Hackers associated with well known hacker-activist group “Anonymous Operations” have released a massive cache of data they say was obtained when they hacked a website belonging to the United States Department of Justice. “Today we are releasing 1.7GB of data that used to belong to the United States Bureau of Justice, until now,” Anonymous wrote in a statement on its website. The hackers claim the file contains emails as well as “the entire database dump” from the DOJ website.

“We do not stand for any government or parties, we stand for freedom of people, freedom of speech and freedom of information,” the hackers wrote. ”We are releasing data to spread information, to allow the people to be heard and to know the corruption in their government. We are releasing it to end the corruption that exists, and truly make those who are being oppressed free.”

The Justice Department confirmed the breach in a statement given to ZDNet. “The department is looking into the unauthorized access of a website server operated by the Bureau of Justice Statistics that contained data from their public website,” a DOJ spokesperson said. “The Bureau of Justice Statistics website has remained operational throughout this time. The department’s main website, justice.gov, was not affected.”

The 1.7GB file containing data Anonymous says it obtained during the DOJ breach is available for download as a torrent.

The United States House of Representatives has voted to pass the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), talk of which has swept the Internet over the past few weeks. The House vote was moved up to Thursday night, and CISPA passed as 248 members of Congress voted for the bill and 168 voted against. The bill is sponsored by Representatives Mike Rogers (R-Michigan) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Maryland), and it now faces further modifications in the Senate if it is to avoid being vetoed by the White House. President Barack Obama has indicated that he intends to veto the bill if it makes it to his desk, noting that as it is written now, the legislation would allow “broad sharing of information with governmental entities without establishing requirements for both industry and the government to minimize and protect personally identifiable information.” The American Civil Liberties Union issued a statement following the vote. “Cybersecurity does not have to mean abdication of Americans’ online privacy,” said ACLU legislative counsel Michelle Richardson. “As we’ve seen repeatedly, once the government gets expansive national security authorities, there’s no going back. We encourage the Senate to let this horrible bill fade into obscurity.”

Read

The controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), which is supported by more than 100 members of the House of Representatives, is scheduled to be discussed in Congress on Friday, where it will be the first bill to go to a vote since the collapse of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in January. The bill looks to give businesses and the federal government legal protection to share cyber threats with one another in an effort to prevent online attacks. Internet privacy and neutrality advocates, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, feel the bill does not contain enough limits on how and when the government may monitor private information, however, and they fear that such power may be used to locate and punish file sharers and those who infringe on copyrights rather than hackers.

An online petition opposing the bill from Azazz.org has reached nearly 800,000 signatures thus far, while a second petition calling for Facebook and Microsoft to end their support for the bill has gathered more than 600,000 signatures. It isn’t just the Internet that opposes CISPA, though.

Congressman and Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul warned in a statement earlier this week that the bill is the new SOPA, and it represents the “latest assault on Internet freedom.” Paul warned that “CISPA encourages some of our most successful internet companies to act as government spies, sowing distrust of social media and chilling communication in one segment of the world economy where America still leads.” The representative said proponents of the bill may be well-intentioned, but he believes it will unquestionably lead us towards a national security state rather than a free constitutional republic.

The White House on Wednesday also issued a veto threat against the current version of CISPA, Politico reported. The Obama administration in a statement claimed, as written now, the bill would allow “broad sharing of information with governmental entities without establishing requirements for both industry and the government to minimize and protect personally identifiable information.”

The president went on to say that “such sharing should be accomplished in a way that permits appropriate sharing within the government without undue restrictions imposed by private sector companies that share information.” The administration warns that CISPA lacks “sufficient limitations” in regards to the sharing of personal information between entities, and there are not enough checks in place to protect the data.

Security firm Trusteer warned this week of a trojan that is capable of stealing an individual’s credit card information from hotels. The firm’s intelligence team discovered the remote access trojan being sold on underground forums for $280. The malware is designed to capture screenshots from point-of-sale applications that access credit card numbers and expiration dates. These systems are located on front-desk computers at hotels, and they are often unmanaged and do not contain anti-virus protections software that would stop a trojan of this type. The malware’s creators also include instructions on how to use VoIP-based social engineering to trick front-desk clerks into installing the trojan.

[Via SC Magazine]

Read

Following a massive security breach, Visa has dropped Global Payments from its registry of providers that meet data security standards, The Associated Press reported on Monday. Global Payments CEO Paul Garcia said that the company will continue to process Visa transactions, however being dropped from the registry “could give our partners some pause that they’re doing business with someone who experienced a breach.” Garcia fully expects his company to be reinstated once it has been issued a new report of compliance, although he declined to specify when that might happen. The CEO maintains that the situation is “absolutely contained” and is being fully investigated. Global Payments confirmed on Sunday that hackers stole credit card numbers belonging to as many as 1.5 million MasterCard and Visa customers, however cardholder names, addresses and Social Security numbers were not compromised. The company plans to set up a website to assist consumers who might have been affected by the breach.

