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LONDON — Computer hackers have broken into a server at a well-respected climate change research center in Britain and posted hundreds of private e-mails and documents online — stoking debate over whether some scientists have overstated the case for man-made climate change. The University of East Anglia, in eastern England, said in a statement Saturday that the hackers had entered the server and stolen data at its Climatic Research Unit, a leading global research center on climate change. The university said police are investigating the theft of the information, but could not confirm if all the materials posted online are...

The picture that emerges of prominent climate-change scientists from the more than 3,000 documents and emails accessed by hackers and put on the Internet this week is one of professional backbiting and questionable scientific practices. It could undermine the idea that the science of man-made global warming is entirely settled just weeks before a crucial climate-change summit. Researchers at the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, England, were victims of a cyberattack by hackers sometime Thursday. A collection of emails dating back to the mid-1990s as well as scientific documents were splashed across the Internet. University officials...

Hundreds of private e-mail messages and documents hacked from a computer server at a British university are causing a stir among global warming skeptics, who say they show that climate scientists conspired to overstate the case for a human influence on climate change. The e-mail messages, attributed to prominent American and British climate researchers, include discussions of scientific data and whether it should be released, exchanges about how best to combat the arguments of skeptics,... --snip-- In several e-mail exchanges, Kevin Trenberth, a climatologist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and other scientists discuss gaps in understanding of recent...

The anonymous tipster, whom many people initially assumed had "hacked" into the computers at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia (repeatedly called the "Hadley CRU," by mistake), might in fact be a CRU insider who released the files for his own reasons. The user, known only as "FOIA" (which now appears to be a reference to the British equivalent of the US Freedom of Information Act), left only one comment on The Air Vent to announce his release of his 61-MB ZIP archive. He has never been heard from since, nor has anyone stepped forward...

I think it’s safe to assume their Twitter account has been hacked. Update: Yep. Now suspended.WARNING: Explicit language at link!

NOTE: The following blog entry is a quote: Blog Details Iranian Hacker: We Work in Cooperation with the Regime Behrouz Kamalian, head of a 15-member Iranian hacker group called "Ashyaneh," stated that the group works in cooperation with most of the government and military organizations in Iran, and that during the Israeli attack on Gaza and on 'Qods Day' (September 18, 2009), the group hacked 1,500 Israeli websites, as well as hundreds of Danish websites in retaliation for insulting the Prophet Muhammad. Source: IRNA (Iran), October 17, 2009 Posted at: 2009-10-18

"Project Grey Goose and University at Albany SUNY to investigate major Power Grid blackouts caused by hackers" SNIPPET: "This is an open call for volunteers who wish to participate in a joint Project Grey Goose / University at Albany SUNY open source intelligence investigation into power grid blackouts caused by hacker attacks. The scope is global and includes the U.S. Interested parties should contact me from their work email address with an expression of interest, a brief bio, and your experience, if any, in SCADA systems in general or the power grid in particular. All respondents will be kept confidential....

SNIPPET: "After the 4 July DDoS attacks, wrongly attributed to North Korea, it’s wise to treat reports of DPRK security hacks with some caution. Nevertheless, The Korea Times reports the following: Classified Info on Dangerous Chemicals Hacked Hackers stole classified information on dangerous chemicals in their raid on the South Korean army computer network in what was believed to be an attack by North Korea, Yonhap News Agency reported Saturday, quoting government officials." SNIPPET: "The Sydney Morning Herald adds more information: A North Korea cyber warfare unit hacked into a South Korean military command earlier this year and stole some...

LONDON — A Briton accused of hacking into US military and NASA space agency computers was on Friday refused permission to appeal to the new Supreme Court in London against his extradition to the United States. The High Court had turned down Gary McKinnon's extradition challenges and on Friday refused him leave to appeal, ruling that that his case did not raise "points of law of general public importance" -- a prerequisite of being able to pursue a cause in the Supreme Court. The 43-year-old could spend life in prison if convicted by a US court of gaining access to...

“MI5 hiring Asian teenagers to fight cyber terror” London, September 21, 2009 First Published: 00:09 IST(21/9/2009) Last Updated: 02:44 IST(21/9/2009) SNIPPET: “MI5 head Jonathan Evans has told his staff that the recruits were essential to combat cyber terrorism which has been traced to China, Russia and Pakistan — the hackers have also intercepted messages from terrorists in Belmarsh maximum security prison, the newspaper said. In a report to Lord West, the Security Minister, Evans has revealed that during the summer over 1,000 hits were made on computers in Whitehall. Other targets have been air traffic control, power stations and the...

