Security news updates from the last week

AntiSec collects 12 million Apple UDIDs from hacked FBI laptop, FBI denies it!
AntiSec, a hacker group associated with Anonymous, claimed to have gotten their hands on 12 million Apple UDIDs from a hacked FBI laptop. They published 1 million of these IDs to validate their claim. However, the FBI said that no laptop of theirs hacked and they do not store such UDIDs anyway. This begs the question, where did this data come from? Previously, Apple had taken measures to eradicate UDIDs as they allow monitoring of anyone who owns an Apple product. But it is still unknown where these UDIDs came from and how AntiSec pillaged them.

Hacking attacks against Government websites on the rise
Sachin Pilot, Minister of State for Communications and IT, said that more than 270 Government websites have been hacked till July for 2012. This is an alarming statistic since the numbers for the whole of 2009. 2010 and 2011 were 201, 303 and 308, respectively.

NullCrew breaks into Sony servers and condemns their lax attitude towards security
Sony seems to be a perennial victim of hacktivist attacks and now NullCrew has pointed their barrel at the troubled Japanese giants. NullCrew took over 8 Sony servers related to www.SonyMobile.com and released a strongly worded statement that called for Sony to pull up its security socks.

US owners distrust smartphones
This interesting research by Pew Research Center shows that users are beginning to acknowledge security and privacy needs on smartphones. A large number of smartphone users in the United States take several precautionary measures to protect themselves from various threats.

Rahul Thadani