http://www.zdnet.com/westboro-baptist-twitter-account-hacked-used-to-support-newtown-victims-7000008920/

Westboro Baptist Twitter account hacked, used to support Newtown victims

Summary: The spokesperson for Westboro Baptist Church has had her Twitter account hacked and turned around to support the victims of the Newtown, Connecticut, shooting.

Yesterday, Anonymous vowed to renew its campaign against Westboro Baptist after its church's spokesperson Shirley Phelps-Roper announced that the church would be picketing the funerals of the shooting's victims.

Overnight, Shirley Phelps-Roper had her Twitter account hacked, its profile background changed to a message to "Pray for Newtown", and the account itself used to re-tweet messages supporting the hacking and the promotion of a petition to recognise Westboro Baptist as a hate group. As of this morning, the petition has attracted over 144,000 signatures.

Although Shirley Phelps-Roper's Twitter account now claims to be owned by UGNazi hacker @CosmoTheGod, 15-year-old Cosmo was arrested, sentenced, and placed on probation earlier this year, according to Wired.

It appears unlikely that Cosmo is actually behind the hack. While on probation, Cosmo is only allowed to use the internet for educational purposes, only under direct supervision, and with the permission of his parole officer.

Violation of these conditions could land Cosmo with a three-year prison term.

Whoever the hacker is behind Cosmo's account, they are not necessarily alone. Together with Anonymous' attack, self-declared "hacktivist for good," @th3j35t3r has begun targeting any remaining websites associated with Westboro Baptist and has posted his target list on Pastebin

http://pastebin.com/qem9yHaJ

The current state of Westboro baptist's 19 strong domains - internet portfolio of hate.

There's an unequal amount of good and bad in most things the trick is to work out the ratio and act accordingly.

Bank sites are also hacked.So bank sites are also not saved against hackers.

http://www.ehackingnews.com/2012/11/israeli-top-sites-hacked-by-pakistani-hackers.html

Israeli BBC, Bing, Intel, Live, MSN, CNN, Skype,Xbox , more sites hacked by Pakistani hackers

http://www.zone-h.org/archive/notifier=1337

Total notifications: 157 of which 26 single ip and 131 mass defacements

http://www.ehackingnews.com/2012/11/anonymous-leaks-113k-emails-password-of.html

Anonymous leaks 113K Emails & Password Of Israel, Bank sites taken down

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/10/25/sony-ps3-hacked-for-good-master-keys-revealed/

Sony's PS3 has been hacked.

Perhaps "hacked" is the wrong word, because it can imply both criminality and lawful exploration. But we'll stick with "hacked" here, in the sense of "some reverse engineers have figured out how you can adapt, or jailbreak, your PS3 to make it interoperable with software of your own choice."

The PS3 has been hacked before, but Sony was able to inhibit the hack with an update to its own firmware. This is much like the history of jailbreaking on Apple's iOS, where hackers typically uncover a security vulnerability and exploit it, whereupon Apple patches the hole and suppresses the jailbreak.

But the latest PS3 break is being dubbed unpatchable and the final hack.

With the LV0 keys now published, you can - at least in theory - replace the LV0 loader and run whatever you like, because you can authorise your own custom firmware (CFW). The PS3's most-secret cat is out of the bag.

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/10/18/im-getting-paid-wordpress/

"Im getting paid!" - Websites hosted on WordPress hacked due to users' poor password security
The alert was initially raised by The Hacker News (THN) and Sucuri, after some blog owners received messages from WordPress.com telling them that their passwords had been reset.
One affected WordPress.com user told THN that he had discovered hackers had published a page containing a money-making advertisement (pictured below).

http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2204417/company-hacked-for-apple-ids-steps-forward

Hacked Apple IDs came from us, admits mobile publisher

Small mobile publishing firm BlueToad has reported that they were the group that was hacked last week.

BlueToad's admission ends the week-long question of where 12 million Apple ID's published online came from. Hacktivists had previously claimed the ID's came from the FBI. However, FBI officials denied having such data from the start.

In a statement posted on the BlueToad's website, chief executive Paul Dehart apologised for the well-publicised hack.

Thanks for the info, Hotdoge3.

http://www.shacknews.com/article/75218/blizzard-servers-hacked-some-personal-info-compromised

Blizzard servers hacked, some personal info compromised

Players will be prompted to change their secret questions and answers in an automated process in the coming days. In addition, mobile authenticator users will be asked to update their software. "As a reminder, phishing emails will ask you for password or login information. Blizzard Entertainment emails will never ask for your password," Morhaime adds.

http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/analysis/2196654/dropbox-password-breach-highlights-risks-of-free-storage-services

Dropbox password breach highlights risks of free storage services
The breach resulted in a number of customers receiving spam email messages. The attackers reportedly got access to the customers' data by hacking into a Dropbox employee's email account.

