Get job at the NSA by cracking coded tweets

 It is known that job applicants can extremely ingenious when it comes to finding new ways to make their CV’s stand out of the crowd but it’s not that common to hear about unconventional methods when it comes to employers methods of hiring.

This is the case of the National Security Agency (NSA) which are interested in hiring people with outstanding potential. Their method is at least interesting as they cut off the classic process: the typical job application, the CV and the covering letter. These been said, you might ask yourself how could you take a shot at a job at NSA.

Your answer awaitson Tweeter as NSA posted last night onits @NSACareers account a tweet containing a series of what seemed at first sight random letters and spacing followed by the hashtags #MissionMonday #NSA #News. At first this lead to confusion, some users even suggested that he feed was hacked or maybe an employee played a prank.

Later, the NSA confirmed the tweet and stated that it was part of a month long campaign of coded tweets to “explore careers essential to protecting our nation”. “As part of our recruitment efforts to attract the best and the brightest, we will post mission related coded Tweets on Mondays in the month of May” an NSA representative said. Well, NSA is known as the code makers and code breakers.

Within minutes after the tweet was posted, the code was cracked and translated simply as: “Want to know what it takes to work at NSA? Check back each Monday in May as we explore career essentials to protect our nation.”

The puzzles are expected to get harder in the coming weeks. Those who are able to crack the most complex codes are likely to be of interest to the NSA’s recruiters.

NSA leaker Edward Snowden gets job in a major Russian website

The NSA leaker Edward Snowden got a job after three months of his shipment to Russia. He got the job in a major Russian website, his lawyer said Thursday.

Edward Snowden will start working at a big Russian company on Friday, November 1. His job will be to support and develop a major Russian website,”lawyer said.

Asking upon the company’s name in which Snowden got job, lawyer didn’t disclose that, citing security concerns.

Speculation over Snowden’s new employer centred on the Russian equivalent of Facebook, Vkontakte, whose charismatic founder Pavel Durov publicly offered Snowden a post in August.

Right now two major Russian internet companies—yandex.ru and Mail.Ru Group said, “No, we didn’t hire Snowden.”

According to Snowden’s lawyer, he was running out of money that’ why he need a job.

After the revelation of secret documents of NSA, he was on a year temporary asylum in Russia.

Snowden spent more than a month in a Moscow airport before receiving a year’s temporary asylum and heading to a secret address.

Snowden supporter website also has raised $49,000 in donations.

Antivirus firm ESET and BitDefender website defaced by Pro-Palestinian Hackers

A pro-Palestinian hacktivist group 'KDMS Team', who recently managed to briefly hijack the Metasploit website of security firm Rapid7 and become popular after Hacking World's largest Web Hosting Network Leaseweb website and antivirus vendors AVG, Avira as well as mobile messaging service WhatsApp's websites.

Now even I have to say that - Security is just an Illusion, because just now the group aligned with Anonymous has successfully hijacked another two Antivirus firm website - ESET and Bitdefender.

The KDMS Team successfully changed the DNS records of both sites to redirect people to a website playing the Palestinian national anthem and displaying a political message under the title "You Got Pwned".

Message posted on Bitdefender and Eset website says:

Hello bitdefender
Touched By KDMS team
We was thinking about quitting hacking and disappear again ..!
But we said : there is some sites must be hacked
You are one of our targets Therefore we are here ..
And there is another thing .. do you know Palestine ?
There is a land called Palestine on the earth This land has been stolen by Zionist Do you know it ?
Palestinian people has the right to live in peace Deserve to liberate their land and release all prisoners from israeli jails We want peace Long Live Palestine

Both affected domains are registered from REGISTER.COM, INC. by companies, which is also a domain registrar for Metasploit website -- was hijacked yesterday via a spoofed change request faxed to Register.com. But the technical details on how hackers managed to hijack the ESET and Bitdefender website is not yet available, we are in contact with hackers.. Will update the article in a few hours. Stay Tuned !

