In the last few months, much attention has been focused on the spate of rapid-fire cyber attacks against a variety of organizations. From Citibank to Sony to the CIA (a victim of hacker group LulzSec), no business or organization has been immune to attack. And Jihadists, it appears, are no exception. READ MORE
In techie circles, “hacker” can be a term of respect, denoting someone who is very, very good at programming, rather than the more common meaning: a criminal bent on gaining illegal access to others’ data. Every once in a while, the two meanings of the term converge, and that happened this week when Facebook hired George Hotz, a.k.a. Geohot, a hacker by both definitions, known for “jailbreaking” devices so that they could be used to load applications not approved by their manufacturers. READ MORE
When WordPress.org techies noticed some suspicious “commits” (database changes) in their main repository, they didn’t dither but took immediate action. The changes were to the plugins AddThis, wpTouch and W3 Total Cache. The WordPress team promptly issued “rollbacks” (a rollback undoes a commit) and pushed the changes to users in case any had downloaded the suspicious plugins. Then, for good measure, they required password changes for WordPress users who want to commit plugins and themes, or use the forums. READ MORE
Apple will begin enforcing its new iTunes App Store rules come June 30, and Amazon’s frequent Top 100 Kindle e-reader app is likely in Cupertino’s crosshairs. At issue is the prominent “shop in the Kindle store” button that takes users out of the App Store and into a web browser from which they can search for and purchase e-books. READ MORE
Leading up to the launch of its new music streaming service iCloud, VentureBeat reports Apple has finally signed all four major U.S. record labels—Universal, EMI, Sony, and Warner—paying out between $100 million and $150 million for their participation. Having finally acquired the rights from Universal, the final holdout, Apple will pay each record label between $25 million and $50 million. READ MORE
According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, hackers are becoming increasingly brazen and are widening the scope of their targets. While hackers once picked on companies that stored financial data or housed classified government information, they’re increasingly breaking into firms that don’t fit that profile. For instance, over the weekend “hactivists” posted a fake article on the web site for the PBS show “News Hour” in retaliation for a documentary called “WikiSecrets.” READ MORE
The jury is still out but, of course, many in the gaming world have their opinions. There’s what we do know: Nintendo plans to introduce its new Wii 2 (though it’s not confirmed it that’s its official name) at next month’s E3 trade show in Los Angeles. It’s said to be released early next spring, but that too could change. More people are wondering if, and how, Nintendo will step up its game with its new product. READ MORE
With recent Sony data breaches in the forefront of people’s minds, PCWorld‘s Alex Wawro couldn’t have picked a better time to write about the best ways to keep your data safe and secure. For one thing, he says it’s important to have different passwords for all of your online accounts. While that might sound impossible, he offers an ingenious trick to fend off most hacker tools. READ MORE
As the details of what is being dubbed as one of the biggest data breaches to date is gradually unfolding, the taunting message that the unknown hackers left on a file that Sony recovered seems to come straight out of a movie scene. The message reads, “We are Legion.” READ MORE
Last week we wrote about the continued fallout from the hacker attack on the Sony Playstation Network. Sony has now admitted that hackers broke into its servers on April 16 and 17 and may have stolen personal user data. This time, hackers targeted the accounts of Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) users; according to Sony. READ MORE
