Many criminal hackers have not been caught or even identified. That just proves why there are some unsolved computer crimes. They do their nefarious activity without other people knowing it but when breaches happen, they are being tracked by law enforcers. Luckily, they are not caught for what they have done.

Here are the top 10 infamous unsolved computer crimes:

1. WANK Worm, October 1989 – This is the first hacking activist attack, also called “hacktivist.” The WANK worm struck NASA offices in Greenbelt, Maryland. WANK stands for Worms Against Nuclear Killers. The attack is the part of the protest stopping the launch of the plutonium-fueled, Jupiter-bound Galileo probe. Up to this day, no one knows where the attack started. Many thought that the hackers came from Melbourne, Australia.

2. Ministry of Defense Satellite Hacked, February 1999
MoD Skynet was controlled by a small group of hackers from southern England who have signaled a security intrusion as “information warfare”. The attack aimed to disrupt military communications. The hackers were wise enough to reprogram the control system before it was discovered. No arrest has been made after the U.S. Air Force and Scotland Yard’s Computer Crimes Unit made an investigation on it.

3. CD Universe Credit Card Breach, January 2000
This is a blackmail scheme made by hacker Maxim. He posted over 300,000 credit card numbers on his website, The Maxus Credit Card Pipeline. It is still unsolved since early 2000. He was able to steal credit card information through CDUniverse.com. The worst of all, he asked for $100,000 from the website to destroy the data. Many believed that Maxim is from Eastern Europe. It is still unsolved since early 2000.

4. Military Source Code Stolen, December 2000
In 2000, a hacker was able to get the source controlling missile-guidance systems after broking into government-contracted Exigent Software Technology and nabbing two-thirds of the code for Exigent’s OS/COMET software from the Naval Research Lab found in Washington, D.C. The intruder is called “Leaf.” Officials were able to track him until his trail disappear in the University of Kaiserslautern in Germany.

5. Anti-DRM Hacked, October 2001
This just proves that not all hackers are bad guys. Some hackers sometimes just want to make a wrong right or make a life more easier for everyone. One of these hackers is Beale Screamer. He created a program named FreeMe allowing Windows Media users to strip digital-rights-management security from music and video files. Because of this, Microsoft went after Beale while other anti-digital rights management (DRM) activists praised him.

6. Dennis Kucinich on CBSNews.com, October 2003
In 2003, CBSNews.com was hacked. The CBSNews homepage was replaced with a campaign logo of Dennis Kucinich redirecting to 30-minute video called “This is the Moment” which shows Kucinich political philosophy. The Kucinich refused to admit that they have something to do with the hack. The hacker involved was not identified.

7. Hacking Your MBA App, March 2006
A hacker broke into the automated ApplyYourself application system in 2006 allowing some applicants to find out if they were admitted or not. He posted the ApplyYourself login process on Business Week’s online forums. People who used it got a warning from the schools that they will be receiving rejection letters in the mail. The hacker of the attempt has not been discovered.

8. The 26,000 Site Hack Attack, 2008
26,000 websites were hacked by unknown hackers including MSNBC.com. The hackers redirected the traffic to their own JavaScript code hosted by servers known for malware. The malicious code was hidden that the users were not able to see it enabling the hackers to activate it.

9. Supermarket Security Breach, February 2008
1,8000 credit card and debit card numbers were stolen at supermarket chains Hannaford and Sweetbay located in the Northeast United States and Florida. It remained unsolved for more than six months. The fraud was caused by hackers who intercepted the transmission of credit card information during the authorization process. Chain reps and security experts questioned how the criminals were able to gain access to their system.

10. Comcast.net Redirects to the Hacker’s Page, May 2008
The hacker group, Kryogeniks, was able to get unauthorized access to Comcast.net’s registrar, Network Solutions. Users attempting to access webmail were redirected to the hackers’ own page. As of today, Comcast and Network Solutions still don’t know how the hackers got the username and password.

How Can Techie Now Help?

It’s evident how hackers can really affect everyone with their online attacks. The above computer crimes have not been solved or maybe the solutions have been made public. With the hackers being unknown, more and more crimes or online threats will happen in the future. For now, always be cautious when surfing the web and make sure that your computer has strong security software. If you are looking for PC support services like virus and spyware removal, performance optimization, installation and configuration and general repair – contact Techie Now and keep your PC protected at all time.