Defacement of Security companies is really embarrassing and hacker's tactics allowed them to get their political message to millions of users. One of their team members tweeted, "When it's a matter of resistance no one will blame you. . Free Palestine .. Fight for Palestine"

Chinese hackers miss Google network, but the checks go on

Google exec Schmidt says U.S. government networks are in danger 'because no one is there' during the shutdown to stop hackers - See more at: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9243040/Chinese_hackers_miss_Google_network_but_the_checks_go_on#sthash.a3ec9xiO.dpuf

 Google exec Schmidt says U.S. government networks are in danger 'because no one is there' during the shutdown to stop hackers.

He put a question to an audience Gartner's Symposium ITxpo here on Monday. "Raise [your] hand if you're sure the Chinese are not inside your corporate network."

Many of the 8,500 attendees were in the hall to hear the question, but only five hands were raised. "Congratulations," Schmidt said from the stage.

Getting more serious, Schmidt lamented the open pathways in corporate networks, letting hackers slip in via NT servers.

Schmidt suggested a better network would eliminate the corporate intranet.

"We're going to have just a network. We're going to make sure that gaining access is application to application," he said.

In an interview on stage with Gartner analysts David Willis and Drue Reeves, Schmidt was asked whether he's sure that Chinese hackers haven't penetrated Google's corporate network.

"We're quite sure they are not right now," said Schmidt of the Chinese, "although every second we check." The audience chuckled.

"I can be quite sure that the Chinese are visiting the U.S. government at the moment because no one is there," said Schmidt, a reference to the federal government shutdown.

Major vendors, and other companies, have faced attacks from China.

Meanwhile, when asked about the security of mobile devices running the Google built Android operating system, Schmidt said "it's more secure than the iPhone."

Eric Schmidt, Google's executive chairman, put a question to an audience Gartner's Symposium ITxpo here on Monday. "Raise [your] hand if you're sure the Chinese are not inside your corporate network."

Many of the 8,500 attendees were in the hall to hear the question, but only five hands were raised. "Congratulations," Schmidt said from the stage.
Getting more serious, Schmidt lamented the open pathways in corporate networks, letting hackers slip in via NT servers.
Schmidt suggested a better network would eliminate the corporate intranet.
"We're going to have just a network. We're going to make sure that gaining access is application to application," he said.
In an interview on stage with Gartner analysts David Willis and Drue Reeves, Schmidt was asked whether he's sure that Chinese hackers haven't penetrated Google's corporate network.
"We're quite sure they are not right now," said Schmidt of the Chinese, "although every second we check." The audience chuckled.
"I can be quite sure that the Chinese are visiting the U.S. government at the moment because no one is there," said Schmidt, a reference to the federal government shutdown.
Major vendors, and other companies, have faced attacks from China.
Meanwhile, when asked about the security of mobile devices running the Google built Android operating system, Schmidt said "it's more secure than the iPhone."
- See more at: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9243040/Chinese_hackers_miss_Google_network_but_the_checks_go_on#sthash.a3ec9xiO.dpuf

WhatsApp Website defaced by KDMS team

WhatsApp Defaced Page

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Web site of WhatsApp, a widely used messaging app, appeared to have been defaced Tuesday.
The site showed a pro-Palestinian message at 2:40 a.m. PT Tuesday and was given the title "You Got Pwned." A group called KDMS Team claimed credit for the attack.

According to the Whois database, which can be used to see what numeric Internet Protocol (IP) address is assigned to a given Internet domain, the whatsapp IP address record was changed on Tuesday. Such a change, made through the Internet's Domain Name Service (DNS) system, is one way that users who typed in the whatsapp.com name would be redirected to a different Web site.
It wasn't immediately clear if there were any problems with WhatsApp's customer data or services. CNET contacted the company for comment and will update this story with its reply.
WhatsApp is used to send billions of messages a day using mobile apps.

AVG Antivirus and Avira Websites defaced by Palestinian Hackers

AVG Antivirus Hack Screenshot

The Website of Word's most popular Antivirus Firm - AVG were hacked this morning and defaced by a new Palestinian Hacker group - KDMS Team, affiliated with Anonymous Group.

