Making Moves: Facebook Hires Hacker Responsible for PS3 Hack

Facebook has hired George Hotz, the young programmer whose hacking of the PlayStation 3 allegedly led to crippling attacks on Sony’s network.

Mr Hotz, 21 and also known online as “Geohot”, is not a hacker in the sense of illegally accessing private data, rather he is known for circumventing software controls on consumer hardware.

He first found fame in 2007 when he broke restrictions on Apple’s iPhone to allow it to work on any mobile network. And last year he gained further attention for “jailbreaking” the PlayStation 3 to allow it to run unauthorised software.

The act angered Sony, which sued Mr Hotz in January after he published details of the process online. The case was settled out of court, but Sony had stirred a hornet’s nest of hackers who supported Geohot.

Anonymous, the online “hacktivist” collective, targeted it with Denial of Service attacks, which the firm told the US Congress led to the theft of 77 million PlayStation network users’ personal details. The network was subsequently shut down for six weeks to improve security.

Sony said the hackers also left a calling card implicating Anonymous, but people claiming to speak for Anonymous have denied responsibility for network intrusion." read more - via The Telegraph

WikiLeaks Supporters take down MasterCard with Hacking

"Hacktivisits crashed the Website of international card scheme MasterCard for two hours today, in protest at the continuing blockade of funds for whistle-blowing outfit WikiLeaks.

Between noon and 2pm UK time, visitors to the MasterCard Website were timed out, indicating a massive distributed denial of service attack on the card group.

The broadside opens up a new front in the ongoing battle between underground hacking rings and large corporate interests.

The latest assault comes six months after hackers, loosely organised under the 'Anonymous' umbrella, successfully disrupted the Internet operations of a clutch of international payments groups in retaliation for cutting off payments to WikiLeaks.

More recently, the underground movement has appeared more concerned with exposing defective security precautions on corporate sites, dumping account names and other data on the public Web. The strike against MasterCard comes just a week after now-disbanded hacking collective LulzSec signalled a change in direction, announcing plans to partner with Anonymous on a new campaign dubbed Operation Anti-Security, targeting banks and governmental agencies" read more - via FinExtra

*HACKERS* MAJOR COMPANIES AFFECTED BY SECURITY BREACH!!

NEW YORK (WPIX)— 

There's no telling how many people have been affected by a massive electronic security breach. Hackers broke into the customer data of email marketing company Epsilonand accessed some of customers' personal information, including their emails.

The major U.S. companies reporting the security compromise include Citigroup, Walgreen's, TiVo, Capital One, Home Shopping Network (HSN), and possibly, some of the seven million students affiliated with the "College Board," the organization that does the SATs.

There are no reports that anyone's financial information has been compromised .

Other large companies Epsilon does business with include:Verizon, Hilton Hotels, Kraft Foods, and AstraZeneca.

If you've signed up for email newsletters for any of those companies, you could possibly be affected.

Some companies have already started alerting customers their personal emails may have been hacked, but others have yet to do so.

If you'd like to file a complaint with the New York State Attorney General's Office, click on this link, fill out the forms, and send the information in to the various agencies, as directed.