Related TechieNow Service:

Online Virus Removal

Do you know what are the most riskiest domains in the web ?

McAfee, a security agency, released its annual, “Mapping the Mal Web” report naming the riskiest domains in the web worldwide. Disturbingly, most of the riskiest domains come from Asia-Pacific region.

The following are the top 10 riskiest domains in the web:

1. Cameroon (.cm) – Cameroon from Africa got in the top list for 2009 overthrowing Hong Kong (.hk) as the web’s riskiest domain for 2008. With a risk rating of 1.1%, Hong Kong dropped to the 34th place this year. It is a small African country bordering Nigeria. It’s the first time that Cameroon entered the list getting the top spot with the risk rate of 36.7%. Most of the time, users mistype .com to .cm making it as the common typo for domains. Because of this, many cyber criminals decides to come up with fake typo-squatting sites redirecting users to download malicious downloads, spyware, adware and others.

2. Commercial (.com) – .com is considered as the most common domain, also getting more and more dangerous as of 2009. It has been in the ninth place in 2008 and grabbing the second most dangerous domain for 2009. It is also the most risky generic top level domain (TLD).

3. China (.cn) – The third spot belongs to China with the risk rating of 23.4% while having a 11.8% risk rate in 2008. McAfee’s report shows that websites registered with the .cn are more related spam sites.

4. Samoa (.ws) – Samoa is in fourth place with a 17.8% risk percentage compared to its security risk of 3.8% the other year. It has been reported that Samoan-registered domains are known risky for its activities like phishing and malicious downloading. Together with China, Samoa stayed in the top 5 riskiest domains since 2008.

5. Information (.info) – With 15.8% risk rate for 2009 and 11.7% for 2008, .info is considered as the most spammy domain because its sites generates a lot of junk mail. Its activity is largely spam related.

6. Philippines (.ph) – Philippines marked the sixth spot with the overall risk level of 13.1% as compared to its 2008’s risk rate of 7.7%. Its registered sites are getting more into spam and phishing than the malicious downloads.

7. Network (.net) – The seventh riskiest domain is the Network (.net) having the risk rate of 5.8% compared to its higher security risk in 2008.

8. Former Soviet Union (.su) – Former Soviet Union joined the top list for the first time, with the 5.2% security risk. Reports noted that its domains are mainly used linking phishing and malicious download activity.

9. Russia (.ru) – Russia is in the ninth place getting a risk rate of 4.6%. In 2008, it has a security risk of 6%. Domains from Russia are distributed for phishing, spam and malicious downloads.

10. Singapore (.sg) – Next to the Philippines belonging to the Asia-Pacific country, Singapore had the tenth place with the overall risk of 4.6%, compared to 0.3% last year. .sg domains were distributed evenly for spam and download activity.

The riskiest domain for malicious downloads comes from Romania (.ro). 21% of its domains are offering viruses, spyware and adware. The Government (.gov) domain is the safest domain for having 0% risk. Japan (.jp) domains got a rating of 0.1% proving to be the safest country domain in the web.

The “Mapping the Mal Web” report just shows how smart the cyber criminals are they quickly change their strategies to attract more victims without being caught. Attackers prefer to target places where it will be cheap and convenient for them to register their sites.

How Can Techie Now Help?

McAfee has named the world’s riskiest domains. With the cyber criminals roaming the web, any domain from any country can be affected by these phishing, spam and malicious downloads. It just proved that it’s really not that safe when it comes to browsing the web. The right thing to do is to make sure that you have a security software ready in your computer for protection. If you are looking for services that can protect your computer, you can trust Techie Now with that. Contact us now for any PC support services like virus and spyware removal, performance optimization, installation and configuration and general repair.

www.TechieNow.com

The official website of Spain’s European Union for presidency, www.eu2010es, was hacked where a large picture of Mr. Bean smiling was displayed in the site.

It been a joke in Spain for years now that the British actor, Rowan Atkinson, who played as Mr. Bean, looks really alike to Spain’s Socialist prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. El Pais, Spain’s leading newspaper, has published an article against the government handling the economy with the cartoon image showing Mr. Zapatero as Mr. Bean. The problem of unemployment in Spain has increased twice to about 19 percent.