The Defacement page titled 'You got Pwned', with Anonymous Logo and playing Palestinian national anthem in the page background, says: 

we want to tell you that there is a land called Palestine on the earth
this land has been stolen by Zionist
do you know it ?
Palestinian people has the right to live in peace
Deserve to liberate their land and release all prisoners from israeli jails
we want peace and "There Is No Full Security We Can Catch You !"

UPDATE : Another Antivirus Firm 'AVIRA' website also defaced by hackers, just few minutes before.

Avira Website Defaced Page

NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC is common Domain Registrar for AVG, Avira and Whatsapp . Possibly, hacker compromised the Domain Registrar and modifies the DNS settings to perform DNS Hijacking.

Silk Road taken down by FBI

Notorious online marketplace "Silk Road" has been taken down by the FBI and the owner "Ross Ulbricht" a.k.a (Dread Pirate Roberts) has been arrested . Proving that "Perfect security is impossible"

He has been charged with  conspiracy to traffic narcotics, conspiracy to hack computers, and conspiracy to launder money.

The website now shows a "This Hidden Site Has Been Seized" message

Silk Road was the drug dealing website in the world .It used the "TOR hidden network" to hide itself and its users.It seems Ross Ulbricht was caught due to his own mistakes and NOT due to a vulnerability in the TOR network.


This site had been a major point used lawmakers and politicians to try to curtail the growth of the TOR
 network.And now the recent actions by the FBI against many hidden sites in the TOR network is indeed a very big setback for it.

All the transactions in silkroad were done using Bitcoins and since the news of Ross Ulbricht's arrest bitcoin value has dropped quite a bit (Due to paranoid selling). But this is just the currency stabilizing itself, when it stabilizes BTC value will rise again. And the removal of association from such illigal market places might actually be a good thing for bitcoins.

Jordan's PM's website hacked by Anonymous hacktivist

Anonymous hacktivists have hacked into official website of Jordan's Prime ministry in a protest against raising taxes and prices.  The website was defaced with a message in Arabic to Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur.

"Hi uncle, how are you? We are sorry, we hacked your website. Are you upset? We feel much worse when you raise prices. The people know this feeling but you do not," the defacement message reads.

According to Voice of Russia report, the website has been restored after it was hacked for several hours.  The official claimed to have identified the attackers.

At the time of writing, the website(pmo.gov.jo) is offline.  You can still view the defacement in Google cache: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://pmo.gov.jo/PMO_Images/635159460595068250.htm

Anonymous hacktivists have hacked into official website of Jordan's Prime ministry in a protest against raising taxes and prices.  The website was defaced with a message in Arabic to Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur.

"Hi uncle, how are you? We are sorry, we hacked your website. Are you upset? We feel much worse when you raise prices. The people know this feeling but you do not," the defacement message reads.

According to Voice of Russia report, the website has been restored after it was hacked for several hours.  The official claimed to have identified the attackers.

At the time of writing, the website(pmo.gov.jo) is offline.  You can still view the defacement in Google cache: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://pmo.gov.jo/PMO_Images/635159460595068250.htm - See more at: http://www.ehackingnews.com/2013/09/jordans-pms-website-hacked-by-anonymous.html#sthash.jNlmt3gn.dpuf

Anonymous hacktivists have hacked into official website of Jordan's Prime ministry in a protest against raising taxes and prices.  The website was defaced with a message in Arabic to Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur.

"Hi uncle, how are you? We are sorry, we hacked your website. Are you upset? We feel much worse when you raise prices. The people know this feeling but you do not," the defacement message reads.

According to Voice of Russia report, the website has been restored after it was hacked for several hours.  The official claimed to have identified the attackers.

At the time of writing, the website(pmo.gov.jo) is offline.  You can still view the defacement in Google cache: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://pmo.gov.jo/PMO_Images/635159460595068250.htm - See more at: http://www.ehackingnews.com/2013/09/jordans-pms-website-hacked-by-anonymous.html#sthash.jNlmt3gn.dpuf

FBI demands SSL Keys from Secure-Email provider Lavabit in Espionage probe

During the summer, The Secure email provider 'Lavabit' and preferred service for PRISM leaker Edward Snowden decided to shut down after 10 years to avoid being complicit in crimes against the American people.

