Category Archives: Cyber
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SIX MILLION ‘LINKED-IN’ PASSWORDS LEAKED – HAVE YOU CHANGED YOURS?
Social networking website LinkedIn is looking into claims that the passwords of more than six million members have been stolen.
The site, which is aimed at professionals, has in excess of 161 million members in more than 200 countries.
A message on the company’s Twitter page said: “Our team is currently looking into reports of stolen passwords. Stay tuned for more.”
Users have been urged by internet experts to change their security details immediately after a file containing 6.5 million passwords was posted online.
IT security and data protection firm Sophos said the leaked encrypted data does not include associated email addresses but warned that hackers will be working to crack the “unsalted” password hashes and “it is reasonable to assume that such information may be in the hands of the criminals”.
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, said: “It would seem sensible to suggest to all LinkedIn users that they change their passwords as soon as possible as a precautionary step.
“Of course, make sure that the password you use is unique – in other words, not used on any other websites – and that it is hard to crack.
“If you were using the same passwords on other websites, make sure to change them too. And never again use the same password on multiple websites.”
LinkedIn later posted on Twitter: “Our team continues to investigate, but at this time, we’re still unable to confirm that any security breach has occurred. Stay tuned here.”
HACKERS DISABLE HOME OFFICE WEB SITE IN PROTESTS
A group of computer hackers have claimed responsibility for taking down the Home Office website apparently in protest against government extradition and surveillance policies.
Internet users were unable to fully access the department’s homepage for several hours last night with a message on the site saying the page was currently unavailable “due to a high volume of traffic”.
One message on Twitter claiming to be from Anonymous, a loosely organised group of hackers, said the action was “for your draconian surveillance proposals”, while another said it was in protest at the UK’s controversial extradition treaty with America.
It read: “You should not give UK citizens to foreign countries without evidence. If an offence happened in the UK, so should the trail.”
Another tweet claiming to be from members said the action had been taken in “protest of the potential extradition of Gary McKinnon, Christopher Harold Tappin & Richard O’Dwyer.”
There were also claims on Twitter that the group had disrupted the websites of the Ministry of Justice and Number 10.
One message said: “#Anonymous launched a cyberattack on http://www.number10.gov.uk, http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk & http://www.justice.gov.uk resulting in multiple TANGO DOWNS.”
All three government websites were fully operational today.
After the Home Office website was disrupted yesterday evening the department said it had been “aware of some reports that the Home Office website may be the subject of an online protest” and had “put all potential measures in place”.
It it believed the site may have been hit by a denial of service attack which prevents a website from functioning properly, sometimes by swamping it with more traffic than it can handle.
The apparent attack came after it emerged last week that the Government was planning a massive expansion of its powers to monitor the email exchanges and website visits of every person in the UK.
Under legislation expected in next month’s Queen’s Speech, internet companies will be instructed to install hardware enabling GCHQ – the Government’s electronic “listening” agency – to examine “on demand” any phone call made, text message and email sent, and website accessed, in “real time” without a warrant.
Ministers have faced a backlash over the plans, with senior MPs from both coalition parties, as well as civil liberties groups, lining up to denounce it.
The move has been condemned by opponents as an unnecessary extension of the state’s powers to “snoop” on its citizens.
Meanwhile, the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee has called for an overhaul to the controversial extradition arrangements between the UK and the United States to restore “public faith”.
Many critics believe it is easier to extradite a British citizen to the USA than vice-versa.
Retired British businessman and all-Kent Golf Club Union president Tappin, 65, is being held in jail in New Mexico while he awaits trial on arms dealing charges after being extradited last month.
Student Richard O’Dwyer, 23, of Chesterfield, is also fighting extradition after being accused of breaking American copyright laws by using his computer in the UK.
And Asperger’s sufferer Gary McKinnon, 46, from Wood Green, north London, is still waiting to hear whether he will be extradited over charges he hacked into US military computers 10 years ago.
Anonymous, whose genesis can be traced back to a popular US image messaging board, has become increasingly politicised amid a global clampdown on music piracy and the international controversy over the whistleblowing website site WikiLeaks, with which many of its supporters identify.
Authorities in Europe, North America and elsewhere have made dozens of arrests, and Anonymous has increasingly attacked law enforcement, military and intelligence-linked targets in retaliation.
One of Anonymous’s most spectacular coups was secretly recording a conference call between US and British cyber-investigators tasked with bringing the group to justice.
The collective has no real membership structure, with hackers, activists, and supporters able to claim allegiance to its freewheeling principles at their convenience.
