Hackers

L33tdawg: Here we go again...

Wannabe code-crackers have a fresh challenge to rise to, if DeTron has its way. The encryption company ran a full page ad in the New York Times late last week challenging code breakers, hackers and cryptographers to crack a message encrypted by Quantum Direct Key (QDK) – a personal identification encryption technology aimed at eliminating multiple passwords for cloud services and web apps.

According to the China National Computer Network Emergency Response Center (CNCNERC), between January and June this year, nearly 7.8 billion computers and 27,900 IP addresses were hacked from the United States.  The CNCNERC are claiming that Anonymous is behind the majority of the attacks.  Anonymous is adding to the claim by announcing that it plans to bring down the websites of five major corporations. 

Computer hacker Gary McKinnon will finally find out tomorrow whether he will be extradited to the United States following a lengthy legal battle which his mother has likened to a “waterboarding of the mind”.

The decision, which will be announced by the Home Secretary, comes more than ten years after he was first arrested for breaking into a string of American military networks from his north London bedsit.

News last week that a U.S. government report alleged Chinese telecom companies were likely spying on U.S. firms comes at a time when Chinese companies are getting hacked into like never before.  Including from computer systems in the U.S.

Now China has joined the chorus of countries saying the internet is no longer safe.

The second person to be charged in last year's hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which resulted in the theft of personal information on roughly a million people, has pleaded guilty Thursday, according to reports.

Purported LulzSec member Raynaldo Rivera, 20, of Tempe, Ariz. was charged in August with impairing a protected computer and conspiracy charges.

L33tdawg: The finalized conference agenda is here (PDF)

Hack in the Box 2012 Kuala Lumpur, programmed to take place between October 8 and October 11, will host many interesting activities. Among them, there is the enhanced version of the classic Capture the Flag (CTF) competition.

Hackers and security enthusiasts from all over the world are getting prepared for the Hack in the Box 2012 Kuala Lumpur (HITB2012KUL) security conference that will take place between October 8 and October 11. Besides the usual activities, this edition will also host a charity auction whose goal is to raise funds for cancer patients.

An international group of hackers targeting five universities in Japan has leaked what appears to be personal information belonging to the institutions' students and professors.

The group, which calls itself GhostShell, targeted the University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Nagoya University, Tohoku University and Osaka City University.

Microsoft wants to make sure that its customers don't suffer the fate of Wired's Mat Honan.

Today they acquired a tiny 50-person company, PhoneFactor, that turns your cell phone into a password-verification device for an undisclosed sum.