Cyber Security News of the Week, July 10, 2011

Citadel in the News

Fox News, July 4 2011: KTTV FOX 11′s Susan Hirasuna speaks with Dr. Stan Stahl about the FOX News Twitter and Apple hacks earlier this week in this video report.

Information at Risk

Anonymous hacker group hits Apple, publishes data: The Internet vigilante hacker group Anonymous claimed to have broken into an Apple Inc (AAPL.O) server and published a small number of usernames and passwords for one of the U.S. technology company’s websites. Reuters, July 4, 2011

Washington Post Reports Data Breach on Job Ads Section: The Washington Post has alerted job seekers who use its employment pages of a data breach that compromised up to 1.27 million accounts. The publisher wrote on its website that the “Jobs” section was attacked by an “unauthorized third party” once on June 27 and once on June 28. The attackers obtained user IDs and e-mail addresses, but did not get passwords or other personal information. PC World, July 7, 2011

AntiSec Hackers Hit F.B.I. Contractor: Hackers who have claimed responsibility for a spate of recent break-ins said on Friday that they had infiltrated the network of IRC Federal, an engineering contractor that works for federal agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and stole internal documents from its database and e-mail system. The New York Times, July 8, 2011

Kiplinger Warns Customers Hackers Breached Computer Network, Stole Data: Kiplinger Washington Editors Inc., the publisher of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, warned customers that hackers breached its computer network on June 25 and stole account data, including credit card numbers. Bloomberg, July 9, 2011

Business at Risk

New cyberattacks target small businesses: Criminals who infect websites are making the Internet much riskier for small business owners. Since early June, one gang has been using a uniquely insidious type of automated attack to inject malicious code on some 20,000 to 30,000 sites, many of them small businesses that rely on the Internet to reach customers, says Wayne Huang, chief technical officer at website security firm Armorize. USA Today, July 4, 2011

Cyber Security Management

Attacks on websites spark demand for cyber-security experts: The cyber-security industry is on Defcon 1 high alert. The recent rash of attacks on dozens of websites including those of the CIA, the FBI and even PBS is roiling the security industry and increasing demand for cyber-defense experts. LA Times, July 5, 2011

Consumers at Risk

PDFs that exploit iPhone, iPad zero-day available on the Web: Hours after developers revealed they had exploited bugs in Apple’s iOS to “jailbreak” iPhones and iPads, German government security authorities warned that one of the flaws could be put to malicious use. Computer World, July 7, 2011

Apple girding gadgets against hackers: Apple on Friday said it was working to patch a vulnerability that hackers could use to break into the company’s popular iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch gadgets. Engineers at the California firm are fixing a weakness pointed out by the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). AFP, July 8, 2011

Internet Badlands

Meet the Hackers with a Cause: Hacker groups that attack or steal — some estimates say there are as many as 6000 of such groups online with about 50,000 “bad actors” around the world drifting in and out of them — are a threat, but the goals, methods, effectiveness of these groups varies widely. PC World, July 9, 2011

U.S. Suspects Contaminated Foreign-Made Components Threaten Cyber Security: Some foreign-made computer components are being manufactured to make it easier to launch cyber attacks on U.S. companies and consumers, a security official at the the Department of Homeland Security said. ABC News, July 9, 2011