Tag: hacked

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Madonna On The Arrest Of Her “Rebel Heart” Hacker

“I am profoundly grateful to the FBI, the Israeli Police investigators and anyone else who helped lead to the arrest of this hacker.

“I deeply appreciate my fans who have provided us with pertinent information and continue to do so regarding leaks of my music.

“Like any citizen, I have the right to privacy. This invasion into my life – creatively, professionally, and personally remains a deeply devastating and hurtful experience, as it must be for all artists who are victims of this type of crime.” -Madonna via Facebook

(h/t Boy Culture)

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Malware responsible for Target sales breach written by Russian seventeen year-old

According to Gawker, a Russian 17 year old is responsible for writing the software that allowed hackers to access purchases at Target and other department stores:

An “inexpensive” malware program called BlackPOS written by a Russian teen is what was used in the attack that compromised Target, as well as possibly Neiman Marcus.

It is not believed that the teenager orchestrated the attacks, but simply that he wrote and sold the script that made it possible. Per IntelCrawler, the program was purchased by at least 40 cybercriminals, primarily in Eastern Europe. Earlier this week, Wired reported that the original BlackPOS coding was strengthened so that it would not be detected by antivirus programs.

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AP Twitter account hacked with fake “White House bomb” tweet

A fake tweet from the account of the Associated Press sent stocks tumbling more than 140 points within minutes, erasing all of the day’s gains and then some, before bouncing back just as rapidly.

The erroneous tweet, which was posted around 1:07 p.m. ET, said “BREAKING: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured.” The tweet was up for a few minutes before AP’s account was suspended, and presumably seen by many of AP’s nearly 2 million followers. The tweet was also retweeted by almost 1,500 other Twitter users.

By 1:10 p.m. ET, the Dow was down almost 13 points, or 0.1% on the day. Just prior to the tweet, the blue-chip index had been up about 0.9% for the day. Stocks fully recovered from the plunge a few minutes after hitting the low of the day, as investors realized the tweet had been made by a hacker and was not true.  You can see the affect of the tweet in the screen capture of today’s stock activity below.

(via CNN Money)