Headlines for Hacks and Cracks

Suspect in $9 Million RBS WorldPay Hack Extradited to U.S.

One of the alleged ringleaders behind the 2008 hack of RBS WorldPay has been extradited to the U.S., where he was arraigned Friday in the Northern District of Georgia on charges that he helped coordinate the global $9.5 million bank card heist. Sergei Tsurikov, 26, of Tallinn, Estonia, has been charged ...

Researcher Demonstrates ATM ‘Jackpotting’ at Black Hat Conference

LAS VEGAS — In a city filled with slot machines spilling jackpots, it was a “jackpotted” ATM machine that got the most attention Wednesday at the Black Hat security conference, when researcher Barnaby Jack demonstrated two suave hacks against automated teller machines that allowed him to program them to spew ...

Ukrainian Carding King ‘Maksik’ Was Lured to Arrest

A Ukrainian carder who earned more than $11 million selling credit and debit card data stolen from top U.S. retailers was lured to a meeting in Turkey in 2007 where he was arrested by local authorities, according to a new report released Wednesday. Maksym Yastremskiy, alleged to be the underground carding ...

U.S. Declares iPhone Jailbreaking Legal, Over Apple’s Objections

Federal regulators lifted a cloud of uncertainty Monday when they announced it was lawful to hack or “jailbreak” an iPhone. Jailbreaking is hacking the phone’s OS to allow consumers to run any app on the phone they choose, including applications not authorized by Apple. The Electronic Frontier Foundation asked the U.S. Copyright ...

FBI Raids ‘Electronik Tribulation Army’ Over Witness Intimidation

FBI agents have raided the homes of three alleged members of a hacker gang that harassed a security expert who helped put the group’s leader in jail, according to a recently unsealed search warrant affidavit. Jesse William McGraw, aka “GhostExodus,” pleaded guilty in May to computer-tampering charges for putting malware on ...

Is Breaking CAPTCHA a Crime?

Prosecutors in a New Jersey ticket scalping case are pushing the envelope on the federal computer hacking law, setting a precedent that could make it a felony to violate a website’s terms-of-service and fool a CAPTCHA, according to electronic civil rights groups intervening in the case. At issue is a four-month-old criminal ...

Accused Hacker Who Balked at 2-Year Prison Deal Now Faces Decades

An alleged hacker who declined a 2-year plea deal is facing decades behind bars after federal authorities Thursday added multiple charges, including possession and distribution of child pornography. Barry Ardolf, 45, of Blaine, Minnesota, had rejected a plea deal in connection to charges accusing him of sending Vice President Joe Biden ...

Twitter Settles with FTC Over ‘Happiness’ Breach

Twitter has agreed to implement a new security program and submit to a security audit from a third party as part of a settlement agreement with the Federal Trade Commission over breaches the micro-blogging service experienced in 2009 that put its customers’ privacy at risk. One of the breaches allowed hackers ...

Feds Say Man E-mailed Biden ‘I’m Going to Kill You!’

With neighbors like this, who needs enemies? A Minnesota man accused of hacking into his neighbor’s computer and sending a threatening e-mail to Vice President Joe Biden has turned down a two-year plea deal and is negotiating for less, the defendant’s attorney said Monday. Barry Ardolf, a Minnesota computer technician, is accused ...

Wikileaks Was Launched With Documents Intercepted From Tor

Wikileaks, the controversial whistleblowing site that exposes secrets of governments and corporations, bootstrapped itself with a cache of documents obtained through an internet eavesdropping operation by one of its activists, according to a new profile of the organization’s founder. More than a million documents were siphoned by the activist as they ...