Different manufacturers choose different tools when trying to drum up interest in their products, though most stick to the well-beaten path of traditional advertising. For the most part, Sony is no different, but it’s been known to adopt bombastic titles for its own products, and with their smartphones those usually…
Apple Music to be improved through the rest of the year says iTunes executive
Oliver Schusser, a Vice President at iTunes International, says that the Apple Music team is continuing to work on fixes to the feature that offers streaming music. The executive says that Apple needs to work on its playlists and on editorial content. Apple Music also was blamed for messing with…
Doogee says phone makers need to stop copying the iPhone
Chinese smartphone manufacturer Doogee sent out an email the other day to gizChina, with a new manifesto. The company says that smartphone manufacturers need to stop manufacturing handsets that look like the iPhone, with those rounded edges. Doogee says that this desire to be different is what pushed the company…
Kurdish hacker hits U.S. sites over Turkey bombings, report says
Source: National Cyber Security – Produced By Gregory Evans A cyberattack in an Alabama community this month is an outgrowth of growing conflict in the Middle East, according to a new report authored by cybersecurity firm Bat Blue. The attack, perpetrated by a Kurdish hacker calling himself Muhmad Emad, “would…
Internal Revenue Service says cyber attacks were extensive: WSJ
Source: National Cyber Security – Produced By Gregory Evans The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said Monday a hacking attack into one of its computer databases that was revealed in May was much more extensive than previously reported, the Wall Street Journal said. The IRS said in late May the…
MLB says Apple Watches are okay in the dugout
Despite a ban on smartphones and other connected devices in the dugout and on the field, Major League Baseball (MLB) won’t be barring players and managers from wearing the Apple Watch during games. The issue recently came up when Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost was seen wearing his Apple…
Human Rights Violation? Hacking Team CEO Says No
Source: National Cyber Security – Produced By Gregory Evans Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused Italian technology company Hacking Team of violations of human rights in Ethiopia. HRW is a nongovernmental advocacy group that seeks to expose offenders of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that was (UNDR) adopted by…
ISIS social media accounts are buzzing with a spreadsheet of personal data on employees of the American, British, and Australian governments, including military personnel. The Islamic State claims this list was compiled using data stolen from government systems by its “hacking division,” although some experts who have reviewed the list say most of it was more likely created using simple Google searches of publicly available data. There are about 1,400 individuals included on the list. The list was accompanied by a message from the “Islamic State Hacking Division,” transcribed by Sky News: O Crusaders, as you continue your aggression towards the Islamic State and your bombing campaign against the Muslims, know that we are in your emails and computer systems, watching and recording your every move. We have your names and addresses, we are in your emails and social media accounts, we are extracting confidential data and passing on your personal information to the soldiers of the khilafah, who soon with the permission of Allah will strike at your necks in your own lands. So wait, we too are waiting. The Sydney Morning Herald criticizes Australian officials for being “caught on their heels” by the hit list, which includes Defense Force employees and a Victorian MP. Even though “Australia’s most senior Islamic State militant, former Melbourne man and terror recruiter Neil Prakash” was posting links to the hit list early Wednesday morning, at least half of the Australians targeted by ISIS said they were unaware of the threat until they were informed by the media… which contacted them using the phone numbers published by the Islamic State. “I’m completely at a loss,” said the aforementioned MP, who at least has access to a security detail assigned to protect elected officials. “What do I do? The police probably know less than you and I.” Defense Force employees on the list said they were in shock no one from the government had warned them. Various agencies of the Australian government declined to discuss the matter. In addition to Prakash – who crowed “Cyber war got em shook!” and “Kill them where you find them and enslave their women” on Twitter – the Herald reports “other prominent militants, including British man Junaid Hussain, who is third on a CIA kill list of Islamic State operatives, also used social media to promote the leak and encourage attacks.” Sky News reports the hit list includes British Foreign Office employees, plus a “local council employee.” Most of the names on the list are American, including personnel from the Air Force, Marines, NASA, FBI, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Russian state outlet RT.com says the list also includes “a worker in an Israeli magistrate’s court” and “someone in a college in Mississippi.” The RT.com article mentions some reasons for skepticism about the Islamic State’s claim that this list includes confidential information obtained by hackers: some of the phone numbers appear to be disconnected, while the purportedly stolen U.S. military passwords appearing on the list are “too weak to pass the guidelines of an official computer system operated by the Pentagon.” The Sydney Morning Herald also found some of the information published on the list to be outdated. “This is the second or third time they’ve claimed that and the first two times I’ll tell you, whatever lists they got were not taken by any cyber attack,” said Army Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno, as quoted by the UK Guardian. The Guardian also cites the opinion of computer security expert Troy Hunt, who said the of the supposedly hacked data: “It’s pretty clear that it’s been aggregated from different sources. It’s been put together on the basis of a .gov or .mil address. Even the passwords, they’re not strong enough to have come from a corporate or government. They’re not even strong enough to have come from an online service – you can’t create a Gmail account, for example, with a password of less than eight characters, and here we’re seeing some passwords of three letters.” The UK Daily Mail notes that Twitter administrators appear to have shut down the Islamic State Hacking Division’s account three times on Wednesday while it attempted to spread its hit list around, leading to the creation of a fourth terrorist account with the message, “Kuffar seem to be raging.”
Source: National Cyber Security – Produced By Gregory Evans ISIS social media accounts are buzzing with a spreadsheet of personal data on employees of the American, British, and Australian governments, including military personnel. The Islamic State claims this list was compiled using data stolen from government systems by its “hacking…
All Australian mobile phones at risk of foreign hacking, says US intelligence committee head Devin Nunes
Source: National Cyber Security – Produced By Gregory Evans Australians have been warned that all mobile phone and email communications are constantly vulnerable to being hacked by “foreign adversaries”. “None of our networks are safe,” said Devin Nunes, a congressman who heads the intelligence committee in the US House of…
The Martian author says Comcast let hacker take over his e-mail
Source: National Cyber Security – Produced By Gregory Evans Andy Weir is the creator of Mark Watney, a fictional astronaut who can solve any problem the harsh environment of Mars throws his way. But Weir, author of The Martian, ran into a tricky problem on Earth this week when his e-mail and Twitter…