Hacker

Alleged UK hacker wins US extradition fight

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– Alleged UK hacker wins US extradition fight:

LONDON (AP) — An alleged computer hacker from Britain won a court appeal Monday to block his extradition to the United States, where he faces charges in three states. The High Court in London ruled against allowing Lauri Love to be extradited, although judges said it would still be possible to prosecute him in England.

Love, 32, has Asperger’s syndrome and a depressive illness. His lawyers said it would be “unjust and oppressive” to send him to the U.S. to face trial. U.S. officials requested Love’s extradition on cyber-hacking charges alleging he compromised government networks between October 2012 and October 2013 and stole data.The decision in his favor Monday was greeted with cheers in the courtroom. Love said outside the London courthouse he hopes his case spurs discussion about how people with mental health issues are handled by the justice system.

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H/t reader squodgy.

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New Stealthy Cyberattack Could Dwarf Last Week’s Global Worm Epidemic, Uses Infected Computers To Mine Virtual Currency

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– “It’s Much Bigger Than WannaCry”: New Stealthy Cyberattack Could Dwarf Last Week’s Global Worm Epidemic:

Another large-scale, stealthy cyberattack is underway on a scale that could dwarf last week’s assault on computers worldwide, a global cybersecurity firm told AFP on Wednesday. Rather than freeze files demanding a ransom, Adylkuzz uses infected computers to mine virtual currency…“As it is silent and doesn’t trouble the user, the Adylkuzz attack is much more profitable for the cyber criminals.”

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AND NOW: North Korean Hackers Emerge As “Culprits” Behind Global Malware Cyberattack

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– North Korean Hackers Emerge As “Culprits” Behind Global Malware Cyberattack:

Remember when North Korea “hackers” breached several firewall layers at Sony, exposing gigabytes of confidential data, only for it to eventually emerge that it was all the work of a disgruntled Sony employee?

Apparently not, because the same plot line is being re-run all over again.

Read moreAND NOW: North Korean Hackers Emerge As “Culprits” Behind Global Malware Cyberattack

Top NSA Whistleblower: Ransomware Hack Caused by “Swindle of the Taxpayers” by Intelligence Agencies

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– Top NSA Whistleblower: Ransomware Hack Caused by “Swindle of the Taxpayers” by Intelligence Agencies:

What should we make of the global ransomware attacks which happened today?

We’ve documented that the intelligence services intentionally create digital vulnerabilities, then intentionally leave them open … leaving us exposed and insecure.

Washington’s Blog asked the highest level NSA whistleblower ever* – Bill Binney – what he thinks of the attacks.

Binney told us:

Read moreTop NSA Whistleblower: Ransomware Hack Caused by “Swindle of the Taxpayers” by Intelligence Agencies

24 Hours Later: “Unprecedented” Fallout From “Biggest Ransomware Attack In History”

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– 24 Hours Later: “Unprecedented” Fallout From “Biggest Ransomware Attack In History”:

24 hours after it first emerged, it has been called the first global, coordinated ransomware attack using hacking tools developed by the NSA, crippling over a dozen hospitals across the UK, mass transit around Europe, car factories in France and the UK, universities in China, corporations in the US, banks in Russia and countless other mission-critical businesses and infrastructure.

According to experts, “this could be one of the worst-ever recorded attacks of its kind.” The security researcher who tweets and blogs as MalwareTech told The Intercept, “I’ve never seen anything like this with ransomware,” and “the last worm of this degree I can remember is Conficker.” Conficker was a notorious Windows worm first spotted in 2008; it went on to infect over 9 million computers in nearly 200 countries.

Read more24 Hours Later: “Unprecedented” Fallout From “Biggest Ransomware Attack In History”

“Worst-Ever Recorded” Ransomware Attack Strikes Over 57,000 Users Worldwide, Using NSA-Leaked Tools

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– “Worst-Ever Recorded” Ransomware Attack Strikes Over 57,000 Users Worldwide, Using NSA-Leaked Tools:

The ransomware has been identifed as WannaCry

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Update 4: According to experts tracking and analyzing the worm and its spread, this could be one of the worst-ever recorded attacks of its kind. The security researcher who tweets and blogs as MalwareTech told The Intercept“I’ve never seen anything like this with ransomware,” and “the last worm of this degree I can remember is Conficker.” Conficker was a notorious Windows worm first spotted in 2008; it went on to infect over nine million computers in nearly 200 countries. As The Intercept details,

