Showing posts with label Hackers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hackers. Show all posts
The Co-Founder of Pirate Bay "Gottfrid Svartholm Warg" (Anakata) was found Guilty in Denmark's Largest Hacking Case
The Pirate Bay
The co-founder of The Pirate Bay torrent site Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and his 21-year-old Danish co-defendant have been found guilty by a Danish court of hacking into systems operated by American IT giant CSC and illegally downloading files. It was the biggest hacking case ever conducted in the history of Denmark.
By breaking into the servers maintained by CSC, Svartholm Warg illegally accessed police email accounts and stolen email addresses and passwords of over 10,000 policemen, explored the European border control database, and downloaded millions of social security numbers belonging to Danish citizens. The initial hack attack took place for about six months.
"This is the largest hacking case to date. The crime is very serious, and this must be reflected in the sentence," Prosecutor Maria Cingali said.
Gottfrid Svartholm allegedly committed the crime along with his his 21-year-old co-defendant between February and August 2012. His co-defendant is only known by the alias of "JKT" as the Judge Kari Sørensen, who presided over the case, ordered media outlets not to publish his name in order to protect the man’s privacy.
The defence team argued that although the hack attacks were carried out using a computer owned by Svartholm, but he was not the person that used it to steal the files as, they said, his entire group of developers had access to the computer. So, any one of them could be responsible for the hacking.
"My recommendation has always been that the investigation has focused on finding clues that point to my client, even though the tracks have also pointed in another direction," lawyer Louise Høj said, as cited by TorrentFreak. "It is clear that my client’s computer has been the subject of remote control, and therefore he is not responsible."
However, the court said the unauthorized access to CSC computer mainframes was a "systematic and organised" approach, dismissing the Swede’s claims that his computer system was used by someone else to carry out the hack as "unlikely," the Local reports.
Security expert Jacob Appelbaum, a well-known activist and leading member of the Tor project - an open source and free anonymous browser service, said that it would have been easy for an outsider to gain access to Warg’s computer. He pointed out that Danish authorities had found no forensic evidence and all of the evidence had been provided by CSC.
Appelbaum expressed his disappointment with the conviction on Twitter. "Gottfrid convicted. I'm sad to hear that only two of the jurors understand the technology involved," Appelbaum tweeted yesterday.
Gottfrid Svartholm was arrested in his Cambodian apartment in September 2012 and it took two years before he went on trial in Denmark. In September 2013, he was deported from Cambodia to Sweden where he served a jail term for copyright theft because of his involvement with the Pirate Bay file-sharing site.
In a separate trial in 2013, Warg was sentenced to one year in a Swedish jail for hacking into a bank's computers. Then in November 2013, he was finally extradited to Denmark to face charges in the CSC hacking cases.
Svartholm will be sentenced on 31 October and could face six years in jail. His accomplice walked free from the court on Thursday as he had served 17 months in pre-trial detention.
"The punishment should be close to the maximum punishment, which can be six years in prison," the senior prosecutor in the case, Maria Cingari, said according to local media. "It shouldn’t be under five years."
Since its launch in 2003, The Pirate Bay (TPB) becomes the world's largest torrent tracker site which handles requests from millions of users everyday and is in the top 100 most visited websites on the Internet. TPB is predominantly used to share copyrighted material such as films, TV shows and music files, free of charge. Generally, it is famous for potentially hosting illegal contents on the website.Pirate bay is the world's largest torrent site, let us see if it still going to work.
An Anonymous Hacker takes down Go Daddy [www.godaddy.com] with IRC Bots
GoDaddy.com,
which hosts millions of websites mostly for small businesses, said
Monday it was investigating an outage that had knocked some of its
customers offline. A hacker using the "Anonymous Own3r" Twitter account claimed credit for the outage,
"Hello http://godaddy.com/ now yes! all servers #tangodown by @AnonymousOwn3r," a tweet said.
Hackers leak the Source Code for Symantec Product
A group calling itself the Lords of Dharmaraja posted an Adobe document online Wednesday that it claimed was a glimpse
Most advanced and dangerous malware for Apple products - Why you should be concerned !
