^Taghacking

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News
Date
May 12, 2023

Categorized
Computer Security

Tagged
AI, Computer security, hacking, Technology}

Ransomware Attacks on Public Institutions

_{Hackers are always coming up with new approaches, keeping IT staff on their toes} _{News
May 12, 2023

6

Computer Security}

by Karl Stephan In what is just the latest of a lengthening series of ransomware attacks, the sheriff’s office of San Bernardino County, California reportedly paid over $1 million in ransom to an Eastern-Europe-based hacking group. About half the money was paid by insurance and the county paid the rest from its risk-management fund. Reporters for the Los Angeles Times were unable to determine exactly who authorized the payments, which enabled the county to restore its email servers, in-car computers, and law enforcement databases. According to the report, the FBI discourages payments to ransomware hackers, but almost half of the state and local governments attacked worldwide pay anyway. A survey conducted by the British security firm Sophos was cited in the report, which said that Read More ›

Desperate woman trying to log into her computer forgot password

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News
Date
September 22, 2021

Categorized
Data Privacy, Surveillance

Tagged
Biometrics (replacing passwords), hacking, Passwords (elimination), Security}

Forgot Your Password? Maybe You Can Forget It for Good! But Wait…

_{Tech companies are trying to develop workarounds for passwords via biometrics — facial recognition, fingerprints, and behavior patterns} _{News
September 22, 2021

6

Data Privacy, Surveillance}

A tech writer — maybe not the sort of person you’d expect — confesses that he is terrible with passwords. But he is hardly alone: In 2019, a survey conducted by Google and The Harris Poll found that 24% of Americans use “password,” “123456,” or some other ridiculously easy combination as the key to their online world. More than a third of people in the U.S. and Canada keep their passwords in notebooks or on Excel, according to a 2019 study from HYPR, the self-anointed “passwordless company.” And the same report detailed how 72% of people reuse their passwords in their professional and personal lives, while 49% just add or change a particular digit or character in their passwords when Read More ›

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Heather Zeiger
Date
July 22, 2021

Categorized
Data Privacy, Events

Tagged
China, cybersecurity, hacking, Microsoft, U.S. Department of Justice, Wall Street Journal}

U.S. and Allies Formally Accuse China of Exchange Server Hack

_{This isn’t the first time the Chinese-backed hacker group has infiltrated organizations} _{Heather Zeiger
July 22, 2021

7

Data Privacy, Events}

On Monday, July 19, three cybersecurity announcements were made: In response to the massive Microsoft Exchange Server hack, the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Japan, the E.U., and NATO formally accused the Chinese government of engaging in harmful cyberactivity. The U.S. Department of Justice published its indictment of four Chinese hackers associated with the Chinese government, known as APT40. The FBI, CSIS, and the NSA published a cybersecurity advisory cataloging the fifty tactics, techniques, and procedures used by Chinese state-sponsored hackers. Then, on Tuesday, the CSIA and the FBI published a report on state-sponsored international hacking groups that included accusations that the Chinese state-backed hackers infiltrated thirteen oil and natural gas pipeline operators between 2011 and 2013. In Read More ›

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News
Date
May 3, 2021

Categorized
Business and Finance, Data Privacy

Tagged
Apple (company), Facebook, hacking, Instagram, Karl D. Stephan, Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook}

Fallout From Facebook’s Huge Privacy Hack: A Serious Unfriending

_{The Big Hack in April, in which even Mark Zuckerberg’s data got scraped, was hardly the first one Facebook faced} _{News
May 3, 2021

6

Business and Finance, Data Privacy}

We’ll let engineering prof Karl Stephan start the story, comparing Facebook to God: For purposes of discussion, we will compare Facebook to the traditional Judeo-Christian God of the Old and New Testaments. And we will restrict the comparison primarily to two matters: communication and trust (or faith). Users of Facebook communicate with that entity by entering personal information into Facebook’s system. That act of communication is accompanied by a certain level of trust, or faith. Facebook promises to safeguard one’s information and not to reveal it to anyone else without your permission… Karl D. Stephan, “In Facebook we trust” at MercatorNet Safeguard the information? As recent news reports revealed, a month ago today, a hacker released roughly 533 million users’ Read More ›