The U.S. Government obtained a secret court order demanding private SSL key from Lavabit, which would have allowed the FBI to wiretap the service’s users, according to Wired.

Ladar Levison, 32, has spent ten years building encrypted email service Lavabit, attracting over 410,000 users. When NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was revealed to be one of those users in July, Ladar received the court orders to comply, intended to trace the Internet IP address of a particular Lavabit user, but he refused to do so.

The offenses under investigation are listed as violations of the Espionage Act and Founder was ordered to record and provide the connection information on one of its users every time that user logged in to check his e-mail.

The Government complained that the Lavabit had the technical capability to decrypt the information, but that Lavabit did not want to defeat its own system, So on the same day, U.S. Magistrate Judge Theresa Buchanan ordered Lavabit to comply, threatening Lavabit with criminal contempt.

FBI's search warrant also demanded all information necessary to decrypt communications sent to or from the Lavabit email account redacted including encryption keys and SSL keys.

But because Lavabit hadn’t complied till August 5, and a court ordered that Levison would be fined $5,000 a day beginning August 6, for every day he refused to turn over the key. 

On August 8, Levison finally decided to shut down Lavabit. “I’m taking a break from email,” said Levison. “If you knew what I know about email, you might not use it either.”

FBI Cyber Division put 'Syrian Electronic Army' Hackers in wanted list

 

The Syrian Electronic Army (SEA), a pro-regime hacker group that emerged during Syrian anti-government protests in 2011, and involved in cyber attacks against western media organizations are now in the FBI's wanted list.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has issued an alert warning of cyber attacks by the Syrian Electronic Army and finally put them on its radar. "The SEA'S primary capabilities include spear-phishing, web defacements, and hijacking social media accounts to spread propaganda." they said. The FBI also has increased its surveillance of Syrians living in the US.

According to some anti-Assad activists, the group was founded by former intelligence agents and hardcore Assad supporters. SEA had compromised social media profiles for Western news organizations by sending fake email messages to news staff in an attempt to gain access to login credentials.

 

Most recently, the group grabbed international attention after commandeering the websites of the New York Times, Washington Post and this week the recruitment website for the US Marine Corps.

The group's was able to compromise the multiple Associated Press (AP) Twitter feeds, then using them to issue bogus messages, including the following alert on April 23 i.e. "Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured." In the wake of that tweet, the White House confirmed that the president was unharmed, that there had been no explosions and that the FBI was investigating the hoax tweets.

So how did the SEA get better in only a few months? ''I don't think it would be unreasonable to suspect someone more skilled is helping them out,'' says Adam Myers, vice president of intelligence for security firm CrowdStrike.

Is the Syrian Electronic Army based in Syria? After Syria reestablished its Internet connection last week, following a blackout that lasted approximately 24 hours. Security Experts noticed that Syrian Electronic Army Hackers were online on twitter. These kinds of cuts do not affect the terrorists operating in Syria as they have their own US-supplied communication equipment.

The Syrian Electronic Army has multiple domains seized by its domain registration firm. Interestingly, The Syrian Electronic Army's first domain name was registered by the Syrian Computer Society, hosted on the network of the Syrian government.

“Please maintain heightened awareness of your network traffic and take appropriate steps to maintain your network security,” the FBI memo said. FBI request anyone who suspects they're under attack to call its CyWatch division at 855-292-3937.

Researchers Discover 'Hesperbot' - A New and Potent Banking Trojan

 

Security firm ESET has discovered a new and effective banking trojan, targeting online banking users and designed to beat the mobile multi-factor authentication systems.

Hesperbot detected as Win32/Spy.Hesperbot is very identical to the infamous Zeus and SpyEye Banking Malwares and infects users in Turkey, the Czech Republic, Portugal, and the United Kingdom.

Trojan has functionalities such as keystroke logging, creation of screenshots and video capture, and setting up a remote proxy.

