Happy New ("Doxxed") Year - Hundreds of German politicians, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, have been doxxed with their private information and political documents dumped online.

The victims hail from all major parties — except the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). The information released includes emails, cell phone numbers, physical addresses, private chat conversations, pictures of their ID cards and even bank details and debit authorizations. The data also included internal party documents.

Julian Röpcke of Bild tweeted that he had found “shocking” details related to nepotism, and that the data stretches back to 2009. He also speculated that more compromising material may be in the offing:

https://threatpost.com/wide-ranging-german-doxxing-incident-hits-hundreds-of-politicians/140560/

Do you have a process to decom your old apps/websites? - Don't worry, even some Fortune 500 companies forget it. Here are some scary stats.

• 70% of FT Global 500 firms have access to a portion of their websites being sold on the internet black market. 
• 92% of external web applications have exploitable security flaws or weaknesses.
• 19% percent of the companies examined have external unprotected cloud storage.
• 27%of the U.S. companies have at least one external cloud storage (e.g. AWS S3 bucket) accessible without any authentication from the internet.
• WordPress- 94% have a default admin location (on /wp-admin URL) not protected by any additional means.

https://threatpost.com/threatlist-dead-web-apps-haunt-70-percent-of-ft-500-firms/138659/

FYI , if you are an Instagram User then, be aware that Instagram has been hit by a widespread hacking campaign that appears to stem from Russia.

According to victims, their account names, profile pictures, passwords, email addresses associated with their Instagram accounts, and even connected Facebook accounts are being changed in the attack

Instagram currently relies on text messages for two-factor authentication, which is believed to be less secure than other app-based 2FA methods, but the Facebook-owned company says it is working on improving its 2FA settings.


For more information, users are recommended to visit the Instagram Help Centre dedicated to hacked accounts, which includes security tips as well as steps they can take to restore their account.

https://thehackernews.com/2018/08/hack-instagram-accounts.html

Having a Twitter account for your company is good. but, ensure that it does not get compromised. Here is a story about Buffalo wild wings

Around 7:30 pm ET an unknown hacker managed to send six tweets from the company's verified account including one referencing Wendy's and a bigoted attack toward media personality Tariq Nasheed using a racial slur, before either dropping the account or losing access.

The tweets were up for about 20 minutes before they were deleted.

https://www.scmagazine.com/buffalo-wild-wings-apologizes-after-racist-tirade-from-hacked-account/article/770919/

New Service from Equifax - Free Flash update Offer (Thanks to Hackers)

Equifax website was compromised (again) to deliver Fraudulent Adobe Flash updates.

Data breach not enough, now they have website compromise.



For several hours on Wednesday, and again early Thursday morning, the site was maliciously manipulated again, this time to deliver fraudulent Adobe Flash updates, which when clicked, infected visitors' computers with adware that was detected by only three of 65 antivirus providers

More Here:
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/10/equifax-website-hacked-again-this-time-to-redirect-to-fake-flash-update/

Bank Heist - Reminds me of the song Smooth Criminal(s)

Interesting part is  that this Targeted attack includes good coordination at physical and technical levels.

Hussey says his company investigated heists at five different banks in post-Soviet countries. Attackers made off with sums between $3 million and $10 million per bank, for a total of over $40 million



For More:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/bank-cyber-thieves-get-clever-with-new-overdraft-technique/

Not a joke - Hacker does NOT want money, demands nude picture

MalwarHunterTeam tweeted out news of a screenlocker posing as ransomware where the bad guys request nude photos of the victim instead of money


More Here:
https://www.scmagazine.com/hacker-asks-for-nude-photos-of-victim-instead-of-money-to-unlock-computer/article/695137/

Fact is stranger than fiction: Most Top executives in banks don't know if they have been hacked

 

• 12 percent of CEOs don’t know if they’ve been hacked in the past two years, the lack of awareness only grows when compared to the next level of executives.   
• Approximately 47 percent of banking executive vice presidents and managing directors reported that they didn’t know if their bank had been hacked.  
• 72 percent of senior vice presidents and directors stated that they didn’t know.

