Andy Coulson, the former editor of the News of the World newspaper who rose to be David Cameron’s head of communications, has been found guilty of conspiracy to hack mobile phones. His former colleague…
TweetDeck, a Twitter app with millions of users, is back online after a rather surprising security scare. For several hours, the service was taken down all because a 19-year-old user tried to add a cute…
The internet’s original auction site is in a spot of bother.
cytech
The latest internet giant to have its security compromised is eBay. A database containing user information has been hacked, leaving potentially millions of people vulnerable. The revelation is clearly…
Heartbleed, the bug that has preoccupied thousands of websites and millions of users over the past week, may well have been the biggest security flaw in internet history but it is unlikely to be the last…
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak both dabbled in hacking.
thetaxhaven
There is some controversy about what we mean by the word “hacker”. Historically, and as far back as the 1960s, a hacker was someone who was an expert programmer. But today, it is a word generally used…
Popular online games such as League of Legends were brought down, one by one, as a hacker group trolled a single gamer in December.
rafaelgames
A spate of internet hacking during the New Year period – including an attack on Skype by hacker group the Syrian Electronic Army, and another on social media photo sharing app Snapchat by website SnapchatDB…
A home-made hexapod robot on display at a Mini Maker Faire at Somerville in the US.
Chris Devers
One evening when I was young, my father confiscated my radio because he said I was playing it too loud (I wasn’t). Fortunately, I had a bunch of broken down receivers in my room, so I built a new one…
Hacker to mastercrook by way of HMP Pentonville.
DFectuoso
Following an agreement in the European Parliament on the 4th July, EU countries are to strengthen their domestic laws against the more serious forms of cyber-crime. We can now expect to see prison sentences…
There is hope that Xi Jinping could help usher in a new era of cyber-collaboration.
PA
US President Barack Obama hopes to lay the foundations for a long-term relationship when he meets Xi Jinping, China’s new president, for a two-day summit in Southern California on Friday. Obama has a difficult…
Chinese intelligence operatives have allegedly hacked into ASIO servers: is this the new world of cyber espionage in action?
EPA/Diego Azubel
Chinese intelligence operatives are said to have obtained the floor plans of ASIO’s new Canberra headquarters. And at the same time, having been badly burned when Australian “tradesmen” installed bugs…
You’ve got a message. Hackers knew that before you.
Akshat Rathi
There are now more mobile devices than people on our planet. The amount of personal data we share through mobile devices is also increasing. So it is not surprising that cyber-criminals want a piece of…
An embarrassing Twitter hack caused a plunge in the markets and revealed the weakness in our reliance on technology.
AAP
It has been a bad couple of weeks for social media and Twitter in particular. The degree of misinformation spread by social media sites in the aftermath of the bombings at the Boston marathon has given…
The blanket term “hack” can encompass a whole range of attacks – but what are they?
Anant N S
Last week, we woke to news that the largest cyber attack ever was underway in Europe, with reports of global internet speeds falling as a result of an assault on the anti-spamming company Spamhaus. In…
The RBA has been the subject of hacking attacks – but that is not unusual.
AAP/Sergio Dionisio
You’ll have seen the fallout this week regarding a so-called “spearphishing” attack on the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) in 2011. As with most media reports on cyber-attacks, this one appears to have…
If someone got access to your personal information, wouldn’t you want to know?
subcircle/Flickr
In an age of Facebook, eBay and online banking, data privacy is becoming more important than ever before. The majority of Australians have personal information stored online with a range of organisations…
The Origin Smart portal provides customers with an estimate of future electricity bills.
fudj
Early last week, Origin Energy, Australia’s pre-eminent energy retailer, launched an online energy-use monitoring portal Origin Smart to much fanfare. All good – but what about the the privacy and security…
What’s being done about the latest spate of Anonymous attacks?
zigazou76
About 10am this morning, Anonymous used Twitter to announce an attack on the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) website. Anonymous claimed the ASIO website would be unavailable for the…
Hacktivists are campaigning against the Australian government’s proposed changes to privacy laws.
Tina Mailhot-Roberge
A few days ago, Anonymous activists hacked into AAPT, stole 40GB of data including customer information and forced offline ten Australian government websites. Anonymous members stated in an online internet…
Could hacking Mark Zuckerberg’s social media giant lead to a fruitful career?
Hegemony77 doll clothes
As reported late last week, Facebook is encouraging hackers to try hacking its security systems to find weaknesses. Those who succeed will receive a reward of US$500 or more and have their name added to…
Modern pay-TV systems have improved security, but the techniques for getting into them are also better.
goodbanta
Over the last couple of days a small furore has erupted over allegations a News Corp subsidiary, NDS, has been hacking the pay-TV smartcards of News Corp’s competitors, and even News Corp’s own companies…