27,000 Computers Participating in OpMegaupload DDoS Attack (Exclusive)

Since news got out that Megaupload had been closed and some of their administrators arrested, Anonymous hackers called all their supporters to launch massive distributed denial of service attacks against government websites and the ones owned by the media industry and their representatives.


We managed to get in touch with one of the individuals who are aiding Anonymous launch these attacks to find out some details.

It turns out that Internet users from around the world are participating in the attack, which not only represents a protest against the fact that Megaupload is closed down, but also a continuation of the protest against SOPA.

At the time of writing, the participants in the DDOS attack are targeting the online stores of Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) and Warner Bros Records, the main reason being to show them that sales can drop due to other reasons, not only piracy.

One of the protestors, Scout395, has been sending large packets to websites using the HOIC tool, but others are instructed by Anonymous to use LOIC or SLOWORIS. Asked if he’s not afraid of being tracked down, Scout395 replied that they were precisely instructed on how to hide their IPs using VPN services.

The IRC channel dedicated to the operation is flooded with users from all around the world, including Denmark, Portugal, Chile, Estonia, Sweden and Norway, Anonymous reports claiming that around 27,000 computers are taking part. It seems that SOPA is not causing waves only in the US.

“SOPA is actually a huge discussion in my school too. Many of the ‘computer nerds’ around here are outraged,” said Scout395, a student from Denmark.

While he has nothing to do with hacking, he joined the protest to show his support.

“I hate the fact that the feds can take down internet websites, and they don't know the consequences of what they are doing. Furthermore, I stand for what Anonymous stands for, and somehow I felt like joining the resistance. I want to be a part of the group that prevented SOPA,” he said.

For now, the attacks continue with all the participants proposing new targets. Apple, NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchange are just a few of them.

news.softpedia.com

Hacker Finds Way to Take Over Grindr Accounts, Millions Exposed

Grindr, a social networking smartphone application addressed to gay communities, and its straight counterpart Blendr were found to contain some serious vulnerabilities that would allow anyone to take over a user’s profile and modify its content.

The app uses a device’s GPS to locate other individuals and according to the developer’s website, more than one million people use it worldwide.

The Sidney Morning Herald reveals that an unnamed hacker proved how easily accounts can be overtaken and even created a website that exploited some of the flaws. The vulnerabilities were proven by the hacker by changing the profile pictures of some users to explicit ones. 

The security weakness allows anyone who wants to do damage to log in as any user, see favourites, change profile information and pictures, talk to other customers and access the pictures sent to the victim.

All this is possible due to a hash that the phones exchange when users are communicating with each other. This hash can be utilized to access an account, without the attacker needing to know passwords or usernames.

Grindr’s CEO and founder Joel Simkhai explained that a patch was being developed to address the vulnerabilities.

“We [do] get people trying to hack into our servers. That's something that I am aware of and we certainly have a team in place that are working to prevent that,” Simkhai told SMH.

“We are certainly aware of a lot of these vulnerabilities and ... they will be fixed as fast as humanly possible.”

Referring to the vulnerability found in Grindr and Blendr, Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at Sophos says that they’re “elementary security mistakes” that many sites contain.

In the meantime, while the patches are being delivered, users can delete their profile if they fear their privacy is at risk.

news.softpedia.com

Hackers Prove EA, IGN, ImageShack, NY Times, Verizon Vulnerable

A relatively new hacking collective, TeamHav0k, launched an operation called “#OP XSS” in which they try to find cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities in major websites. The first results of the operation came in and it turns out that a lot of important sites contain the flaw the hackers were looking for.

A Pastebin document reveals that websites such as the ones belonging to Verizon, Huffington Post, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) , Electronic Arts (EA), IGN and New York Times contain some design flaws.

 Some education institutions were also found to contain XSS security holes, including University of Illinois, Harvard, Yale and Rockefeller University.

Telecoms company Verizon, media hosting company ImageShack, value calculator and traffic estimator tool StatShow, Major League Gaming, and Dr Pepper complete the list.

Even though XSS vulnerabilities are among the most common ones found in commercial websites, this doesn’t mean they’re not dangerous. Cybercriminals can rely on these weaknesses to execute their own malicious codes and cause damage to the virtual assets of unsuspecting Internet users.

Fortunately, some web browsers protect their customers against these attacks. For instance, Internet Explorer 9 displays a warning message to reveal that the page is modified to prevent cross-site scripting.

Google Chrome also mitigates the attack, but Opera and Mozilla Firefox fail to do so, leaving their users exposed.

