Hacking CCTV Cameras to Launch DDoS attacks

The connected devices, better known as the Internet of Things, have been attracting the significant interest of, not only users but also cyber criminals that are turning them into weapons for cyber war. Due to the insecure implementation of Internet-connected embedded devices, they are routinely being hacked and used in cyber attacks. We have seen Smart TVs and Refrigerator sending out millions of malicious spam emails; we have also seen printers and set-top-boxes mining Bitcoins. And Now… Cyber crooks have targeted innocent looking CCTV cameras – common Internet-of-Things (IoT) device – to launch Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks. Also Read: 100,000 Refrigerators and other home appliances hacked to perform cyber attack. Yes, Surveillance cameras in shopping malls are being targeted to form a large botnet that can blow large websites off the Internet by launching crippling Distributed Denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. THE CAUSE The crooks made this possible because CCTV camera operators are taking a Lax approach to security and their failure to change default passwords on the devices. Security researchers from Imperva's Incapsula team first warned about closed-circuit television (CCTV) botnet attacks in March 2014. However, according to a recent blog post published by Imperva, the DDoS attack now peaked at 20,000 requests per second and originated from nearly 900 CCTV cameras running embedded versions of Linux and the BusyBox toolkit. MALWARE INFECTED CCTVs When analyzing one of the compromised cameras located in a shopping center just five minutes from the team's office, the researchers found that the camera was infected with a variant of a known malware program known as… Bashlite, or Lightaidra or GayFgt, specially designed for ARM versions of Linux. Also Read: Linux Worm targets Internet-enabled Home appliances to Mine Cryptocurrencies. The most common attack consisted of HTTP GET request floods originating from around 900 CCTV cameras spread around the world. THE TARGETS The target of the DDoS attack was a rarely-used asset of a large cloud service, serving millions of users worldwide. However, Imperva did not name the firm targeted. Notably, all of the compromised cameras monitored by the firm were logged from multiple locations in almost every case, suggesting that several different hackers were abusing the weakness of unsecured CCTV cameras. Top targeted countries for CCTV botnets around the world include India, China, Iran, Indonesia, US, and Thailand. Cyber Attacks Leveraging Internet of Things Internet connected smart devices including traffic and surveillance cameras, street lights, meters, smart pipes, traffic lights, and sensors, are easier to implement, but are also easier to hack due to lack of stringent security measures. Also Read: Most Vulnerable Smart Cities to Cyber Attack on Internet of Things (IoT). The analysis done by Imperva is to raise awareness about the importance of basic security practices to secure connected devices. Because the most obvious reason for cyber attacks on internet connected devices is that the devices are rushed to market, without proper considering the device's security by design.

Car Hacking ? Scary, But Now it’s REALITY!

Next time you find yourself hooked up behind the wheel, make sure that your car is actually in your control. Hackers are now able to break into hundreds of thousands of vehicles on the road. Car hacking is a hot topic today and until now it was performed only while researchers were hard-wired into a car's electrical system. However, the most recent hack performed by two computer hackers, who have spent years developing ways to crack the digital safeguards of Internet-connected vehicles, is rather more Disturbing. Researchers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek recently demonstrated their abilities to control a Jeep Cherokee remotely from miles away by exploiting the car's entertainment system that was connected to the mobile data network. The duo was able to move laterally into other electronic parts of the vehicle, like the air conditioning, transmission, and even the car's steering controls. 1.4 Million Car Models Vulnerable Not just Jeep Cherokee, but the rest of the 14 Fiat Chrysler car models were found to be vulnerable to the hackers' exploit. Following this car hacking incident, Fiat Chrysler launched a safety recall of 1.4 Million recent car models that could be remotely exploited and controlled by hackers. Now let's have a look on affected vehicles' Models: 2013-2015 MY Dodge Viper specialty vehicles 2013-2015 Ram 1500, 2500 and 3500 pickups 2013-2015 Ram 3500, 4500, 5500 Chassis Cabs 2014-2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee and Cherokee SUVs 2014-2015 Dodge Durango SUVs 2015 MY Chrysler 200, Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger sedans 2015 Dodge Challenger Sports coupes Money could be Recovered, Not the Lives Shortly after Fiat Chrysler announced the recall, Miller raised a question, "I wonder what is cheaper, designing secure cars or doing recalls?" The same question raised in my mind too. This safety recall of 1.4 Million cars would undoubtedly have cost the company far expensive than to design its cars secure against the online threats. The car manufacturers need to understand this fact that car hacking is worse than any major bank theft. The money could be recovered, but not the Lives. The Company said neither it was "aware of any injuries related to software exploitation," nor it was "aware of any related complaints, warranty claims or accidents." "The recall aligns with an ongoing software distribution that insulates connected vehicles from remote manipulation, which, if unauthorized, constitutes the criminal action," the company said in a statement. Miller and Valasek are planning to reveal more information about their findings at the Def Con conference next month. This latest round of car hacking incident considerably raises the concerns over internet-connected vehicles.