Indian security researcher from MalCon has created an advanced and dangerous malware for Apple products which can not only compromize your privacy but also steal important data and let hackers control your device by simple text messages.
If you are using any Apple product such as iPhone, iPad or iPod, then you shuuld be concerned. Indian security researcher from MalCon, Atul Alex has created an advanced malware for the Apple products which can not only intercept calls of users, steal data, but also provide a reverse VNC to see remotely all the actions of the victim.
However, over 90% of users normally jailbreak their devices. iOS jailbreaking, or simply jailbreaking, is the process of removing the limitations imposed by Apple on devices running the iOS operating system through use of custom kernels. Such devices include the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, and 2nd Gen Apple TV. Jailbreaking allows users to gain root access to the operating system, allowing iOS users to download additional applications, extensions, and themes that are unavailable through the official Apple App Store. A jailbroken iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad running iOS can still use the App Store, iTunes, and other normal functions, such as making telephone calls.
The malware malware boasts of the following features:
• Control devices by SMS
• Invisible Malware
• VNC Server to view remote screen
• Record and listen to all calls remotely
• Upload / Download user Data
• Access all mails and texts
The Malware will be demonstrated next month at the upcoming International Malware Conference, MalConin Mumbai, India. The researcher Atul Alex has previously coded and demonstated a custom malicious firmware for Symbian last year.
Malware for xbox Kinect created by 15 years old Indian researchers
Indian researchers from MalCon have created a malware that utlizes Microsoft Kinect to secretly capture pictures and upload to a picasa account.
In recent months, there have been a number of innovative kinect hacks that make use of the kinect using both Open source drivers and the Kinect SDK. The malware, code-named 'gawde' after its creators name, works on Windows 7 to secretly capture pictures of the victim / surroundings from a connected Kinect device and uploads them to a picasa account.
Rajshekhar Murthy, Director at ISAC, (Information Sharing and Anaysis Center), a scientifc non-profit body that holds the International Malware Conference, MalCon said. "We believe that in coming years, a lot of windows based applications will be developed for Kinect and the device will gain further immense popularity and acceptance- and from a perpective of an attacker, such a popular device can be an exciting target for visual and audio intelligence. At MalCon research labs, we promote proactive security research and the malware utilizing Kinect is only a proof of concept. "
The kienct malware 'gawde' goes a step ahead and even uses voice recognition to execute a program based on keyword, without the knowledge of the victim. The malware PoC will be demonstrated at the upcoming MalCon 2011 in Mumbai, India.
'Anonymous' Promises to Hack Into TSX on 7th November
Anonymous is a computer hacking 'collective' and has been reported to have hacked into the New York Stock Exchange for 2 minutes on October 10th.
The plan is to take down the website of the Toronto Stock Exchange on November 7th.
A youtube video by the group states they would declare war against the TSX, and erase the stock exchange website from the internet, calling it only the beginning.
Anonymous has been behind several web based 'hacktivism' attacks including disrupting the Spanish Police website, and allegedly on Facebook and the Sony Network.
Outside of the youtube video, there is no indication the group is planning a cyber attack on the TSX, but without formal leadership, attacks often happen by sects, or pockets of Anonymous.
Hacktivism
*
Refers to 'hacking with / for a cause'.
*
Comprises of hackers with a social or political agenda
*
Aims at sending across a message through their hacking activity and gaining visibility for their cause and themselves.
*
Common targets include government agencies, MNCs, or any other entity perceived as 'bad' or 'wrong' by these groups / individuals.
*
It remains a fact however, that gaining unauthorized access is a crime, no matter what the intent.
Most hacktivists aim at sending across a message through their hacking activity and gaining visibility for their cause and themselves. Common targets include government agencies, MNCs, or any other entity perceived as 'bad' or 'wrong' by these groups / individuals. It remains a fact however, that gaining unauthorized access is a crime, no matter what the intent.
Refers to 'hacking with / for a cause'.
*
Comprises of hackers with a social or political agenda
*
Aims at sending across a message through their hacking activity and gaining visibility for their cause and themselves.
