Neurosecurity: security and privacy for neural devices. "An increasing number of neural implantable devices will become available in the near future due to advances in neural engineering. This discipline holds the potential to improve many patients' lives dramatically by offering improved—and in some cases entirely new—forms of rehabilitation for conditions ranging from missing limbs to degenerative cognitive diseases. The use of standard engineering practices, medical trials, and neuroethical evaluations during the design process can create systems that are safe and that follow ethical guidelines; unfortunately, none of these disciplines currently ensure that neural devices are robust against adversarial entities trying to exploit these devices to alter, block, or eavesdrop on neural signals. The authors define 'neurosecurity'—a version of computer science security principles and methods applied to neural engineering—and discuss why neurosecurity should be a critical consideration in the design of future neural devices." [Via Mind Hacks]
posted by homunculus on Jul 8, 2009 - 22 comments

The best criminal hacker is the one that isn't caught — or even identified. These are 10 of the most infamous unsolved computer crimes as selected by PC Magazine. However, some do get caught. Here are nine of the most infamous criminal hackers to ever see the inside of a jail cell. PCMag also reached back into the early days of computing and dredged up the most inspiring examples of hacker brilliance they could find. [more inside]
posted by netbros on Sep 30, 2008 - 43 comments

Attention Geeks and Hackers: Uncle Sam's Cyber Force Wants You! [more inside]
posted by homunculus on Jun 5, 2008 - 29 comments

Ever admired those hard-working hackers, toiling away to get you the programs you've always loathed to have? Have you ever dreamt of exploring the innards of someone else's computer but have held back due to those pesky legalities? If you said yes to either of the above questions or just want to play an online hacking simulation, then SlaveHack is the website for you. [more inside]
posted by flatluigi on Dec 23, 2007 - 9 comments

The FBI on hacking vs. The Russians That is crazy! 100 hundred years for hacking computers when there are people that actually hurt other people - maliciously...rapists, murderers, US politicians... "If Russian hackers can be convicted on evidence obtained by the Americans through hacking, it means the U.S. secret services may use further illegal means of obtaining information in Russia and in other countries," an FSB spokesman told Interfax on Thursday. Not only that, but the seriously...can this sort of thing just slide by?
posted by Kodel on Aug 17, 2002 - 2 comments

You must hack. It's your duty as an American. Godspeed, dear patriots.
posted by conquistador on Jul 31, 2002 - 7 comments

Congress is about to consider an entertainment industry proposal that would authorize copyright holders to disable PCs used for illicit file trading. "The measure would permit copyright holders to perform nearly unchecked electronic hacking if they have a "reasonable basis" to believe that piracy is taking place."
posted by mathowie on Jul 23, 2002 - 40 comments

Competition to "reverse engineer" mystery program.
Another cool thingy from the HoneyNet Project; they're inviting people to convert a binary file into its original source. So, who's participating?
posted by arnab on May 3, 2002 - 2 comments

Hackers target Cell Phones With the connectivity of cell phones to the internet, hackers have begun to target cell phones, programming prank calls, placing calls to wherever and erasing the software in the phone.
posted by Lanternjmk on Mar 11, 2002 - 7 comments

Hacking could now lead to life in prison. Someone that kills someone you love would get less time in prison than what they are proposing for this hacker legislation. Is this punishment just for this crime?
posted by bump on Feb 27, 2002 - 14 comments

Hackers: Computer Outlaws A TLC show(that I'm 3/4 through) that seems to actually use reliable sources to discuss not just cracker behavior, but also the creative side of hackers, pointing out the developments attributed to some hackers. Now Markoff and Mitnick. Not a bad little show....
posted by dglynn on Jan 9, 2002 - 7 comments

Bush Admin contemplating the quarantine of super computers made in the US.
posted by HoldenCaulfield on Dec 24, 2001 - 11 comments

Microsoft's newest version of Windows.... billed as the most secure ever, contains several serious flaws that allow hackers to steal or destroy a victim's data files across the Internet or implant rogue computer software. The company released a free fix Thursday.

A Microsoft official acknowledged that the risk to consumers was unprecedented because the glitches allow hackers to seize control of all Windows XP operating system software without requiring a computer user to do anything except connect to the Internet.
posted by bkdelong on Dec 20, 2001 - 60 comments

This has got to be a payback for one too many Jerry Lewis flicks. French school for hackers. Teaching such things as hacking internal files, setting up trojan horses, viral attack theory, and the like. Of course it's only to put to use by the students for purposes of cyber self defense. Riiiiight.
posted by MAYORBOB on Dec 3, 2001 - 2 comments

Silicon Valley backs Senate bill that would allow companies to report computer network attacks to the government without having to worry about the public finding out. The reasoning: it would encourage more companies to report the problems and help the government track down the culprits. A similar bill is in the House.
posted by thescoop on Sep 25, 2001 - 3 comments