Hackers Find A Way To Disable Car Airbags System

Car Hacking is a hot topic today. Today, many automobiles companies are offering vehicles that run on the mostly drive-by-wire system, which means that a majority of car's functions are electronically controlled, from instrument cluster to steering, brakes, and accelerator. No doubt these auto-control systems makes your driving experience better, but at the same time they also increase the risk of getting hacked. Previously researchers demonstrated how hackers can remotely hijack your car to control its steering, brakes and transmission. And Now… According to a team of security researchers, Hackers can successfully disable car's airbags – as well as other functions – by exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in third-party software that is commonly used by car mechanics.

Now you can put videos as your profile picture in Facebook Social networking giant Facebook has allowed users to put up small videos as their profile pictures as part of a set of new mobile-friendly updates. Facebook, which has about 1.49 billion users globally, has started testing these features to a small number of iPhone users in the UK and California and will roll them out to more people soon, it said in a blog. Facebook has over 125 million users in India -- its second largest userbase after the US. "The world has changed since we first introduced profiles in 2004. On News Feed and profiles, we're seeing people create and view more videos than ever before. Today we're starting to test the next step in an obvious evolution of profiles: profile videos," Facebook Product Managers Aigerim Shorman and Tony Hsieh wrote. Users will be able to film a short, looping video clip that will play for anyone who visits their profile, the blog said. The social networking firm said people visit Facebook profiles more than four billion times per day. Along with the new profile features, Facebook has also made design changes to mobile profile, aimed at improving the profile layout and better present information about the user in a more visually engaging way. "We're moving your profile picture and video to literally put you front-and-centre on your profile. Profile pictures are now centered, and we've made them bigger to give you more real estate to show off what you can do with our new creative tools," the blog said. The US-based firm has also introduced easier control over what people see on the user's page with a customisable space at the top of their profile.

six teenagers arrested for using lizard

Six teenagers were recently arrested and later bailed on account of using the hacking tools of a certain Lizard Squad to breach softwares and websites, which included gaming companies, school servers and even newspapers. Learn on Udemy Today! The teenagers, aged between 15 to 18 and all male, were arrested during an operation by the UK police in search of hackers using the Lizard Stresser tool that allows the user to send spam to system and facilitate the denial of service (ddos) attack, which makes the website unavailable to the real time visitors. In the past, such ddos attacks have caused both reputational and financial damage to services provided by big business giants like Sony to even government websites, while these attacks interrupt the smooth functioning for a time interval that starts from a few hours and can last till weeks. This tool was effectively used by the Lizard Squad in December 2014, to interrupt the online gaming services of Microsoft’s Xbox Live and Sony’s PlayStation Network. The tool is available in the market and can acquiring it can make a normal person into a potential hacker who can then select their targets according to their will. The UK police arrested the teenagers with the help of the National Crime Agency(NCA), while they were trying to pay anonymously for the tool using BitCoin. However, none of the six teenagers have been confirmed to be a member of the Lizard Squad. Tony Adams of NCA’s cybercrime unit, explained that by a small amount, a person can acquire the Lizard Stresser that can ruin big businesses and make access to information a deliria for the public. He further added that the arrest was made under an operation named ‘Vivarium’, and that the teenagers were operating from all across UK. A member of Lizard Squad was arrested in Twickenham in December for their involvement in cyber attacks, while a further member was arrested in May for pranking armed police. However, the hacking group’s tool remains available, despite its site being hacked revealing customers’ details.