Read

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 that this incident is contained,” the firm told The Wall Street Journal while noting that cardholder names, addresses and Social Security numbers were not compromised. The company did say that the credit card numbers were downloaded during the attack rather than just being accessed, however, indicating that the perpetrators may intend to use the information to create counterfeit credit cards. Affected Visa and MasterCard customers have not yet been notified that their account information was stolen.

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 there is any possibility that cardholders could be inconvenienced and we continue to both monitor this event and take steps to safeguard account information,” the company said in a statement. “If cardholders have any concerns about their individual accounts, they should contact their issuing financial institution.” Visa made sure to emphasize that its customers are not responsible for any potential fraudulent charges.

Read

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,” researcher Ashley Podhradsky told Kotaku in an interview. “But they don’t do a great job of protecting the user’s data.” In order to avoid potential data theft, Podhradsky recommends users remove the hard drives from their consoles and wipe them while connected to a PC using special software. The Drexel researcher warns that not taking this precaution could have serious consequences. ”A lot of [modders and hackers] already know how to do all this,” she said. “Anyone can freely download a lot of this software, essentially pick up a discarded game console, and have someone’s identity.”

UPDATE: Microsoft contacted BGR via email with a statement regarding Kotaku’s report, which can be read below in its entirety.

“We are conducting a thorough investigation into the researchers’ claims. We have requested information that will allow us to investigate the console in question and have still not received the information needed to replicate the researchers’ claims.

“Xbox is not designed to store credit card data locally on the console, and as such seems unlikely credit card data was recovered by the method described. Additionally, when Microsoft refurbishes used consoles we have processes in place to wipe the local hard drives of any other user data. We can assure Xbox owners we take the privacy and security of their personal data very seriously.” – Jim Alkove, General Manager, Security, Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft

Read

Executive assistant director of the FBI Shawn Henry, who after more than two decades is preparing to leave the bureau, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that computer criminals are too talented and current defensive measures are too weak to stop them. “We’re not winning,” he said, claiming that the current public and private approach to fighting off hackers is “unsustainable.” Congress is currently considering two competing bills that are designed to strengthen critical U.S. infrastructures such as power plants and nuclear reactors. Henry believes that companies must make major changes in the way they use computer networks to avoid further damage to national security and the economy, however. He said too many companies don’t recognize the financial and legal risks they are taking by operating vulnerable networks. “I don’t see how we ever come out of this without changes in technology or changes in behavior, because with the status quo, it’s an unsustainable model,” Henry said. “Unsustainable in that you never get ahead, never become secure, never have a reasonable expectation of privacy or security.”

Read

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 traffic is tied to malicious activities. 19% is from ” ‘spies’ collecting competitive intelligence,” 5% is from automated hacking tools seeking out vulnerabilities, 5% is from scrapers and 2% is from content spammers. ”Few people realize how much of their traffic is non-human, and that much of it is potentially harmful,” Incapsula co-founder Marc Gaffan told ZDNet. Incapsula, coincidentally, offers services aimed at securing small and medium businesses.

Read

Hacker group “Anonymous Operations” has confirmed that the custom Linux-based operating system released under its name earlier this week is not a platform it developed. “The Anon OS is fake,” the group posted on Twitter Wednesday evening. “It is wrapped in trojans.” The desktop operating system was released earlier this week by individuals claiming ties with Anonymous. It is based on popular Linux distribution Ubuntu, and it ships with a number of hacking tools pre-installed. According to Anonymous, it also ships with a variety of malware. The team behind Anonymous-OS responded to the group’s claims, denying that its platform contains any malicious software. “The #anonops on their twitter account say ‘That Anonymous-OS is wrapped in trojans,’ ” the group wrote on its Tumblr blog. “Please people… in our world, in Linux and opensource world, there is not virus. If any user believe that Anonymous-OS ‘is wrapped in trojans’ or ‘backdoored OS by any Law enforcement Company or Hacker’ please don’t download it! But don’t mislead the world that Linux is dangerous and has trojans!” Anonymous-OS has been downloaded more than 25,000 times.

Notorious hacker group “Anonymous Operations” on Wednesday released the first version of its own desktop operating system. Dubbed Anonymous-OS, the computer platform is built on top of the open-source Linux-based Ubuntu 11.10 operating system, and it also utilizes the open-source Mate desktop environment, The Hacker News reports. It is unclear exactly who is behind the operating system, which comes with a number of tools pre-installed that are apparently Anonymous-approved. Included are Anonymous HOIC, John the Ripper, SQL Poison and more. Version 0.1 of the hacker group’s Anonymous-OS is free and available immediately for download, though readers should obviously exercise caution.

UPDATE: The Anonymous-OS Tumblr blog states that the group’s operating system is “created for educational purposes, to checking the security of web pages,” and the page suggests that users should not “use any tool to destroy any web page.”

