Police Arrest 16-year-old Boy Who Hacked CIA Director

The teenage hacker, who calls himself a member of hacktivist group "Cracka with Attitude," behind the series of hacks on the United States government and its high-level officials, including CIA director, might have finally got arrested.

In a joint effort, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and British police reportedly have arrested a
16-year-old British teenager who they believe had allegedly:

• Leaked the personal details of tens of thousands of FBI agents and US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees.
• Hacked into the AOL emails of CIA director John Brennan.
• Hacked into the personal email and phone accounts of the US spy chief James Clapper.
• Broke into the AOL emails of the FBI Deputy Director Mark Giuliano.

Federal officials haven't yet released the identity of the arrested teenager, but the boy is suspected of being the lead hacker of Cracka With Attitude, who calls himself Cracka, the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit (SEROCU) told the Daily Dot.

According to the report, Cracka is the same teenage hacker who recently leaked the personal information of 31,000 government agents belonging to nearly 20,000 FBI agents, 9,000 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers and some number of DoJ staffers.

Crime Unite Released a Statement

In a statement, the SEROCU confirmed that the unit had arrested a teenager on Tuesday in the East Midlands on suspicion of:

• Conspiracy to commit unauthorised access to computer material contrary to Section 1 Computer Misuse Act 1990.
• Conspiracy to commit unauthorised access with intent to commit further offences contrary to Section 2 Computer Misuse Act 1990.
• Conspiracy to commit unauthorised acts with intent to impair or with recklessness as to the impairing operation of a computer contrary to Section 3 Computer Misuse Act 1990.

Accused Teen: Authorities Ruining My Life

The unit declined to provide any further information on the arrest, but while speaking to Motherboard, the arrested teenager denied being Cracka, saying "I am not who you think I am ;) ;) ;)"

"I am innocent until proven guilty so I have nothing to be worried about," the teen said. "They are trying to ruin my life."

Neither the Department of Justice (DoJ) nor the FBI have yet responded to comment on it.

Thanks and stay blessed!

Your TeamViewer Account has Been Hacked? Here's What to Do Immediately

Do you have remote login software TeamViewer installed on your desktop?

If Yes, then it could be possible that your system can be accessed by attackers to steal your personal details, including your bank and PayPal accounts, as several reports on Reddit and Twitter suggests.

According to recent reports, the popular TeamViewer software that is used to remotely control PCs appears to have been HACKED!

Over the past few days, a number of users headed on to the Internet forums to report that unknown attackers are taking control of their computers through their TeamViewer accounts and, in some cases, trying to steal money through services like eBay or PayPal.

This same behavior has also been reported by the IBM security researcher Nick Bradley, who said:

"In the middle of my gaming session, I lose control of my mouse, and the TeamViewer window pops up in the bottom right corner of my screen. As soon as I realize what is happening, I kill the application. Then it dawns on me: I have other machines running TeamViewer!"

But, the question still remains: What really happened to TeamViewer?

Actually, no one knows, at least, for now.

Because no evidence indicates a system-wide security breach at TeamViewer that could have given the attackers some sort of backdoor into users' PCs.

TeamViewer has also reacted by strongly denying the claims that the intrusions are the result of a hack on TeamViewer's network.

Instead, the account takeovers are the result of end users' carelessness. Moreover, the company referred to the recent widespread "mega breaches" that have dumped over 642 Million passwords over the past month.

"As you have probably heard, there have been unprecedented large-scale data thefts on popular social media platforms and other web service providers," the company wrote. 

"Unfortunately, credentials stolen in these external breaches have been used to access TeamViewer accounts, as well as other services."

However, TeamViewer stands strong by its statement that a Denial of Service (DoS) attack knocked some of its servers offline on Wednesday, but the company managed to bring them back online after a few hours.

The company advised its users to avoid careless use of its service and always:

• Use a different password for each account.
• Use two-factor authentication.
• Use a password manager.
• Don't tell other people your passwords.

Moreover, TeamViewer also announced two new features on Friday aimed at boosting its users' security after numerous users flocked online to complain about getting hacked through its service.

The two new features are:

• Trusted Devices
• Data Integrity

The Trusted Devices feature is specifically designed to prevent hackers from taking over your TeamViewer account. The feature allows you to approve the new device as trusted before it can access an existing TeamViewer account for the first time.

The device approval process is conducted by clicking a validation link sent to the account owner's email address.

The second feature, dubbed Data Integrity, works by automatically monitoring a user's account activity. If it detects any unusual behavior that might suggest account has been hacked, the service forces users to reset their password.

Here's What you should do:

TeamViewer users are strongly recommended to change their account passwords and use a strong one, and of course, NOT to use the same credentials across multiple sites.

I know, remembering different passwords for different accounts is a real pain, but you can use a good password manager to solve this issue.

