The Most Audacious Hacks in Computer History

When we think of warfare, most people will speak of the horror. Guns, tanks, bombs and explosions. Death and destruction everywhere. This is what war brings to people and to places.

However, there’s another form of warfare that is becoming increasingly prevalent and it can often be just as destructive as traditional war; cyber warfare.

Yes, computers are not only a powerful tool, but used by experts can be a powerful weapon too. The recent troubles with the Ukraine and Russia have highlighted cyber-attacks on Ukrainian computer networks. The sophisticated nature of the ‘Uroburos’ cyberweapon has led experts to believe it was designed to hack government and telecoms networks. Is it a coincidence that this weapon originated from Russia? Who can say, but it is not alone in being a way to disrupt people, businesses and countries as a malicious action.

Here are other examples of computer hacking which are noteworthy for their sheer audaciousness.

US Nearly Explodes Siberia. All of it.
The year is 1982. It is the height of the Cold War between the USA and Russia. The CIA and their Soviet equivalent, the KGB, were constantly trying to outdo each other. In one of the first examples of a Trojan Virus, the CIA added it to software the Russians stole and then used to monitor and regulate Russian gas pipelines. The software would lie in wait until the program finished running a specific number of commands (in this case, 10 million cycles).

After 10 million, it would change the program slightly. This occurred after several months, and then things got serious. The code instructed the software to run a pressure test at higher than normal levels. However, the CIA did not take into account that Russian engineering might not be equipped to handle it. The result was a pipeline explosion in Siberia that was so big it was 20% the strength of the Hiroshima atomic bomb.

The Best Spy in the Business Wasn’t a Person
Traditionally, secret agents and spies were men and women who put their lives on the line for their government. It didn’t take long for someone to figure out a computer could probably do the same job.
Enter Flame. 20 megabytes of code that was programmed to spy on several countries in the Middle East. Flame had the ability to do the following:

• Copy files
• Capture screenshots
• Download instant messaging logs
• Turn on computer microphones and cameras remotely

Basically, it acted like James Bond in many ways. In fact, it was also programmed to project a specific cryptographic sequence known as a ‘prefix collision attack’ in case of detection. This means that is basically disguised itself (like any good spy) by convincing antivirus software that it was supposed to be there.

The amazing thing is that if it did get detected, it would delete itself and all traces from a system. It managed to operate for five years until eventually discovered in Iran. They claimed that the US was responsible for the virus. The US has denied all knowledge so we may never know the truth.

This post was written by Jake Messer on behalf of HANDD, a company specialising in data loss prevention services, file encryption and managed file transfer.

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The Best Mobile Tracking Software of All Times

Mobile technology came into an evolution and mobile spy software has become a trend in the recent years. Many of the mobile consumers have become very interested in using mobile spy software and with the growing numbers of the services that are made available online, the choices are numerous. In order to give the mobile consumers the ability to make an informed and wise purchasing decision on which mobile spy software to subscribe to, here is the best mobile tracking software of all times that you can choose from.

Netspysoftware

If you need a reliable spy software program that can help you monitor your loved ones and employees and to extend a more efficient parental control over your children anywhere they may be, the Netspysoftware provides you a monitoring application that offers reliable tracking features at an affordable subscription rate. The spy software can help its users to remotely track down calls, messages and multimedia files with innovative features that perform its tasks on a silent mode. The mobile spy app has great functionalities that are capable of monitoring your children’s mobile browsing activity and you can selectively restrict the access to some websites not suited to your child’s age. It is capable of sending you alerts on important activities that you want to closely monitor on the tracked phone too. The app also has a GPS feature that can track down the monitored device’s location in real time which is perfect in monitoring your field employees and love ones’ whereabouts, giving you reliable spy software and tracking program that works to your satisfaction.

Mobistealth

If you need mobile spy software that will not falter in its performance even without GPS connectivity, Mobistealth is a good spy app to consider. It is powered with surveillance tools and features that can track down the monitored phone even without an internet connection. In the absence of a WiFi connection, the app will continue to track and record the activities that are taking place on the monitored phone which helps the user not to miss important tracking data. The spy software tracks the web browsing history on the monitored device and you can listen on every call that is received or made from the phone including the sound from its surroundings. Among the other features from the spy software include SIM change notification, retrieval of the multimedia files and documents, call log, and messaging tracking.

mSpy

This is powerful mobile tracking software that can provide its users the ability to monitor a target device on a stealth mode. The spy software tracks down all the activity in the monitored phone and sends feedback immediately to the remote account that is connected to the spy software. Even when the history of the monitored calls or messages sent and received from the device have been deleted, the spy app has already made a detailed report on the tracked mobile phone that you can later on retrieve from your mSpy account. You can also remotely control the monitored device using your mSpy account and have the capability of deleting the mobile data stored in it or to remotely password protect the phone.

My Mobile Watchdog

This mobile application is tailored to deliver parental control features. The app provides parents the ability to block certain mobile applications including the camera and mobile browser on the phone. You can also block other applications on the device like social networking apps, mobile games and instant messaging. It also helps to limit the time that children can spend on using the device. Its monitoring features include GPS tracking, call log and messages reports and sending alerts about specific activities that are of primary concern to parents. It is easy to access control over the blocked applications on the phone by locking it down with a password and you can grant temporary access to those apps as well.
  
Xnspy

This is a small yet powerful app, it has great stealth features and is discrete from the get go. Using little resources this app ensures that the device owner does not face slow device performance and battery issues. Having extensive monitoring and tracking features such as location tracking, call recording, remote app blocking, usage scheduling and many others make this app useful in a multitude of scenarios from concerned parents wanting to watch over their kids to smart employers wanting better management and productivity to personal data security and partial backup. Xnspy provides smart features to automate your monitoring and tracking tasks, leaving you to work on other important things. It has powerful failsafe features that can prove invaluable in worst case scenarios of loss or theft of the device – remotely lock the device or wipe all data preventing anyone from viewing the private and confidential information stored on the smartphone or tablet. This app works hard so that you can take it easy.

Stealth Genie

This mobile spy software is capable of running on a monitored phone silently. As it records the surroundings of the target phone and all calls that are being made and received, no traces of tracking software can be detected. It is a good monitoring spy app on mobile that you can use to silently track down employee productivity and even cheating spouse’s activities. It gives you a 360 degrees view on the saved bookmarks from the mobile browser as well as the internet browsing history on the device.

Spy Bubble

The application has a geo location tracking capability and live call monitoring specialty that runs stealth, leaving your spying activities undetected. The app usually sends the latest updates on its features and functionalities to its users to further enhance their mobile spying experience. It has an auto logging feature that keeps track and record all mobile activities in real time with detailed reports that you can retrieve later on from your Spy Bubble account.

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