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Thursday, August 18, 2011
More on Hacker Activities : BART, Washington University, and Shiongi
Thanks to our friends at: SecurityProNews!
By: Joe Purcell
Another interesting week unfolds in the cyber world. The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Police were prey to a data breach likely in retaliation to questionable actions taken by the organization. In addition, a server containing 75,000 records at the University of Wisconsin was found with malware. And last, but not least, a disgruntled IT employee who was recently fired by Shionogi dealt a significant blow to their business.
CNET reports that a BART database containing names, addresses, and plain text passwords were posted online. The group Anonymous took no claim to the event, but aFrench girl by the code name "Lamaline_5mg" did. It appears that this was a response to BART's action to shut down cell service in four subway stations in San Francisco in anticipation of a protest. This action was perceived as violation of civil liberty.
According to the DatalossDB, Washington University discovered malware on one of its servers May 25th of this year. However, it was not until last Wednesday that the breach was made public. As they released in their public statement, it is believed that the attack was not for the 75,000 user records on the system. The university's Vice Chancellor, Tom Luljak, explained that the system was used as a document imaging bank used by several departments. It could be that the attackers were after research or to attack other computers.
Perhaps the most interesting event was Jason Cornish'srevenge on Shionogi. The court documents state that Jason resigned from the pharmaceutical company in July 2010 after a dispute with management. However, he was kept on as a consultant. A month later he quit working and soon after that he was fired. Yet, he refused to give up his passwords. He secretly installed vSphere and in February of this year he deleted 15 VMware host systems which brought the company to a halt. The systems handled the company's email, orders, and finances. It is unknown why Shionogi's mission critical virtual servers were not backed up.
Other attacks include Purdue University, GOMTV.net, andReznick. On a lighter note, a 10-year old girl discoveredexploit a security flaw in Android and iOS games when she got bored with how slow the game was going and presented her findings at the Defcon conference earlier this month.
By: Joe Purcell
Another interesting week unfolds in the cyber world. The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Police were prey to a data breach likely in retaliation to questionable actions taken by the organization. In addition, a server containing 75,000 records at the University of Wisconsin was found with malware. And last, but not least, a disgruntled IT employee who was recently fired by Shionogi dealt a significant blow to their business.
CNET reports that a BART database containing names, addresses, and plain text passwords were posted online. The group Anonymous took no claim to the event, but aFrench girl by the code name "Lamaline_5mg" did. It appears that this was a response to BART's action to shut down cell service in four subway stations in San Francisco in anticipation of a protest. This action was perceived as violation of civil liberty.
According to the DatalossDB, Washington University discovered malware on one of its servers May 25th of this year. However, it was not until last Wednesday that the breach was made public. As they released in their public statement, it is believed that the attack was not for the 75,000 user records on the system. The university's Vice Chancellor, Tom Luljak, explained that the system was used as a document imaging bank used by several departments. It could be that the attackers were after research or to attack other computers.
Perhaps the most interesting event was Jason Cornish'srevenge on Shionogi. The court documents state that Jason resigned from the pharmaceutical company in July 2010 after a dispute with management. However, he was kept on as a consultant. A month later he quit working and soon after that he was fired. Yet, he refused to give up his passwords. He secretly installed vSphere and in February of this year he deleted 15 VMware host systems which brought the company to a halt. The systems handled the company's email, orders, and finances. It is unknown why Shionogi's mission critical virtual servers were not backed up.
Other attacks include Purdue University, GOMTV.net, andReznick. On a lighter note, a 10-year old girl discoveredexploit a security flaw in Android and iOS games when she got bored with how slow the game was going and presented her findings at the Defcon conference earlier this month.
| About the Author:
Joe Purcell is a technology virtuoso, cyberspace frontiersman, and connoisseur of Linux, Mac, and Windows alike. |