The attackers aim to obtain login credentials giving them access to the victim’s bank account and getting them to install a mobile component of the malware on their Symbian, Blackberry or Android phone.

Some other advanced tricks are also included in this banking Trojan, such as creating a hidden VNC server on the infected system and can do network traffic interception with HTML injection capabilities.

The trojan also harvests email addresses from the infected system and sends them to a remote server. It is possible that these collected addresses were also targeted by the malware-spreading campaigns.

 

So far, the Trojan hasn't spread too far. The campaign was first detected in the Czech Republic where the attackers had used phishing emails impersonating the country’s postal service. Armed with this information, the crooks can try to log into victims' online bank accounts to siphon off their cash.

As for the UK, a special variant of the malware has been created, but ESET said it could not provide any further detail on it.

Hacking Facebook to delete any account; Facebook again refuses to pay Bounty

In the past few days, Facebook refused to pay bounty to Khalil Shreateh, the security researcher who used the bug he discovered to post directly on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Timeline after Facebook Security rejected his attempts to report it.

Ehraz Ahmed, an independent Security Researcher claimed that he reported a critical vulnerability to the Facebook Security team, which allows the attacker to delete any account from Facebook.

But Facebook refuses to Pay Bug Bounty, because he tested flaw once on his friend's account, "I reported this bug to Facebook, I'm really not happy with them. After waiting for such a long time for their reply, they denied it saying that you used this bug only works for test accounts, where as I used it for removing real accounts and now the vulnerability is also fixed after their email." he said on his blog.

Vulnerable URL:

https://www.facebook.com/ajax/whitehat/delete_test_users.php? fb_dtsg=AQA1E-WE&selected_users[0]=[Victems Profile ID]&__user=[Attackers Profile ID]&__a=1

Where selected_users[0] and __user parameters are vulnerable to run exploit.

 

Secunia launches the next generation of Complete Patch Management: The Secunia CSI 7.0

Cybercrime costs organizations millions of dollars and to protect business from the consequences of security breaches, vulnerability intelligence and patch management are basic necessities in the toolbox of any IT team, as emphasized by organizations like the SANS Institute and the National Institute of Standards and Technology under the US Department of Commerce (NIST).

The Secunia CSI 7.0 is the Total Package: Vulnerability Intelligence, Vulnerability Scanning with Patch Creation and Patch Deployment Integration.

To help IT teams counter the threat, vulnerability research company Secunia merges the in-house vulnerability expertise with a sophisticated patch management solution into the Secunia Corporate Software Inspector (CSI 7.0). The foundation of the Secunia CSI is a unique combination of vulnerability intelligence and vulnerability scanning, with patch creation and patch deployment integration.

Fake 'Grand Theft Auto V' Torrent Spreads Malware

Excitement continues .. Rockstar Games schedule the release of latest The Grand Theft Auto series, GTA 5 on September 17, but Cyber Criminals has already released a fake version of GTA 5 contains malware on torrent networks.

Romanian security firm BitDefender issued warning that GTA V hasn’t been leaked, and during installation you will be asked to complete a survey and send off a text message to gain the serial number. You will then be charged €1 per day on your phone bill and will be infected by a virus.

The PC version has yet to be announced, so trying to install it on your PC is a ridiculous idea; but that seems to be what a lot of people are doing.

"The survey opens in a web browser and, therefore, is able to perform a geographic redirect to the web page that corresponds to the area you are located in," said, Bitdefender Senior E-Threat Analyst Bogdan Botezatu.

This malware is a generic Trojan Trojan.GenericKDV.1134859, which can steal user information, tamper with system files or draft a computer into a botnet. This will result in you being charged for premium rate text messages sent by bogus firms.

The easiest way to avoid this malicious software is to not illegally download copies of GTA V, especially when the game isn't yet launched.

Code-sharing site GitHub now offers two-factor authentication to its users

Code repository GitHub offers two-factor authentication to beef up security around its users’ accounts. Github is a coding repository where developers used to build their projects projects that may turn out to be valued knowledgeable assets.