Mr. Zapatero’s official verified that a security breach caused the hack of the website covering Spain’s 6-month presidency of the European Union. Fortunately, the site information is not affected at all. El Mundo, another newspaper from Spain, showed to the public the screenshot Mr. Bean appearing in the official webpage. During that time, anyone who visited the website will receive a “Hi there!” greeting by Mr. Bean. Thousands of users flooded the site to prove if the spoof is true.

How Can Techie Now Help?

It’s easy for cyber criminals to hack websites like what happened to the Spain’s Official European Union Presidency website. It may not have affected the site that seriously but it just proves that websites are not safe with numerous hackers over the web. Also include the computers and its users. For a start, Techie Now can help you when it comes to computer protection. It also offers other PC support services like: virus and malware removal, performance optimization, installation and configuration and general repair.

www.TechieNow.com

Alan Claridge of Indiana sued RockYou for data breach after the company admitted that they have lost the personal identification data of their 30 million users because of a hack. The only mistake of RockYou was that they didn’t acknowledge the online attack for almost two weeks after it happened.

How were the personal data of RockYou’s million users lost?

RockYou kept its users’ personal data which are all confidential only in plain-text files or .txt docs. They have failed to protect the personally identifiable information (PII) of their users letting it be accessed by anyone who is capable to hack. No wonder the hacker, “igigi”, didn’t have a hard time exploiting RockYou’s SQL injection vulnerabilities because of its poor coding.

After that attack, RockYou sent a mail to its users, including Claridge, received an e-mail from RockYou saying that their information might have been compromised. But 12 days before that, RockYou already knew its own liabilities and decided to shut down the site. It even published an apology and explanation on the attack that happened on the website.

To prevent this from happening again, RockYou will cooperate with the investigation of the authorities on the illegal breach of its database. They will also encrypt all passwords, evaluate their data security features and upgrade their legacy platform with the standard security protocols. RockYou is sued for nine counts which include negligence, breach of contract, violation of California’s Computer Crime Law, and California’s Security Breach Information Act, among others.

How Can Techie Now Help?

Alan Claridge did the right thing when he sued RockYou for data breach. Regardless of RockYou’s website being hacked, they should still protect customer data and not to have waited for 12 days before informing its users about the hack. You’ll never know but you might be the next victim of these hackers. Protect your PC now! Contact Techie Now for PC support services that you need like virus and spyware removal, performance optimization, installation and configuration and general repair.

www.TechieNow.com

If you sent an e-mail in the first few hours of 2010, there’s a possibility that your recipient has not received your e-mail because of the bug hidden in the open source SpamAssassin used by internet service providers (ISP). The rule used to score emails as possibility of being spam was not updated in compiled versions of Apache SpamAssassin 3.2.0 thru 3.2.5.

SpamAssassin is a computer program used for e-mail spam filtering based on content-matching rules. Mike Cardwell found out that a rule named ‘FH_DATE_PAST_20XX’ triggered the program to give a high spam scores to any e-mail, legitimate or not, that has arrived within its header a date beyond a defined point in the future. He searched for the rule in Google and found out that the said issue, #5852, was first identified in November 5, 2008 and was already fixed in June 30, 2009. He is using Debian for his operating system which doesn’t contain the fix needed for that problem.

The rule ‘FH_DATE_PAST_20XX’ was not updated in compiled versions of Apache SpamAssassin 3.2.0 thru 3.2.5 before the New Year started. So any e-mails sent between 2010 and 2099 will automatically have high spam scores. Even though this problem has not directly stopped e-mail, the number of the legitimate e-mails mistakenly marked as spam would have been raised until the service providers detect the problem.

We’ll never know how many e-mails were affected by bug. According to reports, false positives appeared in Sweden, Germany, and The Netherlands. Daniel Axster of CronLab, an open source anti-spam company from Sweden, stated that it would have affected worldwide if it crossed the date line since almost all ISPs use the standard rule set with some modifications.