Germany Plans Infowar Against Websites? So, Wired News reports that German Interior Minister Otto Schily has said publicly that Germany should stage denial-of-service attacks on right-wing websites housed in other countries. AOL versus Germany as WWWIII/InfoWar I?
posted by bclark on Apr 9, 2001 - 6 comments

One million credit card numbers stolen! News at 11! The FBI has gone public with a rather dry account of a huge organized attack on ecommerce sites, exploiting security flaws in NT which Microsoft fixed and offered patches for nearly two years ago.
posted by Steven Den Beste on Mar 9, 2001 - 5 comments

MSNBC hacked. That faith-based missle defense thing again. Check it out, good-looking hack. I might put up a mirror if it gets changed.
posted by lbergstr on Feb 28, 2001 - 13 comments

Memorex hacked
Question. If you hack a site, is it really a good idea to leave behind your email address?
posted by yangwar on Feb 8, 2001 - 22 comments

Wow, these kids must be really clever to "take down the Internet". Exaggerated headlines are the stuff of news and have been for ages. Lets all try and simultaneously adapt to that. (via geeknik)
posted by davidgentle on Jan 13, 2001 - 9 comments

Attack of the Killer MS Flacks Has anyone seemed to notice that shortly after the Wall Street Journal broke the story about the Microsoft hackers that the NYT became a voice for MS when they first claimed that no source code was stolen and next when they seemed to remember they tracked the entire attack for all 12 days.
posted by bkdelong on Oct 30, 2000 - 2 comments

"Boycott hacksdmi.org" [I can't believe the idiots at SDMI thought this was actually going to accomplish anything anyway.]
posted by Steven Den Beste on Sep 15, 2000 - 1 comment

Hacktivism, as seen from the perspective of a pretty cynical guy.
posted by Doug on Jul 20, 2000 - 1 comment

If hacking and phreaking irc channels are any indication, hackers and phreaks don't get enough sex.
posted by dominic on Jul 11, 2000 - 0 comments

Questions raised about Mediaboy... er mafiaboy. Is he real?
posted by Dean_Paxton on Apr 21, 2000 - 4 comments

They bagged the kid who was responsible for all those Denial-of-Service attacks a couple of months ago. He's Canadian.

Here's an interesting legal question: could the US extradite him? The crimes were committed in the US, but he was in Canada at the time he did it, since he worked through the Internet. Whose laws apply?

(By the way, I've seen no indication that the US is considering extradition; I was just curious whether they could extradite him.)
posted by Steven Den Beste on Apr 19, 2000 - 18 comments

Cyber Patrol hacker sells out for one dollar < I made my political point and just don't want further annoyance... ...Mattel initiated legal action in e-mail subpoenas in mid-March and Skala and Jansson removed cphack from their sites, but not before urging computer activists to copy and distribute it.... ...Nevertheless, some mirror site operators think open source software protections make the issue moot. The court cannot impose an Internet ban because cphack was released under the GNU General Public License... > perhaps you've seen this--the final decision will be interesting with repect to free speech and the GNU GPL. something to watch anyhow.
posted by greyscale on Mar 28, 2000 - 3 comments

If you have to hack, then hack the best. Why steal silver when you can steal platinum?
posted by Steven Den Beste on Mar 26, 2000 - 1 comment

The Discovery Channel has a pretty good "Hackers Hall of Fame" but of course they get hacking/phreaking/cracking all munged up. There's a brief bio and short synopsis of activities for each person.
posted by mathowie on Feb 12, 2000 - 0 comments

DoS Attacks for Fun and Profit - It looks like the list has expanded quite a bit this week... enough that the FBI is going to hold a press conference today at 11 PST. This is almost enough to argue against unlimited bandwidth for the average consumer. I hope they track the bastards down; not only does this impact the future success of eCommerce ventures, but it lends to stereotyping the technically elite as potential closet-evildoers.
posted by othermatt on Feb 9, 2000 - 1 comment

Last night Kevin Mitnick was on 60 minutes (the gist of the interview is quoted here), and I have to say he came off as an utterly harmless geek. He was an information junkie that enjoyed the challenge of cracking firewalls. He never profited from his activities and the affected companies made up their monetary losses. It's a shame he was forced to waste away in prison instead of offer his security expertise to the affected companies.
posted by mathowie on Jan 24, 2000 - 1 comment

If you had problems reaching MetaFilter over the weekend, this is why. Some script kiddies launched some gnarly smurf attacks against the regional ISP that provides bandwidth for this site. Oh well, it gave me time to code. I've added lots of little enhancements (like user pages, a working search engine), but still have to get the archives working and expand the preferences page.
posted by mathowie on Jan 19, 2000 - 0 comments