*
Common targets include government agencies, MNCs, or any other entity perceived as 'bad' or 'wrong' by these groups / individuals.
*
It remains a fact however, that gaining unauthorized access is a crime, no matter what the intent.
Most hacktivists aim at sending across a message through their hacking activity and gaining visibility for their cause and themselves. Common targets include government agencies, MNCs, or any other entity perceived as 'bad' or 'wrong' by these groups / individuals. It remains a fact however, that gaining unauthorized access is a crime, no matter what the intent.
WHO ARE HACKERS?
The definition of a hacker has been influenced and tainted over the years. There have been various computer related activities attributed to the term “hacker”, but were greatly misunderstood. Unfortunately for the people who are truly defined within the underground tech world as a “hacker” this is an insult to them.There are various types of “hackers”, each with their own agenda. My motto is to help protect you from the worst of them.
Anarchist Hackers :
These are the individuals who you should be weary of. They are more likely to be interested in what lies on another person’s machine for example yours. Mostly you’ll find that these individuals have slightly above computer skill level and consider themselves hackers. They glorify themselves on the accomplishments of others. Their idea of classing themselves as a hacker is that of acquire programs
and utilities readily available on the net, use these programs with no real knowledge of how these applications work and if they manage to “break” into someone’s system class themselves as a hacker. These individuals are called “Kiddie Hackers.” They use these programs given to them in a malicious fashion on anyone they can infect. These individuals are usually high school students.
Hackers:
A hacker by definition believes in access to free information. They are usually very intelligent people who could care very little about what you have on your system. Unfortunately, many journalists and writers have been fooled into using the word ‘hacker.” They have attributed any computer related illegal activities to the term “hacker.”
For real hackers, the higher the security the better the challenge. The better the challenge the better they need to be. They don’t particularly care about bragging about their accomplishments as it exposes them to suspicion. They prefer to work from behind the scenes and preserve their anonymity. Not all hackers are loners, often you’ll find they have a very tight circle of associates, but still there is a level of anonymity between them.
Crackers:
For definition purposes I have included this term. This is primarily the term given to individuals who are skilled at the art of bypassing software copyright protection. They are usually highly skilled in programming languages. They are often confused with Hackers. As you can see they are similar in their agenda. They both fight security of some kind, but they are completely different “animals.” Being able to attribute your attacks to the right type of attacker is very important. By identifying your attacker to be either an Anarchist Hacker or a Hacker you get a better idea of what you’re up against.
“Know your enemy and know yourself and you will always be victorious...”
Anarchist Hackers :
These are the individuals who you should be weary of. They are more likely to be interested in what lies on another person’s machine for example yours. Mostly you’ll find that these individuals have slightly above computer skill level and consider themselves hackers. They glorify themselves on the accomplishments of others. Their idea of classing themselves as a hacker is that of acquire programs
and utilities readily available on the net, use these programs with no real knowledge of how these applications work and if they manage to “break” into someone’s system class themselves as a hacker. These individuals are called “Kiddie Hackers.” They use these programs given to them in a malicious fashion on anyone they can infect. These individuals are usually high school students.
Hackers:
A hacker by definition believes in access to free information. They are usually very intelligent people who could care very little about what you have on your system. Unfortunately, many journalists and writers have been fooled into using the word ‘hacker.” They have attributed any computer related illegal activities to the term “hacker.”
For real hackers, the higher the security the better the challenge. The better the challenge the better they need to be. They don’t particularly care about bragging about their accomplishments as it exposes them to suspicion. They prefer to work from behind the scenes and preserve their anonymity. Not all hackers are loners, often you’ll find they have a very tight circle of associates, but still there is a level of anonymity between them.
Crackers:
For definition purposes I have included this term. This is primarily the term given to individuals who are skilled at the art of bypassing software copyright protection. They are usually highly skilled in programming languages. They are often confused with Hackers. As you can see they are similar in their agenda. They both fight security of some kind, but they are completely different “animals.” Being able to attribute your attacks to the right type of attacker is very important. By identifying your attacker to be either an Anarchist Hacker or a Hacker you get a better idea of what you’re up against.
