White Hackers

It can sometimes be difficult to balance out ease of use with security. Software companies and online services can be under pressure to make the user experience as smooth as possible, even for potentially risky services like password resets, which saves the company money on tech support and help costs. Unfortunately, rounding off corners can also create gaps in security. A security hole was found in  Skype ‘s password reset procedure that could have allowed anyone who knows your email address to “hack” into your Skype account, and only gained attention after the vulnerability was posted on  Reddit . The issue was caused by a flaw in Skype’s password reset scheme, which allows password reset tokens to be activated through Skype instead of through the original account email. All you needed to do was sign up for a new Skype account with the victim’s email address–despite the notification that the email is already associated with a Skype account, log in to Skype, and re...

  A former information technology director of a Tampa advertising firm is facing jail time after some unauthorized "facetime" with a couple of female co-workers. Thursday, Christopher Channer pleaded guilty to federal charges of intercepting communications after the FBI determined that back in 2010, he tapped into webcams of female employees of the Atlanta office of 22squared from his Tampa office without their knowledge. They say he gained access through a program on the computers that was designed to track down stolen laptops. Channer, who according to a plea agreement captured more than 1200 images of the woman, including the exposed breast of one woman, is facing five years in prison. Channer was an experienced IT director tapping into pre-loaded software on company owned computers, but the experts say you don't need that kind of experience to hack a webcam. "It doesn't take a genius to be able to figure out how to get into someon...

Dan Petrovic has explained how he  hijacked a few pages in Google  to show his copied version over the original version of the page. For example, he was able to confuse Google into thinking a page on MarketBizz should really show on dejanseo.com.au instead of on marketbizz.nl. How did he do it? He simply copied the full page, source code and everything and put it on a new URL on his site. He linked to the page and gave it a +1 and the result worked days later. He is a picture of Google’s search results for the page using an info command and also searching for the title of the page: He did the same thing on three other domains with varied levels of success. We emailed Google last week for a comment but have yet to hear back. In some cases, using a rel=canonical seemed to prevent it from hijacking the result fully but not in all cases. There also seems to be a case where using the authorship might be prevent this as well. Dan Petrovic was even able to hijack t...

You probably own a personal Wi-Fi hotspot at home. Having several devices under one roof seems like a good reason to convert your broadband internet into a wireless connection. Some internet providers in your area might even have paid Wi-Fi hotspots for homes and establishments. Since anyone can connect to your  Wi-Fi network , the next best idea is to protect it with a WPA password. A WPA password prevents freeloaders from using your internet and deal with more pressing issues such as privacy and hacking. However, this is not a full-proof method. Securing your Wi-Fi network no longer guarantees safety from prying eyes; let alone people who want to get free internet. People can easily crack your network’s password with the aid of certain tools. In the early part of this article, we will teach you how to hack your own WPA-secured network with a tool called Reaver. Later on, we will explain how to protect your home network from Reaver attacks. Note : Hacking of other ...