NVIDIA Developer Forums Hacked, 400000 user accounts at Risk

Nvidia shut down its Developer Zone online forum today after hackers gained access to members' account details.A statement Nvidia posted on the forum reads, "Nvidia suspended operations today of the Nvidia Developer Zone. We did this in response to attacks on the site by unauthorised third parties who may have gained access to hashed passwords."

Users are also warned not to provide any personal, financial or sensitive information in response to any email purporting to be sent by an NVIDIA employee or representative. All user passwords will be reset when the system comes back online, though it wasn’t mentioned when that was going to be. NVIDIA insists it is “continuing to investigate this matter.

Nvidia forum hack follows the recent LinkedInand Yahoo! hacks. Earlier 6.5 million LinkedIn hashed passwords were stolen and subsequently published on unauthorized websites.

App Store bypassed by Russian hacker without jail breaking

Apple is investigating yet another security breach in its iTunes app store . A Russian hacker worked out a way that allows people to bypass payment in the App Store and download products for free.

The hacker, dubbed ZonD80, posted a video of the crack on YouTube (Deleted by Youtube now) and claims that the technique makes it possible to beat Apple's payment systems by installing a couple of certificates and assigning a specific IP address to the device.

The new service, which has already been subject to attempts at shutting it down, requires no jailbreaking and only minimal configuration changes. It works by funneling purchase requests through a server operated by the hacker, rather than the legitimate one offered by Apple. As a result, charges that normally would be applied to a user's account are bypassed.

Below are the steps to the hack:

• Install two certificates: CA and in-appstore.com.
• Connect via Wi-Fi network and change the DNS to 62.76.189.117.
• Press the Like button and enter your Apple ID & password.
• Using the above hack, you are actually stealing in-app purchase content from developers, which is kind of disturbing and is of course against developer’s terms of service.

ZonD80 is now asking for donations to set up a website to promote the hack."Why you must to pay for content, already included in purchased app? I think, you must not," he said.


Apple has responded with the following statement:“The security of the App Store is incredibly important to us and the developer community,” Apple representative Natalie Harrison. “We take reports of fraudulent activity very seriously and we are investigating.”

Obama will control internet, signs Emergency Internet Control

Barack Obama has signed an executive order that could hand control of the internet to the U.S. Government, in the event of a natural disaster or terrorist attack. "The federal government must have the ability to communicate at all times and under all circumstances to carry out its most critical and time sensitive missions," Obama said.

President Obama adds that it is necessary for the government to be able to reach anyone in the country during situations it considers critical, writing, “Such communications must be possible under all circumstances to ensure national security, effectively manage emergencies and improve national resilience.” Later the president explains that such could be done by establishing a “joint industry-Government center that is capable of assisting in the initiation, coordination, restoration and reconstitution of NS/EP [national security and emergency preparedness] communications services or facilities under all conditions of emerging threats, crisis or emergency.”

But Section 5.2 has raised alarm among those who fear the government will have too much control over the Web. The section explained how the secretary of homeland security - currently Janet Napolitano - will 'satisfy priority communications requirements through the use of commercial, Government, and privately owned communications resources, when appropriate.'

White House officials have acted quickly to ease concern, insisting the order is just an update of an existing authority dating back to 1984 . The claim the government has been granted no extra powers.

How threatening Obama's new executive powers are is subject to debate. Please pass your feedback in Comments.

Skype privacy bug that can Send Messages To The Wrong Contacts

What if when you sent a message to someone, it had a very good chance of going to someone else in your contact list? That would be pretty scary right? That what some Skype users are reporting.

The bug was first discussed in Skype’s user forums, and seems to have followed a June 2012 update of the Skype software. Skype has confirmed the bug existence and that a fix is in the works. However, the company characterizes the bug as “rare.”

Purchased by Microsoft last year for $8.5 billion, the Luxemburg company which has as many as 40 million people using its service at a time during peak periods, explained that messages sent between two users were in limited cases being copied to a third party, but did not elaborate further on the matter.

