Top 10 Stories

By Simon Sharwood UK Banks Halifax and NatWest have found fake versions of their websites that have won SSL certificates from certification authorities (CAs). Netcraft says certifiers such as Symantec, Comodo, CloudFlare's certification partner GlobalSign and GoDaddy have handed out certs to sites like natwestnwolb.co.uk. That URL is intended to pull web users away from NatWest's real website, which is nwolb.co.uk. Another UK bank, Halifax, is flattered by the existence of fake site halifaxonline-uk.com. Someone's...

A hacker from the group “KurdiSH Defacer” has hacked into 43 Turkish government websites and defaced them. The hacker, who goes by the alias ifactoryx, gained access to the government sites and uploaded a file titled if.html on each site, with a passage of text written in Turkish. The motives of the attack are currently unknown and the message is yet to be officially translated. The defaced sites have now been taken offline, however, they...

US Ports are still vulnerable to cyber attacks that release dangerous chemicals, cybersecurity in the maritime industry is crucial for Homeland security. Critical infrastructure across the world are vulnerable to cyber attacks, this is not novelty, but it is interesting to explore how many infrastructure is open to hacking assaults. US ports are also vulnerable to cyber attacks that could “allow the release of harmful and dangerous chemicals” in urban areas, the alert was raised by a...

Cryptome, the Internet's oldest document-exposure site, inadvertently leaked months worth of its own IP logs and other server information, potentially exposing details about its privacy-conscious users. The data, which specifically came from the Cartome sub-directory onCryptome.org, according to Cryptome co-creator John Young, made their way into the wild when the site logs were included on a pair of USB sticks sent out to a supporter. Twitter user Michael Best reported the problem a few days ago on his...

The venerable owner of the Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, has notified customers of a breach that may have affected thousands. Hackers gained unauthorized access and manipulated a subscription system to steal personal contact information, and were able to remain inside Dow Jones from August 2012 until at least July 2015. In a letter to customers on Friday, Dow Jones Chief Executive William Lewis said that data from 3,500 individuals “could have been accessed, although...

Thousands of routers mandated for use by a major Singaporean telco and operated by 'top enterprises" around the world are open to a remote zero day exploit that allows routers to be completely hijacked and is indefensible by most users. Vantage Point Security senior security consultant Lyon Yang does not wish to disclose the name of the affected internet provider but says the ZHONE routers are required for subscribers to be able to connect to...

Determined not to fall victim to another network breach, the U.S. Postal Service is phishing its own employees, testing their ability to recognize a scam before it's too late and their knowledge of the proper procedures to be followed. The Postal Service suffered from a massive breach last year that exposed the personal information on more than 800,000 current and former employees. Instead of storming the firewalls, the attackers used targeted spear-phishing emails to gain...

Samsung Pay provider LoopPay was hacked by suspected Chinese government-linked hackers months before it was acquired by the Korean giant, according to a new report. The well-known group, dubbed ‘Codoso’ or ‘Sunshock’, breached the Massachusetts-based start-up back in March, several Samsung and LoopPay execs and people briefed on the investigation told the New York Times. The goal of the hackers appears to be LoopPay’s magnetic secure transmission (MST) technology, which allows users to tap and pay with...

A new advanced persistent threat (APT) has been discovered by security researchers. Dubbed Moker, the malware is a remote access Trojan that can evade security measures on Windows PC. The malware was discovered by Israeli security firm enSilo, who gave the Trojan its name. Researchers discovered it hiding on a customer’s network but were not entirely sure how it got there. The malware creates a new user account in Windows and opens an RDP channel, allowing it...

The National Crime Agency (NCA) has said that a cyber-criminal has taken control of computer webcams to spy on people having sex. Stefan Rigo, from Leeds, 33, used malware called Blackshades to control people's cameras and spent five to 12 hours a day watching what they were doing. The NCA said Rigo was addicted to monitoring his victims, some of whom he knew and some who were strangers. Rigo was given a 40-week suspended sentence in prison,...