Major websites, such as the ones mentioned before, should really put an effort into securing their domains against these common flaws. Because of the large numbers of visitors they have each day, hackers could use them for malevolent purposes.

Since TeamHav0k didn’t take advantage of the flaws, we can only assume that they’re a group of gray hats whose main purpose is to alert website administrators of existing vulnerabilities. We have tried to contact them to learn more about their mission and their purposes, so stay tuned for more details.

news.softpedia.com

Hackers Around the World: German Version of Desmond from Assassin’s Creed

This week, the series Hackers around the world presents a grey hat from Germany that’s famous for hacking into sites such as MySQL.com, CIA.gov. NASA.gov, and some famous university websites such as the ones that belong to Oxford and Harvard.

The hacker, which many may know as D35m0nd142, was kind enough to offer some interesting insight regarding gray hats, the way they’re perceived by society, and the German and international hacking scenes.

Softpedia: What does your name represent? Does it have any special meaning?

D35m0nd142: Desmond is the name of the protagonist of Assassin’s Creed and ‘142’ is my birthday date, but I can’t detail.

I just like the name and I chose it because it sounded good, that’s all. There isn’t any particular reason.

Softpedia: How long ago and why did you start hacking? Tell me about the period when you started hacking.


D35m0nd142: I started hacking 3-4 years ago because initially I had fun making jokes to friends and girlfriends. XD

When I saw that I was fascinated by this science I wanted to dedicate myself to the study of computer security and programming. I must confess that initially I enjoyed defacing the sites, but then I decided I wanted to help administrators.

Softpedia: How did this transition occur, from bad to good? Is there any particular reason why you had a change of heart?

D35m0nd142: I had this change when I realized that there isn’t any pleasure in ruining other people’s work.

Softpedia: Back in the days when you were a black hat, what did you do? Steal credit card and other information, deface sites, leak data?

D35m0nd142: I have never stolen a credit card because I am not a thief. Back in the day I took more databases and I defaced some sites but my specialty is not this last one.

However I have never been a real black hat.

Softpedia: Now, in your gray hat days you hacked a lot of important websites. Which of them would you say were the hardest to crack and which were the most important?

D35m0nd142: The most important were CIA and NASA I think, but I cannot say which was the most difficult because all had the same vulnerability and so it was easy to get into their systems. The most difficult thing is to find the weak spot.

Softpedia: During these hacks, did you ever try to contact the site's admins to tell them about the vulnerabilities they had, or you just made them public?

D35m0nd142: In some situations the sites I’ve hacked were warned before I attacked them, but when I saw they did not care I proceeded to make them understand better.

I bet that some of them have not yet fixed the bug.

Softpedia: Did you deface sites as a gray hat, or did you only leak information from their databases?

D35m0nd142: Yeah, I’ve defaced many sites but they were not very important and in any case I don’t like too much to deface a site.

I prefer to leak their databases. I think that the privacy of customers or administrators is the most important thing.

The main page, even if it is changed, it can be returned without problems. A number of stolen credit cards create many more problems.

Softpedia: To your knowledge, did any of these websites report you to the authorities?

D35m0nd142: Good question. Unfortunately, I do not know this, but I hope it has not happened.

However, I’m not scared because I’ve never caused damage, or at least not voluntarily.

Usually when I publish a database with important information, the passwords published are encrypted to prevent other people from doing damage.

Softpedia: Can you tell me how old you are?

D35m0nd142: I am 20 years old, nearly 21.

Softpedia: What can you tell me about your studies? Where and how did you learn programming?

D35m0nd142: I studied computer science at school but I learned everything at home alone, thanks to my obsession and passion.

I started programming in C, PHP, Python and SQL following a few simple guides found on Google. I am not a real specialized programmer. I'm much more an expert in computer security.

Softpedia: Do you want to make a career out of this passion for security or will it remain only a hobby?

D35m0nd142: If possible I’d like to work all my life in this area, if not, it will always remain a hobby.

Softpedia: Do you currently study at a college?

D35m0nd142: Currently, I am looking for a job, but I continue to study on my own.

Softpedia: This proves that you can learn a lot of things on your own if you're determined enough.

D35m0nd142: Absolutely! The only bad thing about hacking is that it becomes like a drug. You always find a site or system that attracts you more than the previous.

Softpedia: Many hackers say that hacking is like a drug. Do you ever think you'll quit?

D35m0nd142: I thought about this many times, but when I turn on the computer, just to see a video on YouTube, I find myself practicing hacking. It isn’t easy to quit.

