As upsetting on a personal level as the whole hacking of Sony’s Playstation Network might have been it pales in comparison to the news from Reuters that government weapons contractor Lockheed-Martin has been hacked.

We don’t have any word that any data was compromised and Lockheed-Martin is keeping pretty closed mouth on the report but according to Reuters’ the attack looks to be a direct result of a previously confirmed security breach at EMC; which is the company that provides Lockheed-Martin’s SecurID tokens.

During the attack on EMC this past March, hackers were apparently able to steal information which allowed them to produce their own passcodes. This breach was followed by a string of phishing and malware attacks designed to match tokens to users, and thus circumvent the system.

As of yet, the motivations behind the attacks remain unknown. It should be noted that while the report specifically mentions Lockheed-Martin, many other organizations employee the SecurID system and are potential targets. One possibly motivation behind the attacks could be espionage; Lockheed-Martin, for instance, is developing both the F-35 Lightning II and the F-22, the two newest fighter jets in the U.S. fleet. Some commentators have already speculated that similar attacks in previous years may have contributed to the development of China’s J-20 stealth jet.

via Geekosystem

Lockheed-Martin the weapons maker – Hacked! is a post from: The Inquisitr

It seems Gawker writers may have poked the hornet’s nest a few too many times this year, as a group of shadowy internet pranksters have cracked the fuck out of all of Gawker Media’s web properties to retaliate for the snarky blog’s “arrogance.”

Do you use a “life password” and comment on the Gawker site? It seems many Gawker slash Twitter users may have, resulting in a flood of spam posts about Acai berries so prolific, it was originally thought to be a worm that was “spreading like wildfire.” The group taking responsibility for the hack hasn’t officially said any of Gawker’s 4chan baiting posts were the catalyst, but Gawker hasn’t been shy with the number of insults levied at the notorious imageboard.

So what do you need to know about the massive Gawker hack?

Signs of a breach were there, but no one noticed it for what it was and Gawker peeps wrote it off right away. Says TNW:

Back in November, (Nick) Denton was told by a co-worker that he was spotted logged in to the Campfire backend, this was not him. Instead of safeguarding his credentials, Denton is convinced by other staff members that it was his own fault and doesn’t change his passwords, something he may later regret.

Gawker says Twitter accounts weren’t compromised, but the influx of cross-user spam suggests otherwise. Whether you used the same password or something else was afoot, check your Twitter account for unauthorized tweets, and consider changing your password just in case.

This is probably like the herpes of database breaches. Information that’s been made available reveals a still-shockingly weak number of passwords used for the site, thousands of which were the word “password.” While your Gawker commenting account getting hacked isn’t the be all and end all of internet embarrassments, many of the users affected by the breach probably use the same password/email combo across the web.

This particular hack will probably keep on giving long after it’s no longer newsworthy. Furthermore, many of the hacked and posted accounts were linked to federal work email addresses, NASA, large banks and other massive entities where we can only hope those using them practice a modicum of password diversification.

Well, I’m sick of this bullshit, how can I delete my Gawker commenter account? Not currently an option, so if you’re among those who have been affected by the breach, tough titties, sayeth Gawker.

Also, Gawker writers thought the idea of 4chan or a similar entity coming after them was pretty funny. Gnosis, the group who say they carried out the attack, released a chat log among Gawker writers where they expressed a desire for 4chan to “bring it on.” It would appear, in fact, it has already been brought:

rian M

The headeline of your post should be “Suck on This, 4Chan”

Maureen O.
I like the call to make today Everybody Write About 4chan Day

Hamilton N.
Nick Denton Says Bring It On 4Chan, Right to My Home Address (After The Jump)

Ryan T.
We Are Not Scared of 4chan Here at 210 Elizabeth St NY NY 10012

Richard L.
don’t forget Fourth Floor

Ryan T.
Right! And Brian’s headcut illustration

Ryan T.
As the lead image

Brian M.
Oh, 4Chan does not want to mess with me once I wind my neck up at them

Brian M.
#giirrrrrrlllllllll

Maureen O.
hey guess what, 4chan has already declared gawker the winner of the 4chan war! we won!

Richard L.
VICTORY

Richard L.
what’d they say?

