Top 10 Stories

Reuters: Kickstarter, the fundraising platform used by millions of people to raise capital for creative projects and businesses, said on Saturday that hackers had gained access to some of its customers' data earlier this week but that the breach had been repaired. "No credit card data of any kind was accessed by hackers. There is no evidence of unauthorized activity of any kind on all but two Kickstarter user accounts," Kickstarter Chief Executive Officer Yancey...

Threatpost: A self-replicating worm is spreading among a number of different Linksys home and small business routers.   Researchers at the SANS Institute reported the outbreak yesterday and have not been able to determine whether there is a malicious payload or if the worm connects to a command and control server. Johannes B. Ullrich, chief technology officer at SANS said the worm appears at the moment to be doing little more than scanning for other vulnerable routers...

Network World: On Friday 14, Forbes' Website was hacked by The Syrian Electronic Armyand 1,057,819 user accounts compromised and fake news items posted. 24 hours later, user login to the site is still disabled. So far Forbes has not announced any details about the attack other than a tweet and a Facebook update (oddly there's no announcement at all on the Forbes Web site) while the blog rec/ode reportedthat a Forbes spokeswoman confirmed the attack:  

NY Times: The list of those caught up in the global surveillance net cast by the National Security Agency and its overseas partners, from social media users to foreign heads of state, now includes another entry: American lawyers.   A top-secret document, obtained by the former N.S.A. contractor Edward J. Snowden, shows that an American law firm was monitored while representing a foreign government in trade disputes with the United States. The disclosure offers a...

Tech Central - Toyota has announced the recall of 1.9 million Prius hybrid cars – including 700 in Ireland – due to a software fault which could cause vehicles to halt while being driven. The recall will affect 30,790 UK-registered third generation Prius models, as the Japanese manufacturer attempts to correct a problem with boost converter control software.  

Verge - Target's security staff may have been aware of vulnerabilities in the retailer's systems months before a massive breach compromised data on millions of shoppers. The Wall Street Journal reports that at least one internal analyst had called for a thorough review of the defenses around Target's payment terminals, which were later infiltrated during the sophisticated attack.   That request was initially "brushed off" according to the Journal. It's unclear if a review was eventually granted before hackers made...

Infosecurity: Anti-theft Software Could Be Attackers' Conduit to Millions of PCs A useful cyber-defensive utility can be turned into a powerful tool for cyber-attackers in the form of full access to millions of users' computers, according to research from Kaspersky Lab regarding an element of Absolute Software’s anti-theft software. The focus of the Kaspersky research was the Absolute Computrace agent that resides in the firmware, or PC ROM Basic Input/Output Systems (BIOS), of modern laptops and desktops....

Techcrunch: Japanese Internet Giant Rakuten Acquires Viber For $900M Rakuten, one of Japan’s largest Internet companies, has announced that it will acquire messaging app Cyprus-based Viber for $900 million. The deal is the latest and largest in an aggressive acquisition spree by Rakuten as it seeks to “become the world’s No. 1 Internet services company,” it said, and marks its entry into the global messaging market.

v3.co.uk: Microsoft strengthens cybercrime-fighting partnership with Europe Microsoft has promised to work even closer with key European law agencies as part of its efforts to disrupt and dismantle cybercrime networks. Microsoft signed a memorandum of understanding with Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) department, promising to boost collaboration on forensic and technical analysis of malware and botnets.

International Business Times: Mega DDoS Attacks of 800Gbps Expected Within a Year Distributed denial of service attacks are one of the most popular tools available to cybercriminals today. Whether you want to knock your competition offline or protest at some perceived injustice, DDoS attacks are an ideal weapon. Last year we saw the "the DDoS attack that almost broke the internet" when Spamhaus was hit with a 300 gigabit per second (Gbps) attack, which at...