Stories by Robert Vamosi

How Hacktivism Affects Us All

In December 2010, a group of nearly 3000 activists under the name "Operation Payback" <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/212701/operation_payback_wikileaks_avenged_by_hacktivists.html">launched online attacks</a> against PayPal, MasterCard, and Visa, briefly knocking the three financial services' sites offline and preventing consumers from accessing ATMs or online banking services. The activists retaliated against the three companies for severing ties with WikiLeaks, an online repository for whistleblower data that had recently included thousands of secret communications from the U.S. State Department and other world governmental agencies. Nine months later more than a dozen people--most between the ages of 19 and 24--were arrested in connection with these denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, even as new attacks were hitting corporate, military, and government sites worldwide.

Robert Vamosi | 07 Sep | Read more

Security Threat: Beware the Office Multifunction Printer

Cybercriminals are always looking for easy ways to break into your network, whether at work or at home. In a talk at this summer's <a href="https://www.defcon.org/html/defcon-19/dc-19-index.html">DefCon 19</a> conference, security researcher Deral Heiland demonstrated various ways to compromise <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/217825/cloud_printers_rain_on_security_parade.html">Internet-ready consumer-grade multifunction printers</a>. These include printers that can scan to a file, scan to email, and fax documents, and the vulnerabilities he found are similar across all vendors.

Robert Vamosi | 03 Sep | Read more

Keep your credit cards safe from skimmers

You're in a restaurant, enjoying a deep conversation. Peripherally, you see the waiter take your credit card and return a few minutes with a slip for you to sign. You think nothing of it until a few hours later when you receive a call from your bank: Someone is racking up serious debt on your credit card, mostly for electronics purchases. Is it you?

Robert Vamosi | 10 Dec | Read more

Is your PC bot-infested? here's how to tell

As fireworks boomed on the Fourth of July, thousands of compromised computers attacked U.S. government Web sites. A botnet of more than 200,000 computers, infected with a strain of 2004's MyDoom virus, attempted to deny legitimate access to sites such as those of the Federal Trade Commission and the White House. The assault was a bold reminder that botnets continue to be a massive problem.

Robert Vamosi | 25 Aug | Read more