Two-Factor Authentication adds another layer of authentication to the login process, Now users have to enter their username and password, and a secret code in the second step, to complete the sign in. If a hacker manages to steal a user's credentials through phishing or trojans, cannot do anything, as they do need a second key to enter.

“We strongly urge you to turn on 2FA for the safety of your account, not only on GitHub, but on other websites that support it,” the company says. This two-factor authentication for Githu can be turned on in your account settings.

GitHub hit 3.5 million users’ landmark along with 6 million repositories deposited on its 5th anniversary in April. Two-factor authentication can protect you from phishing attacks, where hackers try to trick you into giving over your information.

For receiving the second authentication factor, users can either choose to receive it via a text message or can use dedicated authentication mobile app i.e. Google Authenticator for Android/iPhone/BlackBerry or Duo Mobile for Android/iPhone or Authenticator for Windows Phone 7.

Fear of NSA PRISM : Indian Government may ban US email services for official communication

The Indian Government is planning to ban the use of US based email services like Gmail for official communications to increase the security of confidential government information.

The recent disconcerting reports that that India was being spied upon by American intelligence agencies has opened an all new chapter in the cyber security space. As leaked by former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, that NSA involved in widespread spying and surveillance activities across the globe.

The Government plans to send a formal notification to about 500,000 employees across the country, asking them to stick to the official email service provided by India's National Informatics Centre, Time of India Reported.

The fact that several government officers in top positions use their Gmail IDs for official communications i.e. Several senior government officials in India, including ministers of state for communications & IT Milind Deora and Kruparani Killi, have their Gmail IDs listed in government portals as their office email.

Last week, India's IT minister Kapil Sibal revealed that the new policy will enforce rules such as use of static IP addresses, virtual private networks and one-time passwords for accessing Indian government email services on all Indian officials who are stationed abroad.

“All Indian missions will use NIC servers which are directly linked to a server in India and that will keep government information safe.” Sibal said.

Apple Patents Tech Allowing Cops To Remotely Switch Off Their Devices

Recently, The Social Media is buzzing over reports that Apple has invented a new technology that now can Switch off iPhone Camera and Wi-Fi, when entering a 'sensitive area'. Technology would broadcast a signal to automatically shut down Smartphone features, or even the entire phone.

Yes ! It's true, On June 2008 - Apple filed a patent (U.S. Patent No. 8,254,902) - titles “Apparatus and methods for enforcement of policies upon a wireless device” that defines the ability of U.S. Government to remotely disable certain functions of a device without user consent.

All they need to do is decide that a public gathering or venue is deemed sensitive and needs to be protected from externalities. Is it not a shame that you can't take a photo of the police officer beating a man in the street because your oppressive government remotely disabled your Smartphone camera? Civil liberties campaigners fear it could be misused by the authorities to silence 'awkward citizens'.

Apple insists that the affected locations are normally cinemas, theaters and concert grounds, but Apple admits it could also be used in covert police or government operations that may need complete blackout conditions. 

"This technology would be a dangerous power to place in the hands of the government," Kurt Opsahl, a civil liberties lawyer at Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). "The government shutting down iPhone cameras and connectivity in order to prevent photos of political activity or the organization of the event would constitute a prior restraint on the free speech rights of every person affected, whether they're an activist or an observer" he added.

Apple also says that the user can be given a choice to approve changes being sent remotely, however one cannot rule out the possibility of some changes being applied to the device without user consent.

China hit by DDoS attack causes Internet inaccessible for hours

During the weekend China's Internet was taken down by a powerful distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on the .cn domain slowed and blocked Internet access inaccessibility for hours.

Security expert clarified that China could have been perpetrated by sophisticated hackers or by a single individual. The China Internet Network Information Center [CINIC] reported that the attack began at 02:00 local time on Sunday with a peek at 04:00 that made it the largest DDoS attack the country’s networks have ever faced. The CCINIC is responsible for registering sites in the .cn domain.

Before malicious coders can launch a DDoS attack, they must infect the computers of unsuspecting users, often by tricking people into installing malware on their computers.