Read more“Worst-Ever Recorded” Ransomware Attack Strikes Over 57,000 Users Worldwide, Using NSA-Leaked Tools

Ransomware virus plagues 75k computers across 99 countries

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– Ransomware virus plagues 75k computers across 99 countries

H/t reader squodgy:

“Now, this is serious, and could be a ruse by Bankster/Deep State to destroy Bitcoin etc, over which they currently have no control.
The banksters have been increasingly frustrated that they are unable to get a proper footing on crypto-currencies, of which Bitcoin is by far the most popular.
Creating a virus aimed specifically to blackmail Bitcoin users is a clever ploy.
They have to shed their anonimity…..”

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Hospitals Across England Go Dark After Massive “Cyber-Attack”; Hackers Demand Ransom

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– Hospitals Across England Go Dark After Massive “Cyber-Attack”; Hackers Demand Ransom:

Hosptials across the UK have been hit with a large-scale, cyber-attack, resulting in the loss of phonelines and computers, with some diverting all but emergency patients elsewhere. At some hospitals patients are being told not to come to A&E with all non-urgent operations cancelled. According to the Telegraph, doctors across the country have seen a ransomware message flash on their screens.

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Hackers expose NSA financial spying arsenal, global banking system potentially at risk

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– Hackers expose NSA financial spying arsenal, global banking system potentially at risk:

Hacking group Shadow Brokers has released a data dump allegedly stolen from the NSA detailing the agency’s ability to hack international banks, including the SWIFT network, via Windows PCs and servers used for global financial transfers.

Read moreHackers expose NSA financial spying arsenal, global banking system potentially at risk

Hacker Group Releases Password To NSA’s “Top Secret Arsenal” In Protest Of Trump Betrayal

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– Hacker Group Releases Password To NSA’s “Top Secret Arsenal” In Protest Of Trump Betrayal:

“TheShadowBrokers wishes we could be doing more, but revolutions/civil wars taking money, time, and people. Be considering this our form of protest. The password for the EQGRP-Auction-Files is CrDj”(;Va.*NdlnzB9M?@K2)#>deB7mN“

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WikiLeaks Reveals “Marble”: Proof CIA Disguises Their Hacks As Russian, Chinese, Arabic…

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– WikiLeaks Reveals “Marble”: Proof CIA Disguises Their Hacks As Russian, Chinese, Arabic…:

WikiLeaks’ latest Vault 7 release contains a batch of documents, named ‘Marble’, which detail CIA hacking tactics and how they can misdirect forensic investigators from attributing viruses, trojans and hacking attacks to their agency by inserted code fragments in foreign languages.  The tool was in use as recently as 2016.  Per the WikiLeaks release:

“The source code shows that Marble has test examples not just in English but also in Chinese, Russian, Korean, Arabic and Farsi. This would permit a forensic attribution double game, for example by pretending that the spoken language of the malware creator was not American English, but Chinese, but then showing attempts to conceal the use of Chinese, drawing forensic investigators even more strongly to the wrong conclusion, — but there are other possibilities, such as hiding fake error messages.”

The latest release is said to potentially allow for ‘thousands‘ of cyber attacks to be attributed to the CIA which were originally blamed on foreign governments.

Read moreWikiLeaks Reveals “Marble”: Proof CIA Disguises Their Hacks As Russian, Chinese, Arabic…

DNS Cyber Attack Returns As Northeast Internet Traffic Grinds To A Crawl For Second Time

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– DNS Cyber Attack Returns As Northeast Internet Traffic Grinds To A Crawl For Second Time:

What was supposed to be a temporary internet outage, after an attack “of unknown origin” on DNS service provide DYN took down much of the internet in the North East, appears to have returned, and moments ago DYN announced that it was once again experiencing the same “attack” as this morning.

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White House To Deliver “Proportional” Response To Russian Hacking, Won’t Disclose What It Is

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FYI.

– White House To Deliver “Proportional” Response To Russian Hacking, Won’t Disclose What It Is:

Following Friday’s accusation by US “intelligence services” that Russia was behind the hacking of US political organizations – which took place just minutes before the first Wikileaks data dump of John Podesta emails – even though the US government did not directly accuse Putin of being the party responsible, today curious journalists demanded more information from White House spokesman Josh Earnest after Monday’s holiday.

