WikiLeaks Documentary Prompts Hacker Attack on PBS Website

By Justin Lee, May 30, 2011

(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- A group of hackers upset by a recent PBS Frontline (www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline) documentary about WikiLeaks breached the website's servers Sunday and posted thousands of compromised passwords as well as a bogus news article on the show's blog.

Hacking group LulzSec claimed responsibility on its Twitter page for posting a fake news story that claimed that slain rappers Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. had both been discovered "alive and well" in New Zealand.

The story said the "small resort in New Zealand... allegedly housed Tupac and Biggie Smalls (another rapper) for several years."

The article was indexed by Google News and distributed through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, despite PBS taking down the story soon after it was posted. The cached version of the article can currently be viewed here.

Newshour kept its readers informed about the status of the attack via Twitter, warning its visitors that the "site has been hacked".

The group managed to steal passwords stored on Frontline's databases, which it used to post the fake story in The RunDown section under the byline PBS WebTech.

The group also posted--and tweeted the links to--hundreds of usernames, email addresses, and passwords belonging to PBS affiliates and bloggers, and outside journalists, on PBS' public bulletin board Pastebin.com.

The hackers also posted a defacement page on the pbs.org site, which it claimed responsibility for on its Twitter page.

LulzSec has successfully breached many large organizations in the past month including Sony's Japanese website and Fox.com.

Unlike other hacking groups that hack for the purpose of financial gain, LulzSec is known to largely hack for entertainment and notoriety.

In the case of the PBS hack, the group was upset with a documentary about WikiLeaks that Frontline ran on May 24.

"We just finished watching WikiSecrets and were less than impressed," Lulzsec wrote in its explanation of the hack. "We decided to sail our Lulz Boat over to the PBS servers for further perusing."

Titled "WikiSecrets", the hour-long documentary profiled WikiLeaks leaker Bradley Manning and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who later criticized the program for misrepresenting WikiLeaks' views.

Article Source http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/053011_WikiLeaks_Documentary_Prompts_Hacker_Attack_on_PBS_Website?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thewhir+%28theWhir.com+-+Daily+Web+Hosting+News%29permits  to repubish here

<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Click Most Updated Discount Coupon Codes & My Personal Web Hosting Recommendations if you are interested in those.

Stay Tuned!

<<<<<<<<<<<<

 

  ____

FBI Attains 40 Warrants Tied to Pro-WikiLeaks DDoS Attacks

By Justin Lee, January 28, 2011

A message posted to Operation Payback'sTwitter feed in December

(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- The FBI said Thursday it has attained more than 40 search warrants across the US, seeking the pro-WikiLeaks hackers responsible for launching retaliation attacks against companies that suspended services to the whistle-blower website.

The move follows last month's raid of Texas-based web host, Tailor Made Services, where FBI confiscated a computer believed to be used in the DDoS attacks against PayPal.

Meanwhile, UK authorities arrested five men Thursday morning in connection with the DDoS attacks on Visa, Mastercard, Paypal and Amazon in mid-December.

The attacks were led by a loose group of pro-WikiLeaks hackers who call themselves Anonymous. They were motivated by the financial service companies' decision to block donations to Wikileaks.
Though the attacks were relatively harmless, causing the slowing down of loading speeds for the websites, the FBI said it is taking the matter seriously.
"The FBI also is reminding the public that facilitating or conducting a DDoS attack is illegal, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, as well as exposing participants to significant civil liability," the FBI said in a statement.
The FBI has not yet made any arrests relating to the warrants.

Earlier this week, Anonymous announced Operation: Egypt campaign, where it began recruiting participants to the #OpEgypt channel on its IRC network.

Article Source : http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/012811_FBI_Attains_40_Warrants_Tied_to_Pro_WikiLeaks_DDoS_Attacks permits republishing here
repblished at http://webhostingdomainblognews.blogspot.com/
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Click Most Updated Discount Coupon Codes & My Personal Web Hosting Recommendations if you are interested in those.
Stay Tuned!
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Anonymous Group Attacks Egyptian Websites, says Report

By Justin Lee, January 26, 2011  

An image promoting Anonymous' Operation: Egypt campaign

(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Members of the Anonoymous group, a group of pro-WikiLeaks hackers, launched on Monday its Operation: Egypt campaign, where it began recruiting participants to the #OpEgypt channel on its IRC network, according to a report by Web analytics firm Netcraft.

The move is the latest in a series of attacks organized by the group, which is comprised of volunteers who install and run the Low Orbit Ion Cannon software to overwhelm a website with a large volume of traffic.

Last month the group launched attacks against PayPal, MasterCard and Visa. On Tuesday evening, Twitter announced on its status page that it had been blocked in Egypt after some of Anonymous' earlier DDoS attacks used Twitter feeds to announce targets to the automated attack software.

Anonymous' current target appears to be The Egyptian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (http://www.mcit.gov.eg/).

Though it is unclear how many volunteers are a part of this attack, www.mcit.gov.eg appears to be up and running according to Netcraft's performance data, which could be a sign that the number of volunteers participating in the attacks has seen a gradual decline over the past few months.
A look at the group's IRC channel shows that it is currently recruiting individuals to use a web-based version of the LOIC attack tool, which can also be deployed through mobile phones.

Additionally, discussions about other targets to attack can be found on multi-user PiratePad site, which lists www.moiegypt.gov.eg as a main target-- a site that has recently seen some short outages.

Article Source : http://www.webhostingtalk.com/ permitted republishing here
repblished at http://webhostingdomainblognews.blogspot.com/

Russian Criminals May Be Hiding Behind Pro-WikiLeaks Attacks

• By Justin Lee, January 21, 2011

A screen shot of WikiLeaks.info

(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Two Internet watchdog websites have discovered that Russian cybercriminals may be riding on the coattails of WikiLeaks and its hacker supporters, to stay online, according to a report by Security News Daily.

Researchers found WikiLeaks mirror site and an English-language forum for "Anonymous," a group of pro-WikiLeaks hackers, had both been established in areas of the Internet believed to be operated by Russian criminal organizations.

Malware tracking firm Spamhaus flagged Wikileaks.info on December 14 as being hosted by Webalta and Heihachi, which are both believed to be fronts for organized-crime units.
In a blog post written that same day, Spamhaus analyst Quentin Jenkins wrote that Heihachi was "highly involved in botnet command and control and the hosting of Russian cybercrime." Spamhaus was hit with a DDoS attack the day after the post.
On December 27th, Bank of America was also hit by a DDoS attack whose corresponding server was found to be located in Russia, according to McAfeeLabs, which means that Russian copycats may be behind these attacks and not Anonymous.
Ìt has yet to be determined whether the regular members of Anonymous are aware that their efforts have attracted foreign criminals.
Spamhaus recommends pro-WikiLeaks supporters to visit wikileaks.ch for a list of official WikiLeaks mirror sites and to avoid Anonymous message boards hosted by Webalta or Heihachi or contain an .ru domain.

Article Source : http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/012111_Russian_Criminals_May_Be_Hiding_Behind_Pro_WikiLeaks_Attacks permitted republishing here.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Click Most Updated Discount Coupon Codes & My Personal Web Hosting Recommendations if you are interested in those.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<