Devices like security cameras, traffic light systems, and high tech temperature controls can all be connected to the web, but they aren’t indexed by Google, which makes them difficult to find without deep computer expertise. Now SHODAN, a search engine that crawls the web for devices like routers, webcams and servers, is helping to expose some of the security flaws inherent to these devices. Read More
A new study published by a professor at the University of Montreal has yielded earth-shattering conclusions that are sure to rock the public’s fundamental understanding of “hackers.” Largely considered to be clean-shaven, upstanding adults residing in beautifully-kept apartments and boasting impressively high emotional IQs, the study has revealed a seedier side of the hacker persona: Read More
It’s hard being the Department of Homeland Security. Foreign agents are constantly trying to slip inside the D.H.S.’s computer systems. But America’s hotshot hackers either go for the private sector ($$$) or somewhere you can go on the offensive, like the N.S.A. (which, let’s face it, sounds super-badass).
So, according to the New York Times, the agency, desperate for recruits, is now making like a college football program and hunting for recruits at high school hacking competitions. Read More
Even as Guccifer goes on a tear, releasing Hova’s credit reports and Hillary Clinton’s emails, our friends in South Korea are having some computer problems of their own. Earlier today (in the middle of the afternoon, Seoul-time), computer networks at two of the country’s banks and three TV stations shut down out Read More
A report suggests Google is going to unite all its various chat products under the name “Babble.” We sincerely hope this is not part of another effort to make us all use Google+. [Geek.com]
“Sanders and Armstrong share something with the startup world as a whole: the arrogance of naivete. They see what they think is a problem. They think they’re the ones to solve it.” [Melville House]
Wait ’til the mayor sees this: There’s a couple of teens who review cigarettes on YouTube. Gross. [Daily Dot]
You can now climb every mountain with Google Street View. [L.A. Times]
Security researcher Brian Krebs tracked down the hacker who completely wrecked Mat Honan’s digital life. BRB, double-checking my two-factor authentication. [Ars Technica]
Matthew Keys, the 26-year-old social media editor at Reuters who was indicted by the Department of Justice yesterday for collaborating with the hacktivist collective Anonymous, has been suspended from Reuters with pay. Now, reporters are working to cobble together details of his checkered online past. Read More
If you’re a computer-savvy college student, one way to illustrate that your university wifi network is terribly insecure is to write letters to the dean expressing your concerns. Another way is to simply hack the network and have all traffic redirect to gay porn. Read More
Amazon.com’s homepage appears to be temporarily down, showing a “service unavailable” message to users. Links within Amazon are still functional, but the homepage is inaccessible.
As TechCrunch notes, the site is serving a 503 error, indicating that “the server powering the site is down due to maintenance or overloading,” which can mean the server is being DDOS’d. Amazon Web Services’ dashboard says all hosting services appear to be operating normally. Read More
An anonymous hacker going by the Twitter handle @TylerSec has published a post on PasteBin claiming to have released 33 GB of JSTOR documents via his own leak network, Tyler Leaks. If the documents are in PDF format and are around 50-75 pages each, that’s about 22,500 academic papers dumped. The leak comes in response to the death of hacker hero Aaron Swartz who was facing a federal sentence for “stealing” academic papers from JSTOR.
Gawker writer Adrian Chen notes that the leak could be of the same documents released by Wikimedia contributor Greg Maxwell in 2011. “There’s a good chance that this Anonymous leak of JSTOR documents is an old dump from last year,” he tweeted.
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In the wake of the suicide of hacker hero Aaron Swartz, his friends and family released a statement placing the onus for his death on “a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach.” U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz was responsible for prosecuting Mr. Swartz, and has come under fire along with Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Heymann for what many see as overreach in cases against hackers.
A petition immediately began circulating asking for Ms. Ortiz’s resignation following Mr. Swartz’s death. The petition has already received over 25,000 signatures, guaranteeing it a response from the White House. Read More
