2016-04-30

Panama Papers Leak

A data leak that showcases how miserably some of the big names try and hide their wealth from the tax authorities.
Eleven million documents were leaked from the secretive Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. They show how the company has helped some clients launder money, dodge sanctions and avoid tax.

Story Here

2016-04-21

Rigging elections via the cyber world

He knew that accounts could be faked and social media trends fabricated, all relatively cheaply ... he could manipulate the public debate as easily as moving pieces on a chessboard - or, as he puts it, “When I realized that people believe what the Internet says more than reality, I discovered that I had the power to make people believe almost anything.”
Story here.

Update 15-Jun-2016:
Related, but not the same guy, some news of stealing data on the ongoing elections, on Trump.

Update 22-Jul-2016:
Wikileaks dumps thousands of leaked emails (here) from USA's DNC party. This helps Republican nominee Trump tremendously. Some believe this is done by Russian hackers, which I am skeptical to. Anyway, if there is anyone who still believes hackers cannot help with elections, it is high time to reconsider.

Update 12-Aug-2016:
Seems like I am not the only one who believes that elections could be rigged, using the power of web.

Update 31-Dec-2016:
In case there are still some skeptics who think cyber-world cannot rig, something as allusive as elections:
  • US imposes sanctions on Russia
  • The IOC and a detailed report from DHS
  • The story of a Russian hacker - Aleksandr B Vyarya
Update 02-Jun-2017:
How are these leaks happening (and the tainted leaks)?

Update 20-Feb-2018:
So, how were the USA elections influenced, the investigation is now complete.


2016-04-18

Learn from the hacker!

The hacker who hacked "The Hacking Team", shares his knowledge. Helps us appreciate how much time and effort goes into a successful hack.
He makes no bones about it; he’s a black hat hacker. Phineas Fisher wrote, “You used to have to sneak into offices to leak documents. You used to need a gun to rob a bank. Now you can do both from bed with a laptop in hand.”

2016-04-17

Philippine voters' data leaked

55 million Filipino voters’ data was now out in the wild ... a ginormous data breach with extremely sensitive information and at 55M individuals, that’s also more than half the country’s population.

2016-04-16

Dreamhost does not hash passwords!

Does anyone use DreamHost for cloud hosting? I am astonished to see they do not hash user passwords, and their support staff have the ability to view my password in plain-text. Even more astonishing is that they have no idea why this is a bad idea.
My tweet to them

2016-04-13

Hacking Lottery via Random Num Generator

For several years, Eddie Tipton, the former security director of the US Multi-State Lottery Association, installed software code that allowed him to predict winning numbers on specific days of the year, investigators allege.
Full story!
 

2016-04-06

50 M Turkish Citizens' Personal Data leaked Online

The leaked database (about 6.6 GB file) contains the following information:
  • First and last names
  • National identifier numbers (TC Kimlik No)
  • Gender
  • City of birth
  • Date of birth
  • Full address
  • ID registration city and district
  • User's mother and Father's first names
To prove the authenticity of the data, the group of hackers published the personal details of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, along with his predecessor Abdullah Gul, and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
Full Story