Criminal Hackers

LAS VEGAS--In retaliation for arrests, the AntiSec hackers say they've released their "largest cache yet" of data stolen from law enforcement agencies in the U.S., including personal information, private e-mails, passwords, training files, data from informants, Social Security Numbers, and stolen credit card information from an online sheriff's store.

The news of the latest attacks comes on the second day of the DefCon hacker conference here, where attendees have been playing a digital hacker version of "Where's Waldo" to try to spot one of the more notorious hackers associated with the group, … Read more

A widespread cyber-espionage campaign stole government secrets, sensitive corporate documents, and other intellectual property for five years from more than 70 public and private organizations in 14 countries, according to the McAfee researcher who uncovered the effort.

The campaign, dubbed "Operation Shady RAT" (RAT stands for "remote access tool") was discovered by Dmitri Alperovitch, vice president of threat research at the cyber-security firm McAfee. Vanity Fair's Michael Joseph Gross was first to write about the findings. The targets cut across industries, including government, defense, energy, electronics, media, real estate, agriculture, and construction. The governments hit … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Hackers of all types will be making their annual pilgrimage to the Black Hat and DefCon security conferences this week, including children who will learn how to write ciphers, hack circuit boards, and pick locks.

This marks the first year for DefCon Kids, which targets children aged 8 to 16. The event will run alongside all of the regular DefCon security and hacking sessions and the fun events for the adults like Hacker Karaoke, Hacker Jeopardy, Mohawk-Con, and an alcoholic ice cream contest.

"DefCon is a very adult orientated conference, more of a party then your typical conference. … Read more

Hackers flying the AntiSec banner today released what they said was 400 megabytes of internal data from a government cybersecurity contractor, ManTech, as part of their campaign to embarrass the FBI every Friday, as well as target other government agencies and their partners.

"Today is Friday and we will be following the tradition of humiliating our friends from the FBI once again. This time we hit one of their biggest contractors for cyber security: Mantech International Corporation," the hackers said in a statement on PirateBay.

"What ManTech has to do with the FBI? Well, quite simple: In … Read more

A hacker accused of breaking into an AT&T Web site and stealing data of iPad users is negotiating a plea agreement a month after an alleged co-conspirator pleaded guilty, Reuters reported today.

Andrew Auernheimer was indicted three weeks ago by a Newark, N.J., grand jury on one count of conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to computers and one count of identity theft. Auernheimer, who lives in Fayetteville, Ark., is free on bail.

U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton put Auernheimer's case on hold yesterday, saying "plea negotiations are currently in progress and both the United … Read more

Personal information of 35 million South Koreans has been compromised as a result of a hacking attack on the company that runs the country's biggest social network and a major Web search engine, according to reports.

SK Communications, which operates the Cyworld social-networking site and the Nate portal site, said today that the hacking and exposure of names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, resident registration numbers, and passwords, originated from malicious code that appeared to come from China, The Korea Herald reported.

"The company has confirmed that a leak of customers' information has taken place due to hacking on … Read more

The British Metropolitan Police said today that they have arrested a 19-year-old who uses the nickname "Topiary" and is believed to be a key member of the LulzSec hacking group.

"The man arrested is believed to be linked to an ongoing international investigation into the criminal activity of the so-called 'hacktivist' groups Anonymous and LulzSec, and uses the online nickname 'Topiary,' which is presented as the spokesperson for the groups," Scotland Yard said in a statement. "He was arrested at a residential address in the Shetland Islands and is currently being transported to a police … Read more

Sixteen people were arrested in the United States today in connection with hacking attacks by the Anonymous group of online activists, as well as one person in the U.K. and four people in the Netherlands, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

An indictment filed last week in San Jose, Calif., names 14 people accused of conspiring to intentionally damage protected computers at PayPal last December in retribution for PayPal suspending WikiLeaks' account to prevent supporters from donating to the whistleblower site. The arrests were made in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, New … Read more

The LulzSec hacker group has turned its sights on Rupert Murdoch's U.K. newspaper The Sun, hacking the site to direct visitors to a fake article claiming the media mogul had died and releasing information on journalists.

The group announced on Twitter that "The Sun's homepage now redirects to the Murdoch death story on the recently-owned New Times website. Can you spell success, gentlemen?"

The New Times site was inaccessible this afternoon, but screenshots captured before it was taken off line show a headline that says "Media Moguls Body Discovered" and a story that … Read more