What he told them is that, according to Reuters, Barack Obama will consider a variety of responses to Russia’s hacking of political party organizations and it is possible that any action may not be announced publicly, the White House said on Tuesday.

“There are a range of responses that are available to the president and he will consider a response that is proportional,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters on Air Force One. “It is certainly possible that the president can choose response options that we never announce,” he said.

Read moreWhite House To Deliver “Proportional” Response To Russian Hacking, Won’t Disclose What It Is

Romanian Hacker Who Exposed Hillary’s Private Email Server Sentenced To 52 Months

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Guccifer

– Romanian Hacker Who Exposed Hillary’s Private Email Server Sentenced To 52 Months:

The infamous Romanian hacker Marcel Lazar, better known by his nickname “Guccifer” and best known for helping expose the existence of the private email domain Hillary Clinton used when she was U.S. secretary of state was sentenced on Thursday to 52 months in prison by a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. Lazar had pleaded guilty in May to charges including unauthorized access to a protected computer and aggravated identity theft after being extradited from Romania.

In an NBC interview in May, Guccifer claimed that he also gained access to the former Secretary of State’s “completely unsecured” server. “It was like an open orchid on the Internet,” Lazar told NBC News. “There were hundreds of folders.” What is curious is that according to Reuters, law enforcement and national security officials said that claim is meritless. Of course, the question arises: just how diligently did national security officials probe Guccifer’s claim: the reason to be skeptical is that if this allegation was confirmed, then the FBI’s entire case against Clinton would collapse, as it would be proven that her server was indeed hacked, something the FBI said there was no evidence ever happened, and lead to renewed questioning about the impartiality of the FBI’s probe.

Read moreRomanian Hacker Who Exposed Hillary’s Private Email Server Sentenced To 52 Months

Latest Guccifer Leak Reveals What Democrats Really Think Of Black Lives Matter

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– Latest Guccifer Leak Reveals What Democrats Really Think Of Black Lives Matter:

The hacker known as “Guccifer 2.0” recently uploaded new material to his website which he claims to have received courtesy of Nancy Pelosi’s PC.  The new release includes several internal memos from DCCC staff as well as talking points on various topics.

Among the most interesting of the new disclosures is a memo from Troy Perry with talking points on how candidates and campaign staff should address various topics related to the Black Lives Matter movement.  The memo notes that “presidential candidates have struggled to respond to tactics of the Black Lives Matter movement”  and refers to the group as a “radical movement to end “anti-black racism.”  Perry also warns not to use “trigger” phrases like “all lives matter” or “black on black crime.”  The memo goes on to offer the following “Background” and “Tactics” for “best practices” when dealing with Black Lives Matters members:

Read moreLatest Guccifer Leak Reveals What Democrats Really Think Of Black Lives Matter

‘You’re welcome’: Snowden casts light on NSA hack – Edward Snowden Explains The Historic NSA Hack: “This Escalation Could Get Messy Fast”

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Edward-Snowden

– ‘You’re welcome’: Snowden casts light on NSA hack:

The files released by a hacker group that claims to have breached the NSA are authentic, whistleblower Edward Snowden has said, explaining the documents’ importance and potential impact on the US elections and relations with allies around the world.

Over the weekend, a mysterious group called Shadow Brokers posted “samples” of files purloined from the Equation Group – widely believed to be a front for the National Security Agency – and said it would sell the rest in exchange for bitcoin. The NSA has yet to comment on the authenticity of the files.

Read more‘You’re welcome’: Snowden casts light on NSA hack – Edward Snowden Explains The Historic NSA Hack: “This Escalation Could Get Messy Fast”

Mysterious Group Hacks The NSA

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equation group

– Mysterious Group Hacks The NSA:

The latest hack revealed over the weekend has nothing to do with the Democratic Party or George Soros, and instead a mysterious hacker group by the name “The Shadow Brokers” claims to have hacked the Equation Group – a government cyberattack hacking group associated with the NSA, and released a bunch of the organization’s hacking tools. The hackers are also asking for 1 million bitcoin (around $568 million) in an auction to release more files.

“Attention government sponsors of cyber warfare and those who profit from it!!!!” the hackers wrote in a manifesto posted on Pastebin, on GitHub, and on a dedicated Tumblr.

Read moreMysterious Group Hacks The NSA