Meanwhile, users should also ensure their TeamViewer accounts are protected with a randomly generated password that is at least 10 characters long, contains numbers, symbols, and uppercase and lowercase letters, and is unique.

It is always a good idea to run the TeamViewer software only when it's truly needed, instead of allowing it to auto-start each time your PC is turned on.

If you have also experienced something fishy with your TeamViewer account, let us know in the comments below.

Thanks and stay blessed!

Warning! 32 Million Twitter Passwords May Have Been Hacked and Leaked

The world came to know about massive data breaches in some of the most popular social media websites including LinkedIn, MySpace, Tumblr, Fling, and VK.com when an unknown Russian hacker published the data dumps for sale on the underground black marketplace.
However, these are only data breaches that have been publicly disclosed by the hacker.

I wonder how much more stolen data sets this Russian, or other hackers are holding that have yet to be released.

The answer is still unknown, but the same hacker is now claiming another major data breach, this time, in Twitter.

Login credentials of more than 32 Million Twitter users are now being sold on the dark web marketplace for 10 Bitcoins (over $5,800).

LeakedSource, a search engine site that indexes leaked login credentials from data breaches, noted in a blog post that it received a copy of the Twitter database from Tessa88, the same alias used by the hacker who provided it hacked data from Russian social network VK.com last week.


The database includes usernames, email addresses, sometimes second email addresses, and plain-text passwords for more than 32 Million Twitter accounts.

Twitter strongly denied the claims by saying that "these usernames and credentials were not obtained by a Twitter data breach" – their "systems have not been breached," but LeakedSource believed that the data leak was the result of malware.

"Tens of millions of people have become infected by malware, and the malware sent every saved username and password from browsers like Chrome and Firefox back to the hackers from all websites including Twitter," LeakedSource wrote in its blog post."

But, do you remember how Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Twitter account was compromised?


The hackers obtained Zuck's account credentials from the recent LinkedIn data breach, then broke his SHA1-hashed password string, tried on his several social media accounts and successfully hacked Zuckerberg’s Twitter and Pinterest account.


So, one possibility could also be that the alleged Twitter database dump of over 32 Million users is made up of already available records from the previous LinkedIn, MySpace and Tumblr data breaches.


The hacker might just have published already leaked data from other sites and services as a new hack against Twitter that actually never happened.

Whatever the reason is, the fact remain that hackers may have had their hands on your personal data, including your online credentials.

So, it’s high time you changed your passwords for all social media sites as well as other online sites if you are using the same password. 


Thanks and stay blessed!

Hacker shared 167 Million LinkedIn Passwords for Sale to Public

LinkedIn's 2012 data breach was much worse than anybody first thought.

In 2012, LinkedIn suffered a massive data breach in which more than 6 Million users accounts login details, including encrypted passwords, were posted online by a Russian hacker.

Now, it turns out that it was not just 6 Million users who got their login details stolen.

Latest reports emerged that the 2012's LinkedIn data breach may have resulted in the online sale of sensitive account information, including emails and passwords, of about 117 Million LinkedIn users.

Almost after 4 years, a hacker under the nickname "Peace" is offering for sale what he/she claims to be the database of 167 Million emails and hashed passwords, which included 117 Million already cracked passwords, belonging to LinkedIn users.

Also Read: Popular Social Site Vk.com Hacked ! 100 Million Passwords Leaked Online

The hacker, who is selling the stolen data on the illegal Dark Web marketplace "The Real Deal" for 5 Bitcoins (roughly $2,200), has spoken to Motherboard, confirming these logins come from the 2012 data breach.

Since the passwords have been initially encrypted with the SHA1 algorithm, with "no salt," it just took 'LeakedSource', the paid search engine for hacked data, 72 hours to crack roughly 90% of the passwords.

Troy Hunt, an independent researcher who operates "Have I Been Pwned?" site, reached out to a number of the victims who confirmed to Hunt that the leaked credentials were legitimate.
The whole incident proved that LinkedIn stored your passwords in an insecure way and that the company did not make it known exactly how widespread the data breach was at the time.

In response to this incident, a LinkedIn spokesperson informs that the company is investigating the matter.

Also Read: Facebook Founder Zuckerberg's Twitter, Pinterest accounts gets Hacked! And the Password was...

In 2015, Linkedin also agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit over 2012's security breach by paying a total of $1.25 million to victims in the U.S, means $50 to each of them.

According to the lawsuit, the company violated its privacy policy and an agreement with premium subscribers that promised it would keep their personal information safe.

However, now new reports suggest that a total 167 Million LinkedIn accounts were breached, instead of just 6 million.

Assuming, if at least 30% of hacked LinkedIn Accounts belongs to Americans, then the company has to pay more than $15 Million.

Meanwhile, I recommend you to change your passwords (and keep a longer and stronger one this time) and enable two-factor authentication for your LinkedIn accounts as soon as possible. Also, do the same for other online accounts if you are using same passwords on multiple sites.

Thanks and stay blessed!