Hacking, Security & Privacy News - Page 4

All the latest Hacking, Security & Privacy news with plenty of coverage on new data breaches and leaks, new hacks, ways to protect yourself online & plenty more - Page 4.

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Massive ACER data breach sees hacker putting up 160GB of data for sale

Kosta Andreadis | Mar 8, 2023 9:01 PM CST

Taiwanese computer company Acer has confirmed that it has experienced a massive data breach. However, its investigation into the hack indicates that customer data has not been stolen and is limited to things found on a server for repair technicians. The confirmation arrives after a hacker put up the data for auction on a popular hacker forum - claiming that 160GB of data had been stolen.

Massive ACER data breach sees hacker putting up 160GB of data for sale

The hacker claims that the data includes "confidential" internal slides and presentations, staff documentation for technical support, Windows images, product information across various devices, "tons of BIOS stuff," and other files. The threat actor shared screenshots of schematics for an Acer display and other confidential documents to prove the data theft was real.

There isn't a price set other than the data will go to the highest bidder with the condition that payment is made via the hard-to-trace cryptocurrency Monero.

Continue reading: Massive ACER data breach sees hacker putting up 160GB of data for sale (full post)

Windows 11 just got some vital security updates, so don't hang around, patch now

Darren Allan | Feb 15, 2023 9:30 AM CST

Windows 11 just got a raft of security fixes in the latest round of monthly patching from Microsoft, including some crucial ones.

Windows 11 just got some vital security updates, so don't hang around, patch now

In fact, there are three fixes for zero-day vulnerabilities provided, meaning bugs in Windows 11 which are public knowledge. And in this case, these security flaws are being actively exploited by nefarious types - so they represent a clear potential danger to Windows 11 users.

In total, there are 77 vulnerabilities fixed by Microsoft's February patch for Windows 11 PCs, and nine are labeled as 'critical.'

Continue reading: Windows 11 just got some vital security updates, so don't hang around, patch now (full post)

Federal 'No Fly List' exposed by US airline hacker reveals heavy biases

Jak Connor | Jan 23, 2023 5:03 AM CST

The US airline CommuteAir reportedly left a federal "No Fly List" on an unsecured server that was then accessed by a Swiss hacker.

Federal 'No Fly List' exposed by US airline hacker reveals heavy biases

The exclusive report comes from The Daily Dot that claims US airline CommuteAir left an unsecured server open that contained a large quantity of sensitive information. This server was accessed by a Swiss hacker that goes by "maia arson crimew" who wrote a blog post titled "how to completely own an airline in 3 easy steps," where they explained that they stumbled across the sensitive server by accident and through boredom.

Essentially, the hackers were just looking around through a search engine called Shodan when they discovered the server and a file titled "NoFly.csv". The file was opened, and the hackers discovered a 2019 version of a federal No Fly list that includes first and last names as well as dates of birth. The Daily Dot reports the list contained the names and aliases of many high-profile people, such as the recently-freed Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout and his 16 aliases.

Continue reading: Federal 'No Fly List' exposed by US airline hacker reveals heavy biases (full post)

The FBI recommends using an adblocker to protect you from cyber criminals

Kosta Andreadis | Jan 18, 2023 8:29 PM CST

Malware in the form of an advertisement in Google or other search engine results is not uncommon. We recently reported on a case involving a shady ad impersonating AMD for a user simply looking to update their graphics driver.

The FBI recommends using an adblocker to protect you from cyber criminals

As spotted by a user on the Linus Tech Tips forums, the FBI posted a new Public Service Announcement (PSA) earlier this month, explicitly calling out this issue.

As per the PSA.

Continue reading: The FBI recommends using an adblocker to protect you from cyber criminals (full post)

Norton announces thousands of its customer accounts have been hacked

Jak Connor | Jan 16, 2023 7:34 AM CST

Norton LifeLock, a very well-known provider of identity protection and cybersecurity services, recently revealed in an announcement that thousands of its customers had their accounts compromised.

Norton announces thousands of its customer accounts have been hacked

The parent company of Norton LifeLock, Gen Digital, states that the likely cause of the hack was a "credential stuffing" attack, which is when previously exposed or breached credentials of accounts are used to break into other accounts on different sites and services that have the same passwords. The company notes that it detected a "large volume" of failed logins to customer accounts on December 12, which led them to discover that the intruders had compromised accounts dating back to December 1.

The company sent notices to about 6,450 Norton customers whose accounts were affected by the breach. In the data breach notice, Gen Digital states that the unauthorized third party may have viewed customers' first names, last names, phone numbers, and mailing addresses. The company also said that it could not rule out that the intruders also accessed some customers' saved passwords.

Continue reading: Norton announces thousands of its customer accounts have been hacked (full post)

Google serves up malware for user looking to update their AMD Graphics Drivers

Kosta Andreadis | Jan 15, 2023 11:27 PM CST

A few days ago, on the popular PCMR subreddit, a user warned others that when he searched for "amd driver" the top result was an advertisement for a malicious website claiming to offer precisely that.