But the important thing is to have a minimum of self-control.

Softpedia: How do you think gray hats are seen by society and website administrators? Are they considered a threat or a good thing?

D35m0nd142: I think people think of a hacker as a criminal independently of what he does. Unfortunately there are many more lamers now, so administrators also consider grey hats as criminals. But, maybe I'm wrong.

Everywhere I look I read articles where lamers are called hackers.

Many lamers are simple skript-kiddies. Many lamers take down website with DDoS attacks with tools like LOIC. Anyone would be able to do.

Softpedia: Tell me more about the German hacking scene. Are there a lot of active hackers? I saw that Anonymous keeps targeting what they call 'nazi websites.'

D35m0nd142: I totally agree with Anonymous in this case. I don’t approve nazi-websites. Only stupid people can create such sites. However, in Germany there are many computer hackers and they are also very good.

But, the best, in my opinion, are the British.

Softpedia: Why are they the best?

D35m0nd142: First ground - they have an advantage because all the software is written in English. Also in programming languages.

All server configurations are in English and it is a great advantage. For example, Backtrack, a distro with a lot of security tools.

Softpedia: Yes, but the Americans have the same advantage. What makes the British hackers better?

D35m0nd142: I think this way because in my opinion the best hacker of all time is Gary McKinnon. And so there are a lot of hackers in Great Britain. For example, Coldfire or Cyberjunkie.

Softpedia: Can you tell me of an operation, pulled off by German hackers, which caused waves on an international level?

D35m0nd142: Honestly, I do not follow much of the German operations. In Germany, mainly, viruses that circulate on the networks are discovered. In Germany there are a lot of white hats.

But we all know that the black hats are the ones that make the news more.

Softpedia: With the economic crisis, Anonymous and other hackers are starting to launch threats to governments and the rulers of different countries. Are there any hackers that threaten the German government or Angela Merkel?

D35m0nd142: Currently Merkel isn’t the first thought of Anonymous and hackers in general. Usually Anonymous announce their attacks, but for now there isn’t any important message for her.

I follow a lot of Anonymous operations and I have not read anything about it. She’s lucky for now.

 

Anonymous Reveals Support for Protests in Romania

A couple of days ago we’ve seen how the protests in Romania are used by cybercriminals to spread their malicious campaigns. At the time, we wrote that unlike in other countries, these Occupy-like movements are not backed up by Anonymous hackers, but this has now changed.

The hacktivist collective released a video to show their support for the street protests that have taken place in Romania in the past days.

“After 22 years of theft, lies and manipulation, perpetuated by your governments, and the corporate media, your voices are being heard once more on the streets of your cities,” Anonymous says in their video statement.

“You must acknowledge the fact that bringing down one man, and choosing another will not solve your problems. This will only perpetuate the political circus that has been unfolding in front of your eyes for 22 years. You must acknowledge the fact that your entire political class is corrupt and does not serve the interest of the people, as it should.”

22 years ago, after the revolution that represented the end of communism in Romania, the country’s citizens hoped that democracy and the freedom that came with it were about to improve their lifestyles significantly.

Now, as in many countries, the economic crisis has taken its toll and the country’s government has been forced to take drastic measures to support Romania’s financial situation. However, the citizens are not content with the measures adopted by their leaders and protests, some peaceful and some more violent, are taking place.

With the message released by hackers operating under the name Anonymous, Romania joins the list of countries whose citizens are supported by the hacktivists.

So far, no targets have been officially announced, but we may expect that as in other places where Anonymous got involved, government and corporation websites might end up being hacked and defaced to host protest messages.

news.softpedia.com

Anonymous Hacks Romanian Child Protection Agency Naming It Corrupt

Anonymous hackers, as part of operation AntiSec, breached and defaced the website of Romanian Social Services and Child protection Agency (DGASPCGR), located in Giurgiu county, calling it a corrupt organization and threatening to shut it down completely in the next days.

“Dear Romanian Government. Once again you failed us by not being able to help childrens with your fake organization, an organization that is using people money for support…but we wonder where all that money goes?!” the hackers wrote on the defaced webpage.


“Therefore, as this fake organization has become useless, we decided that it’s website can no longer be a part of the internet, so expect a shutdown in the next 2 days (sic).”

This is not the first time when the institution’s website is defaced. Back in October 2011, hackers proved that they had complete control over it.
t the time, they posted a similar message addressed to the Romanian Police, appointing the law enforcement organization as being corrupt.

