hackers news stories on Newser

55K Twitter Passwords Leaked

Rob Quinn — Thu, 10 May 2012 02:20:53 CDT

The usernames and passwords of more than 55,000 Twitter tweeters were leaked online Monday in a data dump that has puzzled experts. Twitter says that at least 20,000 of the leaked accounts were duplicates, and many more were spam accounts that had already been suspended, InformationWeek reports. Password...

Web Service May Die for Hundreds of Thousands

Neal Colgrass — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 13:44:06 CDT

The FBI says it's time for Windows users to make sure their computers aren't infected by an unusual virus. As it stands, hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide are infected and will be unable to surf the Web after July 9, the AP reports. It all started when an Estonian...

Live in Utah? There's a 1 in 6 Chance You've Been Hacked

Evann Gastaldo — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 08:39:28 CDT

Almost 800,000 Utah residents—that's one in six people in the state—have been affected by a data breach exposing information including Social Security numbers, names, and dates of birth. Hackers broke into a Utah Department of Health computer server on March 30, and the breach was initially thought...

Anonymous Shuts Down Chinese Government Sites

Mary Papenfuss — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 03:08:37 CDT

Anonymous hackers are boasting that they shut down Chinese government web sites. A number of government sites were still not working today, and marked with error messages as officials scramble to get sites back up, reports AP . A message from Anonymous on one of the hacked sites indicated the Chinese...

Visa Dumps Processor After 1.5M Numbers Breached

Matt Cantor — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 10:15:21 CDT

Visa has made credit card processor Global Payments persona non grata after some 1.5 million numbers were breached in a massive hack announced Friday , and the New York Times notes that the figure could be as high as 3 million. Global Payments has been removed from Visa's list of...

Internet Protectors Brace for Anonymous Attack

John Johnson — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 08:32:56 CDT

If the Internet today reverts back to speeds of the dial-up days, there might be an explanation: Last month, Anonymous threatened to go after its backbone, the Domain Name System, on March 31, reports the New York Times . It's probably a safe bet that nothing much will happen, but the...

FBI: The Hackers Are Winning

Kevin Spak — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 09:22:29 CDT

If US businesses are in a war with computer hackers, the FBI's top cyber cop has bad news: "We're not winning." In an interview with the Wall Street Journal , Shawn Henry, who is leaving the bureau for a private cybersecurity gig, says the nation's current strategy for fending off digital...

ScarJo Hacker Pleads Guilty

Polly Davis Doig — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:07:28 CDT

The man responsible for bringing naked photos of Scarlett Johansson to the World Wide Web has pleaded guilty to nine felonies, including unauthorized access to a computer and wiretapping, reports TMZ . Christopher Chaney, 35, also accessed email accounts belonging to Mila Kunis and Christina Aguilera, and had forwarded other, less...

Anonymous' Latest Target: Pope

Rob Quinn — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 05:56:24 CDT

Pope Benedict XVI begins a trip to Mexico and Cuba today, but Mexicans searching for information about his visit may find Anonymous standing in the way. The Mexican branch of the hacking collective has crashed at least two websites for the papal visit, claiming that the visit is a political...