For more info:
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2016/05/27/banking-ceos-dont-know/

Change your LinkedIN Password now - 117 million email/passwords are up for sale

From the article:
Peace is selling the data on the dark web illegal marketplace The Real Deal for 5 bitcoin (around $2,200). The paid hacked data search engine LeakedSource also claims to have obtained the data. Both Peace and the one of the people behind LeakedSource said that there are 167 million accounts in the hacked database. Of those, around 117 million have both emails and encrypted passwords.




For More Info:
https://motherboard.vice.com/read/another-day-another-hack-117-million-linkedin-emails-and-password

Ever wonder why you never won a lottery ticket (maybe it was hacked)

Are you surpised?

Like someone once said
if it isn't open-sourced, and verified unmodified, it cannot be trusted!

From the article:

For several years, Eddie Tipton, the former security director of the US Multi-State Lottery Association, installed software code that allowed him to predict winning numbers on specific days of the year, investigators allege. The random-number generators had been erased, but new forensic evidence has revealed how the hack was apparently done.

For more details:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/08/man-hacked-random-number-generator-rig-lotteries-investigators-say

"Hacking Team" Hacked - One vulnerability is what was needed

The hack itself was executed using a common weakness: first, an embedded device within the network was found with a known zero-day weakness. From there, the hacker was able to get into an unencrypted backup and find the passwords for a Domain Admin server, which basically gave him the keys to the kingdom.

For more info:
http://gizmodo.com/this-hackers-account-of-how-he-infiltrated-hacking-team-1771504896

If you are still using the default username+password on your router. This article should persuade you

I still wonder why people don't change the default password

The DNS settings of a router can be overwritten thanks to the JavaScript code containing more than 1,400 login combinations, including a list of common passwords.

DNS changes can only be made if the victim accesses a compromised website on their mobile device

To prevent hackers from gaining control of their routers, all consumers need to do is to keep their home networking router’s firmware up to date, and to avoid using the default ID and password provided with the device when it shipped

For more info:
http://www.digitaltrends.com/web/javascript-malware-mobile/

How do you know if you system has been Hacked?

Good article from SANS

1. Your anti-virus program has triggered an alert that your system is infected, particularly if it says that it was unable to remove or quarantine the affected files
2. Your browser’s homepage has unexpectedly changed or your browser is taking you to websites that you did not want to go to
3. There are new accounts on your computer or device that you did not create, or new programs running that you did not install
4. Your computer or applications are constantly crashing, there are icons for unknown apps, or strange windows keep popping up
5. A program requests your authorization to make changes to your system, though you’re not actively installing or updating any of your applications
6. Your password no longer works when you try to log into your system or an online account, even though you know your password is correct
7.  Friends ask you why you are spamming them with emails that you know you never sent
8.  Your mobile device is causing unauthorized charges to premium SMS numbers
9.  Your mobile device suddenly has unexplained very high data or battery 

PDF Link Below

https://securingthehuman.sans.org/newsletters/ouch/issues/OUCH-201604_en.pdf

SideStepper - MDM Hack that can fully compromise an iPhone?

The interesting parts are

1. It is a design issue, so hard to fix
2. Apple says "it is a feature"
3. Malware can launch original app (so user has no clue)

Apple has been contacted for comment. However, the pair say they informed the tech giant of their research, and Apple labeled it "a feature, not a bug."

"Apple tried to solve the problem but actually made it worse, because now it is even easier to infect a mobile device."

"We found a way to do a man-in-the-middle attack on an iOS mobile device and replace an original command such as 'query device' with one to install a malicious enterprise certificate application," Bobrov says.

There is also little a typical system administrator can do to detect a handset compromised by the attack. Eagle-eyed staff could report a newly-installed application to IT, foiling the hack, but further attack research makes this scenario even more unlikely.

Separate research by MetaIntell architect Chilik Tamir also showcased at the Singapore hacking conference demonstrates how attackers can install a malicious application that not only looks like a legitimate app, but when tapped, calls and launches the original expected app after it pwns the handsets

For more details:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/31/unpatched_stealthy_ios_mdm_hack_spells_ruin_for_apple_tech_enterprises/

if you a TWC customer - Watchout

America's second-largest cable provider says that the FBI tipped it off to a huge cache of customer login credentials that appears to have been gathered by criminals. TWC told us it is notifying those customers whose logins have been scooped.


For More info
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/01/07/twc_customer_hack/

Hacking Chip-and-PIN is not "improbable" (according to EMVCo and the UK Cards Association) anymore.

