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Reddit hacker snagged email addresses and old passwords
Earlier this month, a hacker accessed a few of Reddit's systems, grabbing some current email addresses and a database backup from 2007 that contained account passwords. The company assured its users that the attacker did not gain write access to any systems, and was not able to alter any information. The company has since locked down their production systems and API keys while enhancing its monitoring system and logs.
A single ransomware creator made almost $6 million
The SamSam ransomware, which throttled the city government of Atlanta earlier this year, netted its creators more than $5.9 million in ransom payments, according to a comprehensive report by UK cybersecurity firm Sophos. The report, which details SamSam's activity since its launch in 2015, also reveals that a lone black hat hacker could've raked in the entire haul by themselves.
'World of Warcraft' cyberattacker sentenced to year in prison
One World of Warcraft player is paying the price for taking a virtual rivalry too far. A US federal court has sentenced Romanian man Calin Mateias to spend a year in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to launching a distributed denial of service attack against WoW's servers in response to being "angered" by one player. The 2010 traffic flood knocked thousands of players offline and cost Blizzard $30,000 (which Mateias repaid in April) in recovery expenses.
'PUBG' hackers arrested and fined in China for selling game cheats
Combatting hacking and cheating in online games has taken a serious turn for PlayerUknown's Battlegrounds developer Bluehole/PubgCorp. Over the weekend it was revealed that Chinese authorities arrested some 15 people for their roles in making and selling cheats for the online shooter, and the offending parties have been fined over $4.5 million (30m yuan). What's more, this doesn't sound like it'll be an isolated incident: the BBC writes that more arrests are expected as the investigation goes on.
Teen who hacked top US officials gets two years in prison
The teenager who founded the hacking group that broke into ex-CIA chief John Brennan's email has been sentenced to serve two years at a youth detention center. Kane Gamble went by the alias "Cracka" when he and his group "Crackas With Attitude" targeted top US officials, including FBI deputy director Mark Giuliano, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and their families and colleagues, a few years ago. Authorities arrested the UK native in early 2016, and he pleaded guilty to 10 hacking charges in October 2017. In addition to sentencing the now-18-year-old to two years in prison, the judge also ordered his computers to be seized.
Czech Republic extradites suspected Russian hacker to the US
The Czech Republic has extradited Russian national Yevgeniy Nikulin to the United States, where he's accused of several hacking attempts dating back to 2012. A US federal grand jury had indicted him in 2016 for breaking into DropBox, Formspring and LinkedIn. The latter breach potentially exposed the information of 100 million of users.
Lizard Squad's founding member pleads guilty to cyber-crimes
A 20-year-old has pleaded guilty in a Chicago federal court to launching cyberattacks and harassment campaigns as a founding member of the hacker-for-hire groups Lizard Squad and PoodleCorp, according to the Chicago Tribune. Between them, the two outfits knocked both the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live offline in 2014, took down the UK's National Crime Agency website the following year, and breached thousands of CCTV cameras for DOS attacks against companies.
Uber paid off a 20-year-old Florida man to destroy hacked data
More details are coming to light about Uber's huge data breach. Reuters is reporting that a 20-year-old Florida man was behind the 2016 extortion-oriented cyberattack and was paid through the firm's bug bounty program. We know that the individual, whose identity Uber refuses to disclose, received $100,000 for destroying the info, which exposed the personal data of roughly 57 million customers and drivers. The ride-hailing firm then kept quiet about the breach for more than a year. You can bet Congress and the five states investigating Uber will be paying close attention to any new nuggets of info.
Image-sharing site Imgur was hacked in 2014
Imgur, a popular picture-sharing site, revealed today that it suffered a data breach in 2014, claiming it was just notified of it on November 23rd. In a blog post, Imgur said hackers stole email addresses and passwords of 1.7 million user accounts -- a small fraction of its 150 million total users. No other personal information was allegedly exposed, since Imgur says it has never asked for people's real names, addresses or phone numbers.
Recommended Reading: 'Lore' makes the leap from podcast to TV
'Lore' Proves Podcasts Can Inspire Disturbingly Effective TV Bryan Bishop, The Verge A year after Amazon greenlit the television adaption of the popular podcast, Lore debuted this week. The Verge reviews the series as it makes the jump from audio to visual, exploring whether or not the storytelling medium can be the basis for good television. Meanwhile, we're still waiting on that Serial TV show.
