Multiple major hacks - 2013.04.04 ...
FYI...
Japanese web portals hacked, up to 100,000 accounts compromised
- https://www.computerworld.com/s/arti...nts_comprimsed
April 4, 2013 - "Two of Japan's major Internet portals were hacked earlier this week, with one warning that as many as 100,000 user accounts were compromised, including financial details. Goo, a Japanese Internet portal owned by network operator NTT, said it had no choice but to lock 100,000 accounts to prevent illicit logins. The company said it had confirmed some of the accounts had been accessed by non-users. The accounts can include financial details such as credit card and bank account information, as well as personal details and email. The Web portal said it detected a series of brute-force attacks late Tuesday evening, with some accounts hit by over 30 login attempts per second. Goo said the attacks came from certain IP addresses, but didn't disclose any more information. Also on Tuesday evening, Yahoo Japan said it discovered a malicious program on company servers. The program had extracted user data for 1.27 million users, but was stopped before it leaked any of the information outside of the company. There was no immediate connection between the two incidents..."
Bitcoin storage service, Instawallet, suffers database attack
- https://www.computerworld.com/s/arti...atabase_attack
April 4, 2013 - "An online bitcoin storage service, Instawallet, said Wednesday it is accepting claims for stolen bitcoins after the company's database was fraudulently accessed. Instawallet didn't say in a notice* on its website how many bitcoins were stolen. The virtual currency has surged in value in the past couple of months due to rising interest. At one point Wednesday, a bitcoin sold for more than US$140. Bitcoin is a virtual currency that uses a peer-to-peer system to confirm transactions through public key cryptography. The method for confirming transactions is highly secure, but bitcoins can be stolen if hackers can gain access to the private key for a bitcoin that authorizes a transaction. Secure storage of bitcoins remains a challenge.
Instawallet said its service is "suspended indefinitely" until it can develop an alternative architecture. Instawallet apparently assigned an ostensibly secret URL that allowed users to access their accounts without a login or password. The company said in the next few days it will begin accepting claims for individual wallets. Wallets containing fewer than 50 bitcoins will be refunded. Fifty bitcoins was worth about US$6,000 on Thursday morning, according to Mt. Gox, the largest bitcoin exchange, based in Japan. Claims for online wallets holding more than 50 bitcoins "will be processed on a case by case and best efforts basis," Instawallet said. Other bitcoin exchanges and so-called online wallet services have suffered losses due to hackers. These have included BitFloor, Mt. Gox and Bitcoinica..."
* http://www.instawallet.org/
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- https://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=14706
4 April 2013
