Hackers gain access to I-S-U computer system

Someone hacked into an Iowa State University computer system that stored confidential information of athletic donors and employees of the school -- but it's not believed the hackers wanted any of that info. Maury Hope of the I-S-U Information Technology Services department says the system holds information including credit card numbers of donors and Social Security numbers for some employees.

He says some of the information was encrypted, but some wasn't and he says there's the potential the hacker could've gotten the information. But, he says it doesn't appear that getting the sensitive information was their motive. Hope says it appears that the hacker who wanted a place to store pirated movies.

Hope says many of the intrusions they find the hacker is not looking for personal information, they're instead looking for a computer system with a large bandwidth and large amount of storage to store movies. He says the university's system fits the criteria for bandwidth and storage and puts it on the hacker's target list. While they don't believe the hacker sought personal information -- Hope says the university is contacting everyone who has information on the computer.

Hope says they're in the process of sending out e-mails, and notifying people through their department supervisors and also plan some mailings. Hope says fighting off the Hackers is a constant battle. He says the computers did have the latest updates of software to ward off hackers, but he says there are always new ways that develop for someone to illegally tap into a system. He says it is frustrating to have the system breached.

Hope says it takes time and effort and resources to remediate the intrusion. He says in most cases the intruder isn't trying to get sensitive information, but Hope says they still have to inform everyone when something like this happens. Hope says the system holds information for about 25-hundred athletic donors and three-thousand university employees

Hacker tries sell Excel flaw on eBay

A security researcher, who seems to support the Linux operating system, has tried to sell a genuine flaw in Microsoft’s Excel spreadsheet program on eBay.

Details of the flaw were listed on eBay for an opening price of just $.01 but the item was bid up to almost $60 before eBay pulled it from the system.

Microsoft has confirmed that the flaw is genuine and the unknown seller claimed on the listing that they had informed Microsoft of the vulnerability prior to trying to sell it.

The eBay seller, only known as “fearwall”, claimed the flaw allowed an attacker to remotely take over a user’s system. They also offered a 10% discount to any Microsoft employee who bid, when using the special offer code of “LINUXRULZ”.

The seller is now facing action by both eBay and Microsoft. Microsoft says the bug has so far not been exploited by attackers. It is considering issuing a patch for the vulnerability.

Hacker Knocks Russia Today Off the Air

source: The Moscow Times
Less than two days after going on the air, Kremlin-funded news channel Russia Today was wiped off the world's television screens Monday in an attack blamed on a hacker.

Viewers saw the English-language channel periodically freeze and then vanish in what Russia Today editor Margarita Simonyan said was an "invasion of the computer system."

The invasion "led to viruses, which led to breakdowns in transmission," she said, Interfax reported.

The attack is the latest setback for the channel, which is designed to show the world a Russian perspective on news and was originally scheduled to go on the air in September.

Critics and media have expressed doubts as to how objective Russia Today will be, saying it is simply a propaganda machine for the government. Simonyan, a former Kremlin correspondent for Rossia state television, has insisted that the channel will offer "objective and interesting" reporting.

Simonyan did not say when the channel would go back on air or who might be behind the virus attack. "The channel will suspend broadcasting until technical faults have been fixed," Russia Today said in a statement.

The glitch prompted news site Gazeta.ru to dub the channel "Russia Yesterday." The satellite channel is broadcast in Moscow on the NTV-Plus cable system.