Tag: hackers

I was Trying to Spy and Hackers Stopped Me | CNN Money

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151205180346-national-security-thumbnail-780x439Chris Inglis has worked in intelligence most of his adult life. He’s tall, imposing and speaks with precision.

Debates about encryption technology — like the ones that cropped up after last month’s terror attacks in Paris — are nothing new to him. Reports that ISIS is using apps with encryption tech to hide their conversations don’t surprise him. He was the deputy director of the NSA and saw dozens of times when encryption was an obstacle in pursuing a target.

He couldn’t get into specifics but explained broadly: The agency might identify an adversary through financial transactions, or by following the chain of possession for weapons. But if the target was using some form of encrypted messaging, the NSA would lose the last piece of the puzzle.

“The worst case scenario is that we fail to see a plot that essentially is on the fly … and that we only see it when it’s in execution,” Inglis said. “At that moment in time, you’re reacting to a disaster in the making as opposed to staving one off. That’s the threat, that’s the challenge.”

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Hackers Remotely Kill a Jeep on the Highway—With Me in It | WIRED

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At that point, the interstate began to slope upward, so the Jeep lost more momentum and barely crept forward. Cars lined up behind my bumper before passing me, honking. I could see an 18-wheeler approaching in my rearview mirror. I hoped its driver saw me, too, and could tell I was paralyzed on the highway.

“You’re doomed!” Valasek shouted, but I couldn’t make out his heckling over the blast of the radio, now pumping Kanye West. The semi loomed in the mirror, bearing down on my immobilized Jeep.

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A Google Site Meant to Protect You Is Helping Hackers Attack You | WIRED

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GoogleBefore companies like Microsoft and Apple release new software, the code is reviewed and tested to ensure it works as planned and to find any bugs.

Hackers and cybercrooks do the same. The last thing you want if you’re a cyberthug is for your banking Trojan to crash a victim’s system and be exposed. More importantly, you don’t want your victim’s antivirus engine to detect the malicious tool.

So how do you maintain your stealth? You submit your code to Google’s VirusTotal site and let it do the testing for you.

It’s long been suspected that hackers and nation-state spies are using Google’s antivirus site to test their tools before unleashing them on victims. Now Brandon Dixon, an independent security researcher, has caught them in the act, tracking several high-profile hacking groups—including, surprisingly, two well-known nation-state teams—as they used VirusTotal to hone their code and develop their tradecraft.

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AT&T’s Hackathons Help Foster Digital Innovation | Adweek

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The word hacker may have a negative connotation, but AT&T wants to show the world how it can lead to positive innovation.

“That’s the old connotation,” said Carlton Hill, VP of device operations and developer services for AT&T. “To hack on something doesn’t mean that. It’s to break it open, its to play with it and get a ton out of it.”

For the last three years, the telecommunications company has calling on developers, marketers, designers and innovators to work together to create tech solutions for common problems. The participants usually have 24 hours to come up with an idea and prototype for each project, and a winner is awarded at each event. Most of the stops are themed around an issue, including the upcoming Houston, Texas event on Friday which will focus on apps to help the disabled

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Bitcoin miners busted? Police confuse bitcoin power usage for pot farm – Computerworld Blogs

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Bitcoin, one of the world’s newest currencies, is an open source, peer-to-peer currency that does not exist in physical form. It’s owned and traded by means of an anonymous P2P network, without any third-party intermediary like a payment processor, without any government issuing or tracking the virtual currency. While there is a limit of only 21 million bitcoins to be generated by the year 2140, bitcoin is “free” to generate and is created by “bitcoin miners.”

The implication is that a completely untraceable underground economy will emerge using bitcoin.

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