All truth passes through three stages. 

First, it is ridiculed. 

Second, it is violently opposed. 

Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

— Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher (1788 – 1860)

From the article:

When in 2010 a team of computer scientists at Cambridge University demonstrated how the chip and PIN system used on many modern payment cards can be bypassed by making the POS system accept any PIN as valid, the reaction of the EMVCo and the UK Cards Association was to brand the attack as "improbable".

The FUNcard chip was programmed to intercept the POS systems' PIN query and return an answer that says that the PIN is correct.

The card itself didn't look suspicious - the "double" chip still allowed the card to be inserted into POS systems.

Thusly modified cards were used in France by a group of fraudsters that were ultimately arrested in 2011 and 2012 because they repeatedly used them at the same few locations.

According to Wired, the French authorities estimated that before getting arrested, they managed to spend nearly 600,000 euros.

For More info:

http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=19003

Hackers Hacked - Confused?, A company that sells hacking tools has been hacked

Apparently, they know how to create hacking tools for government but, somehow failed to protect their data.

400 GB of data uploaded in torrent!!

From the article:

Hacking Team is now learning how it feels to have their internal matters exposed to the world.

Hacking Team is an Italian company that sells intrusion and surveillance tools to governments and law enforcement agencies.

Hacking Team's customers include South Korea, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Lebanon, and Mongolia. 

One such item is this invoice for 58,000 Euro to Egypt for Hacking Team's RCS Exploit Portal.

An invoice leaked with the Hacking Team cache shows that Ethiopia paid $1,000,000 Birr (ETB) for Hacking Team's Remote Control System, professional services, and communications equipment.

For more info.

http://www.csoonline.com/article/2943968/data-breach/hacking-team-hacked-attackers-claim-400gb-in-dumped-data.html

Information beloging to Million+ customers handed over to hackers ( I mean not voluntarily) - I think I have heard this name (Blue Cross Blue Shield) name a few times before

Of course, if handed over voluntarily , it would be called insider theft.

If the external part gets hold of it , it would be called "being hacked". However, the word "hacked" somehow implies that the data was stolen by passing some complicated security controls.

Could it be that the company had shabby Security

OR

Just spent  a lot of money without having a "common sense" security approach?

However , there is one small gain

CareFirst is offering two years of free credit monitoring so, if you are one of the affected ones, take advantage of this offer.

From the Article

Attackers gained access to a single company database containing the sensitive and personal information of more than a million of its current and former health insurance customers. 

In an effort to downplay the attack, CareFirst CEO Chet Burrell and other spokespersons are claiming that Social Security numbers, medical claims, employment, payment card and financial information were not exposed in the breach. 

CareFirst claims it initially detected the attack but incorrectly believed it had contained the attack and prevented the attackers from accessing any information. It only became aware of the full scope of the attack after hiring an incident response firm to perform a network analysis 

For more info:

https://threatpost.com/1-1-million-affected-by-carefirst-bluecross-blueshield-breach/112951

Starbucks App Hacked?

From the Article:

Those carrying out the attacks have taken advantage of a feature of the smartphone apps called "auto top-up" which automatically added a pre-defined amount of money to your card when it drops below a certain figure.

In one attack, reported by consumer journalist Bob Sullivan, an Orlando woman had her balance of $34.77 (£23.93) wiped off her account before it auto-updated with $25 and then again with a further $75 after the hackers changed the auto top-up amount

For more details follow the link below:

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/starbucks-customer-accounts-hacked-through-smartphone-apps-1501118

UBER Hacked?

Change your password now!

From the article:

“It was crazy,” Stephanie Crisco told the publication. “I used Uber for the first time Thursday night. On Friday morning I received a notification on my phone that my driver was en route. I didn't request a driver. I clicked on the notification and it said that the ride was cancelled but the pickup was in London.”

she wasn't alone in reporting Uber account problems. Many other users have posted on Twitter, saying that their Uber accounts have been hijacked by unknown individuals who took rides using their accounts.

The easiest thing you can do to protect your Uber account right now is actually to follow Uber's advice and change your Uber password to something unique, so hackers who have stolen credentials from other services can’t reuse them on Uber.

For More details check the link below:

http://bgr.com/2015/05/04/uber-username-and-password-change/