We get a lot of questions in the ConnectSafely forum about people finding their profiles compromised in various ways. One way this can be done concerns social networkers' passwords - if they've either given their passwords to friends or their passwords have been stolen. A researcher colleague of mine in Portugal, Daniel Cardoso, sent me a heads-up about the latter. Here, a post in … [Read more...] about Common social-networking hack
hacking
Teen ‘cybercrime kingpin’ arrested
The 18-year-old New Zealander's screenname is "AKILL," and he is the alleged head "of an international cyber crime network accused of infiltrating 1.3 million computers" and stealing $20+ million from victims' bank accounts, the Associated Press reports. "Working with the FBI and police in the Netherlands, New Zealand police raided" his house in Hamilton and took him and several computers in … [Read more...] about Teen ‘cybercrime kingpin’ arrested
Hacking ethics
A Sydney Morning Herald commentator looks at the ethical questions around 17-year-old George Hotz's iPhone hack. There's no question it's a great story: "In a quest for a car that will win all the girls, some no-name kid in the US devotes his last summer before college to unlocking the seemingly impenetrable iPhone. Corporate giants Apple and AT&T watch helplessly as this kid kills their monopoly … [Read more...] about Hacking ethics
Teen hackers mostly good
A lot of teens do some hacking, and - though their intentions aren't malicious, their hacks are illegal, USATODAY reports. Covering a report by psychologist Shirley McGuire at the American Psychological Association conference, the article says "a large minority of teenagers commit computer crimes such as hacking and software piracy, but it's done mostly out of curiosity and a hunger for excitement … [Read more...] about Teen hackers mostly good
Hacks in social sites
What I mean is, hackers (not malicious ones) have something to say about social-networking sites. Thousands of them gathered at two conferences in Las Vegas this past week, the Associated Press reports. Here's the important part: Hackers are seeing intruders in social-networking sites who "commandeer personal Web pages and possibly inject malicious code." They look for flaws in sites' code that … [Read more...] about Hacks in social sites