Hacking | featured news

Software and tech hardware companies have to protect their secrets and shield their upcoming products from the prying eyes of competition right up to the day they choose to announce. In a multi-billion dollar industry like gaming, market players take this kind of thing seriously. Very seriously. An Australian hacker was visited by a handful of law enforcement officials this week on allegations that he’s been stealing intel about the not-yet-released new Xbox, a Microsoft product.

The attacks over the past month by sophisticated malware seemed to be similar to those recently directed at Twitter and other companies.

As Apple's engineers scramble to fix the security flaws exploited by evasi0n, the latest jailbreak tool to crack the restrictions on its iPhones and iPads, the company may be more than just one move behind the community of hackers targeting its products. In fact, the jailbreakers say they have plenty more bugs in their back pockets, already waiting to jailbreak the next iPhone.

Rupert Murdoch tweets that the Wall Street Journal newspaper is still being attacked by Chinese hackers.

Twitter said it had detected "sophisticated" unauthorized attempts to access information from the short-messaging service used by more than 200 million people.

Chinese hackers repeatedly penetrated The New York Times' computer systems over the past four months, stealing reporters' passwords and hunting for files on an investigation into the wealth amassed by the family of a top Chinese leader, the newspaper reported Thursday....

Faced with growing fears of potentially crippling cyber attacks and not enough skilled technicians to combat the threat, the Defense Department has launched a massive recruitment drive that's tapping an unlikely group: computer hackers. The Pentagon plans to dramatically boost the ranks of U.S. cybersecurity forces, expanding its number of cyber warriors more than five-fold, the Washington Post reported Sunday. But that strategy immediately confronts a critical shortage of those with the required skills.

The Department of Homeland Security says despite some fixes to Java, it continues to recommend users disable the program in their Web browsers, because it remains vulnerable to attacks that could result in identity theft and other cyber crimes.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is advising people to temporarily disable the Java software on their computers to avoid potential hacking attacks....

Net criminals have exploited a security lapse to pose as part of the Google+ social media service in a bid to steal confidential data.