Anonymous issues guide to hacking Trump’s beloved Android phone, and it’s easier than you might think

By tech2 News Staff /  31 Jan 2017 , 16:46

US President Donald Trump is yet to give up his beloved Samsung Galaxy S3, his tweet machine. We’re sure that the S3 is causing sleepless nights for the CIA and they’re desperately trying to get him to give it up.

Why? The Samsung Galaxy S3 is an ancient device by today’s standards, and, horror of horrors, it only supports Android 4.4. We’re on version 7.1.1 now.

The most ‘powerful’ man in the world is using a phone that is out of date and has received no security updates for at least two years. Security experts are already worried that the phone will be used to spy on Trump and to make matters worse, hacker collective Anonymous has just issued a simple guide to hacking Trump’s phone. A guide that literally anyone can follow.

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Anonymous @YourAnonNews

Trump refuses to use another smartphone other than the Galaxy S3. How you could hack and get access to his phone:

3:25 PM - 27 Jan 2017

 
•  995995 Retweets
 
•  1,2051,205 likes

As Anonymous so graciously points out, hacking Trump’s S3 is child’s play; the type of project they would “assign as homework to an advanced undergraduate class.”

The stagefright reference alludes to a famous group of Android bugs that allowed hackers to take full control of a phone with nothing more than a malicious MMS. The targeted user doesn’t even need to do anything for the bug to take effect. The moment the MMS is downloaded, the phone is compromised.

A hacker only needs a phone number to make it work.

Ransomware: Over 27,000 databases managed by MongoDB held to ransom; 99,000 still vulnerable

Image: Reuters

By tech2 News Staff /  09 Jan 2017 , 13:27

Tens of thousands of online databases have been breached by what appears to be a single hacker or group of hackers. The databases in question appear to be managed by MongoDB, a database application.

A hacker or hackers going by the handle Harak1r1 has spent the last week or more gaining access to MongoDB-based databases and then threatening to either delete or encrypt the entire database. In exchange, Harak1r1 has demanded money in the form of BitCoin (0.2 BTC to be exact).

@sawaba @SteveD3 @LawrenceHecht @achillean @akmalchaudhri That is why I am looking at different sources like Zoomeye (99,491 candidates) pic.twitter.com/VApFdRbF7g

— Victor Gevers (@0xDUDE) January 5, 2017

Latest reports suggest that over 27,000 databases (up from around 10,000 just a few hours ago) have so far been breached and, as ArsTechnica points out, 99,000 are vulnerable. The number of hackers/groups has gone up to at least 15, reports The Register. The ransom for the databases has also gone up to 1BTC (around Rs 61,000).

The problem appears to be restricted to MongoDB-based databases, but doesn’t seem to be a vulnerability in the application itself. The application needs to be configured properly for maximum security and it looks like misconfigured databases are the reason for this sudden spurt in breaches.

MongoDB has published a blog post explaining the situation, how you can prevent it and steps to check the integrity of your data.

If you remember the recent hacks in India by hacker group calling itself Legion, the group claimed to have compromised databases belonging to banking institutions, government email servers and the databases of Apollo hospitals.

Databases are the ledgers of the internet. If they’re compromised, a great deal of personal information will be at risk.

Hacker Who Helped ISIS to Build 'Hit List' Of US Military

A computer hacker who allegedly helped the terrorist organization ISIS by handing over data for 1,351 US government and military personnel has been sentenced to 20 years in a U.S. prison.

Ardit Ferizi, aka Th3Dir3ctorY, from Kosovo was sentenced in federal court in Alexandria, for "providing material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and accessing a protected computer without authorization and obtaining information in order to provide material support to ISIL," the Department of Justice announced on Friday.

The 21-year-old ISIS-linked hacker obtained the data by hacking into the US web hosting company's servers on June 13, 2015.

Ferizi then filtered out over 1,300 US military and government employees' information from the stolen data and then handed them over to Junaid Hussain, according to court filings [PDF].

The stolen data contains personally identifiable information (PII), which includes names, email addresses, passwords, locations and phone numbers of US military service members and government workers.

Junaid Hussain, who was a British jihadi and believed to be the then leader and creator of a group of ISIS hackers called the Islamic State Hacking Division (ISHD), posted the names and personal data of 100 US service member's families online.

The Hussain's statements included:

"We are in your emails and computer systems, watching and recording your every move, we have your names and addresses, we are in your emails and social media accounts, we are extracting confidential data and passing on your personal information to the soldiers of the Khilafah, who soon with the permission of Allah will strike at your necks in your own lands!"

Hussain, who was also known as Abu Hussain Al-Britani and used the moniker TriCk, was later killed in a US drone strike in Syria in August last year.

The US authorities also tracked down Ferizi to Malaysia, where he was arrested by the local authorities on October 6, 2015, while trying to catch a flight back to Kosovo.

Before helping ISIS, Ferizi had served as an alleged leader of the Kosova Hacker's Security (KHS) hacking group and hacked into a number of government sites belonging to the Presidency of Macedonia, the Greek Ministry of Education, the Greek Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace (DAMT), Lifelong Learning and Religion. He also stole data from IBM and Greek mobile telecoms firm OTE.

Ferizi was pleaded guilty on June 15, 2016, and faced a sentence of up to 35 years in prison, but the sentence was reduced to a maximum of 25 years after agreeing to plead guilty. However, defense lawyers said he meant no real harm and asked for a six-year sentence