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News
Date
March 2, 2021

Categorized
Business and Finance, Data Privacy, Surveillance

Tagged
COVID-19 vaccines, hacking, Ransomware attacks}

Computer Hacks of Governments, Hospitals, Firms Increase

_{Even the ones we depend on are vulnerable. They’re not always anxious to talk about it} _{News
March 2, 2021

6

Business and Finance, Data Privacy, Surveillance}

It’s not just companies, it’s countries that get hacked these days. Here are some examples from the United States: ➤ The big story was the Solar Winds case last month. One version is that an intern thought that SolarWinds123 was a safe password: At this point though, it’s still uncertain whether the password leak played a role in the SolarWinds hack, CNN noted, which is believed to be the largest foreign intrusion campaign in U.S. history. This month, White House national security adviser Anne Neuberger stated that approximately 100 different companies and nine federal agencies, including the one that oversees the country’s nuclear weapons, had been compromised by foreign hackers. Jody Serrano, “SolarWinds Officials Throw Intern Under the Bus for Read More ›

Binary code with China flag, data protection concept

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post

Heather Zeiger
Date
July 30, 2020

Categorized
Surveillance

Tagged
China, Christopher Wray, COVID-19, Cybercrime, Cyberespionage, Featured, hacking, Iran, Made in China 2025, Russia}

Charges Reveal Extent of China-Sponsored Hacking in the West

_{Targets have included COVID-19 labs, dissidents, and religious groups} _{Heather Zeiger
July 30, 2020

7

Surveillance}

What’s new about the most recent indictment is the acknowledgment that China is working with known cybercriminals. Read More ›

Check mark on shield, Security, safe, privacy or other Security concept background, Data Protection Concept, Technology Background

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post

Jonathan Bartlett
Date
July 15, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance

Tagged
bitcoin, hacking, Twitter}

Hackers Seize Popular Twitter Accounts for Giant Bitcoin Scam

_{Scammers have gained access to a number of high-profile Twitter accounts, including those of Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Kanye West, and Elon Musk} _{Jonathan Bartlett
July 15, 2020

2

Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance}

Today, hackers gained control of a number of Twitter accounts, and used them to scam people out of their Bitcoin money. As we have reported before, the security within Bitcoin actually seems to facilitate scams. In the current ripoff, scammers have gained access to a number of high-profile Twitter accounts, including those of Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Kanye West, and Elon Musk. Their usual line is that they are seeking matching donations to a good cause. So if the user sends Bitcoin to a certain wallet address, the high-profile Twitter account will send a matching donation. However, the wallet address (and the promised match) are both frauds, and the money goes straight into the scammers’ pockets. It is unclear how Read More ›

cybercrime, hacking and technology concept - male hacker with headphones and coding on laptop computer screen wiretapping or using computer virus program for cyber attack in dark room

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post

Heather Zeiger
Date
May 20, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Data Privacy, Global Technology, Surveillance

Tagged
China, COVID-19, Cyber espionage, Economic espionage, espionage, hacking, Industrial espionage, Intellectual Property, United Nations, United States, World Health Organization (WHO)}

The New Cyber Cold War with China

_{Cybersecurity strategist Peter Singer told Wired that there has never been a better time than the COVID-19 pandemic to be a government hacker} _{Heather Zeiger
May 20, 2020

6

Artificial Intelligence, Data Privacy, Global Technology, Surveillance}

The United States has formally accused China of both funding and operating cells of hackers who infiltrate research labs working on responses to COVID-19.

Could DNA Be Hacked, Like Software?

_{It’s already been done. As a language, DNA can carry malicious messages} _{News
February 12, 2019

5

Technocracy}

The researcher/hackers merely wanted to demonstrate the possibility, in an age when DNA is becoming popular culture. Read More ›

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post

Mind Matters
Date
July 27, 2018

Categorized
Machine Learning

Tagged
hacking, image recognition system}

AI Is Not (Yet) an Intelligent Cause

_{So-called “white hat” hackers who test the security of AI have found it surprisingly easy to fool.} _{Mind Matters
July 27, 2018

6

Machine Learning}

Hutson describes one test last year where a computer scientist at UC Berkeley subtly altered a stop sign with stickers. It fooled an autonomous vehicle’s image recognition system into “thinking” it was a 45 mph speed limit sign. Humans could immediately recognize the stop sign, but the car did not. Autonomous car makers wonder, could hackers turn them into terror weapons? Read More ›