Axster advised the providers that they should do regular updates for the filters and archive spam monthly or in case of problems. They should also propose a mechanism to end users that will check their filtered emails for false positives. CronLab usually follow these techniques. Customers should store those emails suspected as spam so that the ISP can analyze about it.

SpamAssassin quickly fix the problem and offered a help page on its website as soon as they discover the problem. If you feel that you might have been affected with this bug but doesn’t know how to check it, you just have to press the resend button to send your email again.

How Can Techie Now Help?

The SpamAssassin 2010 bug blocked the emails enabling for other users not to receive emails sent to them. ISP should update their filters regularly. It’s the same as users updating security software for their computers for protection. If you are looking for PC support services like virus and spyware removal, performance optimization, installation and configuration and general repair, Techie Now is here to help you.

www.TechieNow.com

We all have experienced many online threats last year. And as year changes to 2010, the more online threats are changing too. Cybercriminals will be more eager to spread online threats and attack computers to benefit with any valuable information challenging users for security.

Here are some of the predictions that will challenge computer security this year:

1. Spam, Scams on Social Networking and Real-time Sites – A group of security researchers belonging from Websense, Breach Security, IBM Internet Security Systems‘ X-Force, and Symantec agreed that cybercriminals will focus their attacks on social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn, and on real-time social sites like Twitter. When it comes to real-time features, Google, especially Google Wave, as well as Bing will be their target. The attackers enjoy the fact it will take time for others to discover the existence of a malicious link or file. Users may recognize one but still one way or another, there will still be victims.

2. Crime Cloud – Security vendors specifically AVG, M86, and RSA predicted that criminals will be attacking and using use cloud services directly to control attacks. and using them to direct and control attacks. IBM researchers are anticipating to see attackers exploiting more services. Take Amazon AWS for example which already served as a host for a malware command and control server.

3. Malware Hijacking Trusted Sites – Breach Security observes continuous improvements when it comes to compromising trusted sites and infecting them with malware. Numerous incidents of SQL injection has been proven successful in attacking sites. No doubt, it will happen again. Cybercriminals prefer to have a third-party that will distribute their malware.

4. Macs Will Be Compromised – It’s been years now that security companies have been talking about Mac being targeted by attackers for malware. According to Websense, exploitation will happen affecting Safari under Mac OS X which will invite hackers to target the Mac platform. Symantec is worried that Mac users who are not spending money to buy antivirus software yearly will not be protected with such attack. Zscaler still believe that Apple can somehow oblige the company to strengthen its security to surpassed continuous attacks. Many think Macs will be widely affected because of Adobe Flash vulnerability.

5. Search Engine Poisoning and Malvertising – Cybercriminals will exert more efforts on exploiting trusted sites. For them to infect sites, they will make use of search engines and advertisements. They will continue to threaten and weaken search results and enjoy the attention breaking news and events. Google together with Microsoft will assure its users for a safe search and advertising. Of course, they wouldn’t want their users to not trust them.

6. Increasing Number of Bots – Why would cyber criminals waste their time with cloud-hosted malware when botnets can do the same thing? Botnets are better than cybercriminals. It can also be a source of income generating cash for criminals and hijacking other botnets for money. This will cause conflict preventing botnets to grow and attracting security experts and law enforcement. It’s botnets against other botnets. It’s like what happened to Zeus/Zbot being shut down by Bredolab botnet. Symantec claimed that botnets have become the foundation of cybercrime.

7. Piracy Gets Riskier – Microsoft has started making a move to lessen software piracy since last December. They received many complaints from users who buy the pirated version of Windows. IBM researchers are expecting that the continuous use of the pirated software will infection more users will malware.

8. Mobile Security Issue – Smartphones like iPhone and Android-based handsets are like miniature personal computers. They are being used for business purposes. In 2010, Websense predicted that smartphones will be targeted for attacks just like the computers. Nowadays, security vendors either have or are developing a mobile security product service. IBM thinks that mobile attacks will still be limited.

9. Major Insider Theft Scandal Will – It is expected next year that someone who has been in a large organization accessing company data will be caught to be working for or with a cybercrime group. The Identity Theft Resource expected that the number of insider cases will increase because of failure to follow basic workplace security protocols.