The China Internet Network Information Center confirmed the attack with an official statement informing internet users that it is gradually restoring web services and that will operate to improve the security level of the Internet infrastructure of the country to prevent and mitigate further attacks.

Following the translated announcement: "8 May 25 at 0:00 or so, the State DNS node Denial of Service attacks, the China Internet Network Information Center disposal, to 2 pm, the service is restored to normal, early morning 3 through the official micro notice. Morning four o'clock, the state once again under DNS node biggest ever denial of service attacks, some websites analytical affected, leading to slow or interrupt access. 

In the notice, the attack continues, national domain name resolution services have been gradually restored. Ministry of Industry and Information Technology launched the "Domain Name System Security specific contingency plans" to further the protection of national domain name resolution services. China Internet Network Information Center, the affected user apologized to launch cyber attacks on the Internet stable behavior affect condemned. China Internet Network Information Center will work with the sector to work together to continue to enhance the service capabilities."

The Wall Street Journal was the first media agency that reported the important outage, the official source of Chinese Government confirmed that its network suffered the biggest distributed denial-of-service attack ever.

It's not currently known who attacked the Chinese domain or the motivations, CloudFlare CEO Matthew Prince said that there is no certainty that behind the attack there is a group of hackers, he added that "it may have well been a single individual".

FBI used Anonymous to attack foreign government systems, claims jailed hacker Hammond

Sentencing for former LulzSec leader Hector Xavier Monsegur, better known as "Sabu" , has again been delayed. Monsegur pleaded guilty to a dozen criminal counts two years prior and stands to face more a maximum sentence of more than 124 years.

Another Lulzsec Hacker Jeremy Hammond has claimed that the FBI used Sabu to coordinate attacks against foreign governments, by Anonymous hackers and Others.

The delays indicate that the FBI is not extracting information from Monsegur and this could mean that the hacker may be helping FBI with other covert operations as Jeremy Hammond claims.

Jeremy Hammond, released a statement on Thursday accusing the US government of asking Monsegur to encourage fellow hacktivists to infiltrate foreign government entities.

“What many do not know is that Sabu was also used by his handlers to facilitate the hacking of the targets of the government’s choosing including numerous websites belonging to foreign governments”, Hammond said.

“What the United States could not accomplish legally, it used Sabu, and by extension, me and my co-defendants, to accomplish illegally”, Hammond added.

"Why was the US using us to infiltrate the private networks of foreign governments? What are they doing with the information we stole? And will anyone in our government ever be held accountable for these crimes?"

Hammond pleaded guilty in May to hacking private intelligence firm Stratfor to expose millions of revelatory emails. The Illinois native faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced, scheduled for 15th November.

Java 6 vulnerable to #0day exploit; added to Neutrino exploit kit

Hackers are using a new exploit for a bug in the out-of-date but popular Java 6 platform to attack victims, and has been added to a commercially available Neutrino exploit kit.

The use of Java 6 still is prevalent, opening up a significant number of users to the threat. F-secure analyst Timo Hirvonen warned about the exploit over Twitter, advising that he had found an exploit in the wild actively targeting an unpatched vulnerability in Java 6, named CVE-2013-2463.

The exploit's proof-of-concept was made public last week, prior to in-the-wild attacks surfacing on Monday. Oracle is aware of the hole but, since Java 6 is no longer supported, the company will not patch the issue.

The vulnerability lies in Java Runtime Environment's 2D sub-component, which is used to make two-dimensional graphics. Because no patch is available, the exploits provides cybercriminals and other attackers an effective vehicle to launch attacks targeting users and organizations using Java 6.

The Neutrino crimeware kit was first spotted in March 2013, when it was identified as the source of a series of attacks that were exploiting Java vulnerabilities to install ransomware on victims' PCs, freezing them until users paid a fine that was supposedly being levied by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.

The impact of this threat may be less for usual Internet users than for organizations/entities, who may not be quick to migrate to the latest software version due to business and/or operational continuity issues. 

Users should update their Java installations to the latest revision of version 7, which does not suffer from the issue. Users who don’t need Java in their everyday tasks should uninstall the software altogether.