Explaining Security

This is a typical example how malware authors make money.

They sell their programs and have other people make the attacks on you.

RSA blogs has the story  – RSA is a security division of EMC company which has security encryption

RSA was one of the first practicable public-key cryptosystems and is widely used for secure data.

 

We recommend that you do not use SMS banking – as it is done over text.   You should not use such a weak encrypted method

Here the EFF recommends not to text over SMS anything you dont want others to see.

A gang of 3 hackers were caught and have now been charged with conspiring to hack government computers.

A Wired story discusses the different hacks that occured:

1.  gang is accused of using SQL-injection hacks and other methods to gain access to various systems including ones belonging to the U.S. National Geospatial Intelligence Agency

the most interesting point is how they went about doing it:

first a member scanned Internet websites for security vulnerabilities on protected computers, and especially to government, military and critical infrastructure sites.

Second they exploited the vulnerability by using SQL injection, and obtained the database schema.

Third, a member then saved the data

Fourth, upload the data to cloud storage websites – placing the data for public to see.

Fifth, they then claimed credit for the hack

Some websites were shutdown in order to fix the problems.

This is the court document on the Wired site.