The online storage and productivity service Evernote said that it does not believe that the hack of its network that exposed information on 50 million users relied on an exploit of a Java vulnerability, as did recent attacks on Twitter and Facebook. In an e-mail response to questions from The Security Ledger about the hack, Ronda Scott, an Evernote spokeswoman, said that the firm does not believe that the hack used the Java exploit attributed to the other attacks, but said it was still investigating the incident. “It’s premature for us to comment on the methods used, the specific systems affected and/or origin and motivation,” she wrote. She said the company first became aware of the “unusual and potentially malicious” activity within its online service on February 28 and began notifying Evernote users of the need to reset their password the next day, March 1st. Scott maintained that Evernote hasn’t […]
Hacks & Hackers
EverNote Latest Site Hacked In Coordinated Attack
The online personal and business productivity service Evernote.com said on Saturday that it is the victim of a hack that exposed encrypted user password information, forcing password resets across a broad swath of the service’s 50 million registered users. The Redwood City, California-based firm revealed in a blog post that its internal security team discovered “suspicious activity on the Evernote network” that “appears to have been a coordinated attempt to access secure areas of the Evernote Service.” The company said it sent password reset messages to its users as a “precaution” but didn’t believe that stored information in users’ accounts or payment information had been exposed. The hack is just the latest of a prominent online firm. In recent weeks, Twitter, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft have all reported compromises of their internal networks. Those intrusions were linked to attacks aimed at developers and relied on exploits of previously unknown “zero day” […]
Craigslist Founder Has Twitter Account Hacked
Craig Newmark, the founder of the massively popular online bulletin board Craigslist, had his Twitter account compromised and used to distribute malicious links, according to a post on Thursday. Newmark, the 60 year-old software developer who launched Craigslist as an online information sharing site in the 1990s, posted three messages through his Twitter account late Thursday after he received messages from some of his 63,000 followers that they were receiving spam messages via Twitter Direct Messages. “Twitter account compromised? Just received this from you: “Have you seen this pic of you? lol,” wrote follower Tristan Justras (@tristanjutras). The post included a shortened link. Newmark’s first post, around 3:00pm Pacific Time Thursday, suggested he initially believed that the problems were due to his Twitter client. “Folks, thanks! I see the problem now, and I’m guessing it has to do with Twitter user tokens from other Twitter clients I’ve used,” Newmark wrote. […]
FTC Forum Will Tackle Mobile Device Threats
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is continuing to focus its energies on protecting the growing number of consumers using smart phones and other mobile devices. Next up: a public forum to discuss threats to mobile devices. The FTC announced the one-day public forum on Friday and said it hopes to use the event to address problems like “malware, viruses and similar threats facing users of smartphones and other mobile technologies.” The event will take place on June 4th at the FTC’s offices on New Jersey Avenue NW in Washington, D.C. The public forum is just the latest effort by the nation’s leading watchdog to reign in a free-wheeling mobile application marketplace, and put stronger consumer and privacy protections in place. Earlier this month, the agency released a Staff Report that called on mobile OS, mobile device and mobile application firms to provide clearer guidelines to consumers about how their information […]
Obama Lays Down The Law On Cyber Espionage
The Obama Administration on Wednesday released a report detailing new Administration measures to protect U.S. trade secrets and intellectual property. The report: “Administration Strategy on Mitigating the Theft of U.S. Trade Secrets” (PDF) establishes a new foundation for cooperation between the U.S. government and the private sector. It comes just days after a bombshell, 60-page report by the security firm Mandiant that described the activities of “APT1” – a hacking group that Mandiant claims is actually a cyber warfare unit of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA). In a post on the Whitehouse blog, the Administration said the Strategy is a continuation of Obama Administration policy to protect U.S. companies from the theft of trade secrets. Under the new Strategy, the Administration will take a “whole government” approach, using diplomatic pressure via the State Department, coordinated, international legal pressure through the Department of Justice and FBI. The U.S. will tap the […]
