Inside these posts: hackers

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Report: Hackers in China hit Western oil companies

Hackers operating from China stole sensitive information from Western oil companies, a U.S. security firm reported Thursday, adding to complaints about pervasive Internet crime traced to the country.

The report by McAfee Inc. did not identify the companies but said the “coordinated, covert and targeted” attacks began in November 2009 and targeted computers of oil and gas companies in the United States, Taiwan, Greece and Kazakhstan. It said the attackers stole information on operations, bidding for oil fields and financing. Get the full story »

Nasdaq network hit by hackers

The company that owns the Nasdaq Stock Market confirmed over the weekend that its computer network had been broken into, specifically a service that lets leaders of companies, including board members, securely share confidential documents.

The fact that the Web-based service, called Directors Desk, was penetrated could lend credence to one theory that law-enforcement authorities investigating the matter are considering, namely that hackers may be aiming to extract nonpublic inside information that could be used illegally to gain a trading edge. Get the full story »

Microsoft issues its biggest-ever security fix

Microsoft Corp. issued its biggest-ever security fix Tuesday, including repairs to its ubiquitous Windows operating system for flaws that could let hackers take control of a user’s personal computer.

Microsoft released 16 security patches to address 49 problems it identified in its products.

It said four of the patches were high priority and should be deployed immediately to protect users from potential criminal attacks on the Windows operating systems. The patches are software updates that write over glitches. Get the full story »

Cybercrime bill on list for passage this year

Capitol Hill staffers have made progress stitching together cybersecurity proposals into a huge bill, aides said, with Senate leadership putting it on their short list for passage this year. Get the full story »

Apple to fix security hole in iPhone software

Apple is planning to release a fix for a security hole in the software that runs on its iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices. Hackers could gain access to data stored on Apple Inc.’s gadgets by putting a PDF file with hidden code onto a website and luring people to visit the site.

Software released for attacking Android phones

Two security experts said on Friday they released a tool for attacking smartphones that use Google Inc’s Android operating system to persuade manufacturers to fix a bug that lets hackers read a victim’s email and text messages.

“It wasn’t difficult to build,” said Nicholas Percoco, head of Spider Labs, who along with a colleague, released the tool at the Defcon hacker’s conference in Las Vegas on Friday.

Percoco said it took about two weeks to build the malicious software that could allow criminals to steal precious information from Android smartphones. Get the full story »

Conference to show ATM vulnerability to hackers

A security expert has identified flaws in the design of some automated teller machines that make them vulnerable to hackers, who could make the dispensers spit out their cash holdings.

Barnaby Jack, head of research at Seattle-based, security firm IOActive Labs, will demonstrate methods for “jackpotting” ATMs at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas that starts on July 28. Get the full story »

New malware uses search terms like ‘Lost’ as bait

By Wailin Wong | “Lost” fans searching for secrets of the ABC show’s final episode may be in store for a nasty surprise: An infected computer.

PandaLabs, a unit of computer security company Panda Security, said it has detected a new distribution method for a kind of malware called the MySecurityEngine fake antivirus. This malware and the way it infects a computer are not new, but the bait it uses does change according to current events and popular search terms.

Get the full story »

Google attack linked to sophisticated Asian hackers

The Wall Street Journal | U.S. investigators are focusing on a prominent Asian hacking group that is likely Chinese as the probable perpetrator of the recent attacks on Google. The group used sophisticated data-masking techniques to hack into the search giant’s computer systems. It is still unclear whether the hacking group has any connections to the Chinese government.

Get the full story: wsj.com.