Suit Claims Real Estate Firm Hacked Rival’s Listings

From the Wall Street Journal,

Bond New York, a real estate brokerage with hundreds of upscale apartment listings around the city, has been accused of hacking into a competitor’s computer system and stealing listing information.

A.C. Lawrence & Co., a competitor firm, has filed suit in New York Civil Supreme Court, claiming that Bond has been hacking into its computer system since February and stealing exclusive listing information.

Competition among residential brokers for exclusive listings has long been fierce, the suit notes that this appear to be the first time in New York State that a brokerage has been accused of hacking into computers to steal listings.

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There's little privacy in a digital world

From the LA Times,

During his two-hour morning bike ride, Eric Hartman doesn't pay much attention to his iPhone.

But the iPhone is paying attention to him.

As he traverses the 30-mile circuit around Seal Beach, Hartman's iPhone knows precisely where he is at every moment, and keeps a record of his whereabouts. That data is beamed to Apple Inc. multiple times each day, whether Hartman is using his phone to take pictures, search for gas stations or check the weather.

And it's not just the iPhone that's keeping track.

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Facebook Targeted in Group Privacy Suit Over Internet Tracking

From BusinessWeek,

Facebook Inc., the world’s most popular social-networking service, was accused by users of the site in a class-action lawsuit of secretly tracking their Web activity after they log off.

The company assures users that “cookie” files installed on their computers to identify them and track their interactions with Facebook applications and websites while they are logged on are removed when they log off, according to a complaint in federal court in San Jose, California. Facebook admitted on Sept. 26 that the cookies track users’ Internet activity after they log off, according to yesterday’s complaint.

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'Lurid' malware hits Russia, CIS countries

Courtesy of ComputerWorld's Jeremy Kirk,

The latest espionage-related hacking campaign detailed by security vendor Trend Micro is most notable for the country it does not implicate: China.

Researchers from Trend Micro wrote on Thursday that they discovered a series of hacking attacks targeting space-related government agencies, diplomatic missions, research institutions and companies located mostly in Russia but also Vietnam and Commonwealth of Independent States countries. In total, the attacks targeted 1,465 computers in 61 countries.

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Coordinated ATM Heist Nets Thieves $13M

Courtesty of Brian Krebs of KrebsOnSecurity.com,

An international cybercrime gang stole $13 million from a Florida-based financial institution earlier this year, by executing a highly-coordinated heist in which thieves used ATMs around the globe to cash out stolen prepaid debit cards, KrebsOnSecurity has learned.

Jacksonville based Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS) bills itself as the world’s largest processor of prepaid debit cards; FIS claims to process more than 775 million transactions annually. The company disclosed the breach in its first quarter earnings statement issued May 3, 2011. But details of the attack remained shrouded in secrecy as the FBI and forensic investigators probed one of the biggest and most complex banking heists of its kind.

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U.S. Expresses Concern About New Cyberattacks in Japan

Courtesy of Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times,

The United States gave a stern warning on Wednesday over recent cyberattacks on Japan’s biggest defense contractors, the latest in a series of security breaches that have fueled concern about Tokyo’s ability to handle delicate information.

An online assault on defense contractors including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which builds F-15 fighter jets and other American-designed weapons for Japan’s Self-Defense Forces, began in August, but only came to light this week, prompting rebukes from Japanese officials over the timing of the disclosure. The IHI Corporation, a military contractor that supplies engine parts for fighter jets, may have also been a target, the Nikkei business daily reported.

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'Stingray' Phone Tracker Fuels Constitutional Clash

Courtesy of the Wall Street Journal's Jennifer Valentino-Devries,

For more than a year, federal authorities pursued a man they called simply "the Hacker." Only after using a little known cellphone-tracking device—a stingray—were they able to zero in on a California home and make the arrest.

Stingrays are designed to locate a mobile phone even when it's not being used to make a call. The Federal Bureau of Investigation considers the devices to be so critical that it has a policy of deleting the data gathered in their use, mainly to keep suspects in the dark about their capabilities, an FBI official told The Wall Street Journal in response to inquiries.

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