Go to http://www.allforgood.org and do a search on 'acorn'. All the results show up as 'kiss my ass'.

Snow Leopard lacks security features that are built in to Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7, a noted Mac researcher has said. Dubbed ASLR, for address space layout randomisation, the technology randomly assigns data to memory to make it tougher for attackers to determine the location of critical operating system functions, and thus make it harder for them to craft reliable exploits. "Apple didn't change anything," said Charlie Miller, of Baltimore-based Independent Security Evaluators, the co-author of The Mac Hacker's Handbook, and winner of two consecutive "Pwn2own" hacker contests. "It's the exact same ASLR as in Leopard, which means...

Hackers Imperil Wilson Campaign Web Site Sources close to the South Carolina congressman charge that hackers have blitzed his campaign Web site JoeWilsonforCongress.com with a series of attacks that periodically shut down the site. 

The shadowy internet group known as Anonymous has hacked into the prime minister's website to protest over proposed internet censorship reforms. An Attorney-General's Department spokesperson confirmed to ninemsn the Prime Minister's website was taken down at 7.25pm last night, but said the site was operational again "within minutes". "Visitors to the site received a service unavailable error," the spokesperson said in a statement. "There was no unauthorised access to site infrastructure." The Australian Communications and Media Authority's website was also affected. A message posted on the Inquisitor website by Anonymous stated that the action was in response to a federal...

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KFVS) - A Cape Girardeau woman was such a good friend, she played right into the hands of a hacker who took over her friend's Facebook account. "I'm going to try really hard to forget it, but it was $3,914.20," Jayne Scherrman said. She says it all began when she got a cryptic message from her friend Grace online. "It was just a message. Jayne are you there? I need help. I answered her - "I'm here." She says "Mike and I are stranded in London, it's a bad situation, we need help.'" Little did Scherrman know,...

In a blunder that might top the Baby Shaker app on Apple's App Store, retailing giant Sears.com has been caught offering a Bar-B-Que grill specially designed to roast infants and other human morsels.

Father of ‘Public Option’ Says It's Not a ‘Trojan Horse’ for a Single-Payer Health-Care System (CNSNews.com) – SNIPPET: "Hacker said that he hopes the public option, if adopted, would eventually lead to a government-managed system--but it wouldn't happen overnight. In a 2008 video obtained and aired by Fox News Channel, Hacker not only suggested that his plan would lead to a single-payer system, but said it would do so openly, in a gradual way, he admitted. “Someone once said to me, ‘Well, this is a Trojan horse for single payer.’ I said, ‘Well, it’s not a Trojan horse, right? It’s...

Super-hacker is akin to Neo from “The Matrix”In the Internet universe, Albert Gonzales is akin to the character Neo from “The Matrix” – only with a sillier screen name. Known online as “soupnazi,” Gonzales, who lives in Miami, recently tried to pull off the largest credit and debit card theft in the history of the United States, federal prosecutors claim. On Monday, the "soupnazi" (we just like saying that) was indicted on charges he conspired to engage in a wire fraud that would have stolen 130 million card numbers. Morpheus would be proud. Authorities say Gonzales targeted customers of convenience...

A serial hacker has been charged with carrying out the largest theft of credit card identities ever recorded in the US, in a sophisticated scam in which he and accomplices allegedly stole at least 130m accounts from big retail companies. Albert Gonzalez, 28, of Miami, who once worked with the US secret service, is accused of working with two unidentified Russian conspirators to hack into the databases of retail chains, selling the information around the world. According to a 14-page indictment, the hackers stole credit card numbers from Heartland, a New Jersey-based company that processes payments, from the store 7-Eleven,...

Note: The following text is a quote: Alleged International Hacker Indicted for Massive Attack on U.S. Retail and Banking Networks Data Related to More Than 130 Million Credit and Debit Cards Allegedly Stolen WASHINGTON – Albert Gonzales, 28, of Miami, Fla., was indicted today for conspiring to hack into computer networks supporting major American retail and financial organizations, and stealing data relating to more than 130 million credit and debit cards, announced Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division Lanny A. Breuer, Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Ralph J. Marra Jr. and U.S. Secret Service Assistant...

