Hackers

The cia.gov site was unavailable around 3.50pm ET, allegedly due to a Denial of Service(DDS)-attack from hackers affiliated with the group UGNazi. 

The site block was initially claimed by Anonymous after the group tweeted: "CIA TANGO DOWN", but later it admitted fellow hacktivists UGNazi had instead brought down the site.

By 6pm cia.gov was back up and running. The CIA did not confirm the attack but said they were "looking into these reports". Hacktivists also reportedly attacked the website for the United Nations.

It's not the first time a building was turned into a giant representation of the video game Tetris, as even in 2000 a Brown University group pulled off a similar stunt on the 10-story Sciences Library, but in that case they had permission of the university; not so in this case.

Hackers turned the Massachusetts Institute of Tehnology's (MIT) Green Building into a huge, glorified - and playable - Tetris game. Also known as Building 54, the building houses MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Science.

Chinese and Filipino hackers "exchanged fire" in cyberspace over the weekend, adding to the two countries' recent tensions over disputes in the South China Sea. 

GMA News Online reported that Filipino "hacktivists" struck back on Saturday at Chinese websites after hackers - "apparently from China" - defaced the official website of the University of the Philippines on Friday.

Following this afternoon's report on Arianna Huffington's AOL email account getting hacked, the new media mogul has confirmed the hack and revealed the culprits: Nigeria scam artists. Happens to the best of us.

From: Arianna Huffington

To: Maureen O'Connor

Date: Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 6:20 PM

Subject: RE: Gawker Question: Arianna's email hacked?

A US-based Chinese-language website that has reported extensively on the Bo Xilai scandal in China says it was crippled for several hours by a concerted hacking attack.

The Boxun website had to move to a new webhost after the denial-of-service attack on Friday, its manager said. Boxun has reported for several weeks on the scandal surrounding Bo Xilai.

Hackers claiming to be from Anonymous have taken down the official Formula One website as protests grow over this weekend's controversial Grand Prix in the Kingdom of Bahrain. "The F1 Grand Prix in Bahrain should be strongly opposed. The Al Khalifa regime stands to profit heavily off the race and has promised to use live ammunition against protestors in preparation," the group said in a statement.

A team of researchers from Pennsylvania State University (PSU) and IBM have designed a proof-of-concept Android Trojan app that can steal passwords and other sensitive information by using the smartphone's motion sensors to determine what keys victims tap on their touchscreens when unlocking their phones or inputting credit card numbers during phone banking operations.

Yesterday, EFF participated in a panel discussion about CISPA moderated by CNET's Declan McCullagh and put on by Hackers and Founders. We were happy to have the opportunity to do so, and although we disagreed quite a bit with a key proponent of the bill, House Permanent Select Intelligence Committee staffer Jamil Jaffer, one area where we agreed is that more people should read the text of the bill.

Malicious code planted within compromised pages has become the latest method for attackers targeting government organisations.

Researchers with security firm Zscaler have reported a number of government-affiliated sites which have been found to contain code which directs users to attack servers.

An Estonian man has been extradited to New York to face charges he was part of a hacking gang that infected more than 4 million computers with malware as part of a massive click-fraud scheme.