Pirate Bay Founder Convicted and other IT Security News & Updates

We have got some interesting IT security news lined up from this week including the cyberattack on White House and how Swiss bank customers are being targeted by hackers.

Now Hackers Reach for the White House

Looks like even the White House is not invincible against cyber criminals. News were up on Wednesday that, computer networks of an unclassified Executive Office of the President (EOP) was breached by a sustained cyberattack. The attack resulted in disruption in the system for about two weeks. Anonymous White House sources have cited that there were no evidence of the White House’s classified network being hacked. You can read more on this story here.

Pirate Bay Founder Sentenced to 3.5 Years in Prison

Founder of popular torrent site, Gottfrid Svartholm has been sentenced to serve 3.5 years in prison. He was found guilty of hacking into the servers of CSC, a technology firm in the U.S. This incident is not related to his website, Pirate Bay. Gottfrid and his accomplice were charged with breaching the servers in April 2012 and for sustaining the attack for 4 months, stealing and altering data. But according to Gottfrid’s defense team, the accused computer may have been hacked by someone else and that he has been framed in this incident. The team also produced an evidence which shows that Gottfrid’s computer was riddled with 545 threats. Read more on this story here.

Google Issues Death Warrant for POODLE Bug by Killing SSL 3.0 in its Next Update

The POODLE bug, although not huge waves, did create ripples strong enough to be noticed by the Internet industry. The bug lets hackers take control of a victim’s online account by exploiting web servers that have SSL version 3. This vulnerability was discovered by three Google engineers. Google has confirmed that in its next browser update, it will remove SSLv3 and replace it with a stronger encryption technology. Read more about this here.

Virus Ridden PowerPoint Files Targeting Swiss Bank Customers

In other news, Swiss banking customers may have a difficult time protecting their money from hackers who are increasingly exploiting the sandworm vulnerability. This is a zero-day vulnerability in Windows that can be exploited to download and install malware in affected machines. Reportedly, customers of the Swiss bank are being sent spam mails containing PowerPoint attachment in the guise of unpaid invoices. Clicking this attachment installs the malware which then exploits the vulnerability to let the hacker take over the infected machine. More on this here.