Security researchers have since attacked Dropbox's lax attitude towards passwords security, with Trend Micro security chief Rik Ferguson telling V3 that he was concerned by several aspects of the incident.

"Firstly, a Dropbox engineer was using live customer information in a ‘project document'. This document was accessible, it seems, because the Dropbox employee was reusing their corporate password on other web services which were compromised," he explained.

"Secondly, Dropbox chose to inform their customers with an email notification containing a link to reset their password. This practice goes against the years of advice that we have given, warning users not to click links in unsolicited mails, especially those requesting that you visit a web site to enter any kind of credentials."

http://www.emptyage.com/post/28679875595/yes-i-was-hacked-hard

Here’s what happened:
At 4:50 PM, someone got into my iCloud account, reset the password and sent the confirmation message about the reset to the trash.

https://allthingsd.com/20120803/gizmodo-twitter-account-hijacked-by-foul-mouthed-hackers/

http://www.dailydot.com/news/clan-vv3-gizmodo-twitter-hack/

In a blog post, Honan claimed his iCloud account was hijacked, and his laptop, iPhone, and iPad remotely wiped. He linked his Twitter account to Gizmodo's some time ago, so the hackers were able to access both.

Clan Vv3 has taken over a number of fairly prominent Twitter accounts in recent months, including those of NBC sitcom star Whitney Cummings and former WWE wrestler Booker T.
In a coincidental twist, the last tweet posted by Gizmodo before the hack was a link to a story titled “How To Defeat Your Enemies on the Internet.”

http://www.zdnet.com/dropbox-gets-hacked-again-7000001928/

Dropbox gets hacked ... again

Summary: After last year's embarrassing data breaches, Dropbox promised to implement additional safeguards "to prevent this from happening again." Whoops, it just happened again.

Running a secure online service is hard work. It costs money and it requires nonstop vigilance.

It’s the kind of work that gets tested regularly. How a company responds to security challenges defines the difference between earnest startups and companies that deserve to graduate to the big time.

Dropbox just failed that test.

Our investigation found that usernames and passwords recently stolen from other websites were used to sign in to a small number of Dropbox accounts. We’ve contacted these users and have helped them protect their accounts.

A stolen password was also used to access an employee Dropbox account containing a project document with user email addresses. We believe this improper access is what led to the spam.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/25/people_slack_about_passwords/

Users still slack about passwords: Trustwave
eHarmony analysis shows people just don’t care
Having recovered 80 percent of the 1.5 million passwords in the dump file, the company says only 0.5 percent contained a “special character”, with 41 percent containing letters only and 57 percent a combination of letters and digits.
As it was, more than 1.2 million passwords were cracked in 72 hours, using three NVIDIA GPUs and the oclHashcat and John the Ripper cracking tools.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57449325-83/what-the-password-leaks-mean-to-you-faq/

LastPass has created a site where people can check to see if their password for LinkedIn or eHarmony was among those posted to a hacker forum.
(Credit: LastPass)

Yes that would be brilliant and with today's tehnology shouln't be too hard to accomplish.

Though some crooks may start chopping fingers off, lol.

Sci-fi stories about that have been around for years! Even one of the early SeaQuest DSV episodes had a guy grafting the skin of a guy's fingertips to his hands so he could do just that!

Yes that would be brilliant and with today's tehnology shouln't be too hard to accomplish.

Though some crooks may start chopping fingers off, lol.

am looking forward to the day when log-ons will be based on eyeball and/or fingerprint scanning technology - most seure type of access approach.

According to an email I received from Opinion Outpost, eharmony.com had their passwords hacked as well.

They sent out the warning email because some people keep the same password for everything and if they did so and were part of these two hacking sweeps, they might be compromised elsewhere.

http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/analysis/2183098/quick-guide-password-protection

https://www.pcworld.com/article/257270/another_breach_reveals_weak_passwords_will_we_ever_learn.html

Another Breach Reveals Weak Passwords: Will We Ever Learn?
It has been 18 months since more than 188,000 passwords for subscribers to Gawker were snatched by hackers and posted to the Web, but consumers don't seem any more inclined to protect their passwords now than they were then.
If you're looking for tips on creating a strong password, there are plenty of folks on the Net that can advise you on that subject, including Microsoft and Google. See also PCWorld's tips at "Create a Different, Secure, Easy-to-Remember Password for Every Site.")
strong passwords like 4shkenaz!Sp!tt!ng, which would take a desktop PC 14 quadrillion years to crack.

https://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/linkedin-investigating-password-leak-could-affect-65-m-060612?utm_source=Threatpost&utm_medium=Tabs&utm_campaign=Today%27s+Most+Popular

UPDATE Professional social networking site LinkedIn announced early Wednesday morning that it was looking into reports of stolen passwords, according to a post on their Twitter page.

http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/consumer-security/lastfm-and-eharmony-passwords-stolen-20120608-1zzrq.html

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/last-fm-eharmony-and-linkedin-have-passwords-stolen-updates/

http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/7056627/LinkedIn-passwords-hacked

LinkedIn passwords hacked

Business social network LinkedIn said it is investigating reports that more than six million passwords have been stolen and leaked on to the internet.

