Security & Privacy

North Korea behind March cyberattack, says South Korea

South Korea has accused North Korea of launching a recent cyberattack that hit tens of thousands of PCs.

A spokesman for South Korea's Internet agency said today that six computers in North Korea were identified as the source of the attack, according to The Guardian. Those computers used more than 1,000 IP addresses from across the world to infect 48,000 PCs and servers at South Korean banks and broadcasting stations.

The spokesman told the Associated Press that the attack mimicked past hacking attempts by North Korea and pointed the finger at an espionage agency run by the military. … Read more

Yokohama misfires tweet about North Korea missile launch

The city of Yokohama in Japan has had to offer up some quick apologies to its nearly 42,000 followers for erroneously tweeting that North Korea had launched a missile at its homeland.

Earlier today, the Crisis Management Office Affairs Bureau for Yokohama tweeted that North Korea had launched a missile at Japan. The tweet stayed up for 20 minutes before being taken down and replaced with an apology from the city, saying that its tweet was sent out in error.

Yokohama acknowledged the error on its Web site (Google Translate), saying it created the tweet in advance to inform … Read more

Vudu resets user passwords after hard drives lost in office burglary

Video service Vudu began warning users today that it has instituted a systemwide password reset following an office break-in last month.

A burglary March 24 resulted in the loss of hard drives that contained users' sensitive personal information, including names, e-mail addresses, postal addresses, phone numbers, account activity, dates of birth, and the last four digits of some credit card numbers, Vudu Chief Technology Officer Prasanna Ganesan informed customers in an e-mail. He said no complete credit card numbers were stolen because the company does not store that information.

The stolen hard drives also contained encrypted passwords, and while Ganesan … Read more

LulzSec hackers plead guilty to attacks on Sony, Nintendo, more

Three members of hacker group LulzSec have pleaded guilty in a British court to carrying out cyberattacks against various media and entertainment companies and the U.K. National Health Service, according to media reports.

Ryan Ackroyd, 26; Jake Davis, 20; and Mustafa al-Bassam, 18, today all pleaded guilty to a computer hacking-related charge at Southwark crown court in London. They will be sentenced May 14 along with Ryan Cleary, who pleaded guilty to cyberattacks last year.

Ackroyd, who went by the hacker name "Kayla," admitted to trying to hack into several Web sites, including Sony, Nintendo, News Corp.'… Read more

Mozilla brands Persona as password killer

Mozilla's Web site log-in alternative known as Persona unveiled a Beta 2 version today. Now you can sign in to any Web site supporting Persona using a Yahoo Mail account.

Persona, which is still in development, is an open authentication system that works on desktops and mobile devices. In addition to being able to log in using either your Persona ID or your Yahoo credentials, today's release introduces support for Firefox OS, which means you can expect to use Persona to log in to any Firefox OS devices that launch later this year. It also includes back-end changes … Read more

Microsoft to add dual-factor sign-on security 'soon': report

Microsoft will toughen up its products' security by adding dual-factor authentication "soon," according to a report today by Liveside.net.

Judging by details in the Microsoft-focused blog, the approach closely mirrors what Google did years ago: authorization requiring both a password (the first factor) and a special six-digit code retrieved from an authenticator app on a person's smartphone (the second factor). The smartphone code changes frequently so it can't be used for long.

Microsoft offered only this comment today: "Security and privacy is a priority for Microsoft, however we have nothing new to share at … Read more

U.S. Air Force designates six cybertools as weapons

Six cybertools have been designated as weapons by the U.S. Air Force, allowing the programs to better compete for increasingly scarce Pentagon funding, an Air Force official said on Monday.

Lt. Gen. John Hyten, vice commander of Air Force Space Command, told a conference held in conjunction with the National Space Symposium that the new designations would boost the profile of the military's cyberoperations as countries grapple with attacks originating from the Internet.

"This means that the game-changing capability that cyber is, is going to get more attention and the recognition that it deserves," Hyten told … Read more

Windows 8's rising security tide raises all antivirus boats

In one of the first independent tests of third-party security suites on Windows 8, nearly all antivirus and anti-malware software tested well. What may surprise you is that even without a third-party suite, Windows 8 is relatively resistant to modern threats like zero-day attacks, according to the report.

Independent German security suite evaluators AV-Test.org publish bimonthly tests that rate the effectiveness of the biggest Windows security suites out there and rated all 26 of the suites they tested on Windows 8 in January and February as "certified," including Windows 8 itself. This is because Windows 8 comes … Read more

Facebook members in U.K. must pay to hob-knob with celebs

Facebook users in the U.K. are being treated to the same premium charges their counterparts in the U.S. have been hit with when sending messages to certain high-profile members on the social network, as well as people outside their circle of friends.

According to U.K. news site The Sunday Times, Facebook users in the U.K. late last week started being charged as much as 10 British pounds (about $15) to send messages to celebrity-status Facebook members. Olympic diver Tom Daley and former Children's laureate Michael Rosen are the most expensive celebrities to contact.

Facebook last year announced what it called a "small experiment" … Read more