Jim N.
USA! USA!

Richard L.
MR. OBAMA, TEAR DOWN THAT MOSQUE!

Maureen O.
they say that this day will go down in history as the day 4chan failed.

Richard L.
that’s terrific.

Also? Hamilton Nolan and Richard Lawson called commenters “peasants” as news of the breach began spreading yesterday. Pic above, but the attitude displayed in the chat (“oh, well. unimportant.”) has not garnered Gawker any sympathy since the incident became public knowledge.

One last thing? Fleshbot was part of the data dump, so that should be interesting.

Gawker Media hack about as bad as it could possibly be is a post from: The Inquisitr

T-Mobile confirmed that some information included in the original post to the Full Disclosure mailing list is accurate, but insisted that there was no breach of confidential data. From T-Mobile’s statement on the matter:

Regarding the recent claim on a Web site, we’ve identified the document from which information was copied, and believe possession of this alone is not enough to cause harm to our customers. We continue to investigate the matter, and have taken additional precautionary measures to further ensure our customers’ information and our systems are protected. At this moment, we are unable to disclose additional information in order to protect the integrity of the investigation, but customers can be assured if there is any evidence that customer information has been compromised, we would inform those affected as quickly as possible.

While the company insists that customer data is safe, the nebulous nature of the statements made don’t exactly come across as reassuring. If some data is accurate, what kind of data is it? And how was it obtained? Speculation includes leaking of confidential documents and “dumpster diving” for improperly disposed of consumer data.

Details on how the data may or may not have been obtained are still under wraps pending investigation, but it seems more information is needed from T-Mobile before subscribers can rest assured.

Update: T-Mobile confirms/denies breach is a post from: The Inquisitr

T-Mobile is investigating unconfirmed claims made this weekend to the Full Disclosure mailing list by hackers bragging that they’ve infiltrated company servers.

Full Disclosure is an unmoderated forum that exists to notify people of possible security vulnerabilities. The post, reading a bit like a Craigslist ad, gives scant details of the alleged breach but offers information to the highest bidder.

Like Checkpoint[,] Tmobile has been owned for some time. We have everything, their databases, confidental documents, scripts and programs from their servers, financial documents up to 2009.

We already contacted with their competitors and they didn’t show interest in buying their data -probably because the mails got to the wrong people- so now we are offering them for the highest bidder.

Please only serious offers, don’t waste our time.

Whether T-Mobile has indeed been pwned remains to be seen- but posters claiming to be former T-Mobile employees appear to be corroborating formats as matching those they worked with while in the company’s employ. Skeptics say that a large-scale attack involving such a massive amount of data would be likely better executed, however, as a buyer for the alleged data has not been found. Now that T-Mobile is aware of a potential breach, the value of any stolen data is considerably reduced.

In a statement, T-Mobile had this to say:

“Regarding the recent claim, we are fully investigating the matter. As is our standard practice, if there is any evidence that customer information has been compromised, we would inform those affected as soon as possible.”

Hackers claim T-mobile data breach, with info available to the highest bidder is a post from: The Inquisitr

Skype President Josh Silverman points out that all communications companies in China are required to abide by government regulations, which “include the requirement to monitor and block instant messages containing certain words deemed ‘offensive’ by the Chinese authorities.” He also says, however, that Skype had been under the impression that Tom was only deleting messages found to be “offensive,” and not storing them.

“We are now inquiring with Tom to find out why the protocol changed,” he says.

As far as the security breach itself, Silverman confirms that Skype addressed the issue with Tom immediately after learning of it, and that the breach has been fixed. He also notes that only instant messaging conversations were affected, not standard Skype voice-based communications.

“Skype-to-Skype communications are, and always have been, completely secure and private,” he promises.

The promise isn’t reassuring enough to many in China, with some even worrying that those whose conversations were captured could have been imprisoned or “had their lives ruined in various ways” because of the issues.

“This is a big blow to Skype’s credibility, despite the fact that Skype executives are downplaying it as not such a big deal,” Hong Kong University Internet expert Rebecca MacKinnon tells Reuters.

Skype Responds To Security Breach — But Is It Enough? is a post from: The Inquisitr