Lizard Squad disrupt National Crime Agency website

The website of National Crime Agency (NCA), a national law enforcement agency in the United Kingdom which replaced the Serious Organised Crime Agency, was temporarily down on Tuesday morning by attackers. According to a news report published in The Guardian, the attackers did this as a revenge for arrests made last week. Four days ago before the attack, six teenagers were released on bail on suspicion of using hacking group Lizard Squad’s cyber-attack tool to target websites and services. They arrests were in an operation codenamed Vivarium, coordinated by the NCA and involving officers from several police forces. Those who were arrested: an 18-year-old from Huddersfield; an 18-year-old from Manchester; a 16-year-old from Northampton; and a 15-year-old from Stockport, were arrested last week, while two other suspects, both 17, were arrested earlier this year, one from Cardiff and another from Northolt, north-west London. However, all of them have been bailed, while a further two 18-year-olds – one from Manchester and one from Milton Keynes – were interviewed under caution. “The six suspects are accused of using Lizard Stresser, a tool that bombards websites and services with bogus traffic, to attack a national newspaper, a school, gaming companies and a number of online retailers,” the report reads. The NCA spokesperson told The Guardian that the NCA website is an attractive target. Attacks on it are a fact of life. DDoS is a blunt form of attack which takes volume and not skill. It isn’t a security breach, and it doesn’t affect our operational capability. “At worst it is a temporary inconvenience to users of our website. We have a duty to balance the value of keeping our website accessible with the cost of doing so, especially in the face of a threat which can scale up endlessly. The measures we have in place at present mean that our site is generally up and running again within 30 minutes, though occasionally it can take longer. We think that’s proportionate,” he added.

Cyber of Emotion" hacks saudi websites

Many Saudi websites were hacked by a group that gave warnings that they would be making the attacks.The group known as “Cyber of Emotion” hacked more than 24 government websites over a period of two hours.

As reported by Al-Riyadh newspaper, the visitors to the website were directed to a page that read- “We do not want to harm the site. Had it been hacked by enemies, your personal information, emails and registration data would have been compromised."

The hackers said that their team had already warned their administrators that the websites are not properly secured and they should do something about it, but, the warnings were ignored, they claim.

The newspaper reported that the websites hacked included that of government hospitals, municipalities, education departments, social development offices and health departments.

The websites, however, started working properly a few hours after the attack.

Last year, the twitter account of Ministry of Justice was hacked by the same group.

Chinese Hackers targeting Indian institution to steal information

If we had to believe FireEye Inc, a US-based cyber security firm, hackers based in China are now targeting India to steal information about its border disputes and diplomatic intelligence.

The relationship between these two countries once broke in 1962 when both of them fought with each other over border issues. However, the situations between these countries have become a bit cool when Modi government came in power.

It is also said that the hackers were also active a month before the PM Modi visit to China.   

Now, it seems the cyber threat would make the thing worse as it was before.   

As per the company, an advanced campaign over the past four years has targeted more than 100 people, 70 percent of whom are in India. Earlier this year it identified a decade-long cyber espionage operation against businesses and governments in Southeast Asia.

“These attacks on India and its neighbouring countries reflect growing interest in its foreign affairs,” Bryce Boland, FireEye’s chief technology officer for Asia Pacific, said in the statement.

Along with the Indian institutions, the hackers also targeted Tibetan activists and others in Southeast Asia, in particular government, diplomatic, scientific and educational organizations, the security company said.

According to a news report published in The Financial Times, the hackers sent so-called spear phishing e-mails with Microsoft Word attachments appearing to relate to regional issues. Those messages contained a script which would create a “backdoor” in infected machines, allowing access to programs without detection by security measures.