hackers - page 2

Yahoo hack hit all 3 billion accounts in 2013

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Yahoo
The hack was bigger than anyone imagined.
Photo: Yahoo

Yahoo’s huge security breach was already considered the largest hack ever when it was revealed at the end of last year, but it appears to have been even worse than the company originally knew.

In a new filing with the SEC, Yahoo, which is now part of Oath, disclosed that all of its approximately 3 billion accounts were impacted by the breach. If you’re still using an old Yahoo password, now is a really good time to change it.

Alleged hackers raise their Apple ransom to $700,000

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money
Hackers have upped their demands.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The so-called “Turkish Crime Family” hackers who claim they’ve got access to hundreds of millions of Apple customer accounts have raised their ransom demand from $75,000 to a whopping $700,000.

The group, which is apparently based in the U.K., has threatened to remotely wipe users’ devices, or reset iCloud accounts, if it’s not paid by April 7. Apple has denied that the hackers have breached iCloud, although the accounts themselves are real.

Apple denies that millions of iCloud accounts have been hacked

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The CIA has a team of more than 5,000 hackers.
Hackers have threatened to remotely wipe devices belonging to millions of users.
Photo: Brian Klug/Flickr CC

Apple is denying reports that hackers have gained access to up to 559 million customer accounts, and are extorting the company by promising to remotely wipe devices of their data.

Hackers identifying themselves as the “Turkish Crime Family” this week demanded $75,000 in cryptocurrencies Bitcoin or Ethereum from Apple, or else $100,000 in iTunes gift cards. In exchange, they have said they will delete their alleged data cache.

Famous jailbreaker says WikiLeaks CIA dump is overhyped

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The CIA has been hoarding zero day exploits.
The CIA has been hoarding zero day exploits.
Photo: US Gov.

WikiLeak’s trove of CIA cyber documents is being hyped as one of the biggest leaks since Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the NSA. But according to one of the world’s top jailbreakers, you shouldn’t believe the hype.

Cyber security expert Will Strafach, who gained notoriety under the name Chronic for finding zero-day exploits used for jailbreaking, says iOS users don’t need to be worried.

World’s fiercest iPhone jailbreaker can be shy in the spotlight

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Jay
Jay "saurik" Freeman, maker of Cydia, says there are legit reasons to jailbreak your iPhone.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Cult of Mac 2.0 bugThis is the first in a three-part series on jailbreaking iOS.

The leading figure in the jailbreak community has the ideal name in defending your right to circumvent your iPhone’s operating system.

Jay Freeman is known to serve his community with a Braveheart-like passion, defending the practice with the sharp edge of his intellect and a seemingly inexhaustible energy for argument.

Dangerous new Mac malware fully compromises OS X

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Bitdefender
Bitdefender found a new backdoor into OS X.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple’s Mac systems have been exposed to a dangerous new piece of malware that allows attackers to take full control of OS X.

The new malware, dubbed Backdoor.MAC.Eleanor by security researchers, provides attackers with a backdoor into OS X systems by embedding a script into a fake file converter application that’s found on many reputable sites that sell Mac apps.

Hackers try to bribe Apple employees for login info

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Apple employees can make thousands selling their login info.
Apple employees can make thousands selling their login info.
Photo: Apple

Apple employees are being assaulted with offers from hackers to give them login details to Apple’s internal servers, and they’re willing to pay a king’s ransom if you’ve got the right info.

In Ireland, employees have received offers of over $20,000 for their Apple ID login, but it appears that Apple is well aware of the problem and has launched a new program to combat the problem.

Apple says ‘screw you’ to Europe’s largest hacker conference

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Apple offers up to $1.5 million to anyone who spots a software flaw
You know, hackers like these guys!
Photo: United Artists

The Chaos Computer Club, Europe’s largest collective of hackers, claims that Apple rejected the group’s streaming video app — which would allow users to watch talks from its Chaos Communications Congress event.

Why? Because members of the conference had previously hacked iOS, and Apple doesn’t want to help spread the hacking word.

Mysterious iPhone 6 running iOS 7 hacked together from leaked parts

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iPhone-6-Clone-03

The Chinese are so good at cloning Apple’s upcoming products that they regularly release fully functional doppelgangers of the next iPhone before Apple has even officially announced it. But these are ‘clones’ in only the vaguest sense, because they always have one major problem: they run Android, not iOS.