Although LinkedIn did not confirm if any user data had been hacked or leaked, researchers at UK web security company Sophos say they have confirmed that a file posted online does contain, in part, LinkedIn passwords "hashes." That's a way of encrypting or storing passwords in a different form.

Graham Cluley, a consultant with Sophos, recommended that LinkedIn users change their passwords immediately.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57390098-83/anonymous-hacked/

A report by Symantec suggests that members of Anonymous may have downloaded a Zeus Trojan that gave hackers access to their financial details. Anonymous, for its part, declares Symantec's report "libelous."

http://www.symantec.com/connect/fr/blogs/anonymous-supporters-tricked-installing-zeus-trojan

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57391349-83/lulzsec-arrests-deal-blow-to-hacker-group/

The U.S. Attorney says six hackers in the United States and abroad, affiliated with LulSec, Anonymous, and Antisec, have been arrested and charged with crimes.

http://cbs.onespot.com/2012/03/06/15486/exclusive-infamous-international-hacking

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/03/06/hacking-group-lulzsec-swept-up-by-law-enforcement/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fscitech+%28Internal+-+SciTech+-+Mixed%29

EXCLUSIVE: Infamous international hacking group LulzSec brought down by own leader
“They caught him and he was secretly arrested and now works for the FBI,” a source close to Sabu told FoxNews.com.

That's scary :(

oh no.

http://us.generation-nt.com/chrome-os-operating-system-flaw-hack-extension-news-3064351.html

Through a cross-site scripting attack and the injection of code into a Web page executed by the browser, Matt Johansen and Kyle Osborn have managed to demonstrate the possibility of accessing user names, passwords and users banking information.
The potential threat comes from Chrome OS extensions.

http://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/view/12859/new-german-national-id-card-hacked-by-chaos-computer-club/

The German government's new national ID card – which will start being issued this November – has been publicly hacked on TV by members of the infamous Chaos Computer Club.
crack was almost certainly down to a failure of security being added as an afterthought, rather than integrated from the earliest stages of the development process.

Personally I've had no problems with any of the games from Merscom. Perhaps the Easter vacation may have been one of the reasons for a delay in replying, though I see Copmom has pointed out the no support clause for anything from the giveaway site. It could also be that the Email you used was one of those not served by a human (lol). You know what I mean.

I'm sorry you've had the problems your having. It's sad that there are a breed of people out there that think it funny hacking sites such as Merscom. We just have to live with it.

I wont be stopping visiting Merscom though as I do have adequate security measures in place.

This following is posted on Mercom's site:

"We are committed to providing you with technical support for your game in a timely manner. Here you will find a Troubleshooting Guide for common technical issues as well as the Merscom Forums, which allow you to communicate with our staff and other players.

PLEASE NOTE: Due to our agreement with Game Giveaway of the Day, we regret that we are unable to provide tech support for Merscom games downloaded from their Web site.

Merscom Support FAQ Thread

Windows Vista Information: Currently only a few of our games are officially Vista compatible. Please check the system requirements on your game box or at our store to confirm. We unfortunately cannot provide answers to support questions regarding Vista compatibility for games that do not include Vista on their system requirements."

And when I said, "don't judge in haste", I had contacted them because my grandson liked one of their games so well on my machine, I wanted to buy it for his machine. They got back to me within the hour.

And.. if needed, here's their information:
Merscom LLC
Boyd Hall, Suite 330 55 VilCom Circle
Chapel Hill, NC 27514, United States
Phone number: 919-869-8737 Fax: 919-918-7834

Lee,
aRenegade

And it is a nice one.Wish I could read it though.
My Japanese isn't what it used to be.
:)

If you click the link posted in the first post of this thread you get a powerpoint file.

Judge in haste??? Could you be a little more specific as to how long it took (in terms of days, weeks, hours, minutes, etc) to resolve those issues that put you in the position of contacting them? "VERY quick" doesn't tell me much.

Its been a week already and I haven't heard squat! I am of the opinion that it would be in Merscoms (or any company’s), best interest to acknowledge this incident and alleviate any concerns customers may have regarding security issues. How long would it take to email a note saying, "We are aware of the situation and are taking appropriate steps.” A little bit of “sugar” can go a long way. Playing deaf, dumb, and blind sends me the message that they just don't give an excrement, and customer satisfaction is a secondary priority to them. Should they initiate damage control with me I’ll post their reply, but until then, as far as I’m concerned the matter is closed. As they say, “We all got to do, what we all got to do”. Good luck ;)