Hacking and Anonymous surfing

Symantec has denied the website of its Snoop Dogg affiliated Norton marketing campaign Hack is Wack has been been penetrated, despite reports of security holes.

“We have found no evidence to date that any intrusion into the site or other areas of Symantec’s network or website have occurred,” it said in a statement issued to UK technology publisher, The Register.

The security giant allegedly took five days and criticism from the public to plug security holes in the site. Shortly after it launched its US Norton web campaign, which encouraged would-be rappers to upload their security inspired rhymes for a chance to meet Snoop Dogg’s management, members of the public began testing Symantec’s microsite for security flaws.

Armin Van Buuren is one of the world’s most well-known trance music DJs. He also apparently has had his credit card details stolen.

Investigators with Ultrascan, a company that investigates credit card fraud and other kinds of online crime, were doing research on forums and systems used to sell credit card numbers, said Frank Engelsman of Ultrascan.

One analyst was using the ICQ instant messaging system where cybercriminals had set up an automated account to sell credit card numbers. Their ICQ user name was run by a bot, which automatically responds to certain commands. A potential buyer for stolen credit card details sees a greeting: “Hello welcome to ICQ bot. Press ‘1′ for Russian. Press ‘2′ for English.” After pressing “2,” users get three selections: “1. Buy CVV, 2. Checker 3. Account,” according to a screen shot supplied by Ultrascan.

Despite being granted a permanent ban on the sale of a PSJailbreak “dongle” Sony Computer Entertainment have been given a two finger salute by hackers who have now released the software for free on the Internet as PS Groove.

The ban which was granted on Friday in the Federal Court allowed Sony to block the distribution of a hack for its PlayStation 3 (PS3) console. It also prevents local distributors, OzModChips, ModSupplier and Quantronics from importing or distributing the device in Australia.

The device which was being made by Chinese firm China Sun Trading Limited housed software that allowed homemade games and those of unauthorised to be played on the console without any payment being made to Sony. If the ban had not been granted Sony faced massive losses as developers bypassed the Company who is losing millions from the sale of PS3 consoles.

The vulnerability of the Philippines’ government web sites was again exposed by hackers last week, prompting renewed calls for the introduction of an updated Cybercrime Bill which has been on the legislative backburner for a decade.

Ivan Uy, the recently appointed Chairman of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), is to hold meetings with the ICT chairs of the House of Congress to discuss how the Cybercrime bill, which would bring in greater powers to detect, investigate and punish cyber crimes, could be made law.

Uy was a supporter of the Cybercrime Bill when he was CIO of the Supreme Court. The Cybercrime Bill has been amended 10 times since 2000, mostly because of disagreement over what constitutes a computer crime. Opponents say the proposed law could lead to a clampdown on citizen privacy and freedom of expression.

It’s apparent that the physics lexicon has been dragged kicking and screaming out of the 19th century with a recent paper published in Nature Photonics titled “Hacking commercial quantum cryptography systems by tailored bright illumination.” I never thought I would live to see the word “hacking” used in its proper context in a physics paper. But enough about physics lingo. What about the quantum encryption hacks alluded to by the title?

What we have is another paper demonstrating that the weak point of quantum encryption systems is the point where classical meets quantum. This is not the first hack of its kind, but, it is, in true hacker tradition, the first focused on a commercial system.

Quantum key distribution makes use of the laws of physics to provide a guaranteed level of security. Boiled down to its essential components, quantum systems must be measured to determine their state. In making the measurement, the system is forced into a certain state. An eavesdropper cannot listen in on a quantum communication without everyone else on the line knowing that someone is getting the goods on them. It’s security heaven: the walls may have ears, but in the quantum world, they are fluorescent pink and scream I CAN HEAR YOU.

Germany will soon launch a service to help consumers remove malicious software from their computers in an attempt to stem the spread of spam-sending botnets.

The German Anti-Botnet Initiative, which has a budget of €2 million (US$2.7 million), is being funded by the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Technical support will come from the Federal Office for Information Security, known as BSI, and additional help from the Association of the German Internet Industry (Eco).

The initiative will launch on Sept. 15 at the 8th annual German Anti-spam Conference in Wiesbaden. “The main goal is to remove Germany from the top 10 ranking of countries from which botnet activities originate,” according to a document about the initiative published on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Web site.

Facebook on Thursday announced a new security feature that will allow users to see if they are logged into their accounts on a different computer and to remotely log out if so.

This will address the problem that many of us have of leaving a computer–either one we borrowed at a friend’s house or used at a public spot like a library–logged in to our Facebook account without realizing it. Doing so leaves it open for abuse by whoever happens to visit the site next on that machine, allowing them to use the account to send spam or masquerade as the legitimate user.

“When anyone else is in charge of your online account there is the opportunity for foul play,” Jake Brill, a product manager for Facebook’s site integrity team, told CNET. Using the new feature that Facebook is rolling out worldwide, users will be able to click on the Account tab in the upper right-hand corner of their profile page, click on “Account Settings” in the drop-down menu and see new information about account activity under the “Account Security” area.

Just how popular are add-ons to Mozilla Firefox’s Web browser? A usage survey taken by Mozilla as of one year ago revealed that one-third of all Firefox users—at least—use add-ons in some capacity. That’s a pretty big deal, but not quite as eye-opening a number as the raw statistics from Mozilla’s official add-ons page.

According to the company, more than two billion add-ons have been downloaded since Firefox’s started tracking statistics back in August of 2007. There are currently 125 million add-ons in use as of this article’s writing, with more than 890,000 registered users attached to Mozilla’s official add-ons directory. I won’t bore you with any more statistics; suffice, there’s a lot of neat stuff you can install into your browser. And it appears that many are indeed doing so. But what? Where does one begin?

These are both questions that hit to the core of the Mozilla add-on experience. Simply put, your browser is only as good as the extensions you choose to install, and trying to get a handle on the ever-increasing world of Firefox add-ons can be as difficult for a first-timer as it is for an experienced add-on enthusiast. So we’ll make it simple. We’ve scoured the Web to come up with a listing of must-have add-ons for any Firefox installation, period.

Israel Police Computer Crimes Division – Lahav 433 is investigating a case in which hackers remotely accessed computers owned by producers and participants of the Israeli version of “Survivor,” the reality television show, Calcalist reported Wednesday.

According to suspicions, two suspects and a minor tried to access inside information before episodes were broadcast, thus granting advertisers a marketing and advertising advantage.

Based on evidence gathered during the course of the investigation, spoilers and details from episodes that had not yet been broadcast, including the names of the four finalists and tidbits from the contracts contestants signed, were posted on a blog called “French Nut” on the Tapuz portal, as well as other sites, one month before the season finale aired.

The U.S. Air Force is investigating the circumstances surrounding a Cape Girardeau recruiter who allegedly discarded sensitive documents belonging to potential recruits, such as birth certificates, Social Security cards and high school diplomas.

The Air Force’s public affairs division in San Antonio issued a statement Wednesday saying that a new recruiter to the Cape Girardeau Air Force recruiting office at 3019 William St. was cleaning out old files when he inadvertently threw a “limited amount” of identifying information into a Dumpster behind the building.

“The Air Force is actively working with the disposal company involved … to recover any improperly released information,” the release said. “We take the protection of Privacy Act information seriously and will be contacting those individuals whose Privacy Act information was or may have been inadvertently released.”