HBO refuses to play ball with hackers as more episodes leak
HBO says it will not negotiate with the hackers who made off with 1.5 terabytes of its data. The statement contradicts the recent leaked email screenshot from the hackers, which showed the broadcaster offering a $250,000 bug bounty payment. However, there are doubts over the authenticity of that image.
Hackers leak HBO episodes, 'Game of Thrones' info online
Netflix isn't the only video service suffering form a hack: HBO has been breached as well. Hackers have gotten their mitts on 1.5 terabytes of data according to Entertainment Weekly, which apparently includes an episode of Ballers and Room 104 in addition to what may or may not be text related to next week's Game of Thrones installment. The hackers promise more will be leaked.
Two men admit involvement in the TalkTalk 2015 hack
Two men involved in 2015's TalkTalk hack have pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey court in London. Matthew Hanley, a 22-year-old from Tamworth, Staffordshire, admitted to three offences under the Computer Misuse Act, including the TalkTalk hack itself and obtaining and supplying files that would "enable the hacking of websites to others." He also confessed to supplying a spreadsheet, containing TalkTalk customer details, so that others could commit fraud. Conner Douglas Allsop, also from Tamworth, pleaded guilty on March 30th to assisting fraud and sharing a file that could help other hackers. Both men will be sentenced on May 31st.
'Overwatch' streamer destroys his in-game imposter
Brian St. Pierre is called Kephrii in the competitive Overwatch scene, and he's known as the highest ranked Widowmaker player in the world. He recently ran into a hacker impersonating his gamer tag and using cheats, but instead of getting mad, the real Kephrii got even. While streaming the match on Twitch, St. Pierre showed off his skills by consistently killing the fake Kephrii, who played Widowmaker, then Tracer (two different character classes), on the opposing team.
2016's biggest privacy threat: Your phone
When it comes to handing malicious hackers' intimate details about our lives, right now Yahoo is leading the pack as one of the worst threats to privacy in recent history. Yet there's one thing that has Yahoo beat in both the amount and sensitivity of the data being leaked, as well as the frequency. And like IoT appliances, it's a well-known and massive problem among security professionals, but it doesn't garner a lot of attention from the public. I'm talking about your smartphone.
Hackers hijack Philips Hue lights with a drone
Surprise! The Internet of Things is a security nightmare. Anyone who was online a few weeks ago can attest to that. The massive internet blackout was caused by connected devices, and new research from white-hat hackers expounds upon those types of vulnerabilities. The target? Philips Hue smart lightbulbs. While they've been hacked in the past, Philips was quick to point out that it happening in a real-world situation would be pretty difficult. Digital intruders would need to already be on your home network with a computer of their own -- the company claimed that directly attacking the lightbulbs wasn't exactly feasible. But this new attack doesn't require that sort of access.
New Snowden docs suggest Shadow Broker leak was real
On Monday, a group of hackers calling themselves the Shadow Broker put up a number of cyber-espionage tools reportedly stolen from NSA-associated hacking outfit, the Equation Group. Edward Snowden has already publicly speculated that the intrusion and theft was actually just another salvo in the ongoing Digital Cold War happening between the US and Russia. However, nobody was 100 percent certain that the tools for sale really were NSA property. Now, Snowden has released documentation to The Intercept that suggests the tools really are what the Shadow Brokers say they are.
Researcher finds huge security flaws in Bluetooth locks
Security researcher Anthony Rose just wanted to try out his Bluetooth range-finding setup. While wandering in his neighborhood, he noticed a lot of Bluetooth locks popping up and decided to do some sniffing of those "security" gadgets (read: capturing packets being sent between devices). "I discovered plain-text passwords being sent that anybody could read. I couldn't imagine I was the only one that could see this," Rose told Engadget following a presentation at last week's DefCon security conference.
How to hack a government
Last month members of the Turkish military experienced an attempted coup to oust president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The overthrow attempt was quickly thwarted, but it might have succeeded if Chris Rock (the security researcher, not the comedian) had had a hand in it.
AI hackers will make the world a safer place -- hopefully
The spotlights whirl in circles and transition from blue to purple to red and back to blue again. Basking in the glow is a stage constructed to resemble something out of a prime-time singing competition. But instead of showcasing would-be pop stars, the backdrop is built to push 21kW of power while simultaneously piping 3,500 gallons of water to cool its contestants. Those seven competitors were actually server boxes autonomously scanning and patching vulnerabilities.