“Know your enemy and know yourself and you will always be victorious...”
Hackers Categories
Introduction
Hackers can be divided into three groups: white hats, black hats, and gray hats. Ethical hackers
usually fall into the white-hat category, but sometimes they are former gray hats who have become
security professionals and who use their skills in an ethical manner.
White Hat Hackers
White Hats are the good guys, the ethical hackers who use their hacking skills for
defensive purposes. White-hat hackers are usually security professionals with knowledge of
hacking and the hacker tool set and who use this knowledge to locate weaknesses and implement
countermeasures.
Hackers can be divided into three groups: white hats, black hats, and gray hats. Ethical hackers
usually fall into the white-hat category, but sometimes they are former gray hats who have become
security professionals and who use their skills in an ethical manner.
White Hat Hackers
White Hats are the good guys, the ethical hackers who use their hacking skills for
defensive purposes. White-hat hackers are usually security professionals with knowledge of
hacking and the hacker tool set and who use this knowledge to locate weaknesses and implement
countermeasures.
Black hats are the bad guys: the malicious hackers or
crackers
who use their skills
for illegal or malicious purposes. They break into or otherwise violate the system integrity of
remote machines, with malicious intent. Having gained unauthorized access, black-hat hackers
destroy vital data, deny legitimate users service, and basically cause problems for their targets.
Black-hat hackers and crackers can easily be differentiated from white-hat hackers because their
actions are malicious.
Gray Hat Hackers
Grey hats are hackers who may work offensively or defensively, depending on the situation.
This is the dividing line between hacker and cracker. Both are powerful forces on the Internet,
and both will remain permanently. And some individuals qualify for both categories. The
existence of such individuals further clouds the division between these two groups of people.
In addition to these groups, there are self-proclaimed ethical hackers, who are interested in
hacker tools mostly from a curiosity standpoint. They may want to highlight security problems
in a system or educate victims so they secure their systems properly. These hackers are
doing their “victims” a favor. For instance, if a weakness is discovered in a service offered by
an investment bank, the hacker is doing the bank a favor by giving the bank a chance to rectify
the vulnerability.
How to protect your privacy while browsing the web
Online privacy protection is the most basic and essential need of an Internet user. However, since most of our work is now dependent on online activities, there is a possibility that our personal information might get hacked by some unethical elements. Therefore, it is very important to find out the different ways to achieve privacy on the Internet.
We all perform various activities on the Internet like banking, shopping, social networking, chatting, and many more that require personal information protection. While performing these activities, your personal information and location is being traced as some of the sites request you to register with your email address and ask you to create a profile with which to provide your personal information. If you are a member of any social networking site, posting a comment or participating in the forums can leave some trails of your location as well.
Why do you need personal information privacy though and what should be kept in mind while browsing the Internet? Sharing some of your personal information may lead to your online reputation being tarnished and monetary losses as hackers can take advantages of your profile or information without your knowledge.
You can help protect your privacy and browse the Internet more safely by keeping the following tips in mind:
1. Do not disclose too much of your personal information. Security of your identity starts with you. Social networking is becoming very popular nowadays but you should keep in mind not to disclose much information about yourself like your exact address and phone number. Along with it, you should not post regular updates about your upcoming travels or monetary information like credit card information since it can aid criminals in committing theft, fraud and other crimes at your expense.
2. If you are sharing your information, you should first inquire about the person with whom you are sharing it. Take precautions while becoming friendly to any unknown person and never accept a friend request from strangers. Along with that, you should not provide your private information to any new or unknown site.
3. Manage your cookies while surfing. Since cookies allow you to store information while using websites, they save your username and password every time you type it while visiting any website. In spite of that, it can also help the website owner to track who is visiting the website, the date and time of the visit and more. Sometimes, it may harm your privacy if any online criminal is tracking it. Therefore, you can delete cookies in your computer to protect your privacy. If you using windows family OS use CClearner software for clean your cache and cookies befor using internet browser .