One month later, since the website’s administrators failed to secure it, they posted the picture of a student, along with alleged evidence to prove that he deals illegal drugs in education institutions.

Hackers operating under the Anonymous name have been very busy lately in Romania. After street protests against the political class started, they released a video statement to reveal their full support for the movements that take place.

Since the beginning of 2012, a lot of government websites worldwide proved themselves to be highly vulnerable, giving hacktivists the opportunity to breach them with the purpose of making their messages heard.

Many security experts named 2011 the year of the hacktivist, but judging by the first weeks of 2012, the upcoming months will be marked even more by hacking operations, especially ones that target state institutions and major organizations.

news.softpedia.com 

Hacker attack in Azerbaijan carried out from Iran and Netherlands

Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan.21 / Trend H.Veliyev/
Hacker attacks on government and public Internet resources of Azerbaijan were carried out from Iran and Netherlands, Minister of Communications and Information Technologies Ali Abbasov told reporters on Saturday.

"Twenty five sites suffered as a result of the attack, but their work was restored in about two hours," Abbasov said.

"Investigation on the case was completed the day before, and it was revealed that 24 attacks were carried out from Iran, and one from the Netherlands," Abbasov said.

"We sent a letter to the Iranian side yesterday indicating the exact address where the attack was carried out. We believe that Iran could be used as a transit country and the attack could have been initiated from a third country."


"We believe that the state agencies of those countries aren't involved in this case," Abbasov said.
Abbasov noted that attacks were made on Azerbaijani Internet resources on Jan. 16, on 35 sites of Iran on Jan. 17, on more than 300 Armenian websites on Jan. 19.
"We need to cooperate not only with Iran but also with other neighboring countries in order to prevent such cases. Azerbaijan provides the co-operation within the framework of the Convention on Cybercrime" Abbasov added.
According to Abbasov, this event can be counted as a signal.
"We decided to carry out comprehensive measures in this regard," he said. "These measures envisage the preparation of the main organizational and normative - legal documents and the implementation of necessary technical work. We will cooperate with other state agencies, as well as the agencies of other countries."
Azerbaijan information resources of various agencies, public organizations and mass media, located on the servers of a computer center of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies of Azerbaijan and the Special State Protection Service of Azerbaijan were hacked on Jan. 16.

http://en.trend.az/

ProDefence.org is Offline

Community Forum will be offline for a few months

 
The whole team will do our best to return as soon as possible to continue to inform you and to learn you about Internet security

All accounts will be opened and you will be informed if changes will occur

 For any proposal or question send e-mail to: 

prodefenceteam@gmail.com

 ProDefence Team

Comodo Internet Security 2012 για έναν χρόνο

To Professional Defence Community διοργανώνει μια μεγάλη κλήρωση με έναν μεγάλο νικητή.
Τι κερδίζει ο νικητής;  Μια  άδεια ενός χρόνου για το COMODO Internet Security 2012.
Τι χρειάζεται για να μπείτε στην κλήρωση; Απλά γράψτε ένα σχόλιο σε αυτό το θέμα δηλώνοντας ότι θέλετε να συμμετέχετε.
Πότε θα λήξει η κλήρωση; Η κλήρωση θα τελειώσει στις 5 Ιανουαρίου 2012 και ο μεγάλος νικητής θα ανακοινωθεί σε αυτό το θέμα και θα ενημερωθεί μέσω προσωπικού μηνύματος για περεταίρω βηματα.
Ποιοί μπορούν να συμμετέχουν; Όλα τα μέλη μπορούν να συμμετέχουν!

http://www.prodefence.org/index.php/topic/1842-comodo-internet-security-2012-klirwsi

Ευχαριστούμε,
ProDefence Team

Prodefence.org – «Insider»: Ανάλυση και εντοπισμός δημιουργού κακόβουλου λογισμικού υποκλοπής κωδικών χρηστών!