UPDATE 2: Anonymous says this OS is fake, not affiliated with their group, and packed with malware.

[Via The Hacker News]

Read

Hackers associated with the group “Anonymous” have published Symantec’s Norton AntiVirus source code on The Pirate Bay. The source code was stolen in 2006 and after alleged attempts to extort money from Symantec failed, the hactivist group released it late Thursday evening. The file is 1.07GB in size and includes the source code to a number of products within the software suite, such as the consumer version, the corporate edition, and other files for Windows, Unix and NetWare, according to a report from ZDNet. In addition to the source code, the torrent includes a note calling for the release of the LulzSec hackers who were arrested on Tuesday — with the exception of Sabu, the group’s leader who reportedly worked with the FBI to build cases against other members of the group. Symantec has previously said that the breach will “not affect any current Norton product,” claiming the “current version of Norton Utilities has been completely rebuilt and shares no common code with Norton Utilities 2006. The code that has been posted for the 2006 version poses no security threat to users of the current version of Norton Utilities.”

Read

The laughs are reportedly over for five top members of the hacker group LulzSec who were arrested on Tuesday and charged as part of a conspiracy case filed in New York federal court. FoxNews.com reports that the arrests were part of a multinational sting across the United Kingdom, Ireland and the United States on Tuesday morning, and LulzSec leader Hector Xavier Monsegur, who operated online under the alias “Sabu,” provided the Federal Bureau of Investigation with information leading to the arrests. According to the report, Monsegur has been working with the FBI for months. “This is devastating to the organization,” an FBI official told FoxNews.com. “We’re chopping off the head of LulzSec.” Read on for more.

LulzSec, which became part of the larger hacker collective “Anonymous Operations” last year, has launched a number of high profile cyberattacks since last summer. The group’s first widely reports attacks targeted a number of digital properties belonging to Sony, and more than 1 million accounts were compromised as a result of the group’s efforts.

The group also waged war on the U.S. government, and encouraged other hackers to ”open fire on any government or agency that crosses their path.” This brazen move may have intensified the FBI’s efforts to take down the organization, as a series of arrests were made soon after operation “AntiSec” began.

LulzSec leader Hector Monsegur reportedly pleaded guilty to a dozen hacking-related charges on August 15th last year, and his ensuing cooperation with the FBI’s investigation will likely earn him a reduced sentence. ”They caught him and he was secretly arrested and now works for the FBI,” a unnamed source said to be close to Sabu told FoxNews.com.

The five men arrested on Tuesday as a result of Monsegur’s cooperation include Ryan Ackroyd, aka “Kayla” and Jake Davis, aka “Topiary,” of London, England; Darren Martyn, aka “pwnsauce” and Donncha O’Cearrbhail, aka “palladium,” of Ireland; and Jeremy Hammond aka “Anarchaos,” of Chicago, Illinois. Further details are expected to be released later in the day.

UPDATE: FoxNews.com has published a follow-up piece that takes a closer look at Monsegur and further details his alleged cooperation with the FBI.

Hackers targeted NASA computers, successfully gained access to employee credentials, and took control of systems at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, CNN reported on Friday. Paul K. Martin, the agency’s inspector general, cited one case in a report issued this week in which intruders from China-based IP addresses gained “full system access” to change or delete sensitive files and user accounts for “mission-critical” systems at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “In other words, the attackers had full functional control over these networks,” Martin said. In an earlier attack, hackers stole credentials of roughly 150 NASA employees. The agency reported that it was targeted with 47 “advanced persistent threats” in 2011, 13 of which successfully compromised NASA’s computers. Read on for more.

“The individuals or nations behind these attacks are typically well organized and well funded and often target high-profile organizations like NASA,” Martin said in his report titled “NASA Cybersecurity: An Examination of the Agency’s Information Security.” The agency reported a total of 5,408 incidents “that resulted in the installation of malicious software on or unauthorized access to its systems” in 2010 and 2011. “These incidents spanned a wide continuum from individuals testing their skill to break into NASA systems, to well-organized criminal enterprises hacking for profit, to intrusions that may have been sponsored by foreign intelligence services seeking to further their countries’ objectives,” Martin wrote.

Over the past five years, NASA has conducted 16 investigations that have led to arrests in China, Great Britain, Italy, Nigeria, Portugal, Romania, Turkey and Estonia. These security breaches have cost the agency more than $7 million and “have affected thousands of NASA computers, caused significant disruption to mission operations, and resulted in the theft of export-controlled and otherwise sensitive data,” according to the agency.

NASA has been plagued with numerous thefts of agency-issued mobile computing devices over the years. Between April 2009 and April 2011, 48 devices were reported lost or stolen, which may have led to sensitive algorithms and data landing in hackers’ hands. “For example, the March 2011 theft of an unencrypted NASA notebook computer resulted in the loss of the algorithms used to command and control the International Space Station,” Martin noted.

Read