10. Clickjacking is Back – According to Zscaler, clickjacking will strike back. Clickjacking is a malicious technique that tricks users to reveal confidential information or take control of their computer while clicking the sites. Jeremiah Grossman of WhiteHat Security and Robert “RSnake” Hansen of SecTheory reveal about the technique in October 2008. Efforts have made to lessen the risk of clickjacking but it is still effective to use especially with a social engineering component.

How Can Techie Now Help?

The above security threats serves as a reminder for computer users to be careful over the web. You’ll never know what security threat you will be into. For now, the best protection is a reliable and updated antivirus software that will keep you and your computer in trouble. When it comes to your computer’s protection, Techie Now is the name you can trust. Techie Now offers PC support services: virus and spyware removal, performance optimization, installation and configuration and general repair.

www.TechieNow.com

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating a small school in upstate New York for being a victim of online theft for almost half million dollars. The said school is the Duanesburg Central School District. Cyber thieves tried to rob the district online bank accounts for about $3.8 million.

By December 18, the thieves attempted to transfer $1.86 million from the district’s account at NBT bank to an overseas account. They tried to transfer again another $1.19 million to different overseas location after a week. The bank representative suspected and flagged the money transfer amounting of $758,758.70 after they discovered the two previous unauthorized transactions.

Fortunately, Duanesburg and NBT bank have recovered the $2.55 million stolen funds from them but still lacking $497,000. According to Duanesburg Central, more than a quarter of district’s budget for a year has been targeted by the thieves, which is less than $15 million. It is servicing about 1,000 students from kindergarten to 12th grade near west of Albany.

The same attack also happened on school districts, cities, counties and small businesses across the country last year. Attackers use malicious software get the user names and passwords and steal from the users’ online bank accounts. The FBI and the New York state are helping each other to investigate but it’s still unclear if malicious software has something to do with the attack. Duanesburg Central School District stopped online access to its bank accounts and requested that payments should be sent and received through paper check for now.

How Can Techie Now Help?

It’s really impressive how cyber criminals are able to create an online attack, steal money or infect computers worldwide without being caught in what they do. The only thing you can do for now is prevent yourself from being their victims. Of course, be careful when visiting websites, opening e-mails or downloading files. Also use authentic antivirus software to prevent your computer from being infected. If you need help with PC services like virus and spyware removal, performance optimization, installation and configuration and general repair, contact Techie Now right away!

www.TechieNow.com

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) advised the people to be alert of fake antivirus software which has victimized a lot losing $150 million.

An intelligence notice was posted by the FBI on the Internet Crime Complaint Center’s website warning the people while browsing the web to be careful of Antivirus programs pretending to be credible but they are not. These programs are considered scareware or rogueware. According to the internet security bloggers/writers, scareware are software products, most usually commercial firewall and registry cleaner software, produce a lot of perky and alarming warning or threat notices serving some desired purpose. It is considered scam software which has a limited or no benefit at all. Rogueware is a form of computer malware that convinces users to pay for the fake removal of malware.

The notice states that these scareware programs are very aggressive and dangerous threats claiming that they clean computer viruses and attracting the users to buy them. Online criminals engage with the process called malvertising or malicious advertising where they even use botnets in posting ads in websites to convince and victimize more users.

As soon as you download the fake Antivirus software, a pop-up will appear. Closing this pop-up is not as easy as you think as hitting the X button or clicking the Close button. If the user agreed to press the Yes button to buy the Antivirus program, a form will prompt asking for payment information for the fake item. This fake software can install viruses, Trojans, and/or password intercepting keylogging programs in your computer.

Anti-Phishing Working Group stated that the total number of scareware programs from January to June last year has surpassed 2008 as a whole. Security analysts noticed that different AV programs are created so that it will be difficult for real antivirus software detect the threats. FBI recommended the users to always update their security software and operating systems. If ever you encounter a rogue Antivirus pop-up, quickly shutdown PC or close browser. Perform a complete secured Antivirus scan as soon as you turn on your computer again.

How Can Techie Now Help?

Scareware or rogueware can keep you and your computer in trouble. So like what FBI advises the computer users to do, you should be careful with those fake Antivirus programs that you see while browsing the web. Don’t let those scareware or rogueware fool you. For now, update your security software and operating system. If you need help, contact Techie Now. We offer PC support services like virus and spyware removal, performance optimization, installation and configuration and general repair.

