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CyberAttack
WordPress DDoS Attack Adds to Growing Cyber Wars
By Mary Phillips-Sandy - AOL NewsPopular open source content management system WordPress was targeted by a massive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack today, TechCrunch reports. It wasn't easy for TechCrunch to post that information, as TechCrunch runs on WordPress. (The site, and many other WordPress sites, are working again.) WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg said in a statement that the attack affected all three of the company's datacenters. "This is the largest and most sustained attack we've seen in our six-year history," he said. "We suspect it may have been politically motivated against one of our non-English ...
Oil Companies Hit With Cyberattack, Likely From China
By Hugh Collins - AOL NewsAt least five major oil and gas companies were the victims of a cyberattack that aimed to steal valuable commercial information, according to a report by software security company McAfee. The attack, which apparently originated in Beijing, focused on oil and gas field production systems and information related to field exploration and bidding for new leases, according to the New York Times. The report dubbed the attack "Night Dragon." The report did not name the companies affected. "Starting in November 2009, covert cyberattacks were launched against several global oil, energy and ...
Fake White House Holiday E-Mail Contained Dangerous Malware
By Dana Kennedy - AOL NewsAn e-mailed Christmas greeting purportedly from the White House actually contained dangerous malware aimed at extracting sensitive financial data and documents from government employees. The bogus e-mail, discovered last week, was a ruse by cybercriminals who may have been primarily interested in accessing documents by government officials involved in computer crime investigations, The Associated Press reported. The e-mail, apparently sent mainly to government, military and law enforcement staffers, surfaced in inboxes around Dec. 23 and contained a rendering of a red holiday card with a ...
'Operation Payback' Epic Fail? Visa, Sarah Palin PAC Fend Off Cyberattacks
By David Knowles - AOL News(Dec. 8) -- So this is the big payback? A shadowy network of computer hacker activists ("hacktivists," for short) pressed forth with a series of cyberattacks on Visa, MasterCard and Sarah Palin, in a show of solidarity with Julian Assange's whistle-blower website WikiLeaks. While the specter of a secret band of techno whiz-kids banding together to wreak havoc on any person or company found to have spoken harshly about WikiLeaks (such as Palin) or attempted to try to choke the site of its financial lifeblood (such as Visa/MasterCard) would seem the stuff of a very dark Hollywood movie, ...
China Telecom Denies Hijacking Web Traffic
By Mara Gay - AOL News
(Nov. 18) -- A state-owned Chinese telecom company is denying accusations in a U.S. government report that it "hijacked" 15 percent of the world's Web traffic earlier this year and rerouted highly sensitive information through China. "China Telecom has never done such an act," company spokesman Wang Yongzhen told China's state-run Xinhua News today. But according to a U.S. report and Web security firms, the Chinese company rerouted 15 percent of global Web traffic -- including e-mail exchanges from the U.S. Senate and military -- through China for 18 minutes on April 8. The report, ...
Massive Cyberattack Paralyzes Myanmar Days Before Election
By Hugh Collins - AOL News(Nov. 4) -- A massive cyberattack paralyzed Myanmar's Internet infrastructure, less than a week before the country's first election in 20 years. The attack began late last month and has overwhelmed the country's Internet infrastructure, closing Internet cafes and making it impossible to communicate with IP addresses inside the country, according to media reports. Foreign media are not allowed into Myanmar to cover the election. "Our technicians have been trying to prevent cyberattacks from other countries," a spokesman from Yatanarpon Teleport told Agence France-Presse. Myanmar, ...
Scores Charged in Cybertheft of Millions From US Banks
By Allan Lengel - AOL News(Sept. 30) -- More than than 60 people were indicted today on charges of stealing millions of dollars from U.S. bank accounts through mischievous computer attacks. In announcing the local and federal indictments, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of New York said that modern high-tech bank heists no longer require "a gun, a mask, a note or a getaway car. ... It requires only the Internet and ingenuity. And it can be accomplished in the blink of an eye, with just a click of the mouse." Authorities said the cyberattacks began in Eastern Europe with the e-mailing of a malware known as "Zeus ...
Cyber Commander: Attack on Equipment Next Threat
By Sharon Weinberger - AOL News(Sept. 23) -- Previous high-profile cyberattacks have focused primarily on disrupting or hacking into computer networks, but the next wave of attacks could be launched against physical equipment, the general in charge of defending the nation's military networks said today. "What concerns me the most are destructive attacks," Army Gen. Keith Alexander, the head of U.S. Cyber Command, told the House Armed Services Committee during congressional testimony today. Alexander cited two of the most high-profile attacks on nations, including the 2007 Estonian cyberwar, which took place during a ...
Opinion: 3 Reasons to Kill the Internet Kill Switch Idea
By not in system - AOL News(July 9) -- Last month, Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., introduced a bill that might -- we're not really sure -- give the president the authority to shut down all or portions of the Internet in the event of an emergency. It's not a new idea. Sens. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, proposed the same thing last year, and some argue that the president can already do something like this. If this or a similar bill ever passes, the details will change considerably and repeatedly. So let's talk about the idea of an Internet kill switch in general. It's a bad one. Security is always ...
Bill Would Let Feds Take Over Internet During Crisis
By Hugh Collins - AOL News(June 18) -- Newly proposed legislation would give the federal government authority to seize and even switch off the Internet during a national crisis. The bill, put forward Thursday by Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., would allow the Department of Homeland Security to issue emergency orders to companies providing services such as search engines, software and broadband Internet, according to CBS. Companies that didn't comply would face a fine. "The Internet can also be a dangerous place, with electronic pipelines that run directly into everything from our personal bank accounts to key ...
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