Latest Security News and Updates from this Week
We are all Transparent Now!
If you are on Tumblr, then very soon you might be able to follow the official Tumblr blog of the US National Security Agency (NSA). President Barack Obama expressed that this platform would shake off the iron curtain between the US intelligence community and the entire world. The President announced his plans for launching the blog earlier in August. According to him, through this blog people would be able to better understand the working of the intelligence community. Apparently, contents of the blog will include fact sheets, videos, speeches, official statements, and even declassified documents. Read the complete story here.
India Ranks 5th in the List of Phishing Targets
Looks like online scammers rate India as their 5th most favorite phishing target. About 40 phishing attacks were reported to have occurred daily between January to June this year; that’s about 6000 attacks. Globally, the first half of 2013 saw over 1,80,000 phishing incidents. Till now, May has recorded the maximum number of attacks – more than 36,000. In the list of phishing targets, the US ranks the first, followed by the UK, then South Africa, and Canada. The US receives 52 percent of phishing attacks globally, while India accounts for 4 percent.
Online Donors Raise Cash for Khalil – the Hacker who broke into Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook page
In our previous news post, we had mentioned about Khalil who posted a Facebook bug report right on Mark Zuckerberg’s wall. Although Facebook announced a bug bounty of $500 for people who can report any such bugs, Khalil was denied of any such rewards. According to Facebook security team, Khalil did not follow proper protocols for reporting the bug. But seems like fellow security researchers and hackers differ to agree. A fund raising campaign has already managed to bring in more than $11,000 from online donors, to reward Khalil for his work.
Accounts of North American Gamers of League of Legends Compromised
Riot Games stated in their blog that the servers of their online video game “League of Legends”, have been compromised. The CEO of Riot Games has confirmed that personal data of North American users, including usernames, email addresses, first and last names, etc., were accessed by hackers. The company has strongly advised North American players to change their passwords to passwords harder to crack. Here are some tips to create strong passwords). The company has also expressed its plan to bring in email verification and two-factor authentication to give their players a secure gaming environment. For more news on this, follow their official blog.
Eminem is Dead – Says Facebook Scammers
If you come across any Facebook post claiming to show a video of Eminem getting stabbed four times in New York City, then hold your horses before clicking any links. It is purely another celebrity death hoax, which has become a common parlance in the online world. Clicking the link might redirect you to a spoofed site where you will be taken through a series of steps and end up filling up a survey form, or infecting your computer. And as far as the video is concerned, there will be none. You can read more about this news here.
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