Συχνά πυκνά ακούμε για κακόβουλο λογισμικό που παραβιάζει κωδικούς χρηστών ή προσωπικούς υπολογιστές, χωρίς να γίνει αντιληπτή η δράση του παρά μόνο όταν οι κωδικοί έχουν διαρρεύσει στο διαδίκτυο.
Όπως ενημερωθήκαμε από το γνωστό Forum «Prodefence.org»  ,ο Insider χρησιμοποιώντας  κοινά διαθέσιμα εργαλεία, κατόρθωσε όχι μόνο να αναλύσει ένα τέτοιο λογισμικό αλλά να εντοπίσει πλήρως και τον αποστολέα-δημιουργό του. Το λογισμικό που ανέλυσε η ομάδα του Prodefence, είναι κατηγορίας «Stealer», δηλαδή κακόβουλο λογισμικό που <…>
καταγράφει κωδικούς χρηστών και τους αποστέλλει σε προκαθορισμένη e-mail διεύθυνση. Επιπροσθέτως ο δημιουργός του κακόβουλου λογισμικού είχε λάβει όλα τα απαραίτητα μέτρα ώστε να μην μπορεί να εντοπιστεί, παρά μόνο από ελάχιστες μηχανές Antivirus (το 81% των μηχανών antivirus δεν το εντόπιζαν ως κακόβουλο λογισμικό). Το εν λόγω κακόβουλο εργαλείο επέτρεπε υποκλοπή κωδικών Firefox, Internet Explorer,Dyndns,Rapidshare,FileZilla,MSN,Twitter κ.α.
O Insider προχώρησε σε ανάλυση του Malware, εντοπίζοντας το λογαριασμό e-mail και κωδικό που αποστέλνονταν τα δεδομένα των θυμάτων-χρηστών. Δείτε παρακάτω  video που υποδεικνύει επακριβώς την διαδικασία:

 Source: secnews.gr

ESET Smart Security 5 - Προστασία του Υπολογιστή

Το ESET μπορείτε να το βρείτε είτε απο το eset.com είτε απο το eset.com/gr το ελληνικό site. Διατίθεται σε Web installer δηλαδή κατέβασμα κατα την εγκατάσταση ή offline installer, κατέβασμα ολόκληρου του πακέτου εγκατάστασης.

Όπως και να χει η εγκατάσταση διαρκεί 5 λεπτά που είναι πολλά σε σχέση με άλλα λογισμικά προστασίας, και πριν την εγκατάσταση χρειάζεται επιπλέον να κάνετε κάποιες απλές ρυθμίσεις για να ξεκινήσετε. Μόλις τελειώσει η εγκατάσταση θα δείτε το απλοποιημένο menu στην 5 έκδοση του eset. Όλα είναι πιο εύκολα και οργανωμένα τώρα για εσάς.

Read more...

Malwarebytes - Προστασία του Υπολογιστή

Το Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware πρόκειται για ένα εργαλείο που το χρησιμοποιώ προσωπικά και διατίθεται δωρεάν άλλα και σε αγορά με επιπρόσθετες χρήσιμες επιλογές το έχω αρκετό καιρό για την απομάκρυσή διάφορων ενοχλητικών malware είναι εύκολο στην χρήση του καθώς και στην διαδικασία της αναζήτησης δεν επιβαρύνει τον δίσκο ώστε να κολλάει και στην συνεχεία μόλις τελειώσει με την αναζήτηση σου δείχνει ποια είναι για διαγραφή ποια επιλεγείς να γίνουν για διαγραφή όταν τελειώσει σου βγάζει ένα αρχείο κείμενου που σου αναφέρει πόσες μολύνσεις διαγράφτηκαν επιτυχώς.Με μια επανεκκίνηση μπορείς να απολήψεις τον καθαρισμένο σου υπολογιστή
Έχει καθημερινή ενημέρωση από τα malwares που κυκλοφορούν και μπλοκάρει ιστοτόπους που μπορούν να βλάψουν τον υπολογιστή μας.

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AVG - Internet Security - Προστασία του Υπολογιστή

Γρήγορο στην εγκατάσταση, η οποία γίνεται online με web installer, πολύ ελαφρύ, με καλές προεπιλεγμένες ρυθμίσεις, χωρίς να βαραίνει ολόκληρο το μηχάνημα στην σάρωση του σκληρού, με προστασία πραγματικού χρόνου και επιπρόσθετα εργαλεία για καθάρισμα του υπολογιστή απο άχρηστα και κατακερματισμένα αρχεία.

Το μόνο αρνητικό του είναι ότι το firewall μειώνει αισθητά κατα πολύ την ταχύτητα του ιντερνέτ, και αυτό δεν είναι ωραίο γιατί ως ολοκληρωμένη σουίτα προστασίας αγγίζει το τέλιο. Υπάρχουν και άλλα πολύ καλύτερα firewall που δεν καταλαβαίνεις ότι είναι ενεργά και φυσικά κάνουν πολύ καλύτερη δουλειά και στο μπλοκάρισμα και στην ανίχνευση κακόβουλων ιστοσελίδων.

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