4. some of good add-ons are available for firefox BetterPrivacy , Adblock Plus, WOT . One New Add-on FB Phishing Protector protect you from Phishing , XSS injection attacks.
By following these tips, you can more easily manage your privacy protection. Along with these, you can also opt for online identity management tools to better protect your privacy and identity while browsing the Net. These tools can help you by sending regular alerts if too much personal information is available about you online or if someone is misusing your personal information. Search the Web to get the best online identity management tool.
A Universal Hacker Emblem: The Glider Emblem
What is Hacker Emblem? A Universal Hacker Emblem: The Glider Emblem
Emblem that represents the entire hacker community
The Linux folks have their penguin and the BSDers their daemon. Perl's got a camel, FSF fans have their gnu and OSI's got an open-source logo. But there is no emblem that represents the entire hacker community. This is a proposal that we adopt one — the glider pattern from the Game of Life.
What will I be saying if I display it?
When you put the glider emblem on your web page, or wear it on clothing, or display it in some other way, you are visibly associating yourself with the hacker culture.This is not quite the same thing as claiming to be a hacker Yourself — that is a title of honour, that generally has to be conferred by others rather than self-assumed. But by using this emblem, you express sympathy with hackers' goals, hackers' values, and the hacker way of living. See the FAQs page for further discussion.
Who should not use this emblem?
I used to have a prohibition against commercial use here. A number of people have argued convincingly that this is impractical and perhaps unfair. But keep it tasteful, or you will be flamed.
How can I use it?
The glider is not copyrighted or trademarked. The recommended way to use it is on a web page, with an image and a link back to either this page or direct to How To Become A Hacker. Here is a snippet of XHTML you can paste into a page.
[a href='http://www.catb.org/hacker-emblem/']
[img src='http://www.catb.org/hacker-emblem/glider.png' alt='hacker emblem' /][/a]
NOTE: Replace [ & ] with greater & smaller signIt will look as below:
Variants:
.O.
..O
OOO
|_|0|_|
|_|_|0|
|0|0|0|
.
..:
But what if the wrong people start using it?
Top Indian Hackers List: Indian Hackers Facts | Real Truth Revealed
There has been a lot of commotion in the Indian Hacking scene lately, and I express some pretty strong views regarding that. 
When it comes to hacking, every other guy tends to tape the "hacker" word with his name/codename without even realizing its significance. Then there is Facebook ...Have a look at it -
Seriously guys..what were they thinking ?! I am still counting the number of “Indian Cyber Army” India has and the number of groups tend to increase recycling all the content, same VIP forums, same deface techniques, zero original research. Then there is Ankit Fadiya...dont let me even get started
In the end tired of all the bullshit around, I decided to cover an article on the REAL INDIAN HACKERS (or Hackers of Indian Origin), folks who are actually dedicated to security and are hackers in real sense. Lets start, shall we ?
When it comes to hacking, every other guy tends to tape the "hacker" word with his name/codename without even realizing its significance. Then there is Facebook ...Have a look at it -Seriously guys..what were they thinking ?! I am still counting the number of “Indian Cyber Army” India has and the number of groups tend to increase recycling all the content, same VIP forums, same deface techniques, zero original research. Then there is Ankit Fadiya...dont let me even get started
In the end tired of all the bullshit around, I decided to cover an article on the REAL INDIAN HACKERS (or Hackers of Indian Origin), folks who are actually dedicated to security and are hackers in real sense. Lets start, shall we ?
Also have a look @ Website Defacement Proves You are Impotent
& also @ Ethical Hacker Ankit Fadia Hacking Seminar Truth Reveled: Pure waste of Time
Pranav Mistry
The famed 6th sense developer,Pranav Mistry is a research assistant and a PhD candidate at MIT Media Lab. SixthSense has recently attracted global attention. Among some of his previous work, Pranav has invented Mouseless - an invisible computer mouse; intelligent sticky notes that can be searched, located and can send reminders and messages; a pen that can draw in 3D; and a public map that can act as Google of physical world. Pranav has commercialized his invention, the sixth sense andSixthSense is now being actively used at NASA.