But that’s not true with this iPhone 6 clone. Although it looks exactly like an iPhone 6, it appears to be running iOS 7, not Android.

iOS devices are being held hostage by hackers down under

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Hacked users were targeted by 'Oleg Pliss' and advised to send $100 to a PayPal account to unlock their iOS devices.
Hacked users were targeted by 'Oleg Pliss' and advised to send $100 to a PayPal account to unlock their iOS devices.

A number of Mac and iOS users from across Australia have had their Macs, iPhones and iPads remotely locked by hackers — and money demanded if they want to be able to continue using the devices.

Affected users have taken to Apple’s support forum, along with social media, to discuss the issue.

Joint effort: FBI reaches out to pot-smoking hackers

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Leonardo Di Caprio in J. Edgar.
Leonardo DiCaprio in J. Edgar.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation needs to hire more hackers — and that means changing the rules about how much pot you can smoke on the job.

“I have to hire a great work force to compete with those cybercriminals, and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview,” FBI Director James B. Comey told the Wall Street Journal.

NBC Report On Instant Hacking In Sochi Is Utter Bullsh*t

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post-265602-image-6075752a43c3200beb7bddc47254915c-jpg

Did you watch that? It’s total crap.

The security expert quoted in the piece, Kyle Wilhoit, has just written a blog post that calls out the report, essentially saying that the hacks shown in the video can happen anywhere, and require some risky user behavior to even happen.

That’s a long way from “if [tourists] fire up their phones at baggage claim, it’s probably too late to save the integrity of their electronics,” as Brian Williams claims in the clip above.

Talk about fear-mongering.

Worried About Security? Don’t Use The Starbucks App

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sbux

If you’re particularly concerned about the security of your passwords, you might want to stay away from Starbucks’ official iOS app: the Seattle-based coffee maker has just confirmed that passwords, credentials and location in the company’s app are stored in plain text, and are not hashed or encrypted at all.

iOS 7 Will Close Major Security Vulnerability That Allows Any Device To Be Hacked

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iOS 7 will fix a charger exploit that let any device be hacked.
iOS 7 will fix a charger exploit which let any device be hacked.

Last month, security researchers figured out there was a Trojan horse built into an iOS device: the charger. If a hacker wanted to, they could use a modified charger (which costs less than $45) that would install malware onto any device running iOS.

True, the hack required physical proximity — not to mention specialized hardware — to work. But it was a universal hack that worked on any device, and it could make a victim out of anyone doing something as simple as asking to borrow someone’s iPhone charger at the local Starbucks.

A bad hack indeed. But Apple’s on the case.

iOS 6.1.3 Contains A New Passcode Security Flaw

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iPhone Self Improvement

iOS 6.1 had not one, but two security exploits that allowed an attacker to bypass an iPhone’s lockscreen to gain access to a users’ data. Apple finally patched up those two holes yesterday with the iOS 6.1.3 update, yet the new version of iOS contains another passcode security flaw.

Using the iPhone’s Control feature, attackers can still bypass your lockscreen. The good news is that the new lockscreen exploit only works on iPhone 4 units right now.

How The Absinthe 2.0 Untethered Jailbreak Works Its Magic On Your iOS Device

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Corona-sign

During today’s Jailbreak Live event at the Hack in the Box conference in Amsterdam, Pod2g and his “dream team” of iOS hackers took to the stage to unveil the long-awaited iOS 5.1.1 untethered jailbreak. The team also explained how the Absinthe 2.0 software works its magic and opens your device up to a world filled with apps and tweaks that Apple never wanted you to install on your device.

Here’s how it works.

iOS 5.1.1 Untethered Jailbreak Expected To Go Live Tomorrow Morning

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You'll want to be online this Friday morning.
You'll want to be online this Friday morning.

We’ve been waiting a long time for Pod2g and his team to release the untethered jailbreak for devices running iOS 5.1.1, but that wait could soon be over. It was already confirmed earlier this week that Absinthe 2.0 was just a matter of days away, sparking speculation that hackers will pull a “one more thing” announcement on the last day of this week’s “Hack in the Box” conference in Amsterdam.

According to the event’s official Twitter feed, that’s exactly what’s going to happen.