SNIPPET: "One of the Chinese bloggers that I follow reported that Uyghur separatists have defaced a handful of Chinese .gov.cn sites. The hacker(s) are known as “Spy HackerZ” and their handy work can be found with a simple google search for “spy hackerz” site:gov.cn. There are eight results all from different local government sites. The Spy Hackerz use the defacements as opportunities to voice their opinion about perceived injustices. The sites’ admins have apparently been notified because the defacements are either removed or the sites are presently down. I grabbed this screenshot from the ‘iron circle’ blog:"

Hi, this is IMissPresidentReagan aka Jodi Reaves for those who Facebook with me. My facebook was hacked this morning at some point and the hackers have told people I am trapped in London, England and need money desperately, which isn't true. I, fortunately, am in Kentucky, where I live, but I wanted to let everyone aware of the situation so that no one gets scammed. I have been contacted by several FReepers who were truly concerned. I've contacted the FBI cybercrimes unit, as well as my local and state police, along with Facebook and hope this scam is shut down....

One video is worth a thousand words (or, as in this column, about 730). The video in question, put together by a group called Verum Serum, shows public statements by three advocates of single-payer (government monopoly) health insurance explaining that a health care bill with a “government option” would move America toward a single-payer government health care system. You may not have heard of the first two, Rep. Jan Schakowsky and professor Jacob Hacker. But you have heard of the third, President Barack Obama.

A hacker attack Thursday shut down the fast-growing messaging service Twitter for hours, while Facebook experienced intermittent access problems. Twitter said in its status blog Thursday morning it was "defending against a denial-of-service attack," in which hackers command scores of computers to a single site at the same time, preventing legitimate traffic from getting through.

Criminals running an ATM card-skimming scam made a big mistake this week: They tried to hit the Defcon hacker conference in Las Vegas. As the conference was kicking off a few days ago, attendees noticed that an ATM placed in the Riviera Hotel, which plays host to the annual event, didn't quite look right, according to a senior conference organizer who identified himself only as Priest. "They looked at the screen where there would normally be a camera," he said. "It was a little bit too dark, so someone shined a flashlight in there and there was a PC." The...

Glenn Beck exposes a privacy agreement on the "Cash for Clunkers" website that in part reads: "This application provides access to the DoT CARS system. When logged on to the CARS system, your computer is considered a Federal computer system and is the property of the U.S. Government."

Beck just showed an eyefill. The Government's Cash for Clunkers Website requires user to click on "accept" for a disclaimer. What a disclaimer! If you click "ok" it says in fine print that your computer is now considered the property of the Federal Government, including all content on your computer, and gives access to both the US and foreign governments. I am not making this up. Beck's computer froze because of heavy website use.

A Briton wanted in the United States for breaking into NASA and Pentagon networks in "the biggest military hack of all time" lost an appeal against his extradition Friday, making a U.S. trial more likely. Gary McKinnon, 43, has fought a three-year battle to avoid extradition, including going to the European Court of Human Rights, but he appeared to have run out of options as Britain's High Court ruled against his latest appeal Friday. The court rejected arguments by McKinnon's lawyers that extraditing McKinnon, who was recently diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism, would have disastrous consequences for...

A HACKER has broken into the RAAF's website, leaving a message warning the Australian Government to halt racist attacks against Indian students. The hacker identified himself as Atul Dwivedi, saying that unless the Government complied "I will pawn all your cyber properties like this one". The incident follows a series of attacks on Indian students in Australia, attracting global media coverage and strong condemnation from within India. A defence spokesman confirmed the break-in took place some time in the period July 13-14, forcing it to take the entire RAAF website offline for some seven to eight hours. It was replaced...

A man who hacked into NASA computers will on Tuesday launch a last-ditch effort in Britain's High Court to avoid extradition to face charges in the United States. Gary McKinnon, who suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, has admitted to hacking into 97 US computers from his London home in 2001 and 2002 following the September 11 terror attacks. The 43-year-old claims he was looking for evidence of UFOs and aliens on the high-security computer systems belonging to the US Army, Navy, Air Force and Department of Defence. Former home secretary Jacqui Smith granted requests for McKinnon's extradition in October 2008, with...

The powerful attack that overwhelmed computers at U.S. and South Korean government agencies for days was even broader than initially realized, also targeting the White House, the Pentagon and the New York Stock Exchange. Other targets of the attack included the National Security Agency, Homeland Security Department, State Department, the Nasdaq stock market and The Washington Post, according to an early analysis of the malicious software used in the attacks. Many of the organizations appeared to successfully blunt the sustained computer assaults. The Associated Press obtained the target list from security experts analyzing the attacks. It was not immediately clear...

