hijack | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Fri, 22 Jan 2016 12:18:17 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png hijack | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 Security conference visitors gave away their Twitter passwords https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/security-software/jon-martindale/security-conference-visitors-gave-away-their-twitter-passwords/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/security-software/jon-martindale/security-conference-visitors-gave-away-their-twitter-passwords/#respond Fri, 22 Jan 2016 11:09:37 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=281772 As much as you have to applaud anyone for taking digital security seriously enough to attend a conference about it, you have to wonder how much they're taking in when they willingly give away their Twitter passwords. As part of a promotional move (and perhaps as a measure of attendee gullibility) the organisers of RSA …

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As much as you have to applaud anyone for taking digital security seriously enough to attend a conference about it, you have to wonder how much they're taking in when they willingly give away their Twitter passwords. As part of a promotional move (and perhaps as a measure of attendee gullibility) the organisers of RSA 2016 have been asking for Twitter details and many people with tickets willingly handed it over.

It's one of the most obvious personal security measures to take in protecting your online identity: if a website asks for your password to something else, don't input it. But that's exactly what many people did when the organisers of this year's RSA conference asked for Twitter username/email details and passwords to help publicise the event (as per the Telegraph).

The potential security problem with such a system was highlighted by some prospective attendees, who started noticing the rash of identical tweets from their fellow ticket holders. The tweet would read: “I'm going to #RSAC 2016  in San Fran! Who wants to come with me?” followed by a link to the RSA conference site.

rsac

Just a sample of those that auto-tweeted the message over the past few days

As the security gaff has become more known over the past couple of days, more tweets with a similar phrasing have appeared, highlighting how people would not be attending, or hadn't been silly enough to input their password into a third party site. Some even posted Rick Roll links along with it.

Although the Twitter hijacking doesn't appear to be anything more nefarious thanks marketing, it is worrying that so many people who are interested in security and are perhaps being sent by their firms to learn more, willingly fall flat at a basic bit of personal security.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: There are admittedly some third party Twitter services which require your password for automation, but you wouldn't put your details into a site to let it market through you, would you?

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Hijacking a Myspace account can get you in big trouble https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/hijacking-a-myspace-account-can-get-you-in-big-trouble/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/hijacking-a-myspace-account-can-get-you-in-big-trouble/#respond Tue, 09 Apr 2013 20:00:04 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=131309 While it's not often you see someone making their way through the ghost town that is MySpace, one user has found himself in hot water after hijacking his ex-girlfriend's account and posting revealing pictures of her, along with derogatory messages – he's now been found guilty of several criminal charges. Having broken up with Steven …

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While it's not often you see someone making their way through the ghost town that is MySpace, one user has found himself in hot water after hijacking his ex-girlfriend's account and posting revealing pictures of her, along with derogatory messages – he's now been found guilty of several criminal charges.

Having broken up with Steven Kuyrcharski, an Illinois woman found personal pictures of herself appearing on her MySpace page that continued even after she changed her password. It turns out that Mr Kuyrcharski had access to the email account that setup the account – having helped her create it a couple of years ago. He's obviously a very current and on the pulse kind of guy.

myspace
This is what MySpace still looks like right? I wouldn't know, haven't been there in years. Source: JimWhimpey

After a police investigation linked him to the activity, he was charged and convicted of “knowingly interrupting” an electronic communication, harassment and “unlawful use of encryption,” to commit the crime. Wired reports that the man appealed, getting the encryption ruling overturned, but it upheld the harassment conviction.

Ultimately he won't get much more than a slap on the wrist as none of the harassment involved a minor, death threats or any long-term, repeated persecution. In those instances, the conviction can become a felony crime, but that shouldn't be the case here.

KitGuru Says: If this can happen with MySpace, you can bet it can happen with Facebook and Twitter too. Don't hijack people's accounts, it's dumb – although occasionally funny. 

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China hijacks web traffic, fears of cyberweapon emerge https://www.kitguru.net/channel/yong-lei/china-hijacks-web-traffic-fears-of-cyberweapon-emerge/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/yong-lei/china-hijacks-web-traffic-fears-of-cyberweapon-emerge/#respond Thu, 18 Nov 2010 08:49:38 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=23840 Disturbing news is circulating that a state owned Chinese telecommunications firm rerouted around 15percent of all web traffic through its own servers, during a limited period on April 8. This report, also documented by news agencies in the UK such as The Telegraph has raised fresh concerns that sensitive information may have been taken from …

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Disturbing news is circulating that a state owned Chinese telecommunications firm rerouted around 15percent of all web traffic through its own servers, during a limited period on April 8.

This report, also documented by news agencies in the UK such as The Telegraph has raised fresh concerns that sensitive information may have been taken from this period. There is also a theory that china could be testing a cyberweapon which could be used in times of war to disrupt net traffic.

The hijacked traffic included email exhanges from websites of the US Senate, the Department Of Defense and others, including NASA.

Nasa HQ - email may have been compromised by China

Chinese engineering managers have stated that this rerouting was purely accidental, but the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission's annual report has listed this as a possible ‘malicious' incident.

“Evidence related to this incident does not clearly indicate whether it was perpetrated intentionally and, if so, to what ends, However, computer security researchers have noted that the capability could enable severe malicious activities.”

This was further backed up by Larry Wortzel, a member of the commission who issued the following statement “We don't know what was done with the data when they got it. When I see things like this happen, I ask, who might be interested with all the communications traffic from the entire Department of Defense and federal government? It's probably not a graduate student at Shanghai University. What could you do if you had the stream of email traffic for 18 minutes to and from the US Joint Chiefs of Staff? Most importantly you would get the internet addresses of everybody that communicated.”

KitGuru says: We are sure that the US powers that be have already been investigating this for months now.

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