Archive of ‘cracker’ category

China hackers

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-10-04/the-big-hack-how-china-used-a-tiny-chip-to-infiltrate-america-s-top-companies

Nested on the servers’ motherboards, the testers found a tiny microchip, not much bigger than a grain of rice, that wasn’t part of the boards’ original design. Amazon reported the discovery to U.S. authorities, sending a shudder through the intelligence community. Elemental’s servers could be found in Department of Defense data centers, the CIA’s drone operations, and the onboard networks of Navy warships. And Elemental was just one of hundreds of Supermicro customers.

interdiction, consists of manipulating devices as they’re in transit from manufacturer to customer. This approach is favored by U.S. spy agencies, according to documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. The other method involves seeding changes from the very beginning.

In emailed statements, Amazon (which announced its acquisition of Elemental in September 2015), Apple, and Supermicro disputed summaries of Bloomberg Businessweek’s reporting.

The Chinese government didn’t directly address questions about manipulation of Supermicro servers, issuing a statement that read, in part, “Supply chain safety in cyberspace is an issue of common concern, and China is also a victim.” The FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, representing the CIA and NSA, declined to comment.

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more on hackers in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=hacker

Protect Student Data

Six Ways to Protect Student Data and Prevent Cyberattacks

By Ricky Doyle     Dec 10, 2018

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2018-12-10-six-ways-to-protect-student-data-and-prevent-cyberattacks

School administrators and IT staff can be super-vigilant, but the hackers are getting better and better at sneaking through security.

the most common cybersecurity threats, and how can school staff avoid them?

Eavesdropping / Man-in-the-Middle (MiTM) Attacks

What they are: It’s likely that you sometimes use a school laptop or mobile device to gain internet access via Wi-Fi networks in public places like coffee shops or airports. If so, be aware that there may be hackers eavesdropping to try and gain entry to any two-party exchange you make so they can filter and steal data.

How to avoid them: Always use a school-verified SIM carddongle or VPN(virtual private network) to access the internet in public places.

Social Engineering Attacks

According to Verizon’s 2018 Breach Investigations report, 92 percent of malware is delivered via email, often referred to as social engineering attacks. The aim is to interact with the user and influence and manipulate their actions to gain access to systems and install harmful software. Malware uses various guises. Here are some of the most common:

1. Phishing emails

2. Baiting attacks

3. Quid pro quo requests

4. Pretexting attacks

5. Contact with a ‘compromised’ website

hacking voting

A Voice Cuts Through, and Adds to, the Intrigue of Russia’s Cyberattacks

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more on Eastern European hackers in this IMS blog:
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2016/06/22/ukrainian-hacker-and-fbi/

hack the drones

Hackers are able to seize control of consumer drones and make them fall from the sky

https://plus.google.com/+ScrewMuggz/posts/KMtnAxhMYtc

there aren’t clear rules about what manufacturers need to do to secure drones to prevent them from being tampered with by malicious hackers.

Police have owned signal jamming tools to interfere with consumer drones for years. After all, it was a regular consumer drone that a member of ISIS turned into a kamikaze to bomb Kurdish fighters.

My note: from jamming devices, to raptors (birds) to hacking the apps – #BumpyRoad for drones

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more on drones in this IMS blog:
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=drones

hackers versus crackers: Guccifer

Hackers versus crackers

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/it-security/hacker-vs-cracker/

http://www.pctools.com/security-news/crackers-and-hackers/

Federal court sentences original Guccifer

By Mark Rockwell Sep 02, 2016

https://fcw.com/articles/2016/09/02/guccifer-sentence-rockwell.aspx

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more in this blog on hackers and crackers

https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=hackers

https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=crackers

 

your social media account cracked

This is what happens when someone hacks your Spotify account

Anatomy of a hack: How crackers ransack passwords like “qeadzcwrsfxv1331”

The prowess of these three crackers also underscores the need for end users to come up with better password hygiene. Many Fortune 500 companies tightly control the types of passwords employees are allowed to use to access e-mail and company networks, and they go a long way to dampen crackers’ success.

http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/05/how-crackers-make-minced-meat-out-of-your-passwords