Category Archives: Current Events
Over 400,000 Accounts Stolen from phpBB
It was discovered last Saturday that an attacker was able to steal thousands of user accounts, passwords, and e-mails from phpBB.com. phpBB is open source and one of the most popular internet forum packages. The attack utilized a 0-day-exploit in … Continue reading
Current Event: Biometric Identification Cards Distributed in the UK, But No Readers
A recent article from silicon.com details the recent issuance of £4.7 billion worth of ID cards containing biometric and biographical data to people of the UK. Critics of the plan are quickly pointing out that with no readers in place, … Continue reading
Current Event: racial profiling no more effective than random screening
In “Study: racial profiling no more effective than random screen”, ArsTechnica reports on a new study by William Press, who claims that using profiling at security checkpoints such as airports is not effective in catching threats. The ineffectiveness, according to … Continue reading
Current Event: Xbox Live DDoS Attacks Become Popular
Xbox Live DDoS Attacks Become Popular Cheating in online multiplayer games has always been an issue. Each genre of game has been plagued with a certain type of hack: Map discovery hacks for RTS games, Aiming hacks in FPS’s, and … Continue reading
Current Event: Rigged Red Lights
Summary In Italy, public officials have been abusing their authority to make more money from the public by making reds come earlier than they are supposed to (a shorter duration yellow than legally allowed). This means that, since they use … Continue reading
Current Event: New Hard Drive Encryption Standard Proposed
The Trusted Computing Group has proposed a new standard for self-encrypting hard drives. Many current hard drives boast encryption features, but some provide little details on the encryption process, and there was previously no single standard among all manufacturers. This … Continue reading
Current Event: Malicious Parking Tickets
According to a post on the Internet Storm Center (ISC), some malware writers have turned to leaving false parking tickets in order to lure victims into running malicious programs. The parking tickets contained a URL where one could see a picture of the supposed offense. Upon arrival to the site, users were prompted to download a toolbar in order to view their particular picture(s). Continue reading
Arrested in Washington? Give us your DNA!
As I found on Slashdot, a controversial piece of legislation is being considered that would allow for the collection of DNA from arrested persons. The DNA may be collected prior to the arrested person being charged with a crime, and … Continue reading
Large Number of Windows Security Breaches Caused by Administrative Privileges
An article linked today on Slashdot revealed that a vast majority of security breaches could be prevented if users were not logged in with administrative priveleges. While this is not terribly surprising, the numbers were rather shocking. The report suggests … Continue reading Continue reading
Current Event: Zombies Ahead
According to a story on NBC Dallas-Fort Worth, someone hacked into an electronic roadsign system designed to notify motorists of upcoming hazards. The system was altered to read “Caution! Zombies! Ahead!!!” It also instructed motorists to run for cold climates … Continue reading