Five other individuals of the Microsoft-owned program confirmed they were also seeing instant messages being sent to the wrong person from their contact list. Sometimes it's just a few messages, while other times it's a whole conversation.

Skype has, on its blog, confirmed the issue of a bug sending instant messages to wrong contacts and has promised a fix. Addressing the issue, Skype wrote, "Based on recent Skype customer forum posts and our own investigation over the past couple of days, we have identified a bug that we are working hard to fix."

FACT : One in five Microsoft logins controlled by hackers

About 20 percent of Microsoft Account logins are found on lists of compromised credentials in the wake of hack attacks on other service providers, Eric Doerr, Group Program Manager for Microsoft's Account system said.

A significant proportion of compromised credentials Microsoft sees from other services have the same username and password on the Microsoft account system (formerly Windows Live ID) logins, which cover services such as Hotmail, Messenger and SkyDrive. These logins have not been compromised from the Microsoft server, but are instead based on login information leaked from other sites.

"These attacks shine a spotlight on the core issue people reuse passwords between different websites," he said. Microsoft regularly gets lists of compromised third-party login details from ISPs, law enforcement and vendors, as well as from lists published on the internet by hackers, according to Doerr. This information is checked against Microsoft login details using an automated process to check for any overlap. While 20 percent is the average, in one recent breach it was only 4.5 percent, said Doerr.

Like Just last week, both Yahoo! Voices and the Android forums at website Phandroid were hacked, resulting in the leakage of almost 1.5 million usernames and passwords. When a list of usernames and passwords are leaked, it seems that Microsoft have been running these against its database looking for matches. The results are quite shocking.

Company also revealed that it is working to tighten its security and one of such measures is going to be increase in the character limit in passwords to make Brute Force attack more difficult.

We Request to Readers, DON’T REUSE YOUR PASSWORDS!

Open letter to the Australian people from Mother of Julian Assange

There have been numerous public statements made about WikiLeaks and its editor-in-chief Julian Assange that are factually inaccurate.Prime Minister Julia Gillard said about WikiLeaks, "It's illegal." Attorney General Nicola Roxon said my son "fled Sweden." The media repeatedly states, "Assange is charged or facing charges" in relation to Swedish sex allegations.

If you want to know The Truth About Julian Assange And Wikileaks , Please read our previous Story "One Man Fights for 7 Billion People, One Mother Battles to Wake Them Up"

Letter is as below, To read complete Press Release (Click Here)

Dear Member of Parliament,

We (Wikileaks Australian Citizens Alliance) are writing to you on behalf of Christine Assange, (Julian Assange's mother) who is currently in the UK, waiting for the UK Supreme Court Ruling on her son's appeal against extradition to Sweden.

This ruling will be handed down later today (EST) and we, like Christine and many other Australian citizens are deeply concerned and disappointed at the lack of public support and diplomatic support being offered to Julian Assange by the Australian Government.

Julian Assange is an award winning Australian journalist who has not been charged with any crime in any country and yet he has been held under house arrest for 540 days!

If Julian is extradited to Sweden he will be placed in solitary confinement, incommunicado with no opportunity for bail and then trialled in secret.

Extradition to Sweden also places Julian's life and liberty in jeopardy with the likely result being a 'fast track' onward extradition to the USA, under Sweden's temporary surrender regime which is part of their bilateral extradition agreement with the USA.

Once in the USA Julian may be held indefinitely in a military prison, while the USA builds a case against him for the release of US diplomatic Cables.

In publishing these cables Wikileaks and Julian Assange as Editor-in-Chief have done no more than hundreds of other media organisations have done around the globe and yet the pursuit of Julian Assange and Wikileaks (including staff and supporters) has been relentless by the USA Government.

We urge you to read Christine's open letter to the Australian people and to act immediately to protect a fellow Australian; to ensure his human rights and citizenry rights are upheld.

sincerely,

Sam Castro & Kaz Cochrane

WACA

WikiLeaks Australian Citizen’s Alliance