Day / 10 August 2011

by Shama-e Zaheer

Remember, Remember, The 5th of November

Hacktivist group Anonymous has claimed that on November 5th, 2011, Facebook will be “destroyed”!

An Anonymous Twitter account, @OP_Facebook (signifying “Operation Facebook”), has been set up with a tweet linking to this YouTube video. The transcript is available here. (Note: November 5th is a somewhat significant date for revolution)

Anonymous has recently claimed involvement in a number of notable hacking attacks this year, including breaking into numerous law enforcement websites and taking down the Syrian Ministry of Defense website. According to them, Anonymous has taken this recent interest in Facebook due to privacy concerns and its plans to create its own social network, called AnonPlus.

Continue reading →

by Shama-e Zaheer

Apple vs. Exxon: Race to Become the World’s Largest Public Company

Apple (AAPL) temporarily overtook Exxon (XOM) to become the world’s largest publicly listed company, in terms of their market capitalization. This is a remarkable turnaround for a company that was on the brink of bankruptcy in 1997, a mere 14 years back, and a remarkable achievement for a company that was valued at US$50 billion less than Exxon a few weeks back!

TechCrunch has a beautiful timeline of the race as both firms take turns at wearing the market cap crown.

In the days to come Apple is sure to become the largest public company, specially when iCloud goes mainstream and iPhone5 (iPhone 4G?) hits the streets.

by Shama-e Zaheer

And The Hackers Get Younger by the (Zero) Day

A 10-year-old girl, who goes by the pseudonym – “CyFi”, has found that games apps on smartphones or tablets running on iOS or Android mobile platforms can be hacked into by tinkering with the device’s clock settings, which exposes an exploitable security loophole, or a “zero-day flaw”.

The girl displayed her hacking skills at the first annual DefCon Kids hacker conference – a subset of DefCon Hackers Conference in Las Vegas, the self-identified “world’s longest running and largest underground hacking conference”. Her presentation was titled “Apps — A Traveler of Both Time and Space; And What I Learned About Zero-Days and Responsible Disclosure”.

Continue reading →