Today’s Cyberthreats: Cybergang War, Sleazy Sex Scam
Each weekday morning, TechNewsDaily’s colleagues at SecurityNewsDaily give us a roundup on what’s worrying the guardians of cyberspace. Here’s what’s happening today.
CYBERGANG WAR: Members of a South Korean gang who ran an illegal gambling website decided to eliminate the competition in a new-fangled way. They hired a hacker to take down rival sites with distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, according to police.
SLEAZY SEX SCAM: Looking for sex online? Don’t download a PowerPoint presentation promising illustrated lessons on Kama Sutra positions – it’s carrying a backdoor Trojan that will give your PC a digitally transmitted disease.
CLOUD CRACKING: A German researcher has harnessed Amazon’s “cloud”-based supercomputer to brute-force his way into any home network. His methods -- rapid guessing of passwords -- aren’t new. What’s worrisome is that hackers can now access the sort of massive processing power once available only to military and scientific researchers.
FEDS ON FACEBOOK: The Tunisian government, beleaguered by ongoing violent protests and drawing the attention of Western “hacktivists,” has begun to hack into its citizens’ Facebook pages. One American tech expert wonders if the U.S. government might someday do the same.
