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Internet Outage in China Kicks Millions Offline
The nation of China experienced a major internet outage recently causing “millions of internet users” to be dropped “offline for hours“, according to articles published by both the Web Hosting Industry Review and Network World. The reports indicated – at approximately 3 pm – an undisclosed amount of “domestic service providers” were not able to connect with “China’s Domain Name System servers.” The articles also reported that these outages were caused by “an error with the nation’s generic top level domains (.COM, .INFO, .NET and .ORG) which redirected users to IP address 65.49.2.178” which is an address owned by Sophidea, a web hosting company based in California. According to the WHIR article, this hosting company is reported not to be in business and “has apparently…
Microsoft Blog Site Attacked by Hackers
The Microsoft blog site – dedicated to the Office software suite – was attacked this week by the hacking group called the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA), according to an article published both by the GMA Network and Tech Crunch. The GMA article indicates that the attackers defaced the blog site and “boasted about the attack on their Twitter account.” According to the GMA article, soon after Microsoft went public with their redesigned blog site for Office, the SEA “hacked and defaced the site multiple times.” The articles report that the hacking group “promised more attacks on Microsoft” and they delivered. The group posted several articles on the site titled “hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army” and then posted screenshots of the Microsoft Office blog’s administration panel…
Symantec Holds Hack Attack Contest
Anti-virus and cyber-security service provider Symantec will be conducting the “Hack Attack” contest in Israel on January 28th where “Israel’s best hackers” will have the opportunity to take part in a “simulated corporate espionage attack” and attempt, through assorted techniques, discover “who and how the attack took place by counter-hacking other sites and servers“, according to an article published on the Shalom Life website. The contest will be held during the Cybertech International Conference – sponsored by IsraelDefense, the Prime Minister’s National Cyber Bureau, and the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Economy – and expects to see approximately fifty individuals participating, according to the report. The article states that during the contest “points will be given for how far they can hack…
Claimed ID of Target Malware Maker Disputed
IntelCrawler, the California-based cyber-security firm, is the target of a recent dispute after claiming that a 17 year old Russian authored the malicious software which was responsible for the recent large “Target data breach“, according to reports from the Washington Post and KSDK News in St. Louis, MO. Internet security blogger and former Washington Post reporter Brian Krebs disputed the firm’s claims during an interview and on Twitter on January 19th, according to the article. It has been claimed by IntelCrawler and reported in the article that a Russian teenager “authored the malicious software and reportedly sold it for about $2,000 to dozens of cyber-criminals in Eastern Europe and other countries.” The article indicates that IntelCrawler reported that the teenager only “authored the…
Google Acquires Security Startup Impermium
Impermium, the California-based security firm, recently announced that they have joined the Internet giant Google to amplify the icon’s efforts in the battle against “spam and abuse“, according to a recent article published by Network World. Mark Risher, Impermium’s CEO and co-founder, was quoted in the article to say, “By joining Google, our team will merge with some of the best abuse fighters in the world.” Risher’s company is known to have “defended its customers against account hacking, account compromise, and other threats“, according to the report. The article states that “‘acqui-hiring” it is a common practice of some technology firms to “add talented engineers to their staff“. It has not been clarified, according to this report, if this recent acquisition was based…
2014 Security Forecast Not Good Says Cisco
In their annual security report, researchers from the networking equipment manufacturer Cisco, recently predicted an ominous security forecast for 2014 suggesting that the recent security breach at Target was just the beginning of more attacks in the future, according to an article published by ZDNet. The article indicates that “a gap” has appeared over the past few years creating difficulties for “skilled security professionals” to manage the “exponential growth for mobile and cloud technologies.” Cisco’s reports, according to the article, that this gap provides attackers with “unimaginable opportunities.” The current flood of news stories regarding security and the constant reports of “wide-scale attacks” launched on Target and other retailers outlines the reality that the world could be faced with “unprecedented growth…