Pranav Mistry
The famed 6th sense developer,Pranav Mistry is a research assistant and a PhD candidate at MIT Media Lab. SixthSense has recently attracted global attention. Among some of his previous work, Pranav has invented Mouseless - an invisible computer mouse; intelligent sticky notes that can be searched, located and can send reminders and messages; a pen that can draw in 3D; and a public map that can act as Google of physical world. Pranav has commercialized his invention, the sixth sense andSixthSense is now being actively used at NASA.
It is rumored that Facebook tried to acquire the technology from Pranav for a reportedly $2 billion and 5% ownership of Facebook, but Pranav decided to open source it instead.
Thats what any real hacker do. Hats Off to him.
Here you can read more about him at Amarjit’s Blog
Koushik Dutta or “Koush”
“Set Your Phone Free..”Rings a bell ? Koushik Dutta or “Koush” is responsible for Clockworkmod recovery and Rom Manager for Android rooting and the core member of famed UnrEVOked team. He has been a .net developer from heart and had his internship initially at Microsoft and is a former MVP. He decided to leave Microsoft and hack Android cellphones like there was no tomorrow. Sony approached him after geohot humped them like anything but he politely declined .
Bravo for his efforts, we are able to root painlessly using UnREVOked.
Now only if UnrEVOked can release UnrEVOked 3.33 soon :)
Vivek Ramchandran
Vivek Ramachandran has been working in the computer and network security domain, in some form or the other, for the past 7 years and has worked with Industry giants like Reliance, Cisco, Microsoft. He was among the Top 10 Indian finalists in the Microsoft shootout competition among the list of 65000 participants. Then he decided to join Airtight Networks and there discovered Caffe Latte attack attack along with his colleague MD Sohail Ahmad from Airtight Networks ,the wifi hacking technique that doesn't required you to be in active vicinity of the wifi zone.
That said, he is one of the researcher to lookout.
Almost everybody at NULL Security Community & Garage4hackers
I said it before and I will say it again, the Only active Indian hacking community is NULL community, and the best Indian Hacking Forum where real hackers meet is garage4hackers.com hands on.
Shoutz to garage crew :)
Folks at Indian Honeynet Chapter
Now we are talking..Indian Honeynet chapter is the collaborative effort of the best geeks and hackers .The focus of honeypot is on Worms and Botnets and developing an Open Source tool to study and counter brute force attacks/ phishing through wifi. Its also being setup as potential web-app honeypot,and aims on improving detection and forensic techniques. Heading the ship are L Shriram, K K Mookhey, Amit Chugh, Asim Jakhar and a lot of professionals who are dedicated in the field of computer security.
Hari Prasad
The famed security researcher Hari Prasad is the winner of EFF Pioneer award, as he along with Alex Halderman, and Rop Gonggrijp were able to study an electronic voting machine (EVM) and found significant vulnerabilities that would not be difficult to execute. For his troubles, Prasad was arrested and jailed in August, held without bail in Mumbai for a week. Though he is now out on bail and in the United States, he still faces criminal prosecution for alleged theft of the EVM and other charges.
The genius of the Indian system is that instead of making machines tamper proof and more efficient, they arrested him.
According to the Indian news agency PTI, the magistrate who released Prasad on bail noted that "no offence was disclosed with Hari Prasad's arrest and even if it was assumed that [the electronic voting machine] was stolen it appears that there was no dishonest intention on his part...he was trying to show how [electronic voting] machines can be tampered with."Jayant Krishnamurthy
Jayant Krishnamurthy is a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science, CMU and his interests include are machine learning, machine reading, common sense reasoning, information extraction, knowledge representation, and their applications in AI and NLP (shamelessly taken from his website). He is one of the researchers who are behind designing MD6 algorithm (yeah you heard it right, the evolution of MD5). He is a top level computer theorist and researcher and is a real life hacker. He teaches computer and network security and you must ahve a look at the problems and solutions at the given link.
For the lighter side,you can have a look at the funny flash movie based on his real life experiences at high school.
I guess, you now have an actual idea of the Indian hackers now :) These guys are real and are deemed worthy of having the hacker emblem with them.
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