Related TechieNow Service:

Online Virus Removal

Security researchers stated that there was a huge spam campaign that happened early this December with a message coming from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) asking the people to register for H1N1 vaccinations.

The e-mail messages redirect the innocent victims to a fake CDC site convincing them to create their profile. In this way, they will receive a swine flu vaccination. The fake site advises the users to download a vaccination profile archive which includes the link for that download. Of course, H1N1 known for its aggressive spread and lack of vaccine, people grab the mistaken opportunity and download the link which is a new variant of the Zbot Trojan horse. Security companies called it “Zeus”. It is a bot malware that hijacks your Windows PC for sending more spam and other nefarious activities.

Enormous number messages hit the users’ filter during the day when the bogus CDC messages started arriving to inboxes with the subject lines like “State Vaccination H1N1 Program, “Governmental registration program on the H1N1 vaccination” and “Create your personal Vaccination Profile.”
According to AppRiver, an email and web security solutions to businesses from Florida, the spam campaign’s average was about 18,000 messages per minute, or about 1.1 million per hour. It considered as the biggest when it comes to malware-oriented run currently reaching its customers and virus/phishing campaign right now. Because of its high volume, AppRiver has to block an approximate of 13 million messages during that time. 37 of 41 anti-virus detection engines of AppRiver has not detected the said Zbot Trojan but later recognized by its 21 detection engines.

The malware author is wise enough to make a backup attack plan for those people who are too cautious to clink the link. The fake CDC site has an iframe, an invisible element on the page which contains attack code exploiting Adobe Software vulnerabilities like Adobe Reader and Flash player. Attackers are too frustrated for being incapable to exploit Windows that they target Adobe’s applications. In the most recent Adobe Reader update, there are patched 29 vulnerabilities in the PDF viewer. The update made last October plugged a hole already being used by hackers.

Zbot, also called a “botnet” in security parlance, is the main active collection of compromised computers. When it comes to malicious activity, Zbot has been in the top for months. It was used by a British couple who then get arrested for stealing online banking account usernames and passwords. McAfee, AppRiver’s rival security company, the host servers of the fake CDC is can be located in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Brazil, India and Malaysia.

How Can Techie Now Help?

Even H1N1 vaccinations are being used by the attackers to victimize innocent people whose only concern is to protect themselves from the disease. This really questions our computer security. If you feel that your PC is not protected from any online attacks, contact Techie Now for your PC support services such as virus and spyware removal, performance optimization, installation and configuration, and general repair. Techie Now is what you need for your PC needs.

Related TechieNow Service:

Online Malware Removal

An SQL-injection assault infected 132,000 websites  after installing malicious software from 318x.com last December 10, 2009. Afterwards, the said attack planted a backdoor Trojan Buzbuz which featured a rootkit. Buzbuz steals financial data like credit cards in particular.

According to ScanSafe, the first attack that they discovered was last November 21, 2009. They reported about the attack this December after they found out that 125,000 websites hosted at different geographical locations with different sizes had been already infected. It was proven when the iFrame started to appear on Google search. Some of the infected sites include: knowledgespeak.com, parisattitude.com, and yementimes.com.

Anyone who visited the infected web-pages get a hidden link that downloads code from the websites connected to 318x.com. This code exploits the un-patched versions of Internet Explorer, Adobe Flash or other Microsoft program of the host computer so that the malware, Backdoor.Win3.Buzus.croo, will be installed.

Landesman stated that a new malware gang is behind the particular SQL-injection assaults. The said gang is said to be not that familiar to the method of attack. Although it might be an experienced attackers gang, this huge assault is their primary attempt. Security researchers considered this a sophisticated mass website attack.

How Can Techie Now Help?

Malware can really infect a website or more websites like what happened in this SQL-injection assault. It can happen to anyone, any computer, anytime and anywhere. With the everyday use of your computer and Internet, it’s easy to be infected with a malware. Protect your PC now and enjoy your computer experience, contact Techie Now. Be it virus and spyware removal, performance optimization, installation and configuration and general repair – Techie Now can provide PC support services that you need. We give better services at better prices and better protection for your computer.

www.TechieNow.com