinger formerly served as the director of the U.S. National Security Center. “Certainly the network issue was a catalyst for the appointment,” a Sony spokesman told Reuters. “We are looking to bolst...

A security expert at Italian security firm AIR Sicurezza Informatica claims to have found a security flaw in Google’s new social network that allows hackers to potentially use Google+ servers to execute DDoS attacks. Simone Quatrini explained the flaw on the IHTeam Security Blog, and he wrote a script that can perform the attack, repeatedly prompting Google’s server to send requests to the target site. DDoS attacks, or distributed denial-of-service attacks, flood a web server with requests in a...

A 22-year old student allegedly associated with the hacking group “Anonymous” has been arrested and charged in the United Kingdom. Peter David Gibson is charged with “conspiracy to do an unauthorized act in relation to a computer, with intent to impair the operation of any computer or prevent or hinder access to any program or data held in a computer or to impair the operation of any such program or the reliability of such data,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement Thursday. Gi...

An alleged member of the notorious hacker collective “Anonymous” has apparently outed himself and quit. The UK-based hacker, who says his real name is Matthew, operated under the pseudonym “SparkyBlaze” during his time with Anonymous. As to his reasons for leaving the group, he points mainly to LulzSec, the AntiSec movement, and Anonymous’ leadership. “When I started with Anon I thought I was helping people but over the past few months things inside anon have changed,”...

District Judge Howard Riddle released 18-year old alleged LulzSec hacker Jake Davis on bail Monday morning. Davis hacked under the name “Topiary” online and served as the public face of LulzSec, often publishing press releases and status updates on the group’s Twitter account, before he was arrested on July 27th. The news debunks earlier reports that authorities had been duped into arresting an the wrong man. Authorities in the U.K. said they discovered personal information for more than 7...