Should a federal court dismiss charges against the college student who hacked into Gov. Sarah Palin’s e-mail account? Yes No, but 25 years seems like an excessive potential sentence No, and throw the book at him

PORTLAND, Ore. – Hackers defaced the home page of the Oregon University System, posting a caustic message telling President Barack Obama to mind his own business and stop talking about the disputed Iranian election. Attempts to access the university system's Web site were automatically redirected to another page, where readers viewed a message said to be from Iran that asserted there was no cheating in the election. That message was up for 90 minutes before university system technicians intervened Wednesday morning.

A recent computer intrusion that forced the FBI to shut down its computer network and disrupted FBI operations was traced to an e-mail containing malicious code that originated in China, according to FBI officials. The forced shutdown of the network affected one significant FBI operation -- the May 20 arrest of homegrown terrorism suspects in New York, said officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter. "The Chinese shut down our network," said one FBI official familiar with assessments of the attack.

The US government has appointed a well-known hacker to its Homeland Security Advisory Council. Jeff Moss founded the DefCon and Black Hat hacking conferences - he is one of the world's most famous professional hackers, operating under the alias of the Dark Tangent. But he has always worked for corporations rather than targeting them. Before joining the council Moss was a security consultant hired to test company's systems, and a director at the Secure Computing Corporation, where he helped established the professional services department for the US, Asia and Australia. He has also worked for consulting firm Ernst & Young...

Musicians from such diverse groups as Pink Floyd and Boyzone have joined forces in a last-ditch campaign to halt the extradition to the US of north London computer hacker Gary McKinnon. The family and friends of McKinnon, who has Asperger's syndrome, are hoping that a campaign also supported by well-known names including Terry Waite, Boris Johnson, Sting, Lord Carlile and Jane Asher, will finally bear fruit. Next month, McKinnon is due to have what is likely to be his final legal appearance in a judicial review over the decision of home secretary, Jacqui Smith, to send him to stand trial...

As a cyber space race looms, the military is looking for a few good geeks. High school hackers, crackers and digital deviants: Uncle Sam wants you. As part of a government information security review released as early as Friday, White House interim cybersecurity chief Melissa Hathaway likely will mention a new military-funded program aimed at leveraging an untapped resource: the U.S.' population of geeky high school and college students. The so-called Cyber Challenge, which will be officially announced later this month, will create three new national competitions for high school and college students intended to foster a young generation of...

E-Mail Hack Lawyer Makes Creative, But Ultimately Futile, Argument By Videmus Omnia Mel has been following the court case of David Kernell, the man who hacked into Governor Palin's e-mail account last fall, invading her privacy and publishing her private correspondence and private family photos.

Hackers have broken into the air traffic control mission-support systems of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration several times in recent years, according to an Inspector General report sent to the FAA this week. In February, hackers compromised an FAA public-facing computer and used it to gain access to personally identifiable information, such as Social Security numbers, on 48,000 current and former FAA employees, the report said. Last year, hackers took control of FAA critical network servers and could have shut them down, which would have seriously disrupted the agency's mission-support network, the report said. Hackers took over FAA computers in...

$10M ransom payment, or hackers will post Virginians' private files The FBI is on the trail of hackers who claim to have accessed the personal information of millions of Virginians. They're holding the information hostage, and are threatening to dispurse the sensitive data on the Internet if they don't receive a $10 million ransom. The hacker or hackers posted the ransom note on "Wikileaks," a Web site that allows for anonymous tips about leaks of government information. The note claims that the personal information came from a raid on a state agency's computer database, and that the hackers are now...

COVERT RADIO SHOW http://covertradioshow.com # http://covertradioshow.com/podcast.cfm?pid=187 Covert Radio Daily Blast May 7 North Korea has hackers working round the clock on cyberwarfare. Could they have been behind recent attacks on the Alaskan Air Traffic Control system? Are we prepared for Cyber Warfare? Narco Traffickers are declaring war on our cops, and the latest in the coming war between Georgia and Russia.

