Displaying items by tag: hack
Can banks still trust “Whatsapp Business” after major security breach?
On Monday the 13th of May 2019, Whatsapp admitted yet to another breach in their security system: enabling targeting spyware to be installed on phones through voice calls. An Israeli spying firm indeed has been accused of using that security hole in Whatsapp used by 1.5 billion people.
Pippa Middleton’s iCloud gets hacked, revealing 3,000 images
On September 25, it was announced that a 35-year-old man had been arrested by British police investigating claims that Pippa Middleton (sister of Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge) had her iCloud account hacked, revealing 3,000 intimate images. A man was arrested on Saturday evening in Northamptonshire.
Some of the 3,000 images stolen from Middleton’s iCloud included photos of the Duchess of Cambridge, as well as her children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte. There were also revealing naked photos of Middleton’s fiancé, James Matthews, among the collection according to The Sun. The images went up for sale for press via WhatsApp by an anonymous seller.
The Sun reported that it had been approached by someone using a pseudonym and asking for $85,000 within 48 hours. The pseudonym ‘Crafty Cockney’ was used by the seller on an encrypted messaging service, where they send sample photos of Middleton being fitted for a wedding dress in advance of her wedding planned for next year.
The Sun reported that the hacker said he was offering the images to buyers in the UK first, adding: "There is of course a price for which I’m accepting offers of a minimum of 50,000 GBP. This isn’t an auction it will be a simple process of the highest bid in the next 48 hours (as of 4pm 23/09/16).”
A spokesman for Middleton thanked media, saying: "Thank you very much for drawing this to the family's attention. I can confirm that not only have the lawyers been informed, but the police are about to be involved as well."
Yahoo says 500 million of its user’s data was hacked in 2014
Yahoo announced on Thursday, September 22, that a massive hack on its network in 2014 saw 500 million of its user’s data breached. The company said the attack may have been state sponsored: “Based on the ongoing investigation, Yahoo believes that information associated with at least 500 million user accounts was stolen,” the company said in a statement.
The comments were the first confirmation from Yahoo on the huge data breach, and come after a report earlier this year quoting a security researcher saying some 200 million accounts may have been accessed, AFP reported. Stolen information may have included names, email address, birth dates, and scrambled passwords, along with encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers that could help hackers break into victims' other online accounts, according to Yahoo.
The company said the ongoing investigation suggested that looted data did not include unprotected passwords or information associated with payments or bank accounts. Yahoo is reportedly asking affected users to change passwords, and recommending anyone who hasn't done so since 2014 take the same action as a precaution. Users of Yahoo online services were also urged to review accounts for suspicious activity and change passwords and security question information used to log in anywhere else if it matched that at Yahoo.
"Online intrusions and thefts by state-sponsored actors have become increasingly common across the technology industry," Yahoo said in a release. "Yahoo and other companies have launched programs to detect and notify users when a company strongly suspects that a state-sponsored actor has targeted an account."