Google serves up malware for user looking to update their AMD Graphics Drivers

Of course, this wasn't a legitimate search result, but appearing above their search results, it was an ad made to look like the real thing. In our testing, it seems like the search result and site have both been removed, which is good to see.

Still, according to multiple sources, it was host to a dubious .exe download titled "Auto-Detect and Install Driver Updates for AMD Radeon Series Graphics and Ryzen Chipsets", which sounds legitimate. Until you take a closer look at the URL and realize it would definitely not do that. The site even featured AMD branding and AMD IP, a tactic that isn't new in the world of malware.

Continue reading: Google serves up malware for user looking to update their AMD Graphics Drivers (full post)

An easy way to protect your kids while browsing the net with Google Chrome

Cameron Wilmot | Jan 10, 2023 2:22 PM CST

It wasn't until recently that I discovered Chrome has an in-built feature to help protect your kids (and anyone, actually) while browsing the web with Google's popular web browser. A recent Facebook post from the Google Chrome page alerted me to its "Enhanced Protection" security mode and family DNS feature, which we dive into below.

An easy way to protect your kids while browsing the net with Google Chrome

In the simplest terms, when turned on, this feature proactively monitors the user's behavior in Chrome and blocks bad websites, downloads, and extensions before they can cause a problem on your device. For example, you or your child might be about to enter a harmful website that attempts to steal important information. Chrome blocks the website and presents a very obvious red screen warning you.

A little discussion with your kids would go a long way, alerting them if they see this obvious red screen, reminding them it's a bad site and they shouldn't visit it. Chrome can also scan any downloads before the files are executed for malware. Privacy advocates may not be impressed by the feature since some of your data and activity need to be processed by Google. Still, it should be a suitable compromise for most if security concerns you. Considering this free feature doesn't slow down your devices as external security monitoring software and apps can, it's well worth it.

Continue reading: An easy way to protect your kids while browsing the net with Google Chrome (full post)

Hackers target US public airports sparking response from US officials

Jak Connor | Oct 11, 2022 5:40 AM CDT

A group of hackers that are suspected of being Russian targeted more than a dozen US airport websites on Monday.

Hackers target US public airports sparking response from US officials

According to reports from ABC News and several other publications, a group of hackers believed to be located in Russia targeted fourteen US airport websites on Monday, with some of the websites being LaGuardia, O'Hare and LAX. The hack brought down the website for approximately fifteen minutes and sparked a response from a US government official that stated air traffic control, along with internal airport communications and other critical operations, weren't impacted by the hack.

However, travelers that were interested in wait times or any other information found on the website would have experienced an inconvenience. Furthermore, a spokesperson for LAX said that the attack didn't compromise internal airport systems and that there were no operational disruptions to report.

Continue reading: Hackers target US public airports sparking response from US officials (full post)

Student psychological profiles released in 500GB of stolen school data

Jak Connor | Oct 4, 2022 3:16 AM CDT

In what appears to be the largest education breach in the last couple of years, a large amount of student data has been released by a group of hackers that infiltrated a school system last month.

Student psychological profiles released in 500GB of stolen school data

The hacking group named Vice Society claimed responsibility for the ransomware attack on Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), which resulted in the bad actors gaining access to emails, computer systems, applications, and more. Reports indicate that hundreds of gigabytes of student data was stolen and that the hacker group demanded an undisclosed amount of money for the return of the data. Unfortunately, as expected by U.S. authorities, the data was released online as the October 4 deadline was not met.

According to Tech Crunch, the stolen data was posted to Vice Society's dark website and contains extremely sensitive data on students, such as personal identification information, passport details, Social Security numbers, and tax documents. Additionally, the half a terabyte of leaked sensitive information also contains confidential information in the form of documents, contracts, health information on students/staff, COVID-19 test data, conviction reports, and psychological assessments on students.

Continue reading: Student psychological profiles released in 500GB of stolen school data (full post)

Anonymous hacking group declares war on NFT project over Nazi symbols

Jak Connor | Sep 30, 2022 2:33 AM CDT

The hacking collective Anonymous has taken to YouTube to announce that its declaring war against the creators of one of the most popular NFT projects, the Bored Ape Yacht Club.

Anonymous hacking group declares war on NFT project over Nazi symbols

Anonymous released the above video onto its YouTube channel on September 27, and in the almost 9-minute long video, the hacking collective accuses the creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT project, Yuga Labs, of including "esoteric" Nazi, white supremacist, and pedophilic symbolism throughout its designs. These accusations aren't necessarily surprising, as Yuga Labs has previously denied any intentional inclusion of artistry that represents the aforementioned groups or ideologies.

Futurism reports that the accusations originally began with digital artist Ryder Ripps who published a website that connected symbols within some of the Bored Ape Yacht Club designs with Nazi symbolism. These allegations were seemingly picked up by Anonymous, which the hacking collective states in the above video it has found proof "beyond a shadow of a doubt" that Yuga Labs intentionally includes elusive Nazi symbolism within its digital art projects.

Continue reading: Anonymous hacking group declares war on NFT project over Nazi symbols (full post)