Note: The following text is a quote: Swedish National Charged with Hacking and Theft of Trade Secrets Related to Alleged Computer Intrusions at NASA and Cisco Philip Gabriel Pettersson, aka "Stakkato," 21, a Swedish national, was indicted today on intrusion and trade secret theft charges. The five-count indictment includes one intrusion count and two trade secret misappropriation counts involving Cisco Systems Inc. (Cisco), of San Jose, Calif., which is a provider of computer network equipment and producer of Internet routers. According to the allegations in the indictment Pettersson intentionally committed an intrusion between May 12, 2004, and May 13, 2004,...

Hackers last week broke into a Virginia state Web site used by pharmacists to track prescription drug abuse. They deleted records on more than 8 million patients and replaced the site's homepage with a ransom note demanding $10 million for the return of the records, according to a posting on Wikileaks.org, an online clearinghouse for leaked documents. Wikileaks reports that the Web site for the Virginia Prescription Monitoring Program was defaced last week with a message claiming that the database of prescriptions had been bundled into an encrypted, password-protected file.

A FRENCH computer hacker is thought to have tapped into Twitter's internal system, gaining access to millions of accounts including that of US President Barack Obama. The hacker, under the name "Hacker Croll", posted a series of screenshots showing him viewing internal website settings and the private details of user accounts. The screenshots show Croll looking at the behind-the-scenes details for the account of US President Barack Obama, including the IP address of the last person to use it. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone confirmed unauthorised access was gained by an outside party during the week, but said only 10 individual...

North Korea runs a cyber warfare unit that tries to hack into U.S. and South Korean military networks to gather confidential information and disrupt service, a news report said Tuesday. The North's military has expanded the unit, staffing it with about 100 personnel, mostly graduates of a Pyongyang university that teaches computer skills, Yonhap news agency reported, citing an intelligence agency it didn't identify. South Korea's Defense Ministry said it is aware that Pyongyang has been training hackers in recent years but did not provide details and had no other comment. The National Intelligence Service — South Korea's main spy...

Note: The following text is a quote: Two Missouri Brothers Among Those Indicted in $4 Million Nationwide Spamming Conspiracy Millions of E-Mail Addresses Illegally Harvested from Computers at 2,000 Schools KANSAS CITY, MO—Two Missouri men and their company are among those indicted by a federal grand jury in a nationwide e-mail spamming case that victimized more than 2,000 colleges and universities in a scheme that sold more than $4 million worth of products to students, announced Matt J. Whitworth, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri. Amir Ahmad Shah, 28, of St. Louis., his brother, Osmaan Ahmad...

AMERICA needs to pay a heckuva a lot more atten tion to the cyberthreat. Now. Sure, the Pentagon is refuting a Wall Street Journal report last week that hackers pinched loads of data on the military's newest, high-tech fighter aircraft from contractors' computer networks via the Internet. But even if the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program wasn't actually penetrated by cyberspies, it's still a chilling wake-up call for the United States. The computer systems of the F-35 Lightning were penetrated "repeatedly," according to the newspaper, allowing cyber cat burglars to "copy and siphon off several terabytes of data related to...

By Donna Miles American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, April 22, 2009 – Defense Department officials are working to reduce vulnerability to cyber-attack attempts that occur regularly and are likely to continue for the foreseeable future, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said. “We are under attack virtually all the time, every day here,” Gates told CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric yesterday during an interview broadcast on the show. Attempts to attack DoD computer networks have more than doubled recently, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters yesterday. He declined to cite details, saying that to do so would only “make it...

JUVENILE COMPUTER HACKER SENTENCED FOR COMPUTER INTRUSION, INTERSTATE THREATS, AND WIRE FRAUD STEMMING FROM HACKING, BOTNET, AND “SWATTING” ACTIVITIES BOSTON, MA—A male juvenile, who has been widely known in the hacker underground by his online moniker, “DSHOCKER,” was sentenced today in federal court to 11 months in prison, to be served in a juvenile detention facility, for computer intrusion, interstate threats, and wire fraud, stemming from hacking, botnet, and “swatting” activities. In accordance with federal law, the juvenile was not publicly named. United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan and Warren T. Bamford, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau...

As protesters again took to the streets of London today in connection with the G20 summit of world leaders, a much smaller rally in support of British hacker Gary McKinnon took place outside the U.S. embassy in the city. McKinnon, a 43-year-old London resident, was indicted on hacking charges in November 2002 in a U.S. District Court in Virginia, after he admittedly broke into computers belonging to the U.S. military and NASA. He was arrested by London police four years ago and has lost numerous efforts to block his extradition since then. But he is drawing increasing looking for evidence...